innumerable and transcendent Blessings we receive from God will work in us such an ingenuous gratitude as will excite us to give up our hearts and our all to him The excellencies of his Nature and the exceeding riches of his Bounty will represent him as most worthy to be known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the flower of our mind as Zoroaster expresseth it and our highest apprehensions And to be loved with the flower of our hearts so that our sweetest and dearest affections will not be thought too precious for him Let us briefly reflect upon the power of worldly and sensual Love and see what this will do First The Love of Money How doth this oblige and inforce the men of this world to hard labours dangerous adventures anxious cares To rise early sit up late eat the bread of sorrows to deny themselves many of the comforts aud contents of this life to fare hardly and to live a toylsom and painful life and in a word to use the Apostles phrase to pierce themselves through with many sorrows Secondly The Love of Honour Dignities and Preferments How doth it put ambitious men upon restless labours tedious attendances servile offices base flatteries and compliances Such stick at nothing for the obtaining their ends devote and surrender themselves to the will and humour of their Patron as if he were their God and they his Creatures more than God's They deport and address themselves to him by whose favour they hope to be raised in such a form of respect and devotion as approacheth near to that regard and reverence which is onely due to the most high God So full of zeal and observance is this civil kind of Superstition Thirdly The Love of Beauty What a strange power and force hath it upon the fond man To him no services no sufferings seem grievous that his Mistress wills him to undertake With all submission and devotion he admires and adores this his Souls Idol this Deity of Clay and that in such strains as blasphemously resemble that most affectionate and humble devotion which none but his Creator may challenge from him He gives her his whole heart and resigns his whole will to her will complies with all her humours yields an entire obedience to all her commands be they never so unreasonable He patiently suffers tedious delays and waitings meekly bears her frowns affronts and disdains her harsh language and hard usage and all the other arts she hath of afflicting him besides the troubles and hazards he sometimes meets with from his Rivals This Love Bigot such is his devotion neglects himself his rest his food his health renounceth all his own contentments and denies himself in whatsoever is for either his delight or advantage if he understands it to be the pleasure of his Mistress He mortifies himself pines and consumes and is lean from day to day for her as lustful Amnon was for Tamar These and such like are the severe Penances Mortifications and Austorities that this man is wont to undergo in this idolatrous Love-service yea and sometimes he sacrificeth his very life which the poor wretch calleth Love's Martyrdom Here is Self-denial Self-Resignation with a witness With what a deal of pains and trouble doth this poor creature purchase to himself misery With much more ease and less vexation had his love been placed upon the best of objects he might have been happy to eternity He might have lived with God who is Love it self holy and unspotted Love and reigned with Christ the faithful lover of his Soul in a Kingdom of peace and joy for ever By these instances we may discern the strange force of a degenerate and impure Love and what a degree of Self-renunciation it forceth those to in whom it reigns And is the Love of uncertain Riches a little white and yellow Clay so powerful with men and shall not the Love of the true durable Riches the glorious Inheritance in Heaven which is incorruptible and fadeth not away be more forceable Hath the Love of airy Honour such power and shall not the Love of that Honour which is from God that honour and glory that he hath promised to every soul that worketh good that honour of shining forth as the sun in the Kingdom of the Father shall not the love I say of such inexpressible honour as this have as powerful effects upon us and much more powerful Shall the Love of a fading Skin-beauty the love of a little red and white the love of withering Roses and Lillies and Violets with which fond Lovers bestick the Cheeks and Hands and Veins of their Mistresses besides I know not how many more such gay embellishments of their foolish fancies shall this impotent kind of love so potently command poor mortals and shall not the Love of God do much more who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first-fair and original Beauty as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first good whom Angels the flower and top of the Creation admire and adore with the greatest complacency and ardor of affection Shall not Love fixed upon such an object as this inflame us with an holy resolution to undertake or undergo any thing for the fulfilling and satisfaction of his Will Considering withall that his Commands are as hath been shewn in themselves most reasonable most fit to be approved and observed by us agreeable to the dignity of our Souls in their own nature most lovely excellent and worthy and have moreover a mighty recompence of reward which cannot be said of the Commands of Lust and sensual impure Love but the perfectly contrary they being most vain and foolish unreasonable and cruel and obedience to them of most pernicious and sad consequence Nor is there any thing that God would have us part withall but what it is better for us to be without better for our ease peace and pleasure and more for our liberty