Call your able Pastors to debate it 2. And remember that they have the Scripture and the far greater part of the universal Church and the senses of all the world to confute before they can make good the cause their of ambitious Clergy If you are but sure you know Bread and Wine when you see and feel and smell and taste them then you are at the end of controversie with the Papists Above all see that you maintain the Love of God and a heavenly mind and mortified affections and grow not opinionative superficial or loose in your Religion For he that is heartily of no Religion is prepared to be of any Religion And it is because men are false to the acknowledged Truth that they are given up to make a Religion of deceit and falshood Your fidelity to your King and Countrey obligeth you to do your part to preserve the subjects from a disease so injurious to them Saith Dr. Sherman in his late Account of Faith against the Papist Pres p. 4 5. If Kings would think upon it there miâ—â—â— be no Popes since if Popes could well help it there should be no Kings 5. Take heed of all temptations to turbulency resisting of Authority or other unlawfull means in the obeying of your passions or discontents As God chose most eminently to Glorifie his Power under the Law of Works and the spirit of bondage to fear did much prevail but under the Gospel he hath chosen most eminently to magnifie his Goodness Love and Mercy so accordingly is the impress made upon his servants hearts They are animated by Love for the propagating of Love and therefore must work with Instruments of Love And if we had well learnt the Doctrine and Example of our Lord and made it our work to Love all and to do good to all and hurt to none and with meekness and patience to let any hurt us rather then do any thing for our own defence which is against the Law of Love we should see that Christianity would better thrive when it would be better understood by the practice of the professors Often have I noted that a whole flock of sheep will run away from the smallest dog and yet there is few of them killed by dogs because they are under their Masters care when a Woolf or Fox is pursued by all and few of them suffered to live And oft have I observed that when men that shift for themselves can scarce pass the streets yet children play in the way of Carts and Coaches without hurt while every one takes it for his care to preserve them that cannot take care of and preserve themselves And though the Deer that is within the Park is killed when the Owner please yet he is preserved there from others when the wild and stragling Deer that are abroad are a prey to any man that can catch or kill them He that saveth his life shall lose it and he that loseth it for Christ shall save it The Lord stablish strengthen direct and preserve you to his Kingdom and keep you from the passions of corrupted nature and from the snares and rage of a deceitful and malicious world I beseech you continue yet your prayers for him that desireth no greater advancement in the world than to be The servant of Christ and Helper of your Joy Rich. Baxter June 7. 1662. The Contents Part 1. PReface The contempt of Godliness rebuked pag. 1 Godliness described What it containeth and what I mean by Godliness throughout this Treatise p. 5 Signs of true Godliness p. 14 Directions for such as will be soundly and sincerely godly p. 18 LUke 10 41 42. The design of the Treatise p. 1 The Text explained p. 3 c. 1. Obs Nearest natural relations are not alwayes of one mind in the matters of salvation p. 8 2. Obs When Christ cometh into the house he is presently at work for the hearers souls p. 8 3. Obs When the word is preached we must hear p. 9 4. Obs The humility of Disciples in those times ib. The sense of the Text in seven Doctrines p. 10 Doct. 1. One thing is Needful It is One thing that is absolutely Necessary but they busie themselves about many that neglect this one p. 11 In what respect it is One and but One ibid. How the troubling matters of the world are many p. 13 How far the One thing is Necessary p. 15 Qâ— Are not other things Needful in their places p. 18 The Application 1. by way of inquiry how you have sought the One thing Necessary p. 20 How a true Christian differeth from all hypocrites p. 22 1. Whatever you have been doing in the world you have but lost your Time if you have not done the One thing Needful p. 25 2. And you have lost all your labour p. 26 3. You have been busily undoing your selves p. 29 4. You have unman'd your selves and lived below your Reason and as beside your wits p. 32 The madness of them that are afraid of being Godly lest it make them mad p. 34 5. You have but abused and lost all your mercies p. 37 38 6. You have neglected Christ his Grace and Spirit p. 40 7. Your hopes and peace are but delusions and irrational p. 41 Use 2. To lament the distracted course of worldlings p. 43 Use 3. Exhortation What course will you take for time to come p. 48 Consider 1. It is Necessity that is pleaded with you p. 51 2. It is but One thing that God hath made Necessary p. 56 3. This One thing is that Good part p. 59 4. This Good part is offered you and you have your choice whether God or the world heaven or earth shall be your portion p. 61 Qu. How is it in our choice have we free-will p. 63 5. If you choose it it shall never be taken from you p. 65 A full confutation of those ungodly ones that deny the Necessity of a holy life p. 69. in 30 Queries Obj. It is not Godliness but your procise way that we call needless The particulars of a holy life examined p. 83. 1. Much preaching and hearing p. 85 2. Reading Scriptures 3. and servent Prayer p. 86 3. Diligent instructing families p. 88 4. The holy observation of the Lords Day justified p. 89 7. Strictness of life in avoiding sin p. 92 8. The rigour of Church Discipline p. 94 Obj. It is but few that are so strict p. 97 The second Part. CHap. 1. Holiness and its fruits are the Best part Wherein the Happiness of Saints consisteth p. 101. Why most men choose it not What is set in the Ballance against it p. 110 The excuses of refusers answered p. 112 Chap. 2. What he must do in reason that will be resolved which is the best part and way And who shall be the judge p. 114 Chap. 3. Twenty Queries for the full conviction of all Rational men that are willing to understand the truth that There is a Life to come of
fear the Lord. From these and such like texts it is evident that All that are truly Godly have a special Love to those that are Godly they love and honour Christ in his Image on his Saints 8. Acts 2. 42. 4. 32. You may see that The Godly love the Communion of Saints to joyn with them in holy doctrine fellowship and prayers 9. 1 Thes 5. 17. Pray continually Luke 18. 1. Christ spake a Parable to them to this end that men ought alwayes to pray and not to wax faint Acts 9. 11. Behold he prayeth Zech. 12. 10. I will pour out the spirit of prayer and supplication Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought c. From all these and such like it is evident that Prayer is the breath of a Godly man he is a man of Prayer When he wanteth words he hath desires with tears or groans 10. Matth. 15. 8 9. This people draweth near me with their lips but their hearts are far from me John 4. 23 24. God is Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth From such texts it is evident that Every Godly man doth make the inward exercise of his soul the principal part of his worship unto God and doth not stick in bodily exercise or lip service 11. Josh 24. 15. As for me and my houshold we wil serve the Lord. So Deut. 6. 11. 1 Pet. 2. 17 18. 3. 10. Eph. 5. 6. From many such Texts it is evident that Godly men desire the sanctification of others and make conscience of the duties of their relations and would have their housholds or friends to serve the Lord as well as they 12. Luk. 14. 26 33. 18. 22. Matth. 10. 37. Rom. 8. 17 18. From these and other texts it is evident that all things are below Christ and heaven in the practical esteem of a Godly man and that he will forsake them all rather then he will forsake him All these are Scripture Marks of Godliness HAving hastily run over these things to help you in the Tryal I will add some Directions to help you in the practice and therein yet fullyer to acquaint you Wherein true Godliness doth consist Briefly to lay before you first the meer enumeration of the chief points wherein sound Godliness doth consist to help your memories while you see them close together 1. Sound Godliness consisteth in a solid understanding of the substantial points of Religion 2. In a sound belief of the Truth of Gods word and the reality of the unseen things 3. In an adhearing to the holy Scriptures as the Divine Rule of faith and life 4. In the Love of God in Jesus Christ excited by the belief of his Love revealed by Jesus Christ 5. In true humility and low thoughts of our selves and low expectation from others 6. In a heavenly mind that most regardeth the things above and seeketh them as our only felicity at home 7. In self denyal and mortification and temperance and victory over the desires of the flesh When we can deny our own conceits and interests and wills for God and are dead to the world and are not servants to our fleshly appetites or senses or to the things below 8. In thankfulness for received Mercies and Praising the Glorious name of God 9 In the willing and diligent use of the means that God hath appointed us for salvation 10. In charity or Love to all men even our enemies and a special love to true Believers 11. In a love to the holy communion of Saints especially in publike worship 12. In a tender desire of the unity of the Saints and their concord and increase of Charity and a trouble at their discord and divisions 13. In dealing Justly in our places with all men and carefully avoiding all that may be injurious to any 14. In studying to do all the good we can and doing it to our power especially to the houshold of faith 15. In a conscionable discharge of the duties of our relations as Rulers Teachers Parents Masters subjects and inferious 16. In watchfulness against Temptations and avoiding occasions of sin 17. In serious preparations for sufferings and death and patient bearing them when they come These are the things that Godliness doth consist in And now out of all I will draw up ten practical directions which in a special manner I would intreat you to Practice if you would be solidly Godly and not be deceived with names or counterfeits Direct 1. Be sure to live upon the substantials of Religion and let them receive no detriment by a pretence of zeal for lesser points Lay not your Religion in uneffectual opinions and let lower truths and duties keep their places and not be set above the higher Dir. 2. See that your Religion be principally seated in the Heart Understand it as well as you can lest it be taken from you but never think it is savingly your own while it is but in the brain so much you believe indeed as you Love and as hath imprinted the Image of God upon your hearts Ever see that your wills be Resolved for God and holiness and that you be able truly to say I would be perfect and I would fain be better then I am Direct 3. Be sure you take up with God alone as your whole felicity and think not that there is a necessity of the approbation of men or of liberty plenty life or any thing besides God Do not only think that there is a God and a life of Glory for you but Live upon them and be moved and actuated by them Trust to them and take them for your part Live by faith and not by sight Direct 4. Live daily upon Christ as the only Mediator without whom we have no access to God acceptance with him or receivings from him Look for all that you have from God to come by him Live on him for Reconc liation for Teaching for Preservation for Communication for Consolation and for Salvation Let Christ make your thoughts of God more familiar as now Reconciled and Condescending to us Direct 5. Obey the sanctifying motions of the spirit and if you have disobeyed Repent not despairing but returning to obedience but see that you live not in any known sin which a sanctified will can enable you to avoid Resist sins of passion but most carefully take heed of sins of interest deliberately chosen and kept up as necessary or good Direct 6. Make it the principal work of your Religion and your Lives to inflame your hearts with the Love of God as he is presented amiable in his wonderful Grace in Jesus Christ Strive no further to effect your hearts with Fears or Griefs or other troubling passions then as tendeth to the work of Love or is a just expression of it Go daily to promises and mercies and Christ and Heaven of purpose for fewel to kindle Love Be
