When your corpses are laid in the grave men can say Now he hath done his satisfying the flesh and following the world but never man can truly say Now he hath done suffering for it Your life of sin is passing as a dream and your honours as a shadow and all your business as a talc that is told but the life of Glory which you rejected for this would have endured for evermore Suppose as many thousand years as there are sands on the Sea or piles of grass on the whole earth or hairs on the heads of all men in the world yet when these many are past the Joy of Saints and the Torments of the wicked are as far from an end as ever they were The eternal God doth give them a duration and make them eternal When our joyes are at the sweetest this thought must needs be part of that sweetness that their sweetness shall never have an end If our short fore-taste be Joy unspeakable and full of glory what shall we call that Joy which flows from the most perfect fruition and perpetuation 1 Pet. 1. 7 8. We have Joy here but alas how seldom Alas how small in comparison of what we may there expect Some Joy we have but how oft do Melancholy or crosses or losses in the world or temptations or sins or desertions interrupt it Our sun is here most commonly under a cloud and too often in an Ecclipse and we have the night as often as the day Yea our state is usually a Winter Our dayes are cold and short and our nights are long But when the flourishing state of glory comes we shall have no Interscissioâ—s nor Ecclipses Tâ—â— path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. And the perfect day is a perpetual day that knows no interruption by the darkness of the night For there shall be no night there nor need of candle or Sun for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever Rev. 22. 5. This is the life that fears no death and this is the feast that fears no want or future famine the pleasure that knows nor fears no pain the health that knows nor fears no sickness this is the treasure that fears no moth or rust or thief the building that fears no storm nor decay the Kingdom that fears no changes by Rebellion the friendship that fears no falling out the Love that fears no hatred or frustration the Glory that fears no envious eye the possessed Inheritance that fears no ejection by fraud or force or any failings the Joy that feels or fears no sorrow while God who is Life it self is our life and while God who is Love is the fountain and object of our Love we can never want either Life or Love And whiles he feeds our Love our Joyful praises will never be run dry nor ever go out for want of fewel This is the true perpetual motion the câ—rculation of the holy blood and spirit from God to man and from man to God Being prepared and brought near him we have the blessed Vision of his face by seeing him and by the blessed emanation of his love we are drawn out perpetually and unweariedly to Love him and Rejoyce in him and from hence uncessantly to praise and honour him In all which as his blessed Image and the shining reflections of his revealed glory he taketh complacency which is the highest end of God and man and the very term of all his works and wayes I Thought here to have ended this First Part of my Discourse but yet compassion calls me back I fear lest with the most I have not yet prevailed and lest I shall leave them behind me in the bonds of their iniquity I daily hear the voice of men possessed by a spirit of uncleanness speaking against this Necessity of a holy life which Christ himself so peremptorly asserteth I hear that voice which foretelleth a more dreadful voice if in time they be not prevailed with to prevent it One saith What need all this ado This strictness is more ado then needs Another saith You would make men mad by poring so much on matters that are above them Another saith Cannot you keep your Religion to your selfe and be Godly with moderation as your neighbours be Another saith I hope God is more merciful then to damn 〈…〉 that â—â— not so precise Another saith I shall never endure so strict a life and therefore I will venture as well as others The summe of allis They are so far in love with the world and sin and so much against a holy life that they will not be perswaded to it and therefore to quiet their consciences in their misery they make themselves believe that they may be saved without it and that it is a thing of no Necessity but their coming to Church and living like good neighbours may serve the turn without it for their salvation And thus doth the malicious Serpent in the hearts of those that he possesseth rise up against the words of Christ Christ saith that this is The One thing needful And the Serpent saith It is more ado then needs and What needs all this ado Though I have fully answered this ungodly objection already in my Treatise of Conversion sect 36. pag. 284. c. and more fully in my Treatise of Rest Part 3. Chap. 6. yet I shall once more fall upon it For death is coming while poor deluded souls are loytering and if Satan by such sensless reasonings as these can keep them unready in their sin till the â—atal stroak hath cut them down and cast them into endless easeless fire alas how great will be their fall and how unspeakably dreadful will be their misery Whoever thou be whether hâ—gh or low learned or unlearned that hast disliked opposed or reproached serious godly Christians as Puritanes and too precise and that thinkest the most diligent labour for salvation to be but more ado then needs and hast not thy self yet resolvedly set upon a holy life I require at thy hands so much impartiality and faithfulness to thy own immortal soul as seriously to peruse these following Questions and to go no further in thy careless negligent ungodly course till thou art able to give such a rational answer to them as thou darest stand to now at the Barr of thine own Conscience and hereafter at the Barr of Christ Quest 1. Canst thou possibly give God more then is his due Or love him more then he deserveth Or serve him more faithfully then thâ—â— art bound and he is worthy of Art thou not his creature made of nothing and hast thou not all that thou art and hast from him and if thou give him all dost thou give him any more then what is his own If thou give him all the affections of thy soul and all the most serious thoughts of thy heart and every hour of thy time and
clear in it self and much more clear how few do we prevail with Is not the Question Whether God or the Creature Holiness or Sin Earth or Heaven Short or Everlasting pleasures should be preferred as plain to a wise man as any of those that I mentioned before Is it not as plain a case to a man of judgement Whether Holiness with Everlasting joys be better then fleshly pleasures with damnation as whether a Kingdom be better then a Jayle or Gold then dirt or health then sickness Yet do your salvations lie upon this Question this easie Question I must again repeat it All your salvations lie upon the practical resolution of this easie Question Be but Resolved once that God is Best for you and Heaven is Best for you and accordingly make your Resolute Choice and faithfully Prosecute it and God will be Yours Heaven will be yours as sure as the Promise of God is true But if you will not Choose God and Glory as your Best but will Choose the world and simple pleasures as Better for you you shall have no better then you chose and shall suffer a double condemnation for neglecting and refusing so great salvation You hear now by mens talk and you see by their lives that the world is divided upon this Question What it is that is Best for a man and which is his Best and Wisest course One part and the greater think in their hearts that present prosperity is best because they think that the promised happiness of the life to come is a thing uncertain or iâ— there be such a thing they may have it after the pleasures of sin These are the Infidels Another part have a superficial dead Opinion that Heaven and Holiness are Best but the Love of the flesh and the world lyeth deeper at their hearts and beareth the greater sway in their lives and these are the Hypocrites that is Christians in Opinion and Profession and so much of their Practice as will stand with their fleshly interest but Infidels in their Practical estimation and at the Heart and in the reserves and secret bent of their lives Another part being illuminated and sanctified from above Believe the Certainty and Excellency of Glory and see the vanity and vexation of this life and taste the sweetness of the Love of God and perceive the Necessity and sweetness of that Holiness which others so abhor and hereupon give up themselves to God and set themselves to seek for the Immortal treasure and make it the principal care of their hearts and business of their lives to escape damnation and live with Christ in endless Glory All the world consisteth of these three sorts of men Infidels Hypocrites and true Believers Now the Question is Which of these three are in the right Both the other do condemn the Hypocrite that halteth between two opinions and One thinks that Baal is God that the World is Best and therefore he gives up himself to it and the other thinks that The Lord is God and Heaven is best and therefore he gives up himself to it And if it would do any thing with those that doubt towards the turning of the scales to tell you which side Christ is on it s told you here in my Text as plain as the tongue of man can speak One thing is Needful Mary hath chosen that Good part which shall not be taken away from her THe Doctrine which I am now to handle to you from the plain words of the Text is this Doct. That those that prefer the Learning of the word of Christ to guide them by Holiness to Everlasting Happiness before all the lower matters of this world are they that choose the Better part even that which shall never be taken from them If now the word of Christ alone would serve your turn I had done my work I needed not to go any further You would be now resolved that Heaven and Holiness is best and would set your hearts and lives to seek it and so it would be your own for ever But this Text hath long stood in the Gospel and men have heard and read it often and yet the most are not perswaded and therefore I must try to open it a little farther to you and plead it with you and work the Reason of it upon your minds Reader our business is but to enquire What it is that is Best for Man to set his heart on and seek after in his Life and Enjoy for ever I say it is the Everlasting Enjoyment of God in Heaven For Christ saith so If thou think otherwise let us debate the case If thou believe as I do Live as thou professest to believe If men did but deeply and soundly know what it is that is best for them it would set right their hearts and lives and make them happy But not knowing this is it that keepeth them from God and Holiness and everlastingly undoes them Though I have often opened this heretofore on other occasions yet my present subject now requireth 1. That I tell you What that is that here is called The Good part 2. What it is that is set against it and by fleshly minds preferred before it And having briefly opened these two things I shall come to the Comparison and shew you which is the better part 1. That which Christ calls here that good part is 1. Principally the end of man or our everlasting Happiness with God in Heaven 2. Subordinately the Means by which it is attained 3. That Happiness which is the end comprehendeth in it these particulars which if you distinctly apprehend you will much the better understand the nature and excellency of it 1. The true Believer hath the small beginnings and earnests and foretastes of the Everlasting Blessedness in this Life in his approaches to God and living upon him by Faith and Love and â—â— his believing apprehensions of the Favour of God the Grace â—â— Christ and the Happiness which in Heaven he shall enjoy for ever 2. At death the souls of true Believers do go to Christ and enter upon a state of Happiness 3. At the last day the body shall be raised and united to the soul and the Lord Jesus Christ will come in glory to judge the world where he will openly absolve and justifie the Righteous when he condemneth the ungodly and will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe and the Saints shall also judge the world and be themselves adjudged to everlasting Glory 4. Their everlasting habitation shall be in the Heavens even near unto God and in the presence of his Glory 5. Their company will be only Blessed Spirits even the holy Angels and glorified Saints with whom we shall be One Body and constitute the New Jerusalem and be perfectly one in God for ever 6. Their Bodies shall be perfected and made immortal spiritual incorruptible and glorious bodies shining as the Stars in the Celestial Firmament No more subject
and thy Will It proclaimeth thy pernicious Folly and Impiety If thou hadst no more wit then to be Pleased more with stones then gold with dung then meat with shameful nakedness then cloathing thou wouldst not be judged wise enough to be left to thy own dispose and government But the folly which thou dost manifest is unspeakably greater Darkness is not so much worse then Light and Death is not so much worse then Life as sin is worse than Holiness and the world than God And is the Worst more Pleasant to thee then the Best It is a fool indeed to whom it is a sport to do mischief Prov. 10. 23. and so great a mischief as sin is and yet hath no delight in understanding Prov. 18. 2. Delight is not seemly for such fools Prov. 19. 10. And how wicked is that Heart as well as Blind that is so averse to God and Holiness Doth not this shew thee 1. The absence of Gods holy image 2. And the presence of Satans image upon thy soul Nothing doth more certainly prove what a man is then the complacency and displacency of his Heart If you know what it is in your selves or others that pleaseth and displeaseth most you may certainly know whether you have the spirit and grace of Christ or not This is the durable infallible Evidence which Satan shall never be able to invalidate and which the weakest Christians can scarce tell how to deny in themselves Could they be more Holy it would please them better then to be more rich Could they believe more and Love God more and trust him more and obey him better it would please them more then if you gave them all the honours of the world They are never so well pleased with their own hearts as when they find them nearest Heaven and have most of the Knowledge of God and impress of his attributes and sense of his presence They are never so well pleased with their lives as when they are most holy and fruitful and may fullyest be called A walking with God They are never so much displeased with themselves as when they find least of God upon their hearts and are most dark and dull and undisposed to holy Communion with him They are never so much weary of themselves as when their lives are least fruitful holy and exact And this is a certain Evidence of their sincerty For it shews what they Love and what it is that hath their Hearts or Wills And it is the Heart or Will that is the man in Gods account God takes a man to be what he sincerely would be As he is so he Loveth and Willeth and as he Loveth and Willeth such he is His complacency or displacency are the immediate sure discoveries of his bent or inclination This certain Evidence poor doubting souls should have oft recourse to and improve And on the contrary it is as sure an Evidence of your misery when you savour not the things of the Spirit Rom. 8. 5 6 7. and when it pleaseth you more to be great then to be good to be rich then to be religious and righteous to serve your lusts then to serve the Lord When you set more by the applause of men then by the approbations of God and had rather be far from God then near him and be excused from a holy life then used to it and constant in it When you take the world and sin for your recreation or delight and a godly life for a melancholy wearisom and unpleasant course This certainly shews that you have yet the old corrupted nature and Serpentine enmity against the Spirit and Life of Christ and are yet in the flesh and therefore can no more please the Lord then his holy wayes are pleasing unto you Rom. 8. 6 7 8. and it proveth that you are yet in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of your iniquity and that your hearts are not right in the sight of God and that you are the slaves of Satan whose nature you partake of by which you are thus alienated from the Lord. Didst thou know God as Faith doth know him his Loving kindness would be better to thee then life it self Psalm 63. 3. If thou didst Love him as it is like thou wilt pretend thou dost it would be meat and drink to thee to enjoy his Love and do his Will And if thou know him not by Faith nor cleavest to him by unfeigned Love how canst thou pretend to have his Image How would you judge of that mans heart that were no better affected to his friend to his parents or children or other relations then you manifest your selves to be to God If he can take no pleasure in the company of his wife or children but is glad when he is far from them in the company of strangers or harlots or prodigals would you not say this man had a base unmanly disposition Express but such an inclination in plain words and try how honest sober men will judge of them Much more would it be odious to Christian ears if you should tell God plainly We can find no pleasure in thee or in thy holy wayes thy Word and Service are unsavoury and wearisom unto us We had rather be talking or busied about the matters of the world We have far more pleasure in recreations and sensual accommodations then in remembring thee and thy Kingdom and then we find in the life that is called holy Would not such words as these be called impious by every Christian that should hear them And is not that an impious heart then which speaketh thus or is thus affected and that an impious life that manifesteth it though dissembling lips are ashamed to profess it If God be not most to be loved and delighted in then any thing or all things else he is not God If Heaven and Holiness be not sweeter then all the pleasures of earth and sin let them have no more such honourable names Let sin and earth then be called Heaven but wo to them that have no better 2. What monstrous ingratitude is that man guilty of that when God hath provided and Christ hath purchased such high delights and freely tendred them to unworthy sinners will say I find no pleasure in them and take them for no delights at all When the Lord beheld thee wallowing in thy filth and laughing in thy misery and making a sport of thine own perdition he pittied thee and provided and offered to thee the most noble and excellent delights that thy nature is capable of enjoying And wilt thou cast them back unthankfully in his face and say They are unpleasant tedious things If your child did so by his meat or cloathes yea or a beggar at your door did so by his alms you would think it proved his great unworthyness If he throw away the best you can give him and say It is naught there is no sweetness in it would you not think it fit that want should help to
though many undo their souls for fleshly pleasures and delights yet he is a strange man indeed that will offend God even for self-tormenting grief and trouble O therefore dear Christians as you have let go all your sensual pleasures for the pleasing of your Lord do not let go the pleasures of his love for which you have let go all The Lord taketh pleasure in his people even in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy and the meek he will beautifie with salvation Psalm 147. 11. It is meet therefore that his people take pleasure in the Lord that the Saints be joyful in glory that they sing aloud upon their beds and that the high praises of God be in their mouthes Psalm 149. 4 5 6. O let not the Spirit of God be thought to be like the evil spirit that vexed Saul that filled his mind with melancholy anguish and confusion It is the evil spirit that renteth and tormenteth those that it possesseth though the spirit of God doth humble and by ordinate sorrow prepare for joy But its proper work is to sanctifie and to comfort and to establish the Believer with Peace that passeth understanding As it is a greater sign of the operation of the Spirit of Christ to restore the lapsed by a spirit of meekness and to bear one anothers burdens and exercise tenderness compassion and charity then to censure and envy and call for fire from heaven So even at home though there we are allowed to be more rigid and censorious it is a more sure and satisfactory discovery of the Spirit of Grace within us if we are raised to a sweet delight in God and quieted in his Love and carryed out in chearful obedience thankfully acknowledging the grace that we have received and waiting in the use of means for more then if we are only turmoiled and troubled in our minds and tossed up and down with unprofitable griefs and fears that abate our Love to God and our holy joyes It is the still voice that doth most fully acquaint us that it is Christ the Prince of Peace that speaketh to us Though at first when he findeth a sinner in a state of enmity and rebellion he often useth to thunder and lighten and call to him as to Saul Why persecutest thou me Wilt thou kick against the pricks Wilt thou fight against heaven Or canst thou bear the wrath of God Almighty Yet to the humbled penitent soul there is none in all the world so tender as Jesus Christ the Lamb of God the Churches husband that cherisheth them as his own flesh O that you did but know the greatness and tenderness of his love to you while you lie trembling under the unjust apprehensions of his wrath It would then so transport you with ravishing delights that the world would see that the Saints of the most High have higher Pleasures then the world affordeth BUt I know you will say Alas what need you exhort us to spiritual pleasures and consolations Do you think there is any man in love with sorrows or unwilling to live a joyful life O that you could tell us how we might attain it and you should quickly see that we are willing Answ And if you are so willing to attain it as to be also willing to use the means you shall quicklyer see that I shall certainly inform you how you may attain it and how you may come to find a life of Holiness to be the most sweet and pleasant life I therefore desire and require you to practise these Directions following Direct 1. Make it your first and principal business to attain the fullest fixed knowledge of God in his Attributes and Covenant-Relations to you 1. Study him in his Attributes If infinite Goodness take not up the soul with Love and with Delight it is because it is not known Where there is all things that the soul of man desires to its highest felicity and content and yet contentment and delight is wanting it must needs be ignorance and distance that is the cause If the Sun seem not light to you it is because you have not eye-sight or look not on the light If you find no pleasure in the most pleasant food it is because your appetites are diseased or you do not taste it If your most suitable and most affectionate friend seem not amiable to you it is because you know not his suitableness and love So if the eternal God that is infinitely powerful wise and good most perfect and most suitable to your highest affections do not possess you with abundant Pleasures and Delights of Love it is because you are unacquainted with him Study then his infinite perfections and be much with him in secret prayer and meditation where the retired soul having fewest avocations is fittest for the most near familiar converse And still remember that it is Love it self that you have to do with For God is Love It is the fountain of all delights and pleasures that you draw near to It is a cold heart indeed that fire it self cannot warm and a dead heart indeed that life it self cannot revive Conceive of God as God and you will delight in him Abhort all unworthy diminutive thoughts of him Set up his Love and Goodness in your estimation as infinitely above all the creatures Believe it the Love of your dearest friends is an inconsiderable drop to the Ocean of his Love Think not of him as cruel or an enemy if you would love him or delight in him Love and Delight are never forced by bare commands and threatnings but drawn forth magnetically by attractive Goodness Were not God most amiable and friendly and desirable to us it is not saying Love me or I will damn thee that would ever have caused man to love him but rather to fear and hate and fly from him Think but of Gods Love and Goodness and Fidelity as you do of his Power and then you will find that there are rivers of pleasure in his presence and fulness of joy at his right hand the fore-tastes whereof are the only delights that can quiet the troubled thirsty soul 2. And if you say What is all this to me any more then to the ungodly world on whom the wrath of God abideth I answer Thou art in Covenant with him and he is thine in the Covenant Relations even thy Reconciled Father thy Saviour and thy Sanctifier No husband is so inviolably bound to a wife nor will so faithfully answer his Relation as the blessed Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier unto thee Didst thou well know and consider what it is to have God himself to be thine in Covenant to all these uses and to all the ends that thou canst reasonably desire it would fill up thy soul with satisfying delights There is nothing that thou wantest but what belongs to God to give thee in one of these three great relations And sooner shall the day be turned into night and the frame of
