them nor did Want sit so heavy on their Souls as it doth on ours for they had learned to undervalue Riches and that which made them slight it were these two impressions the Apostles Doctrine had made on their Souls 1. This sunk deep into their Hearts that here we have no Continuing City but we seek one to come That all we see here is but shadow and imagery but the substance is not yet Visible that the fashion of this World will pass away and the Gaudes and Glories below the Moon afford no real satisfaction This made it ridiculous in their eyes to snatch at a Butterfly or a Flying Feather and they rationally believed that whatever is subject to time and change will certainly make it self Wings and flee away and leave the Soul as empty as it found it and that therefore their Thoughts must be turned another way even there where constant satisfaction lasting content permanent happiness perfect beauty and uninterrupted joys are to be found and indeed this duly weigh'd will breed a mighty contempt of Temporal things and a certain expectation of future Bliss 2. Another thing that did no less contribute towards it was their Belief that the end of the World was at hand and the day of Judgment approaching The time is short cryed their Pastors the Lord is coming He will be upon you before you are aware to what purpose will ye treasure up Riches Lands Goods Houses which the Fire will shortly consume and carry away Hence it was that they lived every moment in expectation of the last day and troubled not their heads with thinking how they should fill their Barns and their Coffers for they knew not how long they should enjoy them and no marvel if under these thoughts and circumstances they freely parted with their Worldly Goods sold their Lands and Houses and bought no more and brought what they had and laid it down at the Apostles feet that they might follow a Naked Saviour naked Nor did the care of their Children fill their Hearts with anxious Thoughts for they were sensible that whenever the Church had notice of their want they would certainly be relieved and looked after for as many Fathers and Mothers left their Estates and what they had to the Church so the Church employ'd those Legacies or Gifts to support all those that should be necessitous Besides this their Pastors both by their Doctrine and Example admonish'd them to be diligent in working with their own hands that they might get something not only to be beneficial to themselves but to others too and indeed they thought they did little or nothing if of what they got they did not communicate to those who were not able to help themselves They had nothing that was superfluous and hence it was that there was but little striving about what they left To lay up much Goods for many years they thought was fitter for Heathens than for Christians and having seen no such thing in their Master they could not tell how it could be proper in his Servants They believed that it was their Pastors Office to take care of all to maintain the Poor and to distribute to all according to their several necessities for since God took that care upon him to feed the World they thought it would not be unbecoming his Ministers to do so too This made them entrust at first the Apostles and afterwards their Spiritual Pastors with what they could spare to receive of them again when they should stand in need And now their Teachers did truly become their Fathers and they acknowledged themselves to be their Children and owning them for their Fathers they gave them a Right to admonish them to correct to reprove them to direct them and to lead them to Perfection and own'd a strong obligation at the same time to love honour reverence and obey them And though the number of Christians was already prodigiously encreased yet were not their numbers troublesome to their Pastors who loved to do good and to spend themselves and to be spent in that Service Men who had no design but to lay themselves out for God and his Church and with Moses were contented to be surrounded with people all day long to discharge that Paternal care of their Souls and Bodies which they had undertaken Nor were their Pastors therefore the Richer because their Disciples brought what they had to them for they that were to receive from them were more than those who gave and they took it in only with a design to disperse it again among the Needy Love of Money admiration of Riches and anxious worldly Cares and desires of Hoarding were things they had an antipathy against and though out of that Stock they provided themselves with Necessaries yet for engrossing any thing to themselves besides was a thought as far from their Minds as the Heaven they longed for was from that Earth on which they trampled and looked upon with pity and scorn for Alas what greediness could there be in them after Temporal Means who were already greater than the World could make them and took delight in nothing but surveying that glory which ere-long they should rejoice and triumph in So that they took the Peoples Money without any danger of Covetousness They were Men that had fought for Christ and left all to follow him they were big with the Promises of the Gospel and consequently with hopes of Everlasting Joys had already tasted of the Powers of the World to come and mock'd at Worldly-mindedness They remembred that they were but Stewards for the Poor and Nursing Fathers to Persons in distress and Presidents of the Hospitals Nor did their High-places make them uneasie in their Poververty for they loved it and made choice of it as a Companion and a Friend This made the People love them exceedingly not because they took delight to see their Pastors poor but because they saw that they who had so much Money at their disposal would make no use of it for their own interest but were contentedly poor in that Plenty and would want themselves rather than see others faint If any were so Malicious as to traduce their Teachers and brand them with the guilt of Covetousness or Slander them their Pastors used no other Weapon to put by the Sting but Meekness to the Backbiter and their own innocence by degrees dash'd and and wiped away all aspersions Hence the Christians gave them their own freely for they believed they could loose nothing by it and long experience had so confirm'd that belief that Envy it self could make no impressions upon them to the contrary when it was in their hands they thought it was safer than in their own and being hereby freed from abundance of Cares and Incumbrances they pressed more chearfully to the promised Mark. If any Christian kept any Land in his hands his care was so to use his Income as to give God the First Fruits of it to bring his
the last day If Holiness of Life be a Ministers Duty only what makes you repent on your Death-beds that you have not minded it more What makes you send for us to cloath you with the Garments of Righteousness when your Souls are going to another World What makes the Apostles write so many Epistles to their Hearers and Disciples And what makes them fill their Epistles with so many pathetical exhortations to this seriousness Nay What do you come to Church for Is it only to hear us talk Is it only to divert your selves Is it only to pass away the time Is it not to learn your Work Is it not to know the Task God requires at your hands Is it not to be acquainted with the Will of God that you may do it and if so you bear witness against yourselves you condemn yourselves you acknowledge this Exercise is your Duty as much as ours There is never a sinner of you all that shall dare to plead in the great day of account that you were not persons concern'd in this work that it was out of your Element and beyond your Sphere God will bear witness and the Angels will bear witness and the Ministers of the Gospel will bear witness and your own Consciences will bear witness nay the Devils themselves will bear witness that you were told assur'd and convinc'd that it was to you that the message of Grace and Pardon was sent as well as to us and that you lay under the same obligation to fulfill the Conditions upon which that Pardon is offer'd that we do Who of you desires not to be saved Hath any of you a mind to be damn'd Dares any of you refuse the everlasting Mercy of God Do not you all declare that you would fain inherit the Kingdom which fades not away But shew us one Scripture one place in the Bible one tittle in the word of God that favours your Plea or allows you a different way to Eternal Happiness than is appointed to the Preachers of the Gospel and if God be resolv'd that all that enter into his joy shall improve their Talents work hard and walk in the same way all these pretences must needs vanish into smoak and can be nothing else but snares of the Devil and Lime-twigs of the Prince of the Air to catch your Souls into ruine and to deprive them of that Blessing which must advance them above the profaner Herd make them equal to Angels and what