flesh earthly sensual and devilish Jam 3.15 So that there was not only in our nature an absence of any good that might move God to do any thing for us and an absence of that life that might be sollicitous for it self but there was a positive malignity in our nature against that God that should pardon against that Christ that should satisfie against that Grace and Spirit that should apply We were actuated with those vile affections and lusts that looked upon a Saviour with no less aversion and spite than those devils did that cryed out of the possessed man Art thou come to torment us before our time And yet for these and such as these our Saviour dyed nay some of these who had actually their hands in his blood found the efficacy of that very blood which they shed not crying for revenge against them but for merey for them and healing those who had cruelly spilt it the efficacy of that blessed prayer of his Father forgive them they know not what they do within some few months after his death did first wound their hearts with a sense of their guilt and then healed them with the infusion of his blood Act. 2.23 37. 6. From the consideration of the former particulars it will easily appear what was the Motive of this great work We have seen in the creature nothing but sin and enmity against God and consequently a just obligation to Everlasting wrath and misery so there we can find nothing that might upon any account of merit or desert draw out such merey as this We must seek for the motive in the Author of it and in him there was no necessity at all to bind him to it It was his own free will that at first gave man a being and a blessed being and when he had sinned against the law and condition of his Creation there was a necessity of justice for his eternal punishment but no necessity at all for his Restitution God made all things for his glory not because he stood in need of it for he had in himself an infinite self-sufficiency and happiness that stood not in need of the glory of his creation nor was capable of an accession by it And if it had yet the great God could have enjoyed the glory of his justice in the everlasting punishment of unthankful man and yet had glorious creatures enough the blessed Angels to have been the everlasting partakers and admirers of his goodness And if there had been yet an absolute necessity of visible intellectual creatures to be the participants of his goodness and the active instruments of his glory the same power that created man at first could have created a new generation of men that might have supplied the defection of our first parents and their descendants What then is the original of all this goodness to poor sinful man to purchase such a worthless creature at such an invaluable price as the blood of the Son of God Nothing but Love free undeserved love love that loved before it was sought that loved when it was rejected Deut. 7.7 The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because ye were more but because the Lord loved you he loved you because he loved you As Almighty could not define himself by any thing but himself I am that I am Exod. 3.14 so he can resolve his love into no other motive than his love he loved you because he loved you And here is the spring the fountain of all this strange and unheard of goodness of God in Christ nothing but the free love of God Joh. 3.16 So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. 1 Joh. 4.10 Here is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins and that very same individual love that was in the Father to send was in the Son to come and to dye for us It was he that loved and washed us with his own blood washed us because he loved us When we lay like Ezekiel's wretched infant Ezek. 16.5 6. polluted in our blood when no eye pitied us then this love of God passed by us and said unto us live yea said unto us when we were in our blood live And when that life was not acquirable for us but by the death of the Eternal Son of God then to purchase that life for us he sold his own and to wash us from the pollutions of our blood freely spent and shed his own This was The love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.19 7. Now let us consider the End and Scope of this admirable Love of Christ and as it looks upward towards God so it looks downward towards us as he was the Mediator between both so the end of his Mediatorship had a respect to both 1. In reference to God and so the Ends of our Lord's suffering were principally these 1. To Restore unto Almighty God the active service and glory of his creature Almighty God did at the first create man in such a constitution that he might not only passively and objectively bring unto him the glory of his Power and Wisdom in the framing of such a creature as the Heavens the Stars and other creatures below an intellectual nature do but to be a beholder of himself and his works to be an observer of his will and to glorifie his Maker in the admiration of his Power Wisdom and Goodness and in the Obedience and Observance of his Law and will and to his own glory had by an eternal bond annexed his creature's perfection and blessedness Man rebelled and thereby as he became unserviceable to the end of his creation so he lost the blessedness of his condition Christ came and by his own blood purchased as unto Man his blessedness so unto God the glory and service of his creature This was old Zachary's collection Luk. 2. 74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purâ—sie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And this was the chief part of that account that our Lord giveth unto his Father in that blessed prayer that he made a little before his Passion Joh. 17.4 I have glorified thee on the earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do As if he should have said Thou hast sent me into the world about a great and weighty business the restitution of thy fallen creature and that therein as thy creature may partake of thy goodness so thou mayst reap the glory of thy creature's service And now behold according to that command of thine I here return unto thee thy creature healed and restored that it may be as well a monument as a proclaimer of thy goodness and glory unto all Eternity
all places knows our thoughts our wants our sins our desires and is ready to supply us with all things that are good and fit for us beyond all we can ask or think hath incomprehensible Wisdom and irresistible Power to effect what he pleaseth that leaves not any of his works especially mankind without his special care and superintendence over them without whose will or designed permission nothing befalls us 2. That this most Wise and Just and Powerful God hath appointed a law or rule according to which his will is that the children of men should conform themselves and according to the upright endeavours of the children of men to conform thereunto he will most certainly give rewards and according to the wilful transgressions thereof he will inflict punishments and that he is a most strict and infallible observer of all the wayes of the children of men whether of obedience or disobedience thereunto 3. That this law and will of his he hath communicated and revealed unto the children of men in his Holy Word especially by the mission of his Son Jesus Christ who brought into the world a full and complete collection of those holy Laws of God whereunto he would have us conform 4. That he hath given unto mankind in and through Christ Jesus a full manifestation of a future life after this of rewards and punishments and according to that law of his thus manifested by his Son he will by the same Jesus Christ dispense and execute the sentences of rewards and punishments and judge every man according to his works 5. And that the reward of faith and obedience in that other life to come shall be an eternal blessed happy estate of soul and body in the glorious Heavens and in the presence and fruition of the ever Glorious and Eternal God 6. And that the punishment of the rebellious and disobedient unto this will and law of God thus manifested by his Son shall be an eternal separation of soul and body from the presence of God and the conclusion of them under chains of darkness and everlasting torments in hell fire 7. And that the Son of God hath given us the greatest assurance imaginable of the truth of this will of God of this happiness and misery by taking upon him our nature by his miracles by his death and resurrection and ascention into glory and by his mission of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation into his Apostles and Disciples both to instruct the world in his trust and to evidence the truth of their mission from him 8. That Almighty God though full of justice and severity against obstinate and rebellious yet is full of tenderness love and compassion towards all those that sincerely desire to obey his will and to accept of terms of peace and reconciliation with him and is ready upon repentance and amendment to pardon whatsoever is amiss and hath accordingly promised it And that he hath the care and love and tenderness of a father towards us that in our sincere endeavour of obedience to him we shall be sure of his love favour and protection that in all our afflictions and troubles he stands by us and will not leave us that he will most certainly make good every promise that by Christ he hath sent unto us for the life that is present and that which is to come that the Law he hath sent us by Christ to submit unto is an easie and good Law such as will perfect our nature and fit it to be partaker of his glory and that all his thoughts towards us in our faithful endeavour to obey him are thoughts of love favour peace bounty and goodness And of this he hath given the greatest assurance that is possible for mankind to expect or desire even the sending of his Eternal Son into the world to take upon him our nature to acquaint us with his Father's will and love to live a life of want and misery and to dye a death full of shame and horror to rise again to dispatch Messengers into all the world to publish the good will of God to mankind to ascend up into glory and there to make intercession for us poor worms at the right hand of God giving us also hereby assurance of our resurrection and of his coming again to judge the world and to receive his obedient servants into eternal glory These be some of those principal Objects of that Faith that overcometh the World being soundly received believed and digested 2. As touching the act it self it is no other than a sound real and firm belief of those Sacred Truths And therefore it seems that they that perplex the notion of Faith with other intricate and abstruse definitions or descriptions either render it very difficult and scarce intelligible or else take into the definition or description those things that are but the consequents and effects of it He that hath this firm perswasion will most certainly repent of his sins past will most certainly endeavour obedience to the will of God which is thus believed by him to be holy just and good and upon the obedience or disobedience whereof depends his eternal happiness or misery will most certainly depend upon the promises of God for this life and that to come for those are as natural effects of such a firm perswasion as it is for the belief of a danger to put a man upon means to avoid it or for the belief of a benefit to put a man upon means to attain it Some things are of such a nature that the belief or knowledge of them goes no further but it rests in it self as the belief or knowledge of bare speculative truths But some things are of such a nature as being once truly and firmly believed or known carry a man out to action and such are especially the knowledge or belief of such things as are the objects of our fears or of our hopes the belief of such objects do naturally and with a kind of moral necessity carry a man out to action to the avoiding of such fears and the attaining of such hopes And therefore faith and belief in reference thereunto comes often in the Scripture under the names of hope and fear as being the proper effects of it Instances we have of both 2 Cor. 5.10 11. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men 1 Joh. 3.2 3. But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every man that bath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Therefore we need not be so sollicitous touching the nature of faith what kind of faith it is that must save us certainly if it be a true and real assent of the mind to these great truths of
to the consideration of the world without us as that which possibly is here principally intended and the victory of the Christian by his faith over it and first in relation to the Natural World This world as hath been observed is in it self very good and the evil that ariseth from it is only occasional Which is thus it is a goodly Palace fitted with all grateful objects to our senses full of variety and pleasantness and the soul fastening upon them is ready with Peter in the Mount to conclude that it is good to be here and therefore grows careless of the thoughts of another state after death or to think of the passage to it or making provision for it but to set up its hopes and happiness and rest in it and in these delights and accommodations that it yields our senses Faith overcometh this part of the world by assuring the soul that this lower world is only the place of our probation not of of our happiness our Inn not our home It presents to the mind a state of happiness to be attained after death infinitely surpassing all the contents and conveniences that this world can yield and that one great means to attain it is by setting our hearts upon it and not upon the world but using this present world not as the end of our hopes but as our passage to it and to carry a watchful hand over our desires and delights towards it or in it that it steal not away our heart from out everlasting treasure to carry a sober and temperate mind towards it and use of it as in the sight of that God that lends it us to excite our thankfulness and try our obedience not to rob him of the love and service and duty we owe unto him In short the methods whereby faith overcometh this part of the world are these 1. By giving us a true estimate of it to prevent us from overvaluing it 2. By frequent re-minding of us that it is only fitted to the meridian of this life which is short and transitory and passeth away 3. By presenting unto us a state of future happiness that infinitely surpasseth it 4. By discovering our duty in our walk through it namely of great moderation and vigilancy 5. By presenting unto us the example of the Captain of our Salvation his deportment in it and towards it 6. By assuring us that we are but Stewards unto the great Lord of the Family of Heaven and Earth for so much as we have of it and that to him we must give an account of our stewardship 7. By assuring us that our great Lord and Master is a constant observer of all our deportment in it 8. And that he will most certainly give a reward proportionable to the management of our trust and stewardship viz. if done sincerely faithfully and obediently to our great Lord and Master a reward of everlasting happiness and glory but if done falsly sinfully and disobediently then a reward of everlasting loss and misery 2. As to the second kind of world the Malignant World of evil men and evil Angels and therein first in relation to the evil Counsels and evil Examples that sollicit or tempt us to breach of our duty to God the methods whereby faith overcometh this part of the malignant world are these 1. It presents unto us our duty that we owe to God and which we are bound indispensibly to observe under the great penalty of loss of our happiness 2. It presents us with the great advantage that we have in obeying God above whatsoever advantage we can have in obeying or following the sinful examples counsels or commands of this world and the great excess of our disadvantage in obeying or following the evil examples or counsels of the world and this makes him at a point with these follicitations peremptory to conclude it is better to obey God than man and with Joseph How can I commit this great wickedness and sin against God 3. It presents Almighty God strictly observing our carriage in relation to these temptations 4. It presents us with the displeasure and indignation of the same God in case we desert him and sollow the sinful examples or counsels of men and with the great favour love approbation and reward of Almighty God if we keep our fidelity and duty to him 5. It presents us with the noble example of our Blessed Saviour 6. It presents us with the transcendent love of God in Christ Jesus who to redeem and rescue us from the misery of our natural condition and from the dominion of sin and to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works chose to become a curse and dye for us the greatest obligation of love and gratitude and duty imaginable And then it leaves the Soul impartially to judge which is the better of the two and whether this malignant World can propound any thing that can be an equivalent motive to follow their commands or examples or that can equal the love of our Saviour the reward of eternal life and the favour of the ever-glorious God and which must be denied and lost by a sinful compliance with evil counsels commands or examples of an evil world It is true the world can perchance reward my compliance herein with honour and applause and favour and riches or they can punish my neglects with reproach and scorn and loss and poverty and it may be with death but what proportion do these bear to the favour and love of God and an eternal recompence of glory and endless happiness The terms therefore of my obedience to the loving and gracious God to whom I owe my utmost duty and obedience though there were no reward attending it do infinitely out-bid and out-weight whatsoever a sinful world can either give or inflict And secondly as to the other part or Scene of this malignant world Persecutions Reproaches Scorns yea Death it self Faith presents the soul not only with the foregoing considerations and that glorious promise Be faithful unto the death and I will give thee a crown of life but some other considerations that are peculiarly proper to this condition viz. 1. That it is that state that our blessed Saviour hath not only foretold but hath annexed a special promise of blessedness unto Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven 2. That there have gone before us a noble Cloud of Examples in all Ages yea the Captain of our Salvation was thus made perfect by suffering 3. That though it is troublesom it is but short and ends with death which will be the passage into a state of incorruptible happiness And this was that which made the Three Children at a point with the greatest Monarch in the world ready to inflict the severest death upon them Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us c. but if not know O king that we will not worship thy graven image which thou
year in a week in a day in an hour in an unthought of moment before a man hath opportunity to consider to bethink himself or to repent and then the door of life and happiness is shut Again there are a sort of men that consider this great Proposal and choose the Fear of Almighty God and with it Eternal Life and are content to deny themselves in things unlawful to obey Almighty God to keep his favour to walk humbly with him to accept of the tender of Life and Salvation upon the terms propounded by Almighty God And in the practice of this Fear they enjoy His favour and presence and love and after this life spent whether it be long or short and whether their death be lingring or sudden are sure the next moment after death to enjoy an immortal life of glory and happiness Judge then which of these is the truly Wise man whether this be not a Truth beyond dispute The Fear of God that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to depart from evil is Underâ—anaâ—â— OF AFFLICTIONS THE Best Preparation for them and Improvement of them and of our Delivery out of them JOB V. 6 7. Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground Yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward JOB's Friends though in the particular Case of Job they were mistaken yet they were certainly very wise godly and observing men and many of their Sentences were full of excellent and useful Truths and particularly this Speech of Eliphaz which importeth these two useful Propositions 1. That the general state of man in this world is a state of Trouble and Affiiction and it is so common to him so incident to all degrees and conditions of mankind that it seems almost as universal as that natural propension in the sparks to fly upward No person of whatsoever age sex condition degree quality profession but hath a part in this common state of mankind and although some seem to have a greater portion of it than others some seem to have greater and longer vicissitudes and intermissions and allays thereof than others yet none are totally exempt from it yea it is rare to find any man that hath had the ordinary extent of the age of man but his troubles crosses calamities afflictions have overweighed and exceeded the measure of his comforts and contentments in this life 2. That yet those Afflictions and Troubles do neither grow up by a certain regular and constant course of Nature as Plants and Vegetables do out of the ground neither are they meerly accidental and casual but they are sent disposed directed and managed by the conduct and guidance of the most wise Providence of Almighty God and this he proveth in the sequel of this Chapter And as in all things in Nature the most wise God doth nothing at random or at a venture so in this part of his providential dispensation towards mankind he doth exercise the same with excellent wisdom and for excellent Ends even for the very good and advantage of mankind in general and particularly of those very persons that seem most to suffer and be afflicted by them sometimes to punish sometimes to correct sometimes to prevent sometimes to heal sometimes to prepare sometimes to humble always to instruct and teach and better the children of men And indeed if there were no other end but these that follow this seeming sharp Providence of Almighty God would be highly justified namely first to keep men humble and disciplinable Man is a proud vain creature and were that humor constantly fed with prosperity and success it would strangely pust up this vain humor Afflictions and troubles are the excellent and necessary correctives of it and prick this swelling impostumation of pride and haughtiness which would otherwise render men intollerable in themselves and one to another Secondly to bring mankind to recognize Almighty God to seek unto him to depend upon him This is the most natural and specifical effect of Afflictions Hos 5.15 In their afflictions they will seek me early Joâ—ah 1. the rough and stubborn Mariners in a storm will cry every one to his God Thirdly to tutor and discipline the children of men in this great Lâ—sson That their Happiness lyes not in this World but in a better and by this means even by the crosses and vexations and troubles of this World and by these plain and feasible documents to carry mankind up to the end of their beings God knows those few and little comforts of this life notwithstanding all the troubles and crosses with which they are interlarded are apt to keep the hearts even of good men in too great love of this World What would become of us if our whole lives here should be altogether prosperous and contenting without the intermixture of crosses and afflictions But of these things more hereafter Now since the state of mankind in this World is for the most part thus cloudy and stormy and that ordinarily we can expect it to be no otherwise there are these Considerations which become every wise and good mind to acquaint himself with 1. What Preparation is fittest to be made by every man before they come 2. How they are to be received and entertained and improved when they come and while they are incumbent 3. What is the best and safest temper of mind when any of them are removed Touching the first of these namely Preparation before they come and the best preparatives seem to be these 1. A right and sound conviction and consideration of this most certain experimental truth namely That no man whatsoever how good just pious wise soever can by any means expect to be exempt from them but must be more or less subject to Affliction of one kind or other at one time or another in one measure or another for man is certainly born to trouble as the sparks sly upward And this certain truth will be evident if we consider the several kinds of affliction that are common to mankind and herein I shall forbear the Instances which concern our childhood and youth as such which yet notwithstanding are subject to afflictions that though they seem not such to men of riper years yet are as real and pungent and deeply and sensibly grievous to them as those that seem of greater moment to men of riper years But I shall apply my self to those Instances which are more evident and of which those that have the exercise of their reason may be more capable Afflictions seem to be of two kinds 1. Such as are common calamities befalling a Nation City or Society of men 2. Or more personal that concern a man in his particular Touching the former of these namely common calamities such are Wars Devastations Famines Pestilences spreading contagious Epidemical Diseases great Conflagrations experience tells us and daily lets us see that they involve in their extent the generality of men good and bad just and unjust
or use even to such a man Thou hast walked closely in the duties towards God hast depended upon him approved thy self in his sight yet is it not possible that for thy saith industry obedience dependence may be more more constant more firm If it may be as sure it may be then though affliction solicit not thy return to him from whom thou hast not departed yet it solicits thy improvement 4. To Pray unto God and this is the most natural effect of affliction especially if it be severe and eminent In the storm the Sailers call every one upon his God and the reason is because in such a season a man 's own shifts the help and advice and assistance of friends and other humane confidence appear too weak and ineffectual and therefore the man is driven to that which indeed is the unum magnum namely invocat on of Almighty God for help support and comfort It is therefore a sign of a desperate mind that will not come unto God in prayer at least when afflictions grind him And although a man be not of the number of those that restrain prayer before God yet afflictions naturally will make the prayer of such a man more earnest fervent constant it sets an edge and adds life to the prayers of a praying man 5. To Depend and Trust upon God both for support under and seasonable deliverance from afflictions Keep thy recumbence upon his goodness and mercy even under the blackest night of afflictions Though he kill me yet will I trust in him and with David Psal 23.4 even in the valley of the shadow of death to rest upon his Rod and his Staff And though it becomes the best of men to have an yielding and a soft spirit under the afflicting hand of God yet be careful to bear up thy self under the power and goodness of God from fainting and despondence 6. To be Thankful unto God under affliction and that upon very great and important motives 1. Thankful that they are no worse or greater Thou hast losses but yet hast thou lost all at once Job did or if thou hast lost all externals yet hast thou not something thou valuest more than all namely innocence peace with God and thy own Conscience 2. Thankful that God Almighty rather chooseth to afflict thee than to forsake thee As long as Almighty God is pleased to afflict thee it is plain thou art under his discipline his care no man's condition is desperate so long as the Physician continues his administration nor is any man wholly forsaken of God nor past his care so long as he is under affliction for it is a medicine that without thy own default will either recover or better thee 3. Thankful that God hath been pleased to discover so much of his mind and design and affections towards mankind in his Word as to assure us that the measure of his love towards or displeasure against the children of men is not to be taken by external prosperity or adversity But on the contrary to bear up our Souls under the pressures of afflictions assures us that they are the effects for the most part of his fatherly love and care rather than of his heavy displeasure that they may indeed sometimes be symptoms of his anger but not of his hatred they may be for corrections but not for confusion he may correct those whom yet he accounts his Children and resolves to save 7. To put us upon a due search and Examination of our Hearts and Ways Certainly there is not the best man living but upon a strict and impartial search of himself may find sewel for affliction demerit enough to deserve it somewhat amiss that requires amendment some corruptions growing into exorbitancy some errours that stand in need of Physick to cleanse them some budding disorders that stand in need of a medicine to prevent them It is the great business of affliction the great message that it brings from God to man is to search out and see what is amiss what is defective and to ransack our Souls and Hearts and Lives and search whether there be not something offensive to God 8. To put a man to a double Duty upon this search namely if upon an impartial serutiny thou find thy Conscience clear from great and wasting Sins humbly bless God for his grace that hath preserved thee from the great transgression but yet humble thy self for thy sins of daily incursion for thy sins of omission for thy coldness in thy devotions for thy want of vigilance over thy pulions for thy neâ—lect of opportunâ—tl◠〈◊〉 doing good As thou hast mitter of thankfulness for escaping those 0303 0 â—â—eater and wasting sins when others 〈◊〉 â—â—r tâ—â—â— hast matter of humiâ—â—â—tion â—nd repentance for those sins that 〈◊〉 of a lesser magnitude whereunto thy 0303 0 〈◊〉 inadvertence and humane trailty unders thee liable and to set a stricter â—â—rch upon thy self even in reference to â—ere Again on the other side if upon â—â—ch thou find thy self guilty of any 〈…〉 which hath not been repented 〈◊〉 thy â—â—iction brings likewise a double 〈◊〉 unto thee First a message of huâ—â—â—â—tion and repentance for thy great â—â—â—â—grâ—â—lion and tâ—â—ning to God with â—perfect resolution of amendment and a â—â—sage of gratitude and thankfulness to 〈◊〉 that hath sent this messenger of afâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 awaken thee to repentance and mendment and hath given thee an asâ—â—â—ce 〈◊〉 pardon and forgiveness upon thy â—â—â—â—â—ce and amendment through the 〈◊〉 Sacrifice of Christ Jesus So that whatsoever person affliction meets with it brings with it a useful and profitable message from Heaven If it meet with a person under the guilt of some great unrepented sin it brings him an errand of humiliation repentance amendment and thankfulness if it meet with a good man such a man as Job who had the witness of God in himself that he was a perfect man and an upright yet it brings him also a message of the like nature a message of gratitude to that God that hath preserved him from the great transgression a message of humiliation and repentance for his often failings and offences a message of advice to proceed with greater vigilance and to a farther degree of Christian per fection in the whole course of his life 9. To wean a man from the love of the world and to carry up the thoughts and hopes and desires to that Countrey where unto we are appointed If all things went well even with good men in this life they would be building of Tabernacles here and set up their rest and hopes on this side Jordan as the Reuhenites did in the Countrey of Bashan when they found it rich and fruitful God Almighty therefore in mercy makes this World unpleasing to good men by affliction that they may set the less value upon it and fix their hopes and desires and endeavours for that City which is above This is the voice of the Rod and of Him that hath appomted
