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love_n	death_n	life_n	lord_n	7,059	5	3.5024	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25421	The right government of thoughts, or, A discovery of all vain, unprofitable, idle, and wicked thoughts with directions for the getting, keeping, and governing of good thoughts, digested into chapters for the ease of the reader : whereunto are added four sermons / by ... John Angel ...	Angel, John, d. 1655.; T. B.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3162A; ESTC R13149	89,280	271

dead and gone Surely whether they were of high or low degree they were but vanity and now they are dead there is an end of their vanity rather then of themselves their vanity is gone but their excellency remaineth with them there is but one and that is the last piece of their vanity which remaineth which is the captivity of their bodies under the grave and the turning of it into rottennesse but yet they are insensible of it and feel no pain and being for ever blessed in the presence and fruition of God himselfe they do live in the certain and assured expectation of the re-union of their bodies with their soules and therefore I say with the blessed Apostle in the very same case 1 Thes 4. 18. Comfort your selves one another with these words and so for a time I will lay aside my Text and betake my self to the present occasion of which that very spectacle doth mind us And now give me leave for a conclusion of my Text a little to invert the words and what the Psalmist speaks of every Adam by way of contraries to apply to every true Christian and that is this Every true Christan even in his worst estate is altogether excellent this is the difference of our being in the first and second Adam In the one altogether vanity in the other altogether excellent excellent in their life excellent in their death Rom. 14. 8. for if they live they live unto the Lord and if they dye they dye unto the Lord whether then they live or dye they are the Lords take them in their worst estates even in afflictions and there they rejoyce under the hope of the glory of God and their affliction which is but for a moment worketh a far super-excellent and an eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 9. afflicted on every side but not forsaken cast down but they perish not come what can come come what may yet are they in all things more then conquerors and every thing turneth to their good Rom. 8. 23. And as it followeth in the same place neither life nor death nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord and therefore as Salomon in his Ecclesiastes after his large discourse of vanity for a conclusion of all Ecclesiastes 12. 13. brings in the remedy and the counterpoyse of vanity even so say I with him let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole duty of man Assure your selves there is nothing that eates up vanity but grace onely and so much the more grace ever so much the lesse vanity All things under the Sun are vanity but onely grace and therefore let all our prayers and endeavours be set on this to have Grace to serve God in this world that we may have glory the reward of our service in the world to come Now to God the Father God the Sonne and God the Holy Ghost be rendred all Honour and Glory both now and evermore AMEN A PREPARATION For the COMMUNION 1 Cor. 11. 28. But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. THe things whereof we are to examine our selves may be referred to two heads our Sins and our Graces The necessity of the examination of our sins appears in this That sins unexamined are unespied being unespied they will be unrepented being unrepented we shall bring them with us to the Sacrament and being brought along with us to the Sacrament or the Lords Table they will be a Bar to the confirmation of Gods Covenant with us whereof the Bread and Wine is a Seal and also to our reaping the comfort sweetnesse and benefits of that Ordinance for where there is no searching and trying of our waies there can be no turning unto the Lord Lam. 3. 40. Now there are four principal helps to further us in the examination of our sins 1. A distribution of our lives into certain portions according to our ages of childhood youth manhood old age and it will be useful for us severally to remember So much of my time I spent in my fathers family under the government of my parents so much time abroad under the care and tuition of others and these and these sins committed during that same time such a quantity of time spent in the service of others and such a portion being a free man at my own liberty so many years passed over in a single estate so many in Matrimonie or Wedlock This distribution of our lives into certain portions will help us to a discovery of our particular sins and the aggravation of them from our nativitie to the present moment wherein we begin to examine our selves Whereas without this our apprehensions and view of them will be but confused onely in grosse and in general But when we have thus quartered our lives and considered those special sins that have been committed by us in those several divisions the main sins of our lives will appear in a kind of order before us Yet we are still to remember that besides those greater and more eminent sins of our lives which appear there will be many unknown sins many omissions of good duties many slender performances of our best duties discharged which will escape our search The second help will be to set before us the glasse of Gods Law sum'd up in the ten Commandments for by the Law is the knowledge of sin Rom. 3. 