to be freed and disintangled from As hath been already proved And so I pass to that other branch of this Direction viz. that we should labour to be affected with a strong and ardent Love as of God so of Divine things of Vertue and Holiness the impressions of the Divine Image upon the Soul Had we a worthy resentment of Spiritual Excellencies and a due sense of the beauty of Holiness they would even ravish our hearts and mirabiles amores excitare excite in us strange and wonderful affections to them as Tully speaks of Vertue and consequently secure us from the allurements and attractions of any earthly vanity whatsoever But till a man comes to admire and be enamoured with the Divine Graces and Vertues every thing will be ready to get his heart which gratifieth sensuality and to carry him away captive By one unacquainted with the loveliness of Holiness will the least twinkling of this worlds glory be admired but there can be no better way to put by and frustrate the attempts and temptations of the things below than to be
This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith I John 5. 4. Above all take the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Eph. vi 16. Glorious things are spoken of thee O Faith who can recount the mighty acts and great atchievements of those holy Souls who have strongly confided in the gracious power of God and Christ Jesus for the subduing of sin as well as in God's mercy and Christ's merits for the pardon of it These through this Faith that I may borrow those expressions in the Eleventh to the Hebrews have subdued Kingdoms even the Kingdoms of divers lusts and pleasures and the Kingdoms of the Prince of this world to which they were once subject Through Faith they have wrought righteousness even the righteousness of God far excelling that outward slight and partial righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisee Through Faith they have stopped the mouths of Lions the impetuous and ravening solicitations and greedy desires of their selfish will Through Faith they have quenched the violence of fire or the Lusts of Passion Malice and Uncleanness which burned like fire within them out of weakness were made strong and turned to flight the armies of the Aliens Now there are many exceeding great and precious promises scattered through the Scriptures which are of soveraign force and virtue for the encouragement of our Faith and Hope in God for the strengthening of us against his and our enemies But there is abundantly enough in that one passage Luke xi 13. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him What could our Saviour have spoken more plainly and fully for our encouragement to a dependance on God for Grace and Spiritual strength and to a quiet unsolicitous expectation of assistance from him This promise concerned not onely those Disciples that heard Christ preach then from the Mount but all his Disciples and Followers all that shall believe on his Name to the end of the world It is said to them that ask him without any limitation either to a certain age or people language or nation and therefore we may be as much comforted from these words as if we had been in the number of those in whose hearing our Saviour preached that best of Sermons wherein they were uttered For as there is the same need of the Holy Spirit for us as there was for them who were then present with our Saviour so there is now and ever will be the same benignity and philanthropy in God the same good will compassion and love to men that there was then and in former ages He is without variableness or shadow of turning the same yesterday and to day and for ever But this word of promise is so rich and precious that it deserves a more particular Consideration If ye that are evil Earthly Parents are too commonly envious and niggardly close hard and cruel to others being all for themselves and not caring for the good of others Know how to give good gifts unto your Children As backward as they are to give to others they cannot find in their hearts when their Children ask to withhold from them they will be free open-handed and bountiful to them And such is the tenderness of their affection to their Children that they will not give them any thing that they know to be evil and hurtful to them they will not give them Stones for Bread a Serpent for a Fish or a Scorpion for an Egg. How much more shall your heavenly Father He who being good cannot but do good He who is the Father of Mercies the God of Love and Goodness and Love it self He who best knows what is good and is best able to bestow whatsoever is so He who is as willing to do us good as he is able and as able as willing as no earthly Parent is He in whom is nothing of envy towards others and hath in himself all fullness is Infinite Almighty and All-sufficient Give the holy Spirit to them that ask him so saith one Evangelist and give good things saith another The greatest good that Omnipotence it self and infinite Goodness can do for us is the giving the holy Spirit and with him spiritual light to know and spiritual strength to do his Will and to subdue our own Wills and whatsoever is contrary to him in us To be indued with the holy Spirit doth import an accession both of light and strength knowledge and power So that our Saviour argues from the less to the greater from the drop of goodness and benignity in Creatures and those sinful Creatures too to that Fountain-fulness which is in God What good soever children may expect from their Parents that and infinitely more may God's Children expect from him And it is impossible to conceive that the infinitely good God will be more wanting to his Childrens Souls than are evil men to their Childrens Bodies All