cleanseth the Soul and renders a man in God's acceptation as if he had not offended 5. The next preparative against affliction is to gain an humble Mind When affliction meets with a proud heart full of opinion of its own worth and goodness there ariseth more trouble and tumult and disorder and discomposure in the contest of such a heart against the affliction than possibly can arise from the affliction it self and the strugling of that distemper of pride with the affliction galls and intangles the mind more than the severest affliction and renders a man very unfit for it and unable to bear it The Prophet describes it her Sons at the head of every street were like a wild Bull in a net But on the other side an humble lowly mind is calm and patient and falls with ease upon an afflicted condition for the truth is the great evil of suffering is not so much in the thing a man suffers as in the mind and temper of spirit of the man that meets with it an humble mind is a mind rightly prepared with the greatest facility to receive the shock of any affliction for such a mind is already as low as affliction can ordinarily set it And certainly if any man consider aright he hath many important causes to keep his Mind always humble 1. In respect of Almighty God the great and glorious King of Heaven and Earth whom if a man contemplate he will put his mouth in the dust acknowledge himself to be but a poor worm and therefore unworthy to dispute the Divine dispensations providences or permissions 2. In respect of himself He that considers aright himself his sins and failings and corruptions will have cause enough to humble himself and reckon that he is justly obnoxious to the severest crosses and afflictions Why doth the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin 't is mercy enough that the affliction extends not yet so â—â—r as his life a living man to complain carnes a reprehension in it self of the complaint 6. Another most singular prâ—paration against affliction is a steady resolved Resignation of a man's self to the will and good pleasure of Almighty God and that upon grounds of the greatest reason imaginable For 1. it is a most sovereign will for his will must be done whether we will or not therefore it is the highest piece of folly imaginable to contest with him that will not cannot may not be controlled It is true we have commission to pray to him to deliver us from evil but when we have so done we must withal desire that his will may be done this pattern the Son of God hath given us Matth. 26.39 Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me yet not my will but thy will be done Willingly therefore submit to that will which whether thou wilt or no thou must thou shalt endure for his will is the most sovereign will the will of the absolute Monarch of Heaven and Earth 2. As it is the most sovereign will so it is the most wise will what he wills he wills not simply prâ—â—â—mperio but his will is founded upon and directed by a most infinite wisdom and since thou canst not upon any tollerable account judge thy will wiser than his it becomes thee to resolve thy poor narrow inconsiderate will into the will of the most wise God 3. As it is a most wise will so the will of God is most certainly the most benificent and best will what reason hast thou to suspect the benificence of his will whose will alone gave thee thy being that he might communicate his goodness to that being of thine which he freely gave thee It is true it may be thou dost not see the reason the end the use of his Dispensations yet be content with an implicit submission to resign thy self up to his disposal and rest assured it shall be best for thee though thou yet canst not understand what it means If he hath given thee an Heart to resign up this will unto his be confident he will never mislead thee nor give thee cause to repent of trusting him It was a noble pitch of a Heathen's mind namely Epictetus Enchirid. cap. 78. In quovis incepto haeâ— optanda sunt Due me ô Jupiter tâ— fatum eo quo sum à vobis destinatus sequar enim alacriter quod si noluero improbus ero sequar nihilominus Which may be thus better Englished In every Enterprize this ought to be our Prayer Guide me O God and thou Divine Providence according to thine own appointment I will with chearfulness follow which if I shall decline to do I shall be an undutiful man and yet shall nevertheless follow thy appointment whether I will or not But Christians have learned a Reason of a nobler descent namely That all things shall work together for good to those that love God and certainly there can be no greater evidence of thy love to him than to make the Will of God the guide rule and measure of thine own 7. I shall conclude with that great Preparative which is indeed the completion of all that is before said and in a few words includes all Labour to get thy Peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord when this is once attained thou art set above the love of the World and the fear of afflictions because thou hast the assurance of a greater Treasure than this World can give or take away a Kingdom that cannot be shaken a hope and most assured expectation that is above the region of afflictions and that renders the greatest and forest afflictions as they are namely light and momentany And yet because thou art notwithstanding this glorious expectation yet in this lower region and subject to passions and perturbations and fears the merciful God hath engaged his promise to support thee here under them to better and improve thee by them to carry thee through them by his all-sufficient grace and mercy The strokes thou receivest are either managed and directed or at least governed and ordered by him that is thy Father and that in very love and faithfulness doth correct thee that hath a heart of compassion and love to thee even when he seems in his Providences to frown upon thee that while thou art under them will make them work together for thy good and that will never take from thee those everlasting mercies which are thy portion that hath all thy afflictions crosses troubles whatever they are or may be under the infallible conduct of his own wisdom and power And that as on the one side he will never suffer thee to be afflicted beyond what he gives thee grace to bear and improve so on the other hand he will so manage order and govern thy light afflictions which are here but for a moment that in the end they shall be a means to bring thee a far more exceeding and eternal
distemper of our mind than to them We are like men in a Feaver that infinitely increase their heat by their tossing and tumbling more than if they lay still and then they complain of the uncasiness of their Bed Like the Prophet's wild Bull in a Net we intangle and tyre our selves worse with our strugling than if we were more patient and still or like the Ship it is not broken by the Rock but by its own violent motion against it Why then should I discontent and disquiet my self with my condition when I make it and my self thereby worse and more uneasy 10. As my discontentedness and unquietness renders my condition the more uneasy so it no way conduceth to my rescue from it For since I cannot be so brutish as to think that the occurrences which befall men are without a Divine Conduct so it is certain that all his Dispensations are wise and directed to a wise end and even afflictions themselves have their errand and business to make men more humble watchful and considerate If I correct my Child for his fault and he continue still more stubborn I shall correct him longer till he return to his submissiveness and duty Why then should I discontent my self and be impatient under my affliction when it is not only vain and fruitless thereby to expect deliverance but in all probability the likelyest way to keep me still under it 11. As thus my condition is not amended but made the worse more severe and lasting by my impatience and discontent so Patience and Contentation will give me these great advantages 1. In all probability it will shorten my affliction because it hath obtained its effect and end and the message it brings is duly answered 2. But howsoever it will make in infinitely more easy the less I struggle under it 3. And which is the best of all it gives me the possession of my own Soul internal peace and tranquility of mind a kind and comfortable serenity of spirit I remain Master of my passions of my intellectuals of my self and am not transported into another thing than what becomes a reasonable man though there be storms and tempests and rolling seas without me yet all is calm and quiet within Contentation and patience renders my outward condition of little concernment to me so long as it gives me the opportunity to possess and enjoy me self my virtue and goodness and the attestation of a good Conscience 12. Though I want somewhat that others have yet 't is ten to one that I have somewhat that many as good if not better want It may be I want wealth yet I have health it may be I want health yet I have Children that others want I will learn contentment by considering others wants and my enjoyments and not learn discontent from others enjoyments and my own wants These be the Moral Considerations and truly they be of great weight moment and use and as I said carried the Heathen a great way in the virtues of Contentation and Patience But yet they oftentimes failed and were too weak to compose the mind under a storm of crosses losses and afflictions and therefore Almighty God hath furnished us with a more excellent way which lets me into the Second Consideration namely the Divine and Evangelical Helps to Patience and Contentation Their number will not be so many as the former but their weight and efficacy greater and they are such as these 1. The worst I here suffer is less than I deserve and the least that I enjoy is more than I can in justice expect it is but gift and bounty I have therefore reason to