this they have learnt of God and therefore they are no deceivers 9. Moreover do you think that he is an Honest man that is an enemy to the publike Good or rather he that is a common benefactor The best of the Heathens thought it one of the highest parts of virtue to be serviceable to many and devote our selves to the common good But wicked men are the very plagues of a land For their sakes it is that judgements come upon us It is they that would let in the plague of sin which would undoe us He that sets fire to the thatch doth do no worse against your towns then wicked men that would kindle the fire of the wrath of God by their crying sins Read the Scriptures and see who it was that caused Israel to perish in the wilderness but unbelieving sinners Who troubled Israel and made them fly before their enemies but one Achan Josh 7. And what but sin was the cause of their captivity and present desolation was it Lot or the Sodomites that brought down from heaven the fire of vengeance Was it Noah or the world of the ungodly that brought down the flood Are these Honest men that provoke God to forsake the Land and are the vermine and destroyers of our peace and happiness But you know that God hath promised his blessing to the Godly and to the places where they live ofttimes for their sakes as Josephs case and others tell us 10. That man can be no Honest man that wanteth the very principle of Honesty and that intendeth not the End that 's necessary to make any action truly Honest But such are all ungodly men 1. The Principle of true Honesty is the high esteem of God and everlasting life in our undestandings and the belief of Gods revelations necessary to the attaining of that life and the prevailing Love of God in the heart and the Love of man for his sake Without these Principles of Honesty no man can be Honest How can he be an Honest man that Believeth not his maker He that taketh God for a lyer hath no reason to be taken for any better himself For would he be thought better then he takes God himself to be nor can he in reason be expected to believe any man else For none can be better then God And is that an honest man that professeth himself a Lyer and taketh all men to be so too And how can that be an Honest man that Loveth not Goâ—… well as his fleshly lusts and pleasures And this is the case of all the wicked If they did not Love their Riches and honour and sensual pleasures more then God they would not keep them against his command nor lose his favour rather then lose them nor seek them more carefully then they seek him and his Kingdom and think of them and speak of them with more delight And certainly he that Loveth his Riches or Honours or filthy sins better then God and Heaven it self must needs be thought to preferr them before his neerest Friends or the common good And is that an Honest man that would rather cast off Father or Mother then cast off his filthy sins and that would rather forsake his chiefest friend then forsake his vices and would sell his friend or the Commonwealth for a little gain or pleasure even for a whore or for drunkenness or such like things I think you would none of you say that this were an Honest man that would not leave so small a matter for the life of his friend or for the preservation of the Common wealth And can you expect that he should prefer any friend before God and his Salvation If he will sin against God and sell his salvation for his sin can you think he should more regard any man how dear soever There is no true Honesty in that man where the Love of God doth not command 2. Moreover if the Honouring and Pleasing of our Lord and the saving of our souls be not the End and principal motive of our actions there can be no true Honesty It is essential to Honesty that God be our End If you would know what a man is first know what he Intendeth and maketh the End and marke of his life And so you must do if you would judge of his actions The End is the principal ingredient that makes them Good or Bad. If a Thief Love God because he prospereth him in stealing or because he giveth him strength and opportunity this is a wicked Love of God If a drunkard Love God for giving him his drink and a Whoremonger Love God for strenthening him in his lust will you call this Honesty Every wicked man doth make his sensual present pleasure his principal End through all his life If he love his neighbour it is but carnally as a dog loveth him that seedeth and stroaketh him If he seem to be a good Commonwealths man it is but for vain-glory or carnal accommodatiâ—… and he fighteth for his King or Countrey but as a dog doth â—â—â— his bone If he give to the poor it is but that which he can spare from his Belly and it is either in a common pitty or for vain applause or he thinks by it to stop the mouth of Justice that God may let him alone in his sins or save him after all his wickedness This is no more an Honest man then he that makes a trade of stealing and will pay Tythes of all that he steals or give some part to the Church or Poor that God may pardon him and save him when he hath done All the Religion and all the charity of wicked men is but for themselves and that which hath no higher End then Carnal self is truly no Religiâ—… Charity It is only the sanctified man that is Honest for it 〈…〉 he that is devoted to God and doth the works of his life to 〈…〉 and glorifie his maker There is more Honesty in the very 〈…〉 ing and drinking of the sanctified then in the prayer and sacrifices and alms deed of the ungodly Or else God would never have said as he hath done that Unto the Pure all things are pure but to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and Conscience is defiled Tit. 1. 15. And that every creature is sanctified by the word of God and by Prayer 1 Tim. 4. 4 5. And that the prayer and the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord and he abhoreth and loatheth them when the prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. 21. 27. Isa 1. 13. Prov. 28. 9. 8. 7. 11. 20. For the sanctified in their very eating and drinking do make it their end to Glorifie God and to be fitted for his service 1 Cor. 10. 31. But the ungodly do all even in their duties that seem most Holy but for a selfish carnal End So that it is plain that he that wanteth the necessary Principles and
Happiness to the Godly and Misery to the Ungodly With fifteen Queries for the conviction of Infidels that the Gospel is the infallible Word of God p. 130 Those that have not read the second Part of my Saints Rest and Treatise against Infidelity and doubt of the Truth of the Scripture or the life to come may read this third Chapter first and so proceed to the rest of the Book Clem. Writer's Objections answered p. 157 Chap. 4. Holiness is Best for all Societies p. 159 1. It uniteth all in One head and Center p. 160 2. It hath the most uniting excellent powerful end of duty p. 161 3. It takes away the Ball of the worlds contention that breaketh Societies ibid. 4. It destroyeth selfishness which is the destroying principle p. 162 5. It hath the most righteous Laws ibid. 6. It is contrary to all disturbing evil ibid. 7. It effectually disposeth the mind to duty p. 163 8. It cleanseth the very heart and killeth secret sin 9. It cementeth Societies with unfeigned Love ibid. 10. It maketh Princes and Rulers a double blessing Manifested in five particulars p. 164 11. It maketh the most Loyal and obedient subjects For 1. it makes them know themselves p. 166. 2. And to see God in their Rulers 3. And to obey and submit for conscience sake p. 167. 4. And destroyeth self-seeking 5. And consisteth in Charity 6. Procâ—reth Divine blessings 7. And makes men meck and patient and forbearing 8. Disposeth to concord 9. Assureth of the greatest rewards of obedience 10 And confirmeth against all temptations to disobodience p. 168 Object Have not the greatest rebellions been caused by your godly men as the Waldenses Bohemians French and others nearer us Answered p. 169 170. specially to Papists p. 173 174 12. Godliness makes men true to their Covenants ibid. 13. It teacheth the true method of obeying p. 175 14. It maketh men of publike spirits 15. It maketh it their business to do good 16. It makes men love enemies and forgive wrongs 17. It interesseth Societies in the favour and protection of God p. 176 18 It is the surest way to all supplies 19. It is the Honour of Societies 20. It must be best that is so heavenly p. 177 Chap. 5. Times of Holiness are the Best Times p. 178. Those that say It never was a good world since there was so much Godliness and so much preaching are fully confuted by twenty Arguments And their cavils answered p. 181 c. Chap. 6. Holiness is the only way of safety p. 196 Chap. 7. Holiness is the only Honest way The dishonesty of the ungodly proved p. 205 Chap. 8. Holiness is the most Gainful way proved p. 219 Chap. 9. Holiness is the most Honourable way p. 232. A reproof of the reproach of Holiness in England And full proof of the Honour of a Godly life ibid. Obj. It tends to make the godly proud to tell them of their Honour Answ Many Reasons for full confutation of this Objection p. 258 The baseness of the ungodly p. 265 Chap. 10. Holiness is the most Pleasant life p. 269 Proved I. From the Nature of the thing and 1. From the Revelations of God and the Knowledge of Believers p. 270 2. From the Will and Affections the nature and operations of Grace therein p. 277 3. From the quality of External holy duties p. 282 4. From the Objects of holy Acts p. 302 303 Objections answered p. 307 308 II. From the Helps and Concomitants p. 310 From the Effects p. 312 The Aggravations of the Delights of Holiness compared with the Delights of sin p. 314 Obj. Of the sad lives of Believers Answered p. 323 Obj. Doth not God command men to fast and mourn p. 339 Use Reproof to those that can find no matter of pleasure in a holy life p. 341 The greatness of their sin and misery p. 342 Directions Shewing such graceless persons what to do that they may come to Delight in God and Godliness p. 348 Use 2 Reproof to those self troubling Christians who live as sadly as if there were little pleasure to be found in God p. 353 Considerations fit to cure this sad disease p. 354 Qu. Whether it be not Hypocritical affectation to seem conformable for fear of discouraging men from Religion Fully answered p. 359 Obj. I could rejoyce if I knew my title to the promises p. 362 Obj. I have cause of sorrow p. 363 The considerations prosecuted p. 364 Twelve Directions to sad self-troubling Christians how they may live a Joyful life and find Delight in God and Godliness p. 374. Errata PAg. 277. lin ult for Law read Love p. 35â— l. 5. for that once r. but once l. 7. r. fermentations l. ult r. sweeter p. 358. l. 30. for unanswerable r. answerable p. 367. l. 23. r. Physicion l. 38. after of r. in p. 374. l 17. for is r. are p. 375. l. 37. blot out when p. 381. l. 37. r. terrours Smaller literall errours and mispointings being not many I omit THE INTRODUCTION To all such as neglect dislike or quarrell at a life of true and serious Godliness IT hath been the matter of my frequent admiration How it can be consistent with the Natural self love and Reasonableness of man-kind and the special ingenuity of some above others for men to believe that they must die and after live in endless Joy or misery according to their preparations in this life and yet to make no greater a matter of it nor set themselves with all their might to enquire what they must be and do if they will be saved but to make as great a business and bussle to have their Wills and Pleasure for a little while in the small impertinent matters of this world as if they had neither hopes or fears of any greater things hereafter That as some melancholy persons are caetera sani as rational as other 〈…〉 all matters saving some one in which yet their deâ—… maketh them the pitty or derision of observers so many that have wit enough to avoid fire and water and to go out of the way from a wild beast or a mad man yet have not the wit to avoid damnation nor to preferre eternal life before a merry passage unto hell Yea that some that account themselves ingenuous and men of a deeper reach then the unlearned can see no further through the promises or threatnings of God then through a Prospective or a Tube and have no wit that looketh beyond a grave yea are ready to smile at the simplicity of those that care whether they live in Heaven or Hell and use but as much diligence for their salvation as they use themselves for that which Paul accounted dung Many a time I have wondered how the Devil can thus abuse a man of reason and such as think themselves no fools and how such unexpressible dotage can stand with either learning ingenuity or common understanding and what shift the Devil and these men make to keep them from
not be desired simply and ultimately for it self As you must pray but for your daily bread and be content with food and rayment so you must see that these be but for better things even in order to the doing of the Will of God the promoting of his Kingdom and the Hallowing of his Name which must be first and most desired The order of your duty is to seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and then other things are promised with it Matth. 6. 33. and therefore for it must be desired and sought And if your very food and life must be desired but for this everlasting End then it is still but one thing that is necessary and finally to be desired For the Means is willed but with an imperfect willing because not for it self and that only hath our full and perfect Love which is Loved for it self Even in the act of Love unto the Means it is more properly the End that is Loved then the Means and the Means is chosen for that End So that you see that for all the necessity of creatures and of diligence in our Callings the truth is still clear that it is only One thing that is truly Necessary Use THE understandidg is the subservient faculty to let in that light which may by direction and excitation guide the will Having shewed you the Truth I am next to shew you how you may improve it and so to apply it as may best help you to apply it to your selves And if I should here fall upon things impertinent or make it my work to claw your ears or exalt my self in your esteem by an unseasonable ostentation of learning or eloquence or carry on any such corrupt design while I should faithfully do the work of God my Text it self would openly condemn me If One thing be needful it is that One that I must do my self while I am exhorting you to do it And woe be to me if I should lay by that to do any other unnecessary work even to fish for the applause of Carnal wits while my very subject is the Reproofs of Christ against a much more tolerable error And as to the manner of my admonition if One thing be needful I hope you will allow me to be as plain and serious as I can about this One And my first address to you shall be for tryall And I shall make it now my earnest request to you that you â—ill bethink you how much you are concerned to compare your â—arts and lives with this passage and judge your selves by the Word of God that is now before you And for your own sakes â—â— it seriously and faithfully as passengers that are hasting to the â—â—eat Assize What say your Consciences Sirs to this Question Have you indeed lived in the world as men that believe that One thing is necessary Hath this One had your chiefest care and labour and have you chosen rather to neglect all other things then â—is Look behind you and judge of the course that you have taken by the light of this one text I do not ask you Whether you have heard that One thing is Necessary nor whether you have talked of it and confessed it to be true nor whether you have been called Christians by your selves and others and have come to Church and forborn those sins that would have most â—â—emished your honour in the world This is nothing to the question Thus many thousands do that were never acquainted with the One thing Necessary Nor do I ask you Whether you have used to allow God half an hours lip-service or formal â—rowsie prayer at night when you have served the world and â—â—esh all day Nor whether you have been Religious on the by and given God some lean devotion which cost you little and which your flesh can spare without any great diminution or deâ—iment in its ease and honour and profit and sensual delights Nor whether you run to some kinde of duties of Religion to make all whole when you come from wilful reigning sin and so make Religion a fortress to your lusts to quiet your Consciences while you serve the flesh I confess such a kind of Religioussess as this the world is acquained with But this is unanswerable to the Rule before us But the question is Whether this One thing hath been the Treasure and Jewel of your estimation the darling of your