that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those affections and tendernesses which God hath implanted in all Parents for the good of their Offspring are but a little drop to that ocean of Love and Mercy that is in himself are but a dark and short representation of those unconceivable riches of Goodness and bowels of Compassion which are in him Nullus Pater tam Pater No Father is so fatherly so much a Father as God is said Tertullian He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus stiles him out of Orpheus the tendernesses of both a Father and Mother are in God Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget it is possible but very prodigious yet will not I forget saith God Isaiah xlix 15. God doth not take empty titles to himself but fills up the utmost of whatsoever relation he is set forth by in the Holy Scriptures Whatsoever the wisest most careful and loving Parents are to theirs God is such and incomparably more to his Children If the affections of ten thousand Parents were in one Father or Mother how secure would the Child be of their tender care who indeed is secure without such a supposal but all these in one person are far short of God's affection who is the Spring and Original of all the Fatherly tenderness which is dissused in the hearts of so many millions of Fathers as are in the world Let me adde this That the promise of the Spirit is the great promise of the Gospel the great priviledge of the Evangelical Dispensation or New Covenant Greater aids and supplies of Grace for the subduing our corruptions we are encouraged to hope for under the Gospel The Apostle saith Titus iii. 6. that the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a rich and plentiful manner through Iesus Christ our Saviour If
that is not merely that we may have a sense of our being forgiven but it hath a farther aim viz. that we being delivered from anxious and tormenting fears about the pardon of our sins may love God and Christ more may obey more and our obedience may be more free ingenuous natural and constant as that is which flows from Love In a word Faith looks at the Divine Promises that thereby we may be partakers of the Divine Nature for to this end were the Promises given 2 Pet. i. 3. And to this end they are to be applied And when we partake of the Divine Nature our Wills become one with the Divine Will CHAP. VIII That Self-Resignation is that wherein consisteth the power of Godliness and that as it distinguisheth both from the insincere and the weak Christian. VIII THis Self-Resignation as is manifest by the last Chapter is that wherein consisteth the Power of Godliness 't is the great instance proof and expression of it By the Power of Godliness I do not mean that onely which is opposed to an empty form and slight appearnce of Godliness but also Godliness in its strength and vigour that which is powerful as well as sincere and real To suffer no Will to rule in us but what is agreeable to God's Will to regulate all our inordinate desires and unruly passions to cross their cravings and to have the love of the world and all Self-love overcome in us these are the worthy Atchievements of those Souls who are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might These are the mighty Acts of those Christians that quit themselves like men these are the Magnalia the Great things of Religion 1. This Self-Resignation is the onely expression of that power of Godliness that differeth from the false and insincere Christians These are as the Publicans and Sinners so the Pharisees and formal To die to their own will and through the Spirit to mortifie all the deeds of the body is death indeed to these and the King of Terrors The separation of their hearts from the lusts they have cleaved to is like the separation of Soul and body to them and their spirits and lives declare that as much as they may excell in some commendable things here they are sadly short And it is worth our observation that these people being inwardly conscious of their deficiency herein love to represent some outward Observances in Religion as high and hard matters some things that any carnal man may do if he please as well as they as the great instances of the power of Godliness The phrase is very common both in their Lips and Books but it is not therefore to be found in their spirits and lives They are not able to hide their being acted by and under the power of either sins of the flesh or of the spirit They cannot so artificially ape a Christian as not to bewray an inordinate affection to the world either the profits pleasures or honours of it and in too many instances a Will unresigned to his whose Disciples and Followers they pretend to be And from what hath been discoursed it therefore appears that the power of Godliness is but a word in fashion among them a meer sound named but not known and experimented by them There is a form of Godliness which may very well agree with the power of Self-will And men may discover a great zeal for this or that mode and way for these or those opinions and against some certain sins profess a great love to Christ faith in his merits and zeal for his honour they may speak in such a strain of words as is wonderfully taking with the vulgar have notable gifts in discoursing about the things of God and in praying to him and herein discover much life and affection They may strain at Gnats and be very scrupulous in some small and disputable things and yet be self-lovers seek rellish and please themselves be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God covetous envious proud high-minded unrighteous unfaithful unmerciful uncharitable and such as are any one of these for all their specious form are perfect strangers to the power of