20. in which glasse we must consider the latitude and extent of every commandment how far it reacheth in the several prohibitions of evil and precepts of good for Gods Commandments are exceeding broad Psal 119. 96. if thus we shall do with heedfulnesse then we shall see our faces in the glasse of Gods Law to the full and our own spots and wrinkles and we shall find those things upon our review to be sins which in acting of them it may be we deemed to be none and understand what Paul meant Rom. 7. 7. I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except it had been said thou shalt not covet The third help is a consideration of the heightning circumstances of sin the aggravating conditions whereby our sins may appear unto us as too often they are exceeding sinful for we ought to examine the heinousnesse of our impieties as well as the multitude This will cause our humiliation to be deeper our sorrow to be heartier and engage us more feelingly to be thankful unto God for his great love in pardoning of them through Christ See this pra●tise by Peter upon his denial Mark 14. 72. Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him before the Cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice The aggravating circumstances of his sin helped on to draw out his tears with

The Apostles would not have younger widows received to minister as widows in the Church to lodge strangers and to wash the Disciples feet as their manner was lest they learn to be idle and wander about become tatlers and busie-bodies 1 Tim. 5. 13. Idlenesse or that which is worse creeps into the practise of those that are not well or fitly employed so it doth upon the mind Standing waters will puddle and the mind not employed stands and breeds verminous and evil thoughts We make draines to cleanse standing waters if we mean to keep them wholesome and we must find issues for our thoughts about some bodily or mental labour if we mean to keep them just as the thoughts of the Righteous are And that ye may the rather make use of this Remedy against idle thoughts Consider 1. It is against the nature of mans mind to be out of action in sleep the senses both outward and inward are bound up yet even then the phantasie hath her dreams of actions The heart of the Spouse was awake while she slept I sleep but my heart wakes Cant. 5. 2. So in the very drowsinesse and heaviness of a Righteous soul all is not all his thoughts ought not to be bound up there are or ought to be some excurrencies of the thoughts to Christ 2. The body not employed grows resty and carries on the man headlong not onely to that which is besides but also to that which is contrary to the course of goodnesse Idlenesse is the hour of temptation wherein Satan joynes with our imagination to plot or attempt the production of some or much mischief 3. Employment and action hath the promise This is the warrantable way wherein so long as the mind is found walking the labour thereof shall not be in vain It is the Righteous mans portion to enjoy the good of all his labour which he taketh under the Sun 1 Cor. 15. Eccles 5. 18. So then if ye respect the nature of the mind which is alwayes in action or the disposition of the body not employed or the blessing of God over both while they are in action according to his will ye cannot but make use of this Remedy for the cureing of the minds idlenesse But before I passe from hence I must admonish that thoughts employed about bodily labour is not enough nor all there are employments of our thoughts which are more mental and almost abstracted from the body and these are very needful such as contemplation and meditation of heaven and heavenly things a soul thus employed whether he be in the body or out of the body he cannot tell such a neighbourhood or indistance he apprehends betwixt God and his mind Again I admonish that labour whether it be about bodily things or such as are more the work of the mind yet it must be about that which is good otherwise the remedy may be worse than the disease It s better saith our Proverb to be idle than ill employed The Apostle would that every one should labour but he that labours bodily must labour the thing that is honest and he that labours with the mind must study to shew himself approved unto God a workman that need not be ashamed Ephes 4. 28. 2 Tim. 2. 15. Further I admonish that your thoughts be employed about those things especially which are within your Callings he that moves in his Calling though but slowly though not so fast as others shall in the end find comfort But I cannot hope to gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles Every tree must bring forth his own fruit the Magistrate hath his thoughts the Minister his and the honest Husbandman and Tradesman theirs Once more I admonish that your thoughts of employment be in such things as are proportionable to your strength and parts Jether the first-born of Gideon was too weak and fearful to rise up and slay Zeba and Zalmunnah Judg. 8. 