affections the prize of your most diligent endeavours and the only felicity of your souls Sirs as lightly as you hear this question now you will One day find that your lives yea your salvation lyeth upon your answer to it Can you say truly as before the searcher of hearts that it is he that hath had your hearts That this One thing hath been more esteemed by you than all the world besides That other things have all stooped unto this One and served under it And that this hath had the stream of your heartiest affections and the drift of your endeavours and hath been the matter that you have had first to do and the thing for which you have lived in the world If this be not so never talk of your Christianity for shame Your Religion is vain if this be not your Religion Alas I know that we have all of us yet too much of the flesh and are too cold in our affections and too slow and uneven in our endeavours for our end But yet for all that I must still tell you as I have often done because it is necessary that here lyeth the difference between the truly sanctified soul and all the hypocrites and half-Christians in the world Every true Christian is devoted unto God and hath made an hearty and absolute resignation of himself and all that he hath unto him and therefore loveth him with his superlative most appretiative love and serveth him with the best he hath and thinks nothing too good or too dear for God and for the attainment of his everlasting Rest Christ hath the chiefest room in his heart and the bent and drift of his life is for him He studyeth how he may best serve and please him with his time his interest and all that he hath and if he fall as it is contrary to the habitual resolution of his soul and contrary to the scope and current of his heart and life so he riseth again by repentance with sorrow for his sin and loathing of himself and sincerely endeavours to amend and goeth on resolvedly in his holy course This is the state of every one that is in a state of life But for all hypocrites and half-Christians their case is otherwise The world and flesh is dearest to them and highest in their practical estimation though not in their speculative and it hath their highest affections of Love and Delight and the very bent and stream of heart and life while God is served heartlesly on the by for fear lest they be damned when they can enjoy
or by Policy they would rob you of your Portion they cannot do it For which way should they do it They cannot turn the heart of God against you nor make him break his Covenant with you nor repent him of his Gift and Calling which he hath extended to you For he is unchangeable and loveth you with an everlasting love Mal. 3. 6. Jer. 31. 3. Isa â—â—â— 8. Jer. 33. 20 21 23. 50. 5. Rom. 11. 29. They cannot undermine the rock that you are built upon nor batter the fortress of your souls nor overcome your great Preserver and Defence nor take you out of the hands of Christ Psal 73. 26. 31. 2 3. 62. 2. 59. 9 16. Joh. 10. 28. Cast not away the salvation that is offered you and then never fear least it be taken from you See that you chuse the better part and resolvedly chuse it and it will be certainly your own for ever For man cannot take it from you nor Devils cannot take it from you and God will not take it from you Rust and moths will not corrupt this Treasure nor can thieves break through and steal it from you Mat. 6. 19 20. But you cannot say so of worldly riches If you chuse to be Lords and Princes on the earth you cannot have your choice but if you could you cannot keep it If you chuse the wealth and credit of the world and were sure to get it you were as sure to leave it For naked you came into the world and naked you must go out Job 1. 21. If you chuse your ease and mirth and pleasure these will be taken from you If you chuse the satisfying of your fleshly desires and all the delight and prosperity that the world can afford you yet all must be taken from you Yea quickly and easily taken from you Alas one stroak of an Apoplexy or a few fits of a Fever or the breaking of a small vein or many hundred of the like effectual means are ready at the beck of God to take you from all that you have gathered for your flesh And then whose shall all these things be None of yours I am sure nor will they redeem your souls from death or hell Luke 12. 20. Psalm 49. 7. If you be in honour you abide not in it but are as to your body as the beasts that perish If you think to perpetuate your houses and your names this your way is but your â—olly though your posterity go on to approve your sayings and succeed you in your sins Psalm 49. 11 12 13. The worldly wise man doth perish with the fool as sheep they 〈◊〉 laid in the grave Death shall feed on them and the upright shall have Dominion over them in the morning ver 10 14. They shall soon be cut down like the grass and whether as the green herb Psal 37. 2. I have seen the wicked in great prosperity and spreading himself like a green bay-tree yet he passed away and loe he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found v. 35 36. You think it a fine thing to have the fulness of the creature to be esteemed with the highest and fed and cloathed with the best and fare deliciously every day as the rich man Luke 16. but hath he not paid dear think you for his riches and pleasure by this time His feeding and fulness was quickly at an end but his torment is not yet ended nor ever will be You think it a brave thing to clamber up to riches and that which you call greatness and honour in the world but how quickly how terribly must you come down Go into the Sanctuary of God and understand your end Surely God hath set them in slippery places and casteth them down into destruction How are they brought to desolation as in a moment They are utterly consumed with terrours As a dream when one awakeneth so at the awakening shall their Image or shadow of honour be despised Psalm 73. 17 18 19 20. How short is the pleasure and how long is the pain How short is the honour and how long is the shame What is it under the Sun that is everlasting You have friends but will they dwell with you here for ever You have houses but how long will you stay in them It is but as yesterday since your houses had other Inhabitants and your Towns and Countries other Inhabitants and where are they all now You have health but how soon will you consume in sickness You have life but how soon will it end in death You have the pleasure of sin you say unto your selves Eat drink and be merry but how soon will all the mirth be mar'd and turned into sadness everlasting sadness When you hear Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul and then whose shall these things be Luke 12. 20. Oh miserable wretch If thou hadst chosen God instead of thy sin and the everlasting Kingdom instead of this world thou wouldst not have been thus cast off in thy extremity God would have stuck better to thee Heaven would have proved a more durable Inheritance For it is a Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. The day is near when thy despairing soul must take up this lamentation My dearest friends are now forsaking me I must part with all that I laboured for and delighted in I have drunk up all my part of pleasure and there is no more left My merry company and honours and recreations are past and gone I shall eat and drink and sport no more but God would not have used me thus if I had set my heart upon him and his Kingdom Oh that I had chosen him and made him my portion and spent these thoughts and cares and labours for the obtaining of his love and promised Glory which I spent for the pleasing and providing for my flesh Then I should have had a happiness that death could not deprive me of and a Crown that fadeth not away Neither life nor death nor any creature could have separated me from his love I need not then have gone out of the world as a prisoner out of the Gaol to the â—â—rr and to the place of execution My departing soul should not then need to have been afraid of falling into the hands of an unreconciled God and so into the hands of the Devils as his executioners nor of passing out of the flesh to hell Oh poor sinners for how short a pleasure do you sell your hopes of everlasting Blessedness and run your selves into endless pains O what comparison is there between the time of your pleasure and the everlastingness of your Punishment How short a while is the cup at your mouthes or the drink in your bellies or the harlot in your embracements or the wealth of the world in your Possession And how long a time must you pay for this in hell How quickly are your merry hours past but your torments will never be past
soul may well be fullest of Delight that is most Happy And that soul is nearest and likest unto God whose Will is most conformed to his Will The trouble of the Heart is its unsettledness when it is not bottomed on the Will of God When we feel that Gods Will doth Rule and satisfie us and that we would fain be what he would have us be and rest in his Disposing Will as well as obey his Commanding Will this gives abundant Pleasure and quietness to the soul 2. The holy workings of Charity in the soul are exceeding Pleasant All the acts of Love to God and man are very sweet This is the holy work that is its own wages 1. The â—â—â—â— of God is so sweet an exercise that verily my soul had rather be employed in it with sense and vigour then to be Lord of all the earth O could I but be taken up with the Love of God how easily could I spare the Pleasure of the flesh Might I but see the Loveliness of my dear Creator with a clearer view and see his glory in his noble works Might I but see and feel that saving Love which he hath manifested in the Redeemer till my soul were ravished and filled with his Love how little should I care who had the Pleasures of this deceitful world Had I more of that blessed spirit of Adoption and more of those filial affections to my heavenly Father which his unutterable Love bespeaks and were I more sensible of his abundant mercy and did my soul but breath and long after him more earnestly I would pitty the miserable Tyrants of the world that are worse then Beggars while they domineer and tast not of that Kingdom of Love and Pleasure that dwelleth in my breast All the Pleasures of the world are the laughing of a mad man or the sports of a child or the dreams of a sick man in comparison of the Pleasures of the Love of God 2. And the Love of Holiness the Image of God hath its degree of Pleasure And so hath the Love of the Holy servants of the Lord. There is a sweetness in the soul in its goings out after any Holy object in spiritual Love Yea more our very common Love of men and our Love of Enemies hath its proportion of pleasure far better then the sensual Pleasure of the ungodly To feel so much of the operations of grace and to answer our holy pattern in Loving them that hate us doth give much ease and pleasure to the mind The exercises of Love to God and man and that for his sake are the exceeding Pleasure of a gracious soul And here by the way you may take notice of one reason why Hypocrites and ungodly men find no such sweetness in the exercises of Religion Because they let alone the inward Pleasant work of Love which is the soul and life of Outward duty This inward work is the Pleasant work while they are strangers unto this their outward duties will be but a toll 〈…〉 seem a drudgery or a wearysome employment There is a Pleasure even in Holy Desires When a Christian feeleth his heart enlarged in longing after the wellfare of the Church and the good of others Though the absence of the thing desired be aâ—…e yet the exercise of holy desire which is an act of Love is pleasant to us If the Lustfu have a pleasure in their vile Desires and the Ambitious and the Covetous have a pleasure in their vain and delusory desires the wise well-guided desires of a true believer must needs be pleasant 4. Especially when Desire is accompanied with Hope All the Pleasures of this world are far short of affording that Rest and quiet to the soul as the Hope of Glory doth to the believer O happy soul that is acquainted by experience with the lively Hopes of the everlasting Happiness It is not the Hope of corruptible Riches nor of a fading inheritance but of the Crown that sadeth not and of the precious certain durable treasure It is not a Hope in the promise of a deceitful man but in the word of the everliving God! The soul that hath this Anchor needs not be tossed with those fears and cares and anxieties of mind that worldly men are subject to This Hope will never make them ashamed If a man were in a consumption or sentenced to Death would not the Hopes of Life upon certain Grounds be pleasanter to him then sport or mirth or lustful objects or any such present sensitive delights Much more if with the hopes of Life he had the hopes of all the felicities of Life and of the perpetuity of all these O may I but be enabled by faith to lift up the eye of my soul to God and view the everlasting mansions and by hope to take possession of them and say All this is mine in Title even upon the Promise of the faithful God! what greater Pleasure can my soul possess till it enter on the full Possession of those eternal Pleasures O poor deluded worldly men What is the Pleasure of your wealth to this O brutish sinners what is the Pleasure of your mirth and jollity your meat and drink your pride and bravery your lust and filthiness in comparison of this O poor Ambitious dreaming men that make such a stir for the Honour and Greatness of this world What is the Pleasure of your Idol-honour and short vainglory in comparison of this while you have it you have no Hope of Keeping it you are troubled with the thought of leaving it Had we no higher Hopes then yours how miserable should we be 5. The Trust and repose of the soul on God which is another part of the life of grace is exceeding Pleasant and quieting to the soul To find that we stand upon a Rock and that under us are the everlasting arms and that we have so full security for our salvation as the promise and Oath of the immutable God what a stay what a Pleasure is this to the Believer The troubles of the godly are most from the remnants of their unbelief The more they believe the more they are comforted and established The life of faith is a Pleasant life Faith could not conquer so many enemies and carry us through so much suffering and distress as you find in that cloud of testimonies Heb. 11. if it were not a very comfortable work Even we that see not the salvation ready to be revealed may yet greatly rejoyce for all the manifold temptations that for a season make us subject to some heavyness 1 Pet. 1. 5 6. And we that see not Jesus Christ yet Believing can love him and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory v. 8. The God of Hope doth sometimes fill his servants with all Joy and peace in believing and makes them even abound in Hope through the Power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. 6. Yea Joy is it self a part of the Holy qualification of the Saints and of