is more partakers of the Divine Nature So then what the Apostle saith here to Timothy he saith unto all Exercise thyself unto Godliness and I must intreat you to look upon this exhortation as spoken to every one of you in particular and to reflect on the importance of it with as much seriousness as if St. Paul did at this time from the mansions of Glory by a new Commission from Almighty God call you every one by your Names Thou Thomas John Daniel Peter Ann Elizabeth Mary c. Exercise thy self unto Godliness Fancy you see the glorious Apostle standing in the Clouds of Heaven and bespeaking you from the mouth of him who is resolved that not every one that saith to him Lord Lord but those that do his Will shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Fancy you hear him cry in your Ears Oh mortal men whom God so loved that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that all that believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life whom the Son of God is willing to deliver from Sin and Slavery and the bondage of the Devil for whom he suffered Agonies Wounds Torments Shame Reproaches and an Ignominious Death to purchase a Heaven and an endless Glory for you every Wound of his calls for this Exercise every Tear he shed is to melt you into a holy willingness to it every Word he spake is an Exhortation to it His Love challenges it His Labours and the Pains he took for you require it you cannot own him for your Redeemer without it he cannot save you from your sins without it if his Love be not worth this Exercise it is worth nothing O deluded Sinners Will you slight this Mercy Will you trample on the Blood of Jesus undervalue his Agonies or fancy they deserve no such Exercise O let not this Love be your ruine let not this Mercy be your Damnation let not this Kindness be the Fewel that must feed your Fire let not this Condescention be a Witness against you you know not what you refuse when you refuse this Exercise As you love your selves as you tender your eternal wellfare as you would not be counted haters of God despisers of his Love Apostates from all sense of Gratitude As you look for favor in the last day as you hope to see the Face of God in Glory as you desire to find Mercy of the Lamb that takes away the Sins of the World By all that 's holy and serious by the Tears of God's Ministers and what is dearer to you your own Interest and by all the Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel I entreat you Exercise your selves unto Godliness Could you but look into this Heaven and behold the vast Armies of Blessed Souls in this Celestial Quire here you would find none but such as did formerly when on Earth apply themselves to this Spiritual Exercise This is the place of Recompence He that was a stranger to these Exercises on Earth can expect no Reward in these Regions of Happiness Here Godliness appears in it's greatest Beauty and Glory As you expect the VVhite Garment the Royal Garb the Saints of this place do wear as you hope for Abrahams Bosom where now the once Godly Lazarus lies O delay not neglect not to Exercise your selves unto Godliness and what these Exercises are is the next thing I am to Treat of These Exercises are either Ordinary or Extraordinary either daily or to be used but now and then either constant or such as may for some time be intermitted till necessity and the exigency of our Spiritual Condition shall command a Reiteration I begin with the daily constant and ordinary and they are these following I. Exercise Praying always An Exercise injoyn'd by him who came to call Sinners to repentance Luc. 18. 3. 1 Thes. 5. 17. Ephes. 6. 18. By Praying always I mean to bring our selves to that habit of Praying to that disposition and temper and readiness to Pray as shall put us upon Praying wherever we are whatever company we are in and whatever we are doing though not with our Lips yet in our Minds and Understandings An Exercise of that consequence that this Praying Frame is one of the chiefest Pillars and Supporters of a Christian Life and this the Religious persons of Aegypt in Cassian's time did understand so well that they made exceeding short Prayers but very frequent every quarter of an hour and oftner sometime they sent up some Holy Ejaculations to Heaven and
of his Prayer in the Morning and behold what he presently subjoyns to that Duty When I have done this I then resolve how to order my Conversation that day and how I may please God and consider how I may best watch against those Corruptions which do most easily beset me The truth is Men running abroad abruptly without any previous consideration of what they mean to do for their Souls that day must needs continue strangers to that Spiritual Life our Profession obliges us to for this makes them rush into Sin as the Horse rushes into the Battle having no Bridle to restrain no Curb to keep them in order no Solemn Resolutions upon their Souls to check and govern themselves whereas if before I venture upon any worldly business or work of my Calling I do solemnly resolve in the presence of Allmighty God This day do I seriously intend thus and thus to behave my self by the blessing and assistance of Allmighty God I resolve if a Neighbor or any other person should be very Angry or Insolent with me to answer him with meekness and gentleness If I meet with success in my Business assoon as I come home will I enter into my Chamber and praise the Great Giver of every good thing If I am tempted to go into Company and have reason to suspect they 'l draw me into sin I 'le refuse to go though they revile and abuse me for it never so much or if I go into any Company I 'll speak but little or will endeavor to divert any vain Discourse to more savory Subjects If a man speak ill of me I 'll be sure not to speak ill of him again If I meet with any ill Language I 'll keep my mouth as it were with a bridle Yesterday I committed such an error against this fault I 'll watch to day and strive to reforme my Inclinations If my Servants or my Children do things undecent or unlawful I will certainly reprove them with tenderness and compassion If I meet with objects of Charity I 'll relieve them according to ability or if I meet with none I 'll seek out and enquire for some to whom I may express my Love and Christian Compassion If I am Ask'd a Question which I know not how to Answer readily without telling a Lie I am resolved either to be silent or to take time to consider of an Answer that I may not be surpriz'd into an untruth If I resolve thus before I set about any of my Secular Affairs I set up a kind of Remembrance Office in my Soul and constitute a Monitor in my Conscience that will put me in mind of my Obligations and pull me back when my Sensual Appetite would push me on to sin To make this Exercise more effectual select two or three of Christ's Precepts every Morning and resolve to live up to them strictly so long till you have conquered your selves and made the Practice of them familiar to you and when you are arrived to a facility and love of such Duties set your selves another task and make choice of two or three other Lessons especially of the Greater and Weightier sort and observe the same method By Example I seriously resolve this day to observe three Rules To speak evil of no Man to Praise God seven times with David to shun the occasion of such a sin suppose Anger or Hatred to my Neighbor Thus I will resolve every morning before I settle to any Work till these Duties become easie and pleasing to me and when my Soul begins to delight in them I 'll then appoint me another task in the Morning resolve to be cautious of promising and if I promise to keep strictly to my promise to deceive no Man though it were never so much for my profit and interest or to have good discourses at my Table And till I were Master of these Vertues too I would go on in my Resolutions every Morning and if I broke or acted contrary to them at any time I would renew them next day with greater vigor and earnestness This is it partly which Solomon means Eccles. 11. 6. In the morning sow thy seed and from these pains in the morning before we go abroad we may promise our selves an excellent harvest all the day To this end it will be necessary to consider what sins we are most prone and inclined to that we may resolve particularly against such and arm our selves against them And to this purpose I have read of one Sylvanus that he always began his Work in the morning with these holy purposes To Censure no body that day but to reflect always on his own sin whenever he met with a Temptation to judge his Brother Not to hate any person for his sin but to pitty him and to pray for him to think of the day of his death and not to rejoyce at any thing that was evil whence it came to pass that he arrived to that perfection of Grace that like another Abraham he became a Father of the faithful and able to comfort them which were in any trouble by the comfort wherewith himself was comforted of God to use St. Pauls expression 2 Cor. 1. 