Godliness Now I would offer that Question of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what do ye more than others What excellent what difficult thing such as is worthy to be thought an instance of the power of Godliness do ye You constantly it may be frequent the publick Worship of God you hear God's Word and read the Bible and religious Books frequently you pray in your Closets and with your Families you do not run with the profane to their excess of riot these are good things and woe be to them that despise or neglect the external duties of Religion but if you do no more than this comes to what extraordinary thing do you May not any man void of the Spirit do the same Thou canst pray without the same form of words thou canst dispute and discourse about matters of Religion and in such a way as is apt to affect others thou canst deny thy self in some things which will not disadvantage thy more beloved sins thou dost reform in some things as to outward garb and deportment but in all this what dost thou more than others Shall the power of Godliness be placed in those things which meer outward notional Christians and unregenerate persons may be as ready and dextrous in as others Alas what are all these and the like to that which the Scripture calls cutting off the right hand plucking out the right eye selling all for the pearl of great price What are these to the mortifying of earthly members to the crucifying of the body of sin to the being dead to sin All which expressions are not to be look'd upon as high Metaphors or Hyperbolical Schemes of Speech but as sober realities and our necessary duty And these are the things wherein that power of Godliness shineth forth which distinguisheth between those that are indeed alive and those which have onely a name to live Thou shewest that thou hast read much and heard much hast had good Education hast kept good company and art of good natural parts but how hast thou prospered in Self-Resignation Art thou more crucified to the world Hast thou more power over thy Spirit Is the power of thy Self-will more broken Art thou more free and ingenuous in thy obedience God looks at the heart the temper and quality of the mind the difference between men and men is mainly within in the influences and impressions of Religion upon their spirits in its bettering their inward frame and by this means mending the outward conversation and course of life 2. Self-Resignation is likewise the onely proof of the power of Godliness in the second sense that as was said which differenceth strong from weak Christians those that are grown nearer to a perfect stature in Christ and others which though they be sincere are but
impetuously carried out to all iniquity with greediness so far as it is judged safe and that such or such a sin is not prejudicial to another more beloved sin or to any worldly advantage or Interest The Soul wherein Self-will is set up saith with proud Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should obey him This is another abomination of desolation standing in the holy place erected in the Soul which should be holy to the Lord. Self-will it is an inward and mysterious Antichrist opposing and exalting it self above God it sits as God in the heart that inward temple of God shewing it self that it is God It is an Anti-God and will be obeyed in all things It sets up its threshold by God's threshold and its posts by God's posts In the Scripture the pleasing of our own will is frequently put in the general for all sin In Ecclesiastes xi 9. going on in sinful and wicked courses is exprest by walking in the way of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes In Ieremy mens wickedness is often stiled walking after the imagination of their own heart And in Isaiah lviij 13. doing of sinful actions is called doing thine own ways and finding thine own pleasure In Numbers xv 39. sinning against God is called seeking after thine own heart and thine own eyes And as Self-will is the Root of all Sin so is it likewise the Root of Misery both here and hereafter It being the root of the former it must needs be so of the latter also Sin and Misery being inseparable And as we shewed that the Happiness of Heaven as to the main consists in being transformed into the Divine Image or the having but one Will with God so by consequence the Hellish State doth chiefly consist in a perfect contrariety to God and the Soul's opposition to the Divine Will Therefore is the Devil a most miserable creature because he is made up of Self-will because the Will of God is most grievous to him he sets himself against it and goes about the world solliciting and endeavouring to draw others from complying with it And those with whom he prevails he by so doing makes them as miserable as himself If there were no Self-will there would be no Hell according to that of St. Bernard Cesset voluntas propria infernus non erit Let Self-will cease and there will be no Hell To suppose Self-Resignation in a damned and miserable Soul and Self-will in an happy and glorified one is to suppose the greatest contradictions and inconsistences There can be nothing of Self-Resignation in Hell and nothing of Self-will in Heaven In speaking to the fourth aud fifth Considerations it hath been shewed that it is impossible that that Soul should be miserable which is sincerely and intirely resigned to the Will of God and on the contrary that that Soul cannot but be miserable that wills contrary to him and therefore I shall proceed no farther upon this Argument CHAP. XI That the Love of Christ in dying for Sinners makes the Duty of Self-Resignation most highly reasonable and lays the greatest obligation upon us thereunto XI IN the eleventh place The Love of