own words Do we devise these sayings Or do we not shew them you in the Scripture And dare you charge God with errour or encouraging Pride Do you think he knew not what he said when he spake such Honourable things of his servants Did he need you to have taught him to have endited his word and to have warned him that he make not his servants proud As if he hated not pride as much as you 6. Yea God will do more then this for his servants he will advance them to Salvation and yet he will not make them proud There is no Pride in Heaven though there be the greatest Glory The Angels are most glorious and yet least proud If you would not wish God to keep men out of Heaven lest it make them proud you should not grudge at his Honouring them on earth with the mention of their Heavenly titles upon that account 7. The Exaltation of the Saints is a spiritual exaltation which is not so apt to make men Proud as carnal exaltation is Charity puffeth not up as â—ery knowledge doth It is selfishness that is the Life of Pride which consisteth in excessive self-esteem and desire of an excessive esteem with others and to be magnified by them And nothing but Grace can subdue this selfishness and therefore nothing else candestroy Pride 8. Moreover the Honour of the Saints is the less like to make them Proud because Humility is part of the Grace that â—â— bestowed on them To be Proud and Holy is to be sick and Holy to be Light and Dark they are plain contraries No man is proud but for want of Holiness and therefore that Holiness should efficiently make men proud is impossible any more thâ—n Health can make men sick or Darkness can be caused by Light And if objectively any be Proud of his Holiness 〈…〉 but in such a measure as he is noholy Holiness doth ever 〈…〉 Pride and contain Humility and self-denyal as an essential part All Christs Disciples learn of him in their measure to be meek and lowly 9. Let experience tell you whether it be not some worldly Honour or parts and gifts that are the much commoner object of Pride then Holiness I have oft heard talk of mens being proud of their Humility and Holiness but the Temptations of my own soul have comparatively layn but little that way nor have I observed it the common case of others in any proportion with other kinds of Pride Riches and Honours and Beauty and Dignity I see people ordinarily proud of And I see many Proud of Counterfeit Graces that have none that is sincere as far as may be perceived by others to be proud of And I see many Proud of their Learning and Knowledge and nimble tâ—ngnes a hundred fold more then ever I found true Christians Proud of the Love of God and a Heavenly mind Alas we have much a doe for the most part to discern that we have any of this at all and to find so much of it in our selves as is necessary to our support and thankfulness 10. Lastly consider what abundance of Means the Lord hath adjoyned as Antidotes with his servants Honours to keep them from being puffed up with Pride and then tell me whether you dare charge God with errour or want of wisdom in this thing 1. The nature and life of Holiness consisteth in the souls retiring home to God and adhering to him and walking as before him And there is not a more powerful means in the world to keep Humble the soul then the Knowledge of God O when a poor sinner hath but any lively apprehensions of the Greatness and Glory of the Lord it amazeth him and levelleth him with the dust and abaseth him in his own esteem and maketh him say with Job 40. 4 5. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth 4 5 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes One glympse of God were enough to humble any soul that truly knoweth him A Godly man hath still to do with that Majesty that continually aweth him His 〈…〉 is with him His thoughts are on him his work is with him 〈…〉 his word that he readeth and heareth and discourseth of and therefore aâ— his word with reverence and Godly fear as knowing that our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 28 29. It is God that he prayeth to that he meditateth on and he praiseth and hath still to do with And therefore no wonder if he walk hambly with so holy and great a God 2. The sin and misery that once they were in while they knew not God will do much to keep humble a gracious soul as long as they live Though God so forget our sins as to forgive them yet we can scarce forgive our selves or at least can never forget them Though he see no fin in his servants as he seeth it in the world nor so as to hate and condemn them for it yet they see that once they were as bad as the world and were children of wrath as well as others They condemn themselves when God doth justifie them and set their sins before their faces which God doth cast behind his back O those dark those ungrateful and those perilous dayes will never be forgotten by the renewed soul The thoughts of them shall ever keep us humble When we look on the wicked miserable world to think that such were many of us though mercy have washed and sanctified and justified us 3. Moreover God hath so contrived the way of their salvation that they shall have all by a Redeemer and by freest Grace and none shall be justified by the works of the Law nor by any merit of his own but Boasting is excluded by the Law of faith Rom. 3. 19 27 28. and we shall have nothing but what we receive besides and contrary to our desert 4. And alas too much corruption still remaineth in us We have flesh that fighteth against the spirit Rom. 7. 24. Gal. 5. 17. We know but in part and Love God but in part and serve him with such constant weakness that these things are usually such humbling matters to a gracious soul that were it not for the Comforter they would be unable to look up O to feel how dark we are how far from God! how strange to heaven how little we believe and know and love these are humbling thought indeed to a soul that is acquainted withit self 〈…〉 â—â—verty beggery or the reproach in the world would be so humbling to them To find such remnants of that odious sin that cost them dear and had cost them dearer if it had not cost their Lord so dear this is constant matter of humiliation 5. And too often do their corruptions get advantage of them and produce some actual sin of thought word or 〈…〉 and this also must
our Comforter And if that be not a pleasant life that is managed by such a Guide and that be not likest to be a joyful soul that is possest by the Spirit of joy it self there is no joy then on earth to be expected Hath God promised his Spirit to comfort you that are wicked in your sin No it is the malicious deceiving spirit that is your Comforter that by his comforts he might keep you from solid spiritual everlasting comforts But the Repenting Believing soul that is united unto Christ and hath already had the spirit for his conversion it is he that hath the promise of the spirit for his consolation And if that be not the most comfortable life where the God of Heaven becomes the comforter we cannot then know the effect by the cause If Life it self will quicken if light it self will illuminate the comforting spirit will certainly comfort in the degree and season as God seeth meet and the soul is fitted to receive it 4. Moreover we have the whole treasurie of the Gospel to go to for our Delight And little doth the sensual unbelieving soul know what sweetness what supporting pleasures may be from thence derived I had rather have the holy word of God to go to for contents then the treasures of the rich or the pleasures of the sensual or the flatteries and vain glory of the ambitious man All that the world doth make such a pudder about which they ride and run for which they so much glory in will never afford them so much Content as one Scripture promise will do to a truly faithful soul I must profess before Angels and men that I had rather have one Promise of the Love of God and the life to come which is contained in the holy Scriptures then to have all the riches pleasures and honours of this world My God this was my Covenant with thee and to this I stand O blessed be the Lord that hath provided us such a Magazine of Delight as is this heavenly sacred Book The Precepts appoint us a pleasant work The strictest prohibitions do but restrain us from our own calamities and keep out of our hands the knife by which we would cut our fingers The severest threatnings do but deterre us from running into the consuming fire and hedge about the devouring gulf lest we should foolishly cast our selves therein And these are the bitterest parts of that holy word But when we read the promises of a Saviour and the wonderful history of his Incarnation and of his holy self-denying life his conquests miracles death resurrection ascension intercession and his promise to return when we read of the foundation which he hath laid and the building which he intends to finish of his rich abundant promises to his chosen what provision do we find for our abundant joys No strait can be so great no pressure so grievous no enemies so strong but we have full consolation offered us in the promises against them all We have promises of the pardon of all our sins and promises of heaven it self and what can we have more we have promises suited to every state both prosperity and adversity What do we need which we have not a promise of And the word of God is no deceit What but a promise can comfort them that are short of the possession May I not have more joy in sickness with a promise then the ungodly without a promise in their health A promise in prison sets a man as at liberty A promise in Poverty is more then riches A promise at death is better then life What I have a promise of I may be sure of but what you possess without a promise you may lose and your souls and hopes with it this night There is no condition on earth so hard to a man that hath interest in the promises in which he may not have plentiful relief We live by faith and not by sense And we reckon more on that as ours which we hope for then which we do possess We are sure that there is no true felicity on earth It then we have a promise of Heaven when Infidels lie down in the dust with desperation have we not a more comfortable life then they 5. Moreover we have Heaven it self to fetch our comfort from Not Heaven in sight or in Possession but Heaven in Promise and seen by faith And if Heaven will not afford us pleasure whence shall we expect it Even sensual men can rejoyce as well in what they see not if they are assured it is theirs as in what they see And why then may not Believers do so much more A worldling when he seeth not his money in his chest or at use or his lands and cattel that are far from him can yet rejoyce in them as if he saw them And should not we rejoyce in the certain Hopes of Heaven though yet we see it not when I am pained in sickness and role in restless weariness of my flesh if then I can say I shall be in Heaven may it not be the inward rejoycing of my soul You know where you are but you know not where you shall be The Believer knoweth where he shall be as truly as he knoweth where he is unless it be one that by his frailty hath not reacht unto assurance who yet hath reached unto Hope What great matter is it if I lay in greatest pain if I can say I shall have everlasting ease in Heaven Or if I lay in prison or in sordid poverty and can say I shall shortly be with Christ Or if I had lost the love of all men and could say that I shall everlastingly enjoy the Love of God Most of your comforts do come in by the way of your thoughts And what Thoughts should so rejoyce the soul as the thoughts of our abode with Christ for ever If a day in the Courts of God be so delightful what is ten thousand millions of ages in the Court of Glory and all then as fresh as at the first day There it is that our sin will be put off Our carnal enmity laid by our temptations will be over our enemies will all have done our fears and sorrows will be at an end Our desires will be accomplished Our differences be reconciled Our charity perfected and our expectations fully satisfied and Hope turned into full fruition O may I but be able with stronger faith and fuller confidence to say that Heaven is mine and when this tabernacle is dissolved I shall be with Christ my life and my death will be delightful and I need not complain for want of pleasure Let who will take the pleasures of the flesh may I but have this In prayer in meditation in holy conference in every duty it is the expectation of approaching blessedness that drops in sweetness into all No wonder if it can sweeten a course of duty when it can make light the greatest sufferings and turn pain into pleasure
our selves to be Ruled by him as our King to Learn of him as our Teacher to work for him as our Master to â—ight under him and follow him as our Captain and Commander Isa 63. 19. 9. 6. Luk. 19. 27. c. 3. Godliness containeth a Devotedness of our selves as Beneficiaries to God in Christ as our Great Benefactor in Love and Gratitude Or as Children to our Reconciled Father to Love him and thankfully obey him and depend on him and be happy in his Love 3. It is essential to Godliness and necessary to salvation that this Devotednesse to God be with a true Renunciation Resistance and Forsaking of the three great contraries or Enemies to God and us 1. Of the Devil as the Deceiver and Principle of wickedness 2. Of the world its Profits Honours and Pleasures as the baite by which the Devil would deceive us and steal away our hearts from God and take up our time and turn our thoughts from the one thing necessary 3. Of the Flesh as the rebelling faculty that would exalt it self above our Reason and be pleased before God and so would take its Pleasure as our felicity and End instead of the true felicity and End 4. It is Essential to Godliness subjectively that God have the preheminence above all Creatures 1. In the Habitual Estimation of our Judgements preferring him as the most Great and Wise and Good before all others 2. In the Wills habitual Consent and Choice refusing all in comparison of him and Choosing him as our Lord our Ruler and our Best and Consenting truly to the Relations in which he is offered to us 3. In the wills Resolution to seek him and obey him and endeavour to express these inward principles so as to prefer no Competiter before him 5. The Soul or Internal part of Godliness consisting Essentially in the things already mentioned the Body of it or Godliness expressive and visible consisteth in these three things 1. In our Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier our Owner Governour and Father or Benefactor It is essential to visible expressive Godliness that there be such a Covenant made and regularly it is to be solemnized by Baptisme And those that are Baptized in Infancie must necessarily renew and perform it themselves when they come to age and that understandingly deliberately freely and seriously 2. Godliness visible and expressive consisteth in our Profession of that devotedness to God and that forsaking of the Devil the world and the flesh which we have before described as the Essence of Internal Godliness and to which in the holy Covenant we oblige our selves Christ will be confessed before men and will be ashamed of them before God and Angels who are so far ashamed of him before men as ordinarily to refuse to own him and confess him The publike worshiping of God in Christ in Prayer Thansgiving Praises Sacrament is appointed as the Professings acts by which we openly own our Lord And therefore ordinarily the Assembling our selves together for this publike worship is not to be forsaken through negligence or fear but with Daniel we must pray though we are sure to be cast to the Lyons den For though no duty be at all times a duty yet the disowning of our God or denying him or being ashamed of him or inordinately afraid of man is at all times a sin and ordinarily and seasonably to Profess true Godliness our subjection and devotedness to God is essential to External Godliness 3. Visible Expressive Godliness doth essentially consist in the Practice of our fore-described Covenant and Profession That our faces be truly Heaven-wards and that our walk be in the way of God through we sometimes slip and stumble and if we step aside that we turn not back again but return by Repentance in our way that the drift and aime and bent of our lives be for God and our salvation and that there be in us no sin which truly and habitually we had not rather leave then keep And that our great business in the world be the pleasing of God and the saving of our souls and that neither Honours nor Profits nor Pleasures of the flesh have the preheminence and be preferred that Christ be not put under the Great ones of the world nor put after your commodity nor put off with the leavings of the flesh but that all be made to stoop to him and take his leavings All this is of necessity to salvation and essential to expressive Godliness By this time Reader thou mayst easily see 1. that Godliness is not an uneffectual opinion or dead belief If thou were the most Orthodox professour or Preacher in the world thou art ungodly if thou have no more All have not Faith that say the Creed The notional apprehension and the practical judgement are often contrary The opinion that is insufficient to change the Heart to move the will to renew the life shall prove insufficient to save the Soul 2. You may see that Godliness is not the adhearing to a Party though such a Party as pretendeth to some special excellency or calls it self the only Church or the purest Church It is a sin to make and cherish parties divisions and factions in the Universal Church and it is not Godliness to sin A Godly man through weakness may be of a sinful party but that is contrary to his Godliness He will worship God with his best and be where be may have best advantage to his Soul and therefore if he can will hold personal local communion with the best and purest congregations but not as separating from the rest and betaking himself to a Party set against the Church universal or a Party sinfully distant from others in the Church universal The grand design of the Devil is when men will needs look after Religion to make them believe that to be of such a Church or Party is to be Religious and to trust to that instead of Godliness for the saving of their Souls And carnal self-seeking Teachers are the principal instruments of this deceit who for their honour or commodity would draw away Disciples after them and make poor Souls believe that they must be their followers or of their side or opinion or Church if they will be saved The Papist saith You must follow the Pope and be of our Church or you are no true Catholicks nor in the true Church and cannot be saved And some other Sects say the like of their Churches And how many thousand ungodly wretches do think to be saved because they are such a Church or party But the Catholick or Universal Church is the whole company of Believers Headed only by Christ and Godliness must prove thee a Living member of this society unless thou wilt be burnt with the withered branches And God will never condemn any one that is truly Godly because be is not of this sect or party or of that And the Papists that are the