20. And the Apostle thought judiciously that a Novice or young Christian newly come to the Faith would not be a meet man for the office of a Bishop lest being lifted up with pride he should fall into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6 When men take upon their shoulders burdens that are too heavy for them they reel to and fro like drunken men sometimes they are brought to their wits ends and sometimes they fall with shame to themselves and injury to others that come near them It s so also when any are puffed up in their fleshly minds and take upon them to meddle in things that are above them CHAP. VIII I Shall stay no longer upon this Remedy against idle and sleepy thoughts by urging to bodily or mental imployment The next errour of thoughts as I have observed to be remedied falls in here which is a lightnesse or vanity of our thoughts in busying themselves upon vain objects such as old wives fables fictions of Poets nothings or things that are nothing worth The Remedy is to choose out reall and better things for imagination to work upon for as are the thoughts so is the man The body grows into likenesse with those things whereon it usually feeds So do souls into similitude with those things which the imagination daily thinks upon that man must needs be a vain man whose studies and cogitations are vaine Wherefore as he that would expel wind out of the stomack must feed upon some wholesome nourishment which hath vertue in it to expel wind So he that would expel windy phansies out of his mind must propound to his consideration some serious truths worthy of his Christian thoughts In this case some have thought meet to propound to our consideration those quatuor novissima Death the day of Judgement the joyes of Heaven and the torments of Hell to remedy our vain imaginations and doubtlesse thoughts upon such serious truths as these would take off our minds from vain things What if I should beseech you to think upon the infinitenesse of God the love of Christ the comforts of the Holy Ghost What if I should entreat you to think upon those great works of God Creation Providence Redemption Sanctification Preparation and Donation of the Kingdom of Heaven Would not the thoughts of these things force out of your minds the thoughts of strange gods strange religions and worship What should the thoughts of heathen gods as Baal Moloch or Ashtoreth do among these what should Christians study Romances Playes Interludes Fashions vain histories who have Bibles to look into and the mysteries of salvation to study and the duties of Religion to learn and practise hear the Apostles advice Phil. 4. 8. and receive it as an Antidote against all vain imaginations whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things all things that are true and

to be found in the word of God As first the rules for our carriage in Directions in relation to men relation to men First that golden one delivered by our Saviour himself Mat. 7. 12. Whatsoever ye would that other men do to you the same do ye to them Mark it is not said What others do to you the same do ye to them for that is not always right but some times crooked but it is said Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you set your selves as it were in their rooms and do ye the same to them that is not what you would or are content in your passions that others should do to you but whatever in right reason upon due deliberation and sound judgement when you are most your selves you would that others should do to you do ye the same to them Secondly remember the Apostolical rule serve one another in love for it is written Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Gal. 5. 13 14. We must seek not every one his own but one anothers wellfare 1 Cor. 10. 24. A golden rule to be observed in contracts and negotiations to keep us from over reaching any man 1 Thes 4. 6. and not meerly to do things out of respects to our selves but to joyn the wellfare of our neighbour to our own benefit and what we do to them to do it out of love Thirdly let nothing be done out of contention or vain glory but in lowlinesse of mind let each esteem others better then themselves Phil. 2. 3. and let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus verse 9. he never did any thing in all his life out of contention or vain glory and indeed be the matter of our actions never so fair or good yet either of these two contention or vain glory will fly-blow them and corrupt the action Again in all our businesses in relation Speciall rules for our services in reference to God unto God we have these rules First for the end that the glory of God be made the white at which we aim in all our natural civil or religious actions according to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of God this must be the Butt that we all must shoot at Secondly for Christ Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of Christ Jesus giving thanks to the father by him Col. 3. 