4. Where people venture out without putting on this Armour of God this Shield of Faith and this Breast-plate of Righteousness no wonder if they expose themselves to the Fiery Darts of the Devil and the insolence of that roaring Lion which walks about seeking whom he may devour such a Soul lies open to his incursions and having no hedge to fence it The Bore out of the Wood doth waste them and the wild Beast of the Field devours them as David speaks Psal. 80. 13. Such resolutions in the morning are a wall about the Soul and the Devil cannot easily climb it the sight of it weakens his attempts and he is afraid of approaching it as much as once he was of coming near the Cell of Holy Sophronius These are the bulwarks that fright the slaves of Hell and where they see such Citadels built against their fury their courage fails them or where they assail the Fort it is but with fear and trembling Such Resolutions shew that we do not take up Religion out of custom but upon serious deliberation and perswasion that this is the one thing necessary and that the fear of God hath our chiefest care and is the beginning of our wisdom a temper without which God rejects our service and hides his face from our customary Devotions and gives them no other welcome but this Who hath required this at your hands Sirs you purpose in a morning to dispatch such and such of your worldly affairs that day Why should you not purpose to do something more than ordinary for God or for your Souls every day How came your Spiritual concerns to deserve so little care Why must ye needs be slovenly and careless in this particular Is not your Soul more than your Trade and your Eternal welfare more
face of Him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb How all things then will look with another face How the humble self-denying Christian that is now the hissing and off-scouring of the world will then be exalted above all Heavens and seated in the same Throne with the Son of God and how all those mighty nothings that scorn and laugh now at the Religious Soul will tremble in that day like an Aspen leaf and wish that they had consider'd the things which belong'd to their everlasting Peace while the Candle of the Lord shined over their heads and God caressed them to their happiness On Tuesday we may take God's various Mercies and Providences into serious consideration What preservations What deliverances we have met withal What care God hath taken of us from time to time how he hath been with us when we have gone through the Water and when we have passed through the Fire hath commanded the Flames not to kindle upon us How ready he hath been to assist us in the fiery Furnace How miraculously he hath appeared in our rescue when the Figtree hath not blossom'd when there hath been no Fruit in the Vine and when the labour of the Olive hath failed and when all Creature-comforts have failed how often he hath been our strength and our portion our refuge and our hiding place How kind he hath been in causing us to be born in a Christian Countrey and in a Religion free from those gross errors and superstitions that other nominal Christians do sink into What a mercy his Word his Gospel and all his Laws and Revelations are What assistance what Comfort what checks of Conscience what motions of Gods Spirit we have found and how God hath done more for us than we have been able to think or to express On Wednesday we may take a view of our Death and the hour of our departure out of this World How certain Death is how frail our Lives how soon this frame may be dissolved how easy a thing dispatches us how the approaches of Death have made the stoutest sinner tremble how dreadful and terrible it will be to those who have set their Heart upon the Riches and Pleasures of this World how wise a thing it is to prepare for it before the evil days come how joyful it will be if it find us prepared for the stroke and prepared for that life we must enter into when we quit this present how welcome Death is to a Holy Soul how cheerfully a Pious man can say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace how upon our death there depends Eternity how foolish it is to slight Grace and Mercy till death forces us to embrace and wish for it how Death will marr our Beauty deface our Glory and lay all our grandeur in the dust how Death is the birth-day of a sincere Believer brings him into a new world a world of joys and endless satisfactions and is to him an entrance into Paradice a door into the Garden of Eden where no good shall be absent and no evil present On Thursday we may Piously survey the Torments of Hell how just they are how great they are how terrible they are how the unhappy Prisoners there roar for a drop of Water to cool their burning Tongues how they lie tormented in those Flames wishing in vain for some Glorified Spirit to relieve them for some comfort from the Mansions of Glory to drop down upon them what howling what gnashing of Teeth there is in that outward Darkness how Men there gnaw their Tongues for pain and Blaspheme the God of Heaven because of their Sores and Anguish how endless those Calamities are how glad those wretched Captives would be if there might be hope of their deliverance after some Millions of Ages how many that have made a Jest of these Torments have felt them in good earnest and those that have disputed the Justice of God in inflicting them have to their cost found that there is no playing with a Consuming Fire how Men in that Tophet wish when it is too late that they had bethought themselves and submitted themselves betimes to Christ's Government before those evil days had come upon them how easie every Precept of the Gospel will then seem to them how all Pretences of Difficulty and Impossibility will vanish when they shall lie upon the Wrack and find by sad Experience that it was easier to deny themselves in their Sinful Pleasures and easier to Watch over their Hearts then to endure such Agonies On Fryday we may cast our eyes upon the Passion and Death of Christ how he was Mock'd Derided Crown'd with Thorns and Crucified to purchase an Eternal Redemption for us What a wonderful Love it was to suffer all this for Enemies that they might be reconciled to God and become his Friends What a dreadful spectacle it was to see Infinite Majesty Annihilated Infinite Beauty Defaced Infinite Happiness Tormented and Eternity Dying and droping into the Grave What Patience what Meekness what Submission what Gentleness he expressed under all those Injuries to shew us an Example and to oblige us to follow his steps How heavy the burthen of our Sins was that could make the Son of God cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me What a mighty Argument that Love is to Love him Fervently How Inexcusable that Man makes himself that believes this Love and yet will not be perswaded by it to obey and conforme himself to his Will How mysterious this Love is that the Sinner should Transgress and the Righteous be Punished for him That the Innocent should suffer for the Nocent the Judge for the Malefactor the Master for the Servant God for Man What Ingratitude it must be to trample on the Blood of Christ or to put him to open shame again or to make light of Salvation when God hath Purchased it at so dear a rate how by his Death we Live by his Stripes we are heal'd by his Wounds we are cured by his Reproaches we are advanced to Glory and by his being made a Curse for us we escape the Curse of the Law How after so much Charity we have all the reason in the world to prize him and to count all things dross and dung in comparison of him to delight in him to love him to prefer him before the World and to follow the Lamb whethersoever he goes On Saturday we may lay our sins before us when and where and how often and how long and how wilfully we have rebell'd against our best and greatest friend What Light we have resisted What motions of God's Spirit we have slighted What checks of Conscience and convictions we have smother'd What exhortations and admonitions we have baffl'd What we have done against the First Table What against the Second What against God and what against our Neighbour How we have mispent our time and trifled away our precious hours How vile how
