of it to set his Heart on a little fading Beauty Lying Honour Perishing Riches or unsatisfying Pleasure or Carnal Wisdom to be guilty of the greatest Folly that he may swagger a little while So it makes as wide difference in the Means and prevails with some to humble them that God may in his due time exalt them to emyloy their thoughts how to mortifie their Affections to the World how to strengthen the Love of God to root their Faith more deeply by a more frequent Exercise of it and how to get their Hearts more affected with the wonderful love of Christ This makes them so frequent in Prayer so attentive upon the Word so intent upon all Christs appointed Means that they may increase in Spiritual Understanding and Love when the Inconsiderate can dispence with these for a little worldly Gain or Ease and prefer Earthly Toyl and Labour before a little pains to get the true Wisdom and to save their Souls In the Name of God therefore I beseech you to consider if you would not be guilty of the greatest dotage and miscarry in the choice of your End and consequently of all the means If you would not take a Dream for Happiness and spend your Strength for nought and be forced to confess your Folly when you come to die Force your selves to Consider especially when you have the best advantages to promote Consideration when you have Time Leisure Health seasonable Instruction from the Word and Providence of God and you feel more sensible Conviction of the worth of God's Favour and the vanity of all things then consider and set it home and drive on to a Resolution to forget God no longer Consideration will help you to do this if you will follow it and encourage your selves to it and not check your Minds when they are thus employed Plead not your Ignorance and Unskilfulness do it as well as you can and use will make you more expert much less plead your Impotency and pretend that you are utterly unable If a little Worldly Trouble come upon you you can consider how to get out or shake off the Trouble If you are under a Reproach and a little Contempt of Men you can Consult and Consider how you may wipe it off and vindicate your Name and Credit But oh what thoughts of Heart and wise and deep Consideration to secure Life it self and the Comforts that are nearest and dearest to it These are Signs that we have the Faculty and can Consider about those things that we value or have any love to That Men are therefore so Inconsiderate in the Concernments of their Souls and about the matters of another Life It 's an evident Sign they value them not they care not for them to awaken such therefore and put them upon this great and necessary Work I shall suggest these following Proposals Incentives to Consideration FIrst You have matters of the greatest importance and necessity to Consider If it were only to live happily here and to escape the miseries of this Life it 's worth Consideration to bring this about but it is an Everlasting Life and Happiness that we are to provide for which if we do not compass it 's not the loss of this that will be our only Misery though it be an unspeakable unvaluable Loss But you must bear also the Wrath of God that will kindle on you like a devouring Fire and the Fury of a guilty awakened Conscience that will fall upon you like a Tempest and fright your Soul into Everlasting Dread and Horror And doth it not mightily concern us to Consider how to escape all this If thou hast any love to thy own Soul when the Qustion is whether thou shalt live or die for ever thou wilt Consider and thoroughly resolve thy self If thou hadst lost a dear and powerful Friend on whose Favour all thy Worldly Hopes did depend thou wouldst not refuse to let thy Thoughts run upon such a Subject as this is neither would it be tedious to thee to Consider how thou mightest obtain thy Pardon and regain his Favour The case is Ten thousand times worse incomparably more sad You have lost the Favour of God and are fallen under his Displeasure and you are like to perish for ever unless Consideration bring you to bewail your loss and sin which is the cause of it and bring you to Repentance and so prepare you to believe in Christ If you had some great business to dispatch intricate and doubtful you would endanger your Estate or Life if it were either neglected or imprudently managed who would not summon up all the Reason that he hath and consider well how he may dispatch it as successfully as he can And do you not perceive how absurd it is to be careless how your present Life is ordered that must decide the Case and Detriment how you shall live for ever and not to Consider and that to purpose how you may get Christ for your Friend to procure your Acceptance with God how to get the Holy Spirit of Promise to dwell in you to turn the stream of your Affections from Earth to Heaven and to subdue your Corruptions and to fortifie and encourage you against Temptations to put you upon your Duty and to enable you to a right Performance You will lay by such works as this or do it in a mad and careless fashion if you do not Consider why and how it must be done It 's Consideration that must shew you the truth and certainty of the Life to come the Glory of Heaven and what an intollerable loss it is to fall short of it It 's that must shew you what a Debter you are to God and to your Redeemer and the worth and excellency of your Soul and the necessity of a renewed Holy Nature and of an Humble and Self-denial Life Consideration I say must needs shew these things and affect your Heart with them and make you sensible how much they do import and how nearly they do concern you or you will never do them you 'll rather take the brutish Enjoyments that Inconsideracy will make you relish and chuse the Pleasures of Delirancy and Madness rather than pay so dear for true Wisdom as you must if you are a stranger to the fore-mentioned Consideration I say pay dear in respect of the Flesh and it's sinful Contentments which must lose their Lives in the Service of God and your own Souls though it will be unspeakably cheap when you have paid the most in this kind O how doth it import us to know God as our Maker Lord and Governour in such a manner as doth affect and captivate our Hearts to a voluntary and wilful subjection to him as our only Felicity How much doth it concern us to get such a clear sight of his amiable lovely Nature and most transcendent Persections as may possess our Souls with the highest Reverence of him and kindle the strongest love to him that the Remembrance
likewise is the splendour and dignity of the Saints set forth by a Crown and Scepter and Kings things most glorious here on Earth And this use we should wisely make of these things to put life into our Meditations which otherwise would little affect us Sixthly Lastly you must diligently read and hear the Word of God peruse the labours of those that are most skilful in the exposition and application thereof If you ask me who they are I answer use your best endeavours to know and make the most impartial enquiry The frequent casting your eye upon and opening your ear to such matters is the way to get good furniture into your memory and heart which will ever and anon creep into your thoughts and even invite and constrain you to dwell with more intentness and affection on them But you when you are reading and hearing these things that must be the Subject of your Meditations and sowing the Seed of future consideration you must drive away the Birds of Prey that would devoure the Seed that you have sown I mean all disturbing worldly thoughts and keep your mind as much retired from all other things as you are able that it may be free and open to the impressions of the Word and Spirit those especially that are unfurnished for Meditation must take this course for it is most like to prosper since it hath not only Precept but Reason to enforce it They must never expect to have their Souls byassed to and fitted for this Duty that neglect these means which the Wisdom of God hath appointed and let their thoughts scamble about and imploy their eyes and ears about any petty matters rather than in the reading and hearing of Gods Word and such explications of it as are likeliest to bring it to the mind and heart especially read and hear those passages of truth that Life and Salvation most depends on most frequently and get them as fast into your mind as you are able and a right understanding of the very tenour and chief scope of the Gospel which is to bring men to the sight of their sins and by that to come to Christ as his tractable Disciples and by Faith in Christ to Salvation which design that it might bring to pass it sets the highest motives and encouragement before us and gives us the greatest helps But above all parts of Scripture the Psalms of David frequently read will promote you in the work of consideration and teach you hâ—â— to stir up such affections as you see Daviâ— expresseth almost in every Psalm There you may see how he sets upon God sometimes sometimes stirs up his own Soul confers with God communes with his own heart that he might kindle the Fire of Gods Love in his heart which is the principal design of consideration for whether he express sorrow and contrition for his sin it is but that he may stir up hatred in his Soul against it which is the great impediment to the Love of God Or if he express and utter his complaints of the vanity of the World and the miseries of this life all is to quicken up his desires after the true happiness of his Soul and you know love is intrinsecal and essential to desire if he enlarge as he doth frequently in the praises of the Lord and display his glory and muster up his perfections and call Heaven and Earth and Sea and all the Inhabitants of them and all the Islands and Continents of the World and bring in their testimony to him and to make his Name glorious if he summon every living thing that hath breath to praise the Lord it is that he may advance the esteem and encrease the love of God in his own heart and the hearts of others and therefore from this Book you may fetch matter enough and argument for consideration to make use of for the kindling of this and all other holy and devout affections yea the very out-side I mean the phrase and expression of the Psalms is such as hath a powerful Rhetorick with it to set the heart on fire with the love of God no contemplative and devout Christian but hath had very familiar acquaintance with this Book I have told you the flat necessity of consideration if ever a man be brought to his right mind yea and how necessary it is to preserve you in the love and fear of God after you have believed if therefore you are convinced that is your duty without which you can never get the cure of your deadly distempers then you will make Conscience of the means whereby you may be brought to consideration The heart is not easily brought to delight in God and love him above all and to use the world as if he us'd it not its consideration that must change it the heart is naturally dead to spiritual things it 's Consideration that must enliven it and make it stir the heart is prone to wander from God it 's Consideration that must bring it home the heart is full of blindness and obduracy it 's Consideration that must enlighten and soften it If therefore you would not perish in blindness and obduracy and wander from God without hopes of recovery and lose the Pearl of infinite price which who so is wise will sell all that he hath to buy and purchase then use the means that must bring you to Consideration Having given you some general Directions towards the promoting of the work and duty of Consideration I come in the next place to give you some more Particular Directions 1. As to the matter 2. As to the manner 3. As to the end How this Duty is to be performed Concerning the matter of your Contemplation First The first great Object of your Consideration should be God and the Relation you stand in to him and his glorious Perfections It 's worth thy while to consider daily that he made thee out of nothing and when there are four distinct Ranks of Creatures viz. Things that have meer being without life 2. Things that have being and life such as are all Vegetables Trees and Flowers 3. Such as have being life and sense such as are Brutes and other sensitive Creatures 4. Such as have being life sense and reason when there are these four Species and Orders of Creatures he hath placed thee in the highest form and hath made the other three Ranks for thy use and service and as he hath made thee such a Creature so thou hast thy supportation and maintenance wholly from him and he is training thee up in the world for his immediate presence and for those ravishing delights that are to be enjoyed in the Beatifical Vision Canst thou possibly consider the perfection of his Nature thy relation to him as his Creature from whom all that thou hast or doest expect must be fetched thine hourly dependance on him his Authority over thee his right and property in thee his bounty towards thee and not fall down before
weakest and lowest measure of true or prevailing love to God Thirdly And as this Love encreaseth all troublesome slavish Fear and sad Expectations do scatter and fly away Who that hath the interest in God that such a love doth entitle to need to fear Sickness or Poverty or Crosses or Death it self considerably if he knows he is united to one so firmly that hath Life and Death in his hands and hath the Command of all Creatures in Heaven and Earth and Hell The Sleep of such a Man must needs be sweet His Food though never so course cannot but refresh and comfort him And all his Comforts are Comforts indeed because none of them are disturbed with those Raving Mad and disturbing Passions that every Man void of this love of God cannot be free from more or less How quietly doth such a Man lie down and rise up because the Lord when he thus loves maketh him to dwell continually in safety Psal 4.8 Fourthly As this Love encreaseth Temptation will lose its force and grow weaker and weaker How little will Riches and Honour and worldly Pleasures draw that Man to commit sin and displease God that feels the love of God and the sweet Consequences of it in his Soul and also knows that he hath or may have enough in him They may tempt a Fool and one that hath little or no experience of the love of God and that wants something to set his heart at rest and quiet But he that is rich already and truly happy will not easily catch at shadows but study to keep what he is possessed of and which he knows to be Treasure indeed He may in a short fit of inconsideracy perhaps forget God and his Soul and give some ease to Temptation in such an hour but he will quickly return again And then when he remembers God again he will be troubled Psal 77.3 And his folly will cost him dear And his Soul will cleave the faster afterwards to God when he hath been better taught by so bad experience Fifthly As this love encreaseth all base and sordid love will slink away and depart with confusion and shame Who will love a Harlot that is deformed when he may honestly enjoy sweeter and better love Sure none but a perverted distempered Mind Who will feed upon Husks when he may have the most pleasant wholsome and delicious Fare None but one that hath lost his Reason And who will dote upon a Trifle when he may have a Crown and Kingdom to be delighted with Certainly so far as a Man feels he loves God he disdains the love of other things that will not consist with him And he will abhor the Motion that 's back'd with the greatest worldly Preferment that would draw away his heart from God Had he not tasted how good and gracious the Lord is and how happy a thing it is to live in Unity with him He might perchance hearken to every deluding Pleasure that courts his Affections But after he hath received the love of God into his heart and felt what a reviving Cordial it is the Pleasures and Honours of the World come too late and seem but Dung and Dross when they are laid in the Scales with that No Man saith our Saviour having drunk old Wine straightway desireth new for he saith The old is better Luke 5.39 You know that famous Marquess Galeoc Carac was moved with indignation at such an offer as that Cursed are they saith he that think all the Gold and Silver in the World worth one day's Communion with Christ And thrice wicked are they that would wed Mens Affections to the World and divorce them from Christ When there is a plain Competition or Contradiction between God and any worldly happiness the presentment of such a happiness to a gracious heart and one that truly loves God looks like a motion from the Devil and provokes him to fly in the face of him that makes it and to abhor such a Sollicitor Let me live saith such a one in Poverty and Raggs rather than forgo what I now enjoy Let those that never felt the love of God in their hearts feed upon Trash if they please I have a better Dyet Better is a little with the fear of the Lord and his favour than the greatest treasure without it Prov. 15.16 Better is a dinner of Herbs where this love is than a stalled Ox and hatred therewith vers 17. It 's but a ridiculous foolish thought to think to draw an experienced Saint away from the love of God by Silver and Gold and a little gaudy Apparel and delicious Fare and two or three fair Words and some few more slight Courtesies the World can do for him when he sees the vast difference between an immovable Rock and a Reed shaken with every wind And that there is none in Heaven but God and none upon the Earth that his soul can desire in comparison of him Ps 73.25 The Law of thy Mouth saith David is dearer to me than thousands of Gold and Silver more to be desired than Gold Psal 119.14 yea than the most solid refined Gold sweeter also than the Honey and the dropping of the Honey-comb Psalm 19.10 And iâ— the Law was so lovely and excellent in his esteem much more the Law-giver I conclude therefore that the Love of God is the best Antidote against all base and poisonous love whatsoever and will not permit the World with any of its Pleasures to prevail where it is It will cast this Bond-woman with her Sons and not suffer them to be Co-heirs with God and his Son Gal. 4.30 Since therefore O my Soul it is so highly consonant to that Reason that is in thee and conduceth so much to the highest Honour and Perfection and brings in such incomparable Advantage Why art thou so backward and averse to this sweetest Imployment which is so sweet 1. In the very Exercise 2. And sweeter the more it is exercised 3. And makes all other Duty sweet easie and pleasant which for want of this Quickuer goes on but dully sometimes and is quickly tyred And so much as this warm Affection is wanting all thy Services will wax more and more chill and cold till at last if that spark go quite out I mean as to the exercise there will be a stop in all Duty and all will be frozen up And if the Pulse of this Affection cease to beat towards God all Devotion and Exercise of Piety towards him will suffer a Deliquium and be in a fainting Fit and Swone Why then is thy heart no more transported with this Love David felt so much pleasure and sweetness in this Work that he could not forbear to provoke others to partake with him in this noblest delight by a most Patherical Invitation O Love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the Faithful Psalm 31.23 Thou canst love other things too sensibly that have not half the force and strength that this Object hath
amongst the Forgetters of Gods Word For Faith or Subjection to the Person of Christ and Obedience to his Laws and abrenunciation of all that would hinder this Subjection of our Hearts and Obedience of our Lives are Three great ends for which the Word of God was ordained and appointed and a high Reverence of its Authority and deep Sense of its Importance and firm perswasion of its certainty would most undoubtedly bring to pass For it is most unquestionable that God would not fail these his own means 1. First They must read or hear these Instructions slightly and unworthily that are not deeply wrought upon by the consideration of their Author and the Divinity that is instamp'd upon them It 's not enough that you believe and acknowledge this but that you be frequently under the thought of it And it is a weighty truth worthy your remembrance That the Soul is never wrought upon to any purpose either in its Understanding Will or Affections but by frequent serious and repeated Acts. The main difficulty therefore in the work of Conversion and a saving change on our part lies here in bringing our thoughts to a devout and frequent meditation of these Objects which God hath resolved shall do the work if ever it be done And though he can change the Heart by a word and in a moment if he please yet he hath told us flatly he will not do it ordinarily without these means And therefore he awakens every Soul to such Meditations whom he will shew mercy to A Mans Thoughts are the means that God makes most use of in renewing his Heart Do thou not presume whoever thou art that God will infuse Sanctification into thy Heart by a miracle when thou art thinking all the day yea all the week long upon meer vanity if not doing worse But this by the way He that doth not strike his heart into superlative Reverence of this Word by thinking often of that Holy Spirit by whom it was word for word inspired will never be made fit to take it into his heart and chew upon it when he lies down and riseth up to curb every base Inclination of his Soul by it and to resolve they shall bend to this Word or have no quiet The Heart is so prone to Earth and Vanity and the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts are so strong and masterless that they will never obey unless such Authority be produced Yea there 's none that are well vers'd in their own Hearts but will find how they will slight such Authority and sometime venture to contemn it But as he that doth wisely govern a Family or other Society much more a Kingdom will not suffer his Authority to be trampled on nor his Laws to stand for Ciphers but will vindicate them with the greatest Power and Majesty that he can put on much more will the Lord of Heaven and Earth stand up in the behalf of his own Authority and vindicate the best Laws that ever were made from contempt And if any sinner be so sottish as to think that his Wit or Pedigree or Riches or Esteem in the World will bear him out in such irreverence let me say to such a one as once Samuel said to Saul 1 Sam. 15.16 Stay and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said of such a one Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall lightly be esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 Be as wise and as great as thou wilt the Lord will shame thee sooner or later and kick thee down into Scorn and Disgrace 2. Secondly They are forgetful of the Word of God that are not considerably moved with the most important matters which it sets before them If thou readest it not frequently thou forgetest it in the grossest sense and thine own Conscience will fall upon and condemn thee And if thou dost read it yet if thy very Heart be not affected with those matters in the Word which more concern thee than all the World so as to shew it in thy Life I would not for all the World hear that Judgment that thou shalt shortly hear Doth it so much concern thee what thou shalt Eat and what thou shalt Drink and wherewithal thou shalt be cloathed and how thou shalt Sleep or enjoy thy Health much more how thou shalt visit this or that Friend do this or that petty business as how thou shalt save thy Soul how thou mayst get thy Heart affected with its Sin and Misery and set a value upon Christ as he deserveth this is not easily done how thou mayst break off thine Affections from these things that will abuse them and certainly blast every good work in thy Heart and turn thy Religion into meer Hypocrisie For it is impossible that the Love of God should be in that Heart where the love of any worldly thing doth prevail Hearken therefore and listen attentively what necessity the Word of God layeth upon Self-denial 〈◊〉 mortification of the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts He that will be my Disciple must deny himself take up his Cross and follow me Luke 9.23 And if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die Rom. 8.13 If thine Estate Life or Credit only were here concerned thy neglect would not prove thee so perfectly mad and distracted as now it doth when the Eternal Life and Welfare of thy Soul is so much concerned 3. Thirdly They that live not under any serious thoughts of the certain accomplishment of all that is threatned or promised in the Word cannot but forget the Word The things that are contained in the Scripture if they were liable to some doubt yet were worthy to be thought on because they concern so much if they should prove true And this is an Argument that will stop their Mouths that chuse a Romance or vain Ballad before the Word of God to be the matters of their thoughts But when God will certainly make good every Judgment he hath threatned to the impenitent sinner and when every wicked person that dies in his sin shall as certainly feel those dreadful Woes as now he hears or may hear them pronounced O what an advantage is here to beget a Resolution to withstand every Temptation that would draw us to those things that are thus threatned Though it were a pleasing and profitable Lust it 's stark madness to fulfil it O if we had 〈◊〉 or felt the wrath of God in another World it would be Armour of Proof against all wilful presumptuous sin for ever afterwards and would awaken the Soul to any pains or diligence to escape it And is it not as certain as if we had seen or felt it Hath the Lord said that he will laugh at the destruction of a sinner and mock when his fear cometh Prov. 1.26 Hath he said that he will shortly come with his Fan in his hand and thorowly purge his Floor and gather his Wheat into the Garner but that he will burn up the