the renewed state that grace hath brought them into For the Kingdom of God consisteth as in Righteousness so in Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Believers receive not the spirit of bondage again to fear that is they are not under the bondage of the Law nor have the spirit or state of mind which is suited to those Legal impositions and terrible comminations but they have received the spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba father that is As they are brought under a more gracious dispensation and a better Covenant and promises and God is revealed to them in the Gospel as a Reconciled Father through his son so doth he treat them more gently as reconciled children and the spirit which answereth this gracious Covenant and is given us thereupon doth qualifie us with a child-like disposition and cause us with boldness Love and confidence to call God Father and fly to him for succour and supply in all ouâ— dangers and necessities And how Pleasant it must be to a believing soul to have this spirit of Adoption this childlike Love and confidence and freedom with the Lord methinks you might conjecture though its sensibly known by them only that enjoy it Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is Love Joy Peace c. when the word is first received by Believers though it may be in much affliction through the persecutions and cross that attend the Gospel yet is it ordinarily in the Joy of the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1. 6. The Holy Ghost is the Comforter of true Believers And if he have taken it upon him as his work he will surely do it in the degree and season fittest for them And if Joy it self be part of the state of Grace and Holiness you may see that it is the most delightful Pleasant course 7. Yea that we may have a Pleasant and comfortable life the Lord hath forbidden our distracting cares and fears and doubts and our inordinate sorrows and commanded us to cast our care on him and promised to care for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. and he hath bid us be careful for nothing but in all things make our wants known to him Phil. 4. 6. And can there be a course of life more Pleasant then that which dost consist in faith and Love and hope and Joy that 's built on God and animated by him and that excludeth inordinate cares and sorrows as health doth sickness where it is unlawful to be miserable and to grieve our selves and no sorrow is allowed us but that which tendeth to our joy where it is made our work to Rejoyce in the Lord yea always to Rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. A servant or tradesman will judge of the pleasure of his life by his work If his work be a drudgery his life is tedious and filled with grief If his work be Pleasant his life is Pleasant Judge then by this of a Holy life Is it care and fear and anguish of mind that God commandeth you no it is these that he forbiddeth Care not Fear not are his injunctions Isa 35. 4. 41. 10. Do you fear Reproach Why you do it contrary to the will of God who biddeth you Fear not the reproach of men Isa 51. 7. Do you fear the power and rage of enemies Why it is contrary to your Religion so to do God biddeth you Fear them not Isa 43. 5 13 14. 44. 2 8. Do you fear persecution or death from the hands of cruel violence why it is contrary to the will of God that you do so Matth. 10. 26 28 31. Fear not them which kill the body c. O blessed life where all that is against us is forbidden and all that is truly Joyous and delightful and necessary to make us happy is commanded us and made our duty which is contrary to misery as life to death and as light to darkness Come hither poor deluded sinners that fly from care and fear and sorrow If you will but give up your selves to Christ you shall be exempted from all these except such as is necessary to your joy You may do any thing if you will be the servants of the Lord except that which tendeth to your own and other mens calamity Come hither all you that call for pleasure and love no life but a life of mirth Let God be your master and Holiness your work and Pleasure then shall be your business and holy Mirth shall be your employment While you serve the flesh your pleasure is small and your trouble great vexation is your work and unspeakable vexation is your wages But if you will be the hearty servants of the Lord Rejoycing shall be your work and wages If you understand not this peruse your lesson Psal 33. 1. Rejoyce in the Lord O ye Righteous for Praise is comely for the upright Psal 97. 11 12. Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye Righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Phil. 3. 1. Psal 5. 11. Let all those that trust in thee rejoyce let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them let them also that Love thy name be joyful in thee Psal 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Psal 132. 9. 16. Let thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousness and let thy Saints shout for joy 16. I will also cloath her Priests with salvation and his Saints shall shout aloud for joy such precepts and promises abound in Scripture which tell you if you will be Saints indeed that Joy and gladness must be your life and work I know objections will be stirring in your minds But forbear them but a while and I shall fully answer them anon 2. I have told you wherein the Inward part of Holiness is Delightful I shall briefly shew you that the Outward part also is very Pleasant and fit to feed these inward joys And 1. let us view the Duties that are more directly to be performed unto God and 2. The works of charity and righteousness unto men 1. How sweet is it to be exercised in the word of God In hearing or reading it with serious meditation For the man that hath been revived by it renewed sanctified saved by it to hear that powerful heavenly truth by which his soul was thus made new For the soul that is in Love with God to hear or see his blessed name on every leaf to read his will and find the expressions of his Love his great eternal wonderous love how sweet this is experience tells the Saints that feel it If you that feel no sweetness in it believe not them that say they feel it at leaâ—â— believe the word of God and the professions of his ancient Saints Psal 119. 97. O how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day v. 103. How sweet are thy words unto my tast yea sweeter then
that we are so apt to surfet on Do you not see what lamentable work prosperity victories honour and worldly wealth and power have made in the world and shall we grudge at that necessary moderate affliction that saveth us from the like overthrows O how few are able to withstand the temptations of great or long prosperity Experience of the frequent woful falls of prospering men that seemed once as firm as any hath made me fear when I hear of the exaltation of my friends and the less to grieve for their adversity or my own Holiness therefore is the most pleasant way notwithstanding the afflictions that do attend it And if God will give me an increase of Holiness of Faith and Love and a Heavenly mind though it be with an increase of my Afflictions I hope I shall take it as an incerease of my pleasure and give him the praise of so merciful a dispensation And thus I have proved to you from the Nature of Holiness that it is the most Pleasant way II. I Should next shew you the Delights of Holiness from the Helps and Concomitants that promote our pleasure But because I am afraid of lengthening my discourse too much I shall only name a few things of many 1. God being our God in Covenant his Love is to the holy soul as the Sun is to our bodies to illuminate warm revive and comfort them and did not sin cause some ecclipses or raise some clouds or shut the windows we should rejoyce continually and find how sweet a thing it is being justified by faith to have peace with God 2. We are in Covenant with Jesus Christ who intercedeth for our peace with God And the Father alwayes heareth his intercession John 11. 42. And therefore that measure of comfort which he seeth suitable to our present state we shall be sure of Who shall condemn us when it is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Rom. 8. 34. We have a great high-Priest that is passed into the heavens even Jesus the Son of God one that is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and was in all points tempted like as we are but without sin and therefore through him we may come boldly to the throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4. 14 15 16. What comforting words hath he spoken to us in the Gospel and what comfortable relations hath he put us into He calleth us his friends if we do his Commandments as if servanes were too low a title John 15. 14 15. Peace he leaveth with us his Peace he giveth to us not as the world giveth commanding us that we let not our hearts be troubled or afraid Joh. 14. 27. To those that Love him he hath promised his Fathers Love and that they will come to him and make their abode with him John 14. 23. If any man serve him let him follow him and where Christ is there shall his servant be if any man serve Christ him will the Father honour John 12. 26. 3. That we might have sure Consolation the Spirit of Christ is given to be our Comforter and we are in Covenant with him also who surely will perform his Covenants 4. The servants of Christ have his holy image the mark of his children which is the in-dwelling Evidence of his Love to assure them of their happiness 5. They have manifold experience of the kindness of their Father in hearing their prayers and helping them in their straits and delivering them in their distresses 6. They have also the help of the Experience of others even of all the godly with whom they do converse who can comfort them with their comforts and tell them how good they have found the Lord. 7. They have the Ministers of Christ appointed by office to be the helpers of their Faith and Jey to be the messengers of glad tidings to them and to tell them from God of the pardon of their sins and of his favour to them in Christ and to heal the broken-hearted and preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised c. Luke 4. 18. To have a deputed Officer of Christ to absolve the penitent and deliver them pardon in the name of Christ and to pray for them and direct them and resolve their doubts and shew them the promises that may support them and help to profligate their temptations must needs be much to the comfort of believers As the care of a father is the comfort of the child and the care of the Physicion is a comfort to the sick 8. They have all the Ordinances suited to their comfort the Word read preached and meditated on the Sacraments and the publike praises of God and Communion of the Saints of which before 9. They have multitudes of Mercies still about them and every day renewed on them to feed their comforts 10. They have a promise that all things shall work together for their good and so that all their afflictions themselves shall be their commodities and death it self shall be their gain Rom. 8. 28. Phil. 1. 21. and all their enemies shall be subdued by Christ the Prince of their salvation So that from this much you may see that for Joy and Pleasure there is no life that hath the advantages that a holy life hath As for the ungodly they are not so but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away Psalm 1. 4. These pleasures grow not in their wicked way nor do such strangers know Believers joyes III. LAstly I should also have shewed you the Pleasure of Holiness by the Effects But here also to avoid prolixity I will but name a few 1. Holiness is Pleasing to God himself and therefore it must needs be pleasant to the Saints that have it For it is their end and chiefest Pleasure to please God They know that this is the end for which they were Created Redeemed and renewed and therefore that is the most Pleasant life to them in which they find that God is best Pleased And therefore they labour that whether present or absent they may be accepted of him 2 Cor. 5. 9. They are an holy Priest-hood to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5. 2. Holiness must needs be Pleasant to the soul because it is the spiritual health of the soul and the means and certain evidence of its safety And Health is a constant sensible delight And to know that our souls have scapt the danger of the wrath of God and everlasting misery must needs be a greater Pleasure then any the matters of this world can afford One serious thought of the salvation which Holiness is the earnest of may give that true contentment to the soul that all the wealth and glory of the world can never