17. that is what others do as men do ye as Christians you must do all in Christ his name that is upon his authority and his warranty in the strength of Christ in confidence upon him for acceptation of the service and praying and invocating the father in his name and giving thanks to God by him Thirdly whatsoever we do to men or towards our selves to do it to the Lord and for the Lords sake looking beyond men and further then our selves so in our almes-deeds to give to Christ in giving to such a man or woman Verily in as much as ye did it to the least of these ye did it to me Mat. 25. 40. So likewise the Apostle prescribes to servants this duty Col. 3. 23. Servants be obedient to your Masters and whatsoever ye do do it heartily to the Lord and not to men knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of inheritance and this rule is not to be appropriated unto servants but it reacheth to all masters also yea to all ranks of persons for all the duties of the second table are to be performed to others must flow from our obedience unto God commanded in the first Table so Christ told Peter that his ministerial discharge in feeding of his sheep John 21. 15 16 17. ought to spring from the love he bare to Christ himself Next for our selves take these directions Rules in relation to our selves out of Scripture do nothing with a regreet of heart or reluctancy of conscience but labour first to have a warranty out of the word for your conscience to rest upon a warranty I say at the least of God his allowance of it if not of his command For what ever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14. 23. that is if it be done out of perswasion of heart that it is lawful for the warrant of the action we must do nothing with the check or renitency of our consciences against the dictates of the same blessed is he that condemneth not himself in his conscience in that which he performeth to wit in his actions verse 22. Secondly the end of the commandements is love out of a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfained 1 Tim. 1. 5. where we are to observe that for the matter of our obedience it must be love love to God and love to our neighbour and for the fountain and spring of love in our actions it must issue from a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfaigned otherwise the streams will never be clear Thirdly the prescript of the word is Thou shalt not do that which seemeth good in thine own eies but what the Lord thy God commandeth thee Deut. 12. 8. 32. If any thing at the first blush presenteth it self unto thee with a shew of good presently begin to suspect it as fearing there is some evil couched under it and see what God saith of it in his holy word from which thou maist not turn to the right hand or to the left Fourthly for the manner of our performing the word aright in my text all must be done in humility and sincerity and carried on sutably to the duty which we have in hand it must be done understandingly feelingly fervently if we pray if any man preach he must speak as the Oracles of God 1 Pet. 4. 11 approving themselves to God and the consciences of the hearers so you shall find several directions for several discharges Rom. 12. 8. He that giveth let him do it with simplicity he that ruleth with diligence he that sheweth mercy with chearfulness c. so every one in their relations must mainly look to the Cardinal vertue which turneth about all the rest as let the wife see to it that she reverenceth her husband Ephes 5. ult according as she looketh to that all her other duties do either ebb or flow in her so the husband must be careful of the main of all that he loveth his wife as Christ loved his Church Ephes 5. 25. In one word order your steps so as where God hath laid the fullest and the stricktest charge there be sure to shew your greatest care as in the substantials of religion before the circumstantials or ceremonies mercy before sacrifice and the great commandment of loving the Lord with all our hearts before the rest Matth. 22. 35 37 38. To end this let all our outward discharges spring from an heart rightly disposed else it will prove formality or dissimulation nothing is any

bitternesse The holy man might think with himself What have I done How great is my sin Did I not lately promise never to forsake my Master no not if all men else should forsake him yet I would never leave him And am I the man that denies him so soon I that am so near related to him as his Disciple so eminently preferred by him as his Apostle not compeld by any in authority but frighted to it by the demand of a woman servant Was not my sin great enough to deny him once but have I done it twice and thrice Might I not have denied him barely with sin enough but must I forswear him too I was not surprised at unawares but forewarned and but even now forewarned by my Lord and Master whose words I ought to have remembred c. Thus he called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him and he went out and wept bitterly Now the aggravating circumstances of sin are such as these First the dignitie of the person offending the more eminent the person the more vile the sin Now the dignity is either external or internal external in respect of some high place preferment authority employment or trust whereunto a man is advanced as to be a Magistrate Minister Father Master and should such a man as I fly said that good Magistrate Nehemiah its intollerable in one of my rank or place the Lord will look to be sanctified in those that draw near him in place and digninitie so likewise an internal dignitie of grace or gifts heightens the sin of any person a lighter sin in them whom God hath made his sons by adoption is in sme sot greater then in unregenerate men though Israel play the harlot yet Judah must not offend Hos 4. 