If it were not against a Law of God it could not be sin but is not the same Authority to be seen in the least Precept as well as the greatest Doth one God give the greater and an other the lesser Injunctions And if the same God be slighted in the greater and lesser Laws will not the same God find a time to lash the boldness of the offender How is it possible you can love God while you do not exercise your selves in rooting out of these lesser sins Can you love God and fight against him Can you be enamoured with him and affront his Holiness Can you tell us a way how to reconcile Gods purity with your uncleanness You cannot but be sensible that these you call lesser sins offend him and is this your love to him to disobey him Is this your affection to him to do what you know wil cross his Will and Pleasure Is this your respect to him to disoblige him in things he intends for your eternal Wellfare Let the sin be never so small you do allow your selves in while you willingly indulge your selves in it it looses the name of an Infirmity and passes for Enmity in the sight of Heaven and it 's impossible that Love to God and willful sins should ever consist together Do you believe that Servant loves you to whom you have spoken often to do some small thing about you and yet with all your Entreaties and Caresses you cannot oblige him to gratifie you in that particular Would you have God believe you that you love him when you are loath to do whatsoever he commands you If love to God does not make you ready unto every good work it is not love but Hypocrisy love will make things easy and did you love God with sincerity you would not leave a Circumstance undone if you knew that he had enjoyned it Why should you cheat your selves Why should you delude your selves in a thing so palpable Whatever you may imagine these lesser sins are but Baits to lead you on to greater The Persians at this day are great takers of Opium and first they take no more then the head of a Pin encreasing their Dose by degrees till they come to take the quantity of half a Nutmeg when they are come to that pitch they dare not give over for fear of endangering their lives a true Emblem of those sins the World calls little and inconsiderable The lesser Doses like small Wedges widen the Cleft and are preparatives for greater and invite men to take a larger proportion till at last it becomes dangerous to cashier and part with them and thus by little and little men sink into the Gulf. As much as Hazael abhorr'd the Villanies Elisha spoke of the little sins he then lived in brought him at last to that monstrous Iniquity he at first trembled at Judas lookt upon Covetousness as an inconsiderable sin and made no great matter of it but it brought him at last to Treason Strange that you should not see the Danger Nay you cannot promise your selves Gods preventing or restraining Grace to preserve you from falling into greater sins while you continue in the lesser For by these lesser sins you drive away Gods Spirit bring a Consumption on your Graces and thrust the Almighty away from you If he do keep you from greater enormities it is his superabundant Mercy and Goodness but you cannot reckon upon 't you cannot be sure of it you do enough to make him take away his Spirit the Prop that must support you and if that be gone the House must fall and great must be its ruine If God depart from you you are left to the malice of the Divel and he 'll be sure so to manage those lesser sins in you that they shall advance into hideous Offences and so water the Tares that are scattered up and down in your Souls that the whole Field in time shall be overrun with them and the water that comes but to the Ancles now shall ere long come up to the Knees to the Neck and to the Head and drown you Bitterness and Wrath and Anger and Clamour and evil speaking and Malice How little do men make of these sins yet they grieve the holy Spirit of God by the Apostles Verdict Eph. 4. 30 31. And do you thus reward this Spirit of Love Hath he deserved no better dealings at your hands It this the recompence you give him for all the kind motions and whispers he hath follow'd you withall Doth not reason tell you that many little sins amount to a great one suppose you are not guilty of Adultery yet if the many wanton thoughts and unclean desires of your minds were laid in the Ballance with it Would they not weigh as heavy as the greater sin Suppose you are not guilty of Murther yet will not the many secret grudges and clandestine contrivances against your Neighbour tantamount to that Crime Is it not all one whether one Goliah or a Thousand Philistines overcome you Thou art no Thief no Robber but Will not thy many covetous wishes make up a Robbery Were all thy idle words laid together How much would they want of Blasphemy Thou art no Drunkard but were thy frequent abuses of Gods Creatures sum'd up thou wouldst go near to put down Nabal for Drunkenness The less any sins are the more numerous are they commonly and small Birds by their number may do as much mischief as one Kite or Eagle and who knows not that Aegypt suffered more by the most contemptible Creatures then by the Greater Artillery of Heaven Tell me of any one sin that Christ hath not dy'd for If the very least sin did help towards his death and Crucifixion Why should not Mortification of little sins be one great part of your Exercise Can you remember that these had a hand in that Murther and can you hug these Enemies in your Bosoms Can you remember that these as well as the greater Crimes of Mankind sharpen'd the Nails and Spear and Thorns that wounded him and with a Kiss more Treacherous then that of Judas salute these Foes Did Christ find even your unsavoury Speeches your looser Gestures your obscene Expressions your Carnal Thoughts heavy Did even these help to crush him under the burthen of Gods Anger and do you make sport with them While you indulge your selves in these lesser sins you run into greater danger then if you committed more fearful Iniquities for there may be some hopes that a gross sin may startle a Man and fright him into Repentance but while he makes light of little sins he never repents of them goes on in them and gathers a great many sticks together that make up his burning pile Little sins become great ones when they are justified as harmless The defence aggravates the error and remorseless continuance in them makes their dye all Scarlet What makes so many Hypocrites in the Christian Church but this insensibleness of lesser sins
and his Righteousness and nothing ingrosses my desires so much as to be always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as I know my Labour is not in vain in the Lord. 15. Then I exercise my self unto Godliness as a Great Man or a Man of a Gentile and Noble Extract when I mind things Great and Generous and slight those Lusts which other men admire and make pleasing God the chief care of my Life while others make it their principal care and business to please and gratifie themselves When I undervalue that world others doat on and love that God with Zeal and Fervency whom others love only in Words and vain pretences When I pray with Groans which cannot be uttered while others draw nigh to God only with their lips and their Hearts are far from him and dare loose something for Christ while others follow him no farther than is consistent with their Temporal Glory when I mind that which many Kings and Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to see even the Spiritual Riches of Grace and the everlasting Mercies of David When I mind that for which Abraham forsook his own Countrey and Moses left the dazling Glories of Pharoh's Court and for which Saints and Martyrs have spilt their Blood even that everlasting Kingdom of Bliss which Sense cannot Fathom and no Eye can perceive but that of an illuminated Understanding and which the King Immortal who cannot lye hath promised to the Man that shall be faithful unto death When I am ambitious of the company of that vast multitude we read of Rev. 7. 9. which no man can number out of all Nations Kindred Tongues and People that stand before the Throne and before the Lamb with Palmes in their hands and clothed in White Raiment and cry day and night Salvation unto our God and to the Lamb for ever and ever When I can offer free-will-offerings to God and am so far from being frighted at the Gift God requires at my hands that I am ready to do more than I have an express Command for like the Pious Souls at the erecting of the Tabernacle who being bid to bring in their proportion freely offered more than their share and were so free to give that Moses was forced to put a stop to their Generosity and Liberality Exod. 36. 