Declaration there spoken of is improper and objective As a Dial tells what a Clock 't is 1. You may gather what time of day 't is if you look on it by the help of our Reason not any Tongue it hath to express thus much Neither hath any Creature an expliâ—â—â— desire of an Eternal Happiness that shall never fail or be interrupted And Lactantius one of the Latin Fathers that liv'd in the said Century places the Characteristical Difference and Specificial Distinction between Man and Beast not in Rationality but in Religion because some Creatures seem to do Acts that are Rational as the Elephant Hare Fox Dog but none that have any appearance of Religion or Piety Now it is a very great truth That God never made any Power or Capacity in any Creature in vain He hath given the Sun an Active Capacity to revive and exhilerate the lower World and it were unnatural if he should not put forth that vertue to that end He hath given Earthly Creatures a pasfive Capacity or Receptive Power to suck in this influence and they do and are covered over with Corn and laugh and sing Psal 65.13 And it 's universally true wheresoever there is a power that can put forth any Act that should not act according to the Power were a Monster and not a Creature God hath given the Fire a power to burn and consume when fit matter is offered and if it should spare the Wood that 's laid on it we should not count it a merciful but a monstrous act God hath made the Water to wet and moisten and if it should not do so what were it good for You would not commend this Property in Horse or Beast if they should fly in the Air or dive under Water the Fish that should shun the Water would be a monstrous and degenerate Breed And is it not as absurd and monstrous for a man that hath a Faculty on purpose to remember God yet to forget him To have a Capacity to be like God and yet not to employ and exercise it for this also is imply'd in our remembrance of him There were no sadder Spectacle in the World than Man were it not for these Acts and what is or will be consequent on them A Toad were not half so bad nor the most hated Creature no nor those that are continually hunted and pursued and live always in danger of the snare or some crafty device or other that may make them a prey to their cruel pursuers These brutish Creatures apprehend not the snare till they are caught in it nor fore-see a mischief till it is upon them nor vex themselves with the memory of what is past But Reason which is Mans proper Vtensil were it not for the service that it may do to God and his Soul make him but the more capable subject of Misery and Torment It helps him to prevent a mischief before it comes and to think on it after it's past and gone and to enjoy a calamity I may say and to chew upon an evil that 's swallowed down and past Alass alass If God gave not Man these Faculties to remember and aspire to him â—t would be far more desirable to be a Beast than a Man since then it 's past all doubt that God hath made Man for himself and given him such a high Capacity on purpose to remember him it 's monstrous and unnatural to forget him 2. Secondly And as he hath given him his Faculties on purpose to remember him so he hath displayed himself in the Firmament of Heaven as purposely to be remembered Psal 111.4 He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered And 1. That God may be remembered by them that 's the very end of them And verse 2. The works are great and magnificent sought out of all as we render it but in the Original it's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is exposed and laid open before all to take notice of And the Italian Translation renders it as it were wickedness in a man upon whom God hath bestowed Eyes to shut them perpetually and to refuse to make any use of so noble a Faculty So it is a wickedness much of the same kind when God hath set so many visible Objects before this Faculty to put him in mind of him that hath made both Faculty and Object and he makes no such use of them he hath Eyes and sees not he hath Objects and doth not understand them Judge what a wicked perversness this is We are prone to think it no great wickedness to commit such a sin as this is and to cross the very end of making our selves and other things whilst we do it not purposely and have no thought of contradiction to God in this sin But let us not deceive our selves when we have so high an obligation upon us to any Duty and are commanded to remember and think upon it and we do not though we do not purposely forget because God bids us to remember yet we are morally and reputatively guilty of thwarting and crossing the Will of God though not in quite so high a degree yet enough to undo us everlastingly unless we repent of what 's past and do otherwise for the time to come This will be but a pitiful shameful answer when God shall come to examine man by man what proficiency we have made amongst the Creatures that were made to instruct us and shall find a dunce instead of a knowing well informed Scholar Do the Heavens declare the Glory of God to the Moles that wâ—nt outward Eyes as it is usually said or to the Brutes that want the inward Eye that is understanding or to Man that is instructed with both these helps and will it be a venial sin think ye to wink with both these He that by all the Glory of Heaven and Earth is not so far enlightned so as to adore the wonderful Perfection of him that made them and to prostrate his very heart in love and reverence to him is wilfully blind and one that shall be dealt with as if he shut his Eyes against all What is there no Workmanship either in Heaven above or Earth beneath or Water under the Earth Is there nothing in the Air or bowels of the Earth that 's worth thine Observation or that can erect our blockish Heart and bring up our Affections to the glorious Artificer and Workman It 's a profound Sleep indeed into which that man is fallen and is a certain forerunner of Death when none of all these excellent Creatures that strike his sence can awaken him to any understanding reverence or love of his Excellency that hath bid all things come forth and stand in their several ranks and even gird themselves to the service of man This sin hath the higher aggravation in that there be so many various ways whereby the several Creatures would recover man to a due remembrance of God I might insist upon those four ways mentioned in the
other depending sins as have their life and maintenance from these But only this I say that where God is not worthily Remembered there one or more of these sins have dominion and all may take their turns and so turn that Man into a very Devil in Humane Shape For what is there to stop the raging power of Lust and Concupisence and controul the fury of inordinate Passions if you take away this bridle and there be none or very little awe and reverence of God upon the Heart If you say that Reason may curb and keep in a Carnal Fleshly Heart from all notable â—ccess and Inordinancy I answer That since the Fall Reason is not able to stand against the Flesh having lost its strength by the loss of Gods Image unless it be where it is assisted by the common Grace of God For Mans end being here below and not above Flesh with its affections must needs be the leading part and Reason must needs lie still and sleep whilst Sense is domineering or else strike in with the Flesh and become a servant to its Lusts For a Man can rise no higher than his end no more than the VVater can above the Spring Head God being cast off something must supply his room Man will not be at rest till he hath a happiness seeming or real and therefore since he hath renounced God which is real he must needs chuse Creatures which are but so in appearance since he hath forsaken the Fountain he must have recourse to the Cistern since he will not build upon the Rock he must build upon the Sand and have his Hope and Foundation in the Dust and having once made Flesh his Confidence he will rather fight against God and all that opposeth him than be driven from his hold VVhat a Man takes for his happiness he will hold it as his very Life and Being and as soon part with the one as with the other VVhat sin will a Man stick at to wind himself into a faster possession of what he thinks to be his happiness and having thrown God out of his Memory he will quickly decay in his Heart and Affections And when there is little or no fear or love of him what should perswade a man to refuse the tempting pleasures of sin Neither will he take that for a sin in which he is practically perswaded his happiness doth consist Hence it is that the vilest and most shameful sinners when once they have wip'd out the Memory of Godout of their Hearts which at last they attain to through frequent and customary delight in those brutish Pleasures they verily think at last that they are no sins and will plead for the worst of them I know that many do not neither can they arrive to such a height of wickedness because God will not permit them neither can they get all awe and sear of him out of their Hearts but this is no thanks to them neither doth it disprove what I said before 1. That forgetfulness of God is apt in its own nature unless it be curbed by Providence to lead into all wickedness whatsoever even the highest degree of it Balaam will attempt for the love of Honour and Riches to serve the King of the Moabites wicked purpose and to curse the People of God if an Angel with a drawn Sword in his hand do not stand in his way and hinder the execution of his wicked intent So wicked Persons that have no true Remembrance of God will commit any wickedness that seems necessary to compass what they have set their hearts upon and will not give over till Providence crosseth them and will not let them bring their Device to pass If Honour be the end of any Person that forgets God he will not stick at any sin that will but promote his end and serve this Lust If Rule and Power be the thing that a Man hath set up for his Idol he will take any way rather than miss that which will be ever in his thought and remembrance either actually or virtually because it hath gotten into his heart As we cannot remember those things that we do not love and reverence so we cannot but remember what we do reverence and love You see then how dangerous it is to forget God such a one will remember something else that will betray him to all base and wicked Practices that will bring him under the power of the Devil who ruleth in the Children of Disobedience and bring upon him the wrath of God which cometh upon the Children of Disobedience I might here shew you how this Sin is the breach of the great and most fundamental Commandment as our Saviour calls it Mark 12.30 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength This is the first Commandment for he that doth not remember him cannot do this and where there is no true subjection of the Soul to God implied in this Commandment there can be no true Obedience implied in any of the other Commands And therefore he that is guilty of breaking this is prepared for the breach of all the other because they are animated by this and have their obliging power and authority from it You see then the danger of this sin if then thou darest let God slip out of thy mind thou knowest not what will succeed and enter in his room nor what wickedness thou mayst commit for thou art tumbling down hill and canst never stop by any inward power of thine own unless Providence lay an impediment before thee and hinder thee coming to the bottom that is I mean to the top of all impiety 2. Secondly If thou forget God he will cast thee out of his Remembrance and make thee to know the sin which thou hast committed by the Punishment that is inflicted Psal 9.16 Then the Lord will be known by the Judgment that he executeth As thou shutest thine Eyes against him now and will not remember him in the Pride of thy Heart so he will not remember thee in thy distress and in the day of the anguish of thy heart yea though thou criest to him with importunity he will shut his Ears God hath spoken and he will make it good When you spread forth your hands I will bide mine Eyes from you yea when you make many Prayers I will not hear Esay 1.15 And canst thou be content to be forgotten of God when Reproach hath broken thy heart and thou art full of heaviness and when thou lookest about thee for some to take pity and there is none and for Comforters and thou canst find none Psal 69.20 When thy Flesh faileth thee and thy Heart also canst thou be content that God should also fail thee Psal 73.26 When thy Mirth and Pleasure are fled away from thee and thou hast nothing but Gall to eat when thou shalt thirst and have nothing but Vinegar for thy drink Psal 69.21 Canst thou be content
had been meer Heathens and looked for no other Life and if we had no fear of Judgment Nay have we stuck at those sins that Turks and Heathens do abhor It 's a true though a shameful confession And now shall we pity a suffering and not abhor a sinful People Hath the Lord broke in upon us before many a fair warning we have had ubera many times before we have felt verbera we have had lightning before thunder Are not all these Examples that he hath set before us both in sacred and prophane Writ so many Warning-pieces shot off to prevent the approaching Enemy Doth he not say to us by his Word as he did to the Rebellious Jews Jer. 7.12 Go ye now unto Shiloe where I set my Name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my People Israel Go ye to the City and Temple of Jerusalem and see what I have done for the wickedness thereof Go ye to Sodom to the old World see how their sins have found them out Consult the several Nations to which the Prophets pronounced their several burdens and see how they have sped for their Iniquities Cast thine Eye upon Greece and other parts of Christendom upon whom the Lord hath let in the overflowing Scourge the barbarous Turk for their kicking at his Sacrificies and negligence in his Worship Look upon Germany where the Lord made such fearful Desolation time not yet out of mind Remember the late unnatural War and Bloodshed in our own Nation how it emptied the Nation plagued the Inhabitants for wickededness burneth as the fire it shall devour the Bryers and Thorns Esay 9.18 How long hath the Lord waited on us expecting fruit looking for Reformation Think not that the Lord dealeth hardly charge him not foolishly if he call for the Sicle for the Harvest is ripe the Presses are full the Fat 's overflow for our Iniquities are risen high Joel 3.13 What could the Lord have done more for us in a way of mercy than he hath done and therefore no wonder that Judgment follow us Thus if thou hast a worthy Remembrance of God thou wilt consider his more remarkable Providences and plead the cause of his Justice in the present sad condition into which sin hath brought us Vse Exhortation If then it be such a sin to forget God as there hath been proof enough it is then let this stir us up to more frequent thoughts of God and to a more worthy Remembrance of him What such a Remembrance doth import I think I need not waste time to shew since it is opposed to forgetfulness and contraries do discover each other by these two known and obvious Rules 1. Contraries in or about the same Subject and the subject of the one is neither larger nor scanter than the other e. g. Sight and Blindness are about the Eye The same Air is the Subject both of Light and Darkness and Vertue and Vice are subjected in the same Soul though not at the same time 2. Though Contraries are about the same Subject yet they have contrary Affections e. g. If Vertue be lovely Vice is Odious If Light discovers all things than Darkness covers all things Since therefore 1. As I said Forgetfulness is not an act of the Memory only so neither is Remembrance And 2. As every degree of Remembrance doth not acquit a Man from the odious guilt of Forgetfulness so neither is every degree of Forgetfulness inconsistent with this Remembrance If God have the Soveraignty and Preheminence in thy Heart he will accept it otherwise it is not a Remembrance worthy of him I need say no more for if we know what it is to forget God we cannot but know what is to Remember him If we know who they are that forget God we must needs know who they are that Remember him But least what hath been spoken should not be so Remembered and set together I shall only give a short draught of the Duty or rather bring it fresh to your Remembrance that you may know whether the Exhortation tendeth and not be excited to you know not what In a word therefore This Remembrance of God implies such frequent and worthy thoughts of God as command the Affections of our Hearts and the Actions of our Lives more than any thing else besides And is it not pity that the Heart of Man should be so backward to this duty and so hardly prompted to such a sightly and becoming work and that all that can be spoke to recommend this duty and to spur up to this Remembrance unless God set it home is like to be at best but like the beating or cutting the Air which seems to receive a wound but it presently closeth again and no abiding impression is left behind Alas alas that we should stuff our Hearts with Feathers and think upon vanity and never tire and that the bias of our Souls should be quite another way than towards God! That he that should be our sweetest Meditation is so great a stranger to us How seldom do we erect a thought to him or think on him with pleasure and delight We can even lose our selves in vain and earthly thoughts and think on nothing else almost from morning to night But he that is our support all the day long is ever about our Paths and about our Bed for our defence and safety hath a poor little share in our Thoughts and Affections Art thou not fully satisfied that he is to be loved with all thy Heart and Soul and Strength and that he is worthy of Love and Obedience and a thousand fold more than thou art able to give The excellency of his Nature and Goodness unto thee must needs exâ—ort this confession How can we better employ our Thoughts than upon him that gave us our Thinking Faculty To what better purpose canst thou use thy Reason than to fetch something from every Object that is presented to thee to put thee in mind of God Every thing is big with Instruction and proffers its help to bring thee nearer unto God if thou wilt be taught Thou canst take no better course to advance thy self than to advance him in thy thoughts Thou canst make no better use of Creatures than to make them a means to bring God and thy Heart together To the Heavens and to the Earth and to all that is in them and if they teach thee not this Lesson it is because they are Traytors and not Creatures but the fault is thine and not theirs Thou canst not make a better use of Scripture than to imprint God deeper in thy Remembrance To the Laws and to the Testimonies if they teach thee not thus much it is because thou wilt not learn and there is no light in thee Esay 8.20 As thou lovest thy self and thine own welfare make thine advantage of every thing to promote him higher in thy Mind and Heart Since thou hast so much Instruction round about thee to
Death doth not deprive the Soul of all gracious and vertuous Sense and Motion but renders it unfit for the Spirit of true Vertue Grace and Holiness to dwell in and so there must needs follow a Devorce and Separation between them And as in the Natural Life there is a Union between the Soul and Body so in the Moral there is a Union between the Soul and God Death Metaphorical is the privation of all the comfortable effects of Life whether it be Natural or Moral whilst bear Life doth still remain and the presence of all those evils that may afflict or imbitter it And all these are either 1. Temporal 2. Eternal From what hath been spoken for the explication of these two terms Life and Death you may perceive what a priviledge and unspeakable favour it is to be translated from Death to Life 1. If thou Remembrest God The sting of a Natural Death is pulled out and though thou art not 〈◊〉 from the part of the penalty of sin whereby the Body is deprived of all sense and separated from the Soul yet thou art delivered from that which is most terrible in Death 〈◊〉 the misery or Death that will follow after and it is a comfortable passage for them that Remember God to endless Joy and Happiness and sometimes a welcome Messenger to them They may truly say as Agag 1 Sam. 15.32 The bitterness of Death is past 2. They are translated from the Death of Sin to the Life of Grace and Holiness and are united unto God and are disposed by Faith and Love to that Holiness which is the Divine Perfection and the way to the highest Happiness and Honour that the Heart of Man can wish or desire Though this Life will be imperfect whilst we stay here And if there be such pleasure in the Union between the Soul and Body then there is much more in the Union between the Soul and God 3. As Death is put for Misery and the bitter and uncomfortable effects of the endless Life to come so they are passed from Death to Life The Sentence of Death that God hath passed against sin is so far revers'd And as for the Miseries and Evils of this Life though materially they may have more than other Men yet as to the formal and most essential part of them they feel them not so much as other Men because they are allay'd and sweetned 1. By the inward Peace and Comfort that God gives to those that Remember him 2. By the benefit and advantage they get by those outward Sufferings For as their outward Man is afflicted so their inward man is renewed strengthened and confirmed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 For their light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory even in the beginnings of it here ver 17.3 It lessens their short and momentary sufferings that by them they escape so much Temptation and all the â—aiâ—s of sin are become the less taking If thou art one in whose Remembrance God is advanced above all other things thou shalt not die but live and declare the works of the Lord Psal 118.17 And though the Lord may chasten and correct thee yet he will not give thee over unto Death ver 18. For God is the Fountain of Life and in his Light thou shalt see Life Psal 36.9 O what a Mercy is it to be delivered from the power of Death and Darkness and to be translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son where thou shalt grow up from one degree of Life to another till thou come to everlasting Life Col. 1.13 At thy first entrance into this Kingdom Death is sentenced and some execution is done upon every sort of Death which will be perfected as this remembrance of God grows up to perfection in thee O Death I will be thy Plague O Grave I will be thy Destruction Hos 13.14 Which as it was verified of Christ personally understood so it is of Christ mystically understood 1. As Christ overcame Death in his Person so every true Believer such are all and only they that have God in their Remembrance hath gotten some conquest over Death which shall grow up to a full Victory and therefore Paul in the Name of the whole Church doth acknowledge this mercy Thanks be to God that giveth us the victory thorough our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15 5 7. Whilst the wicked forgetters of God are dead in trespasses and sins and dead to all soul and solid Joy and Comfort and designed to an eternal death Thou that thinkest upon God and remembrest his Love in Christ art entred into a state of Life and hast such a Promise that contains more in it than all the rich Indian Mines Because â—e hath set his Love upon me With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my Salvation Psal 91.16 If thou didst but know what a treasure is hid in thâ—â— Remembrance thou wouldst throw out every thing of thy Memory and Heart that hinders this Remembrance of God This one priviledge of being translated from Death to Life is big with a number more 1. It implies that thou art reconciled to God and he is at peace with thee and thou needest no more to fear him as thine Enemy All his Attributes of Power Justice Holiness Vengeance Majesty that sound so terrible to the forgetters of God do but the better secure thee of thine Happiness 2. It implies also thy present Justification in title of Law God hath acquitted thee by the law of Grace and Act of the Gospel from the guilt of sin and dissolved the Obligation to condemnation Who can lay any thing to thy charge if God absolve thee Who can do thee any hurt when Christ is become thy Advocate Rom. 8.33 3. With this mercy doth concur the mercy of Adoption and Sonship It 's no small Honour to be one of his menial Servants but to be a Son yea a Heir is a priviledge not easily valued and understood 4. The gift of the Spirit to dwell within thee is here also implied to mortifie all sin and to work all gracious habits that may fit thee for a state of Glory In a word 5. All real and relative Grace so far as is necessary to Salvation is thine either in Title Possession 1. The Righteousness of Imputation is thine whereby thou art made fit for Pardon and the Righteousness of Implantation is thine whereby thou art made fit for his Love and Complacency and sweetest Communion with him Secondly If thou art one that Remembrest God all things shall co-operate and conspire for thy good Every Age every state and condition of Life every Place and Company every Change and Alteration in the World Prosperity and Adversity Friends and Enemies Health and Sickness Honour and Dishonour every Relation thou art plac'd in shall help forward thy Joy and Felicity and some Foundation God is laying in every one of these whereupon to
Righteous art thou O Lord in the Sentence which thou hast passed in the Judgment which thou hast executed Psal 119.137 Thou hast poured forth thy wrath and indignation on them and given them gall and bitterness to drink for they are worthy You shall then wish that your faculty to consider were gone it will follow you so close and be such a perpetual honour to you or rather that you had never had reason and understanding to consider then you might have both liv'd and died like a beast Whereas now though you have liv'd like a beast that you must die like a man that hath Memory Reason Foresight Judgment and Affections that will all conspire together to overwhelm you with eternal shame Why had I reason will the Soul say then but to prevent this misery Why had I will to choose when Life and Death were set before me and could choose no better Had it not been a wiser course to have troubled my self a little while with some few Thoughts of it then now to feel it for ever Why did God threaten Hell and destruction in his Word and set it forth with so much Terrour to mine apprehensions but that I might consider and escape it Why did he appoint the Ministerial Office but that knowing the Terrours of the Lord they might perswade men 2 Cor. 5.11 What could nothing prevail with one but what I now feel and must forever undergo Think not to say then I had not time to consider neither had I skill to follow such a work as this It 's not so much a knowing Head as an honest Heart that 's required to this work The Truths are but few and plain that thy Heart is to dwell upon and the certainty of them is beyond all doubt and question Whatever difference of Opinion there may be in other things yet here is no controversy all are agreed that man hath an Immortal Soul that there is a Life to come That the Happiness of man lies in these two things 1. In being like to God 2. In loving him and being loved by him that sin hath made us unlike to him and therefore must be repented of That Christ will purge away their guilt and sin and renew them by his Spirit that love him and consent to be ruled by him and will take him for their Physitian That there is a day in which God will summon all the World before him and Judge them Impartially according as they have believed or not believed in Christ to everlasting joy or 〈◊〉 These things are certain in the highest 〈◊〉 and there is none that doubteth 〈…〉 but either an Atheist or an 〈…〉 are the Truths that God hath 〈…〉 in great mercy and compassion 〈…〉 commanded every one 〈…〉 Poer and Rich 〈…〉 think upon when they are 〈…〉 when they are walk 〈…〉 when they lye down and 〈…〉 they rise up and to teach them diligently to their Children and to live as those that do believe and consider them Woe to the man or woman that considers not these things good it had been for him or her if they had never been born Wilt thou not think of those things It is because thou art void of understanding and hast chose the way of destruction If thou wilt not be perswaded now to consider thou wilt forget thy latter end thou wilt forget thine Immortal Soul and God will be forgotten and a little sensual pleasure will weigh more with thee than Eternal Life and Happiness And when the day of thy dishress is come upon thee thou wilt wish that thou hadst rather forgot to eat thy Bread than these things should have been forgotten and to fill up thy measure and make thee perfectly miserable God will forget thee forever Psal 50.22 Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tare you in peices and there be none to aeliver I Have set some of the Motives before you that should stir you up to Consideration and shewed you in part what a mischief it is for this faculty to lie dead which is given us by God to quicken those that are dead to the Life of Grace and Holiness and to make them strong and lively and vigorous Christians that are quickned by the spirit of Christ and have set their affections upon things above and not upon things here on Earth This is the way that God hath prescribed for Rational Creatures to get home to God that are revolted from him and to recover their affections to the right owner that are intangled in the love of Earth and vanity If they would but consider would feed upon Swinish pleasures no longer nor suffer their Souls to be charmed with more delusion nor prefer the imaginary dream of a sluggard before the happiness of a man that is awake and whose eyes are open Consideration would shew such a man the difference between Earth and Heaven rectify his judgment in this great point viz. where mans happiness lies And tell him roundly how the world hath cheated him with more shews and phantastick pleasures and put a picture into his hand instead of real felicity It would clear his Eye-sight and make him quite of another mind than once he was when Inconsideracy had blinded him and the world had befool'd him and he would see much more reason to live in the love of God looking for the mercies of his Redeemer unto eternal Life Jude the 21. than ever he did to live in carnal love and delights Consideration would bring the world and all its pleasures as much into disgrace as ever Inconsideracy brough◠them into credit And men that snatch'd at the riches and vain glory of the world before as a sweet bit to be purchased upon any terms would after they are enlightened by Consideration suspect all its soberest pleasures and those that come in upon the fairest terms What a Confession should you have from such a man of the foolishness and madness of his former Conversation when he liv'd upon Air and Trash as other Inconsiderate men still do Such a one as Paul's Tit. 3.3 For we our selves saith he describing his state before Consideration undeceived him were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures Then you should hear him bitterly accuse and condemn the soberest course he formerly took when the World had the Supremacy in his mind and heart Strange it would be to see a man so much altered for the better and advanced to such an improvement in knowledge and vertue as by impartial sober and considerate Thoughts might be done He was it may be before a covetous busie worldling that scrap'd and dig'd his happiness out of the dirt and said it up on Earth Whose God was his belly whose glory was his shame that minded Earthly things Phil. 3.19 But now his conversation is in Heaven and there he hath laid up his Treasure And digs for Wisdom as for Silver and searcheth for it as for hid Treasure Prov. 2.4 And his delight