be in and I delight in the welfare and not in the distress and misery of my friend And surely God that is Love it self and hath created Joy in man to be his Happiness and hath placed so much of misery in sorrow can never be so delighted in our distress and trouble as in our content and joy As he hath sworn that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that they repent and live so we may boldly conclude that he takes no pleasure in the anguish and dejectedness of his children but rather that they walk in Love and chearful Obedience before him But his Word will fully and plainly tell you what temper it is that is most pleasing to him It is a light and easie burden that Christ doth call us to bear and it is his office to ease us and give us rest that labour and are heavy laden with burdens of our own Mat. 11. 28 29. He was anointed to preach the Gospel or glad tidings of salvation to the poor and sent to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord Luke 4. 18 19. When he was to leave the world how carefully did he provide for the comfort of his Disciples Commanding them not to let their hearts be troubled Joh. 14. 1. and promising to send the comforter to them and that he would come to them and not leave them Comfortless vers 16 18 26. Repeating it again v. 27 28. Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you Let not your heart be troubled neither be afraid Nay he engageth them as they Love him to rejoyce even because he went unto the Father He engageth them in the decrest Love to one another that their lives might be the more comfortable He foretelleth them of his sufferings and of their own lest being surprized their sorrow should be the more He promiseth them that their sorrow shall be turned into joy Joh. 16. 20. and that in him they shall have peace when in the world they have tribulation v. 33. directing them to prayer and promising to hear them that their joy may be full v. 24. and promiseth that none shall take it from them v. 22. telling them of the mansions that he prepareth for them and that it is his will that they be with him and behold his glory that nothing might be wanting to their joy Joh. 14. 2 3. 17. 23 24. When he appeareth to them after his Resurrection his salutation is Peace be unto you Joh. 20. 19 21 26. The abounding and multiplying of this holy Peace is the desire and salutation of Paul to the Churches in all his epistles Gal. 6. 16. Ephes 6. 23. Rom. 15. 33. 1 Cor. 1. 3. Rom. 1. 7. Gal. 1. 3. Phil. 1. 2. Col. 1. 2. 2 Thes 1. 2. 1 Tim. 1. 2. Tit. 1. 4. Philem. 3. So Peter 1 Pet. 1. 2. 2. 1 2. 2 Joh. 3. 3 Joh. 14. The Gospel it self is a message of glad tidings Luk. 8. 1. Act. 13. 32. And it is the work of the ministers of Christ to preach Peace to the sinful world through him Act. 10. 36. and to beseech them to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. and to bring Peace to the houses where any of the sons of Peace abide Matth. 10. 12 13. Luk. 10. 6. Triumphing joys and proclamations of Peace were the entrance of Christs Kingdom This Angels proclaime Luk. 2. 14. Glory be to God in the highest on Earth Peace Good will towards men This the new inspired Disciples proclaim Luk. 19. 37 38. The whole multitude of the Disciples began to rejoyce and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen saying Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord Peace in heaven and Glory in the Highest what abundance of commands for Rejoycing are in the Scripture Psal 31. 1. Rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright Psal 97. 11 12. Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness 1 Thes 5. 16. Rejoyce evermore Phil. 3. 1. Finally my Brethren Rejoyce in the Lord Phil. 4. 4. Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce 6. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanks giving let your requests be made known unto God And thus are the godly ordinarily described even in their deepest sufferings and distress Rom. 5. 1 2. Being justified by faith we have peace with God and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God And not only so but we glory in tribulation Phil. 3. 3. It is the description of a regenerate man to worship God in spirit to rejoyce in Christ Jesus to have no confidence in the flesh 1 Pet. 1. 6 8. It is the description of believers to Rejoyce greatly in a Christ not seen even with joy unspeakable and full of glory though for a season if need be they may be in heaviness through manifold temptations 1 Pet. 4. 12 13. 14. even in the fiery tryal we must rejoyce as being partakers of the sufferings of Christ that when his glory shall be revealed we may be glad also with exceeding joy when all manner of evil is spoken of us falsly for the sake of Christ and when we are hated of all men and reproached we must rejoyce and be exceeding glad and leap for joy as knowing that our reward in heaven is great Luk. 6. 22 23. Matth. 5. 11 12. The Apostles were as sorrowful yet alway rejoycing as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6. 10. rejoycing in their suffering for believers Col. 1. 24. even when they were beaten rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ Act. 5. 39 40. The rich must Rejoyce in that he is made low as well as the brother of low degree in that he is exalted Jam. 1. 9 10. The Eunuch when he was but newly converted went on his way rejoycing Act. 8. 39. There was great joy in Samaria when they had received the word of God Act. 8. 8. The voice of rejoycing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous The statutes of God are the rojoycing of their heart Psal 119. 111. 19. 8. All those that trust in God should rejoyce and shout for joy and all that love his name should be joyful in him Psal 5. 11. 33. 21. Let the righteous be glad let them rejoyce before God yea let them exceedingly rejoyce Psal 68. 3. Let us therefore desire to see the good of his chosen and rejoyce in the gladness of his nation and glory with his inheritance Psal 106. 5.
is the highest and best condition on earth He is the best and happyest man that is likest to the glorified Saints and Angels And judge your selves whether a dejected or a rejoycing Christian be liker to these inhabitants of Heaven Object But you will say by that rule we should not mourn at all for they do not Whereas God delighteth in the contrite soul Christ blesseth mourners and weepers Answ 1. Your resemblance of the Saints in Heaven must be propertionable in all the parts You must labour first to be as like them as you can in Holiness and then in Joy If you could be as far from sin as they you need not mourn at all But because you cannot you must have moderate regular sorrows and humiliation while you have sin But yet withall you must endeavour to imitate the heavenly Joyes according to the measure of your Grace received 2. And it is such a regular contrition consisting in humble thoughts of our selves and tending to restore us from our falls and sorrows unto our integrity and joy which God delighteth in And it is such mourners as these and such as suffer for righteousness sake from men that Christ pronounceth blessed But the inordinate troubles of the soul that exclude a holy delight in God though he pardon yet he never doth encourage 6. Consider also that a great part of your Religion yea and the most high and excellent part doth consist in the causes form and effects of this holy joy and chearfulness 1. As to the causes of it they are such as in themselves are requisite to the very being of the new creature Faith and Love which are the Head and Heart of sanctifying grace are the causes of our spiritual joy An unwilling heavy forced obedience may proceed from meeâ— Fears and this will not prove an upright heart But when once we Believe Everlasting Glory and Love Christ as our Saviour and the Father as our Father and felicity and Love a holy frame of heart and life as the image of God and that which pleaseth him then our obedience will be chearful and delightful unless accidentally we trouble our selves by our own mistakes If you can truly make God and his will and service your Delight you may be sure you Love him and are beloved by him as being past the state of slavish fear 2. And I have shewed you that Joy in the Holy-Ghost is it self one part of that grace in which Gods Kingdom doth consist Though not such a part as a Christian cannot possibly be without yet such as is exceeding suitable to his state and necessary to his more happy being 3. And without this holy Delight and Joy you will deny God a principal part of his service How can you be thankful for the great mercies of your Justification Sanctification Adoption and all the special graces you have received or for your hopes of Heaven it self as long as you are still doubting whether any of these mercies are yours or not and almost ready to say that you never received them Nay you will be less thankful for your health and life and food and wealth and all common mercies as doubting leâ—t they will prove but aggravations of your sin and misery And for the great and excellent work of Praise which should be your daily sacrifice but specially the work of each Lords day how unfit is a doubting drooping distressed soul for the performance of it You stiffle holy Love within you and stop your mouthes when they should be speaking and singing the praises of the Lord and disable your selves from the most high and sweet and acceptable part of all Gods service by your unwarrantable doubts and self-vexations And when all these are laid aside how poor and lean a service is it that is left you to perform to him Even a few tears and complaints and prayers which I know God will mercifully accept because even in your desires after him there is Love but yet it is far short of the service which you might perform Nay your Heavenly-mindedness will be much supprest as long as you are sadly questioning whether ever you shall come thither and it will be yours or not 7. Are you not ashamed to see the servants of the Devil and the world so jocund and your selves so sad that serve the Lord Will you go mourning so inordinately to Heaven when others go so merrily to Hell Will you credit Satan and Sin so much as to perswade men by your practice that sin affordeth more pleasure and content then Holiness 8. You could live merrily your selves before your Conversion while you served sin And will you walk so dejectedly now you have repented of it As if you had changed for the worse or would make men think so I know you would not for all the world be what you were before your change Why then do you live as if you were more miserable then before 9. You would be loth so long to resist the sanctifying work of the Spirit And why should you not be loth to resist its comforting work It is the same Holy Ghost that you resist in both Nay you dare not so open your mouthes for wickedness and plead against Sanctification it self as you open them on the behalf of your sinful doubtings and plead for your immoderate dejections If you should how vile would you appear 10. Lastly consider that God will lay sufferings enow upon you for your sins and suffer wicked men to lay enow on you for well doing and you need not lay more upon your selves You have need to use all means for strength to bear the burdens that you must undergo and it is the joy of the Lord and the hopes of Glory that are your strength And will you cast away the only supports of your soul and sink when the day of suffering comes How will you bear poverty or reproach or injuries how will you meet approaching death if you feed your doubts of your salvation and of the Love of God in Christ which must corroborate you O weaken not your souls that are too weak already Weaken not your souls that have so much to do and suffer and that of so great necessity and importance While you complain of your weakness encrease it not by unbelieving uncomfortable complaints Gratifie not the Devil and wicked malicious men so far as to inflict on your selves a greater calamity then all their malice and power could inflict It is a madness in them that will please the Devil to the displeasing of God though the pleasing of their own flesh be it that moveth them to it But for a man to please the Devil and displease God even when he displeaseth his own flesh by it also and bringeth nothing but sorrow to himself by it this is in some respects more unreasonable then madness it self Many cast away their souls for Riches and Honours and carnal accommodations but who would do it for poverty sickness or disgrace So
though many undo their souls for fleshly pleasures and delights yet he is a strange man indeed that will offend God even for self-tormenting grief and trouble O therefore dear Christians as you have let go all your sensual pleasures for the pleasing of your Lord do not let go the pleasures of his love for which you have let go all The Lord taketh pleasure in his people even in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy and the meek he will beautifie with salvation Psalm 147. 11. It is meet therefore that his people take pleasure in the Lord that the Saints be joyful in glory that they sing aloud upon their beds and that the high praises of God be in their mouthes Psalm 149. 4 5 6. O let not the Spirit of God be thought to be like the evil spirit that vexed Saul that filled his mind with melancholy anguish and confusion It is the evil spirit that renteth and tormenteth those that it possesseth though the spirit of God doth humble and by ordinate sorrow prepare for joy But its proper work is to sanctifie and to comfort and to establish the Believer with Peace that passeth understanding As it is a greater sign of the operation of the Spirit of Christ to restore the lapsed by a spirit of meekness and to bear one anothers burdens and exercise tenderness compassion and charity then to censure and envy and call for fire from heaven So even at home though there we are allowed to be more rigid and censorious it is a more sure and satisfactory discovery of the Spirit of Grace within us if we are raised to a sweet delight in God and quieted in his Love and carryed out in chearful obedience thankfully acknowledging the grace that we have received and waiting in the use of means for more then if we are only turmoiled and troubled in our minds and tossed up and down with unprofitable griefs and fears that abate our Love to God and our holy joyes It is the still voice that doth most fully acquaint us that it is Christ the Prince of Peace that speaketh to us Though at first when he findeth a sinner in a state of enmity and rebellion he often useth to thunder and lighten and call to him as to Saul Why persecutest thou me Wilt thou kick against the pricks Wilt thou fight against heaven Or canst thou bear the wrath of God Almighty Yet to the humbled penitent soul there is none in all the world so tender as Jesus Christ the Lamb of God the Churches husband that cherisheth them as his own flesh O that you did but know the greatness and tenderness of his love to you while you lie trembling under the unjust apprehensions of his wrath It would then so transport you with ravishing delights that the world would see that the Saints of the most High have higher Pleasures then the world affordeth BUt I know you will say Alas what need you exhort us to spiritual pleasures and consolations Do you think there is any man in love with sorrows or unwilling to live a joyful life O that you could tell us how we might attain it and you should quickly see that we are willing Answ And if you are so willing to attain it as to be also willing to use the means you shall quicklyer see that I shall certainly inform you how you may attain it and how you may come to find a life of Holiness to be the most sweet and pleasant life I therefore desire and require you to practise these Directions following Direct 1. Make it your first and principal business to attain the fullest fixed knowledge of God in his Attributes and Covenant-Relations to you 1. Study him in his Attributes If infinite Goodness take not up the soul with Love and with Delight it is because it is not known Where there is all things that the soul of man desires to its highest felicity and content and yet contentment and delight is wanting it must needs be ignorance and distance that is the cause If the Sun seem not light to you it is because you have not eye-sight or look not on the light If you find no pleasure in the most pleasant food it is because your appetites are diseased or you do not taste it If your most suitable and most affectionate friend