be content and thankful for the least merey and to be patient and quiet under my greatest evil 2. There is no affliction cross or condition of life but is reached out to us from the Hand or Permission of the most glorious Sovereign of all the World to whom we owe an infinite subjection because we have our being from him And therefore it is but just and reasonable for us to content our selves with what he is pleased thus to inflict and the greatest cross or affliction of this life is not answerable to his bounty and goodness in giving us being 3. He is not only the absolute Sovereign of us and all the World but he is the most Just and wise Governour of it and all men and all the dispensations of his government are directed to most just wise and excellent ends And therefore we have all imaginable reason not only patiently to submit but cheerfully and contentedly to bear any condition that he dispenseth and with an implicit faith to resign our wills to his as being assured it is infinitely more wise and just than ours Sometimes they are the acts of his Justice to punish us for some past offence but always the acts of his Wisdom either to try us to reclaim us to prevent us from worse evils or to amend us to make us more humble watchful dutiful circumspect to draw us off from too much resting on the World to make us bethink our selves of our duty and returning to him by repentance faith and obedience 4. He is not only a Wise and Just Governour but a most Merciful and tender Father and one that out of very faithfulness love and goodness corrects us as a Father doth his Son he entirely loveth and upon this account we may rest assured 1. That he never afflicts or sends or permits any cross to fall upon us but it is for our everlasting and many times for our temporal good 2. That no cross or affliction shall lye longer or heavier upon us than is conducible to our good 3. That he doth and will always send along his Staff with his Rod his Grace with his Affliction to tutor and instruct us to support and comfort us and if we find not this support in our greatest affliction it is not because it is wanting to us but because we are wanting to it to lay hold upon it and improve it 5. For our farther assurance of his love to us and care of us we have the word of the great Monarch of the World the Mighty Faithful and All-sufficient God I will not leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 6. He hath given us the greatest pledge of his love and goodness that the most doubting or craving Heart in the World could ever desire his Son to be our Sacrifice And how shall he not with Him give us all things needful useful and beneficial Rom. 8.32 This Son of his he made the Captain of our Salvation and yet he made him a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 and made perfect by sufferings Heb. 2.9 10. And this Son of God did bear not only with patience but with resignation and contentation of mind Matth. 26.39 Not as I will but as thou wilt Lu. 12.50 I have a baptism to be baptized withal and how am I straitned till it be accomplished
his creature to blessedness and the vision of his Creator 2. That he so ordered the means of man's Redemption that a greater glory came even by that Redemption that if man had never faln and a greater benefit to mankind For the latter it is apparent that if there had been no Mediator sent the least sin that any of the sons of men had committed had been inexorably fatal to them without any means of pardon And as Adam though in his full liberty and power was misled by temptation so might have he been or any of his posterity though he had stood that shock which now is admirably provided against by the satisfaction of Christ Jesus And as thus it is better with the children of men so the glory of God is wonderfully advanced by it for if man had stood in his innocence God had had only the glory of his justice in rewarding him or if he had faln the glory of his justice in punishing him but there had been no room for that glorious attribute of his Mercy in forgiving without violation to his Purity Truth and Justice that glorious attribute by which he so often proclaimeth himself Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God Merciful Gracious Long-suffering abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and yet that will by no means clear the guilty 3. That he so wonderfully ordered the Redemption of Man that all his Attributes were preserved inviolable His Truth The day thou eatest thou shalt dye his Justice yet his Mercy his Love to his creature yet his Hatred to Sin his Son shall dye to satisfie his Truth and Justice yet the sinner shall live to satisfie his Mercy the sin shall be punished to justifie his Purity yet his creature shall be saved to manifest his Love and Goodness And thus his Wisdom over-ruled Sin the worst of evils to the improvement of his glory and the good of his creature 4. His wisdom is manifested in this that by the redemption of man all those ways of his administration before the coming of Christ do now appear to be excellently ordered to the redemption of man and the making of it the more effectual The giving of a severe and yet most just Law which was impossible for us to fulfil shews us the wretchedness of our condition our inability to fulfil what was just in God to require shews us the necessity of a Saviour drives us to him and makes this City of refuge grateful and acceptable and makes us set a value upon that mercy which so opportunely and mercifully provided a Sacrifice for us in the Blood of Christ and a Righteousness for us in the Merits of Christ and a Mediator for us in the Intercession of Christ And by this means also all those Sacrifices and Ceremonies and Observations enjoyned in the Levitical Law which carried not in themselves a clear reason of their institution are now by the sending of Christ rendred significant 5. The wisdom of God is magnified and advanced in this in fulfilling the Prophecies of the sending the Messias to satisfie for the sins of Mankind against all the oppositions and casualties and contingencies that without an over-ruling wisdom and guidance might have disappointed it And this done in that Perfection that not one circumstance of Time Place Person Concomitants should nor did fail in it and so bearing witness to the infinite Truth Power and Wisdom of God in bringing about his Counsels in their perfection touching this great business of the Redemption of Man which was the very end why he was created and placed upon the earth and managing the villany of men and the craft and malice of Satan to bring about that greatest blessing that was or could be provided for mankind besides and above and against the intention of the Instrument Act. 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain 6. The unsearchable Wisdom of God is manifested in that he provided such a Mediator that was fit for so great a work had all the world consulted that God must suffer it had been impossible and had all the world contrived that any man or all the men in the world should have been a satisfactory Sacrifice for any one Sin it had been deficient Here is then the wonderful Counsel of the most high God the Sacrifice that is appointed shall be so ordered that God and Man shall be conjoyned in one Person that so as Man he might become a Sacrifice for Sin and as God he might give a value to the Sacrifice And this is that great Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh 2. The wonderful Love of God to Mankind I. In thinking upon poor sinful creatures to contrive a way for a Pardon for us and rescuing us from that Curse which we had justly deserved 2. Thinking of us for our good when we sought it not thought not of it 3. When we were enemies against God and against his very being 4. Thinking of us not only for a Pardon but to provide for us a state of Glory and Blessedness 5. When that was not to be obtained saving his Truth and Justice without a miraculous Mediator consisting of the divine and humane nature united in one person in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ here was Love and Goodness of the greatest magnitude that ever was or ever shall be heard of and sufficient to conquer our Hearts into admiration and astonishment But yet it rests not here As God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 so the only begotten Son of God was not behind in this wonderful Love No sooner as we may with reverence say was the Counsel of the Father propounded for the sending of his Son but presently the Son saith Lo I come Psal 40.7 Heb. 10.7 And now we will consider upon what terms he must come or else the redemption of mankind must dye for ever I. He must come and empty himself of his Glory of his personal Majesty and take our nature yet without sin he must go through the natural infirmities of infancy and childhood 2. And not only must he undergo this abasement but he must undergo the condition of a mean a low birth born of a poor Virgin in a Stable laid in a Manger under the reputation of a Carpenter's Son 3. And not only thus but as soon as he is born must use the care of his Mother to shift for his life away to Egypt to prevent the jealousie and fury of Herod 4. And when grown up to youth he must undergo the form of a Servant become a poor Carpenter to work for his living without any patrimony or so much as a house to cover him 5. He comes abroad into the World to exercise the Ministry and the Prologue to