beholdeth them and his Affections relish them as united all in God 1. As their spring from whom they flow 2. And as the Life by whom they are all animated and as the matter and sense which they signifie and import 3. And as their end to which they tend and in which they all terminate and agree Many branches are but One Tree and have One Stock and many members are One body because they are animated with One soul Many letters syllables and words may make One sentence and many leaves may make One Book and treat but of One subject Many actions of a Plow-man are called Plowing and of a Weaver Weaving c. as being all united in One end I know these similies have their dissimilitude but this is the summe that It is God that the Believer seeth and seeketh and loveth and converseth with and intendeth in all the Ordinances of grace in all his duties and in all the creatures and in God they are united and One thing to him He hath nothing to do at Church or at home in private or publike but live to God and seek after the everlasting enjoyment of him If weakness and temptation put any other business into his hands he is so far stept out of the Christian way In his very common labours and mercies so far as he is Holy God is to him the spring the life the sweetness the beauty the strength the meaning and the end of all and therefore All in All. But the creatures in the hands and use of the ungodly or of the godly so far as they use them sinfully have no such Unity Though in themselves they so depend on God that none can make a separation nor can they at all exist without him yet in the sense estimation ends and use of the ungodly the creatures are separated from God and are as branches cut off from the tree and departing from God these men are gone from Unity and are lost distracted and confounded in the multitude of the creatures and will never have Unity till they return 〈…〉 God III. In the next place let us consider What is the Necessity â—…t is here spoken of and How far this One thing is Necessary 〈…〉 And 1. One thing is Necessary Morally for it self which â—…ur ultimate end When other things are Necessary but for â—…t 2. Comprehensively of the Means we may say that One thing â—…t is Sanctification is Necessary to the Pleasing of God which â—…o be regarded 1. As the end of Obedience and 2. As the end 〈…〉 Love by the obedient soul in way of duty and by the loving â—…l devoted to God as its Delight The world hath many contrary Masters and therefore hath â—…ny things to do to please them and when they have done â—…ir best they cannot please them all but may leave more disâ—…ased then they please For those that they must please expect 〈…〉 possibilities and many a single person perhaps may look for 〈…〉 much as you can give to all And they have such contrary â—…rests which you must serve if you will please them and conâ—…y minds which you must humour that the same things that 〈…〉 expects to please him will vehemently displease another and â—…rhaps the more displease the other because it is pleasing to â—…t one And our selves have our contrarieties in our selves and are as â—…rd to be pleased by others or our selves We have our sensual â—…sires which are unreasonable and inordinate unseasonable and â—…portunate and will take no Nay A sensual covetous ambiâ—…ous fantasie is a bottomless vessel Your pouring in doth no â—…hit fill it It is a devouring gulf a consuming that I say â—…ot an unquenchable fire Like the horse-leech it cryeth â—…ive Give and the more you give the more it craveth and is â—…ever less satisfied then when it hath glutted it self with that â—…rom which it seeketh satisfaction But God is One and with this One thing is he pleased even with a Holy heart and life He hath no contradictory interests or assertions and therefore hath no contradictory commands â—hat which must please him must be suitable to his blessed nature He is infinite in Wisdom and therefore hath no pleasure in fools that bring him sacrifice and refuse obedience and know not that they do evil Eccles 5. 1. and have not the wit to know what they do and whom they speak to and to know that which only is worth the knowing How often do we read him rejecting the sacrifice of the wicked and casting their costliest offerings in their faces as things that he abhorreth when they come to him without that humble loving and obedient heart which he requireth Psalm 50. 8 c. Isa 1. 11 12. to ver 20. Their oblations are vâ—in the multitude of their sacrifie is to no purpose and incense is an abomination to him their Feasts and Sabbothâ— his soul hateth they are a trouble to him he cannot bear them if they come without the One thing necessary Without this he careth not for their fastings or formalities Isa 58. 5. It is not thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oyle nor the fruit of their body if they would give it for the sin of their soul that he will accept But he hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God Mic. 6. 7 8. The conclusion of the whole matter is this Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man Eccles 12. 13. You are never the better beloved of God for being Rich or honourable in the world nor yet because you are poor or in a mean condition nor because you are sick or well weak or strong comely or uncomely but because you Love him through his Son and Believe in him whom the Father hath sent John 16. 27. Without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. The new man must be put on which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him where there is neither Greek â—â—r few Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all Col. 3. 10 11. For in Christ Jesus circumcision availâ—th nothing nor uncircumcision but a New Creature and Faith that works by Love and the keeping of the commands of God Gal. 5. 6. 6. 15. 1 Cor. 7. 19. This One thing even Godllness which is profitable to all things is necessary in us supposing the necessaries in Christ to render us acceptable to the Holy God and without this all the accomplishments imaginable will make us but as sounding brass or as a tinkling Cymbal 1 Cor. 13. 1. 3. One thing is needfull to the saving of our souls without which all things else are vain There are many wayes to Hell but to Heaven there is but One There are a thousand wayes to delude and blind a soul but only one for its true and saving illumination
not be desired simply and ultimately for it self As you must pray but for your daily bread and be content with food and rayment so you must see that these be but for better things even in order to the doing of the Will of God the promoting of his Kingdom and the Hallowing of his Name which must be first and most desired The order of your duty is to seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and then other things are promised with it Matth. 6. 33. and therefore for it must be desired and sought And if your very food and life must be desired but for this everlasting End then it is still but one thing that is necessary and finally to be desired For the Means is willed but with an imperfect willing because not for it self and that only hath our full and perfect Love which is Loved for it self Even in the act of Love unto the Means it is more properly the End that is Loved then the Means and the Means is chosen for that End So that you see that for all the necessity of creatures and of diligence in our Callings the truth is still clear that it is only One thing that is truly Necessary Use THE understandidg is the subservient faculty to let in that light which may by direction and excitation guide the will Having shewed you the Truth I am next to shew you how you may improve it and so to apply it as may best help you to apply it to your selves And if I should here fall upon things impertinent or make it my work to claw your ears or exalt my self in your esteem by an unseasonable ostentation of learning or eloquence or carry on any such corrupt design while I should faithfully do the work of God my Text it self would openly condemn me If One thing be needful it is that One that I must do my self while I am exhorting you to do it And woe be to me if I should lay by that to do any other unnecessary work even to fish for the applause of Carnal wits while my very subject is the Reproofs of Christ against a much more tolerable error And as to the manner of my admonition if One thing be needful I hope you will allow me to be as plain and serious as I can about this One And my first address to you shall be for tryall And I shall make it now my earnest request to you that you â—ill bethink you how much you are concerned to compare your â—arts and lives with this passage and judge your selves by the Word of God that is now before you And for your own sakes â—â— it seriously and faithfully as passengers that are hasting to the â—â—eat Assize What say your Consciences Sirs to this Question Have you indeed lived in the world as men that believe that One thing is necessary Hath this One had your chiefest care and labour and have you chosen rather to neglect all other things then â—is Look behind you and judge of the course that you have taken by the light of this one text I do not ask you Whether you have heard that One thing is Necessary nor whether you have talked of it and confessed it to be true nor whether you have been called Christians by your selves and others and have come to Church and forborn those sins that would have most â—â—emished your honour in the world This is nothing to the question Thus many thousands do that were never acquainted with the One thing Necessary Nor do I ask you Whether you have used to allow God half an hours lip-service or formal â—rowsie prayer at night when you have served the world and â—â—esh all day Nor whether you have been Religious on the by and given God some lean devotion which cost you little and which your flesh can spare without any great diminution or deâ—iment in its ease and honour and profit and sensual delights Nor whether you run to some kinde of duties of Religion to make all whole when you come from wilful reigning sin and so make Religion a fortress to your lusts to quiet your Consciences while you serve the flesh I confess such a kind of Religioussess as this the world is acquained with But this is unanswerable to the Rule before us But the question is Whether this One thing hath been the Treasure and Jewel of your estimation the darling of your affections the prize of your most diligent endeavours and the only felicity of your souls Sirs as lightly as you hear this question now you will One day find that your lives yea your salvation lyeth upon your answer to it Can you say truly as before the searcher of hearts that it is he that hath had your hearts That this One thing hath been more esteemed by you than all the world besides That other things have all stooped unto this One and served under it And that this hath had the stream of your heartiest affections and the drift of your endeavours and hath been the matter that you have had first to do and the thing for which you have lived in the world If this be not so never talk of your Christianity for shame Your Religion is vain if this be not your Religion Alas I know that we have all of us yet too much of the flesh and are too cold in our affections and too slow and uneven in our endeavours for our end But yet for all that I must still tell you as I have often done because it is necessary that here lyeth the difference between the truly sanctified soul and all the hypocrites and half-Christians in the world Every true Christian is devoted unto God and hath made an hearty and absolute resignation of himself and all that he hath unto him and therefore loveth him with his superlative most appretiative love and serveth him with the best he hath and thinks nothing too good or too dear for God and for the attainment of his everlasting Rest Christ hath the chiefest room in his heart and the bent and drift of his life is for him He studyeth how he may best serve and please him with his time his interest and all that he hath and if he fall as it is contrary to the habitual resolution of his soul and contrary to the scope and current of his heart and life so he riseth again by repentance with sorrow for his sin and loathing of himself and sincerely endeavours to amend and goeth on resolvedly in his holy course This is the state of every one that is in a state of life But for all hypocrites and half-Christians their case is otherwise The world and flesh is dearest to them and highest in their practical estimation though not in their speculative and it hath their highest affections of Love and Delight and the very bent and stream of heart and life while God is served heartlesly on the by for fear lest they be damned when they can enjoy
the world and sin no longer and is put off with the leavings of the flesh and hath no more of their hearts their tongues their time their wealth then it can spare They ask their flesh how far they shall be Religious and will go no further then will stand with their prosperity in the world With the first and best they serve the flesh and with the cheapest and the refuse they serve the Lord When they go highest in their out-side carnal Religiousness they go not beyond this hypocritical reserved state and usually as Cain they hate Abel for offering a more acceptable sacrifice God must take up with this from them or â—â— without They alway serve him with this reserve though it 〈…〉 not alwayes explicite and discerned by them Provided that â—â— may go well with me in the world and I may have some competent proportion of honour profit or pleasure and Religion may not â—â—ose me to be undone If God will not take them on these 〈…〉 as most certainly he never will he must go look him â—â—â—er servants and so he will and make them know at last 〈…〉 their sorrow that he needed not their service but it was 〈…〉 that needed him and the benefits of his service I thought meet though I have done it oft before to give â—â—â— this difference between the Hypocrite and the sincere And â—â—w it is my earnest request unto you all that you will presently â—â— your souls to an account and know which of these two â—â—rses you have taken and which of these two is your own â—â—ondition If nature had made you such strangers to your selves as that 〈…〉 were unable to answer such a question I would never trouble 〈…〉 with it but I suppose by faithful enquiry you may know 〈…〉 much of your selves if you are but willing You know where it is that you have dwelt and what it is that you have been â—â—â—ng in the world and you can review the actions of your lives though they have been of smaller consequence Why then may 〈…〉 not quickly know if you will so great a thing as What hath â—â— the very End and Business for which you have lived in the â—â—rld till now Have you been running so long and know not â—â— what is the prize that you have run for Have you forgot the â—â— and that you have been so long going on Have you been â—â—sie all your daies till now and know not about what or why â—ertainly this is a thing that may be known if you are willing and â—igent to know it It is for one of these two that you have â—â—ed for the world or for God To please your flesh or to â—ease God and be saved Either to make provision for Earth or â—raven Which of these is it Deal plainly with your selves â—or your salvation is deeply concerned in the account Perhaps you will say that It was for both for as you have a soul and a body so you must look to both Yea but so as one â—â—at knoweth that One thing is Needful As your body is but â—â—e prison the case the servant of your souls so it must be proâ—â—ded for and used but as a servant and maintained only in a fitâ—ess for its work But the question is Which of them hath had the preheminence Which hath had the life of your affections and endeavours Which of them was your end and about which hath been the chief business that you have most carefully and diligently carryed on This is the great question You cannot have two masters though you may have many instruments and fellow-servants You cannot acceptably serve God if you serve Mammon Every wicked man may do somthing in Religion and every good man may do something that is contrary to Religion A carnal man may do something for God and for his soul and a spiritual man ought to do something subordinately for his body and too often alas doth something for it inordinately But which bears the sway and which is first sought and which comes behind and hath but the leavings of the other Be not deceived God is not mocked Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap If you sow to the flesh of the flesh you shall reap corruption but if you sow to the spirit of the spirit you shall reap everlasting life Gal. 6. 7 8. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world for themselves for if any man love the world with his chiefest Love the Love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2. 15. Is it not a wonder that any reasonable man can be such a stranger to himself as not to know what he lives for and what hath had his heart and what hath been the principal business of his life Some by-matters you may easily forget or over-look but can you do so by your end which hath been your chiefest care and business If indeed you no more know your own minds nor what you have all this while been doing in the world ask those that you have conversed with and judge by the effects and signs Others can tell what you have most seriously talked of They may conjecture by their observation what you have most carefully sought and resolutely adhered to Whether it be God or the flesh this world or Heaven The One thing Needful or the many troubling trifles in your way It is like that wise and godly observers can help you to discern it though sensualists will but deceive you A mans Love at least his chiefest Love cannot be hid but will appear in his behaviour If you Love God above the world you will seek him and his Glory before the world and if you do so it may partly be discerned if you have conversed with discerning men Heaven and earth are not so like nor the way to each of them so like but it may partly be discerned which way men are going and what they drive at in their daily course But I will urge you no further to the tryal I will take it for granted that your Consciences are telling many of you that you have been troubled about many things while the One thing Needful hath been neglected And if indeed this be your case suffer me to tell the guilty plainly what it is that they have done 1. Whatever you have been doing in the world you have lost your Time if you have not been seeking the One thing necessary If you have been gathering riches or growing up in honour as the rush groweth in the mire Job 8. 11. or filling your purses or your barnes or pleasing your fantasies and flesh you have but fooled away your time and done just nothing and much worse Nothing is done if the One thing Necessary be undone Believe it Time is a precious thing and ought not to have been thus cast away When you come to the end of it the worst and proudest of you shall confess it is precious Then O for one year more
all your life-time that should make a wise man judge you Reasonable Is that your Reason to be penny wise and pound foolish to be wise to do evil and to have no knowledge to do good Jerem. 4. 22. To run up and down for I know not what and to leave that undone that you were created and redeemed for Can you think that it is Reasonable to make such ado for the air of dying mens applause and to be well thought of or to live like Gentlemen or to the contentment of a fleshly mind when you know that you are just ready to pass out of this world into an endless life of Joy or Torment yea certainly of torment if you thus hold on Where all these things will afford you no relief or benefit but the memory of your course will be the fuell of your misery Can that man be wise that damns his soul Can he deserve the name of a sober man that will sell his salvation for so short so small so filthy a pleasure as sin affordeth Is he worthy the name or reputation of a wise man that hath not wit enough to scape eternal fire nor wit enough to forbear laying hands upon himself and doing all this against his own soul What think you is not the case here plain enough Be not offended if I speak yet plainlyer to you for in a case so lamentable how can we be too plain or serious Suppose you knew a Prince or Lord that had an itch upon him which the Physicion offereth speedily and easily to cure but he hath so much pleasure in scratching that he doth not only refuse the cure lest it deprive him of his delight but he will give his Kingdom or Lordship to one that will scratch him but a little while though he be sure to live a beggar after it all his dayes I put it to your selves What name you would give this man or what esteem you would have of him Do you think that any ungodly worldly person is wiser than this man Alas their case is so much worse that there is no comparison They are more foolish then your hearts can now conceive or then I am able fully to express You have now the itch of Pride and Lust and your throats must be pleased in your meats and drinks and you itch after riches and honour and recreations and Christ telleth you by his Word that these are but your sick desires and that the pleasing of them tends to kill you and he offereth you for nothing a safe and certain and speedy cure But you refuse it and will not hearken to him You must be scratcht whatever it cost you You must have your riches and honour and fleshly pleasure as the felicity which you cannot part with though it cost you your salvation Though God be neglected and his favour lost and your souls be lost and the One thing needful cast aside you must have your carnal imaginations gratified And is this your wisdom The Lord bless us from such a kind of wisdom Yet this is not the worst I will shew you one strain more of the distraction of the ungodly world If these men do but see one person of an hundred that are more diligent for Heaven then carth to fall into Melancholy or distress of soul or suppose it were into some loss of reason they presently cry out against Religion and strictness and preciseness and making so much ado to be saved and say it is the way to make men mad Hence comes the proverb of the Papists Spiritus Calvinianus est spiritus melancholicus and of the prophane among our selves that A Puritane is a Protestant frightned out of his wits They dare not study the Scripture so much nor meddle with such high matters as their salvation nor be so godly nor meditate on the world to come lest it should drive them out of their wits O miserable men As if it were possible for you to be more dangerously mad then you are already Unless by growing unto greater wickedness Do you lay out your wit and strength and time in feeding a corruptible body for the grave and spend your lives in running after your own shaddows while your everlasting life is forgotten or neglected Do you sell your Saviour with Judas for a little money and change your part in God and Glory for the brutish pleasures of sin for a season And are you afraid of altering this course of life and turning to God lest it should make you mad Lord what a besotting thing is sin What a cunning cheater is the Devil What a deluded distracted sort of people are the ungodly Will you run from God from Christ from Grace from mercy from Scripture from the godly and from Heaven it self for fear of being mad Why what greater madness can you fear then this What worse is humane nature capable of Unless it be the addition of a further measure of the same and unless it be to hold on in that way and persecute the contrary with such like aggravations of your madness I know not of any worse that you should fear Will you run to Hell to prove your selves to be in your wits Again I say the Lord bless us from such a kind of wit Nay Hell it self hath no such distractedness as yours The difference between the One thing needful and your many things is there better though too late understood Is Loving God the way to be mad and loving the world and fleshly pleasures the way to be wise Is conversing with God in humble prayer and believing his love and loving him and delighting in him and speaking of his name and word and works unto his praise and hoping to live with him for ever I say is this which is the work of a Believer a liker course to make men mad then serving the Devil and drudging in the world and living under the curse of God and in continual danger of damnation What men are they that dare entertain such horrid and unreasonable suggestions I confess we are not unacquainted with the sadness and melancholy that some persons have contracted by Religious employments and perhaps one of a thousand may lose their wits But I must tell you all these folowing points that will shew you that Religion is not to be blamed for it nor avoided 1. It is ordinarily persons of the weaker sex or of very weak brains and very strong passions that are naturally inclined to it and are not able to bear any long and serious thoughts about matters of that moment which are apt to make the deepest impressions But persons that naturally are of sound and calme dispositions are seldom troubled with any such affects 2. It is usually the case of persons that mistake the nature of Religion though not in the main yet in some particulars of great concernment That study not sufficiently the Love of God declared to us in our Redeemer but feed their griefs and troubles only by