seem not amiable to you it is because you know not his suitableness and love So if the eternal God that is infinitely powerful wise and good most perfect and most suitable to your highest affections do not possess you with abundant Pleasures and Delights of Love it is because you are unacquainted with him Study then his infinite perfections and be much with him in secret prayer and meditation where the retired soul having fewest avocations is fittest for the most near familiar converse And still remember that it is Love it self that you have to do with For God is Love It is the fountain of all delights and pleasures that you draw near to It is a cold heart indeed that fire it self cannot warm and a dead heart indeed that life it self cannot revive Conceive of God as God and you will delight in him Abhort all unworthy diminutive thoughts of him Set up his Love and Goodness in your estimation as infinitely above all the creatures Believe it the Love of your dearest friends is an inconsiderable drop to the Ocean of his Love Think not of him as cruel or an enemy if you would love him or delight in him Love and Delight are never forced by bare commands and threatnings but drawn forth magnetically by attractive Goodness Were not God most amiable and friendly and desirable to us it is not saying Love me or I will damn thee that would ever have caused man to love him but rather to fear and hate and fly from him Think but of Gods Love and Goodness and Fidelity as you do of his Power and then you will find that there are rivers of pleasure in his presence and fulness of joy at his right hand the fore-tastes whereof are the only delights that can quiet the troubled thirsty soul 2. And if you say What is all this to me any more then to the ungodly world on whom the wrath of God abideth I answer Thou art in Covenant with him and he is thine in the Covenant Relations even thy Reconciled Father thy Saviour and thy Sanctifier No husband is so inviolably bound to a wife nor will so faithfully answer his Relation as the blessed Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier unto thee Didst thou well know and consider what it is to have God himself to be thine in Covenant to all these uses and to all the ends that thou canst reasonably desire it would fill up thy soul with satisfying delights There is nothing that thou wantest but what belongs to God to give thee in one of these three great relations And sooner shall the day be turned into night and the frame of
much therefore in Thankfulness and Praise which are works of Love All goeth on sweetly and easily and acceptably that is carryed on by Love That is the best soul and likest to God that hath most of Love to God and Godliness 〈…〉 that is the best service and likest to the work of 〈…〉 that hath most of Love Let the principal striving and pleading with your hearts be to kindle Love and your principal complaints for the want of it Direct 7. Keep up Charity to all even unto enemies and special Love to all the Godly And therefore hate back-biting and slandering and making the worst of other mens actions Take them as thieves that come to rob you of your Charity He that speaks evil of another perswadeth you so far to hate him unless it be in Charity perswading you to seek his cure Hear the reproacher and back-biter understandingly as if he said in words as he doth in sense I pray you hate such a man or abate your Love to him As the way to cause Love is to represent the object Lovely which doth much more then to command me to Love it So the way to cause Hatred is to represent the object hateful or unlovely which is more then to bid us hate our brother And he that hateth his brother is a man-slayer and none such have eternal life abiding in them Away theresore with those Volumes of Learned slanders and reproaches begotten betwixt uncharitableness and self love or pride and take them as the Devils Books that are written to draw thee to hate thy Brother Frown also upon the censorious Take heed also of divisions and parties because they are enemies to universal Love and are but Imposthumes or Biles of the Church where Zeal and Love are diseasedly drawn into a narrow compass and that is appropriated to a few that should be common to all Believers Cherish meekness and patience and reject all that carnal Zeal or Envy Contention and Animosities which are contrary to Love Read and study well the third Chapter of St. James and the Epistle of John Direct 8. Understand the preciousness and use of time Love Diligence the better because it is a Redeeming of time a doing much in a little time Hate that which would rob you of so precious a commodity Direct 9. See that there be no predominant selfishness or worldly interest unmortified at the heart Study duty and do it faithfully and trust God with Life Estate and Events and shift not for your selves by sinfull means Direct 10. Maintain your authority over your sense and fleshly appetites Captivate not Reason to the Brutish part especially under pretence of liberty Use your bodies as may strengthen them and best fit them for the work of God Let them have so much delight in things allowed as conduceth to this but take heed of making the delights of flesh and sense your end or allowing your selves in an unprofitable pleasing of your enemy or of corrupting your minds and rellishing too much sweetness in the things of the flesh and losing your rellish of Spiritual things Set not the bait too near you Keep the Gun-powder from the fire He that believeth that if ever he be damned it will be for Pleasing his flesh before God and if ever he be saved he must be first and principally saved from the inordinate Pleasures of the flesh will not be so forward as brutish Infidels are to seek out for â—elights and plead for all that pleaseth them as harmâ—â—ss Having thus in the Introduction shewed you What Godliness is and How it may be known and What you must do to be soundly and sincerely Godly I hope you are prepared for the following Discourse of the Certain Necessity and Excellency of Godliness which tends to â—etch over the delaying resisting unresolved wills of those that are yet in the BRUTISH state and are strangers to the Dispositions Employments Desires Hopes and Joyes of true Believers The Lord concurre effectually with his Blessing Amen LUKE 10. 41 42. And Jesus answered and said unto her Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things but One thing is Needful and Mary hath chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her IN order to the decision of the Great Controversie practically managed through the the world Whether Godliness or worldliness and sensuality be better I have already performed the first part of my task in proving the Certainty of the Principles of Godliness and of Christianity which of it self will inferr the Conclusion which I undertake to prove that the Reasons for Godliness are so sure and clear and great that every one must be A SAINT or A BRUTE He that will not choose a life of HOLINESS hath no other to fall into but a life of SENSUALITY Either the superiour faculties proper to a Rational Nature must be predominant and then we can be no less than SAINTS Or else the inferiour brutish faculties will be predominant and then though from your natural Powers you are called MEN yet if you may be denominated from your intended END and from the USE of your faculties in order to that END you are but an ingenious kind of BRUTES exceeding Aâ—â—â— and Monkies in the cunning contrivance of your unhappy designs but incomparably worse in your successes because you were indeed entrusted with the noble faculties and gifts of MEN while you captivated them unto your Appetites and Sense and lived but to the END of BEASTS The second thing that I have to do for the conquering all opposition to this Conclusion is to prove the NECESSITY of HOLINESS which being now to speak to such as profess to believe the holy Scriptures I may easily do from this plain and pregnant Text To which I shall annex such cogent REASONS as may silence those that will not acquiesce in the authority of the holy Word So great is the difference between a dreaming Opinion in Religion called a Deâ—â— Faith and a serious hearty practical Belief that if they that say and do but say they believe the holy Scriptures and yet are ungodly had soundly Believed Considered and digested this very Text it would have made such a change both in their Hearts and Lives as would have told them by happy experience that the Gospel is not a dead letter nor saving faith a lifeless uneffectual thing and that God sent not his son into the world only to be complemented with and reverently treated with a few good words nor his Gospel and Ministers meerly to be entertained with a demure silent and respectful audience nor hath proposed his Kingdom to be meerly the matter of commendation or discourse But that as man is a creature of a Noble and Capacious Nature so he hath an high and noble End and consequently the highest imployment for his Reason and that Religion is the most NECESSARY and must be the most SERIOUS business in the world Did they believe this Text as verily as they
and an hundred times over would you go on to give it them because they cry for it O Sirs that you could but use your Reason in the matters for which it was given you by your Maker Either time and mercy is worth something or nothing If it be worth nothing never beg for it and never be sad when it is taken from you Why make you such a stir for that which is nothing worth I mean your corporal mercies for spiritual mercies you can be too well content to be without But if they be worth any thing why do you cast them away and make no better use of them What good do you with them or what good do they do you Believe it sinners God doth not despise his mercies as you do He will not alway give you meat and drink and health and strength and life to play with and do nothing with He will teach you better to value them before he hath done with you Not that he thinks them too good for you but he would have them be better to you then you will let them be He would have every bit you eat to be used to strengthen you in your walk to heaven and every hour of your time to help you towards eternal happiness and every present mercy to further your everlasting mercy that so by the improvement their value may be advanced and they may be mercies indeed to you Be ruled by God and you shall receive more in one mercy then you do now in a thousand But if you will do nothing with them blame him not if he take them from you and leave you destitute of what you knew not how to use Nay your sin is greater then meerly to cast away your mercies You do not only lose them but turn them all into a curse and undo your souls with that which is given for the sustentation of your bodies While you know no better use of mercies then to please your senses and accommodate the flesh and forget the One thing needful which is the End of all you turn them all into sin and fight against God by them and strengthen his enemy and your own and block up your way to Heaven by them and treasure up wrath for the dreadful day when your wealth shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire Jam. 5. 1 2 3. Rom. 2. 5. You contemptuously cast that bread to dogs which he giveth you to supply your own necessities You treacherously carry over his provision to the enemy Consider this you that say you hope to be saved because God is merciful You have found indeed that God is merciful by large experience But if you do not learn and quickly learn to make a better use of his mercies abused mercy will prove your everlasting misery O what a reckoning will you have What a load to press you down to Hell Unless you would have used them better it had been easier for you if these temporal mercies had been denyed you Can that man look to be saved by mercy that would not be intreated to consent that mercy should save him in the day of salvation in the accepted time but served the Devil with those very mercies that would have saved him God sendeth you his mercies to kill your sins and sanctifie you and engage you to himself and if you will feed your sins with them and make them your idols and forsake God for them and be false to him to your Covenant and your duty and neglect that One thing for which he gave them to you you do not only lose them but turn them to a curse And alas poor sinners what will you have to fly to to trust in or to comfort you when mercy abused hath not only forsaken you but falls upon you as a mountain and feedeth your aggravated endless misery 6. Moreover whilest you neglect the One thing necessary you neglect Christ himself and reject the saving benefit of his bloodshed and refuse the healing work of his Spirit and the precious benefits which he hath offered you in the Gospel And how can you escape if you neglect so great salvation Heb. 2. 3. How will you be saved when you refuse the only Saviour There is indeed enough in Christ to heal and save the humbled soul that thirsteth for his righteousness and salvation and valueth and seeketh him as a Saviour and if you would thus come to him you might have life John 5. 40. But whiles you give your selves to please the flesh and follow the world and look so little after Christ or after the ends and benefits of his sufferings and grace Christ is as no Christ to you and Grace is as no Grace to you and the Gospel is as no Gospel to you and you will be never the more saved then if there had no Saviour ever come into the world or there had never Grace been given to the world or there had never been promise made or Gospel preached to the world For Christ will not save them that continue to neglect him and set light by all the mercy that he offereth and the salvation which he hath purchased and do not esteem and use him as a Saviour and cannot find enough in God and Glory to take off their hearts from the pleasures and idols of the flesh If Christ would have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and you would not Matth. 23. 37. you will be as far from being saved by him as if you had never heard of his name And yet that is not all If you prevent it not by true Conversion you will wish a thousand and a thousand times that this were all But there is worse then this For Christ will not leave a man of you as he finds you If you are so far in love with worldly wealth and fleshly pleasure that you can taste no sweetness in his Grace and see no desirable glory in his Kingdom he will make you taste the bitterness of his wrath and feel the weight of his severest justice The most compassionate Saviour is the most dreadful Judge to those that will not be saved by his grace It will be easier for Sodome and Gomorrah in the day of Judgement then for those that were the obstinate refusers of his Gospel Matth. 6. 11 12. He that despised Moses Law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sure punishment shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden under foot the son of God Heb. 10. 28 29. See therefore that ye refuse not him that speaketh For if they escaped not that refused him that spake on earth how much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven Heb. 12. 23. 7. As long as you neglect the One thing Needful whatever good conceits of your selves you have entertained and whatever hopes or peace or comfort you have built upon those conceits they are all