3 5 6. And to add no more then I exercise my self unto Godliness as a common ordinary man as a man in a lower Sphere and private station When I am just in all my dealings and in Simplicity and Godly Sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God have my Conversation in the World When I live in a sense of God's Mercy and am ready to do good Offices to all my Neighbours When I study Truth in my Trade and Calling and as much as in me lies provide things honest in the sight of all Men. When I am not slothful in business but fervent in Spirit serving the Lord rejoycing in hope patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer c. You see Christians what it is to be universally conscientious In vain doth the Pharisee boast I thank thee O God that I am not as other Men Extortioners Unjust Adulterers nor even as this Publican As much as he valued himself up-his perfection it was nothing but Rags and menstruous Cloaths for in this Catalogue no Duties of his several Relations are mention'd and he knew not what it was to live like a Divine or like a Loyal Subject Let Alexander boast of his Conquering Persia India and other Countries and mourn that there are no more Worlds to conquer He that faithfully discharges the duties of his several Relations is a greater Man Such a Man is sensible that God will not be put off with shews and shadows nor with a righteousness that is as a Morning Cloud and as the early Dew which passeth away Such a Man receives the Kingdom of Heaven as a little Child and doth not stand out for want of pains Such a Man is resolved to know God and what the exceeding greatness of his power is to them who believe O Sirs retire and think of the reasonableness of this Exercise O that we could make you see the necessity of it O that it lay in my power to perswade you to it O that I had Rhetorick enough to charm you O that I had the Tongues of Angels to catch your Inclinations by a holy guile But it is not Eloquence will do it God's Spirit must breathe upon you and O that this blessed Spirit would blow upon you and compel you to come in and make you so sensible of the love of God that you might not be able to withstand its force but become greedy and ambitious of this Imployment You would then see how much these Men are mistaken how much they are out what a wrong way they take that place all Religion in a few heartless Prayers and careless Wishes and will not be perswaded to believe that God ever commanded this faithful discharge of the Duties of their several Relations and Callings and that they may not be obliged to it are resolved to continue in that unbelief to their dying day You would be ready to call after them Awake ye that sleep and Christ shall give you light You would wonder that they take no greater care to dress up their Souls for the Marriage of the Lamb O how you would pity them bemoan them and wish for a Fountain of Tears to bewail their stubbornness O how you would be frighted to see what burthens they lay upon their backs Burthens insupportable burthens which will crush them burthens which will make them cry out one day O that there had been such a heart in me O that I had kept close to the Law and to the Testimony O that I had look'd more to my ways O that I had remembred what a charge God gave me O that I had given ease to my Soul when Christ offered to refresh me O that I had submitted to his Yoak in all things when he promised me rest for my Soul We have innumerable examples of Men who even in this life have felt the burthen of God's anger for their unfaithful discharge of these Duties How many Fathers have groan'd under a sence of neglect of their duty to their Children How many Children have smarted for the neglect of theirs to their Parents How hath God punish'd Princes how hath he visited Subjects for their carelesness of these mutual Offices How many Servants have complain'd that they have been undone because their Masters admonish'd them not How many Masters have been ruin'd because their Servants remembred not what faithfulness and what duties God required at their hands And if God's anger against these neglects be so heavy in this life what will it be in the day of Wrath and in the day of Indignation The Judgments God
together of Alms and Prayers and other Virtues upon him he sets and nothing pleases him like robbing such a person of his Treasure The empty Traveller fears no Robbers The Beggar sleeps securely in his Cottage The Shepheard is not afraid of Highway-men The Indigent Day-Labourer needs not lock up his Doors at night But the Man that 's Rich Wealthy and abounds in Gold whose Purse is full and whose Coffers are ready to burst with the weight of Money that 's the Man that hath reason to be afraid of Enemies So it is with Grace and Holiness The Holier Men are the more they may expect the Devil's assaults and the richer their Souls are in Faith and Good Works the more they may look for the rage of this Roaring Lyon for nothing is a greater eye-sore to him than Eve in Paradise and a Soul encircled with Celestial Glory and nothing stings him more than that a Creature made a little lower than the Angels should be in a probability of being placed in the same Form with Angels To resist these two grand Temptations is the intent of this Exercise which consists 1. In arming our selves with the Word of God 2. In praying for help and assistance from above against such assaults 3. In getting others to pray for us and to counsel us 4. In being more cautious for the future in case the Temptation do prevail 1. In arming our selves with the Word of God With this Sword Christ cut the Devil's Temptations asunder with this Shield the Apostles weathered his fiercest Tempests With this Helmet the Saints of old blunted his sharpest Arrows and he that hath no skill at this Weapon may resist but weakly fight but with feeble hands and at the best cannot hold out long These holy Oracles are the Arms wherewith the Lord of Hosts will have us engage Legions of Devils whole Armies of Lusts and all the Troops of the Worlds Enticements and Flatteries and that you may know how this is to be done I cannot satisfie you better than by setting before you the noble example of Saint Paula whose resistance Saint Jerom who was intimately acquainted with her describes in this manner When she was tempted to give sparingly to the Poor she presently replied Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy When tempted to revile those that reviled her her thoughts were the same with the Psalmist's I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me In crosses and disappointments when tempted to repining her voice was Tribulation worketh patience and patience hope and hope makes not ashamed When tempted to impatience she cryed I have heard thee in an acceptable time in the day of Salvation have I succoured thee When tempted in her frequent Sicknesses to complain she checkt the motion with this When I am weak then am I strong and again As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our Consolation also aboundeth by Christ. When in grief she was tempted to mourn like one without hope she cryed Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God When in danger she was tempted to mistrust God's Providence this was her Language Whoever will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me When she had lost all her outward Means and was tempted to doubt of God's Goodness and to question his Justice she said What shall it profit a Man if he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul And again Naked came I from my Mothers Womb and naked shall I return thither the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Blessed be the Name of the Lord. When the Beloved Toxotius her Husband died and she was tempted to despair this came into her mind and with this she checkt the ill suggestion He that loves Father and Mother and consequently Husband or Children more than me is not worthy of me When some charged her with Madness because of her excessive love to Christ and she was tempted to give them unhandsome Language thus she stopt her self We are made a spectacle to Angels and to Men we are Fools for Christ his sake being defamed we entreat Thus this excellent Matron overcame Temptations and the Enemy could fix nothing that was ill upon her because she was provided with Arrows from the Quiver of the Holy Ghost 2. In Praying against Temptations This hath in all Ages been counted part of this Exercise and he that considers with what force Temptations come upon us sometimes will believe it necessary to call in the Divine Arm for our assistance This was the command of him who was tempted in all things as we our selves yet without sin Matth. 26. 41. and what is impossible with Men is easily effected by him whose Power cannot by searching be found out Nothing can be difficult to Omnipotence and as dreadful as some Temptations seem if the help of God's Spirit be call'd down by fervent prayer they 'll dissolve and melt as Wax before the Fire for as Flies never settle upon a Pot that 's throughly heated so Temptations fix not on the Man whose heart is enflamed by earnest Prayer said Pimenius A good Man saith another must fancy that on one side of him there is Fire on the other side Water and as often as he finds the House on fire he must quench it with the Water i. e. when-ever any evil thought rises in his mind he must have recourse to his Prayer and extinguish it In these Prayers the chief thing to be begg'd of God is power and courage to overcome the Temptation not freedom from all Temptations for though it 's lawful enough in some cases to beg that Satan's Angel may depart from us especially where the Temptation hinders us in the conscientious discharge of our duty yet for the most part it 's safer to pray that the Temptation may not overcome us than that it may totally leave us For Temptations make us watchful help to polish our Souls and advance our Assurance of Salvation For indeed how shall we know we have the Graces and Fruits of God's Spirit without Temptations make the tryal or except by our resisting we learn to know that we have not received the Grace of God in vain It was therefore no ill advice which one Pastor gave to a Man who intended for Seriousness and prayed hard that God would remove all evil Suggestions from him and accordingly was heard and began to be calm and easie Go saith he to him and beg of God that these Enemies may return and pursue thee by Temptations for this will make thy Soul grow and signally advance in