the thoughts of their own infirmities and that consider not that the chief part of Religion doth consist in Love and Joy in the Holy Ghost and in Thanksgiving and delightful praising our Creator So that it is not long of Religion if men will leave out the chief parts of Religion and make themselves a Religion of so much only as may breed their trouble 3. And I must further tell you that as I have had opportunity of knowing the state of as many troubled distempered minds as any one of you whoever he be so I must needs bear witness that I have met with many that have been distracted by worldly cares or sorrows or discontents for one that ever I knew distracted with the cares about the matter of their salvation And yet though it be worldly care and sorrow that most commonly bringeth death and madness you will not therefore give over your Callings and resolve that you will meddle no more with meat or drink or cloathes or houses or lands or friends or children Nay it were well if you would be brought to moderation and taken off your inordinate desires 4. And yet in the conclusion I must tell you that though I know that the loss of a mans understanding is a very grievous affliction and such as I hope God will never lay upon me yet I had a thousand times rather go distracted to Bedlam with the excessive care about my salvation then be one of you that cast away the care of your salvation for fear of being distracted and will go among the infernal Bedlams into hell for fear of being mad The height of your carnal wisdom is more deplorable then their distraction For God will condemn no man because he is distracted nor so much as blame him for it unless as it is the fruit of sin no more then he will condemn or blame an Ideot or a beast because they have no use of reason If David had been as he seigned himself to be 1 Sam. 21. 13 14. it would not have cast him out of Gods favour so far as one sin did much less so far as the ungodly are A man may go to Heaven from such a madness But you that have Reason for the world but none for God that are wise to do evil that have wit to destroy your selves and serve the flesh but none to look after your recovery and salvation it s you that shall have the stripes the many the great the endless stripes You that have so much wit as that you glory in it and think your selves wiser then the rest of the world and yet have not wit to know and love and serve your maker nor to value and seek first the One thing necessary it is you that will prove the miserable fools If you had not had a natural capacity of understanding you had had no sin But now you have no cloak for your sin when you have the worldly wisdom which is foolishness with God and have a sinning self-destroying wit and are wilfully void of the wisdom that should save you 1 Cor. 1. 25. 3. 19. Jer. 8. 9. when you have not a necessitated but a voluntary distraction and this is your condemnation that Light is come into the world and you have loved darkness rather then Light because your deeds were evil John 3. 19. If you think this wilfull and sensless neglect of the One thing needfull is not a sufficient evidence to prove that miserable distraction which I charge upon you will you but believe your Maker and let the word of God be Judge between us and mark what language it giveth to such as I now describe 2 Thess 3. 2. Jer. 4. 22. Eccles 7. 25. 2 Pet. 2. 12. Psalm 92. 6. 94. 8. Jer. 10. 8. 14. Deut. 32. 6. Psalm 73. 3. 22. 2 Sam. 14. 10. In these places your course hath no better titles than unreasonable foolish brutish sottish c. even from the God of Wisdom himself who is the fittest to give you the character that you deserve When you have truly considered of your way if indeed you find that you have dealt like wise men hold on and say so at the last when you have eaten the fruit of your doing and have seen the End 5. Furthermore Consider that what ever else you have been doing in the world if the one thing necessary be yet undone you have lost and abused all the mercies that God hath bestowed on you Many a thousand pretious mercies have been given you And to what use but to help you to everlasting mercy and to prevent your everlasting misery This is the End and this is the Life and excellency of all your mercies For all present mercies have the Nature of a Means to a further End And the Goodness and nature of the Means consisteth in its fitness to promote the End And therefore you have lost all the Mercies that you have received if you are never the nearer your End for them and if they have not promoted the Love of God and your salvation You have had health and strength and time and peace and liberty and some of you also wealth and honour in the world But you have lost them all if your salvation be not furthered by them Many a preservation you have had when others have been cut off before your faces and many a deliverance from dangers known or unknown and much of the fruit of that Patience of God which hath till now attended you in your sin Many a Sermon you have heard and many a warning you have had and you have been planted in God Vineyard and daily watered with the Ordinances of grace But all these are lost if the One thing necessary hath been neglected Nothing in this world doth you good indeed any further then it promoteth your Everlasting good And do you think that you have dealt kindly or justly with God to deal so contemptuously with all his mercies as to cast them away and tread them under foot When you want but food or rayment or liberty or health you value them and pray for them and when you have them what do you with them but throw them as in the channel and sacrifice them to your lusts and enemies When Death looketh you in the face you begin to know the worth of Time and then O what would you not give for a little more and that God would try you a few years longer And when you have Time what do you with it but serve the Devil and cast it away for nothing and spend it in preparing for everlasting sorrows How can you for shame cry to God for Mercy in your next distress when you have contemptuously thrown away the Mercies of twenty or thirty or forty years already If your own children should ask you for meat or drink and when they have it should throw it to the dogs or ask you for money and cast it into the dirt and do thus an hundred
or by Policy they would rob you of your Portion they cannot do it For which way should they do it They cannot turn the heart of God against you nor make him break his Covenant with you nor repent him of his Gift and Calling which he hath extended to you For he is unchangeable and loveth you with an everlasting love Mal. 3. 6. Jer. 31. 3. Isa â—â—â— 8. Jer. 33. 20 21 23. 50. 5. Rom. 11. 29. They cannot undermine the rock that you are built upon nor batter the fortress of your souls nor overcome your great Preserver and Defence nor take you out of the hands of Christ Psal 73. 26. 31. 2 3. 62. 2. 59. 9 16. Joh. 10. 28. Cast not away the salvation that is offered you and then never fear least it be taken from you See that you chuse the better part and resolvedly chuse it and it will be certainly your own for ever For man cannot take it from you nor Devils cannot take it from you and God will not take it from you Rust and moths will not corrupt this Treasure nor can thieves break through and steal it from you Mat. 6. 19 20. But you cannot say so of worldly riches If you chuse to be Lords and Princes on the earth you cannot have your choice but if you could you cannot keep it If you chuse the wealth and credit of the world and were sure to get it you were as sure to leave it For naked you came into the world and naked you must go out Job 1. 21. If you chuse your ease and mirth and pleasure these will be taken from you If you chuse the satisfying of your fleshly desires and all the delight and prosperity that the world can afford you yet all must be taken from you Yea quickly and easily taken from you Alas one stroak of an Apoplexy or a few fits of a Fever or the breaking of a small vein or many hundred of the like effectual means are ready at the beck of God to take you from all that you have gathered for your flesh And then whose shall all these things be None of yours I am sure nor will they redeem your souls from death or hell Luke 12. 20. Psalm 49. 7. If you be in honour you abide not in it but are as to your body as the beasts that perish If you think to perpetuate your houses and your names this your way is but your â—olly though your posterity go on to approve your sayings and succeed you in your sins Psalm 49. 11 12 13. The worldly wise man doth perish with the fool as sheep they 〈◊〉 laid in the grave Death shall feed on them and the upright shall have Dominion over them in the morning ver 10 14. They shall soon be cut down like the grass and whether as the green herb Psal 37. 2. I have seen the wicked in great prosperity and spreading himself like a green bay-tree yet he passed away and loe he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found v. 35 36. You think it a fine thing to have the fulness of the creature to be esteemed with the highest and fed and cloathed with the best and fare deliciously every day as the rich man Luke 16. but hath he not paid dear think you for his riches and pleasure by this time His feeding and fulness was quickly at an end but his torment is not yet ended nor ever will be You think it a brave thing to clamber up to riches and that which you call greatness and honour in the world but how quickly how terribly must you come down Go into the Sanctuary of God and understand your end Surely God hath set them in slippery places and casteth them down into destruction How are they brought to desolation as in a moment They are utterly consumed with terrours As a dream when one awakeneth so at the awakening shall their Image or shadow of honour be despised Psalm 73. 17 18 19 20. How short is the pleasure and how long is the pain How short is the honour and how long is the shame What is it under the Sun that is everlasting You have friends but will they dwell with you here for ever You have houses but how long will you stay in them It is but as yesterday since your houses had other Inhabitants and your Towns and Countries other Inhabitants and where are they all now You have health but how soon will you consume in sickness You have life but how soon will it end in death You have the pleasure of sin you say unto your selves Eat drink and be merry but how soon will all the mirth be mar'd and turned into sadness everlasting sadness When you hear Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul and then whose shall these things be Luke 12. 20. Oh miserable wretch If thou hadst chosen God instead of thy sin and the everlasting Kingdom instead of this world thou wouldst not have been thus cast off in thy extremity God would have stuck better to thee Heaven would have proved a more durable Inheritance For it is a Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. The day is near when thy despairing soul must take up this lamentation My dearest friends are now forsaking me I must part with all that I laboured for and delighted in I have drunk up all my part of pleasure and there is no more left My merry company and honours and recreations are past and gone I shall eat and drink and sport no more but God would not have used me thus if I had set my heart upon him and his Kingdom Oh that I had chosen him and made him my portion and spent these thoughts and cares and labours for the obtaining of his love and promised Glory which I spent for the pleasing and providing for my flesh Then I should have had a happiness that death could not deprive me of and a Crown that fadeth not away Neither life nor death nor any creature could have separated me from his love I need not then have gone out of the world as a prisoner out of the Gaol to the â—â—rr and to the place of execution My departing soul should not then need to have been afraid of falling into the hands of an unreconciled God and so into the hands of the Devils as his executioners nor of passing out of the flesh to hell Oh poor sinners for how short a pleasure do you sell your hopes of everlasting Blessedness and run your selves into endless pains O what comparison is there between the time of your pleasure and the everlastingness of your Punishment How short a while is the cup at your mouthes or the drink in your bellies or the harlot in your embracements or the wealth of the world in your Possession And how long a time must you pay for this in hell How quickly are your merry hours past but your torments will never be past
every word of thy mouth and every penny of thy wealth in the way that he requireth it is it any more then is his due Should not he have all that is Lord of all Quest 2. Is it not the first and great Commandment Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and might And do not heathens confess this by the light of nature And hath not thy tongue confest it many a time And doth not thy conscience yet bear witness that it is thy duty And is it possible thou shouldst thus Love him with all thy heart and soul and might and yet not seek and serve him with all thy heart and soul and might Or can the most sanctified person do any more if he were perfect Quest 3. Dost thou not confess that we are all sinners And that the best is still too bad And that he that loveth and serveth God most doth yet come exceeding short of his duty And yet wouldst thou have such men come shorter and darest thou perswade them to do less Must not the best confess their daily failings and beg pardon of them from the Lord and be beholden to the blood of Christ and lament their imperfections And yet wouldst thou have them be such odious hypocrites as to think they serve God too much already while they confess that they come so short Shall they confess their failings and reproach those that endeavour to avoid the like Shall the same tongue say Lord be merciful to me a sinner and Lord I am good enough already What need there so much ado to please and serve thee any better What would you think of such a man Quest 4. Is it not an unquestionable duty to grow in grace and to press towards perfection as men that have not yet attained it 2 Pet. 3. 18. Phil. 3. 12 13 14. And must Paul and Peter and the holyest on earth still seek to grow and labour to be more holy and shall such a one as thou say What need I be any more holy that art utterly unsanctified Quest 5. Is it not one of the two grand Principles of faith and all Religion without which no man can please God Heb. 11. 6. Whoever cometh to God must believe first that God is that there is a God most powerful wise and good secondly that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him yea this is one of natures principles It is the Diligent seekers of God that he will reward And yet dare a fleshly negligent sinner reproach the diligent seeking of God and take it for a needless thing and say What needs all this ado Are not these the Atheists seconds even next to them that deny that there is any God or that blasphemâ— him And indeed if he be not worthy of all the Love and service that thou canst give him he is not the true God! Consider therefore the tendency of thy words and tremble Quest 6. Doth not that wretch set up the flesh and the world aboâ—â— the Lord that thinks not most of his thoughts and cares and words and time and labour for the world to be too much ado and yet thinks less for God and heaven to be too much And dost thou think in thy conscience that the flesh is better worthy of thy Love and care and labour then the Lord or that earth will prove a better reward to thee then Heaven Who thinkest thou will have the better bargain in the end The fool that laid up riches for himself and was not rich to God and shall lose all at once that he so much valued and so carefully sought Luke 12. 20 21. or he that laid up his treasure in Heaven and there set his heart and sought for the never fading Crown Matth. 6. 20 21 33. and counted all as loss and dung for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 8. Do you think that there is any thing more worth your care and time and labour or can you more profitably lay it out Quest 7. Have you not immortal souls to save or lose And are not your bodies for their service and to be used and ruled by them And should not your souls then have more of your care and diligence then corruptible flesh that must turn to dirt Quest 8. Dare any one of you say that you are wiser then the All-knowing God Is not thy wisdom less to his then a glow-worms light is to the Sun And hath not God most plainly and frequently in his Word commanded thee a holy life Yea every part and parcell of it is nothing else but the obeying of that Word For if it be not prescribed by the Lord it is not Holiness nor that which I am pleading for And when the living God hath told the world his mind and will shall a sinful man stand up and say I am wiser then my Maker I know a better way then this What need there all this stir for Heaven What dost thou less then thus blaspheme and set up thy folly above the wisdom of the Lord when thou condemnest or reproachest the holiness which he commandeth Quest 9. Dare you say that God is not only so unwise but so unrighteous and tyranical as to give the world unnecessary Laws and set them upon a needless work What King so tyranical as would require his subjects on pain of death to go pick straws against the wind What Master or Parent so foolishly cruel as to command their servants or children to weary themselves with hunting butter-flies and following their own shadows And darest thou impute such foolish tyrannie to the God of heaven as if he had made a world and set them upon a needless work and commanded them to tire themselves in vain Quest 10. Can a man be too diligent about that work which he was made for and is daily preserved and maintained for and for which he hath all the mercies of his life Thou hadst never come into the world but on this business even to serve and please God and prepare for everlasting happiness And are you afraid of doing this too diligently Why is it thinkest thou that God sustaineth thee Why dyedst thou not many years ago but only that thou mightest have time to seek and serve him Was it only that thou mightest eat and drink and sleep and go up and down and fill up a room among the living Why beasts and fools and mad-men do all this as well as thou Why hast thou thy Reason and understanding but to know and serve the Lord Is it only to know how to shift a little for the commodities of the world Or is it not to know the way to life eternal Look round about thee on all the creatures and on all the mercies which thou dost possess every deliverance and priviledge and accommodation every bit of bread thou eatest and every hour of thy precious time are all given thee for this One thing needful And yet wilt thou