is among the Saints and such as excel in wisdom Psal 16.3 O what a blessing hath God bestowed upon the man or woman to whom he hath given a considering mind How quickly is such a man promoted and brought to unspeakable honour yea to find approbation with God! Such a man is quickly higher by head and shoulders as it s said of Saul than the rest of the inconsiderate doting World I have more understanding saith David than all my teachers for thy Testimonies are my meditation Psal 119.99 You that are yet captivated to the love of any thing here on Earth and like to perish in that state If you will but attentively consider what you dote upon and what you venture for it you would perceive your danger and certainly make your escape and feel the vertue of this excellent duty of Consideration And your present content would make you sick of your former delight And the Honourablest men on earth that had not feasted on this food would seem to you but vile and contemptible persons Methinks I see the man recovered by Consideration tâ—king up his parable like Balaam and saying Thus saith the man whose eyes consideration hath opened He saith who hath heard the words of God and seen the Vision of the Almighty How goodly are the Tents in which God dwelleth and the tabernacles of their hearts where God hath his habitation As the Valleys are they spread forth as Gardens by the Rivers side as the Trees of Ligh-Aloâ—s which the Lord hath planted and as Cedar Trees besides the waters Numb 24.3 4 5 6. And as Consideration would recover the dead and bring them out of the Grave of â—gnorance and Corruption and shew them the excellency of Divine wisdom and purity so that it would keep them in breath that are already translated from death to life and inspire fresh vigour and cheerfulness into all their services it would fill their hearts with a burning love to God and make their lives as a shining light before men It would strengthen their faith and fortify their hopes and put a fresh complexion upon their must withering and consumptive Graces and make their heart to abound and run over with joy and gladness By this time no doubt you see something of the worth and excellency of Consideration and what a gainful trade it is Will you therefore bend your minds to consider and spend more of your time in this work I know the corrupted heart of man is backward to this exercise though it be of such flat necessity and of such eternal advantage yea though it breed so much delight and pleasure after we have gotten some skill and made some progress in the work and have gotten some power over our own affections and can bespeak them in the most suitable moving way For cure therefore of this backwardness I have given you some quickning Considerations to stir you up to this duty and to gain the consent of your wills to this necessary duty In hopes therefore that you are convinced of the necessity of the duty and fully resolved on the performance and that you will not neglect such a duty any longer nor stand in the way of your own light and comfort I come next to give you some Help and Assistance for the more comfortable and successful management and performance of the work And First Endeavour to your power to shun all Impediments but especially those that are most likely to stupify and unfit your minds for Consideration they are obvious I need only to put you in remembrance First Take heed that you sin not maliciously 1. with Wilfulness and Presumption For Divines usually distinguish of Three sorts of Sins 1. Sins of Ignorance when through want of knowledge we transgress the Law of God and do that unwittingly which if we had known to be a violation of the Law of God we would not have done 2. Sins of Infirmity such as are committed through the unavoidableness unruliness of our Sense Phantasy or Passion which are not wholly under the power and command of Reason no not when it is truly enlightned and sanctified 3. Such as are committed with Knowledge and Deliberation when it is in our power to avoid them and will not what these are I need not inform you every one may be his own judge These last sort are called by some Sins of Malice and how much such sins as these will hinder all duty as well as Consideration there is no Christian of any experience but knows too well And therefore David prayeth especially against such sins as these Psal 19.13 Keep back thy servant from Presumptuous Sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and innocent from the great transgression If thou hast any good affection to this duty and art convinc'd that thy Soul will certainly perish without frequent serious consideration thou hast need to take heed of such sins as these Believe it these will wound thy Conscience break thy inward peace mightily provoke the Lord and draw away the Spirit from thee and fill thee with disturbing fears and besot thy mind that it shall not be fit for Consideration or if not such sins as these will dispose thee to hide thy self and get into thee dark and slie consideration as that which will discover thy shame and make thee odious to thy self Never think to bend thy mind to an impartial consideration of God and his Attributes and the Equity of Laws nor to think of thy latter end and the life to come to any purpose or to hear a right answer from thy Soul when thou puttest the question whether it be sanctified or unsanctified whilst thou givest thy consent and allowest thy self to live in any known sin I may say of Consideration as Mr. Bolton said of Prayer That it will make thee leave such presumptuous sinning Or else such sins will make thee to cast off Consideration you may as well hope to reconcile light and darkness as to bring these to any agreement Where Consideration is in any strength there will be no wilful sin or else Hell it self Art thou one that allowest thy self in the habitual neglect of any known duty Canst thou freely indulge thy self in any unjust or ungodly practice Are thy Thoughts at liberty to think vainly and wickedly without curb or controll Is thy Tongue at liberty to utter falshood and deceit to call evil good or good evil to plead any unrighteous causes or to disgrace any way that thou knowest in thy Conscience God approveth of Art thou wilfully proud or uncharitable and art thou intemperate in thy Appetite or Passions or commonly guilty of any such sin that thy own Conscience doth condemn No wonder then if Consideration be an unpleasant work to thee and if thy Thoughts turn away from him that abhorreth all iniquity but that especially which is wilful and allowed It is no marvel that Meditation is seldom or never in the word of the Lord
that condemneth such practices as you can allow and approve and sets a black mark upon all those in whom there is any reigning sin Take heed sin committed with deliberation and allowance is not far from it for one such sin mightily disposeth to another and where once such sins are ordinary and habitual it shews that sin hath gotten the dominion But the mind will not be so averse to thy duty that hath a respect to all the Commandments and that doth not give toleration to any one sin that it knows to be such but doth confess shame himself for strive and Pray against every corruption that he is conscious to himself of I know some difficulty there will be after all but yet such as will easily yield and be overcome when once this grand impediment is removed And no sin hath your allowance and consent but is seriously rejected and opposed 2dly The next great enemy to this necessary duty of Consideration is a fond and inordinate delight in any thing here on earth For where there is such a doting love your Thought will be continually at the command of that beloved object and all the other Affections will be still imployed under the command of that doting love If it be something in present possession your heart will be dayly with it or if it be off a little while it is not at rest or else it 's doing something that may root this inordinate love and make it faster and stronger its main care is to keep fast hold and its only fear is lest it should be deprived of it And Consideration there will be little or none unless it be to keep out the light of those Truths that would spoile the pleasure of such an Idolized comfort Possibly there may be in such a heart some Thoughts of God and the Life to come especially in those that are frequently told and in part convinced of the necessity of such Thoughts but whilst such a foolish love prevaileth such Thoughts will come to nothing and be made of none effect or if the heart be thus inordinatly set upon a thing that is not yet in its possession thy defires will be so eager and impatient after it that there will be neither time nor room for such Consideration as I am now perswading thee to whilst thy mind is disturbed and vexed with such insolent Passions as these you may easily imagine with what Tergversation and backwardness it will come to such a work as this as doth discover that sinfulness and folly of them Every thing naturally seeketh its own preservation and so we must expect that lust will do also it will keep possession so long as it 's able its hard to pursue any worldly pleasure with heat and passion and at the same time to enter upon any serious Consideration of the vanity of it it 's not casie to let the affections loose upon any sinful and unlawful delights and with all to consider impartially at the same time the fearfulness of Gods displeasure against such practices There 's nothing can be well done where Love doth not lead the way and how can Spiritual love prevail where Carnal Farthly love hath got dominion I know God can bring such a man to Consideration that hath captivated his heart to some Earthly delight otherwise it were hard to think how he could be brought to Repentance but then usually the strength and vehemency of the affection is abated either by the power of God's Word or some affliction or other before the mind will be brought to any sober Consideration But yet I say whilst such inordinate love is in exercise and strength it will keep out Consideration and set the hearâ— against it So that if such a one would have his mind at liberty to Consider he must draw the Fewel that feedeth Affection and weaken it by a resolved Abstinence from that which is its nourishment and submit to any afflictions that God sendeth for his help and be glad of such a blessed advantage to bring him to his right mind again otherwise that work of Consideration will go but heavily on especially when the things to be considered are so much of another nature and so opposite to all Carnal Fleshly love and delights whatsoever Thirdly Another great hindrance to Consideration will be the Company and Talk of more worldly men You shall be sure to meet with nothing from such Fellowship as this that will animate and quicken you to such Thoughts as these if your mind be never so little disposed to meditate in the Law of God and think of a future reckoning and account and to examine what preparation is made towards it you shall find enough in their Frothy Idle Impertinent or Sinful discourse to quench such Thoughts and to bend your mind quite another way but nothing to promote or set forwards any good inclination or desire Alas the the heart of man is naturally too backward to Sober and Impartial Consideration of the most concerning matters that we have need of all the help we can get to put the mind in such Heavenly frame and temper and need not any thing to pull back and discourage It 's necessary to retire from the company and converse of those that are good when we would attend this work to any purpose much more from the Society of men whose Tongues are continually imployed about vanity and sin But if thou wouldst be fit for the Consideration that I am pressing on thee avoid such Company as this not only when thou art more solemnly addressing thy self to this work but also at other times also For such Companions will be storing thy mind with such empty notions and impressions as will pervert it and keep out such matter that should furnish and supply it for the successful peformance of this duty O how doth the Chatt and foolish Talk of Idle Light-headed men damp any good Seed in thee and weaken all good affections and therefore must needs be a deadly enemy to the Consideration which should be promoted thereby I appeal to those that have their Ears continually filled with discourse about the matters of this Life about their Flocks and their Herds and their Lands and their Trades where the Fair is to day and where the Market is to Morrow and what News is stirring to say no worse how hard is it to get any Reverential Thoughts of God or any affecting apprchensions of the Life to come It is no easie matter to get thy heart affected with thy sin and the mischief it hath done thee and that woful state and condition of those that die in it when thy discourse is altogether of another nature But if the discourse be Wanton Obscene Prophane and much more if it be â—theistical and intended to the scorn and derision of Holiness or any of the means God hath appointed to promote it what impression this is like to make upon the Hearers I wish you nover know by experience
Prov. 2.10 11 12 13. If the hope of a little worldly gain will put the Merchant upon such difficult tedious yea and dangerous Voyages and to expose himself to the raging boystrous Seas and Winds and to go visit the Savage and Barbarous Nations that he may bring back a little fading Treasure would not the hope of far better and greater gain put Sails to thine endeavours and quicken thee to Consideration It 's certain that if thou doest account Wisdom and Grace better than Gold and Silver it would do so In this spiritual Trade of Commerce with God by Meditation there is less of danger and more of profit and advantage Though I confess the profit is quite of another kind but yet such as will yield thee more pleasure and content than any worldly gain and Emolument can do yea mayest thou not expect a Harvest far more desirable to a man that is not brutish in his affections after one Months exercise of this Duty though but one half hour in a day than the poor industrious Plow-man can after ten times as much spent in a dirty and unpleasant labour And yet how chearfully doth he rise to the Plow and Cart before the day break and despise his rest and ease for a small Crop which he expects and it may be when all is done his hopes are drowned by unseasonable Showres and too great a glut of moist and rainy weather or else they wither through too great an excess of heat and drought But God will not fail to water thine endeavours if thou wilt bend thy mind daily to Consideration and Crown thine endeavours with a blessing How indefatigably will a poor man thresh and toil all the day and year long for a poor contemptible Livelihood And would'st thou not take an hours pains every day to live a glorious happy life for ever if thou didst but hope for such a Reward Certainly they expect no such Reward or else value it at a lower rate than their worldly ease and pleasure that will not consider upon such terms as these and they are like to neglect or faint in the work of Consideration that do not address themselves to it with such hopes as these I have done with the Directions that concern both the matter and manner of this Duty of Consideration and now come In the last place to tell you what End you should propose to your self in the exercise of this Duty The Ends that you should propose are these two First That you might get and grow in the love of God joy and delight in him praise and admiration of him gratitude and thankfulness to him and so God may be more highly advanced in your heart and affections Secondly And that you may grow up to a more habitual firm and setled resolution of obedience to his Laws and submission to his Providences and so God may be more highly exalted in your life and practice First The first great End that you should aim at in the exercise of Consideration is that you may provoke and strengthen those good affections of love to God delight in him admiration of him thankfulness to him and so to raise his Authority in your heart Not that I exclude any other holy affections either of the Irascible or Concupiscible Faculty whereby the Soveraignty of God over Soul and Body is made more glorious and sensible Neither do I except any Acts of the Understanding such as are esteem and admiration of him assent to his Word and Truth both in Nature but especially in Scripture whereby way is made for these higher and more Noble affections of Love Joy and Praise But you must see that all the other affections be guided to and end in these especially Love For this is the Leading Act or Affection of the Soul that vertually contains yea and commands all the rest and doth enthrone the Object to which it is mainly devoted in the heart and sets the Crown upon its head and offereth up the whole train of affections that come after it to its devoir and service S. Austin seems to maintain that love is the only passion that doth agitate us and hath its operation in us for all the passions that molest our Souls are but so many disguized Loves our fears and desires our hopes and despairs our delights and sorrows are Countenances which Love puts on according to the Events of good or bad success And as the Sea carries different Names according to the divers parts of the Earth which it washeth so doth Love change her Name according to the different state wherein she finds her self His words are Amor inhians habere quod amatur Cupiditas est Idem habens eoque fruens Laetitia est Fugiens quod ei Adversatur Timor est Idque cum Acciderit sentiens Tristitia est The truth is as most now grant there are no Passions or Affections of the Soul that are distinguished from it self but the Soul it self is thus variously denominated according to the various Objects about which it is exercised yea the Understanding and Will are no otherwise distinguished than by their Objects and are not Faculties really distinct But the same Soul as it sees apprehends and discerneth either truth or falshood it 's called Understanding and as it chuseth or refuseth good and evil it 's called Will. But though you suppose this yet there are two Primitive and most Essential Acts or Affections of the Will and those are Volition and Nolition commonly called Love and Hatred of which all the other Affections have a Spice and from whence they are derived All the Passions which are usually ascribed to the Concupiscible Faculty flow from Volition or Love and all that are commonly reckoned as Retainers to the Irascible Faculty flow from Nolition or Hatred These be the two Acts whereby the Soul cleaves to its most endeared Object wherein it placeth its rest and happiness and whereby it fights against all Adversaries that would take it out of its arms or hinder it from fruition These are therefore the main Affections that you should endeavour more and more to root and fortifie by your Meditations even love to God and hatred of all that stands in any competition with or contradiction to him Now since the World with its Pleasures Profits and Honours is the cursed Trinity in Vnity that most opposeth God and that is most likely to draw your Soul first to slight and then to rebel against the Blessed Trinity in Vnity your great intention in the work of Consideration must be to fortifie and strengthen your love to the last and your hatred to the first to hold to the one and despise the other Mat. 6.24 For you cannot serve God and the World because their Commands are quite contrary and whilst you do fulfill the will of the one you do ipso facto slight the other Indeed where two Masters stand in subordination one to the other there we may serve and please them
both but then they are not two but one Master so long as the Commands of one do not cross but promote and further the Commands of the other In this case God and the World may both be loved So long as our love to the world doth not exceed those bounds which God hath set and we love them no farther than as they further us in his service For instance friends may help us forward towards Heaven and quicken us to our duty and friends may incumber discourage and hinder us in our obedience to God The first sort one may and must love for that very end the second sort we ought to slight and despise so far as they are such a snare to us Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred I count them mine Enemies saith David though it may be some of them might be his friends by birth and Alliance or pretence Psal 139.21 22. Not but that we own some kind and degree of love even to such as these but not a love of Complacency which is the most proper sort of love and the highest degree we may look upon them with a love of Benevolence and Compassion desiring their Repentance and Reformation if they are such Enemies of God as are curable And the reason is because there is some mixture of good with all their wickedness and this we must love them for So we should examine all other worldly comforts and see how far they kindle and how far they extinguish the love of God in you and so far you must love or hate them Well in the exercise of Consideration you must still have one eye to this affection of love and see that it grow stronger and stronger and another upon every thing that you seem to love too much whether it be meat or drink or apparel or friends or credit or health or life it self to disparage them and lessen your esteem of and affections to them and think what a vast difference there is between any worldly comfort here on Earth and God the Author of that and all other comforts I mean no other disparagement than such a one as makes them know their place and keep their rank and lays them at the feet of him that ought to be a thousand times dearer to us And so the Apostle counted all things dung and dross in comparison with Christ but not otherwise Phil. 3.8 Now the more distinct and certain knowledge you have of God the more you are like to love him for he is such an Object that if he be once thoroughly known he cannot but be loved Nature and Reason it self will sufficiently assure you that his Word is the highest Demonstration of the truth of any thing he affirmeth and cannot possibly be false The more therefore you are perswaded that the Scripture or Bible is his Word wherein he hath made the plainest Discoveries of himself the more clear and certain apprehensions of God you are like to have It will be therefore very subservient to the love of God to confirm and strengthen your assent to the Truth or Divine Authority of Scripture and to make that sometimes the immediate design and business of your Meditations to which end you must have Arguments at hand to prove Scripture to be the Word of God and to enforce your assent Hereby also you will have some considerable advantage to the exercise of all those other affections that must help to kindle and encrease the love of God in you such as are Repentance and Faith in Christ for there you have the fullest discoveries of the odiousness of Sin and the necessity of Repentance and the Excellency of Christ and Faith in him who took our Flesh and died for this very end that he might reconcile God to us and us to God and recover our affections to him that the world had abus'd and drawn away and as the exercise of Repentance will promote the love of God in you by mortifying that which is contrary to it so Faith in Christ much more for the more we love and subject our selves to him who is the Wisdome of the Father and the highest pledge of his love to sinful man the more we are like to love the Father himself that both sent him and accepted the satisfaction that he offered to him in our behalf And then lastly the more we are exercised in the praises of God the more we are exercised in love it self for this is an immediate effect of love So that it should be one end of Consideration to exercise and quicken those affections viz. 1. Assent to the truth of Scripture 2. Contempt of the world and all its pleasures as it fights against God 3. Repentance for all former sins and present unfitness to the love and service of God 4. Faith in Christ 5. Love to God directly 6. Praise and thankfulness to him Not that I exclude other simple or mixt affections but because I intend anon to give you some help for the better exercise of these particularly which I intended at first for my own private use Secondly As it must be the end of Consideration so to actuate and strengthen these or some other holy affections towards God and so to advance him in your heart so it must be your last end to strengthen your resolution of obedience to him both active and passive and so to advance him in your life and practice This should and would be the last end of your daily Consideration if it be right As it is Gods end when he requireth the Heart that he might have the Life also for he knows that the life and practice will be suitable to the heart which is the great Principle of them so it must be our end also in the exercise of our Meditations to promote the Kingdom of God in our heart that we may the better honour him in our life Remember therefore in the daily exercise of this Duty that you grow more resolved for Obedience For as love to God will be the fruit of your Meditations if they be serious so Obedience will be the fruit of your love if it be sincere And as you are never like to do or suffer the Will of God with chearfulness and to grow in Obedience unless you grow stronger in deliberate purpose and resolution so you are never like to grow in resolution if you do not grow in the love of God I am next to give you some assistance towards the daily exercise of the Six forementioned Affections one whereof belongs to the Understanding the other to the Will FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Jacob Sampson next Door to the Wonder Tavern in Ludgate-Street POlitical and Military Observations of the Court and Camp of France during the late Wars in Flanders Germany c. Sacramental Meditations upon divers select places of Scripture wherein Believers are