clear in it self and much more clear how few do we prevail with Is not the Question Whether God or the Creature Holiness or Sin Earth or Heaven Short or Everlasting pleasures should be preferred as plain to a wise man as any of those that I mentioned before Is it not as plain a case to a man of judgement Whether Holiness with Everlasting joys be better then fleshly pleasures with damnation as whether a Kingdom be better then a Jayle or Gold then dirt or health then sickness Yet do your salvations lie upon this Question this easie Question I must again repeat it All your salvations lie upon the practical resolution of this easie Question Be but Resolved once that God is Best for you and Heaven is Best for you and accordingly make your Resolute Choice and faithfully Prosecute it and God will be Yours Heaven will be yours as sure as the Promise of God is true But if you will not Choose God and Glory as your Best but will Choose the world and simple pleasures as Better for you you shall have no better then you chose and shall suffer a double condemnation for neglecting and refusing so great salvation You hear now by mens talk and you see by their lives that the world is divided upon this Question What it is that is Best for a man and which is his Best and Wisest course One part and the greater think in their hearts that present prosperity is best because they think that the promised happiness of the life to come is a thing uncertain or iâ— there be such a thing they may have it after the pleasures of sin These are the Infidels Another part have a superficial dead Opinion that Heaven and Holiness are Best but the Love of the flesh and the world lyeth deeper at their hearts and beareth the greater sway in their lives and these are the Hypocrites that is Christians in Opinion and Profession and so much of their Practice as will stand with their fleshly interest but Infidels in their Practical estimation and at the Heart and in the reserves and secret bent of their lives Another part being illuminated and sanctified from above Believe the Certainty and Excellency of Glory and see the vanity and vexation of this life and taste the sweetness of the Love of God and perceive the Necessity and sweetness of that Holiness which others so abhor and hereupon give up themselves to God and set themselves to seek for the Immortal treasure and make it the principal care of their hearts and business of their lives to escape damnation and live with Christ in endless Glory All the world consisteth of these three sorts of men Infidels Hypocrites and true Believers Now the Question is Which of these three are in the right Both the other do condemn the Hypocrite that halteth between two opinions and One thinks that Baal is God that the World is Best and therefore he gives up himself to it and the other thinks that The Lord is God and Heaven is best and therefore he gives up himself to it And if it would do any thing with those that doubt towards the turning of the scales to tell you which side Christ is on it s told you here in my Text as plain as the tongue of man can speak One thing is Needful Mary hath chosen that Good part which shall not be taken away from her THe Doctrine which I am now to handle to you from the plain words of the Text is this Doct. That those that prefer the Learning of the word of Christ to guide them by Holiness to Everlasting Happiness before all the lower matters of this world are they that choose the Better part even that which shall never be taken from them If now the word of Christ alone would serve your turn I had done my work I needed not to go any further You would be now resolved that Heaven and Holiness is best and would set your hearts and lives to seek it and so it would be your own for ever But this Text hath long stood in the Gospel and men have heard and read it often and yet the most are not perswaded and therefore I must try to open it a little farther to you and plead it with you and work the Reason of it upon your minds Reader our business is but to enquire What it is that is Best for Man to set his heart on and seek after in his Life and Enjoy for ever I say it is the Everlasting Enjoyment of God in Heaven For Christ saith so If thou think otherwise let us debate the case If thou believe as I do Live as thou professest to believe If men did but deeply and soundly know what it is that is best for them it would set right their hearts and lives and make them happy But not knowing this is it that keepeth them from God and Holiness and everlastingly undoes them Though I have often opened this heretofore on other occasions yet my present subject now requireth 1. That I tell you What that is that here is called The Good part 2. What it is that is set against it and by fleshly minds preferred before it And having briefly opened these two things I shall come to the Comparison and shew you which is the better part 1. That which Christ calls here that good part is 1. Principally the end of man or our everlasting Happiness with God in Heaven 2. Subordinately the Means by which it is attained 3. That Happiness which is the end comprehendeth in it these particulars which if you distinctly apprehend you will much the better understand the nature and excellency of it 1. The true Believer hath the small beginnings and earnests and foretastes of the Everlasting Blessedness in this Life in his approaches to God and living upon him by Faith and Love and â—â— his believing apprehensions of the Favour of God the Grace â—â— Christ and the Happiness which in Heaven he shall enjoy for ever 2. At death the souls of true Believers do go to Christ and enter upon a state of Happiness 3. At the last day the body shall be raised and united to the soul and the Lord Jesus Christ will come in glory to judge the world where he will openly absolve and justifie the Righteous when he condemneth the ungodly and will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe and the Saints shall also judge the world and be themselves adjudged to everlasting Glory 4. Their everlasting habitation shall be in the Heavens even near unto God and in the presence of his Glory 5. Their company will be only Blessed Spirits even the holy Angels and glorified Saints with whom we shall be One Body and constitute the New Jerusalem and be perfectly one in God for ever 6. Their Bodies shall be perfected and made immortal spiritual incorruptible and glorious bodies shining as the Stars in the Celestial Firmament No more subject
to hunger and thirst or cold or weariness or shame or pain nor any of the frailties that now adhere unto them but be made like the glorified body of Christ 7. The Souls of the Saints united to these Bodies shall also be Perfected having far larger capacity to know God and enjoy him then now we have being freed from all ignorance errour unbelief pride hard-heartedness and whatsoever sin doth now accompany us and perfected in every part of the Image of God upon us 8. The eyes of the Glorified Body shall in Heaven have a Glory to behold that is suitable to their Bodily capacity Heaven being not a place where the Essence of God is confined but where a prepared glory will be manifested to make Happy the Angels and Saints with Christ And whatever other senses the Glorified Bodies shall then have whether formally or eminently we cannot now conceive what they will be they will all be satisfied with suitable Delights from God 9. The Blessed person of our Redeemer in our Nature Glorified will there be the Everlasting object of our delightful iâ—â—uition and fruition An object suitable to the eye of the Glorified Body it self We shall for ever live in the sight of his face and in the sense of his unspeakable Love 10. The Glorified Soul whether mediately or immediately shall behold the Infinite most Blessed God and by knowing him be perfected in knowledge As we shall see the person of Jesus Christ and the glory of God with open face and not as in a glass as now we do so we shall know so much of the Essence of the Deity as we are capable of to our felicity 11. With the Knowledge of God and the Beatifical Vision will be joyned a perfect Love unto him and closure with his blessed will So that to Love him will be the everlasting employment of the soul 12. This Love will be drawn forth into everlasting praise and it will be our work before the Throne of his Glory to magnifie the Lord for ever 13. In all this Love and Praise and Glory and in the full fruition of the Eternal God we shall Rejoyce with full and perfect Joy and we shall have full content delight and rest 14. In all this Blessedness and Glory of the Saints the Glory of God himself will shine and Angels shall admire it and the condemned spirits with anguish shall discern it that God may be Glorified in our Glory 15. In all this Happiness of Believers and his own Glory the Lord will be well pleased and that Blessed Will which is the Beginning and the End of all will be accomplished and will have an Eternal complacency as the Saints shall have an endless complacency in God This is the Glory promised to the Saints This is that Good part which they choose I cite not the Texts of Scripture that prove all this because the things are all so plainly and frequently expressed in the premises And I shall have occasion to do somewhat of this anon And so in brief I have told you what the Good part is 2. We are next to enquire What it is that is put by worldly carnal men into the other end of the scales and is set up in comparison with all this Everlasting Glory Yea what it is that is preferred by ungodly men before it What is it that fin and the world will do for men What do they find that lose the Lord What do they get that miss of Heaven What do they choose tâ—â—â— refuse the Needful Better part And here I am even amazed at that which I must give you an account of O wonderful astonishing thing that ever such base unworthy trifles should by Reasonable men be put into any comparison with God! Wonderful that so much madness and wickedness can enter into the mind and heart of man as to let go all this Glory for a toy And yet more wonderful that this should be the case of the greatest part of men on earth And yet more wonderful that so mâ—â—y make so mad a choice even when the case is opened to them and plainly opened and frequently opened and when they are earnestly entreated to be wiser and importuned to make a better choice In a word All that is set against the Lord and All that is preferred before this Everlasting Life and All the Portion of ungodly men is no more then this The Pleasure of sin for a season The satisfying of the flesh A little ease and pelf and fair words from men as miserable as themselves and all this but for a little a very little time when Temperance is as sweet at least a little that is excessive or forbidden in wealth or meat or drink or cloathes or lust or other fleshly pleasures is the Joy and the Heaven and the God of the ungodly The fleshly pleasures which are common to the beasts and a little vain-glory among men and this for a short uncertain time and then to paâ—â— to everlasting punishment this is the chosen portion of the wicked This is All for which they refuse the Lord and for which â—â—â—y refuse a Holy life This is All 〈◊〉 which they part with 〈◊〉 and part with their Everlasting Peace This is All that they have for Heaven and their salvation and All for which they seâ—â— their souls To the everlasting shame of sin and sinners it shall be known that this was All To the abasing of our own soulâ— that sometime were guilty of this madness I shall tell you again that this is All To the humbling of the best to the conâ—ounding of the wicked and the amazement of us all I must say â—â—â—â— this is All This dirt this dream this cheat i◠〈…〉 wicked have for God and Glory This Nothing â—◠〈…〉 obstinately preferr and choose before him that 〈…〉 O wonderful madness stupidity and deceitâ— so 〈…〉 wilful and so uncureable till tender 〈…〉 cure it in them that shall be saved Well the ballance is now set before yoâ—… in the One end and in the other You see the 〈…〉 choose and the part that is chosen by the rest of the world And are you not yet resolved which is Best and which to choose TWo sorts I look to meet with here to whom I shall apply my self distinctly before I come to the comparative work First some will tell me that all these are needless words and that there is no man so senseless as to think that Temporal things are better then Eternal or the world then God or sin then Holiness Answ O that this were true how happy then were all the world I grant that many are superficially convinced that are not converted and that many have a slight opinion that Heaven and Holiness is best that yet have no Love to it and will not seek it above All. But their practical judgement doth not go along with their Opinions Thy relish the world as sweetest unto them In the prevailing deepest thoughts of their