to all that converse with me and I must learn to be meek even to those which I have power over to those which are under my Charge and whom I could by stripes and threatnings force into respect and obedience and when justice and conscience oblige me to punish even in that punishment my mildness must be seen I must learn to be a Lamb and to imitate the softness of Wool for nothing appeases the angry Elephant as the meekness of the former and nothing resists the fury of Cannon-shot like the softness of the other I must not give over till I have brought my self to a temper whereby my passions may be calm and quiet and serene while those about me and who chide me and are angry with me make a fearful noise and are transported with indignation My Self-resignation may possibly serve me to leave my self to the Will and Direction of God in the enjoyment of moderate Prosperity but here I must not rest but advance this Virtue to a far higher pitch that come what will whether Weakness Feebleness or Lameness or Agues or Fevers or Consumptions or Falling-sickness or the Stone or the Gout or Poverty or Nakedness or contempt or loss of Friends or loss of Father Mother Children Sisters Brothers Relations Benefactors Money Lands Houses c. I may conform entirely to the Will of God My Obedience may lead me to do several things God hath commanded but I must drive it farther and learn to obey God readily humbly chearfully universally indefatigably learn to obey him in things that cross my inclination my temper my sensual appetite that are against my profit my temporal Interest my honour and my natural desires without disputing evading or perverting his Commands and though I apprehend not the reason of his Commands My Modesty may oblige me to bashfulness in asking but I must exercise it into greater perfection till I hate detraction shun contention avoid boasting keep secrets committed to my breast fly idleness watch against imprudence strive against irreverence and leave all affectedness My Temperance may make me cautious and afraid of eating or drinking more than nature requires but this is not the only effect it must work in me but it must teach and oblige me to go on and avoid curiosity in Diet Cloaths and Furniture and bring me to Self-denial in Sleep Recreations Words Gestures to ruling of my Affections and to purifying of my Thoughts and Imaginations My Moderation is not come yet to its full growth while I do no more but fear overvaluing sublunary comforts beyond their intrinsick worth and the end for which God doth allow them but I must make the virtue larger it must grow in me like the Lillies and spread its branches as the Cedars of Lebanon I must learn to keep my delight and mirth in outward enjoyments within bounds I must learn to moderate my grief when they are taken away in a word weep as if I wept not rejoice as though I rejoiced not and buy as though I possessed not and use the World as if I used it not I must learn to be moderate in my contests with my Neighbour moderate in my censures moderate in my passions moderate in my principles moderate in my judgment moderate in disputes about Religion My Love to God is but weak if I only stand up to vindicate his Word and holy Oracles assert their Divinity and their Truth but I must blow the fire into flames learn to embrace mean and painful things for God to bear incommodities in duties with patience to be undiscouraged in succesless Labours root out Vice and plant Virtue in all that depend upon me My love must be so exercised till God becomes the life of my Soul the light of mine eyes and till I can say Lord Here I am send me give me Grace to do what thou dost command and command what thou wilt I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine Let him kiss me with the kisses of his lips for his love is better than Wine O my love my life my desire my delight my riches my treasure my all my happiness my hope my comfort my beginning my end too late have I known thee too late have I loved thee O that I had loved thee sooner My Charity to my neighbour is but in its infancy while I am only civil and respectful to him without prejudicing my self but it must be exercised and it will grow large and lovely extend to his Soul as well as to his body teach me to be tender of his credit compassionate to his calamities helpful in his distress to rejoice at his prosperity to admonish him to holiness to encourage him to good Works and to forgive him even as I hope to be forgiven in the day of our Lord Jesus My Repentance must not only fill me with melancholy thoughts about another life nor teach me only to suppress the sins I have been guilty of but I must learn to strike at the root of sin it must elevate my Soul and make it fruitful in all good works and I must learn to hate sin as much as I loved it before and to answer my degrees of sin with my degrees of contrition and my measure of vanity with my measure of sanctification and righteousness My Redeeming the time must not only make me spend some hours in private devotion but I must learn to improve opportunities whereby my better part may be exalted not to allow my self in idleness to do that which is worth spending my time in not to spend it in sin or satisfactions of the Flesh to part with vain thoughts and projects to rise early if my strength will permit to be industrious in my Calling to season my natural and civil acts and the Works of my Profession with holy contemplations to remember what will stand me in most stead after death and so to number my days that I may apply my heart unto wisdom even unto that wisdom which consists in Knowing and doing the Will of God in procuring Peace and Pardon in mortification of our Lusts and in conformity to Christ's example Then I exercise all these Graces when I work them into greater solidity of seeble make them lusty and vigorous and of fickle and uncertain make them fixed constant and immoveable till I come to abound in the work of the Lord Jesus and into this strength and glory they may be wrought by the assistance of Gods Free and Generous Spirit who is nigh unto them that call upon him unto all such as call upon him in truth I dislike not the practice of some Christians that do exercise some particular Grace more than the rest and render themselves eminent in it and make it their chief business to be ready prompt and accurate in it as Gregory the Great whose excellency lay in entertaining Strangers as the pious Lucius of France who took great delight in visiting Hospitals and serving the sick with his own hands as
my time in idleness Have I taken care to spend it for Eternity As for the Mind Have I endeavour'd to disposses my Mind of Evil thoughts to day Have I called in Pious and Spiritual Reflections Have I resisted Wandring thoughts in Prayer Have not I suffered worldy thoughts to eat out the virtue of my Prayers Have I in my supplications represented to my Mind Gods Greatness Goodness Majesty and Holiness And was I sensible of my Spiritual Wants and Necessities all the time Have I been much in holy Ejaculations to day Was God first and last in my thoughts when I Waked this morning and went to Rest last night As for the Conscience Have I made Conscience of the least Sins to day Have I conscientiously discharged the Duties of my several Relations Have I done as a person in such a Relation would and should have done Have I made Conscience of doing a thing which I have either known or feared to be a Sin Have not I made light of Sin Have not I laught at those Sins I should have Mourned at Have I been concern'd at other Mens Sins as well as at mine own As for the Passions and Affections Have not I given way to the Workings of Pride and Anger to day Have not I been angry with my Neighbor without a Cause Have not I in a Passion given men ill Language Have not I said that in my Wrath which now I wish I had not Have not I been fiery and hot upon very slight and trivial occasions Have not I mistrusted Gods Providence Have not I been more careful about making provision for the Flesh than about enriching of my Soul Have not I found greater joy in temporal than in spiritual Blessings Hath not such a vanity such a Present such a Gift affected and ravished me more than the news of Gods Grace and Pardon and the influences of the Holy Ghost Have I watcht against Wrath and Envy and