to hunger and thirst or cold or weariness or shame or pain nor any of the frailties that now adhere unto them but be made like the glorified body of Christ 7. The Souls of the Saints united to these Bodies shall also be Perfected having far larger capacity to know God and enjoy him then now we have being freed from all ignorance errour unbelief pride hard-heartedness and whatsoever sin doth now accompany us and perfected in every part of the Image of God upon us 8. The eyes of the Glorified Body shall in Heaven have a Glory to behold that is suitable to their Bodily capacity Heaven being not a place where the Essence of God is confined but where a prepared glory will be manifested to make Happy the Angels and Saints with Christ And whatever other senses the Glorified Bodies shall then have whether formally or eminently we cannot now conceive what they will be they will all be satisfied with suitable Delights from God 9. The Blessed person of our Redeemer in our Nature Glorified will there be the Everlasting object of our delightful iâ—â—uition and fruition An object suitable to the eye of the Glorified Body it self We shall for ever live in the sight of his face and in the sense of his unspeakable Love 10. The Glorified Soul whether mediately or immediately shall behold the Infinite most Blessed God and by knowing him be perfected in knowledge As we shall see the person of Jesus Christ and the glory of God with open face and not as in a glass as now we do so we shall know so much of the Essence of the Deity as we are capable of to our felicity 11. With the Knowledge of God and the Beatifical Vision will be joyned a perfect Love unto him and closure with his blessed will So that to Love him will be the everlasting employment of the soul 12. This Love will be drawn forth into everlasting praise and it will be our work before the Throne of his Glory to magnifie the Lord for ever 13. In all this Love and Praise and Glory and in the full fruition of the Eternal God we shall Rejoyce with full and perfect Joy and we shall have full content delight and rest 14. In all this Blessedness and Glory of the Saints the Glory of God himself will shine and Angels shall admire it and the condemned spirits with anguish shall discern it that God may be Glorified in our Glory 15. In all this Happiness of Believers and his own Glory the Lord will be well pleased and that Blessed Will which is the Beginning and the End of all will be accomplished and will have an Eternal complacency as the Saints shall have an endless complacency in God This is the Glory promised to the Saints This is that Good part which they choose I cite not the Texts of Scripture that prove all this because the things are all so plainly and frequently expressed in the premises And I shall have occasion to do somewhat of this anon And so in brief I have told you what the Good part is 2. We are next to enquire What it is that is put by worldly carnal men into the other end of the scales and is set up in comparison with all this Everlasting Glory Yea what it is that is preferred by ungodly men before it What is it that fin and the world will do for men What do they find that lose the Lord What do they get that miss of Heaven What do they choose tâ—â—â— refuse the Needful Better part And here I am even amazed at that which I must give you an account of O wonderful astonishing thing that ever such base unworthy trifles should by Reasonable men be put into any comparison with God! Wonderful that so much madness and wickedness can enter into the mind and heart of man as to let go all this Glory for a toy And yet more wonderful that this should be the case of the greatest part of men on earth And yet more wonderful that so mâ—â—y make so mad a choice even when the case is opened to them and plainly opened and frequently opened and when they are earnestly entreated to be wiser and importuned to make a better choice In a word All that is set against the Lord and All that is preferred before this Everlasting Life and All the Portion of ungodly men is no more then this The Pleasure of sin for a season The satisfying of the flesh A little ease and pelf and fair words from men as miserable as themselves and all this but for a little a very little time when Temperance is as sweet at least a little that is excessive or forbidden in wealth or meat or drink or cloathes or lust or other fleshly pleasures is the Joy and the Heaven and the God of the ungodly The fleshly pleasures which are common to the beasts and a little vain-glory among men and this for a short uncertain time and then to paâ—â— to everlasting punishment this is the chosen portion of the wicked This is All for which they refuse the Lord and for which â—â—â—y refuse a Holy life This is All 〈◊〉 which they part with 〈◊〉 and part with their Everlasting Peace This is All that they have for Heaven and their salvation and All for which they seâ—â— their souls To the everlasting shame of sin and sinners it shall be known that this was All To the abasing of our own soulâ— that sometime were guilty of this madness I shall tell you again that this is All To the humbling of the best to the conâ—ounding of the wicked and the amazement of us all I must say â—â—â—â— this is All This dirt this dream this cheat i◠〈…〉 wicked have for God and Glory This Nothing â—◠〈…〉 obstinately preferr and choose before him that 〈…〉 O wonderful madness stupidity and deceitâ— so 〈…〉 wilful and so uncureable till tender 〈…〉 cure it in them that shall be saved Well the ballance is now set before yoâ—… in the One end and in the other You see the 〈…〉 choose and the part that is chosen by the rest of the world And are you not yet resolved which is Best and which to choose TWo sorts I look to meet with here to whom I shall apply my self distinctly before I come to the comparative work First some will tell me that all these are needless words and that there is no man so senseless as to think that Temporal things are better then Eternal or the world then God or sin then Holiness Answ O that this were true how happy then were all the world I grant that many are superficially convinced that are not converted and that many have a slight opinion that Heaven and Holiness is best that yet have no Love to it and will not seek it above All. But their practical judgement doth not go along with their Opinions Thy relish the world as sweetest unto them In the prevailing deepest thoughts of their
Knowing that certain Duties are to be performed in order to the Pleasing of his Lord and what those Duties are which would not be if we were not capable of Pleasing him and so of being happy in him 5. Man is made capable of Desiring after the Everlasting Love of God and that above all things in this world And God hath not made such Desires in vain 6. Man is capable of Loving God as an Object Everlastingly to be enjoyed and that above all other things 7. Man also is capable of referring all the creatures unto God and using all things but as Means to this Everlasting end Thus do believers And surely all this is not in vain 8. Man is a Creature that cannot regularly be moved according to his nature to the performance of his Duty to God and Man unless it be by Motives fetcht from the life to come Take off that poise and all his orderly motion will soon cease Nothing below such Everlasting things are fit or sufficient Morally to govern him and cause him to live as man should live 9. He is possessed of actual fears of Everlasting Punishment and shall never perfectly overcome these fears by his greatest Unbelief 10. He is capable of fetching his highest Pleasures from the fore-thoughts of Everlasting Happiness and receiving from hence his encouragement in well doing and foretast of the Reward Now this being the Natural frame of man as is past denyal when Brutes have no such thing at all let Reason judge whether the God of Nature have made this nature of man in vain that we see hath suited every other creature to its use our horses to carry us and our Ox to draw for us and the earth to bear its several fruits for them and us And hath he mistaken only in the making of man and gone beyond his own Intention and fitted him for those uses and enjoyments that he was never meant for These are not Imputations to be cast upon the most wise and gracious God Quer. 10. Moreover I demand of you What is the End of man and all these special faculties if there be no life for him after this Either he hath an End which he is to intend or he hath â—one If none then he hath nothing to do in the world For all actions of man are nothing else but the Intending of some End and the choise and use of means for the attaining it Man must lie down and sleep out his days if this be true that he hath â—â— end Nay sleep it self hath some And he cannot choose but Intend some End and seek it if he would never so fain unless he will take some opiate stupifying potion or run mad And he that made him also and placed him here had some End in it For if man had thus no End he could have no Maker or Efficient cause For every Rational efficient intendeth an end in all his works And he that made men Rational is Eminently much more Knowing then his Creature And if we had no Maker then we have no Being and so are no Men. But if Man unquestionably have an End it is either something that is Nobler or Baser then himself and some state that is Better or Worse then that in which he seeks his end Baser it cannot be for that were Monstrous that Baser things should be the End of the more Noble Beasts are made for Man and therefore not Man for Beasts The Earth is made for Beasts and Men and therefore we are not made for the Earth Our Means is not our End If you grant that we are made for God that made us as nothing more sure then How is it that God can be our End if there be no life but this 1. Here we are but in seeking him and still are forced to complain that we fall short Here we are but in the use of means 2. We find that our Knowledge Desires and Love will here reach no higher then to carry us on towards that perfection that is in our eye and not to satisfie the soul The creature that doth attain his End hath Rest in it and is better then before But we have nothing here like Rest and should be in a worse condition hereafter if we had no more 3. Here we sin against the Lord and wrong him more then we serve him we know but little of him and his work and serve and praise him but a little and not according to the capacity of our nature And therefore if he have not a higher end for us and we a higher end to seek then any is in this world to be found our Natures seem to be in vain For my part though it be in weakness I must needs say it is my trade and daily work to serve my God and seek after an immortal blessedness And if I thought that there were no such thing to be had and no such use for me I must needs stand still and look about me or in my practice unman my self by a brutish life as I had brutified my self in my estimation and Intention For what 〈◊〉 I find to do in the world What should I do with my Reason and Knowledge or any faculty above a beast if I had no higher a work and end then beasts Verily if I had lost the Hopes of another life I knew not what to do with my self in the world but must become some other creature and live some other kind of life then now I live Quer. 11. Moreover I desire you to consider Whether it 〈◊〉 credible to a man of Reason that God made his noblest creature in this world with a Nature that should be a Necessary Misery and Vexation to it self above all the misery of the baser creatures and that the wiser any man is the more miserable he must needs be This is not credible Yet thus would it be if there were no life but this For 1. the Knowledge that man hath of a superiour Good which beasts have not would Tantalize him and torment him To know it and must not partake of it is to be used as a Horse that is tyed near his Provender which he must not reach 2. The Love and Desires and Hopes that I before described would all be our Vexation To Love and Desire that which we cannot attain and that with the chief of our Affections is but to make us miserable by vertue 3. To use all those Means and do the Duties before-mentioned in vain when we are not capable of the End is but to roll at Siâ—iphus stone and to be made to wash Blackamores or to fill a bottomless tub 4. No creature here but man hath Fears of any misery after death and therefore none would be here so miserable There is no Infidel but must confess that for ought hâ— knows there may be a life of punishment for the wicked And this may be will breed more fears in a confiderate man then Death it self alone could do 5.
Or if there were no Fear of that yet Man hath Reason to think before-hand of his Death and to think of his abode in Darkness which Beasts have not To think of being turned to â—â—tinking carrion and to a clod and so continuing for ever without any Hope of a Resurrection would be matter for continual horrour to a confidering man which Brutes are not molested with And wise men that can fore-see would be tormented more then fools All this is incredible that God should make his nobler creature to be Naturally most miserable and give him Knowledge and Affections and set a Certain Death and Possible Torment continually before his eyes to Torment him without any Remedy And besides the Hoped Life hereafter there is none Quer. 12. Do you think that the Belief of another life is needful or useful to the well governing of this world or not If you say no 1. Why then do Infidels and Brutists say that Religion is but the device of men for the Governing of the world and that without it subjects would not be Ruled You confess by this your frivilous objection that the world cannot be Ruled well without the Belief of a life to come 2. And it is most manifest from the very nature of man and from the common experience of the world 1. If man be well-governed it must be either by Laws containtng Rewards and penalties or without Not without For 1. All the world doth find it by experience that it cannot be and therefore every Common-wealth on earth is Governed by Laws either Written Customary or Verbal 2. If the Love of Vertue for it self should prevail with one of a thousand that would be nothing to the Government of the world 3. Nor could any man be effectually induced to love Vertue for it self according to the doctrine of the Brutists For Vertue it self is made no Vertue by them but a deformity of the mind while they overthrow the End and Object and Law that it is measured and informed by as I shall more fully open to you anon It is therefore most certain that no Nation is or can be Governed as beseemeth man without Proposed punishments and Rewards And if so then these must be either temporal punishments and benefits or such as are to be had in the Life to come That Temporal punishments and benefits cannot be Motives sufficient for any tolerable much less perfect or sufficient Government is a most evident Truth For 1. de facto we see by experience that no people live like men that be not Governed by the Belief of another life The Nations that believe it not are Savages almost all living naked and bestially and knowing nothing of vertue or vice but as they feel the commodity or discommodity to their flesh They eat the flesh of men for the most part and live as brutishly as they believe And if you say that in China it is not so I answer one part of them there believe the Immortality oâ— the soul and most of them take it as probable and so the Nation hath the Government which it hath from everlasting Motives And if you say that the antient Romans had a sufficient Government I answer 1. The most of them believed a life to come and it was but a few that denyed the Immortality of the soul and therefore it was this that Governed the Nations For those that believed another life had the Government of the few that did not believe it or else the Government it self had been more corrupt 2. And yet the faultiness of their belief appeared in the faultiness of their Government Every Tyrant took away mens lives at pleasure Every Citizen that had slaves which was common at pleasure killed them and cast them into the fish-ponds The servants secretly poysoned their masters and that in so great numbers that Seneca saith Epist 4. ad Lucul that the Number of those that were killed by their servants through treachery deceit or force was as great as of them that were killed by Kings which was not a few 2. It is apparent that the world would be a Wilderness and men like wild and ravenous beasts if they were not Governed by Motives from the Life to come 1. Because the Nature of man is so corrupt and vicious that we see how prone they are to evil that everlasting Motives themselves are too much uneffectual with the most 2. Every man naturally is selfish and therefore would measure all Good and Evil with referrence to themselves as it was commodious and incommodious to them And so vertue and vice would not be known much less regarded 3. By this means there would be as many Ends and Laws or Rules as Men and so the world would be all in a Confusion 4. If Necessity forced any to combine it would be but as Robbers and strength would be their Law and Justice and he that could get hold of another mans estate would have the best Title 5. All those that had but strength to do mischief would be under no Law nor have any sufficient Motive to Restrain them What should restrain the Tyrants of the world that rule over many Nations of the earth if they believe no Punishment after death but that their Laws and Practises should be as impious and bestial as their lusts can tempt them to desire What should restrain Armies from Rapes and Cruelty that may do it unpunished Or popular tumults that are secured by the multitude 6. And there would be no restraint of any villany that could but be secretly committed And a wicked wit can easily hide the greatest mischiefs Poysoning stabbing burning houses defaming adultery and abundance the like are easily kept secret by a man of wit unless a special Providence reveal them as usually it doth 7. At least the probability of secrecy would be so great and also the probability of sinful advantage that most would venture 8. And all those sins would be committed without scruple which the Law of man did appoint no punishment for as Lying and many odious vices 9. If one man or two or ten should be deterred from poysoning you or burning your houses or killing your cattle c. by humane Laws a thousand more would be let loose and venture 10. All the sins of the heart would have full Liberty and a defiled soul have neither cure nor restraint For the Laws and judgments of men extend not to the heart All the world then might live in the Hatred of God and of their neighbours and in daily Murder Theft Adultery Blasphemy of the heart Wit his they might be as bad as Devils and fear no punishment for man can take no cognizance of it And it is the heart that is the Mâ—n You see then what persons the Infidels and Brutists would have us all be What hearts and lives mankind should have according to their Laws Be Devils within and murder and deceive and commit adultery as much as you will so you have
world grew to no more experience and Arts and Sciences were ripened no more when now they have ripened in a shorter time How is it that Printing and Writing were not found out and that all Sciences and Arts are of so late invention and as it were but in their youth Certainly Knowledge is the daughter of Experience and Experience the daughter of Time and therefore if the world had been from eternity it must needs have been many a hundred thousand years ago at â— far higher state of Knowledge then is yet attained in the world For every age receiveth the experiences and writings of the former and hath opportunity still to make improvement of them At least the world could not have been ignorant so long of Printing Writing and a hundred things that are certainly of late invention It is therefore an incredible thing that an Eternal world should lose all the memorials and monuments of its Antiquity before the Scripture-time of the Creation And therefore doubtless it began but then Qu. 2. And if God were not the Author of the Scripture how come so many clear and notable Prophesies of it to be fulfilled How punctually doth David and Isaiah 53 describe the sufferings of Christ and Daniel foretell the very year and so of many others Qu. 3. And how comes it all to contain but one entire frame conspiring to reveal the same doctrine of grace and life at first more darkly and in types and promises and afterwards more clearly in performance when the writers lived at hundreds and thousands years distance from each other Qu. 4. And if thou hadst not a blinded prejudiced mind thou wouldst perceive an unimitable Majesty and spirituality in the Scripture and wouldst savour the spirit of God in it as its author and wouldst know by the image and superscription that it is the Word of God It beareth unimitably the Image of his Power and Wisdom and Goodness so that the blessed Author may to a faithful soul be known by the work Qu. 5. If the Scripture came not from the Spirit it could not give or cause the spirit and if it bore not Gods Image it self how could it print his Image upon the souls of so many thousands as it doth The Image of God is first engraven on the seal of his holy Doctrine and thereby imprinted on the heart There is no part of that holy change on man but what that holy Doctrine wrought If therefore the change be of God the Doctrine that wrought it is of God For both of them are the same Image answering each other as that on the seal and on the wax But it is most certain that the Holy change on the soul is of God The nature of it sheweth this For it consisteth in the destruction of our sin and the denyal of our selves and the raising the heart above this world and the total Devoting of our selves and all that we have to God and conforming our selves to his will and resting in it and seeking and serving him with all our power against all temptations and living in the fervent Love of God and of our Brethren and desires after everlasting life and a taking Christ for our Lord and Saviour to reconcile us to God and do all this in us by his Spirit And surely such a work as this must needs be of God If it be Good it must needs be Originally from him that is most Good this is undenyable And he that will say this is Evil is so much of the Devils nature and mind that it is no wonder if he follow him and be Brutified And you cannot say that the Work is good and the Doctrine bad For the Work is nothing but the Impress of the Doctrine And God doth not use to appoint or use a frame of falshoods and deceits as his ordinary means to renew mens souls and work them to his Will Perhaps you will say that you see no such change made by the Word nor any such spirit given by it unto men but only the effects of their own Imaginations But 1. The Question is Whether they are True or false Imaginations Gods truth causeth that Impress on the mind of man which you call his Imaginations For where should Truth be received but in the mind and how should it work but by cogitation They are cogitations above and contrary to those of flesh and blood that are wrought by this holy Doctrine It is nevertheless os the spirit because it moveth man by consideration 2. And if you see not a work on the hearts of the regenerate appearing in their lives which raiseth them to a far better state then others it can be no better then strangeness or malice that can so far blind you 3. But if it be so with you give leave yet to the persons that know this holy change in themselves to believe the more confidently the Word that wrought it We know that we are renewed and passed from our former spiritual death to life and therefore that it was the Truth of God that did the Work of God upon us Nothing but Truth can sanctifie But the Word doth sanctifie therefore the Word is Truth Indeed the Holy Church of Christ throughout all ages of the world hath been his living Image and so a living Witness of his Word as shewing by their lives the transcript of it in their hearts It is easie for any that know them except the maliciously blind to perceive that the true servants of Christ are a more purified refined honest conscionable holy heavenly people then the rest of the world For my part I am fully convinced of it I see it there is no comparison for all their imperfections which they and I lament I am fully satisfied that there is much more of God on them then on others And therefore there is much more of God in the Doctrine that renewed them then in any other The Church is the living Scripture the pillar and ground of the truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. the Law is written in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. better then it was in the Tables of stone 2 Cor. 3. 3. And by their holy Love and Works the world may know that Jesus Christ was sent of the Father and may be brought to believe in him by their Unity John 17. 21 22 23. Matth. 5. 16. God would not concurr so apparently and powerfully with a false doctrine to make so great a change in man nor so far own it as to use it for the doing of the most excellent work in all this world even the gathering him such a Church and sanctifying to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. If you say that some of the Heathens have been as good I answer 1. The Goodness found in them is but in temperance fidelity and such like and not a holy spirituality or heavenliness no nor a through-conscienciousness in what they knew 2. That good was rare in comparison of that