to draw and invite this Affection And have moreover disappointed thee too often of the Pleasure and Felicity that from them thou hast expected yea and which is far worse have entangled thee in many foolish and hurtful Lusts which have afterwards betrayed thee to sad and bitter complaints But here 's an Object worthy thy strongest love that will not debase and destroy but advance thy Soul to the highest Perfection The Love of him as it is sweet in the exercise so it will end at last in unspeakable sweetness and will not upbraid thee with Folly afterwards as all other Love will be sure to do Thou mayest love other things too much and here 's the Source and Spring of all Sin and Impiety and of all absurd and unreasonable Practices For as Divine Love is the sum of Duty and all worthy and becoming Actions so Carnal Love or the Love of Creatures is the Sum of all Wickedness and all incongruous and unseemly Practice But God can never be exalted too high in thine Estimation and Affections Here thou mayest safely vent and pour out all the store of thy Love with the greatest delight and security and expatiate thy Soul to the widest extent in the Ocean of his infinite and most lovely Perfections To him thou mayest safely offer up thy Soul in sacrifice as a whole-Burnt-Offering in the Fire of Love for ever Wilt thou permit thy Thoughts any more to fly abroad into Trifles and impertinent Matters when thou hast the immense Ocean of Divine Goodness to lanch forth into and mayest lose thy self with the greatest pleasure and advantage in the depths of his infinite Perfections Here to be even drowned and swallowed up is not Death but the sweetest and most ravishing Life Hast thou not pined long enough and melted away in the Cares and Love of the World the Martyrdom which corrupt Nature prompts thee fast enough to chuse Is it not now more than Time to be wiser and to bare an Honourable Testimony to him that hath redeemed thee And to subscribe that Witness to the Truth which thou hast borne too much hitherto to Lies and Falsehood Let them be taken by thee for Fools and Madmen that torture themselves with the Love and Care of this World and take Hell by that violence that the Kingdom of Heaven should be taken by But let the main stream and current of thine Affections be ever after him in whom are all the dimensions of Perfection Some little Twilight and Glimmerings of his Ravishing Beauty thou hast seen in his Words and Works But oh how short how exceeding short have they been through thy wilful Blindness and Inadvertency But these express not the thousandth part of his wonderful astonishing Splendour and Glory Something it may be thou hast tasted of his sweetest reviving Love But oh how little in respect of what thou might'st have had had it not been for thy own wilful neglect and refusal Hadst thou gazed as much upon his Glory as thou hast done upon the fading transitory Glory of the World and studied his Perfections according to the Opportunities and Advantages he hath given thee and not loved dismal affrighting Darkness rather than the quickning trransforming Light and neglected the best use of thine Understanding and Affections in holy Meditations on God Thou might'st confidently have expected the Blessing of God in a Work so well pleasing to him and found the Treasure that would have made thee contemn all other things in Comparison Then thou might'st have had joy in the darkest Night of Affliction and such an Allay to the bitterest Cup that would have made any Condition welcome to thee Then thou would'st have forgotten all the Miseries of thy life past and remembred them as Waters that pass away Job 11.16 Then thou might'st have lyen down with the sense of the pardon of former sins yea thou might'st have lyen down and thy sleep would have been sweet to thee Then the Remembrance of thy latter End would not have been such an unpleasant Theme to thy Meditations as now it is yea the Lord would have satisfied thy Soul in Drought and made thee like a watered Garden and like a Spring whose Waters fail not Isaiah 58.11 And then with what vivacity and chearfulness should'st thou have performed all Duty and borne all Sufferings when God had once answered thee in the joy of thy Heart Considerations to provoke to the Contempt of the World Psalm 119 96. I have seen an End of all Perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad 1 John 2.15 16. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world Vers 17. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever Isa 40.6 7. All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is like the flower of the field The grass withereth and the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it 1 Cor. 7.9 The fashion of this world passeth away Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death Eccles 1.2 and 2.11 Vanity of vanities all is vanity saith the Preacher Eccles 1.8 All things are full of labour man cannot utter it the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing Prov. 31.30 Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain AS the Object of all rational saving Love is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and all that standeth in subserviency to him so far as they conduce to this Noble End and Happiness of the Soul So the Object of all irrational sinful damning Love is the World and whatsoever serves to promote its interest in the Heart so far as it is Competitory with or Contradictory to the Interest of God and conduceth to the inordinate pleasing of the Flesh And thus much I intend here by the World that is any thing in the whole Creation that doth not refer to and is not subordinate unto God is to be the Object of this Contempt and Disdain First Because the World is unsatisfactory and cannot content the Mind of Man There is something still that the Soul misseth when it hath all here that it can desire It silently imagineth an Aliquid ultra when it hath gone its farthest in the Happiness and Prosperity here on Earth And it 's so far from Rest after all that it grows more hot and impatient in its desires And finding nothing to pursue after that can give content begins to fret and grow peevish when the ambitious Soul is gotten to the top of Honour he finds not the thing he expected he calls it by all the slight and contemptible Names he can invent or imagin you may as well satisfie the Appetite
Brutish Pleasure It 's difficult if not impossible to see clearly in the Dust of Riches and Smoke of Honours Besides Earthly Love betrays to Ease Softness and Intemperance which are very inconsistent with an acute understanding But the Contempt of such sensual Pleasures inspires the Mind with true Accuracy and gives it a piercing Eye For having now no hankering thoughts or desires after these things it 's always fit to consider and fix seriously upon any proposed Object and to see things in their proper Evidence because there is nothing to bribe the Understanding and so it becomes impartial in its search and examination Twelfthly This forementioned disdain of the World and its Pleasures makes a most ready way to inward Peace and Quietness For these Sensual Baits are the Inciters of our Passions and when they are up there is no Rest nor Quiet That Man is like to be sedate calm and undisturbed that doth not much care for any of these changeable Comforts There will be a pleasant silence in the heart when it is not provoked by the insolencies of the Flesh which then will domineer whilst it hath there sensual Accommodations but grows tame and tractable when it is pretty well weaned and weakened through the want of them if other Necessaries do concur Why art thou so patient O my Soul under the Rage and domineering Power of the Flesh and its head-strong Lusts Why doest thou so frequently Consent to the Love and Pursuit of such poor short and uncertain Felicity that fills thee with so must disturbance and alienates thee from God and doth so much destroy all thy future Hopes Lastly It may help forward this Contempt of the World to consider seriously the vanity of Man who is the Noblest Part of it Verily every Man saith David at his best Estate is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All manner of Vanity as it is in the Original Psalm 39.6 A Helpless Friend and a Toothless Enemy And therefore he that trusteth Man maketh a broken Reed his Confidence And he that hath an inordinate Fear of Man feareth a shadow * Isa 51.12 and v. 7 8. Isa 2.22 Who art thou saith the Prophet that art a fraid of a Man that shall die and of the Son of Man that shall be made as Grass There 's no sadder Spectacle in the World than Man if this were his best condition and he had all he were to look for in this life A Toad or the most hated Creature no nor those that are continually hunted and pursued and live always in danger of the Snare or some cruel Device to take away their Lives are not half so sad a Spectacle as Man is I mean without the Grace of God These Brutish Creatures neither apprehend nor fear the Snare till they are caught in it nor foresee a Michief till it is at hand nor vex themselves with the Memory of what is past But Reason which is Man's proper Vtensil makes him but the more capable Subject of Misery and Torment and helps him to suffer a Mischief before it comes and to feel it a long while after This is such a Faculty as teacheth him to improve his Sufferings and Calamities which no other Creature that wants it can do and to chew upon an Evil when it 's swallowed down and past Should a Believer fear the Frowns of such a silly Creature or regard his Favour when he would threaten or tice him from his Duty I conclude therefore It 's better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in man yea it is much better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes Psal 118.8 9. Consider then O my Soul what a meer Juggle and Delusion is the Pleasure of this World with which thou hast so often suffered thy self to be couzened and deceived What Luggage is the Riches And what a Blast is the Honour thereof Yea what a Dream and meer imagination is all that here Men dote upon Is it for this that Men swear and deceive couzen and lye sweat and run about with foolish heat and diligence Is this the Reward of all the busle and stir they make Is this all the Recompence of their bold Adventures against God and their own Souls Have they no more for all their restless Nights and Days for all the Cares and Fears with which they have so often pierced themselves Have they no more for Their Salvation for A Life of Immortality for God and for Their Souls which they have thrown away for a little slippery uncertain pleasure which stings even whilst it 's tasted and wounds so deep afterwards Wonderful that ever Men that have an Eye of Reason to discern thus much should yet suffer themselves to be so besooled And should prefer the pleasure of Delirancy and madness before that of Sobriety That ever Reasonable Creatures should suffer themselves to be entangled in Vanities which are more brittle than Glass more light than Smoak and more swift than the Wind That they should feed so greedily and fat themselves with these poisonous destroying Pleasures and go with the foolish Ox to the slaughter and with the Fool to the Correction of the Stocks Till a Dart strike through their Liver not considering that it is for their Life O what madness to nourish this Carrion and Dung-hill of thy Body and to neglect forget and despise thy Soul Is it possible that thou shouldst so Adore a Prison or Fetters as to balance them with the Love of thy dearest Saviour Who can shed Tears enough or Weep sufficiently for such a Sin as this viz. The forsaking of God and the chusing of Lyes instead of him O what horrid Phantasms will appear one Day and present themselves to their sight that proceed on and dye in such a sin as this When the Pleasures which they have chosen shall stand in Array before them and upbraid them into the deepest shame and silence And the objects with which they have committed Folly so often shall stand forth and say I am the Pleasure which thou hast loved more than God I am the Ambition to which thou wast a slave I am the Wealth that was the Aim of all thy Actions I am the Dung and Dross to which thou didst espouse and wed thine Affections Behold the Sins thou hast begotten on me Behold thy deformed loathsome Iniquities which thou didst not only love but prefer before the Life which thy Saviour did both live and teach With such dreadful Complaints able to rend Rocks and Marbles shall they that have loved any thing here on Earth more than God and their Souls lament over their sins that will come upon them like an Armed Man and fight them with its gastly Looks If thou Love any thing then O my Soul see that thou love it for God and for the reference that it hath to the Life Eternal The Joys of Heaven are without their Parallel and Example And as they are here above our Experience so
Reason can easily stir or command is a great Enemy to this Duty He therefore that would be always fit for this Duty must with all his Might resist the true and principal Cause of Sadness I mean Sin and when he cannot prevent it he must speedily repent of it and turn from it and renew his Faith in Christ and then his Soul will not refuse to be comforted but will chear up and at length attain such a good measure of Alacrity as will become Christianity and constantly dispose him to this Duty provided his Body be not oppressed with melancholy Fumes and Vapours For in such Case the Art of the Physician must be joyned with the fore-mentioned Prescriptions And such Temperance and Exercise of the Body must be used as may reduce it again and make it fit to subserve a chearful Mind There 's no greater pull-back nor obstruction to this becoming generous heavenly Work than a sower dejected and contracted Spirit The Jews had a Proverb amongst them that Spiritus sanctus non descendit super Animum maestum which though taken without limitation is not true because the Spirit of God works Godly Sorrow and dwells in the contrite Heart that 's broken for sin to revive comfort and bind it up again yet with some restriction it contains a very great Truth viz. That the Divine Spirit in it more Noble and Excellent Operations of Love Joy and Delight and those other Affections that have a very near confederacy with these and chearful Obedience which results from these doth not descend upon those that are of a sad and heavy Heart whilst such But they are first exhilerated and cheared by the Heavenly Comforter before they can get up to these higher Duties And though Godly Sorrow for sin be consistent enough with some Spiritual Joy and Concomitant Affections before mentioned whilst it keeps its just degree and measure yet when it proceeds to Heighth and Excess and goes beyond its just Bounds it greatly indisposeth to Works of that Elevation But the Sorrow of the World worketh Death and is therefore very inconsistent with Works that require the greatest Life yea the sorrow and dejectedness that arise from the Temper and Complexion of a Melancholick Body do very much hinder the Soul in these more sublime and raised Operations And the more voluntary it is through the wilful neglect of Means either Medicinal or Moral whereby it may be shaken off still the greater Enemy it is to the joyful Heavenly Work When therefore we prepare for this Work every weight must be cast away and the sin that presseth down and all indisposing dulness must be shaken off as much as may be And therefore Elisha to make way for the Holy Spirit in these noble Operations of it calls for a Musical Instrument 2 Kings 3.15 the better to compose and exhilerate his Mind And it came to pass whilst the Minstrel played that the Hand that is the Spirit of the Lord came upon him 2. He must be of a competent Candour and Ingenuity towards Men One that will readily do good and as easily acknowledge it when it is done by others That affects not to conceal his own Infirmities nor the Worth of others but can quickly spy out both That judgeth not according to outward Appearance but judgeth righteous Judgment And is prone to take every thing by the right handle and to pass the fairest construction upon every thing He that 's disingenuous and base towards Men will be so towards God For it is in other Affections as it is in Love Now he that loveth his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Is the Argument of the beloved Apostle 1 John 4.20 3. He must be very well contented with his Condition None more Averse to the Duty in hand than he that 's displeased with his Estate How can that Man be thankful unto God for any thing he hath that liketh nothing Male-Content filleth a Man with rage and bitterness against every thing almost as supposing it to contribute something to his uneasie Condition It puts him frequently upon sinful study and contrivance to better himself And it is so far from disposing any to the sweet Temper I am now speaking of that it prompts him to be angry with every one Such a one tasts no sweetness in any good he hath be it never so great and therefore forgets all but his discontents He pores wholly upon his Misery and nothing else seems worthy his observation And that Man that hath no eye to observe any Comfort that he hath will never think himself obliged to him from whom they come and such a one is most unfit for a Thankful Acknowledgment 4. He must have made some good progress in the work of Mortification and be pretty well weaned from all Sublunary Good and Pleasure That hath no strong propension to Sensual Comforts and Carnal Delights but hath got a considerable Conquest over the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts And hath a Love that 's rational and doth propend most to that which most deserves it For how can he perform the highest Acts of Spiritual Life that is not first dead to those things that do stifle and utterly quench the Spiritual Life Or how can he thank God aright for any thing that is not in a capacity to make a true judgment of what God doth bestow which is the Case of every one that hath his Affections inordinately wedded to these Earthly Contentments Such a one cannot take a worldly Cross or Reproach and Shame and Sickness and other Afflictions to be such Mercies as they sometimes are nor thank God sometimes for them more heartily than for any outward prosperity 5. He must have a deep Sense and Perswasion of the Certainty and Excellency of Eternal Things The Immortality of the Soul The worth of God's Favour The unspeakable Misery of the damned And the Felicity of those that must live for ever with God otherwise the Pleasures of this World are but a Dream and the Happiness of this Life but a shadow and all the Comforts that are tyed to this state so fickle and unsatisfactory that a wise and considerate Man will not much regard them unless as they be Pledges and Fore-runners of a better Felicity and so cannot rise to any high pitch of Joy and Thankfulness whilst it hath no better Materials to erect such a Frame nor better Motives to this Duty Thus much for the Matter or what is prerequisite to make way for these High and Heavenly Acts of Gratitude and Praise which are always accompanied with some degree of joy and delight in God which formally and principally imply First A due observation and worthy estimation of the Amiable Perfections of God and of his Grace and Favours towards us If we overlook these and our Eyes be in the ends of the Earth when they should be intent upon the infinite Majesty and his Mercies towards us every
blasphemous apprehensions which consists of two principal parts in which all the rest is included First Hearty Thanksgiving for what they have and do receive Secondly And fervent prayer for what they want by which a better Testimony is given to God than by their richest oblations And this the very Heathen could discern by their Candle Immunis aram saith Horace c. They confessed that a Soul breathing forth its self in holy Hymns is more acceptable to God than the richest Gums or sweetest Wood that can sume upon the Altar But these Jews were so Intoxicated that they thought they did a high favour to God whilst they took his name into their mouths and declared his Statutes though they perfectly hated to be reform'd though they consented to these and were guilty of Adultery and gave their Mouth to ill and their Tongue to frame deceit yea they made nothing of casting Slanders and Reproaches upon their dearest Friends ver 17 18 19 20. Yea and to compleat their wickedness to the full they interpreted the patience of God towards them all this while as an approbation of their abominable Wickedness ver before the Text. These things hast thou done and I kept silence that is I patiently forbore thee a long time and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self Then follows the Sentence But I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes and make thee feel what it is to mock God and be guilty of such Wickedness The words are the Application of this that hath been taught in the former part of the Psalm That since God will upon no terms be reconciled to Iniquity nor hold his peace always at those practices which his Soul hateth though the persons being guilty set them off with the Paint and Varnish of the most specious outward Observances and make a most boasting mention of his Name and cry the Temple of the Lord. Since this is Gods peremptory Resolution be wise Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Where you have 1. The Use that they and we are to make of the righteous and impartial Sentence that God will pass upon Wickedness dress it how we will or an Exhortation to a weighty Duty NOW CONSIDER THIS 2. The persons that are to make this use of it or to whom the Exhortation is directed that is such as forget God YE THAT FORGET GOD. 3. The Reasons to enforce this Duty upon these forgetful Ones is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. From the Extremity LEST I TEAR YOU IN PIECES as the Lion teareth in pieces the Prey it lights upon 2. From the unavoidableness of Gods Wrath and the impossibility of Escape AND THERE BE NONE TO DELIVER or snatch out of my hands The foregoing Metaphor from the Lion being continued see Hosea 5.14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a Lion and as a young Lion to the House of Judah I even I will tear and go away I will take away and none shall rescue him And Micah 5.8 And the Remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a Lion among the Beasts of the Forrest as a young Lyon among the flecks of sheep who if he goeth through both treadeth down and teareth in pieces and none can deliver The Points that enwrap the whole substance of the words are THESE TWO First That Forgetfulness of God is a fearful and dangerous sin and will expose such as are guilty of it to the unavoidable wrath of God Secondly That Consideration is one of the principal means on our part to bring us to the Remembrance of God at the first and to prevent â—â—â—getfulness afterwards or to recover us out of that degree of forgetfulness into which we may possibly fall The method that I shall take to infuse the first Doctrine and to get it into our hearts and Lives shall be 1. To begin with the Understanding by which Door every Truth must enter that can make any solid operation upon the other Faculties to prepare them for practice and to shew 1. What it is to forget God in the General 2. More particularly who they are that are guilty of this sin And 3. I shall shew you the heinousness and danger of this sin in the Inferences and then on 4. To a closer Application First What it is to forget God in the General To which I answer To forget God is Not to have that impress of his Existence Perfections and Relations to us upon our several Faculties nor those frequent reverential and affectionate thoughts of him that do enable us to a Sovereign Love and Obedience to him 1. In which Description Note First That forgetfulness is not the act of the Memory only in this place but there is some of this poison in all the Faculties for the Rule is solid and worth the observation That no Act is compleat that is not the act of the whole Man Understanding Will and Executive Power because they are united in one Frame and there is no action that 's virtuous and vicious for that I mean by moral to which every one of these Wheels of the Soul do not contribute something and therefore if the hand of a Clock or Watch move regularly every one of the inward Wheels is moved rightly and is free from fault oâ— blame but if the hand go false all the inward parts of the Fabrick move amiss though perchance the fault â—ye principally in one peculiar part but yet the errour is propagated to the whole So if any action of man be faulty the whole man is culpable and the fault is either originally or by derivation in every power and faculty of the Man so Love to God supposeth 1. A Knowledg worthy of him in the Understanding Complacency in the Will endeavours of Conformity to and union with him in the powers that are to execute or else the act of Love is not rational and compleat To have some motion in the will or affections that is not caused by a foregoing notice or consideration that is weighty of him is a Fanatical Love a flash that will be as soon out as in and never set his hand and his feet a work in his service so we are said to know God when we have not only a notion of him in the understanding but suitable motion in the will and affections This is Life Eternal to know Thee John 17.3 This is the manner of Scripture yea and common discourse when we speak of moral Acts that is such as persons endued with understanding and free will do perform And though the denomination or name be taken sometime from one faculty sometime from another yet the rest are usually implyed or supposed subservient actions are in common speech silently implyed in the principal and hence that Rule that Divines so frequently inculcate That words of knowledg and sense imply affections and actions The Lord knoweth
2 Tim. 3.16 and shew how by Doctrine Reproof Correction and Instruction in Righteousness all the visible Creatures would help on this Remembrance of God and therefore forgetfulness of God hath the greater sin by how much it prevailes against the greater means vouchsafed by God for its cure But least that way shâ—uld not seem so intelligible and convincing I shall chuse rather to nominate four other ways whereby the several Creatures do provoke man to have God highest in their Remembrance 1. They all offer themselves to his sight and by that to his understanding to inform him in the glorious Perfections of God which they palpably discover and therefore are very serviceable in the work of Contemplation No one so sottish as to imagine they could make themselves then they must be made by another that 's God but such infinite variety and such rare and excellent works must suppose and therefore put any one that thinks on them in mind of infinite Wisdom and Skill infinite Goodness and Power in the creating of them 2. They serve for his Food and Rayment and are the means to keep him alive that could not live a day without them Let him that thinks he is least of all beholding to the Creatures consider whether he could live an hour without the Air he sucks in or how many days he could live without Food which one Creature or another serves in every day and then let him think who hath made and doth supply every Creature to him and forget God if he can 3. They serve for his other necessary uses in great delightful variety The Horse to fetch in and carry out both himself and other things and to remove his Luggage from place to place The Wood and Stones to build his Habitation and the Art and Workmanship of Man to adorn it the Dog to keep it and all things conspire together to make him as happy as he can be in the absence of God even a Lord on Earth because God hath appointed him so to be and hath he not yet enough to advance his great Benefactor in his Heart 4. They serve also for his Recreation and sober Pleasure and Refreshment when he hath been tired by his more serious Employments and yet to forget God whose Praise and Service these Creatures do so constantly bespeak by their so beneficial service to us All these steps lead up the sin to a higher guilt In a word to have all the Senses assaulted by the several Objects that God hath furnished to them The Eye to be fed with so many delightful sights of several things The Ear with such various Harmony and Sound The Taste with so many distinct and grateful Relishes of things which the wisdom of the Creator hath provided and offered to that Sense And the Objects of the other Senses are multiplied to as great a variety And is it not monstrous for the mind of man to have so many Monitors and yet to forget God in despight of all 3. Thirdly He hath moreover given us his Son that we might not want an Argument of the greatest force to provoke a remembrance of him When we were like to withstand all other Arguments and to lose the sense of all his other mercies towards us and to perish in a wicked oblivion and forgetfulness of God for ever He hath taken such a course that one would think should create a memory of him where there was none at all of him before and should recover those that are the most desperately gone in forgetfulness and force them to say that the love of Christ constraineth them 2 Cor. 5.14 Would not a Malefactor that 's sentenced and condemned to die take it for a favour indeed and place that man high in his Remembrance that should step between him and death and release him with the loss of his own life especially if he were a Person of Honour and Degree And doth it not deserve a Remembrance not a Customary but a substantial Remembrance when the highest and most honourable Person that ever lived in the World hath laid down his life in the room of ours Sure we think we are not so beholding to him as we are when such an obligation as this wiâ—l prevail no more to exalt God in our Hearts If this be not an obligation that doth inforce a gracious Remembrance now I am sure it is such a one that will enforce a tormenting Remembrance hereafter When the thought of such a mercy so wickedly slighted shall be a raging fire in their Bowels and then they shall not be able to forget it What 's the matter that such a motive is put off and not regarded by too many I am sure there 's nothing but flat downright wickedness can make a man so sleepy and forgetful If such a Breath as this will not kindle the love of God in our Hearts if such a spur will not prick us forward to the duty of Remembrance It 's not because we want Arguments but because we want Grace and how we should want Grace if we were apprehensive of the mercy would be very difficult to resolve and how we should not be apprehensive if we did but think frequently of it would be as impossible to determine So that you see the wickedness of this sin is ultimatly resolved into not thinking or bending our selves to think what we have received Well we are left to take our choice the death of Christ will either oblige us to the duty of Remembrance or aggravate the sin of forgetfulness Lastly We have the Spirit Word and all the Ordinances of God to beget and cherish this Remembrance of God I joyn all these together because I would not multiply particulars too much Obj. But you may say Though the Death of Christ and the Gift of the Spirit are Arguments of great strength and may do good service to quicken up a Believer that 's backward to this work yet how can they compel a wicked man or one that forgets God since Christ died for none but the Elect and none can know themselves to be such but such as have true Faith and know they have it and so also for the Spirit and therefore these Arguments are cogent to none but such as these Answer That Christ gave himself intentionally for all men and that God accepted his Sacrifice to that universal end is so plain in Scripture that scarce any truth is plainer 1 Tim. 2.6 Who gave himself a ransom for all 1 John 2.2 And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole World But because some evade those places by distinguishing of All and World that All is sometimes taken for some and World for part of the World As if the Apostle fore-saw such Quirks and meant to stop every Mouth his words are not liable to evasion Heb. 2.9 That he by the Grace of God should taste of Death for every Man And to make mention