Malice and immoderate Grief and carnal Mirth Have I got ground of such a corruption Have I been better to day than yesterday Have I serv'd God without distraction more to day than I have done formerly Such questions as these you may put to your Hearts if you mean to take your outward and inward man into consideration But then 2. If you had rather make the Ten Commandments your Rule the Account may be taken in this manner As to the First Commandment Have not I this day confided in the Creature more than in the Creator Have not I been wilfully ignorant of some Truth that hath been brought to my Ears Have not I despised God by rejecting some motions of his Holy Spirit Have not I lived to day like a Man that doth not believe the Promises and threatnings of God Have not I doubted of some Truth revealed in the Word of God or lived as if I had doubted of his Providence Hath my Faith been lively this day Did not I sink into carnal Security Have I exercised my Hope in God Have I expressed my love to God to day Have not I loved some outward thing more than God Hath not my love to God been in words only Hath it discover'd it self in actions Have I desired to be at peace with God and to be united unto him more Have I done nothing that hath savour'd of hatred or contempt of God As to the Second Commandment Have I feared God to day and have I feared him more than all the men I have had to do with Have I been very cautions of offending him Have I abhorred the motion when I have been tempted to any Evil Have I obeyed God in sincerity Hath there been any known Sin that I have not shunn'd or hath there been any known Duty which I was not more forward to perform than to omit Have not I exalted my self or thought my self better than my Neighbours Have I given God all the Glory and have I spoke very modestly of my self Have not I been peevish and impatient under such a Providence that hath crossed my Designs Have not I indulged my self in Hypocrisie Have I been more desirous to be than to seem good Have I given God that Worship to day which is due to him Have I prayed to him in Truth and praised him with joyful Lips As to the Third Commandment Have not I this day neglected an opportunity of giving good Counsel and Advice to men related to me Have not I shunn'd discourses of God and Holiness Have I admired and adored Gods Holy Attributes Have not I broke forth into rash Oaths Have not I been ashamed of standing up for the Glory of Gods name Have I trembled to see God abused Have I shew'd Courage and Resolution when I have seen or heard my God dishonour'd Have not I scandalized some Persons by my Actions Have not I abused my Christian Liberty Have I magnified Gods Mercies and dared to own God in the Blessings I have received Have not I extenuated or denied Gods Mercies Have not I neglected the Gifts of God that are in me Have not I by my lukewarmness betray'd Christ's Cause Have not I neglected my Duty of Prayer upon the account of some Wordly Interest Have not I begg'd of God things contrary to the Will of God As to the Fourth Commandment which doth in a special manner respect the Lords day Have I gone this day with joy into the House of God Have I heard the Word and treasured it up in my Heart Have not I aimed more at the information of my Judgment than at warming my Affections Was it Curiosity or Piety that led me to the Temple Have I gathered my thoughts together in the publick Prayers of the Church and hath my Heart and Desires gone along with the Supplications the Minister of God put up to Heaven Have not I thought of my Trade and Farms and Oxen while I have been repeating the words after Gods Minister Have I meditated and bid my thoughts fly up to Heaven to take a view of my Eternal rest Have I Read in private Have I called my Family together read to them instructed them made them give me an account of what they remember Have not I preferred my Worldly profit to day before my Duty Have not I stayed away from the publick Worship of God for wordly Gain When I received the Holy Sacrament to day were my thoughts fixed on the Cross of Christ Was my Soul affected with the Mystery of Gods love Did my Sins grieve me when I beheld Christ Crucified Did the sight of Christs Crucifixion fill me with indignation against my Sins Did it fill me with serious deliberate Resolutions to watch against them Did it fill me with Praises and Adorations of the stupendious Humiliation of the Son of God Did it make me resolve to imitate him in his Holiness Have I according to the Apostles Command laid in store as God hath prospered me the foregoing week Have I laid aside somewhat of my Gain for Pious uses
a great Promoter of Holiness Indeed in the great moral Duties of the Gospel which are expresly and peremptorily commanded I must neither hearken to Father nor Mother neither Wife nor Sister nor Children but as S t Jerome speaks trample upon them all rather than neglect a known duty and undergo all the inconveniencies and reproaches in the World rather than commit a sin wilfully but this will not hold in circumstantial things such as this praising of God at midnight is for these must ever give way to the more substantial Duties of brotherly Kindness and Charity 6. He that ventures upon these Vigils or Exercises either all night or for sometime at midnight must be a person that loves God fervently and in vain do I or any man alive attempt to bring any person to this piece of Self-denial without that person knows what a strong love to God means No man can watch that doth not love As weary as Jacob was with his Journy yet love would not suffer him to sleep at night but he must awake to contemplation and while he was engaged in 't the Angel of the Covenant wrestled with him and blessed him Love shakes off drowsiness and rest it self makes it restless Love breaks forth the more vigorously at night the less there is to hinder it in its operations Love makes such Exercises easie and a Christian that hath love to spur him on runs chearfully in this narrow way Love carries him beyond inconveniences and makes him desirous to lose his life for him that gave it Love embraces all opportunities to exercise its gratitude to the Lord Jesus and there is no time comes amiss to this inestimable Grace He that either hath felt or read what love will do to Friends on Earth will be able to guess at the truth of what I do propose and sure he never knew yet what being sick of love is I mean of love to Christ that never found himself in a disposition or temper to say By night on my Bed I sought him whom my Soul loveth I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and go about the City in the Streets and in the broad-ways I will seek him whom my Soul loveth I sought him but I found him not The Watchmen that go about the City found me to whom I said saw ye him whom my Soul loveth It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my Soul loveth I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my Mothers house and into the Chamber of her that conceiv'd me Cantic 3. 1. 2 3. 7. That this Exercise of rising at midnight to Prayer may be more satisfactory and effectual I would advise to going to bed betimes that nature being refresh'd with some sleep before that time may be the fitter for this service and it 's very probable that those who in the Primitive Church used this Watchfulness observed this Rule In this Age Tradesmen and those that have any toiling Employment in the World have brought themselves to an ill custom of sitting up at their Trade till midnight almost and having tired themselves with running after their Worldly profit all day it cannot be otherwise but they must find themselves very unfit for this nocturnal Exercise If ever a man becomes Master of this Virtue he must learn to accommodate his business to his Religion not his Religion to his business and as Spiritual fervour must be the first mover and principal wheel that must set this a going so where Religion is thought worth nothing all that we have said must be as the news of the destruction of Sodom was in the Ears of Lots Kinsmen a pretty Tale and that 's all If Euclides of Megara thought not much of it to consult Socrates in the night why should we think it troublesome to participate of Gods instructions in the night-season We I say who are to tread in the steps of the great Bishop and Shepherd of our Souls and it was his custom we know to rise in the morning a great while before day to go into a solitary place to pray Marc. 1. 35. 