but what is to be found in this way I lay not only all the reputation of my understanding but all the hopes and happiness of my soul upon the proof of this point If I prove it not I will confess my self a fool and undone for ever But if I prove it let the ungodly make this sad Confession and choose the Better part while they may have it 1. And first That Godliness is the Best for all societies that are just I prove thus 1. Godliness doth Unite or Center all Societies in the Only Head and Center of Unity that is the Blessed God himself A Common-wealth will never have Peace in a state of Rebellion against their Soveraign unless he be one that they can overcome Nor Souldiers in a state of Mutiny against their General nor Schollars in shutting out their Master God is the only Soveraign of the whole world The godly all unite in him Ungodliness is Rebellion against him The Rebels are alwayes in his Power There is no Peace nor safety therefore nor any Unity but an Agreement in Rebellion for a while to any that are not by Holiness united in him and Loyal subjects to him Isa 48. 22. There is no Peace saith the Lord unto the wicked Object But do we not see that the main Divisions of the world are about Religion Answ 1. It s true but not by the truly Religious The great quarrel of the world is against Religion in the life and practice of it 2. It is unholy men that cannot abide to be accounted unholy that are the chief dividers 3. Among the truly Godly there is no division in the main but only diffetences about the smaller Branches of Religion which are Numerous and less discernable and less necessary then the common Truths They are all Agreed of Truth enough to bring them to Heaven and therefore enough to unite them in dear Affection upon earth Nay there is not one of them that hath not a special love to all that he discerneth to be the servants of the Lord. If any be without this he is ungodly And we are not to answer for the miscarriages of every Infidel or ungodly man that will put on the Name of Christianity and Godliness If there should be fallings out among the godly they cannot rest till they are healed and set in joynt again But you must not then be so unjust as to conclude that we can have no Unity till we are in all things of a mind May not men of various complexions be of one Society Are not the multitudes of Veins and Arteries in your Bodies united in the trunks and roots It not the Tree one that hath many branches Object But God whom you will needs unite in is far from us and his mind unknown and so is not the mind of Princes and therefore we cannot unite in God Answ In things Necessary to our future Happiness and present unity in special Love the mind of God is more plainly and fully opened to us then the mind of any Prince unto his subjects What precepts can be plainer then to Love God above all and our Neighbour as our selves and first to seek the Kingdom of God and to Repent and Believe in Christ How plain are the Articles of our Faith and the ten Commandments Divisions have been about niceties I hope God will call back his Churches to the Antient simplicity and Practical Godliness and then the Christian world will be agreed except the wicked 2. Godliness propoundeth and prosecuteth the most Uniting Excellent Powerful End for all that duty that should advance Societies and therefore must needs be Best for all Societies God and Heaven is the common End of all the Godly They are Agreed every man of them in One End and so are not others Their End hath that Power in its attractive Excellency by which it can do the greatest things that are to be done with the will of man The Ends of the ungodly are small and childish toye◠Our End also is as the Sun sufficient for all and therefore 〈…〉 matter of contention All may have God as well as One without diminishing the happiness of any 3. Godliness takes away the Ball of the worlds contention that sets men everywhere together by the ears It teacheth men to slight the Honour and Vain-glory that the Gallants will fight and die for And to contemn that wealth that Towns and Countries and Kingdoms are divided and destroyed by It teacheth men to slight that Money the Love of which is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. It sheweth men a better Treasure and not only Verbally but Effectually teacheth them to trample upon that which the tumultuous world doth so much scramble for and seek by such rapine oppression deceit and blood If all the Ambitious climers and State-troublers were truly godly they would quietly seek for higher Honours If all the covetous Noblemen Souldiers Landlords and Rich men were truly Godly they would never set both City and Countrey into combustions and poor oppressed families into complaints for the Love of Money If thieves turned godly you might travail safely and spare your locks and keep your purses If Tradesmen were all truly Godly deceit would not so break their peace What is there for Societies to strive about when the bone of contention is taken away and Godliness hath cast down the Idol of the world that did disturb them 4. Godliness takes down the great disturbing and dividing Principle in mans soul and that is Selfishness And it both commandeth and worketh self-denyal Every ungodly man hath a private End and a private Spirit and Interest that is dearer to him then any other So many ungodly men as there are so many Ends and Interests And how then can there be a Possibility of Unity The wisest Law-givers could never yet contrive an effectual course for the uniting of all these If Selfishness were down I scarce know what should trouble the peace of Kingdoms Cities Families or any other Societies Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Or Thou shalt not covet is the summe and conclusion of all the Law of God concerning our carriage one to another And it is Godliness and nothing else that perfectly teacheth and truly though imperfectly here effecteth this Self-denyal But of this elsewhere 5. Godliness hath the most perfect Righteous Laws and therefore is 〈…〉 all Societies If God can make better Laws then man then this is past all question His Laws require nothing but what is for mens good They prescribe nothing that is dishonest or unjust They promise the greatest Rewards to the obedient They drive on the backward by the threatning of the greatest punishments Their Authority is highest and most unquestionable They all proceed from one absolute Soveraign and are the same to all the people of the world They change not but are to endure to the worlds end Whereas all the Laws of men are limited to their own Dominions and endure
Christ told us that the Devil is thus like a strong man armed that while he keepeth his Palace his goods are in Peace but when a stronger then he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted and divideth the spoils Luke 11. 21 22. The hearts and the Nations that are not conquered by Christ are the Devils Garrisons and possessions Do you think that it is best that he possess them still in Peace Or that the Preachers of Christ that plant his Ordinance against them and batter them till they are forced to yield are therefore busie troublesom fellows What is it for but for your deliverance that are Satans captives at his will 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. 3. And might you not on this ground also account Christ himself the troubler of the world as much and a thousand times more then us For be doth more to disturb men in their sins then any of we and be doth more for Holiness then all the world besides And in this sense he confesseth and fore-tells us that he came not to send Peace but division into the world into Towns and Countries and Families Luke 12. 51 52 53. If we can have no Peace with you unless we will disobey our Lord and serve the Devil and the flesh and damn our own souls and suffer you to do the like then keep your Peace among your selves we will none of that Peace we have no mind to buy your friendship and good words at such a rate If your peace will stand with our peace with God and peace of Conscience we will gladly accept of it If it will not we can be without it Your souls are like sores that may not be searched or a broken bone that must not be set for fear of hurting you You are like men that must have that which would kill them or like children that will cry if they be but taken out of their dung or kept from fire or from knives If we do but cross you in the way to Hell we trouble you and we break the peace Yea and if we will not cast away our souls everlastingly for company And is this the case Is this the breaking of your Peace The Lord will shortly be a Righteous Judge between you and us and tell you who it was that was the Troubler of the Towns and Countries and of the world You find Ahab and Elijah at this contest Ahab takes him for the Troubler of Israel when a heavy famine was among them Elijah saith No but it was Ahab and his Fathers house that had troubled Israelâ— by their wickedness 1 Kings 18. 17 18. And which think you was in the right the Prophet or the King Why Sirs What is it that Godliness doth that it should be taken for the Troubler of the world when ungodliness is taken for your peace Is it our perswading or hindring you from sin that troubleth you And will not the everlasting fruit of it trouble you more Then even say that washing you or sweeping your houses or curing your sores or sickness or perswading you not to kill your selves is a troubling of you Or is it as the Lord hath told us it will be Matth. 5. 10 11. John 15. 18 19. 1 Pet. 4. 4 5. because we are not such as you and will not do as you do and be of your opinion and forsake our Lord to keep you company Is it not with good reason When we know you cannot save us harmless and will not answer for us before the Lord We know that every man must answer for himself and therefore we durst not trust you if you would promise us to bring us off It is best for you to study better how to answer for your selves But if you are resolved on it that ungodly you will be and that you will venture on Hell to scape a holy life why should not you give us leave to pitty you and to forbear your folly and to save our selves Will it do you any harm that others should be saved Or that others should be Godly Your own sanctification indeed cannot stand with your lusts and fleshly pleasures but another mans may It will take none of your vain-glory or wealth or sensual delights from you that another man is sanctified or devoted unto God And therefore be not angry with us if we obey the Holy Ghost that calleth to us Acts 2. 40. Save your selves from this untoward generation Object O but saith the ungodly crew it was never a good world since there was so much Religion and preaching and preciseness and so much ado about serving God! It was a better world when we had but a short Service read on Sundaies and played and merrily talkt together the rest of the day There was more Love and good neighbourhood then amongst men then there is now There was not then so much deceit and consening and oppressing and covetousness in the world There was more peace and plenty and a better world it was then now Matters of peace and plenty change often in the same age And certainly you have as little hinderance now from being as good as you have a mind to be as ever your fore-fathers had Two things I have to say to your Objection 1. If this be true that the world is so bad which part is it of the world that you mean Is it all or some Not all sure that were too horrible censoriousness to say Then God would presently destroy the world Sodome had one Lot and his family in it Well it is but some then that are so bad And which part is it Is it the Godly or the Ungodly If Godliness be naught then Heaven is naught where there is nothing else And then take it not ill to be shut out If it be the Ungodly that are naught that 's it that I am saying It is time then to leave it and to turn to God Is it not you your selves that make the complaint that are the men that make the world so bad Is is not you that are so Covetous and worldly that you have nothing for the poor and no time to spare for the work that you were made for nor scarce any room to think or speak of the life to come Is it not you that have so little Charity that you even hate men for Loving and serving God and seeking diligently to save their souls It s true that there was never greater wickedness in the world then since there hath been so much Preaching But What is that wickedness and in whom It is the despising and disobeying the calls of God and the hating and neglecting of a holy life Those that are saved by the Gospel may say that it was a happy messageunto them but those that slight it and willfully sin in the openest light may well say that it is a bad world with them and worse it is and will be for ever if they be not converted
see that they are sober when some of you are drunken and that they are seeking heaven when you are seeking the world and that they are providing for their souls and pleasing God and imployed in the most sweet and heavenly works while you are pampering the flesh or making provision to satisfie its lusts Do we not hear their speeches are of God and their salvation and things that edifie while you curse or swear or talk filthily or idly and unprofitably like dreaming or distracted men And yet would you make us believe that you are as good as they and that Religion makes men worse But you say that for all this they are secretly as bad as others Foolish malice If it be secret how do you know it If you know it how is it secret and its marvail that you do not make it known Is it not easie to say so by a Job or a Samuel or by Christ himself if saying so may serve turn and a wicked tongue may pass for proof You may say that in secret I commit all the sins imaginable and how can I disprove you when I have no witness but only by desiring you to prove it if you can But O happy are the servants of the Lord that are even in secret alwayes in the presence of their Judge who will bear witness for them and justifie them against malignant tongues But you say that they are as covetous as other men though they are more Religious But this is as shameful a falshood as the former Do we not see the contrary in the open fruits Covetous men are the forwardest to call others Covetous because they would have no body hinder or cross them in their Covetous desires or designs And then they are saying O such a professor used me thus and such a one did thus and usually they partially relate the case as their own Covetous hearts encline them passionately to judge it And perhaps they may meet with a worldly hypocrite that seemeth Religious which is no more to the disgrace of Religion then Cham was in the Family of Noah or Absolom in the house of David or Judas in the Family of Christ Do not you call your selves Christians your selves And yet Christianity is never the worse because you are wicked that profess it But sure I am that the servants of Christ are not comparable to you in Coveteousness For as I find God describing them in his Word to be a people dead to the world whose conversation is in heaven so I see that they can spare time from worldly business while they and their housholds serve the Lord and so cannot you They are seeking Heaven when you are seeking earth And we may know what a man loveth if we know what he seeketh And again I must bear witness from my own experience that in this place where I live I have reason to believe that where other men of their ability give a penny to the poor for charitable uses those that you call precise and think too Religious do give six if not twice six and some of them much more then I will express There are few weeks but we have occasion to try it by voluntary collections for some needy persons or charitable uses and therefore we have much opportunity to know besides contributions at Sacraments and other publick occasions But you say that in former times there was more Love among neighbours then is now Then there was more familiarity and kindness and less hatred and malice and contention then now I answer Am I not sure by constant experience that there is far more love among the godly then among you Do I not see how dear they are to one another and how sweetly and familiarly they converse together and joyn in prayer and holy exercises and conferr about their everlasting state Do I not see that they are ten times more liberal to relieve each other in distress then you are Many and many a time I have seen them give ten or twenty shillings in collections to relieve godly people in distress when those of you that are richer give but two pence or a groat to your companions in the like Collections And what makes them be so much together if there be not Love among them I profess to you I never yet saw any thing that is worthy the name of Love and Peace among any other sort of men But perhaps you will say that there are contentions and differences among them about Religion which the world was never troubled with before To which I answer 1. What differences or contentions do you see among them in this Town or Parish Among five hundred people that you count Precise what one is there among us that is either Anabaptist or Separatist or Antinomian or Arminian or of any other sect What one that separateth from any Ordinance of publick Worship What differences do you know among us Is there here any more Churches then one Do you hear any contendings Do you see any thing like a difference among us all For my part I know of none Nor but of one in the Parish that is turned from us which is a simple ignorant harmless man that turned Anabaptist For as for the Apostate Infidels that joyn with you that are ungodly we have nothing to do with them but lament their misery 14. Another thing that hindreth our Belief of you is that we see that it is only ignorant or wicked men that are of this opinion and say that the world is the worse for Godliness or the Preaching of the Gospel Not a man saith so that knoweth what he saith and that ever felt the power and sweetness of the Gospel upon his soul But only those that are blinded by the world and serve the flesh and are drowned in lust and know not what they speak against And shall we regard the judgement of such men 15. And moreover when you say that the world was better when there was less Godliness and Teaching you contradict all history and therefore are not to be believed You know not well what is before you much less do you know what hath been in your fore-fathers dayes Be it known to you we have as full advantage to know that as you have Many and many a large Volume have I read concerning the state of the world before us which tell us of far greater wickedness in our fore-fathers daies then are in these If you will not believe me I will shew it to any of you that can read and understand at any time when you will come to me I will shew you the words of the Chroniclers and Historians of those ages that make more lamentable complaints of the vices of those times and tell us of far more evil then and of a far greater scarcity of good then can be truly spoken concerning us And are you that never saw those daies to be believed before them that saw them 16. And I am sure also that
2 8 9. Though the abode of the godly in the flesh is usually more needful to those about them yet to themselves their death is gain and therefore they have cause to desire to depart and be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1. 21 23 24. For sin which is the sting of death is mortified and the curse of the Law which is the strength of it is relaxed or null fied to us by the Gospel so that the Believer may triumph and say O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. and to give thanks to God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ vers 57. Verily I would not exchange my part though alas too small or dark a part in this one priviledge of true Believers for all the wealth and dominions on earth O the face of Death will soon make the Glory of all your greatness to vanish and the beauty of your flourishing estates to wither and all that you now glory in to appear as nothing And then how glad would you be to change Portions with the holy servants of the Lord whom you now despise When once you hear Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul and whose then are all those things that thou hast provided Luke 12. 20. then in a moment you will change your minds and cry out of the world as nothing worth and wish you had busied your hearts and hands in laying up a better treasure This is one difference O â—ngodly wretch between a holy servant of God and thee Death cannot undo him but it will undo thee It cannot take his Riches from him for his God his Christ his Holiness the Promises are his Riches but it will separate thee and thy wealth for ever It will put an end to all his troubles and fears and griefs and it will put an end to all thy prosperity and to all thy mirth and hope for ever A godly man dare die or if he ignorantly fear it yet shall it be the end of all his fears but thou darest not die and yet thou must or if thou ignorantly hope of a happiness after it yet will it nevertheless end all thy hopes O what a mercy is it to be ready to die 10. But the great unspeakable Riches of the Saints is in the Life to come We have here the Hope and the fore-taste but it is only there that we shall have our Portion You see what a poor Christian is according to his outward appearance But you see not what he will be to eternity There is the Kingdom for which we hope and for which we run and wait and suffer If God be true and his Gospel true then Heaven shall be the Portion of the sanctâ—fied But if it were otherwise then we would confess their hopes are vain Heaven is our Riches or we have none There have we laid up all our Hopes and in these Hopes we will live and die as knowing they will not make us ashamed Rom. 5. 5. 9. 33. 1 John 2. 28. We believe that we shall live with Christ in glory and shine as stars in the Firmament of our Father and be made like to the Angels of God and shall see his face and praise his name and live in his everlasting Love and Joy For all this he himself hath promised us 1 Thes 4. 17. 18. Daâ— 12. 3. Mat. 13. 43. Luk. 20 36. Rev. 22. 4. Mat. 25. 21. And now poor worldling what is all your Gain and Riches in comparison of the least of these Do you think in your judgements that there is any comparison Or rather doth not sin and the world even brutifie you and make you lay by the use of your reason and live as if you knew not what you know Your Treasure is all visible when ours is unseen and therefore I may bid you bring it forth and let us see it whether indeed it be better then the Treasure of the Saints Let us see what that is that is better then God and everlasting glory What! is a little fleshly ease or mirth a little meat and drink and pleasure a little more money or space of ground to use then your neighbours have are these the things that you will change for Heaven and preser before the Lord that made you O poor miserable sinners Are you not told that you have your good things here but what will you have hereafter when this is gone Luke 16. 25. When your wealth is gone and your mirth is gone your souls are immortal and therefore your misery and horrour will continue and never be gone As the wealth of the godly is within them and above the reach of their enemies and surer then yours so is it the more durable even everlasting When all your Riches are upon the wing even ready to be gone and leave you in sorrow when you are most highly valuing them you have it now but it is gone to morrow And what is the Hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Job 27. 8 9. Let the words of Christ decide the Controversie if indeed you take him for your Judge Mat. 16. 2â— 25 26 27. If any man will come after we let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul For the Son of man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works Well sirs you that are all for Getting and for wealth judge now if you have not lost your Reason whether a Holy or unholy â— Heavenly or an Earthly life be the more Profitable way I would not draw you to any thing that you should lose by If I speak not for your Gain reject my words as contemptuously as you please But if I do then be not against your own commodity Will such silly Gain as the world affords you do so much with you as it doth and shall not the Heavenly inheritance do more shall all this stir be made in the world for that which you are ready to leave behind you and will you not lay up a Treasure in heaven where rust and moaths corrupt not and where you may live for ever Matth. 6. 20. What profit now have all those millions of souls that are gone from earth by all the wealth they here possessed Hear sinners and bethink you in the name of God You are leaving Earth and stepping into Eternity and where then should you lay up your Riches Would you rather have your Portion where you must stay but a few days then where you must