Christ in dying for us is most powerful to oblige Christians to this great Duty of Self-Resignation Christ's giving himself a Sacrifice and Offering to God in a way of atonement and expiation layeth the strongest engagement on Christians to offer up themselves as a Sacrifice to him in a way of Resignation and Obedience This improvement the Apostle makes of this Consideration 2 Cor. v. 14 15. The Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them What could he more express Should not live unto themselves not please themselves gratifie their own Self-will and Lusts but please Christ do his will give him the preheminence in all things Not seek our own but the things which are Iesus Christs Not minde and pursue our own ease profit and honour chiefly and above all but live to his honour and glory and prefer his Interest before our own The like inference the same Apostle makes in 1 Cor. vi 20. Ye are bought with a price viz. with the precious bloud of Iesus Christ therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's And what is the best way of glorifying God hath been shewed in the third Chapter The Death of Christ is the great manifestation of his Love by the bitterness of his Cup by the depth of his Sorrows and Sufferings for us we may make an Estimate of the exceeding height of his dear affection Behold and see was there any Sorrow like unto his Sorrow and therefore was there any Love like unto his Love Greater love hath no man than this said Christ himself that a man lay down his life for his friends but he laid down his life for us when Enemies Out of Love he left Heaven and the bosom of his Father and the glorious attendance of the Angels and humbled himself to a mean low and afflicted life upon Earth He who was rich became poor that we through his poverty might be rich Such was the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ. Out of Love he died he who was Lord of all the Lord of Glory the brightness of God's Glory and the express Image of his Person he humbled himself to death even the death of the Cross a death of the greatest pain and shame And notwithstanding the pains and sorrows both inward and outward which he felt were inexpressibly great yet after his Resurrection he would have gone into the Garden again gone over his Agony again and drunk that bitter Cup which made his Soul so sorrowful He would have gone to Calvary and been crucified again he would have poured out his life to death again and again if it had so pleased God had it been the will of his Father that he should repeat his Sorrows and Sufferings for the Redemption of man for he knew nothing but to be obedient and perfectly resigned to the Will of his Father This is that Love of Christ which passeth knowledge Love beyond compare Love beyond expressions or conceptions and can there be a more natural a more powerful engagement to Self-Resignation than such a Love Did Christ so freely give himself for thee and shouldest not thou most heartily and willingly give up thy self to him Was all of Christ turned into a Sacrifice for thee and shouldest not thou make an intire Oblation of thy self without any reserve to him It 's not only Ingenuity but Iustice wholly to live to him that died for thee and bought thee with so dear a price Did he suffer such unexpressible pains for us and shall not we be willing to endure some pain and smart which at first will be in denying the sollicitations of our fleshly mind
wonderful efficacy of Love to God and Divine things VI. SIxthly Labour to be affected as much as is possible with the Love of God and Divine things To Faith add Love they are joyned together in Scripture and should be conjoyned in the hearts of Christians In 1 Thessalonians 5.8 Love as well as Faith is called a breast-plate whereby we may be secured against the assaults of temptations If the Love of God be perfected in us we shall find Self-denial and Self-Resignation as easie and pleasant as heart can wish Love will make us think nothing precious that God will have us part with it will make us with great chearfulness to part with a right eye a right hand our own will if it offend us It will make us without grudging to cross our own will when it contradicts the Will of our Beloved It will cause us to believe no suffering harsh that God shall inflict no duty difficult which he shall command This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5. 3. If you love me is a familiar and potent form of speech with us to perswade one another to the doing or forbearing any thing and what humane love doth work among men that and wuch more will be effected by divine Love This is a far more powerful and vigorous principle of action And yet the effects of that Love have been very strange and wonderful the observation whereof hath caused them to be sung by Poets and copiously set forth in Romances which are imitations of true Histories Solus amor est qui nomen difficultatis erubescit It is Love alone that is ashamed to mention difficulty saith St. Austin Nay Love welcomes difficulties and pleaseth itself in hard instances of obedience because by them it sheweth forth more of its reality strength and power Easie and ordinary performances being but mean and short significations of a hearty love And the greatest and bravest atchievements such acts as are most heroick as denying our selves in what is most dear to us are the true and proper results and expressions of divine Love these are the worthy exploits of this holy affection Love makes the noblest Champions in the Holy War against Sin the World and Satan and animates a Christian to the greatest adventures As for easie and common performances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cheap and costless Religion and