8. The Task will be more easily and more chearfully performed if we can get one or two or more of our acquaintance to join with us in these nocturnal Exercises Company is a great encouragement to such acts of Piety and man being naturally a sociable Creature Society not only comforts him but is a spur to devotion especially to such devotion as is attended with severity One keeps the other from fainting under his Burden and if one grows cold the others zeal is enough to inspire him with new vigor and alacrity Those seven men Ruffinus speaks of who divided the night and allotted four hours for sleeping four for praising of God and prayer and four for working and likewise the day and appointed six for working three for reading and praying three for eating and walking without all peradventure found great encouragement in one anothers Society and this their order would scarce have lasted so many years as it did if it had fallen to any single persons lot to keept it up The same Author hath a passage of another company seven in number who on Saturdays about three of the Clock in the afternoon used to meet and having eaten together for in that age they eat but once a day and commonly towards the evening they fell into spiritual discourses banishing all secular business and laying aside all thoughts of Worldly things and talk'd only of Heaven and future Glory of the rest of Saints and of the misery of the Damned and when they had spent some time in such discourses they sat up all night praising and magnifying and singing the goodness of God and this they continued pausing now and then and spending some time in silence and meditation till three of the Clock in the afternoon next day and so they departed again every one to their several Habitations So great a support doth the Soul receive from good Society that is of the same mind of the same fervour and of the same zeal and earnestness to glorifie God and a man will do that encouraged by Society which before he could not have been drawn to perhaps by the strongest enforcives or arguments From these Rules I come in the next place to recommend to my Readers this nocturnal Exercise and to give them some encouragement to this piece of Self-denial The Arabians tell this passage or fable of the Ostrich that when she intends to hatch her Eggs she fits not on them as other Birds but the Male and Female by turns hatch them with their Eies only and if one be hungry and minded to seek for Food it gives notice to the other by a certain cry to come and relieve it and being come it continues looking upon the Eggs so long till the other be returned and they add that if either of
exceeding strict and they so emaciated their Bodies by these rigors that their Faintness Weariness and Sackcloth and Ashes seem'd to force Heaven to Pity and Compassion In short whatever was Voluptuous they hated and look'd upon as unsuitable to the Crucified JESUS and so improper for that perfect Wisdom they aimed at that they proscribed it as an Enemy and shunned it like the rankest Poison and admitted no more of it but what was just necessary for the support of that Life the Great Creator had given them to spend to his Glory And though they never had studied Pythagoras yet both their Faith and Reason told them that as the Body waxes stronger by the death of the Soul so the Soul becomes more valiant and lively by the death of the Body This made them Conquerors of those Pleasures of the Flesh which in all Ages have weakned the bravest Men into Women melted Hearts of Iron and conquered the greatest Conquerors of the World To suppress such satisfactions of the Flesh they were so watchful so couragious so magnanimous that they seemed Angels more than Men and were actually nearer to God to whom they lived than to the World in which they lived In their lives Chast and Modest in their Married estate Moderate and Holy and not a Man came near his Wife after he perceived or had notice that she was with Child till she was deliver'd and even then when they came together their thoughts were so innocent that they proposed no other end but Procreation of Children to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord. In the very Works of their Calling they would sing of Christ and converse with Spiritual Objects even in their Sleep and Dreams and consequently were always ready for Prayer and holy Ejaculations so addicted to the love of Goodness that they could not endure a vitious Person and if they met with any such in their Assemblies did thrust him out from their Communion and made it Criminal for any Christian either to Eat or Drink or Converse or Talk or keep Company with him They took particular notice of him who taught any thing contrary to the Doctrine of their Pastors and no Plague-sore was shunn'd more than a new up-start Principle If they heard any thing contrary to the Faith deliver'd to the Saints they either stopt their Ears or made haste to be gone from the place the dangerous Tenet was publish'd in New Fangles were that which their Teachers seriously warned them against and the great Character of Heresie was that the Doctrine was New and unknown to the Apostles To continue this Purity of Doctrine in their Church their custom was to read the Scripture and to hear it explain'd by their Pastors in publick Congregations and though they read it at home yet they were fearful to explain any thing but what they had heard their Pastors explain in publick before and according to their Expositions they understood those Oracles It was a very common thing in those days both for Laymen and Clergymen to learn the Bible without Book and many of them had the Word so ready that nothing could befal them but they had a Plaister or Medicine ready from that inexhaustible Treasury From hence their Souls got more than ordinary strength and nourishment and their Minds receiv'd that vivacity and quickness that it gave life even to their Bodies starved almost through Watching Fasting and other voluntary Penalties Of their Teachers they were so observant that without them they would begin nothing and go no where without their Letters of Recommendation Without their Advice they would not Marry nor do any thing considerable in their Civil Affairs without asking their Counsel Approbation for they looked upon them as their Fathers and as Religion had made them so so they thought the obligation to consult them upon all occasions was the stronger These they received into their Houses as the Saints of old did Angels with Joy and Trembling and whenever they met them though upon the Road or in the Streets they would fall down and kiss their Feet and refuse to rise till they had given them their Blessing and Benediction to which Blessing they said Amen and rose again and so parted with a Kiss They thought it no small happiness to lodge their Pastors at their Houses for when they had them they believed they had got some good Spirit in their Houses and with them they pray'd and hop'd that now their Prayers could not miscarry when joined with the Incense of those who had so often moved God to be merciful to a whole Congregation For this reason they were desirous to entertain Pious men in general to do them good and to relieve them as they did their Domesticks for they thought the presence of such Men a Blessing to their Families and a Protection from innumerable Evils that might otherwise befal them From the Unity and Peaceableness of their Teachers it was that the Christians then though very numerous continued unanimous in the Primitive Doctrine and Discipline and though the several Assemblies might differ in Rites and Ceremonies yet the mighty love they bore one to another constrain'd them to over-look those differences and though they varied in some outward Acts of Worship yet their Affections were so strongly glewed together that nothing but death could break the League or AAmity If one Neighbour chanced to quarrel with another and they broke forth into Contention and Enmity they were so long excluded from the Prayers of the Assembly till they had cordially reconciled themselves one to the other This punishment was then thought great and grievous and Men were so uneasie under these Excommunications that the fear of them kept them from Animosities and rather than undergo such Censures would suffer themselves to be defrauded and when they were beaten would not beat again when reviled would not revile again and when abused would not abuse again nay look upon an unjust Calumny as a piece of Martyrdom and therefore bear it undauntedly Those that knew themselves guilty of a great Sin durst not appear in the publick and they that were fallen into any notorious Errors durst not so much profane the Prayers of the Church as to appear there with the rest of the Assembly So great was the dread of Gods Majesty in those days that even a desperate Offendor was afraid of taking Gods Covenant in his Mouth while he hated to be reformed Their meeting or coming together to Pray they esteemed a thing so Sacred that no Frowns no Thunders no Threatnings of Tyrants could make them forbear and being Conscious of their innocence they justly thought their enemies might by their Authority forbid but could not with any colour of Reason prohibit their Assemblies This made them flock to their Oratories though it was death to go and Parents with their Children would run though the next news they were like to hear was Christianos ad Leones Throw those Dogs to the