Judgements of the Lord God hath begun to take away the reproach of Holiness and through his great mercy to us it is more Honourable in England then formerly it hath been Is it Honoured by you Or are you hardened to perdition Fearfull is the case of him whoever he be that after all the gentle and terrible warnings of the Lord dare think or speak reproachfully of a Holy life Yet hear the calls of the Eternal Wisdom Prov. 1. 20 21 22 c. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof But mercies and judgements are lost on the hard-hearted Isa 26. 10 11. Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord. When the hand of the Lord is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at his people and the enemies own fire shall devour them And then as they set at nought his counsell and would none of his reproof but mocked them that feared God so will he also laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord Prov. 1. 25 26 27 29. I will add but this one word of terror To scorn at Holiness is to scorn at the Holy Ghost whose office or work it is to sanctifie us As the Father hath commanded us to be Holy as he is Holy 1 Pet. 1. 16. and made it his Image on us and as the Son hath come to destroy unholiness 1 John 3. 8. and give us an example of perfect holiness and sanctifie to himself a peculiar people Titus 2. 14. so is it the undertaken work of the Holy Ghost as sent therefore from the Father and the Son to make Holy all that God will save And though I say not that it is the unpardonable Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost to scorn his very work and office yet I say it is a Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost so near that which is unpardonable that the thoughts of it should humble all that have been guilty and make men fear so horrible a sin But Bessed is he that walketh not in the Counsel of the Ungodly â—or standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked but he blesseth the habitation of the just Surely he scorneth the scorners but he giveth grace unto the lowly Prov. 3. 33 34. These are the true sayings of the Lord. I thought not meet to pass by this necessary reproof of the contempt of Holiness which this Land hath been so guilty of and which hath undone so many souls and made such desolations in the Land And now you shall see that I am able to make good the grounds of this reproof and that Holiness is no Dishonourable thing 1. The Holy servants of the Lord have the most Honourable Master in all the world This only is sufficient to weigh down all the Honours of the world if it were ten thousand worlds When the builders of the Temple were asked their names by the Officers of King Darius Ezra 5. 10 11. their answer was We are the servants of the God of Heaven and Earth No King on Earth no Angel in Heaven hath a more honourable Master To be the highest Officer of the greatest Prince is a Title as much more base then this as man is baser then the Infinite God If God can not put sufficient Honour on those that are Related to him tell us who can When Moses went to Pharaoh for the Israelites deliverance he was to speak in the name of the Lord and when Pharaoh spake contemptuously of the Lord as one that he knew not and would not obey how wonderously doth God vindicate his honour his people Let other men be called Knights and Lords and Kings and Emperours may I but be truly called the servant of the God of Heaven I shall not envy them their honours Our relation to so glorious a Majesty doth put an unexpressible Honour upon the poorest person and the lowest works A servant of the Lord is more Honourable in ragâ— in a smoaky cottage or the meanest state then the Emperour of Constantinople or Tartary is in all their Wealth and Worldly Glory And if you think not so your selves why do you so much honour them when they are dead What was Peter and Paul and the rest of the Apostles but poor despised men in the world that travailed about to preach the Gospel and what was their honour but to be the Holy Servants of the Lords Yet now they are dead you are desirous to keep Holy dayes in an honourable memorial of them and Kings and Princes reverence their names What were the Martyrs whose memories are now so Honourable with us but a company of hated persecuted men that were used by others as Butchers do their beasts and worse But because they were the servants of the Lord and suffered for his truth and cause their names are honourable and the names of their greatest persecutors do even stink It s said of Constantine the Great who himself was Greater by his Holiness then his Victories that he was wont to reverence the Bishops that had been sufferers for Christ and kissed the place where the eye abode that one of them had lost for the Gospels sake The Christian Princes that ruled the world were wont to Honour the poorest mortified retired servants of Christ that had cast off the world as perceiving that he is more Honourable that contemneth it then he that enjoyeth it The nearest to God undoubtedly are the most Honourable 2. Consider that as it is God that the Saints are thus Related to so their Relation is so near and their Titles so exceeding high which God himself hath put upon them that it advanceth them to the greatest height of Honour that men on earth can reasonably expect Yea with holy admiration we must say it so wonderful is the Honour which the Glorious God hath put upon his poor unworthy servants thar they durst not have owned it nor thought such Titles meet for men if God himself had not been the Author of them Nor could they have believed that God would so advance them if he had not both revealed it and given them faith to believe his revelation As if it were not enough for us to be his servants he calleth us his friends Joh. 15. 13 14 15. Greater Love hath no man then this that a man lay down his life for his friends Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Henceforth I call you not servants For the servant knoweth not what his Lord
1 Pet. 1. 15 16. And how high a command and strait a Rule is that given us by Christ Matth 5. 48. Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Well may it be called an exceeding Righteousness surpassing the Scribes and Pharisees which all have that enter into the Heavenly Kingdom Matth. 5. 20. There is nothing under Heaven that is known to man so like to God as a Holy soul Remember this the next time you reproach such All you that are the Serpents â—eed remember when you spit your venome against Holiness that it is the Image of God that your enmity is exercised against O what a strange conjunction of malignity and hypocrisie appeareth in the enemies of God among us A picture of Christ that is drawn by a Painter or a forbidden Image of God that is carved by an Image-maker in stone that hath nothing but the name of an Image of God these they will reverence and honour though God hath forbidden them to make such Images of him The Papists will 〈◊〉 before them and the prophane among us are zealous for them when in the mean time they hate the noblest Images of God on earth Forbidden Images of God have been defended by seeking the blood of his truest Images Do you indeed Love and Honour the Image of God Why then do you hate them and seek to destroy them And why do you make them the scorn of your continual malice Can you blow hot and cold Can you both Love and Hate both Honour and Scorn the Image of God Search the Scripture and see whether it be not the sanctified heavenly diligent servants of the Lord that are the Honourable Image which he owneth and magnifieth and gloryeth in before the world If this be not true then go on in your hatred of them and spare not These are not Images of stone but of Spirit not Images made by a Carver or a Painter but by the Holy-Ghost himself Not hanged upon a wall for men to look on but living Images actuated from Heaven by spiritual influence from Christ their head and shining forth in exemplary lives to the honour of their Father whom they resemble Matth. 5. 16. It is not in an outward shape but in spiritual wisdom and Love and Holiness of heart and life that they resemble their Creatour Whether you will believe it now or not be sure of it you malignant enemies of Holiness that God would shortly make you know it that you chose out the most excellent Image of your maker under Heaven to pour out your hatred and contempt against And in as much as you did it to his noblest Image you did it unto him 7. If all this be not enough to shew you the Honourable Nature of Holiness I will speak the highest word that can be spoken of any created nature under heaven and yet no more then God hath spoken even in 2 Pet. 1. 4. where it is expresly said that the Godly are partakers of the Divine Nature I know that it is not the Essence of God that is here called the Divine Nature that we partake of we abhor the thoughts of such blasphemous arrogancy as if that grace did make men Gods But it s called the Divine nature in that it is caused by the Spirit of God and floweth from him as the Light or sunshine floweth from the sun You use to say the sun is in the house when it shineth in the house though the sun it self be in the firmament so the Scripture saith that God dwelleth in us and Christ and the spirit dwelleth in us when the Heavenly Light and Love and Life which streameth from him dwelleth in us and this is called the Divine Nature Think of this and tell me whether higher and more Honourable things can easily be spoken of the sons of men 1 Joh. 4. 16. God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him O wonderful advancement high expressions of a creatures dignity Blessed be that Eternal Love that is thus communicative and hath so enobled our unworthy souls with what alacrity and delight should we exalt his name by daily praises that thus exalteth us by his unspeakable mercie Psal 75. 10. 89. 16 17. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound they shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance In thy name shall they rejoyce all the day and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted For thou art the glory of our strength and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted For the Lord is our defence and the holy one of Israel is our King Psal 148. 13 14. Let them praise the name of the Lord for his Name alone is excellent his Glory is above the Earth and Heavens He also exalteth the horn of his people the Praise of all his Saints He hath first exalted our blessed Head even highly exalted him by his own right hand and given him a name above every name Act. 2. 33. 5. 31. Phil. 2. 9. and with him he hath wonderfully exalted all his sanctified ones Heb. 2. 10. 11. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to Glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of One for which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren 1 Cor. 12. 12. For as the Body is One and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ What greater honour can man on earth be advanced to And the Honour of the just is communicative to the societies of which they are members The Churches are called Holy for their sakes Prov. 11. 11. By the blessing of the upright the City is exalted but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked Prov. 14. 34. Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people Let therefore both the persons and Congregations of the Saints continually exalt the name of God O Bless the Lord for ever and ever and blessed be his glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise Neh. 9. 5. The Lord liveth and blessed be our Rock and exalted be the God of our Rock of our salvation 2 Sam. 22. 47. Psal 30. 1. I will extoll thee O Lord for thou hast lifted me up Psal 27. 6. And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy I will sing yea I will sing praises unto the Lrrd. Psal 28. 8 9. The Lord is their strength the saving strength of his annointed He will save his people and bless his inheritance and feed them also and lift them up for ever Psal 147. 6. The Lord lifteth up the meek and casteth the wicked down to the ground Thus shall it be done to
soul may well be fullest of Delight that is most Happy And that soul is nearest and likest unto God whose Will is most conformed to his Will The trouble of the Heart is its unsettledness when it is not bottomed on the Will of God When we feel that Gods Will doth Rule and satisfie us and that we would fain be what he would have us be and rest in his Disposing Will as well as obey his Commanding Will this gives abundant Pleasure and quietness to the soul 2. The holy workings of Charity in the soul are exceeding Pleasant All the acts of Love to God and man are very sweet This is the holy work that is its own wages 1. The â—â—â—â— of God is so sweet an exercise that verily my soul had rather be employed in it with sense and vigour then to be Lord of all the earth O could I but be taken up with the Love of God how easily could I spare the Pleasure of the flesh Might I but see the Loveliness of my dear Creator with a clearer view and see his glory in his noble works Might I but see and feel that saving Love which he hath manifested in the Redeemer till my soul were ravished and filled with his Love how little should I care who had the Pleasures of this deceitful world Had I more of that blessed spirit of Adoption and more of those filial affections to my heavenly Father which his unutterable Love bespeaks and were I more sensible of his abundant mercy and did my soul but breath and long after him more earnestly I would pitty the miserable Tyrants of the world that are worse then Beggars while they domineer and tast not of that Kingdom of Love and Pleasure that dwelleth in my breast All the Pleasures of the world are the laughing of a mad man or the sports of a child or the dreams of a sick man in comparison of the Pleasures of the Love of God 2. And the Love of Holiness the Image of God hath its degree of Pleasure And so hath the Love of the Holy servants of the Lord. There is a sweetness in the soul in its goings out after any Holy object in spiritual Love Yea more our very common Love of men and our Love of Enemies hath its proportion of pleasure far better then the sensual Pleasure of the ungodly To feel so much of the operations of grace and to answer our holy pattern in Loving them that hate us doth give much ease and pleasure to the mind The exercises of Love to God and man and that for his sake are the exceeding Pleasure of a gracious soul And here by the way you may take notice of one reason why Hypocrites and ungodly men find no such sweetness in the exercises of Religion Because they let alone the inward Pleasant work of Love which is the soul and life of Outward duty This inward work is the Pleasant work while they are strangers unto this their outward duties will be but a toll 〈…〉 seem a drudgery or a wearysome employment There is a Pleasure even in Holy Desires When a Christian feeleth his heart enlarged in longing after the wellfare of the Church and the good of others Though the absence of the thing desired be aâ—…e yet the exercise of holy desire which is an act of Love is pleasant to us If the Lustfu have a pleasure in their vile Desires and the Ambitious and the Covetous have a pleasure in their vain and delusory desires the wise well-guided desires of a true believer must needs be pleasant 4. Especially when Desire is accompanied with Hope All the Pleasures of this world are far short of affording that Rest and quiet to the soul as the Hope of Glory doth to the believer O happy soul that is acquainted by experience with the lively Hopes of the everlasting Happiness It is not the Hope of corruptible Riches nor of a fading inheritance but of the Crown that sadeth not and of the precious certain durable treasure It is not a Hope in the promise of a deceitful man but in the word of the everliving God! The soul that hath this Anchor needs not be tossed with those fears and cares and anxieties of mind that worldly men are subject to This Hope will never make them ashamed If a man were in a consumption or sentenced to Death would not the Hopes of Life upon certain Grounds be pleasanter to him then sport or mirth or lustful objects or any such present sensitive delights Much more if with the hopes of Life he had the hopes of all the felicities of Life and of the perpetuity of all these O may I but be enabled by faith to lift up the eye of my soul to God and view the everlasting mansions and by hope to take possession of them and say All this is mine in Title even upon the Promise of the faithful God! what greater Pleasure can my soul possess till it enter on the full Possession of those eternal Pleasures O poor deluded worldly men What is the Pleasure of your wealth to this O brutish sinners what is the Pleasure of your mirth and jollity your meat and drink your pride and bravery your lust and filthiness in comparison of this O poor Ambitious dreaming men that make such a stir for the Honour and Greatness of this world What is the Pleasure of your Idol-honour and short vainglory in comparison of this while you have it you have no Hope of Keeping it you are troubled with the thought of leaving it Had we no higher Hopes then yours how miserable should we be 5. The Trust and repose of the soul on God which is another part of the life of grace is exceeding Pleasant and quieting to the soul To find that we stand upon a Rock and that under us are the everlasting arms and that we have so full security for our salvation as the promise and Oath of the immutable God what a stay what a Pleasure is this to the Believer The troubles of the godly are most from the remnants of their unbelief The more they believe the more they are comforted and established The life of faith is a Pleasant life Faith could not conquer so many enemies and carry us through so much suffering and distress as you find in that cloud of testimonies Heb. 11. if it were not a very comfortable work Even we that see not the salvation ready to be revealed may yet greatly rejoyce for all the manifold temptations that for a season make us subject to some heavyness 1 Pet. 1. 5 6. And we that see not Jesus Christ yet Believing can love him and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory v. 8. The God of Hope doth sometimes fill his servants with all Joy and peace in believing and makes them even abound in Hope through the Power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. 6. Yea Joy is it self a part of the Holy qualification of the Saints and of