Self-denial in small matters viz. in such things as a man is but little inclined to and are less for his pleasure and advantage the divine Love is less solicitous about them But it chuseth rather to awaken and animate the Soul to the harder services of Religion It doth not think it quitteth it self in engaging against the weaker lusts or in taking some of the slight out-works but it sets its self against the most powerful Corruptions it plants its batteries against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong holds the inmost Fort where Self-will hath ensconced her self The weapons of its warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations or reasonings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. There is a lion in the way is the voice of the cold and lazy Sluggard but this is no discouragement to the Lover of God it affrights him not Nay so far is this Love from being cooled and disheartned by difficulties and oppositions that it is rather kindled and improved By these it heightens it self into an holy indignation against whatsoever would attempt to draw it from God Many waters cannot quench love neither can the flouds drown it Nay as water cast into lime they increase instead of lessening its heat Love though it be a soft and delicate affection yet it is hardy and strong withall Love is strong as death and it is as ingenuous and noble as strong for if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned Neither the hard and evil things which the world threatens nor the most tempting allurements of the world or the flesh can either affright or corrupt that heart where the divine Love rules from a faithful adhering to the will of God But to the several temptations it meets with in the world this is the constant resolute answer of every holy Lover as it was Iosephs How can I do this wickedness and sin against God Yea Love enables a Christian to do his duty much sooner and better That which is in others the effect of great severity to the body long fastings and other toilsome exercises often repeated is done in a more compendious and effectual way by the power of Love in such Christians as are indued with a more than ordinary measure of it Now that this Divine Love may be inkindled in us and the flame of it more and more increased First Let us very often lift up the eyes of our mind and fix them upon those infinitely lovely perfections glories and excellencies that are in God which the holy Scriptures do so abound with the mention and celebrations of Let us view these frequently in the Scriptures and also in the works of Creation and Providence Let us often consider with our selves how that all the lovelinesses and sweetnesses that are in Creatures are but so many drops from the fountain of them that is God and that every Love-attracting excellency every thing which the world calls precious and desireable is but a very weak resemblance of what is to be tasted and enjoyed in him Secondly Let us also as frequently contemplate those transcendent and invaluable mercies and favours those numberless benefits and kindnesses which we stand obliged to God for And above all that Gift of Gifts his Son in whom he expressed a Love to us that passeth knowledge Would we have the fire of holy Love kindled in our Breasts let us I say dwell very much in the admiring contemplation of the Divine Excellencies and the Divine Benefits The Contemplation of the infinite Perfections that are in God will render all things contemptible compared with him and consequently make them weak unperswading untempting things What Pythagoras said he learned by his Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to admire nothing we shall learn by this Contemplation When the Soul hath inured her self to view the Divine Glories how near to nothing is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Universe in its eyes what a little spot and point When she hath been upon the Mount with God and ravished her self with his astonishing beauty she must needs be affected with such a magnanimity and generosity of spirit as will couragiously repell the strongest temptations she meets with to withdraw her from a close union and conjunction of will and affection to him And the consideration of the
well acquainted and greatly affected with the things above the things that are Holy Heavenly and Divine That of Plutarch was a most true and excellent observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is impossible for men not to have a great affection and ambition for the things which the world admires and pursues except there be a principle within them to admire vertue whose alone beauty and lustre would darken and put out all other glories and gayeties whatsoever Be fully possest then with the importance of this truth that the most soveraign way for a man to take off his mind and heart from the admired vanities of this world and consequently to deny himself is plainly this To turn his mind and affections to better objects to admire the uncreated and original beauty and to have an high esteem of the participations and impressions thereof The affections will not be stopt or pent in they will run out upon something let them therefore issue forth but let it be to the noblest objects let them stream forth freely but to better things There is such a way approved by Physicians for the stopping of bloud viz. When it issueth out one way to open a vein elsewhere and so to stay it by revulsion and diverting the course Nor is that Fable of the Poet unfit to be applied here as containing an excellent Moral which tells us the best means of defeating the Syrens the most dangerous temptations of the world Vlysses and his Companions stopt their ears with wax as they