15. The second thing that aggravates our sins is the specialties of Gods favour where God is more bountiful the sin is more inexcusable in that he is not drawn with the cords of Gods love and this you may see 2 Sam. 12. 7. Nathan brings in a Catalogue of Gods mercies and favours shewed to David God anointed him King over Israel delivered him out of the hands of Saul gave him his Lords house and his Lords wives into his bosom and thereupon infers the grievousnesse of his sin v. 9. Wherefore hast thou then despised the Commandement of the Lord to do evil in his sight The third circumstance of aggravavation is outward scandal given by our sins when we have not onely sinned personally but given offence unto others if we sad the hearts of the righteous strengthen the hands of the wicked if we give occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme cause our profession to be evil spoken of corrupting some mens manners indangering others laying a stumbling block before the weak troubling their consciences perverting their judgements subverting them from the truth and these things make our sins scandalous Now this is certain the further corruption spreads and the more the sent thereof poysons others the more odious it is to God and should be more odious unto men no sinnes more damnable then theirs who enter not into the Kingdom of heaven themselves nor by their wills would suffer others to enter who allow others to go to hell which way they will and suffer them not to go to Heaven that way which they should The fourth thing which adds to the weight of sin is continuance and delight in sin unto some sins we give fuller consent of will we please our selves in them more we lye longer in them without repentance such were the sins of David in his murther and adulterie he committed many other sins but these his conscience did not chide him for of a long time these put his soul into a distemper and made such a spoil and havock of his graces that he stood in need of a new Creation a new and fresh infusion of grace Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me Psal 51. 10. and they stripped him of the joy of the holy Ghost v. 12. Restore me unto the joy of thy salvation Continuance and delight in sin break down the fences of grace and lay all wast so that the whole man is out of frame he cannot set himself upon good duties but lies open unto sinne To these may be added as aggravations of our sin 1. Our own profession that we have made formerly 2. Our covenants and promises made unto God in baptism and many times since upon occasions of deliverance from danger of being heard in our requests of hope of mercy in our low estate this makes our trespasses double iniquity as being not onely sins against Gods precepts but also breaches of our own promises 3. The means of grace received for where grace is offered more plenteously and rejected sin is more sinful Luke 12. 48. these means are partly inward as wit memory knowledge capacitie and the like partly outward as the preaching of the word and other ordinances of God the light of good examples and other restraints from the laws of Christian Magistrates The fourth help to further us in the examination of our sins is to pray unto God to give us his spirit to be our remembrancer to call to our minds those sins which are slipt out of our memories to recal the sins of our youth and other ages which we have attained unto and as he shewed to the Prophet by degrees greater and greater abominations of the house of Israel Ezek 8. 6. 13. 15. even so that he would discry to us by little and little the abominations of our own lives so prayed that holy man Job 13. 23. How many are mine iniquities and sins make me to know my transgression and my sin Thus much of the first head the examination of our sins now follows the second head concerning the examination of our graces The necessity whereof appears First because we must bring grace with us to the Sacrament or else we shall scarsely bring grace from thence we must come to Christs Table to have graces confirmed and enlarged now it behoves us to have them in us afore hand for there is no confirmation of that which is not resident in us Secondly because otherwise we may take the semblance of grace for substance and may be deceived with counterfeit shews and shadows for currant graces Now the principal graces whereof we are to examine our selves are four Knowledge Faith Repentance Charitie We are to examine our knowledge first for the substance of it secondly for the sincerity of it First for the substance Whether we know God whom to know is eternal life John 17. 2. whether we apprehend by faith what we cannot comprehend by reason the unity of the Godhead in Trinitie of persons John 5. 7. Whether we know his essence and essential properties Exod. 34. 6. What we know of Christ in whom we believe what of his natures as God and Man of his Person as the Son of God of his