for this could neither consist with the purity of his Nature nor innocence nor dignity of his Person nor the hypostatical union of both Natures in him But he suffered as much as was consistent with these considerations and as considering the dignity of his person was equivalent to the sin and demerits of all Mankind 2. That his righteousness imputed to us doth not exempt us from acquiring a righteousness inherent in us this were to disappoint the end of his suffering which was to redeem us from our vain conversation and make us a peculiar people zealous of good works 3. That this purchase of Salvation by Christ for Believers is not to render them idle or secure or presumptuous where there is such a disposition of Soul it is an evident Indication that it is not yet truly united unto Christ by true Faith and Love his Grace is sufficient to preserve us and alwayes ready to do it if we do not wilfully neglect or reject it THE VICTORY OF FAITH Over the WORLD I. JOH V. 4 For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even your faith THese things are herein considerable 1. The Act which is here declared Victory or Overcoming 2. The Person that exerciseth this act or concerning whom this act is affirmed described by this description a person that is born of God 3. The Thing upon which this act of victory is exercised viz. the world 4. The Instrument or Means by which this act is exercised viz. Faith 5. The Method or Order or Formal Reason whereby faith overcometh this world Some few Observations I shall deliver touching all these in the order proposed I. Victory or Overcoming is a subjugation or bringing under an opposing party to the power and will of another and this victory is of two kinds complete and perfect or incomplete and imperfect 1. The notion of a complete victory is when either the opposing party is totally destroyed or at least when despoiled of any possibility of future resistance Thus the Son of God the Captain of our Salvation overcame the World Joh. 16.33 Be of good cheer I have overcome the world and thus when we are delivered from this body of death we shall overcome the world this complete victory will be the portion of the Church and Christian triumphant Again 2. There is a victory but incomplete such as the victory of the children of Israel was over the Canaanites which though they were subdued as to any possibility of a total reacquiring of a superiority or equality of power yet they were not subdued from a possibility of annoying disquieting and rebelling they remained still thorns to vex and disturb though not to subdue their conquerors there was still an over-ballance of power in the victors though not wholly to extirpate them And this is the condition of the Christian militant in this world he keeps the world in subjection and every day gets ground upon it but he cannot expect to obtain a perfect complete and universal conquest of it till he can truly say with our Blessed Lord Joh. 14.30 The prince of this world hath nothing in me Which cannot be till our change comes for till then we carry about with us lusts and passions and corruptions which though with all vigilancy and severity kept under and daily impaired in their power and malignity will hold a correspondence with the world and the prince thereof and be ready to deceive and betray us though never to regain their empire and sovereignty and the reason is significantly given by the same Apostle 1 Joh. 3.9 For his feed abideth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Indeed he may and shall have sin as long as he hath flesh about him 1 Joh. 1.8 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us But although we have sin still abiding in us and like the the byass in a Bowl warping us to the world yet that vital seminal principle of the grace of God in Christ always keeps its ground its life and tendency toward heaven and wears out wasts and gradually subdues the contrary tendency of sin and corruption II. The Person exercising this act of victory and conquest he that is Born of God All men by nature may be said in some sense to be born of God the Apostle tells the Athenians Act. 17.28 We are all his off-spring But in this place this heavenly birth is a second a supervenient birth from God and hence it is called Regeneration the New birth birth of the water and the Spirit birth of the Spirit the formation of Christ in the soul and the creature so new born stiled the New creature the New man a partaker of the divine nature born not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but born of the will of God And all these and the like expressions are figurative and seem to carry in them a double analogy first to the first creation of mankind and secondly to the ordinary generation of mankind since their first creation 1. As to the former analogy we know by the Holy Word that the first man was the root of all mankind stamped with the signature of the image of Almighty God principally consisting in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness and stood or fell as the common representative of all mankind This image of God was in a great measure lost and defaced by the fall of man and more every day spoiled by the actual sins and acquired corruptions of his descendants Christ the second Adam had instamped upon him a new inscription of the glorious God came to be a common head root and parent of as many as are united unto him by faith love and imitation and to instamp anew upon them that lost and decayed image of God who thereby put on the New man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.24 and so becoming a New creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Galat. 5.6 renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Coloss 1.10 they receive a new stamp and impression from this great exemplar Christ Jesus the true image of the invisible God 2. The second analogy is to the ordinary generation of mankind wherein as a little but powerful vital principle which we call the Soul forms and moulds the foetus according to the specifical nature of man in all his lineaments and proportions and never gives over its operation till it hath completed that bodily mass into its full complement of parts and afterwards gradually augments and perfects it in his organs and faculties So by a vital principle derived from God through Christ into the soul the same is moulded fashioned formed increased and perfected according to this new principle of life which is usually called Grace Whereby it comes to pass that as the soul is the vital and conforming principle of the body so
this grace is the very life and vital and conforming principle of the soul And hence this formative principle is called the life of the soul the quickning spirit and the conformation of the soul unto the will of God thereby is called the forming of Christ in them the life of Christ the indwelling of Christ in the heart by faith And this new principle exerciseth in the soul all the acts analogical to that natural vital principle in the body giving to it as it were the image lineaments proportion increase conformable to the image of God in Christ as true Wisdom Righteousness Justice Holiness Integrity Love of God Submission to his will Dependance upon him and translates them into all the communicable relations that Christ himself had and invests them in his communicable priviledges If he be a Son of God by nature so are they by interpretation is he an heir of heaven so are they coheirs with him is he accepted of God so are they is he an heir of glory so are they And as this conformation of the body by this vital principle is performed by a seminal principle at least as the instrument of its activity derived from the parent so the analogy holds here we find a double seminal principle in this conformation and both derived from Christ our head viz. one External another Internal 1. The External seminal principle is the word and message of the Divine doctrine exemplary and holy life singular love of Christ and of God through him to mankind whereby we understand what he would have us do the danger if we do otherwise the blessed reward of obedience the great engagements of the love of God in sending his Son to dye for us the plain familiar easie way of attaining of happiness and because we often learn better by example than by precept the same word exhibits to us a lively picture of his holy conversation his humility meekness obedience love patience goodness And this external means is in it self a great moral means to conform our wills and lives thereunto and therefore it is called the incorruptible seed of the word of God whereby we are born again 1 Pet. 1.23.2 The Internal seed is that Spirit of grace sent out from Christ which doth derive a quickning lively power to the word and to the soul whereby it makes it effectual to its end and therefore called a Spirit of Life and Power a Quickning Spirit and this not by transfusing a new substance or substantial nature which before it had not but by its lively yet secret operations changing and moulding it suitable to the image of him whose Spirit it is and adding energy and efficacy to that other seed of the word as the Sun doth to the seminal principles of vegetables and animals III. Touching the Thing upon which this victory is obtained and conquest made it is the world which comprehends in its latitude a double world the world within us and the world without us The world within us which may therefore be so called principally in this respect that a great part of its relation and tendency is toward the world which is for the most part the object upon which it fixeth the subject after which it reacheth and the business upon which it fasteneth and exerciseth and hence it is that the Apostle S t John divides the world without us with relation to the world within us viz. The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life 1 Joh. 2.16 The world that is within us taketh in the two great faculties or powers viz. 1. the Passions of the soul and 2. the Sensual Appetite both these are in their own nature good placed in us by the wise God of Nature for most excellent ends and uses Our business is therefore to keep in order and subjection not to extirpate and root them out for they are radicated in our nature by the God of Nature But of this more particularly 1. Our Passions such as are Love Hatred Anger Hope Fear Joy Sorrow these and the like passions of the humane Soul are not simply in themselves evil nay being rightly placed and duly ordered and regulated they become serviceable to excellent ends and uses and therefore simply in themselves they are not the subject of a Christian's victory But then they become such when they become the world in the Text and that is principally in these Cases 1. When they are misplaced as when we love the things we should hate hope for the things we should fear rejoyce in that we should grieve c. or è converso 2. When they are immoderate or excessive about their proper objects which comes to pass when in those things about which we may exercise our passions lawfully we exceed that measure or proportion that is due to them For instance I may lawfully love a competency of worldly subsistence but I exceed in this that I love it too much and beyond the worth that is truly in it I may lawfully be angry with him that injures me but I exceed in the measure or degree or time or duration and become implacable 3. When my affections or passions are not acted to that height they ought to be All finite objects of our passions require a proportionate degree of our passions but where the object is infinite my affections may erre in being too remiss but not in the excess I cannot love God too much for I am to love him with all my might but I may love him too little and then my affection errs I cannot hate sin too much because I cannot love God too much but I may hate it too little 4. When my affections or passions are acted unseasonably either in respect of the time or in respect of the competition between objects of several values I may nay I must love my Father but if I love my Father more than my Saviour my Saviour hath pronounced me unworthy of him 5. When my passions degenerate into vices and corruptions and so become not so much powers or faculties as diseases and sicknesses of the soul as when anger degenerates into malice revenge when self-self-love degenerate into envy when desire of or delight in the profits or honours of the world degenerates into covetousness or ambition and the like 6. When my passions are not under the management guidance or conduct of my superior faculties my reason and judgment but either go before they are sent or go beyond what they are sent or return not and subside when recalled and then they breed infinite perturbation in the soul invert the order of nature and become furies and tempests and imprison and captivate the mind and understanding and become a worse part of the world than that which is without us Under these conditions our passions and affections are part of that world which is the object of a Christian's warfare and victory 2. The other part of this world within us are the