of no other Argument though I could produce several if he died for such as deny him and crucifie him to themselves afresh and finally perish then he died no question for the rest but that he tasted Death for such is plain Heb. 10.29 Having in the verse before shewed the miserable end of those that despised Moses's Law he infers by way of interrogation Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy of that hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight to the Spirit of Grace and yet plainer 2 Pet. 2.1 There shall be false Teachers as the Apostle gives them warning that shall bring in damnable Heresie denying the Lord that bought them So that hence it is evident that Christ laid down his Blood as a price to redeem them that ungratefully deny him And if Christ had not died for all it could not be the duty of every man to believe in him But there is nothing more unquestionable than that every one is bound to believe and such as refuse are threatned with a more fearful destruction because they wickedly frustrate as much as in them lies such a wonderful Grace of God and withstand the highest motive to Repentance and a new life 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie him in your Body and in your Spirit which are his The Apostle speaketh to the Corinthians in general among whom there were many unbelievers And what 's the Argument he useth to perswade them to Faith and newness of Life but because Christ hath shewed such love to them as to die for them Since he hath offered up his Body upon the Cross for you do you offer up your Souls and Bodies unto him to be instruments of Righteousness to do him service is the force of the Apostles Argument We see then that the Death of Christ and the Gift of the Spirit are obligations upon all that hear the Gospel at least to a thankful Commemoration of the love of God and a Remembrance of him There are none that live under the sound and influence of the Gospel but have the love of Christ expressed in his Incarnation Life and Death for them to move them externally by way of Argument and the powerful Spirit inwardly to check their Corruptions and prompt them to obedience in some degree and measure and if they will not think upon the one nor submit to the other but slightly regard the one and stubbornly resist the other and stiffle every good motion which they feel and keep off from any serious thoughts of the death of Christ and will not be perswaded to consider the Blood that was shed for them nor suffer his love to be shed abroad into their hearts by the Holy Spirit Let such know that their forgetfulness of God is the more heynous because it hath so fast an obligation as this to the most necessary duty of remembrance the Word also as well as the Spirit What are all the passages of Scripture but such as prepare for or directly stir up to such a Remembrance You may observe some parts of Scripture more remotely conduce to this grand duty of remembring God other parts do more immediately serve to produce it where it is wanting others to reduce and recover it when 't is lost So that one of these three ways either by conducing to it or producing or reducing of it all the parts of Gods Word conspire io this principal duty The main division of the Scripture is into the Old and New Testament But what is the design and drift of both these but to rescue or preserve a Memory of God in the World Our Saviour sums up the Old Testament in these two heads the Law and the Prophets Now what doth the Law serve for if not to mind us of the great Law-giver and to beget an awe of his Soveraignty upon the World And the main end of the Prophets and their Prophesies was to reproduce this Remembrance of God when the ungrateful People had forgot him And what can be the end of that Light that hath shined to us in the Gospel but to teach us to deny all ungodliness 〈◊〉 Forgetfulness of God and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present evil World which we can never do without frequent and effectual Remembrance of God and our Lord Jesus Christ I might more particularly insist here and shew how all the Precepts Promises and Threatnings which are the three essential parts of Gods Word are intended to this end and will leave the Soul inexcusable that forgets him or how the several Books of the Old and New Testament which are the integral parts of God's Word oblige to this Remembrance But I think the case is so plain and clear that none of these ways of demonstration is needful to convince us That the whole Word of God is no little impulsive but presseth earnestly to this Remembrance and is therefore another great Aggravation of the sin of Forgetfulness I shall only chuse to set some of those Texts of Scripture before you that are fullest of Affection and most Pathetical and that shew how unwilling God is to forget poor sinners or that they should perish as they must needs do in their Forgetfulness of him Esay 48.18 19. With what passion doth the Lord mourn over the poor forgetful Israelites that had even now brought utter ruine upon themselves O that thou hadst hearkened to my Commandments then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea Thy Seed also had been as the Sand and the off-spring of thy Bowels as the Gravel thereof and Hos 11.8 When the ten Tribes were got to such a degree of wickedness that God was not remembred by them any longer but they had divorced him from them by their Idolatries and could bear no longer without disparagement to the Truth and Justice of God with what unwillingness doth he throw them off How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim My Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together What heart that is not desperately sick of stupidity can hear this sound and not return and recover the remembrance of him whom before he had forgot O that my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my Hand against their Adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever He should have fed them also with the finest of the Wheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied thee Ps 81.13 14 15. Thus you see how these and such like Scriptures Numbers of which might be gathered together and as the parts of
negatively and affirmatively that is prove us guilty or not guilty of this sin according as we are or are not guilty of them First They that have not a higher and greater love to God than to any other thing else are guilty and forgetters of him The reason is because what we love we remember and what we love best we remember most And on the contrary what we do not love and care for we forget and the less we care for it the more we do forget it Art thou one therefore that lovest God above all than he will have the highest place in thy Remembrance I do not say he will be thought on as often as any thing else because God hath laid such duty upon most of us that requireth more frequent Thoughts of other things than of him but yet our thoughts of him will be frequent and though they be fewer than our thoughts of other things yet whatsoever their number be they will more command the Affections and Actions than all other thoughts whatsoever or else we shall come under the dreadful guilt of forgetfulness of God Secondly Thou art a forgetter of God if any one sin do habitually prevail in thee and do lead thee captive for the most part because this will extinguish the love of God in thee and consequently all worthy Remembrance of him Art thou one therefore that allowest thy self in any one sin then thou art a forgetter of God or if thou dost not trouble thy self with such thoughts nor dost much matter what prevails rather any thing than puzzle thy self with reflections on thy self thou forgettest thy self and therefore must needs forget God For the knowledge of thy own necessities of which sin is the greatest is one necessary requisite to the due Remembrance of God But I intend not to insist on these Lastly As I implied before if thou hast a worthy Remembrance of God thou dost competently understand and consider the ordinary works of God So I say now Thou wilt much more reverence and observe the extraordinary works of his Hand and applaud his Justice when his Judgements are more signal The reason is because these are more apt to provoke consideration which is ready to sleep when things run on in a constant course and order And therefore who is it that makes any matter of a River that runs on a constant stream or course But if it stop without any visible cause all the Town and Countrey comes to behold it Who regards the Sun Moon and Stars that are obvious to our daily Eye Or the orderly site and motion of them They are but few but if there appear two Suns or two Moons or a Star extraordinary never seen before what running and gazing every where and they that will scarce step out of doors to behold an ordinary Star will break their Sleep and lose their Rest and venture their Health to see a dreadful Comet or Blazing star The like may be said for the motion of them who minds the daily rising and setting of the Sun But if it should stand stand still a day or go backward ten degrees as it did in the days of Joshua and Hezekiah Joshua 10.13 2 Kings 20.11 Who would not take notice God will not be slighted in his ordinary daily works but when he doth a Miracle or a strange and unusual Work he calls for a more special attention and reverent observation It 's sinful not to go on and not to lift up an Eye and acknowledge God and observe his VVisdom and Power in his common Providences but it 's wicked stupidity not to stop and consider Providences that rarely come to pass and seldom fall out Doth not every extraordinary act of Justice call out and say Come behold and see what Desolations he hath wrought in the Earth Psal 46.8 VVhen he is shaking a Nation by VVar and overturning the Glory of it or when scourging a Nation with Pestilence or Famine he doth in effect say Be still and know that I am God I will be exalted amongst them I will be glorified in them or on them Psal 46.10 Justice is one of his essential Perfections and when that is cleared and sin made odious by remarkable penalty and the devouring evils that it ushers in then God is acknowledged and glorified And when this is done by the voluntary act of those that feel the hand it 's an act of terrible affrighting Justice in the beginning but glorious wonderful and most endearing mercy in the end The Lord is now throwing us by heaps into the place of forgetfulness because we have so remarkably forgotten him Who hath fed us with the finest of the VVheat and Honey out of the Rock Psal 81.14 I mean with the blessings of Heaven and Earth and doth he not expect that we should be silent and meditate terror Esay 33.18 And applaud his Justice and Holiness and that our Bowels should more yearn over the distressed cause and interest of Holiness which our sin hath injured than the Carcases of our dearest Friends that fall like Dung upon the Earth It is most certainly true that every honest faithful heart that 's sincerely dedicated unto God and which God will own hereafter that he is more heartily troubled in his deliberate thoughts for the wrong sin hath done to God than for the saddest calamity it brings upon men VVhat man that hath the love of God and Holiness predominant in his Heart that can particularly think of the sins of this Nation and the City which is the chief Theatre of this present Judgment the Atheism gross and open Prophaneness perfidious Hipocrisie shameful Ingratitude beastly Filthiness Contempt both of Mercy and Judgment Pride of both sorts Spirit and Flesh Luxury Injustice and Oppression and with what a publick impudent Face they are committed and that after such Obligations so fresh before our Eyes VVhat true Child of God can consider this and not cry out in some true sense of Gods dishonour My Bowels my Bowels I am pained at the very Heart my Heart maketh a noise within me Jer. 4.19 And though he doth compassionate the suffering Nation and those in particular that feel this severity yet consideration forceth him to say from his Soul Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee for thy wickedness is bitter it reacheth to the very Heart Jer. 4.18 VVe have liv'd under excellent light and means in a Nation where our dearest Saviour hath been made known this 1600 years 1. Almost from his very Passion and we have liv'd under a profession of Faith and have acknowledged our high engagement to love and obedience of our Redeemer How frequent have the obliging names of Saviour and Redeemer been in our Mouths and our Lips have droped free Grace and Mercy like the Honey-comb and our words to him have been smoother than Oyl and yet what could we have done more wickedly than we have done if we had no Faith at all If we
contrary How unprepared is the Man that forgets God for his eternal state How loath to leave the Twig and fall into the Ocean With what regret and reluctancy with what an aking trembling Heart doth he look upon Death who can blame such a Man if he hang back and dare not launch forth into Eternity And therefore it 's said in the Proverbs The wicked is driven hence How unwilling doth he bid farewel to his dear injoyments How loath to part with the Wife out of his Bosom the Children out of his Arms He cannot bear such a loss Nothing is more dreadful to such an impudent man than to look down from the mast of this Life into the ocean of Eternity O what cold and clammy Sweats what saâ— and dismal Representations doth the thought of Death creat in him As ever thou wouldst hold up thy Head in Sickness or any other Affliction and die with comfort and keep thy Heart whole come what will then keep alive this Remembrance of God This is the second Motive Thirdly Remember God for nothing else is worthy thy Remembrance 1. Such a one as I am now speaking of there 's nothing here below that 's worth an act of our Understanding or Will that 's worth a Thought or an Embrace but as they lead to a more perfect Knowledge and Union and are a means suited to our necessity that cannot have any Knowledge worthy of God without his Works nor see him without this Glass whereby he hath represented himself to our weak capacity All Knowledge begins first in sense and we should never come to understand the things that are not seen but by those which are seen God therefore hath made the World as a School for us where we must be trained up and made fit for the higher instructions of his Word and the several Creatures are the Alphabet whereby we are to spell out the Nature and Perfections of God What a shame is it then to let sense go before and no Vnderstanding follow after To pore upon the Letters and not to mind the sense and meaning of them To exercise an act upon the visible Creatures without a following Act by way of inference and deduction to the invisible God What folly to dote upon the Letters and not to regard the meaning of them and to lose our understanding in a maze of insignificant things that stand for nothing if they teach not the knowledge of him that animates all things and is the end and signification of them What is there in Man or any other Creature that thou shouldst make an Idol of it and that thou shouldst set it up in thine Heart and prostrate thine Affections to it Is there any thing that deserves the reputation of a being every way full and perfect in which thou mayest acquiesce but God Yet if he have not the Remembrance I am pressing to something else will strike in and supply his absence and usurp thine Affections And be it what it will besides it is but a Reed or an Arm of Flesh that 's got so high in thine esteem and then thus saith the Lord Cursed be the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh Flesh his Arm and whose Heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the Heath in the Desart and shall not see when good cometh Jer. 17.5 6. All-sufficiency Immutability and indefectible Fidelity are proper to God alone It 's no wonder for the Sun to set and be eclipsed as glorious a body as it is It 's no marvel if all Creatures prove Liars Psal 116.11 and shew themselves untrusty and deceitful As it is their nature to deceive so it is our sin and folly to lean hard on them and be deceived by them Thou mayst as wisely expect that the Wind should always blow from the same quarter and sit in the same corner as that any created Being should afford thee constant help and never shame thee But the portion of Jacob is not like these changeable things Our Fathers trusted in thee saith the Prophet David and were delivered They hoped in thee and were not confounded Psal 22.4 5. Let him that is void of understanding run to something else and remember it with greatest pleasure and repose his trust in a lie and adore a silly Man that can but promote him to Riches and Honour Mark what will be the issue may be when thou art just expecting the fruit of sinful trust his Breath goeth forth here turneth to his Earth in that very day his thoughts perish May I not well say therefore Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help that remembreth the Lord his God He that is fond of any thing here below and setteth his Heart upon it and sufâ—ereth his Affections to brood over it is like the Patridge that setteth upon Eggs and hatcheth them not and in the end he shall certainly prove himself a fool Jer. 17.11 His warm thoughts that sit upon vanity all the day long shall never hatch and produce the thing he expected nor any thing that will look like happiness when his Judgment shall come to more maturity Why then is God so seldom in thy thoughts why art thou no more delighted in the Remembrance of him Why doth he dwell no more in thy Meditations Art thou willing to be deceived and labour in vain and to lie down in frustration and disappointments If thou couldst name any thing under Heaven that were not chargeable with a thousand Imperfections and were not liable to the Moth and Rust If thou couldst assure thy self that thy Friend will never prove perfidious that thy Lovers will always bear thee the same Affection which thou imaginest now they do If Youth and Health and Life would last ten times longer than they are like to do yet when the competition lies between God and them it 's folly and madness to prefer anything in thy Remembrance before him I might here single out the things that are most attractive of Mens Affections and have indeed the highest esteem and love in a Carnal Heart and then produce the several disparagements they are liable to when they are compared with an immutable Independant and All-sufficient Being But then I should too much digress And so much by way of Question to shame us and to stir us up to so excellent and necessary Duty But you will say What is the best course to get and cherish such a worthy Remembrance of God and to feed it up to a greater degree of Strength and Perfection To which I answer That there are means 1. Proper To beget this Remembrance where it never was 2. To recover it where it is sensibly lost 3. To quicken it to a greater Energy and Life where it is but weak and faint 2. Common to them all and have an influence upon every one of these I shall rather chuse to insist upon the more general and common Helps and Directions and wave the more distinct handling of
the Question lest I should be too tedious The Common Directions which I shall propose are By way of 1 Consideration 2. Exercise Consider therefore 1. What a fearful and dangerous sin it is to forget God 2 What a shame it is to be unmindful of him 3. What are the benefits of preferinging God in our Remembrance before all other things For the First I have already shewed what a heinous and dangerous sin it is to forget God from whence it may be fetch'd for our Consideration I shall give a brief Recapitulation Consider then what Obligations thou sin'st against if thou shut God out of thy Remembrance 1. On God's part 1. He gave thee thy Faculties to this very end 2. And hath purposely set Heaven and Earth before thee to exercise these Faculties and to put thee in Remembrance of him 3. He hath sent his Son to put thee in mind of him 4. He hath given thee his Spirit Word and all his Ordinances to awake thee to remember him Think then what Gilt the breach of all these Obligations on Gods part will bring upon thee if yet thou shalt forget him Consider what Obligations also thou sinnest against 2. On thy own part Thou sinnest against 1. Thy solomn Vow 2. Covenant 3. Oath 4. Profession If these particulars be taken into thy consideration thou wilt not sure count it a venial sin to forget God and consequently it will be a means to bring thee to the Remembrance I am directing to Consider also the danger as well as the guiltiness of this sin 1. It may betray thee to all other sin and absurdity 2. It will provoke God to forget thee in a way of mercy 3. It will cause him to Remember thee in a way of Judgment If thon art one that dost believe and wilt consider thus much it will prepare thee for the duty we are now upon and be a help to a worthy Remembrance of him For every thing that hath the nature of a motive to a practical Duty hath the nature of a means or help to the performance of the Duty The Reason is because cause it is a necessary means to any Duty to bring the Will to a thorough Resolution Now all motives are the most proper means ro bring the Will to such a Determination So much for the first thing that we are to consider Secondly Consider also what a shame it is to forget God and to be unmindful of him Hast thou no ingenuity 1. Canst thou forget him that remembreth thee every hour 2. Canst thou forget him in prosperity whom thou wilt remember in thy necessity 3. Dost thou not blush to prefer empty unsatisfactory and transitory things in thy Remembrance before God But these things I have already insisted on and therefore do but now name them as matter of our consideration as a second sort of motives and therefore fit means to help on this Remembrance Thirdly If thou wouldst be in the number of those that exalt God above all things in their Remembrance then consider what advantage will accrue to thee by such a Remembrance I know these may be also called motives as all means by way of consideration are But yet they are all distinct and different kinds of motives and have their effect upon three several passions 1. The first sort taken from the consideration of the greatness and danger of the sin of not Remembring God are rather to fright us from the sin of forgetfulness than to draw us to the duty of Remembrance 2. The second sort are intended to work upon Ingenuity where there is any and to excite shame in those that neglect such a becoming duty 3. And the third sort taken from the benefits and advantage of this Remembrance are directly to excite Love and Desire and hereby to attract the Heart to the performance of a work so beneficial I come now therefore to propose the Benefits that will follow such a worthy Remembrance of God as a means to this duty First Consider If thou art one that Remembrest God with the most prizing valuing thoughts thou art translated from Death to Life If St. John make the predominant love of the Brethren to be so sure an evidence of this Translation 1 John 3.14 We know that we are passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren Then much more doth the sincere love of God give us full security that we are thus advanced But the predominant love of God is implied in this Remembrance as the essential part of it according to the known Rule words of Sense and Understanding in Morallity essentially involve Affections and Actions If they go alone all moral Acts are incompleat unless they be both in the understanding and will in the Mind and Heart If therefore thou art one that thus remembrest God thou hast this grand priviledge whose name is Legion and contains such a number under it Death is a name of terror and sounds dreadful to all whose Ears it hath not stop'd and is the sum and abridgment of all that 's either hateful or fearful And therefore all the penalty that God threatneth for the breach of such a perfect Righteous Law as he gave to Man was comprized in the word Death And if it be not enough to vindicate the Law from contempt of such as do but hear it yet it will teach them at least not to despise it that feel it And as Death is a Name pregnant with Dread and Horror so Life is the most comfortable Sound and carries all that 's desirable in the Bowels of it And it is put in Scripture to signifie 1. All Happiness 2. Perpetuity And therefore it was the only Sanction that God added to his Law by way of Remuneration Do this and Live Where Life is opposed to the Death that is threatned to the Transgressors As Death therefore is comprehensive of all Misery so Life is a complication of all Happiness And as it is put for all Felicity so for Perpetuity Psal 56.7 In his favour is Life 1. Perpetuity as appears by the opposeâ—â—â— in the former part of the verse His Anger endures but a moment that is it 's short but in his Favour is Life 1. It 's lasting and perpetual Now Death is of three sorts opposed to a three fold Life 1. Natural 2. Moral 3. Metaphorical Natural Death is the privation of all sense Death Moral is the privation of all Love in the Will to Vertue and propension to Goodness for want of which Love it is dead to all vertuous Life and Action and feels no sweetness in them because the principle of that Life is wanting For Love is the Principium Vitae in morallibus Love is the principle of Life in the Moral Spiritual or gracious Life And as Natural Death doth not only deprive the Body of all Sense and Motion but renders it unfit for the Soul to dwell in and be united to and so dissolves the union between these two So Morally