Paul that had tryed both ways confesseth Tit. 3. 3. None so unlike to be the servants of Christ as they that are cloathed in purple and fine linnen and that fare sumptuously or deliciously every day Luk. 16. To live in rioting and drunkenness in chambering and wantonness in strife and envying and to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof is the description of one that walks not honestly and is far from a Christians life and hopes Rom. 13. 13 14. It is those voluptuous sensual sinners that most obstinately shut out all reproofs and refuse him that speaketh to them from heaven and will not so much as soberly consider of the things that concern their everlasting peace and therefore are oft so forsaken of grace that they grow to be scorners of the means of their salvation and being past feeling do give themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Eph. 4. 19. Which then is most desirable the healing or the wounding pleasures the quickening or the killing mirth the wholsome or the poysonous sweet the delights that mend us and further our salvation or corrupting pleasures that drown men in perdidition 9. The Delights of Holiness are kin to Heaven They are of the same nature with those that Saints and Angels have with God though we must acknowledge an unconceivable difference It is the same God and the same Glory that now delighteth us as seen by faith which shall then delight us when seen by intuition with open face We are solacing our selves in Love and Praise with the same employment that we must have in Heaven And therefore if Heaven be the state of Greatest joy and pleasure the state of Grace and work of Holiness that is likest to it must needs be next it But sensual pleasures are beastial and sordid and so far unlike the Joys of Heaven that nothing more withdraws the mind or maketh it unmeet for Heaven 10. Lastly the delights of Holiness are durable even everlasting The further we goe the greater cause we have of joy It is not a mutable good that we rejoyce in but in the immutable God the antient of days and in that Christ that loveth his spouse with an everlasting love and in the sure and faithful promises and in the hopes of the Kingdom that cannot be moved The spring of our pleasures is in Heaven and our rejoycing is but the beginning of that which must there be perpetuated Death cannot kill the joys of a believer the grave shall not bury them millions of ages shall not end themâ— Here they may be interrupted because the pleased face of God may be ecclipsed and sin and Satan may cast malicious doubt into our minds and the neighbourhood of the flesh will force the mind to participate of its sufferings But still God will keep their comforts alive at least in the root and help them in the act as we have need of them and are fit for them And in the world of Joy for which he is preparing us our Joy shall be perfected and never have interruption or end Holy-Festivals and Ordinances and sweetest Communion of Saints and dearest Love of truest friends and perfect health and prosperity in the world and all other comforts set together that this world affords are but short emblems and small fore-tastes of the Joyes which the face of God will afford us and we shall have with Christ his Saints and Angels to all eternity But sensual Pleasures are of so short continuance that they are gone before we feel well that we have them The drunkard the glutton the fornicator the gamester are drinking but a sugered cup of poyson and merrily sowing the seeds of everlasting sorrow Satan is but scratching them as the butcher shaves the throat of the swine before he kill them One quarter of an hour ends the pleasure and leaves a damp of sadness in its room He that hath had 40. or 50. years pleasures hath no relish of it when it is past but it is as if it had never been and much worse He that hath spent a day or moneth or year in Pleasure hath no more at night or at the years end when it is gone then he that spent that time in sorrow The bones and dust of thousands lie now in the Church yard that have tasted many a sweet cup and morsel and have had many a merry wanton day And are they now any better for it then if they had never known it And are not the poor and sorrowful there their equals And doubtless their souls have as little of those pleasures as their dust In Heaven they are abhorred In Hell they are turned into tormenting flames and remembred as fuel for the devouring fire There are Gluttons but no more good cheer There are Drunkards but no more drink There are Fornicators but no more lustful pleasures There are the playful wasters of their time but no more sport and recreation There are the vain-glorious proud ambitious souls but not in glory honour and renown but their aspiring hath cast them into the gulf of misery and their pride hath covered them with utter confusion and their glory is turned to their endless shame Those that are now overwhelmed with the wrath of God and shut up under desperation are the souls that lately wallowed here in the delights of the flesh and enjoyed for a season the pleasures of sin and now what fruit have they of all their former seeming happiness He that is feasted and gallantly adorned and attended to day is crying for a drop of water in vain tomorrow Luk. 16. 23 24 25 26. Christ tells you the gain of earthly riches and the duration of earthly pleasures to the ungodly Luk. 6. 24 25. Woe to you that are rich for you have received your consolation Woe to you that are full for you shall hunger woe to you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep that is You that live a sensual life and take up your pleasure and felicity here shall find that all will end in sorrow But blessed are ye that hunger now for ye shall be filled blessed are ye that weep now for ye shall laugh v. 21. that is You that are contented to pass through sorrows and tribulation on earth to the Kingdom where you have placed your happiness and hopes shall find that your sorrows will end in joy and therefore you are blessed while you seem miserable to the world Joh. 16. 20. Ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce and ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy v. 22. Now you have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you We have a constant interest in the Foutain of all Joy and if our sun be clouded it is but for a moment Our maker is our Husband the Lord of hosts is his name and our Redeemer the holy one of Israel
their bones they must endure the pain of setting them again 2. And doth not Christ command his servants also to Rejoyce and again Rejoyce and always to rejoyce Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. 1 Thes 5. 16. Doth he not command them to live in the most delightful works of Love and Joy and thankful mention of his mercies I tell you if Christians did but live as God requireth them and by his plenteous mercies doth encourage them to live they would be the wonder of the world for their exceeding joy they would triumph as men that are entering into rest and make the miserable ungodly Princes and great ones of the world observe their low contemptible condition and see by the comforts of believers that there are far higher joys then theirs to be attained Did Christians live as God would have them according to their dignity and selicity they would make the world admire the spirit and hopes and comforts that do so transport them They would be so taken up in the Love and praise of their Redeemer that they would scarce have leisure to observe whether they be rich or poor or to regard the honours or dishonours of the world These little things would scarce find room in their affection they would be taken up so much with God If they were sore with scourging and their feet were in the stocks they would there sing forth the praise of him that hath assured them of deliverance and everlasting joy as Paul and Silas did Act. 16. They would rejoyce in poverty in disgrace in pain and nothing would be able to overcome their joy They would pitty the tyrants and sensual Epicures that have no sweeter pleasures then those that the flesh and this deceitful world affords O the joy that believers would have in their secret prayers in their heavenly meditations in their holy conference in their reading of the promises and much more in their publike praises and Communion if they did but follow more fully the conduct of that spirit that hath undertaken to be their Comforter What makes believers slight this world and take all your pleasures to be unworthy of their entertainment or regard but that they have had a taste of sweeter things and by faith are overgrown these childish vanities If God and his favour be better then such worms as we and the heavenly Glory be better then these transitory toyes you may well conceive that the believers joy that is fed by these must be greater at least in worth and weight then all the pleasures of this sublunary world If therefore you love a life of pleasure come over to Christ and live a holy heavenly life and believe one that hath made some tryal yea believe the Lord himself that Holiness is the only Pleasant life ANd now as we have seen it plainly proved that the life of Holiness is the most Pleasant life so from hence we may see two sorts reproved that in different measures are found to be trangressors The first is Those blind ungodly wretches that can find no pleasure in a holy life when they can find pleasure in their worldly drudgery and in their sensual uncleanness and their childish vanities They have the God of infinite Goodness to delight in but to their impious hearts he seemeth not delightful They have his Power and wisdom and holiness and truth to love and admire and trust upon and his excellent works to behold him in and his holy laws and gracious promises to meditate on but they have small delight in any such imployment They have leave as well as any others to open their hearts to God in secret and in prayer and praise to recreate their souls and to hold communion with the Saints of God and to be exercised both in publike and private in his worship and to order their families in his fear and to mannage their affairs according to his word but they find no pleasure in such a life as this but are as backward to it as if it were a toilesome and unprofitable business and are weary of that little outside worship which they do perform They have Heaven set before them to seek after and to make their portion and delight but they have small delight to think or speak of it Their hearts are unsutable to these high holy and spiritual things They are matters that they are strange to and have no firm and confident belief of but an uncertain wavering weak opinion and therefore they are too far off to be their delight They say to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy way What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him Job 21. 14 15. If they do come to the publike Assemblies and joyn there in the outward part of worship they find little life and pleasure in it because they are strangers to the reward and spiritual part which is the kernel They look more at the Preachers gifts and the manner of his doctrine and delivery then at the spiritual necessary matter that is delivered They have some pleasure in a neat composed speech that seemeth not to accuse them any more then others and grateth not on their tender ears with plain and necessary truth but suffers them to go home as quietly as they came thither But if the Preacher touch them to the quick and endeavoureth faithfully to acquaint them with themselves or if he have no eloquence or accurateness of speech to please them with but be guilty of any unhansomness of expression or mâ—dâ—â—â— imperfections they are weary of hearing him and think it long till the glass be run and perhaps instead of tasting the sweetness of wholsom truth they make it the matter of their dension and contempt But let them be at Cards or Dice at Hawking or Hunting at any idle sports and vanities and they can hold out longer with delight At drinking or feasting or idle talking they are not so weary Yea in the labours of their calling when their bodies are weary their minds are more unwearyed and in their fields and shops they have more delight then in the spiritual holy service of the Lord. They are never so merry as when there is least of God upon their hearts and in their wayes And it is one of the reasons that hindreth their Conversion lest it should deprive them of their mirth and cause them to spend the remainder of their dayes in uncomfortable heavyness If sin were not sweet to them conversion would be more easie The Pleasure which they find in creatures by their sin is the prison and fetters of their souls captivity If this be thy case that readest these lines I beseech thee lay to heart these following aggravations of thy sin 1. How blind and wicked is the heart that can find more pleasure in sin than holiness Is the creature pleasant to thee and God unpleasant What a shame is this to thy Understanding
prosperity do you Glory in the Lord When they boast themselves in their riches or reputation do you imitate holy David who professeth Psal 34. 1 2 3. I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in thy mouth My soul shall make her boast in the Lord the humble shall hear thereof and be glad O magnifie the Lord with me and let â—…lt his name together And Psal 44. 8. In God will we boast 〈…〉 the day long and praise thy Name for ever By such spiritual joyfulness your lives would be a continued Sermon and you might thus preach home more souls to Christ then the most excellent preacher by bare perswasions Poor sinners would begin to pitty themselves that live so far below the Saints and they would think with themselves It is not for nothing that these men rejoyce and are comfortable even in the loss of all those things that we take all our comfort in For the honour of your dearest Lord and for your own felicity and for the sake of the miserable souls about you I beseech you Christians do your best to reach this sweet and joyfullest life and to avoid those inordinate troubles and despondencies which are like to cross these blessed ends And pray for me and the rest of his servants that the Lord will forgive us our dishonouring of his name our wronging our own souls and our discouraging the world from living unto God by our living so far below his mercies and so unanswerable to the unspeakable treasures of his Saints and that for the time to come we may lay this duty more to heart and by the comforting spirit may be elevated to the performance of it But I suppose some will say Tâ—â— tell me how I should live for the encouragement of others is but to draw me to an hypocritical affectation and counterfeiting of joy and courage as long as I am unable inwardly to rejoyce and can see no sufficient cause of my rejoycing in my self Answ 1. I shall by and by shew you that you have sufficient yea unspeakable cause of joy 2. And now I shall only say that you are not to suspend and forbear your comfort till you have full assurance of your own sincerity your probabilities and weakest faith and hope will warrant a more comfortable life then you can live And it is not hypocrisie but a necessary duty to do the outward actions that are here commanded us though we cannot reach to that degree of inward comfort that we desire For we do not hereby affirm our selves to have the joy which we have not I am not perswading any man to lye but only we express as fully as we are able that little which we have And a little indeed a very little of such a high and heavenly nature grounded on the smallest hopes of everlasting life will allow you in the expression of it to transcend the greatest delights of the ungodly And also we do perform the external part both as a commanded duty and as a means to further the inward rejoycing of the soul So outward solemnity and feasting in dayes of Thanksgiving are as well to further inward Joy as to express it Even as mean attire and fasting and humblest proâ—trations before the Lord on dayes of Humiliation are as much to further inward Humiliation as to express it The behaviour of the body hath an operative reflexion on the mind and therefore should be used not only for the discovery but for the cure of the soul If you cannot restrain your anger as you desire it is no hypocrisie but your duty to hide it and to refrain from the sinful effects And if you can but use your selves some time to behave your selves in your anger as if you had no anger in meekness of speech and quietness of deportment anger it self will be the quicklyer subdued and in time will be the easier kept out If you cannot restrain your inordinate eppetite to meat or drink for quality or quantity it is yet no hypocrisie but your duty to hold your hands and shut your mouthes and refrain the things to which you have an appetite And if you will but use your selves a convenient time to forbear the thing you will subdue the appetite If the drunkard will forbear the drink and the glutton his too much desired dish and the sportful gamesters their needless and sinful recreations they will find that the fire of sensuality will go out for want of fuell As the too wanton Poet saith concerning wanton Love Intrat amor mentes usu dediscitur usu Qui poterit sanum fingere sanus erit Use kindleth it and use quencheth it He that can but live as a sound man shall at last become a sound man If you cannot overcome your inward Pride as you desire you must not therefore speak big and look high and swagger it out in bravery and accompany with gallants to avoid Hypocrisie But you must speak humbly and be cloathed soberly and accompany with the humble And 1. this is the performance of one part of your duty 2. and it is the expression of your Desires to be more humble and consequently of some humility contained in these desires 3. and it is the way to work your hearts to that humility which you want or the way in which you must wait on God for the receiving of it So if you cannot overcome the Love of the world as you desire do not therefore forbear giving to the poor for fear of Hypocrisie But give the more that you may perform so much of your duty as you can and may the sooner overcome your worldly love Some trees will be killed with often cropping But if they will not it is better that a poysonous plant should live only in the root then sprout forth and be fruitful Even so if you cannot overcome your inward doubts and fears and sorrows as you desire yet let them not be fruitful nor cause you to walk so dejectedly before the world as to dishonour God and your holy profession And if you have not the inward comfort you desire express your desires and the hopes and smallest comforts that you have to the best advantage for your Masters honour And you will find that a holy chearfulness of countenance expression and deportment will at last much overcome your inordinate disquietments and much promote the joyes which you desire But yet that you may see cause for the cheerfulness to which I now exhort you I next adde 3. If thou have but one spark of saving grace it is not possible for thee now to conceive or express the happiness of thy state and the cause thou hast to live a thankful jeyous life If thou have no grace thou art not the person that I am now speaking to If thou have no grace whence is it that thou so much desirest it What is it that causeth thee to lament the want of it and walk so heavily but because thou art
is the highest and best condition on earth He is the best and happyest man that is likest to the glorified Saints and Angels And judge your selves whether a dejected or a rejoycing Christian be liker to these inhabitants of Heaven Object But you will say by that rule we should not mourn at all for they do not Whereas God delighteth in the contrite soul Christ blesseth mourners and weepers Answ 1. Your resemblance of the Saints in Heaven must be propertionable in all the parts You must labour first to be as like them as you can in Holiness and then in Joy If you could be as far from sin as they you need not mourn at all But because you cannot you must have moderate regular sorrows and humiliation while you have sin But yet withall you must endeavour to imitate the heavenly Joyes according to the measure of your Grace received 2. And it is such a regular contrition consisting in humble thoughts of our selves and tending to restore us from our falls and sorrows unto our integrity and joy which God delighteth in And it is such mourners as these and such as suffer for righteousness sake from men that Christ pronounceth blessed But the inordinate troubles of the soul that exclude a holy delight in God though he pardon yet he never doth encourage 6. Consider also that a great part of your Religion yea and the most high and excellent part doth consist in the causes form and effects of this holy joy and chearfulness 1. As to the causes of it they are such as in themselves are requisite to the very being of the new creature Faith and Love which are the Head and Heart of sanctifying grace are the causes of our spiritual joy An unwilling heavy forced obedience may proceed from meeâ— Fears and this will not prove an upright heart But when once we Believe Everlasting Glory and Love Christ as our Saviour and the Father as our Father and felicity and Love a holy frame of heart and life as the image of God and that which pleaseth him then our obedience will be chearful and delightful unless accidentally we trouble our selves by our own mistakes If you can truly make God and his will and service your Delight you may be sure you Love him and are beloved by him as being past the state of slavish fear 2. And I have shewed you that Joy in the Holy-Ghost is it self one part of that grace in which Gods Kingdom doth consist Though not such a part as a Christian cannot possibly be without yet such as is exceeding suitable to his state and necessary to his more happy being 3. And without this holy Delight and Joy you will deny God a principal part of his service How can you be thankful for the great mercies of your Justification Sanctification Adoption and all the special graces you have received or for your hopes of Heaven it self as long as you are still doubting whether any of these mercies are yours or not and almost ready to say that you never received them Nay you will be less thankful for your health and life and food and wealth and all common mercies as doubting leâ—t they will prove but aggravations of your sin and misery And for the great and excellent work of Praise which should be your daily sacrifice but specially the work of each Lords day how unfit is a doubting drooping distressed soul for the performance of it You stiffle holy Love within you and stop your mouthes when they should be speaking and singing the praises of the Lord and disable your selves from the most high and sweet and acceptable part of all Gods service by your unwarrantable doubts and self-vexations And when all these are laid aside how poor and lean a service is it that is left you to perform to him Even a few tears and complaints and prayers which I know God will mercifully accept because even in your desires after him there is Love but yet it is far short of the service which you might perform Nay your Heavenly-mindedness will be much supprest as long as you are sadly questioning whether ever you shall come thither and it will be yours or not 7. Are you not ashamed to see the servants of the Devil and the world so jocund and your selves so sad that serve the Lord Will you go mourning so inordinately to Heaven when others go so merrily to Hell Will you credit Satan and Sin so much as to perswade men by your practice that sin affordeth more pleasure and content then Holiness 8. You could live merrily your selves before your Conversion while you served sin And will you walk so dejectedly now you have repented of it As if you had changed for the worse or would make men think so I know you would not for all the world be what you were before your change Why then do you live as if you were more miserable then before 9. You would be loth so long to resist the sanctifying work of the Spirit And why should you not be loth to resist its comforting work It is the same Holy Ghost that you resist in both Nay you dare not so open your mouthes for wickedness and plead against Sanctification it self as you open them on the behalf of your sinful doubtings and plead for your immoderate dejections If you should how vile would you appear 10. Lastly consider that God will lay sufferings enow upon you for your sins and suffer wicked men to lay enow on you for well doing and you need not lay more upon your selves You have need to use all means for strength to bear the burdens that you must undergo and it is the joy of the Lord and the hopes of Glory that are your strength And will you cast away the only supports of your soul and sink when the day of suffering comes How will you bear poverty or reproach or injuries how will you meet approaching death if you feed your doubts of your salvation and of the Love of God in Christ which must corroborate you O weaken not your souls that are too weak already Weaken not your souls that have so much to do and suffer and that of so great necessity and importance While you complain of your weakness encrease it not by unbelieving uncomfortable complaints Gratifie not the Devil and wicked malicious men so far as to inflict on your selves a greater calamity then all their malice and power could inflict It is a madness in them that will please the Devil to the displeasing of God though the pleasing of their own flesh be it that moveth them to it But for a man to please the Devil and displease God even when he displeaseth his own flesh by it also and bringeth nothing but sorrow to himself by it this is in some respects more unreasonable then madness it self Many cast away their souls for Riches and Honours and carnal accommodations but who would do it for poverty sickness or disgrace So