and Favour avail not so long as Mordecai sate in the Gate and did him no reverence any small neglect or affront any cross in expectation any little inconsiderable disappointment in what he sets his mind upon disorders him even to distraction The other Extreme is Baseness and Sordidness of Mind which though it carries the shadow of humility yet it is quite another thing And though sometimes as in pride so in this of baseness of mind the complexion and temperament may have an influence yet it is most commonly upon another account namely when a man is forlornly given over to the love of Wealth or Honour or bodliy Pleasures or Lusts this doth make him prostitute himself to any base sordid means or compliances to compass and attain those ends there is nothing so base or unworthy that such a man will not undertake or do to the attainment of what he thus designs such as are base Flattery of Men in Power ugly Compliance with their humors though most nauseous unsavoury creeping and cringing even almost to Adoration of them making pitiful Addresses to their meanest dependents even as low as Pages and Foot-boys performing the most unwarrantable offices for them and many times an external disguise a shape of lowliness and humility in gesture shape habits and deportment till they can attain their ends like the Monk that was always looking upon the earth in a shape of humility till he was chosen Abbot and then changed his figure and being questioned for his sudden change by one of his Covent answered in his former posture he was only looking for the keys of the Abbey but now he had found them he needed not the former posture And this baseness of mind is many times also the effect of the Fear of Men which many times works so much upon the mind that it carries men to base and unworthy compliances But true Humility is a virtue and temper of mind of another nature and arising from better principles It is a lowly frame and habit of spirit arising from the due sense of the Glorious Excellency of the Almighty God and our own frailty and infirmity and our infinite dependence upon his Bounty Goodness Mercy whereby we are under a constant firm and sound conviction that all the good that is in us or that is enjoyed or can be expected by us is from the free and undeserved liberality of that Glorious God So that although possibly the helps of complexion and constitution and education may be contributory to the more easie acquest and exercise of this virtue yet it is in it self the effect of a mind truly and foundly principled the Spirit of a sound mind And this humility of mind is not barely in the external habit or counterfeited deportment many times a Cynical intollerable Pride is clothed with the mantle of Humility but principally it is rooted in the very mind it self and for the most part evidenceth its being by these ensuing particulars 1. A most awful and sincere Reverence 0130 0 and Fear of the Great and Glorious God a habitual prostration of our souls always before him as the great and glorious Sovereign of Heaven and Earth in whose presence we always are and to whom we owe an infinite subjection and dependence 2. A most high and constant Gratitude and Thankfulness of heart and soul to him for all the good we have in us or that is or can be enjoyed by us recognizing him as the giver of our Being of our Faculties our abilities and strength of Mind and Body our Wealth our Honour our Comforts our Hope and Expectations that he is not only the giver of them but the Sovereign Lord of them and as may resume them when he pleaseth 3. And consequently upon this that we owe to that great and Sovereign Lord a due Employment of all that he hath thus given us to his Glory and Service and that we must therefore be accountable for them to him who is our great Lord or Proprietor and Master 4. A constant Vigilancy and Attention of mind upon all our thoughts words and actions but especially lest we forget that habitude of mind that we thus owe to Almighty God and lest pride arrogancy vanity or vain-glory steal in upon us checking and plucking up the first ebullitions and risings the first buds and motions thereof 5. Which is but the consequence of the former a Sober Opinion concerning our selves and all we can do and say not thinking of our selves above what we ought to think and since self-self-love so naturally adheres to us to be very jealous over our selves especially in those actions that are good or that meet with some applause in the world lest we either value them too high or over-value our selves by reason of them or lest we are short in giving to Almighty God that Honour that is due to him and to him only for them 6. A diligent and impartial and frequent Consideration and Examination and Animadversion of and upon our defects and failings for these and these only are truly and properly our own There are a sort of artificial Pictures that if a man look upon them one way they represent some beautiful comely person but if we look upon them another way they present some deformed mishapen Monster Our own partiality to our selves prompts us to look upon the Picture of our lives and actions in that position or posture that renders nothing but beautiful and virtuous and we have seldom the patience to look upon it in that position that may render our Deformities and Vices and thereupon we give our selves the denomination accordingly of Good and Virtuous and either do not observe or do not consider our own failings and defects If we did as well consider our sins which we commit as the duties which we perform and if in the consideration of our duties we did but consider how much more of duties we omit than we perform and in the duties we perform if we did consider how much deadness formality hypocrisie vain-glory self-seeking and other unhandsom ingredients were mingled with them and should lay our sins our omissions our defects in one scale and that which were really and truly duty and good and worthy in another scale the best of mankind would soon find that that which was truly good in the whole course of his life were a pitiful slender scantlet and would be infinitely out-weighed by his sins omissions and defects and the due comparison and prospect of this would quickly give him a Lecture of Humility the Good we do would indeed make us Thankful but the good we omit the evil we commit and the deficiencies of our duties would make us Humble 7. Charitable Opinions of the persons of others as far as possible may be It is true that neither Religion nor Charity commands or allows any man to say or think that that which is in it self a sin is not so as that Drunkenness and Whoredom or Pride or
reason is apparent for it is not the Tempestuousness or Tranquillity of Externals that creates the trouble or the quietness of the Man but it is the Mind and that state of composure or discomposure that the mind is put into occasionally from them and since there is nothing in the world that conduceth more to the composure tranquillity of the mind than the Serenity and Clearness of the Conscience keep but that safe and untainted the mind will enjoy a calm and tranquillity in the midst of all the storms of the World and although the Waves beat and the Sea works and the Winds blow that mind that hath a quiet and clear Conscience within will be as stable and as safe from perturbation as a Rock in the midst of a Tempestuous Sea and will be a Goshen to and within it self when the rest of the world without and round about a man is like an Egypt for Plagues and Darkness If therefore either before the access or irruption of troubles or under their pressure any thing or person in the world sollicite thee to ease or deliver thy self by a breach or wound of thy Conscience know they are about to cheat thee of thy best security under God against the power and malignity of troubles they are about to clip off that Lock wherein next under God thy strength lieth What-ever therefore thou dost hazard or lose keep the integrity of thy Conscience both before the access of troubles and under them It is a Jewel that will make thee Rich in the midst of Poverty a Sun that will give thee Light in the midst of darkness a Fortress that will keep thee safe in the greatest danger and that is never to be taken unless thou thy self betray it and deliver it up 4. The next Expedient is this namely an Assurance that the Divine Wisdom Power and Providence doth Dispose Govern and Order all the things in the world even those that seem most confused irregular tumultuous and contumacious This as it is a most certain truth so is it a most excellent expedient to compose and fettle the mind especially of such a man who truly loves and fears this great God even under the blackest and most dismal Troubles and Confusions for it must most necessarily give a sound present and practical Argument of Patience and Contentation For even these black dispensations are under the government and management of the most Wise and Powerful God Why should I that am a foolish vain Creature that scarce see to any distance before me take upon me to censure these Dispensations to struggle impatiently with them to disquiet and torment my self with vexation at them Let God alone to govern and order the world as he thinks fit as his Power is infinite and cannot be resisted so is his Wisdom infinite and knows best what is to be done and when and how 2. As it gives a sound Argument of Patience and Contentedness so it gives a clear inference of Resignation of our selves up unto him and to his will and disposal upon the account of his Goodness It is the mere Bounty and Goodness of God that first gave being to all things and preserves all things in their Being that gives all those Accomodations and Conveniencies that accompanie their Being why should I therefore distrust his Goodness As he hath Power to do what he pleaseth Wisdom to direct and dispose that Power so he hath infinite Goodness that accompanies that Power and that Wisdom As I cannot put my will into the hands of greater Wisdom so I cannot put my will into the hands of greater Goodness His Beneficence to his Creatures is greater than it is possible for the Creatures to have to themselves I will not only therefore patiently Submit to his Power and Will which I can by no means resist but chearfully Resign up my self to the disposal of his Will which is infinitely best and therefore a better rule for my disposal than my own will 5. The next Expedient is Faith and Recumbence upon those Promises of his which all wise and good men do and must value above the best Inheritance in this World namely that he will not leave nor forsake those that fear and love him Heb. 13.5 How much more shall your Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him Matth. 