superstruct this Happiness and build that Joy upon it that shall never end O how great are the Priviledges of one that Remembereth God whom he doth visit and continually comfort and rejoyce with refreshig Consolations To whom he openeth when they come to him with desire and doth embrace when they cast themselves on him whom he is teaching and shewing the pleasure that strangers intermeddle not with But were this all they would be miserable in comparison of what they now are How sweet are his very Delays Frowns and the Chastisements of his Rod His Estrangements Threatnings and the signs of his Displeasure dreadful to the Wicked but sweet to them that have his special Grace to make their advantage of them are in the mean while supported under them I know they are sad to them and cause great thoughts of Heart but having the root of the matter in them Job 19.28 And being forewarned by the Word of God that thus it will sometime be with his dearest Children and directed what to do in such times of Mourning and knowing that they shall not be tempted above their strength These considerations recommend Sufferings and Afflictions to them and make them far more desirable to them than the most splendid Pomp and Prosperity of those that forget God As all the Mirth and Pleasures of wicked men are preparing them for Misery and would be dreadful to their thoughts if they did but see what they all contribute to their eternal shame So all is contrary in an honest and pure hearted Believer not only the smiles but the angry looks of God are sweet to his Apprehensions not as they are signs of his displeasure but as they help him forward in the hatred of sin and mortifie his Affections to the Pleasures here below I know the Anger of God is not directly desirable to any Person but the sanctified fruits of it are desirable And some little of it when sin that would otherwise undo us makes it necessary and it is mingled with a greater proportion of Love and the Soul is disposed by Grace to tremble under it and to be rid of it upon any terms Consider therefore thou that Remembrest God Is it not an unvaluable comfort to fore-know that all thy Trouble and Sorrows shall befriend thee and that the leanest pasture thou canst be put in shall feed thee up to everlasting Joys when on the other side those that forget God though they fare deliciously every day and are gotten into the richest pastures and have the desire of their carnal hearts yet they are but fatting themselves for the slaughter and who would envy a fat Sheep or Hog that fares a little better and is preparing for the Shambles Nay who would envy a Lobworm in a fat Dunghil They seed on wicked men 〈◊〉 makes them so fat and merry it is but Dung and Filth in comparison of that which a Soul mindful of Good feeds upon Methinks that place should sound dreadful to one that prospereth in the World and doth not remember God Psal 92.7 The two verses that go before it ushers it in and that follows after in fearful pomp and state O Lord how great are thy Works and thy Thoughts very deep A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this When the wicked spring as the Grass and all the workers of Iniquity do flonrish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever And we may say as well on the other side that God is as wonderful in his thoughts toward such as are mindful of him though a Fool understand not That when the humble Believer in whose thoughts God in Christ dwelleth uppermost withers as the Grass and fades like the green Herb it is that he may flourish for ever If thou art trod upon thou shalt grow the better Thy necessities shall cause thee to make more haste and get nearer to the Fountain that is opened to the eternal praise of Gods Mercy for such needy ones All thy miseries shall but the more illustrate the Glory of his Compassion toward thee when refuge faileth thee and none careth for thy Soul Many a one had liv'd and died in perpetual obsourlty whose names are a rich persume in the Church of God thorough their Sufferings and Afflictions which have made them the more famous and embalm'd their Memory When the ways of a Man please the Lord he can and will in one sense or other make his very Enemies to be his Friends 1. Their hatred shall be turned into love or if it do continue still God shall turn their very hatred and enmity to the greater advantage of those that are mindful of him This made Paul to boast in his Infirmities Necessities and Tribulation 2 Cor. 11.30 What if thou art poor and necessitous if the Lord remember thee What if thou hast no Friends on Earth if thou hast one in Heaven What if thou art destitute of Health it self the greatest Earthly Blessing if thou art one that remembrest God it shall turn to thine advantage If thou hast God in thy Remembrance thou hast all for he will make every state and condition serve thy turn What if thou art a Servant if God be thy Master If thou hast nothing to recommend thee unto Men if thou hast this Grace I am pressing to to recommend thee unto God thou shalt be more a gainer than if thou hadst had Dominion in the World and all the Paint and Varnish that would set thee off to the Eye of Men. Thy Temptations Reproach Sufferings of every kind and thy very Prosperity and Wordly Happiness which for the most part is such a preparative to Destruction shall be like the Dew and Sun-shine to thee and make thee more fruitful and ripen thy Graces if thou art one that hast God always in thy Remembrance Thirdly If thou art one that remembrest God as I have expressed thou hast the Key to unlock all the Mercies of God and to open the rich and most rarest Treasures of Divine Grace and to get the very desire of thy Heart I mean thou mayst come with Faith and Confidence to the Throne of Mercy and open thy very Heart to him who hath an Ear for all thy Requests The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Psal 25.14 and Psal 37.4 Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart and Jam. 5. later clause 16. v. The effectual fervent Prayer of a Righteous Man availeth much Now to fear the Lord to remember him to delight in him are but several Descriptions of a Righteous Man and Believer Thou canst not have God in thy Mind and Heart but thou wilt fear him love him delight in him in some degree think on him trust in him in the way that he hath directed and then thou art a Believer and a Righteous Person in the Gospel sense though not in the sense of the Law that requires
no rest till it hath enforced consent and resolution to obey These Truths are of two sorts 1. Some are Physick and meerly purgative 2. Others are Cordial and such as are restorative and comforting And although there is reluctancy enough in the distempered Soul of Man to both these yet he nauseats these of the first rank most and hath the greatest enmity to them He doth not relish the second sort but he perfectly hates the first sort the reason is because these Truths which I call Medicinal work directly upon the disturbing Humour and filthy Matter that must be evacuated and east out before we can find any Gust or Savour in those other Truths that are Nutritive and Cordial What aversness is there in the corrupt Nature of Man to admit those Truths into the Heart that cross either 1. The Interest or 2. The Inclination of the Flesh and that strike all the Heart and Root of the Old Man and that teach Self-denial that is the mortification of inward Lusts and the contempt of all outward Objects so far as they feed and nourish them And will a Man ever pull out his right Eye and cut off his right Hand for his Pride and his Passion and his Intemperance and his Petulary and Lasciviousness or any other Lust to which his Nature prompts him are as dear to him as his most beloved Members and will a Man ever digest such truths as these or take them into any place of strength that are such bloody enemies to his raging prevailing Lusts and arm and mortifie them against so dear and near a part of him This can never be done till Consideration make it appear that the Man is undone for ever and had better he had never been born be he never so rich and honourable in the World in whom there is any reigning Lust or Corruption till frequent thoughts convince him thoroughly that he that saveth such a Life as this shall lose it and a better But on the other side he that kills his Corruptions and suffereth no sin to prevail but mortifieth every one of these Members that make up the Body and the Life of the Old Man he that loseth such a Life as this shall find it and prove an unspeakable gainer Mark 8.35 Let me instance more particularly in some truths that must go before a worthy Remembrance of God which can never get into the Heart and work to any purpose till they be fermented by Consideration 1. It 's an easie Truth and very obvious to Man's understanding That God is the chief Good and our true happiness consisteth in his Love and Goodness This is the master Principle and Foundation of all Religion and inspires all practical Truths and the duty depends upon them with Breath and Life and were it well thought upon it would make a mighty change and alteration in the World you may see by what it does upon some that do consider it what it would do upon others if they were not inconsiderate In that proportion that Men consider this Truth and believe it they will study to please God and resemble him in all his imitable Perfections and their Love and Hatred will imitate his They will follow after Peace and Holiness without which daily Consideration assures them they can never see God Heb. 12.14 And they will have no Fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness because God hateth them Eph. 5.11 None in sensu morali though not in sensu physico Where that that falls short of a ruling mastering degree in Morality is said not to be And the Scripture frequently speaks after the same rate But he that lives after the Flesh and minds earthly things and blesseth himself in all worldly happiness cannot consider the fore-mentioned Truth and therefore is guilty of this Folly because he doth not consider It 's another weighty truth That we are fallen from God and Happiness into a state of Sin and Misery and shall never know what true Happiness means till we return We were made after his Likeness at the first and whilst we kept the stamp of his Image on us were happy in his Favour and Love and all Creatures were ready at our beck and service and Sorrow and Misery stood afar off and came not near us but having now provoked God and lost his Image we are now unspeakably miserable and in the path-way to Eternal Misery And what 's the reason that there are so few that are affected at the Heart with their condition that loath themselves that cry out of this bondage and would be set at liberty and restored into favour again but because there are but few that consider it The rest of their minds are taken up with other things and with worldly vanities and such disturbing thoughts as these are at the first are not permitted to enter which if they be not frequent and serious till the Soul hath got a full sight of the evil of Gods displeasure and sin that hath provoked it and the necessity and blessedness of his Favour These Truths though they should be taken in or assented to they will lie crude and raw upon the Stomach and never digest into good nourishment and be distributed into Life and Practice Consideration must awaken the Soul out of its Stupidity and Insensibleness which is Natural to all or else it will sleep into everlasting Death 3. A third plain but necessary and important Truth is That we are undone for ever unless we feel our Sin and Misery so as to confess it with inward shame and be humbled under it into that degree of Brokenness and Contrition that Salvation by Christ is the most welcome news that ever we heard or can hear insomuch that we embrace him with the highest love and respect and do heartily consent to be governed by him till he hath subdued our Corruptions sanctified us by his Spirit and made us meet for love and favour of God again But none can ever feel the worth and necessity of Christ and renewing Grace who have not set this matter by Consideration frequently before your Eyes It 's true of the Intellectual as well as the Corporal Eye out of sight out of mind what we see not by Consideration we shall never mind nor care for You will slight the greatest Truths and lie still in any state in the World though never so uneasie rather than part with sin and come to Christ if you do not consider that your sin will be bitterness in the end and Christ will make amends for all that do or suffer for him There be many other Truths in which I might instance What 's the reason that matters of such a consequence and weight and so certain and out of doubt as Death and the Resurrection and the Glory of Heaven and the Torments of Hell should work no more and make Men solicitous about them Why do Men die before they were aware and in such a careless and unprepared state Why do they
it is day Our quick understanding doth fetch and conclude the one from the other because the Sun and the Day are necessarily connected together 3. We come to the knowledge of some things upon the meer credit and report of others Thus we come to know that there is such a City as Constantinople or Paris though we never saw them or any matters that are related to us and we have no other knowledge of these than what is grounded upon the testimony of others The first Knowledge we call Sense the second Reason the third Faith Now Faith is two-fold for either it is grounded upon the credit of Man or God The first is fallible because there is no Man but may deceive or be deceived and is defective both in Knowledge and Goodness The one makes it possible for him to deceive the other to be deceived And from hence it is that his Credit is crack'd and his Testimony where it is not accompanied with some other evidence insufficient But a Divine Testimony where we are sure of it is infallible for it's Blasphemy to imagine that God is so weak as to be deceived or so bad as to deceive Hence it is that whatsoever we have such a Testimony for we may be as certain of as if we saw it with our Eyes or had the greatest evidence of Reason for it Such a Faith as this and Reason are the two Eyes by which we do discover what it is to be known of God in his Word and Works But Consideration is that which fixeth both these Eyeâ— and helps them to understand more distinctly and be affected with the glorious Perfections of God as they are discovered in the Scripture or may be gathered from the works of Creation and Providence A cast of either of these Eyes of Faith or Reason but especially the first may discover God to the Soul in some degree enough to leave it without excusâ— if it seek no further but it 's Consideration only that can give us such a sight of the Object as shall command the highest esteem and love of him which must go before and make way for a worthy Remembrance of him Though we should suppose a Person that 's guilty of Inconsideration and doth not meditate on God his Word and Works in any degree suited to the Object to have so much Faith and Reason as to profess Godliness and to become a formal Christian yet he will never be a Saint and Christian at the Heart and Root till his Reason and Faith be radicated and confirmed by Consideration Neither is it any Consideration the want whereof doth make a Man so miserable Wicked Men spend thoughts enough upon their Corn and Wine and Oyl upon their Profits and Pleasures and tickle themselves with such Meditations and fix their Eye too much upon worldly Glory and pre-injoy their happiness before it comes and comfort themselves by an after Remembrance of it I would they were in these things more inconsiderate or at least consider them after another manner what reference they have to the Life to come to the pleasing of God and saving of their Souls or consider inwhat a bitterness their sweetest pleasures will conclude or think on them according to the description that God hath given of them in his Word I know Consideration if it be rational serious and impartial will digrace and shame the best of their sensual brutish Pleasures and the most sober Comforts here on Earth that are joyned with the neglect of God and Mens Souls And therefore such Thoughts as tie Mens Affections faster to these things are not worthy the name of Consideration besides such thoughts as these stand in the greatest enmity to that Consideration which the Text calls to and the neglect whereof is so pernicious and destructive It 's impossible for those that employ their thoughts with eagerness and delight upon earthly things to command them to any exercise that deserves to be called Consideration And if they be forced at any time to think on these matters that are out of sight and to meditate on God and the Life to come and the slipperiness of present things it will be with so much weariness confusion and partiality that will quite intercept the fruit and comfort thereof I know the thoughts of the best move heavily and disorderly to this work partly thorough want of matter and skill to use it to their further edification and partly thorough want of use and more frequent exercise in this kind as also because they are still earthly in part as well as others but yet they do frequently consider these things and are affected with them and provoked hereby to labour after them more than any thing that the World can propose but woe be to those that consider not these things till they are thus affected and resolved 'T is not some cursory thoughts that will affect a Man with the excellency of God and his Ways and the love of Christ so as to turn the course and bent of his Life towards them and to fix his Resolution to cleave fast to them whatsoever difficulty or discouragement he meet with and yet if this be not done profess what thou wilt thou art not a true Christian yea if thou art inconsiderate in any notorious degree thou art undoubtedly a perfect enemy to the Cross of Christ and a persecutor of his Servants David gives no better description of such Men Psal 10.4 The wicked through the Pride of his Countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts And then mark what followeth 1. He is an enemy to the Cross of Christ His ways are always grievous thy Judgments are far above out of his sight His Mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud under his tongue is mischief and vanity And 2. He is also a Persecutor of his Servants He sitteth in the lurking places of the Villages in the secret places doth he murther the innocent ver 8. I dare confidently say that an Inconsiderate Man cannot remember God nor believe in Christ to say the best that can be said of him But he may do worse than be a base unbeliever and run into all Excess Riot and Ungodliness when a fair opportunity is offered if Consideration do not hold the Bridle and and keep him in There are these two or three comprehensive Mischiefs that do always follow upon the neglect of this duty First Inconsideracy leads Men to Hypocrisie and meer Formality in the service of God There 's none so over slight and superficious in the Service of God as those that considers not with whom they have to do Custom and Education and the common Example of others with whom we live and the Reputation that Christianity hath got among us may draw us to the external Worship of God and compose the Body to do some seeming homage to our Redeemer both in Publick and Private but it 's the Consideration of the Excellency of that
of him may be our sweetest daily Exercise and Imployment But without Consideration you cannot approach him nor get any transforming reviving sight of him His Ways are in the Seas and his Paths are in the deep Waters and Foot-steps cannot be known nor track'd without frequent Exercise of your Considering Faculty Psal 77.19 Secondly As we have the matters of greatest importance and necessity to Consider so we have many special advantages to excite and awaken Consideration One would think the worth and weightiness of the Object should be spur enough to quicken us to this Work and command our thoughts if there were no other motive to prick us forward but we have many current helps many a loud call from the Word of God set on by his appointed Servants that are sent forth on purpose upon this Errand Many providential help both sweet and terrible and something besides the common course strange and unusual and therefore more fit to set the Mind a thinking from what cause they come and what they drive at The veryest Atheist is sometime blank'd at some strange and unheard of events and knows not what interpretation to make of them nor whether to refer them for having denied the true Author of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They become vain in their imanations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And their foolish Heart is darkned Rom. 1.21 Yea that arch Opposer of Providence Epicurus himself had not made such a progress in Forgetfulness of God and the denial of a Deity governing and over-ruling the Affairs of the Earth but that he was so startled by some effects that he observed that he could not utterly wipe the notion of a Providence out of his Mind When a Blasphemer is struck dead in the very Act of his Blasphemy and Vengeance lights upon another with a fearful imprecation in his Mouth and some effects are so anomalous and besides the course of Nature that it is no thanks to the most Atheistical to bring in their Witness and to confess the Wisdom and Power and Justice of God Let a Man that truly worshippeth and feareth God in such a time of dreadful and publick Calamity as this is applaud the Justice of God and freely confess his handy work and assign the notorious publick allowed and encouraged sins of the City and Nation for the meritorious and provoking Cause It may be a purblind thick sighted Beast whose God is his Belly and whose Glory is his Shame that is drunk with Sensual Pleasure Phil. 9.13 will tell you that such a mortality comes about in the revolution and circle of so many years and will rake the Kennel for the Cause and ascribe the effects to the naughtiness of the Streets rather than to the naughtiness of their Hearts or look up to the true efficient to whom these causes they usually fasten upon are but subservient and all that they might hide their shame and that they might perswade themselves and others that their sin hath no hand in bringing such a scourge upon us but yet for all that when the Judgment comes a little nearer to them and begins to find them out and awaken them to Consideration which they had no time for when they were running from one brutish pleasure to another then they begin to see and to be confounded with shame They cannot now laugh out of their Hearts all serious thoughts of a Life to come nor make a jest of a Holy Life as they did in the day of their delusion but would give a World if they had it to die the death of the Righteous No wonder that strange and extraordinary Providences whether they be of Mercy or Judgment jostle the most sottish and inconsiderate Mind and awaken it to think other thoughts of all things than they did before and enforce an Heathenish Earthly Mind that spent all its thoughts upon vanity before to say that all is but vanity and God's Favour is the only ground for true Contentment if this good fit would last which Consideration hath brought him to But alas â—o sooner is the Providence over that brought him to Consider but he grows careless again and sleeps into Atheism and whilst things run in a constant Channel and keep a constant course God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 Now they think that Repentance and Faith and Self-denial are the work of Cowards yes and such as believe that God hath as great hand in the orderly course and motion of things as when they go out of order and Water that is a fluid body and should run stands still and Fire that should burn doth not Let but a Man consider and it 's as easie to believe that it s as great a power must enable the Sun to run it's race as to stand still or go backward to preserve the Societies of Men as destroy and waste them with a devouring Plague All the difference is Men now consider that would not before and conclude at least that it 's the safest course to live the Life of the Righteous though there were no God and oh that all would so conclude and hold fast such a conclusion and live accordingly then they would quickly see more and more evidence of God in the Word and the necessity of his Service and the excellency of his ways and rise up to a higher conclusion That when as before they could say it was the safest way to renounce worldly Pleasure and to mortifie their Lusts and to addict themselves to the Love and Service oâ— God now they would be able to say that it 's perfect madness not to take this course It 's a Wisdom to be laughed at to be wise for this Life and neglect the Life to come A little Consideration would shew the nakedness of such pretended Wisdom and among other helps this of Publick Calamity where Plague or Famine or any extraordinary Judgment sweeps away thousands calls the rest to come and behold the works of the Lord what Desolations he hath wrought among us Psal 46.10 Be still and know that I am God I will be exalted among the People I will be acknowledged by these careless and Atheistical Sinners ver 11. And if the Lethargy of Mens Minds be not great they will consider those that were even lost before for want of attention to the Word and Works of God will awaken now or it 's too much to be feared never shall I call it therefore a Judgment or a Mercy which the compassionate God hath sent upon this Nation that gives us so much advantage to come to sober thoughts Doth it not give some check whether we will or not to the external acts of Pride Luxury and Uncleanness whereby the inward Acts are weakened and we have time to reason with our selves and are better disposed to consider when freed from the clog of worldly cares and from the fumes of a surfeited Body overcharged with Meat and Drink and from the flattering Friend that make us
force nor power with him to restrain his Corruption because he feels it not though he might as certainly foresee it as that which he now feels And he will do more to be rid of the Tooth-ach or some present Affliction than to prevent one that 's a thousand times greater Is he guided by Reason or Sense and doth he live like a Man that hath Understanding or like a Bruit that hath none that will take more care and pains and be at more cost to be freed from present Pain and Sickness and to get out of Poverty or Hardship when it pincheth him and to throw off any present Burthen that he feels himself oppressed with than to escape the Damnation of Hell though he must otherwise most certainly feel it ere long Judge impartially whether this be not to be like the Horse and Mule and other meer sensitive Creatures that have no Understanding Let them have what they have at present and feel no present Pain and you please them well enough though you feed them for the Slaughter You cannot Shoe an Ox unless you bind and cast him down and force him though it be to keep his Feet from hurt Your Horse is not pleased when you let him Blood though it save his Life because you hurt them for the present The Man that considers not will be too like these Brutish Creatures and run into Eternal Misery to avoid a little present Affliction Moreover 3. It 's an Argument of Pride not to Consider Psal 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his Countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts thy Judgments are far above out of his sight God hath set Heaven and Earth before him and set such variety of things on purpose to be Considered And the Inconsiderate Man shuts his Eyes and will not behold the Glory of the Lord nor give him the Honour due to his Name If it be foolish Pride to undervalue any Creature what Arrogancy is it to despise and overlook the most absolute and perfect Being things of the highest value and most worthy our Observation Fifthly It 's easie to Consider your Thoughts will run some way whether you will or not The Soul of Man is a busie active thing and will not be idle it will rather be impertinently employed than not at all and the bare work of thinking is no hard matter It 's rather a work of difficulty to restrain them especially from the things that we have the highest Love and Respect for If God and thy Soul were valued and loved by thee above all other things as they must be if thou art a Christian at the Heart thou couldst not but think and think again how to please the one and save the other If things that are more worth than the whole Frame of Heaven and Earth and all that 's visible to the Eyes are not worthy thy most prizing pleasing Thoughts they are worth nothing and if thou thinkest so thou art either an ignorant Sot or an Atheist It 's a cheap purchase to gain the highest Wisdom and the Love of God and to save thy Soul for ever at the expence of a few sober serious thoughts If you stick at Consideration which it must cost you if ever you be saved you judge your selves unworthy of Eternal Life It 's easie enough to you to turn your Thoughts to an Object of Gain or Pleasure and is there any greater Gain than to save your Souls What will it profit you to win the whole World and lose your Souls Mat. 16.26 It 's a rational question that the greedy Heart of Man shall never be able to answer without Self-condemnation if he run his Soul upon destruction though he should get to be the happiest man upon Earth O unhappy Soul that couldst consider and Judge no better Wast thou master of no more Brains and Wit than what could inform thee how to Feed and Trick up thy Carkass and commend it to the Eyes of a few dying men And to live in a little Credit whilst thou art above ground though thy Name stink for ever afterwards Was this the upshot of all thy Thoughts Couldst thou think to better for thy poor Soul that might be Eternally Happy if you would not fly consideration but turn your Thoughts to those things for which God gave to you your faculty to Think O remember that it 's easie and very natural to consider how you may save your Soul if you were not become unnatural and cruel to your selves And it will shame you unto the deepest silence when God shall ask you Why you did not Consider of those things when the matters were so great and the work so easie Sixthly You will consider when it is too late and wish that you had made more hast when it would have done you good It would not be such a perfect degree of madness in us not to consider how wonderfully God hath made us how deeply we stand Indebted to him for no less than all that we have or hope for and how wickedly we have departed from him and what our sin hath deserved and what our Saviour hath done save us from the woful consequents thereof it would not be so absurd to put these Thoughts out of our Minds now if we could always keep them out But in the latter end we shall consider Jer. 23.20 It would not be so great a sin to be inconsiderate now if we could be ever so But alas stupidity and insensibleness of such things as these is the disease only of this present Life and will last no longer than the day of Grace And woe to us a thousand times if it last so long But when the day of Mercy is past be stupid if thou canst and harden thy heart against such Thoughts if thou art able Consideration is now our duty and the fittest instrument to show us the evil of Sin and the worth of Grace but if it be here neglected it shall be our punishment hereafter and the most cruel instrument to torment us Believe it then we shall passionately wish that we had considered a little sooner and had let these things sink into our hearts O that we had pondered them whilst we had the day But now the fearful night is come upon us and we are Sentenced everlastingly to such dismal Thoughts If we had spent a few serious Thoughts what this misery is to which we are now condemned we had escaped these Torments If we had considered what it is to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power 2 Thes 1.9 and to be forsaken of all comfort for ever we had not been now pouring forth these bitter cryes and complaints But alas what are they now worth who regardeth them or is moved to any the least compassion towards Yea the righteous God will laugh at your calamity Prov. 1.26 and the Saints will praise him and say