sailed by that they might not hear them and so avoided the danger But Orpheus by singing divine Hymns by celebrating the praises of God and recounting his Excellencies and Favours is said to have overcome them which was the more noble way of Conquest But to prevent all mistake and scruple I adde that what hath been said doth not imply that a Christian is to dam and stop up his affections from issuing out to any thing here in this world But thus we are to consider There are undue and forbidden and there are due and allowed objects of the affections Now as for undue objects the pleasures of any kind of sin the things which God expresly forbids in the Holy Scriptures we are to have no affection at all for but the greatest antipathy against There must not be the least tasting of the forbidden Tree though its fruit be never so fair and tempting But as for due objects of the affections and such as God allows our care must be that they be carried forth towards them in a due order and a due degree First in a due order Our Love must first be placed upon God and Christ his Kingdom and his Righteousness and thence descend to inferiour good things Things Divine must have the precedency and priority in our care and endeavours according to that advice of our Saviour Matth. vi 33. Secondly In a due degree and measure God and the things above must be most desired loved and delighted in Whom saith the Psalmist have I in heaven but thee and there is none on earth I can desire in comparison of thee Psalm lxxiii 25. God alloweth us to give a lesser love to the lesser goodness but the highest affection is to be given to the Highest and Original Goodness I will conclude this Direction with the agreeing advice of Taulerus in his eighth Epistle Omnem diem inter amissos deputate in quo Dei amore propriam non fregistis voluntatem Account that day as mispent and lost wherein you have not subdued your own will by the Love of God This advice imports two things First That a Christian is to make this great Duty of Self-Resignation his daily business that 't is a lesson which he is to be every day learning and an Exercise in which he is to make continual progress Secondly That the Love of God is of most soveraign force and virtue to break and subdue a mans own will CHAP. VII That Humility is a powerful means to the attaining of Self-Resignation where it is particularly shewn how it is effectual thereunto both as it implieth obedience to God's Commands and as it implies patient submission to his disposals VII SEventhly Endeavour after the deepest humility and sink thy self into the greatest Self-nothingness if thou wouldst be truly resigned to the Will of God Humility is a most powerful and excellent means to the attaining of Self-Resignation both as it implies obedience to God's Commands and submission to his disposals First As it implies Obedience to the Commands of God The humble Christian cannot think much of doing any thing God requires of him or forbearing any thing he forbids him for First He considers that there is an unconceiveable infinite distance between God and him That God is infinite in Essence and all Perfections in Glory and Majesty That he is the Lord of all things the Soveraign of Men and Angels and therefore 't is most fit that he should have the preheminence in all things and most disbecoming him to oppose his Will when he commands things never so ungrateful to flesh and bloud And he considers also that himself is a limited dependent indigent Being that he is nothing but what he is by God and can have nothing but what comes from him and consequently that 't is the most unreasonable thing in the world that his Will should ever take place of the Will of God The infinite Superiority of God's Being must justly and plainly infers the precedency and superiority of his Will He considers that God is the inexhaustible Fountain of Life the great Ocean of Being whence all the Rivers of particular Beings flow and whither they return again whereas man is a poor feeble Creature altogether vanity and that at his best estate as the Psalmist speaks even all the nations of the earth are counted but as a drop of the bucket or small dust of the ballance as Isaiah speaks nay they are all as nothing before God and are counted to him less than nothing What then shall we think of each particular man he being so inconsiderable a part of that drop that dust that nothing and less than nothing The humble Christian I say hath a due sense of his unconceiveably vast and infinite disproportion and disparity to God and thence concludes that nothing can be so unreasonable as to expect his will should be humoured or to take it ill to have it crost by the Will of God He is deeply sensible that nothing is so intolerable as for the will and pleasure of a creature in any thing to controul and over-rule the Lord of Life and Glory the Father of the Universe the great Maker and Preserver of all things and therefore that it is much more the greatest petulancy the vilest sauciness and most horrible presumption for such a Creature as himself to dispute and quarrel with the Divine Commands Secondly The humble Christian considers also that God being