6.30 Matth. 7.11 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32. All things shall work together for good to them that love God Rom 8. 28 Upon the assurance of these Divine Promises my heart may quiet it self in the midst of all the most dark and tumultuous concussions in the world Is it best for me to be delivered out of them or to be preserved in or under them I am under the Providence and Government of my Heavenly Father who hath said He will not leave me nor forsake me who takes more care of me and bears more love to me than I can bear to my most dutiful Child that can in a moment rescue me from the calamity or infallibly secure me under it that sees and knows every moment of my condition and a thousand expedients to preserve or relieve me On the other side do I fall in the same common calamity and sink under it without any deliverance from it or preservation under it His will be done I am sure it is for my good nay it is not possible it should be otherwise For my very death the worst of worldly evils will be but the transmission of me into a state of Blessedness Rest and Immortality for Blessed are they that die in the Lord they rest from their labours and their works follow them 6. The next Expedient is Prayer The glorious God of Heaven hath given us a free and open access to his Throne there to sue out by Prayer those Blessings and Mercies which he hath promised It is not only a Duty that we owe in recognition of the divine Soveraignty a Priviledge of greater value than if we were made Lords of the whole Earth but a Means to attain those Mercies that the Divine Wisdom and Goodness knows to be fittest for us by this means we may be sure to have deliverance or preservation if useful or fit for us or if not yet those favours and condescentions from Almighty God that are better than deliverance it self namely Patience and Contentedness with the Divine Good Pleasure Resignation of our wills to him great Peace and Tranquillity of mind Evidences and Communications of his Love and Favour to us Support under our weaknesses and despondences and many times Almighty God in these Wildernesses of distractions and confusions and storms and calamities whether publick or private gives out as a return to hearty and faithful prayer such Revelations of his Goodness and Irradiations of his Favour and Love that a man would not exchange for all the external
happiness that this world can afford and Recompenceth the loss and troubles in relation to externals with a far greater measure of the Manifestations of his favour than ever a man did receive in his greatest confluence of external advantages Yea and possibly the time of external storms and troubles is far more seasonable for such returns of faithful and humble prayer than the times of external affluence and benefits and the devotion of the soul by such troubles raised to a greater height and accompanied with more Grace and Humility and Fervency than is ordinarily found in a condition of external peace plenty and serenity Changes and Troubles Peace way-ward Soul let not those various storms Which hourly fill the World with fresh Alarms Invade thy Peace nor discompose that Rest Which thou maist keep untoucht within thy Breast Amidst those whirlwinds if thou keep but free Thy Intercourse betwixt thy God and thee The Region lies above these Storms and know Thy thoughts are earthly and they creep too low If these can reach thee or access can find To bring or raise like Tempests in thy Mind But yet in these disorders something lies That 's worth thy notice out of which the Wise May trace and find that Just and Powerful Hand That secretly but surely doth Command And Manage these distempers with that skill That while they seem to Cross they Act his Will Observe that Silver Thred that steers and bends The worst of all disorders to such Ends That speak his Justice Goodness Providence Who closely guides it by his Influence And though these Storms are lond yet listen well There is another message that they tell This World is not thy Country 't is thy Way Too much contentment would invite thy stay Too long upon thy journey make it strange Vnwelcome News to think upon a Change Whereas this rugged entertainment send Thy thoughts before thee to thy journeys end Chides thy desires homeward tells thee plain To think of resting here it is but vain Makes thee to set an equal estimate On this uncertain World and a just rate On that to come It bids thee wait and stay Until thy Master calls and then with joy To entertain it Such a Change as this Renders thy Loss thy Gain improves thy Bliss OF THE REDEMPTION OF TIME How and why it is to be REDEEMED I Would consider these Particulars 1. What that Time is which we are to Redeem 2. What it is to Redeem that Time 3. How that Time is to be Redeemed 4. Why that Time is thus to be Redeemed The first of these what that Time is that is to be Redeemed The Philosophers trouble themselves much what time is and leave it very difficult but we shall not need to trouble our selves with that inquiry The Time that is here meant seems to be under this double Relation First in relation to some apt season for any thing to be done and then it is properly called Opportunity which is nothing else but the co-incidence of some circumstance accommodate to some action suitable to it as the Time for the Husband-man to Reap his Corn is when the Corn is ripe and the weather seasonable It is time for the Smith to forge his Iron when it is hot and therefore malleable and so in matters moral It is a time to shew mercy when an object of misery occurrs and a power to give relief This as I take it is that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Opportunity Secondly In relation to that continuance of the duration of the reasonable Creature in life in this world or the time of our life 2. To Redeem Time therefore is in relation to both these viz. 1. In relation to Seasons or Opportunities the Redemption of Time in this respect is 1. Diligently to watch and observe all fitting Seasons and Opportunities of doing all the good we may whether in relation to Almighty God his Service and Glory in relation to others in all acts of Charity and Justice in relation to our selves in improvements of Knowledge Piety and Vertue 2. Industriously to lay hold of all these opportunities and not to let them slip but to apply suitable actions to suitable opportunities when they occurr 2. In relation to the times of our lives and so we are said to Redeem our Time 1. When we constantly imploy our time and leave as few vacuities and interstitia in it without imploying it the opposite to this is Idleness or doing nothing 2. When we imploy our time constantly in doing something that is answerable to the value and usefulness of our time 3. The opposites to this are first the sinful imployment of our time which is indeed worse than Idleness Or Secondly the vain and impertinent and unprofitable imployment of our time as Domitian did in killing of Flyes When we imploy our time not only in things profitable but in such things as are of greatest use and importance and therefore such imployments as are of greatest importance and concernment ought to take up the greatest and most considerable part of our time otherwise we are imprudent and irrational in the Improvement or Redemption of our Time And therefore this Redeeming of our Time is ordinarily called Husbanding of our time in resemblance of the Husband-mans proceeding with his ground If the Husbandman doth not at all Till and Sow his ground but is idle or if he takes much pains in Tilling of his ground and Sowes nothing but Cockle and Darnel or such hurtful Seeds or if he Sowes not that which is hurtful but Sowes light or unprofitable Corn or Sowes that ground with a more ignoble and unuseful Grain which would with more reason and advantage be imployed to a more noble grain that would yield more prosit or if he Sowes a suitable grain but observes not his season proper for it that man is an ill Husband of his ground And he that with the like negligence or imprudence Husbands his time is an ill Husband of his time and doth not redeem it as he is here directed But of this more in the next 3. How Time is to be Redeemed The particular Methods of Husbanding of Time under both the former relations viz. in relation to opportunity and in relation to our time of life shall be promiscuously set down Now the actions of our lives may be distinguished into several kinds and in relation to those several actions will the imployments of our times be diversified 1. There are actions Natural such as are Eating Drinking Sleep Motion Rest 2. Actions Civil as Provision for Families bearing of publick Offices in times of Peace or War moderate Recreations and Divertisements imployments in civil Vocations as Agriculture Mechanical Trades Liberal Professions 3. Actions Moral whether relating to our selves as Sobriety Temperance Moderation which though they are rather habits than action and the actions of them rather consists in Negatives than Positives yet I stile them actions or relating to others