make him feel the spur and whip till he mends his pace so must you do also by a sleepy stupid mind wake it out of its security and use your Soveraignty over it till you have made it yield and it begins to feel the sweetness of those thoughts that before it would not endure nor give any way to He that can prevail thus with his own heart shall prevail with God So much for the First Direction to the duty of Consideration viz. Shun all impediments Secondly As you must avoid all that will either hinder or discourage the work of consideration so you must do all that will promote and further it As First It will much conduce to the successful performance of this duty to be skilful in it Now this skilfulness lies in these two things 1 That your mind be truly convinc'd that God is the summum bonum 1. The chiefest good and that your happiness consists in likeness to and communion with him and that you have arguments at hand to encrease this conviction and to advance it to a higher degree by a quiet daily consideration of them 2. That you know how to move upon your own affections that they may be answerable to this conviction I mean that you be skill'd to excite love to God desire after him joy and delight in him hope towards him and the rest of the mixt and more compounded affections of thankfulnefs to him repentance for sins committed against him and that by such Rhetorick and Perswasions that most prevail with him and to this end it is necessary that your memory if not your heart be stored with matter fit to work upon mind and heart collected out of the Word and Providence of God and from the daily observation of your own temper and inclinations and that you can cloth it with expressions that work best upon your own Genius and Disposition That matter and way of pressing it upon your mind and affections is best to you which prevaileth most with them and which will vary according to mens different complexions education society studies and other circumstances which make a man lie open to this or that way of arguing more than any other and more easie it may be to be wrought upon by a more probable argument than others by a plain demonstration Such a Scheme of Rhetorick will stir this mans affection that will not move anothers and the phrase and manner of expression will set one man on fire that will not warm another so that it is no small step to the success of your meditations to be well versed in your own temper and constitution and to handle your self accordingly when you come to treat by way of Soliloquy with your own Soul Moreover the main stick to some mens proficiency lies more in their understandings than in their affections In others the obstruction is most in their affections for some are more easily conquered by rational arguments that convince and satisfie the understanding others by such as work more upon the affections The more you have of this skill to discern the most suitable method to deal with your self and what are the fittest applications the more you are like to profit in and by consideration Your reproofs admonitions and encouragements are the more likely to do their work when they are suitably applied and hit you in the right Vein Thirdly Another help to consideration will be to charge it upon your self as a duty of flat necessity why is it that men that make conscience of prayer yet make none at all of this duty of consideration though this be of as absolute necessity as the other And prayer is like to turn into a meer form and prove ineffectual without Meditation For what can you imagine can be the reason but that they take the one to be their duty and not the other when as God hath enjoyned the one as peremptorily as the other And some set time should be set apart daily for the one as well as for the other It 's Meditation that inspires life into Prayer hearing the Word and all other duties And consideration as well as prayer must help you to profit by the providences of God towards you For God will have man to have a subordinate hand in his own proficiency and salvation and consideration is the leading Act whereby man is instrumental to his own happiness It could not be that this duty should be so generally neglected and performed by so few excepting by the By unless it were generally thought to be no duty men that have any Conscience dare not live in the constant neglect of a known duty but they will be worried by their Conscience which will frequently twit them with their neglect And they will perform it in a dead and customary manner rather than not at all and so be feared to undergo the lashes of their own guilty minds that will frequently scourge them well whether you will charge it upon your selves as a duty of absolute indispensible necessity or no so it is duty will be duty think how you will and your slight and careless thoughts will not make the Law of God of none effect You have no small obligation upon you to this duty whether you will take notice of it yea or not If you neglect this duty and have any Spark of true grace in your souls any sincere love to God and faith in his Son you will quickly perceive the want of this duty in the languishing condition of your soul your grace will quickly wither and look with a famished pined complexion and prayer and all other duty will starve into a meer form want those holy affections which are the very life and soul of them and if you have no grace in sincerity none you are like to have till you are brought to impartial serious consideration Is it not better therefore to know your duty and the great necessity of it and bless God that you are not kept in the dark as many others are that know of what moment it is and perish for want of it If it were not a duty so necessary to salvation then perhaps the ignorance and neglect of it were not to be so much lamented but when the want of it will so apparently destroy your souls it 's time to look about you and to lay a further obligation on your selves by your own vow and promise to be frequent in the practice of it The duty is bound upon you already by a double necessity 1. By the necessity of a precept 2. By the necessity of a means God hath commanded it and therefore if there were no other obligation this were sufficient to engage us to the performance But if there were no command of God to enforce the duty yet since it is a means without which salvation is so impossible and hath such a mighty influence upon faith and all other grace now it becomes doubly necessary to us Let us then add a
that have not given up your Names to Christ Your foolish Friends may flatter you and your own fraudulent Heart may cheat you but the Word of God tells you plainly what will be your doom if by Faith in Christ you do not escape it How can you do to read such a Text as that in Luke 12.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Night shall they require thy Soul of thee 1 by a usual Hebraism shall thy Soul be required of thee for when there is no Nominative Case go before the Verb it 's taken impersonally 5. Lastly God is thine Enemy and that contains all the Misery that can be thought or spoken Who can do a worse turn to himself than to make God his Enemy Who can befriend that Man that hath God for his Adversary or plead his Cause for him When Saul in distress comes to Samuel as he thought for counsel what a sad Answer doth he return him Wherefore dost thou ask of me seeing the Lord is departed from thee and is become thine Enemy 1 Sam. 28.16 And it was the bitterest part of Job's suffering that he thought God was his Enemy Wherefore hidest thou thy Face and countest me for thine Enemy Job 13.24 Thou even thou art greatly to be feared and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry faith the Psalmist Psalm 76.7 We may bear the Frowns of a Mortal Man though he were never so great yea though all the World should frown there 's some Refuge against that If all Men and Devils should storm and rage against us it 's possible for a Soul to comfort it self against this and find out a shelter But whither wilt thou fly when God pursues What will you do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from far To whom will you fly for help saith the Prophet to the wicked Israelites that had provoked God to be their Enemy Isaiah 10.3 There 's no flying from him Whither shall I go from thy Spirit Or whither shall I flee from thy Presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me c. Psal 130.7 8 9 10. There 's no escaping his hand If he come to tare in pieces there can be none to deliver Psalm 50.22 Stay a little thou that art an impenitent unbeliever and consider a while what this importeth viz. To have God for thine Adversary I 'll tell thee in brief It implys these three Things 1. First All the Attributes of God are against thee and feel it thou shalt either sooner or later 2. Secondly All the Creatures will set against thee first or last 3. Thirdly Thine own Conscience shall side with God against thee and to make thee perfectly miserable shall fall upon thee with the greatest Fury and Madness 1. If thou reject the gracious Offers of Mercy by the Gospel and refuse to have Christ reign over thee all the Attributes of God are engaged against thee The inflexible Justice and Wisdom and Holiness his infinite Power and never failing Truth and Veracity will all combine to make thee everlastingly miserable Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do righteously Gen. 18.25 Will Infinite Power let such Contempt of his Grace which hath stooped so low go unrevenged Will he suffer the proud Sinner to Spit in the Face of his Son for unbelief and rejecting him is no better and not wipe off that aspersion by the eternal ruin and perdition of the sinner Will it consist with the perfect Wisdom of God to look down upon the unbeliever and see him trample such amazing Love and Mercy under his feet not once nor twice but so many Years together as make up the Number of his Life and not recompence such base Ingratitude and wicked Presumption according to its desert If there be Truth and Faithfulness in God thou canst not scape He cannot deny himself 2 Tim. 2.13 Dost thou believe it If thou believest not yet he abideth faithful and let me tell thee again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he cannot deny himself He hath spoken and will not alter the thing that is gone out of his Mouth He that believeth not the Son shall not see Life John 3.36 Nay he that believeth not 〈…〉 already because he hath not 〈…〉 the Name of the only begotten Son of God John 3.18 I know he delighteth not in the misery or ruin of any of his Creatures and therefore is slow to Anger and proceeds leasurely to Judgment and strikes not till there is no Remedy after he hath used all the Methods of Mercy and Pity to reclaim the sinner and hath invited him time after time year after year to have compassion upon his own Soul and accept of Christ and pardon with him yet when no Means will succeed and the case of the sinner is quite desperate neither will he be drawn to believe however he speed Judge now what a disparagement this would be to the Wisdom Justice Holiness and Veracity of God not to pass Sentence upon such a sinner and then what a one it must be you may easily understand If they that despised Moses Law died without Mercy of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God c. Heb. 10.28 29. c. If God strike he hath a hand like himself 2. Secondly All Creatures will set against thee for they are his Armies and he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord of Hosts All thy Friends and Acquaintance will come in and bring their Witness and Accusations against thee even thy bosom Confederates shall cry shame on thee and add Affliction to thy Misery O what a killing Consideration will it be then and I would it were so now if possibly it might prevent that woful day to be overwhelmed with Misery and Desperation and when thou shalt cry out with Job Job 19.21 Have pity upon me have pity upon me O my Friends for the hand of God hath touched me and he shall find none near him to speak one word of ease to him but all his bitter Enemies This will cut him to the quick and bring down his stomack when it is too late Then if it were possible to believe in hope how earnestly would he wish to see one of the days of the Son of Man Luke 17.22 3. Thirdly To compleat his Misery his own Conscience shall fall upon him with the greatest violence It will upbraid him with wilful stupid unbelief and the most monstrous ingratitude It will bring to his remembrance the kindness of his Saviour such a one as was never heard of It will tell him of his Blood and Sufferings and how fain he would have washed him and embraced him with Mercy and he flew away and scorn'd Deliverance and slighted all
the Proffers of his Love Oh with what an a king Heart will the Infidel then say Why did he dye for me since I was resolved to dye for my self If he had not died for me this Death had never been so terrible as now I feel it O that any one would bring an Argument and convince me now that Christ died not for me then should I escape the greatest part of my Torment I would not torment thee with such thoughts as these now if it were not in hope to prevent such tormenting thoughts when time is past Let me earnestly entreat thee whoever thou art that art in this doleful condition either speedily to believe in Christ or believe it thine own Conscience will one day prove thy most terrible Executioner So much for the First Motive that should Teach us to prize and exercise Faith viz. Consider the Miseries of an Unbeliever But it is not my design to fright the Sinner unto Christ neither is it possible that Fear only should work true Belief and produce a justifying Faith All that I have said hitherto is to deter the Sinner from such a damning Sin as Unbelief but these be Arguments of another Nature to attract the Sinner unto Christ Consider therefore 2. Secondly What Christ hath done to draw the Heart of Sinners to him and to engage them to believe He hath given his Soul an Offering to the death and stood in the very flames of his Father's wrath that he might keep away the burning intolerable heat thereof from us and bore the grievous burden of our sins He stript himself even to the greatest Poverty and Nakedness that he might Cloth us and emptied himself that we might be filled 2 Cor. 8.9 Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that tho he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich When we were fallen into the deepest reproach and shame he made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the Form of a Servant that he might advance us to the highest dignity and honour 2 Phill. 6.7 He humbled himself to the death that he might procure our life he made a low stoop that he might lift us up when sin had cast us down He took upon him the humane Nature that he might make us partakers of the Divine Nature Heb. 2.14 compared with 2 Pet. 1.4 Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself likewise took part with them that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and purchase for us exceeding rich and precious Promises that by them we might be made partakers of the Divine Nature It was no small Endearment of himself to us to pass by the Angels and put forth his hand to help us For verily he took not upon him the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham 2 Heb. 16. He rejoyced in the habitable parts of the Earth and his delight was among the Children of Men Prov. 8.3 It 's his earnest desire that thou shouldst have the benefits of his Death and enjoy what he hath so dearly purchased and therefore he invites thee to believe in him because otherwise thou canst have no advantage by his Death If thou hast any understanding or ingenuity lay the Love of Christ to Heart and consider how unspeakably great it is it 's past words to express it it is so much beyond example let thy thoughts dwell upon it and never give over the serious consideration of his Sufferings and Death for such as thou art till thy Heart melt and yield and till thou canst with Love and Thankfulness resign thy self to him as one that doth deliberately resolve to be his Loyal Subject and Disciple Methinks after thou hast heard what he hath done for thee thou shouldst be ready to do any thing and stick at nothing that he bids thee do that thou mightst shew the most grateful resentment of his love But when he commands thee nothing but for thy greatest advantage that is to leave thy deadly Enemies and forsake thy self-destroying Courses and come unto him thy greatest Friend and live under his Government to refuse such a gracious Offer shews that thou art void of all true understanding ingenuity and sense of thy own Benefit and Advantage Hadst thou rather live under the cruel Laws of a deadly malitious Enemy and one that neither can nor will protect thee when the most dreadful storms are coming on thee Than under the Government of one that beareth the greatest love and compassion to thee and hath the greatest Wisdom to direct thee the greatest Power to protect thee and whose Laws are the most perfect Rule of Life and the greatest Tendency to the Peace Welfare and Perfection of Christ's loyal faithful Subjects Hadst thou rather serve a Tyrant and professed Enemy in Chains and Slavery than a rightful just and gracious Soveraign that hath given such Demonstrations of the most wonderful and â—â—â—pendious love to such as thou art whose Service is perfect Freedom who hath contrived all his Laws for the benefit of his true Subjects and sincere Disciples If the Love of Christ testified by such exquisite Sufferings and Death and thy own Welfare and Felicity will not prevail with thee to throw off the Yoke of Satan and the World and Flesh and to become a Believer and cause thee to say from thy Heart with those in the Prophet Isaiah 26.13 O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have had Dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy Name 3. Thirdly Remember that Faith is the first Grace that brings thee into a justified state Condition All that thou hast or canst do before thou dost believe in Christ is of no avail to thy Justification and Salvation It 's Faith that unites the Soul to Christ and till it be united to him it can receive no saving benefit from him when first the sinner doth heartily consent that Christ shall be his King and Teacher and he will be his Subject and Disciple he is morally joyned and united unto Christ as the Soveraign and Subject make one Body Politick of which every Subject is a Member and the King is the Head and as the Master and the Scholars are morally united then begins our union with Christ and our participation of the benefits which he hath purchased when we first enter our selves into his School and list our selves under his Government and Protection God hath peremptorily resolved that none shall have the special Benefits of his Death but those that submit themselves to him Amongst which Justification is the first and then th◠〈◊〉 follow in their due place and order 〈…〉 by Faith we have Peace 〈…〉 〈…〉 â—â—pt 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 of Eternal Salvation 〈…〉 â—se that actually obey him so neither 〈…〉 the Means of their Justification to any 〈…〉 as by Faith and Cordial Subjection resolve to obey
him when their obedience is required so that the subjection of the Heart to Christ and a deliberate purpose to serve him sincerely and constantly all our days is the first Foundation of our Union with Christ and specâ—â— Relation to him from whence Justification doth immediately flow And what a Mercy and Priviledge that is none but such as reap the Fruit of Justification perfectly in the other life can throughly tell Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven and whose 〈◊〉 is covered yea again Blessed is the Man 〈◊〉 David unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no Guile Psal 32.1 2. But as the Man is miserable and wretched for the present that is not justified so wo to him if he die in an unjustified state And this if he want true Faith he will certainly do Justification is the Act of the Supreme Rector none hath Authority to do it but he only and none can effectually remit or renounce the Penalty but he only who alone is both the Kingdom and the Power And this we have the Testimony of his certain and infallible Word that he will not do but upon the Condition of Faith and an unfeigned subjection to his Son which alone is the effectual Means to bring them off from their Sins and to reduce them to their Obedience to God Never hope to be justified till from the sense of your vile Nature and corrupt Inclinations and proneness to rebel against God and obnoxiousness to his just displeasure you do thankfully fly to Christ as your only Remedy and take his Person for your Ruler and his Laws and Example for your Rule and his Spirit for your Sanctifier For these are the only Terms on which a Sinner is made a true Member of Christ's Church and consequently justified and pardoned 4. Fourthly There 's no way whereby we can bring more honour to our Redeemer than by Believing For hereby we give him the Glory 1. Of his Love and Mercy and all the ways whereby he hath demonstrated his Bowels and Compassions towards us in his wonderful Condescention to be made like to us in the Assumption of our Nature in subjecting himself to the Law yea and to the Miseries of his Life Poverty Reproach and Shame and that in such a degree as never any one of us endured or could endure in suffering the most pitiful Usage the most sarcastical Taunts the most bitter Agonies and the most ignominious cursed Death and all to bring us into a salveable condition if we will believe Now as there can be no greater Affront nor Provocation given to him than to slight and make void his Grace and Mercy so unspeakably great so we can do him no greater honour than to close with it and accept it and be saved by it and so stand as the Eternal Monument of his Love 2. We hereby give him also the Glory of his Sovereignty that by his own Merit and Conquests as well as the Free Donation of God is advanced to the right hand of God and hath the Supreme Sovereignty and Lordship over all things both in Heaven and Earth And therefore he tells us Matth. 28.18 All Power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth And Paul tells us that to this End Christ both died and rose again and revived that he might be Lord both of Dead and Living Rom. 14.9 And Phil. 2.8 9 10. Because Christ was obedient even to the Death of the Cross Therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name That at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth Matth. 11.27 All things are delivered to me of my Father and so Luke 10.22 Now to believe on him is practically to acknowledge his Sovereignty that he is Lord of all Acts 10.36 That he is gone into Heaven and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him 1 Pet. 3.22 When we subject our selves to him by Faith we own him whom God hath made a little lower than the Angels and crowned him with Glory and Honour and did set him over the Works of his hands and hath put all things in subjection under his feet 2 Heb. 7.8 9. Did we know what a Blessing and Priviledge it is to come under his Protection and live in subjection to him we should need no other Argument to perswade us to believe As we honour him so we ease our selves and rid our selves of those Fears that we are otherwise exposed to and therefore our Saviour that he might comfort his Disciples exhorts them John 14.1 Let not your Hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me When we believe we do in effect say He hath satisfied the Justice of God and he hath given Sinners into his hands and laid the Government upon his shoulders and that he can save to the utmost all that come unto God by and through him since he ever liveth as an immutable and everlasting Priest to make intercession for them Heb. 7.25 3. Hereby we give him also the Glory of his Skill when by Faith we bring our diseased Souls to him with confidence of a Cure For that is one of the Chief Ends of Faith that we may be purified from all our Corruptions and perfect Holiness in the Fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 As it was one of Christs great Ends in dying so it should be ours in believing that we might be saved from our sins Matth. 1.21 It must be a skilful Physitian indeed that knows how to free the Soul of Man from such a Mass of Corruption from such a Chronical and Inveterate Disease that 's made up of such a complication of Distempers It must be no less than a Divine Skill indeed that must raise such an Earthly Mind that must Cure a Heart so full of Contradiction to the Will of God and that must tame the Affections to God that are grown so carnal It must be one that knows all the windings and turnings of the Heart and is throughly acquainted with its Pulse and all its secret Motions that can Cure its Selsishness and take it off from its inordinate pursuit of Earthly Things and make it submissive to the Will of God that can dispel the darkness of Mans Mind and heal the Confusion of his Thoughts and awaken him to an impartial Consideration of Things and fortifie Reason against the Flesh and rectifie his Judgment both as to present and future things and recover him out of Delirancy and Madness O how much do holy Souls admire his skill whom he hath perfectly recovered and how much will they that are now languishing in Selfishness and Pride and the doting Love of this World and under all that Litter of Corruptions wherewith their Souls are daily disquieted when he shall have restored them to Integrity again and to their right Mind Come unto him