and to rise with him to newness of life such a knowledge would not have availed him in the end The third passage is that in Rom. vi 4 5 6. Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection By this likeness of Christ's Death and likeness of his Resurrection it appears that there is a lively resemblance of both which a Christian is obliged to endeavour after Then it follows Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 3. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are very powerful to engage and enable us to the great duties of crucifying worldly lusts and mortifying corrupt affections as they are effectual to work in us the most heart-bleeding sorrow for sin the most vehement hatred and detestation of it and to raise the soul to the greatest degrees of love and ingenuous gratitude 1. To work in us the most heart-bleeding sorrow for sin Who can seriously consider Christ crucified Christ bleeding on the Cross bleeding from the sixth to the ninth hour from our twelve a Clock to three his bleeding Head crowned with sharp thorns his bleeding Hands and Feet and Side I say who can consider this and not bleed within Who can look upon him that was pierced and not be inwardly pierced himself not be prickt to the heart as they are said to be Acts ii 37. at the preaching of Christ crucified And when we consider that he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities or as the words are rendred by some of our transgressions and iniquities When we consider that we have crucified the Lord of Life and Glory that our sins nailed him to the Cross wounded him to the heart and put him to all the grief and pain he underwent how can it be that our hearts should not be wounded within us How can we forbear to express our sorrow for sin in some such words as those of Ieremiah My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears And can we consider his Agony in the Garden the exceeding sorrowfulness of his Soul his extream heaviness and sore amazement his strong crying and tears and his sweating great drops of bloud and not be melted into holy mournings and relentings for our sins and for all our unkind and unworthy behaviour towards Christ who thus suffered for us How hard is that heart which the so great and dolorous sufferings of our Saviour cannot melt and dissolve At the Passion of Christ besides other Prodigies it is said the rocks rent and are our hearts harder than rocks not to be affected with remorse at the consideration of Christ crucified It is Saint Hierom's observation When Christ died all creatures were his fellow-sufferers the sun was eclipsed the earth shook the rocks were cleft in sunder the veil of the Temple was rent in twain the graves opened Man alone for whom onely Christ died suffered not with him Certainly if the consideration of our Saviour's Sufferings for our sakes cannot prevail to melt our hearts into an holy sorrow for our sins nothing will ever do it And if it hath such a peculiar and soveraign efficacy to work an heart-bleeding sorrow for Sin it will consequently be very effectual to the disengaging us from it to the taking us off from all those vanities and lusts which were formerly most dear and pleasing to us If we are grieved at the heart for our Self-will Self-love and manifold disobediences we will not continue to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof 2. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are effectual to work in us the most vehement hatred and detestation of Sin It appears from thence how hateful and abominable a thing Sin is to God who is original Rectitude and infinite Purity For how could he demonstrate a greater antipathy and displeasure against Sin than in being pleased to bruise and put to grief the Son of his love and to give up the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person to inexpressible dolours to the end he might make expiation for it If Sin were a sleight inconsiderable thing if it were not a thing of a most odious and vile nature a high injury to God and of sad and dismal consequence to man he would not have required such a Sacrifice for it This consideration must needs be most forceable to the working in us detestation of Sin whatsoever grace and favour it hath found in our eyes Suppose we our selves to have seen Christ in the last Scene of his Sufferings and to have accompanied him from the Garden of Gethsemene where he was in his Agony and sweat drops of bloud to the High Priests house thence to the Judgment Hall before Pilate thence to Mount Calvary in which places he was reproached spit upon the face scourged and at last nailed alive to the Cross And suppose him speaking to us as in another sence Pilate spake of him Behold your King Behold your Lord and Saviour See the wounds which your Sins have given me See how they have torn my flesh and despitefully used me But the unseen wounds the inward sorrows of my Soul are such as the heart of man cannot conceive as neither hath the eye seen nor the ear heard what may compare to them Thus have your lusts dealt with me and in all this see their cruelty If we had I say beheld our blessed Lord in his direful Sufferings and heard him thus expressing himself to us do we think we could still cherish and entertain hug and embrace those Enemies of his which have put him to all this shame and torment But if we have an inward knowledge and feeling of Christ crucified it will most undoubtedly inflame us into a just indignation against those Lusts which suckt the Life-bloud of Christ which slew and crucified the Lord of Glory We shall say concerning them what the Iews cried concerning him Away with them away with them they are not worthy to live Let these murderers of the just one die the death but let Iesus live and let the Life of Christ be manifested in us How can that be longer sweet to me which made Christ's Cup so exceeding bitter How can I delight in that which made his Soul sorrowful unto death How shall that be my pleasure which was his pain and put him to grief such grief that there was no sorrow like unto his sorrow How should I glory in that which put him to such an open shame 3. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are powerful to raise the Soul to the greatest degrees of Love and Gratitude We have already shewn