by Faith and you need not doubt be your sickness never so mortal you honour him exceedingly when you see your manifold and deadly Distempers and cast your selves upon his Skill 5. Fifthly By Faith thou art made Partaker of all the Benefits of Christ's Incarnation Life and Death Those that were thine but conditionally before are now made absolutely thine If thou art heartily Christ's Subject thou shalt have thy share in all the Priviledges and Immunities of his most wise powerful and happy Government and find that his Yoke is most desirable Matth. 11.28.29 If thou doest consent deliberately and sincerely to be his Disciple thou shalt have the unspeakable Advantages of such a skilful and effectual Teacher And what Tongue is able to express how many and great they are If thou art heartily willing to be his Patient he can and will cure all thy Maladies and Distempers in his due time and restore thy Soul to its Primitive health and soundness again he will enlighten thy Mind and purifie thy Heart and bend thy Will to a chearful Compliance with the Will of God and put such a Rellish into thy Soul of Divine and Heavenly Things that shall make thee long after God and the Wisdom Grace and Holiness that make thee like to him And then it will be no hard matter to have thy Heart in Heaven thy Discourse of Heavenly Things and thy Delight in Heavenly Company Then the Biass of thy Soul will constantly encline thee to rejoyce in the Lord and live continually in his love and praise and in the love of all Men specially the Servants of God and the Heirs of Glory When thou hast once sworn Fealty to Christ with thy Heart For every baptized Christian doth it with his Mouth or by the Mouth of his Parents and art gotten under his Shelter and Protection The Lord shall be thy Keeper the Lord shall be thy Shade upon thy Right Hand The Sun shall not smite thee by Day nor the Moon by Night The Lord shall preserve thee from all Evil he shall preserve thy soul Psal 121.6 7 8. Thou shalt not be affraid for the terrour by Night nor for the Arrow that flyeth by Day Psal 91.6 Then shall he fill thy Mouth with laughter and thy Lips with rejoycing Job 8.21 Mistake me not as if I intimated that every true Believer hath actually this Joy and Peace but he hath the Foundation of it and he would rejoyce if he saw this Grace in himself But it is the Malice of Satan to keep some sincere Christians in the dark and to keep them from discerning their interest in Christ and the grace of God in them that he might defraud them of their Comfort and keep them continually under Trouble But though he take away their Comfort from them yet he shall not take away God's Favour from them They shall still be kept by his mighty Power through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 All the Benefits that are necessary to Salvation they shall actually have and the rest as they are fit for them 6. And lastly Be their Portion here what it will they shall have the Blessing of God with it Which will make all things to work together for Good to them Rom. 8.28 He shall be like the Tree planted by the Rivers of Water which bringeth forth his Fruit in due season his Leaf also shall not wither and look whatsoever he doth it shall prosper Psalm 1.3 Blessed shall be thy Basket and thy Store Deut. 28.5 God shall bless thy Poverty and thy Riches Thy more plentiful or more mean Estate Whether thou have Health or Sickness it shall turn to thy Advantage in the End Thy Friends shall be a Blessing to thee yea and so shall thine Enemies be also As there is a secret blast of God's displeasure upon the wicked and all that he hath so the breath and inspiration of the Almighty teacheth Believers wisdom how to order all their steps The steps of a good Man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way Though he fall yet shall he not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand Ps 37.23 When the Curse of the Lord is in the House of the â—â—icked he will be sure to bless the Habitation of â—â—â—evers Prov. 3. Considerations to provoke and stir up the Superlative Love of God in the Heart John 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandments Psal 91.41 Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high because he hath known my Name Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me Matth. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind This is the first and greatest Commandment And Deut. 6.5 and Luke 10.27 to the same purpose Matth. 10.37 He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me And Luke 14.26 1 John 4.8 He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love And Verse 16. God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Psal 31.23 O love the Lord all ye his Saints Psal 145.20 The Lord preserveth them that love him Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God Rom. 10.13 Love is the fulfilling of the Law 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Gal. 5.22 The Fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy and Peace AS there is no surer proof of a Child of God than the predominant Love of him because Love is the principal and commanding Affection which includes and governs all the rest and the whole life with a subserviency to the Object to which it is mainly devoted so there is no better Exercise than for a rational Creature to study seriously and to give diligence to thrive in this Grace To which blosâ—ed end it is wisdom to treasure up Matter which either Reason or Faith can suggest out of the Word or Providences of God in the Heart and to digest and draw it forth by daily Meditation whereby this sovereign Affection may be fed and excited Some help hereto the few following Considerations will administer if they be impartially weighed by a Heart fully at leasure and not immersed in worldly Affairs nor entangled with any other impertinent Matters The which every soul may amplifie as it is able and to which many more may be superadded First There is nothing more highly congruous nor doth better become a Creature that hath reason and understanding than to love God above all and daily to grow in this Grace Secondly And it is the highest Dignity and Honour that an intelligent discursive Nature is capable of Thirdly And it brings in the greatest Profit and Advantage To these three general Heads I
shall confine all that I have to say to kindle and stir up this Affection First It is most highly congruous and doth very much beseem a reasonable Creature And that for these following Reasons Reason 1. First Because God is the most excellent and lovely Object And as in reason the greatest Beauty caeteris paribus should attract the strongest Love so the contrary implies absurdity and contradiction which Reason doth abhor For what can it be less than a Contradiction for one that hath understanding to prefer a less good before a greater there being equality and likeness in all other Circumstances The same rational Appetite that prompts us to love Goodness doth also encline us to love the greatest Good with the greatest heat and fervour of Affection But especially when the difference is so vast as it is between God and all competitory Good whatsoever They are but like a Drop to the whole Ocean or a small Dust compared to the whole Globe of Earth A single Beam of Light may as well stand up and vye Glory as with the Sun And a little Sword of Grass may better compare with the Spirit of Life and Vegetation and all the Flowers of the Field as any Created Good may hold up its head against God Shall I say As far as the East is from the West or as far as the Heaven is above the Earth so great is the distance between God and all Creatures put together Or rather the distance is a thousand times greater even infinite and incomprehensible and far beyond any created Capacity to conceive His Excellency is most apparent above all other Things 1. In that all the kinds and degrees of Excellency and Perfection are united in him which are but scattered and divided amongst the Creatures and that which they have but some faint degree of dwelleth in him in the highest measure of fulness and exuperancy So that if there be any Beauty or Glory in the Frame of Heaven and Earth or any Creatures in them contained that can stir up desire and attract our Love the same Motive with infinite Advantage may be fetch'd from the most lovely Nature of God And though the things with which Mortal Men are commonly moved are not formally in God because they imply imperfection such as are Worldly Riches Corporeal Beauty Sensual Pleasures and all those Accommodations which suit that part of us which is Flesh and Blood yet they are in him these several ways 1. Per viam Eminentiae by way of Excellency as the rational Soul doth eminently contain the sensitive though not formally And as the understanding of Man that invents Watches and Clocks and other Utensils is far better than they and doth eminently contain them 2. Per viam Causalitatis by way of Efficiency in that he is able to produce and create any of these things with the least Word of his Mouth He is therefore eminently able to furnish out all good to the Soul that loveth him And so he hath promised To give them the desires of their Heart that delight in him Psal 37.4 And therefore the Apostle had ground enough to tell us That Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man in this life to understand the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 And David had cause enough for such a passionate Invitation O tast and see that the Lord is good blessed is the Man that trusteth in him Which Trust supposeth and implieth Love 2. He is the productive Cause of all that is desirable and truly Good as I just intimated before He is the Womb from whence all other Good hath its birth and original For he hath made Heaven and Earth and all that in them is Psalm 95.5 The Sea is his and he made it and his hands prepared the dry Land And Psal 104. per totum There 's no Virtue Comeliness or Perfection in any Creature but he is the Author of it The Influences of the Heaven and the Fertility of the Earth and all the Verdure and Glory of the Grass and Flowers of the Field do but declare and set forth his infinite Perfection Who watereth the Hills from his Chambers and the Earth is satisfied with the Fruit of his Works And causeth the Grass to grow for the Cattel and Herb for the Service of Man that he may bring forth Food out of the Earth And Wine that maketh glad the Heart of Man and Oyl to make his Face to shine and Bread which strengthneth 〈…〉 15. And hath 〈…〉 beauty and 〈…〉 all his 〈…〉 Matth. 6.29 It 's true he is no way the 〈…〉 though he be the Cauâ—â— of all that is desirable any other ways 〈◊〉 as he made Man to whom that Monster and Abortion is wholly to be ascribed though it be so greedily desired and committed But yet though it be actually so much desired by Man through his Ignorance and Mistake and the Corruption of his blinded and distempered Faculties yet is not desirable indeed nor truly good any otherwise than Chalk and Coals and Ashes are to one that hath the Pica and is distempered in the Stomach I am forced to confess though with grief of Heart and to the shame and reproach of Mankind that Man is come to that pass that he may drink Iniquity like Water Job 15.16 And call Evil Good and Good Evil and put Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness Bitter for Sweet and Sweet for Bitter Isaiah 5.20 But then it is because the Foundations of his Soul are all out of course and Sense hath got the upper hand and Reason is under Feet and his Head stands where his Feet should do Alas It is a sad Consideration that the best of God's Creatures here on Earth is become the worst of Monsters But this is no derogation from God's infinite Fulness and Perfection that he is not the Productive Cause of such a Poyson as this and the Father of such a deformed loathsome Birth Reason 2d Secondly It doth most highly beseem a Reasonable Creature to love God above all because God hath most obliged us His Love to us bids highest for the highest Return of Love again If there were any thing in Heaven or Earth that had more obliged us than God it had not been than a Fault neither could Reason have risen up and accused us if we had loved that thing more than God But now that all Creatures both in Heaven and Earth are silent and have nothing to say and the love of God hath so loud a Tongue and his infinite transcendent Favours do bespeak our Hearts so strongly what an unpardonable sin is it to love any thing more than him The Good we receive from others is by his Special Command and Appointment what we receive therefore from them we are indebted unto God for He is the first Mover they are but his Instruments to bring his Favours to us Now though his Personal
go no further than the Bible Look not on the Vine saith Solomon when it is red when it giveth its colour in the Cup when it moveth it self aright At the last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adder Prov. 23.31 32. When the World smiles most and looks the most pleasingly it usually gives the most mortal stab Let the Experience of all Ages speak out and tell us plainly how the World hath used its greatest Followers and Admirers some it hath taken from the Top of all their worldly Dignity and Glory and made the very Scorn and Contempt of all Thus it served the famous Bellisarius that great and worthy Commander under the Emperour Justinian Thus also it served Seianus the great Favorite of Tiberius and Pillippa the Catanian that was so famous in the Court of Naples Thus it used the great Darius Cyrus Craesus and the proud Bajazet with infinite others that were gotten to the height of worldly Prosperity But those that it hath used best it hath left them at last to grapple with Death and Judgment It saves none from the devouring stroke of Death It accompanies none beyond the Grave Thither if it chance to bring any of its Paramours there to be sure it leaves them Their Glory shall not depart after them Psalm 49.17 The Happiness and Felicity of the World will be sure to leave us in our greatest need These Goards will be sure to wither before the Morning of the Resurrection when we shall need most Protection from the scorching heat of God's wrath But if we go to the Sanctuary there we may more certainly learn how it hath and will befriend those that have doted most upon it and have ventured the Favour of God and their Everlasting Hopes for the World Psalm 92.7 When the wicked spring as the grass and all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever And how doth the World then stand up in their behalf when they are betrayed thereby to such a fearful Destruction It leaves them to the stroke of Justice to shift for themselves Job 20.5 6 7. The triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment Though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever as his own dung All they which have seen him shall say Where is he This is the Portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed unto him by God Job 20.29 Thus the World gives up its Lovers to the Wrath of God and shall come in as a Witness also to their Everlasting Confusion Ninthly The prevailing Love of any thing here on Earth is a Sin not fit to be pardoned if a Man dye in it And it is an infallible Mark of one that shall perish without Mercy yea and of one whom God hateth 1 John 2.15 Love not the world nor the things of the world If any man love the world in this predominant measure the love of the Father is not in him And James 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is emnity with God He therefore that will be a friend of the world is an enemy unto God Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not that is love them not less his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters and his own Life much more all other things he cannot be my Disciple These are the plain Passages of God's Word that shew manifestly how every one shall be sure to speed that loveth any thing here below more than Christ No Apology can be made for such a one neither is such a one a Subject capable of Mercy if he live and dye in that state that sets so light by it and God the Author of it as to prefer such a short liv'd Trifle before him That say unto God Directly or by Consequence by Word or Practice stand thou here at my Foot-stool when the World is exalted and set up in Honour and Esteem In a word to love any Thing more than God is a Sin that the Gospel hath no pardon for if it be final because it argues an ungodly Heart and he that 's ungodly cannot be a Believer or a Christian Because the Means presuppose the End and Christianity which is the way to God presupposeth Godliness or some Love to God who is the End intended or desired And without Faith the Gospel Grant giveth no Remission of Sin Tenthly Till a Man can contemn the World in the sense before stated he is no better than a Brute so far is he from the Life and Spirit of a Christian Christianity doth not depose but always suppose Reason It doth refine and not subvert and undermine it And where a Man is not got so high as the sober use of his Reason he is not fit to be a Disciple of Christ He that follows not the Light and Guidance of his Natural Reason for the main when Sense and Passion do oppose and make head against it though he hath the distinctive Faculty of a Man yet is not a Man in Use and Exercise but a Brute And he that 's no Man be sure is no Christian But he that prefers his Body before his Soul in the main Course of his Conversation lives not so as the Light of Nature can direct him The clearest Reason doth suggest that the better part is to be principally looked after And that a Man hath a Soul as well as a Body we need not go to Scripture for an Argument as if there were no Light elsewhere to inform us There be other Topicks common to us with Infidels and Heathen Now the World is but the Accommodation of the Sensual Part And he that cannot slight and contemn this when it thwarts the Interest of his Better Part He is so far from learning that which is supernatural in the Doctrin of Christ and Salvation that he hath not learned that which is but Natural and the Object of a lower Faculty He is so far from the higher Acts of Faith that he wants the lower Acts of Reason and hath not the presupposed Matter that 's required to the Christian Faith Eleventhly The Contempt of Earth and Earthly Things lays an excellent Foundation for a cleer and piercing Understanding For nothing doth so much dull and sot the Intellect as Earthly Pleasure and Sensual Delight which makes the Flesh insolent the Passions masterless and untractable the Mind listless and unfit to search after wisdom And whilst the Soul is daily offended with the streams of a Body drunk with Earthly Pleasures the vigor and sprightfulness of it is quite extinguished And the understanding is quite perverted and knows not how to discern and judge aright when it is upon any search For nothing will enter such a perverted Mind or seem Credible that doth any ways thwart this Carnal
put us beyond all hope And shall this trouble us no more Well might our Saviour bid the Daughters of Jerusalem not to weep for him but for themselves and for their sins Luke 23.28 They had some womanish Tears to command when they saw him led away to Execution but might have shed them far more acceptably for their sins whereby they had brought such a horrid thing to pass It 's a lamentable sight to see Men endued with reason to ring their hands and weep for almost nothing and to be cruelly hard-hearted when they have the greatest cause to weep What a vast difference is there between a little bodily suffering and the intolerable pains of thy Soul between a little Scratch in thy Flesh and the Wounds of thy Spirit A wounded Spirit who can bear saith Solomon Prov. 18.14 Shewing by this Question the incomparable difference between all external griefs and those which are internal and seated in the Spirit What a wide difference is there between the loss of some temporal finite good and the loss of that which is infinite and eternal Thou mayest repair the one but thou canst never repair the other It 's far more tolerable to be scorned by Men than to be contemned by God To be fâ—ighted by thy Friends and Acquaintance when thou art in misery and distress and doest expect some pity and relief from them than that God should laugh at thy Calamity and mock when thy Fear cometh And yet in such like cases as these we want no sorrow but have Tears and Sighs and bitter Expostulations at command O Sirs stop your Tears cease your Complaints forbear your Sighs when it is but the Flesh or outward Man that is concerned Keep these in store for your outward sins which far better deserve them and do you a thousand times more wrong Noli tristari nisi quam male feceris Keep them in store for a time of greater Necessity The Sorrow of the World worketh Death 2 Cor. 7.10 These Tears give your Heart no ease but rather make way for greater sorrow The time is coming when you will wish you could have â—â—â—ghted all other Evils but that of sin Fifthly Consider This is one great End for which Christ shed his Blood and suffered the shameful Death upon the Cross that he might bring Sinners to Repentance He knew they could never be happy till they should get a true sight of the Sin and Misery and till their Hearts were throughly broken for their Transgressions And that they must part with their Corruptions or part with God Being therefore moved with wonderful pity and compassion towards them and loth that they should go on and perish in their Rebellion against God hath undertook to bring them to Repentance If the work could have been done by him alone it would have been a matter of far less difficulty to effect and bring to pass But he well knew before he began to make the least attempt that it was a far easier task to shed his blood and satisfie for his sins pass'd than to bring us to future obedience If it had been only to lay down his Life for us so great was his compassion to us that he could easily have parted with it But this was not all no nor the one half He had a worse work to do the stubborn rebellious Heart of Man to change and to renew He must be brought to see and confess and renounce his sins and come again and submit himself to his Maker whom he had provoked or else his Blood would be spilt in vain O my Brethren this was a work indeed and sets forth the wonderful amazing Love of our Redeemer that he would undertake such a Task as this If he had had no more to do but to fulfil the Law of God in his own Person and our Nature and to have fought with the Devil and Death and to have laid down his Life for us he could have conquered these with a far less power than he could have conquered the rebellious untructable Hearts of sinners It was much easier for him to have confounded all the Powers of Hâ—ll and Darkness than to break in pieces a stoâ—â— sensless Heart and to bring a sinner to Repentance and Reformation But yet he hath undertook the work notwithstanding And what course doth he tâ—ke to mollifie a flinty Heart and to make a sensless sinner feel the odiousness of his sin and to bend such a perverse and obstinate will as ours is Why he undergoes the most horrible Sufferings that the Ear of Man ever heard of And then he causeth the History of them to be written and set before us And withal doth most affectionately beseech us by all these sufferings to consider the Folly of our former Ways â—â—d to lay them to heart till we begin to yield and acknowledge our sins and are stedfastly resolued to follow his Directions and depend upon 〈◊〉 Assistance till we can perfectly overcome our Corruptions and serve the Lord that made us with singleness and sincerity of heart for the suâ—â—â—â— To this 〈◊〉 he sets up an Office on purpose to 〈◊〉 us in remembrance of the bitter Pangs and Sorrows that he hath undergone for us And he both commanded this to be Preached publickly 〈◊〉 the World He hath moreover instituted the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to represent 〈◊〉 â—â—e his Sufferings to us To tell us what Poverty land Shame he hath endured what malicious Usage from the Jews how he was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities and how the chastisement of our peace was upon him that through his stripes we might be healed Isa 53.5 How the Lord laid on him the Iniquities of us all vers 6. How he was made sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God through him 2 Cor. 5.21 How he trod the Wine-press of his Father's wrath Isa 63.3 and drunk off the dregs of the bitter cup of his displeasure and swet drops of Blood while he was conflicting with the Terrours of God's wrath And is not that Man a block indeed that cannot be moved with such Rhetorick as this is Is that Man fit to be pardoned or to find any Mercy at God's hands that stoppeth his Ears to one that hath thus befriended him when he is pleading with him to make his Heart give and relent for all his former sins It 's certain that Mans case is desperate that will not yield to such an Argument as this is But alas sad and woful experience tells us how many Thousand slight it and are no more moved with the real story of Christ's Passion than with a Romance or Fable no nor many I fear half so much O how must this needs Crucifie our Lord afresh to see his love and tender compassion so much slighted and his Blood trampled under feet O wretched unworthy sinner Canst thou find in thy heart to run the bloody Spear and to strike
Hour and his Right in us and over us we shall be either tempted to deny them or at least to deny that Homage which they call for If we can overlook him that is all in all and the Spring that moves all second Causes and sets them on work to do us that good which they do for us at any time No wonder if we commit Sacriledge and rob God of his deserved Praises yea or if we undervalue them and mistake the Mercies that are more worth than Heaven and Earth to be but petty and inconsiderable we shall be as slight in our grateful Acknowledgment These two or three Things therefore are comprized in the due Reverence and Estimation of God and his Favours 1st A clear and solid Apprehension of our own great Unworthiness of any the least of his Favours and our infinite distance from his Person not only by Nature but much more through Guilt and Sin we must be pretty well acquainted with our own Poverty and Baseness and that we have nothing but from him That All is forfeited again and again That the Miseries of this Life and that which is to come are our Desert That God can expect no Advantage from us when he bestows his Mercies but the pleasure of doing good Nor when we are most cordial and diligent in his Service but the pleasure of our receiving Good and seeing his Grace prosper in us And that in all his Threats and Punishments he is still designing our Good and mortifying our Corruption which will otherwise be sure to ruine and undo us if it be not forsaken And this would teach us to prize and thank God and our Redeemer for every piece of Bread that we eat and the House that covers us and the Cloaths that warm us the Sun that shineth on us the Rod that corrects us when we come to know and consider how much we need them and how little we deserve them 2ly It would help us to prize all the Mercies of God if we did but consider and understand the Misery of those that want them We could not want the Bread we eat nor the Air we breath nor the Limbs we use nor the Senses that we have without Misery enough But what Man could want the Grace of the Gospel the Merits and Intercession of Christ that knows that he is everlastingly undone without them 3ly It will help us to estimate them rightly if we consider what they cost and the price that paid for them Our sins and the sins of our Parents whose Flesh and Blood we are did cry out aloud for vengeance in the utter destruction of our Persons And God who is the just and righteous Governour of the World could not without disparagement to his Wisdom and Justice stop his Ears to the Cry of our Sins unless his Son had suffered for our Sins and satisfied the Demands of his Justice and purchased all our forfeited Mercies back again by his Blood So that all the Temporal and Spiritual Mercies that now we have were Redeemed not with Silver and Gold but by the precious Blood of our most endeared Saviour And this Consideration if it be not customary but serious will make every Mercy full weight and enforce better Apprehensions of them and Thankfulness for them 4ly and lastly It will conduce very much to the worthy Estimation of all God's Mercies if we consider the End God hath in All to which he doth design every Mercy that he doth bestow in this present Life And that is our highest Perfection and everlasting Felicity in a blessed Communion with God for ever Every Hour he giveth us Every Favour whether Common or Special is valued infinitely below its worth if this Reference and Subordination be overlooked He can never thank God as he ought for his Health or Food or Friends or any Temporal Mercy or Affliction but will rather be tempted to murmur and repine sometimes that considers not well what it is intended for and what it may and should contribute to his endless Content and Rest These Particulars must concur to make up a due Estimation of all God's Mercies Secondly Gratitude and Praise with the concomitant Affections of Joy and Delight in God do essentially imply 1st A Love that 's suited to and bears some proportion with the Mercies we receive and God doth bestow on us Temporal and Transitory Mercies must be loved with a lower and subordinate degree of our Love Spiritual and Eternal Mercies must be loved with a higher and more absolute degree of our Love And the highest Mercy of all which is himself with the most superlative and transcendent Love 2ly And they do imply a greater Love to his Person 1. That hath purchased them 2. That doth confer them He that hath no Complacency in the Things which he doth receive and that according to the greater or lesser Tendency they have to lead him to the highest Mercy even the Fruition of God the Giver will have none worth the naming in the person that doth bestow them And he that wants that can never praise God as he ought nor do any such Act with acceptance Thirdly There must be some sensible Expressions of this Estimation of the Mind and Complacency of the Will in God and his Mercies In the Affections and Sensible Passions of Love Joy Admiration Reverence Humility which help and assist the Will and cannot lye still when the Soul is well elevated in Praises and Thanksgiving when the Soul is exercised with any seriousness and vigour in these noble Operations of Praise and Thanks and Complacency in God how can it chuse but work upon the Blood and Spirits and cause those forementioned Passions in some sensible degree Fourthly And as Thankfulness and Holy Praise if they be right will become sensible by the Affections to the very Body to which the Soul is linked more or less according as the Grace that causeth them is more or less vigorous so they will become visible to others by our more ready observance of his Will and Pleasure a greater Zeal for his Interest and Glory in the World and a more chearful obedience to him whom we thus praise and admire And as in the Law of Moses there were three kinds of Sacrifice Immolations Libations and Victimes Immolations were made of the Fruits of the Earth Libations of Liquors as Oyls and Wines Victimes of living Creatures So the Soul that is truly Grateful will not only offer up himself to God for a Victime and his Affections as it were for Liquors but his Actions also for Fruits Thanks among Men signifie nothing that evaporate and melt away into meer Words and Air and do not proceed to substantial Acts and Deeds These are the Complements and Perfection of every true Moral Act And if they come not up to Life and Practice where there is opportunity they are but meer Mockery and Deceit Having somewhat explicated the Nature of These Affections which are to be exercised I proceed