world grew to no more experience and Arts and Sciences were ripened no more when now they have ripened in a shorter time How is it that Printing and Writing were not found out and that all Sciences and Arts are of so late invention and as it were but in their youth Certainly Knowledge is the daughter of Experience and Experience the daughter of Time and therefore if the world had been from eternity it must needs have been many a hundred thousand years ago at â— far higher state of Knowledge then is yet attained in the world For every age receiveth the experiences and writings of the former and hath opportunity still to make improvement of them At least the world could not have been ignorant so long of Printing Writing and a hundred things that are certainly of late invention It is therefore an incredible thing that an Eternal world should lose all the memorials and monuments of its Antiquity before the Scripture-time of the Creation And therefore doubtless it began but then Qu. 2. And if God were not the Author of the Scripture how come so many clear and notable Prophesies of it to be fulfilled How punctually doth David and Isaiah 53 describe the sufferings of Christ and Daniel foretell the very year and so of many others Qu. 3. And how comes it all to contain but one entire frame conspiring to reveal the same doctrine of grace and life at first more darkly and in types and promises and afterwards more clearly in performance when the writers lived at hundreds and thousands years distance from each other Qu. 4. And if thou hadst not a blinded prejudiced mind thou wouldst perceive an unimitable Majesty and spirituality in the Scripture and wouldst savour the spirit of God in it as its author and wouldst know by the image and superscription that it is the Word of God It beareth unimitably the Image of his Power and Wisdom and Goodness so that the blessed Author may to a faithful soul be known by the work Qu. 5. If the Scripture came not from the Spirit it could not give or cause the spirit and if it bore not Gods Image it self how could it print his Image upon the souls of so many thousands as it doth The Image of God is first engraven on the seal of his holy Doctrine and thereby imprinted on the heart There is no part of that holy change on man but what that holy Doctrine wrought If therefore the change be of God the Doctrine that wrought it is of God For both of them are the same Image answering each other as that on the seal and on the wax But it is most certain that the Holy change on the soul is of God The nature of it sheweth this For it consisteth in the destruction of our sin and the denyal of our selves and the raising the heart above this world and the total Devoting of our selves and all that we have to God and conforming our selves to his will and resting in it and seeking and serving him with all our power against all temptations and living in the fervent Love of God and of our Brethren and desires after everlasting life and a taking Christ for our Lord and Saviour to reconcile us to God and do all this in us by his Spirit And surely such a work as this must needs be of God If it be Good it must needs be Originally from him that is most Good this is undenyable And he that will say this is Evil is so much of the Devils nature and mind that it is no wonder if he follow him and be Brutified And you cannot say that the Work is good and the Doctrine bad For the Work is nothing but the Impress of the Doctrine And God doth not use to appoint or use a frame of falshoods and deceits as his ordinary means to renew mens souls and work them to his Will Perhaps you will say that you see no such change made by the Word nor any such spirit given by it unto men but only the effects of their own Imaginations But 1. The Question is Whether they are True or false Imaginations Gods truth causeth that Impress on the mind of man which you call his Imaginations For where should Truth be received but in the mind and how should it work but by cogitation They are cogitations above and contrary to those of flesh and blood that are wrought by this holy Doctrine It is nevertheless os the spirit because it moveth man by consideration 2. And if you see not a work on the hearts of the regenerate appearing in their lives which raiseth them to a far better state then others it can be no better then strangeness or malice that can so far blind you 3. But if it be so with you give leave yet to the persons that know this holy change in themselves to believe the more confidently the Word that wrought it We know that we are renewed and passed from our former spiritual death to life and therefore that it was the Truth of God that did the Work of God upon us Nothing but Truth can sanctifie But the Word doth sanctifie therefore the Word is Truth Indeed the Holy Church of Christ throughout all ages of the world hath been his living Image and so a living Witness of his Word as shewing by their lives the transcript of it in their hearts It is easie for any that know them except the maliciously blind to perceive that the true servants of Christ are a more purified refined honest conscionable holy heavenly people then the rest of the world For my part I am fully convinced of it I see it there is no comparison for all their imperfections which they and I lament I am fully satisfied that there is much more of God on them then on others And therefore there is much more of God in the Doctrine that renewed them then in any other The Church is the living Scripture the pillar and ground of the truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. the Law is written in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. better then it was in the Tables of stone 2 Cor. 3. 3. And by their holy Love and Works the world may know that Jesus Christ was sent of the Father and may be brought to believe in him by their Unity John 17. 21 22 23. Matth. 5. 16. God would not concurr so apparently and powerfully with a false doctrine to make so great a change in man nor so far own it as to use it for the doing of the most excellent work in all this world even the gathering him such a Church and sanctifying to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. If you say that some of the Heathens have been as good I answer 1. The Goodness found in them is but in temperance fidelity and such like and not a holy spirituality or heavenliness no nor a through-conscienciousness in what they knew 2. That good was rare in comparison of that
see that they are sober when some of you are drunken and that they are seeking heaven when you are seeking the world and that they are providing for their souls and pleasing God and imployed in the most sweet and heavenly works while you are pampering the flesh or making provision to satisfie its lusts Do we not hear their speeches are of God and their salvation and things that edifie while you curse or swear or talk filthily or idly and unprofitably like dreaming or distracted men And yet would you make us believe that you are as good as they and that Religion makes men worse But you say that for all this they are secretly as bad as others Foolish malice If it be secret how do you know it If you know it how is it secret and its marvail that you do not make it known Is it not easie to say so by a Job or a Samuel or by Christ himself if saying so may serve turn and a wicked tongue may pass for proof You may say that in secret I commit all the sins imaginable and how can I disprove you when I have no witness but only by desiring you to prove it if you can But O happy are the servants of the Lord that are even in secret alwayes in the presence of their Judge who will bear witness for them and justifie them against malignant tongues But you say that they are as covetous as other men though they are more Religious But this is as shameful a falshood as the former Do we not see the contrary in the open fruits Covetous men are the forwardest to call others Covetous because they would have no body hinder or cross them in their Covetous desires or designs And then they are saying O such a professor used me thus and such a one did thus and usually they partially relate the case as their own Covetous hearts encline them passionately to judge it And perhaps they may meet with a worldly hypocrite that seemeth Religious which is no more to the disgrace of Religion then Cham was in the Family of Noah or Absolom in the house of David or Judas in the Family of Christ Do not you call your selves Christians your selves And yet Christianity is never the worse because you are wicked that profess it But sure I am that the servants of Christ are not comparable to you in Coveteousness For as I find God describing them in his Word to be a people dead to the world whose conversation is in heaven so I see that they can spare time from worldly business while they and their housholds serve the Lord and so cannot you They are seeking Heaven when you are seeking earth And we may know what a man loveth if we know what he seeketh And again I must bear witness from my own experience that in this place where I live I have reason to believe that where other men of their ability give a penny to the poor for charitable uses those that you call precise and think too Religious do give six if not twice six and some of them much more then I will express There are few weeks but we have occasion to try it by voluntary collections for some needy persons or charitable uses and therefore we have much opportunity to know besides contributions at Sacraments and other publick occasions But you say that in former times there was more Love among neighbours then is now Then there was more familiarity and kindness and less hatred and malice and contention then now I answer Am I not sure by constant experience that there is far more love among the godly then among you Do I not see how dear they are to one another and how sweetly and familiarly they converse together and joyn in prayer and holy exercises and conferr about their everlasting state Do I not see that they are ten times more liberal to relieve each other in distress then you are Many and many a time I have seen them give ten or twenty shillings in collections to relieve godly people in distress when those of you that are richer give but two pence or a groat to your companions in the like Collections And what makes them be so much together if there be not Love among them I profess to you I never yet saw any thing that is worthy the name of Love and Peace among any other sort of men But perhaps you will say that there are contentions and differences among them about Religion which the world was never troubled with before To which I answer 1. What differences or contentions do you see among them in this Town or Parish Among five hundred people that you count Precise what one is there among us that is either Anabaptist or Separatist or Antinomian or Arminian or of any other sect What one that separateth from any Ordinance of publick Worship What differences do you know among us Is there here any more Churches then one Do you hear any contendings Do you see any thing like a difference among us all For my part I know of none Nor but of one in the Parish that is turned from us which is a simple ignorant harmless man that turned Anabaptist For as for the Apostate Infidels that joyn with you that are ungodly we have nothing to do with them but lament their misery 14. Another thing that hindreth our Belief of you is that we see that it is only ignorant or wicked men that are of this opinion and say that the world is the worse for Godliness or the Preaching of the Gospel Not a man saith so that knoweth what he saith and that ever felt the power and sweetness of the Gospel upon his soul But only those that are blinded by the world and serve the flesh and are drowned in lust and know not what they speak against And shall we regard the judgement of such men 15. And moreover when you say that the world was better when there was less Godliness and Teaching you contradict all history and therefore are not to be believed You know not well what is before you much less do you know what hath been in your fore-fathers dayes Be it known to you we have as full advantage to know that as you have Many and many a large Volume have I read concerning the state of the world before us which tell us of far greater wickedness in our fore-fathers daies then are in these If you will not believe me I will shew it to any of you that can read and understand at any time when you will come to me I will shew you the words of the Chroniclers and Historians of those ages that make more lamentable complaints of the vices of those times and tell us of far more evil then and of a far greater scarcity of good then can be truly spoken concerning us And are you that never saw those daies to be believed before them that saw them 16. And I am sure also that
and Honesty 1 Tim. 2. 2 3. Indeed the Greek word here is that which signifieth gravity and seemliness of behaviour but that which is frequently translated good is it which signisieth the truly Honest And you know none of the ungodly are ever called Good in Scripture but clean contrary Prov. 11. 6. The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them but transgressâ—rs shall be taken in their own naughtiness So vers 18. 19 20. The wicked worketh a deceitful work but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward As righteousness tendeth to life so he that pursueth evil doth it to his own death They that are of a froward heart are an abomination to the Lord but such as are upright in their way are his delight Everywhere you see how God abhorreth the ungodly and extolleth those that love and fear him Christ calleth the ungodly Evil men that â—â—t of the evil treasure of their hearts do bring forth evil things Matth. 12. 35. All is evil the life evil the heart evil and the man evil Prov. 12. 26. The Righteous is more excellent then his neighbour but the way of the wicked seduceth them And Psalm 16. David calleth the godly The excellent in whom is all his delight It is an excellent spirit that is in them Dan. 3. 12. 14 and 63. and an excellent way in which they go 1 Cor. 12. 31. and an excellent knowledge which the spirits illumination causeth them to attain Phil. 3. 18. Ephes 3. 18 19. You have Gods judgement of the case if that will satisfie you who it is that is the Best and Honestest man the Holy or the unholy 2. Do you think that man is an Honest man that will deny you your due and rob you of all that is your own Or rather is not the Just man the Honest man that will give every man his own I know you will give your voices for the latter O then take heed lest you condemn your selves If you be not Holy your own testimony doth condemn you For it is only the Godly that give God his own when the ungodly rob him of it Hast thou not thy Life and Time and Maintenance from God Hast thou not thy Reason and thy Affections and all thy faculties from him And should not all thou hast be employed for him Thou art a dishonest man that grudgest yea denyest him one day in seven when thou owest him all Thou art a dishonest man that givest away thy Makers due unto his vilest enemies That wastest thy means or strength on sin that spendest thy precious time on vanity that abusest his creatures to the satisfying of thy lusts and that livest to thy flesh when thou shouldst live to God Thou robbest him of all which thou givest to his enemies and of all which thou dost not use for his service It is less dishonesty to rob thy Master that trusteth thee with his goods then to rob the Lord that trusteth thee with thy time and parts and all things O blind unworthy sinners What makes you think him an honest man that robbeth his Maker or denyeth him his own when you call him a dishonest man that robbeth but such silly worms as you that in respect of God have nothing of your own Art thou better then God that it should be called dishonesty to wrong thee and no dishonesty to wrong him or deny him that which is his own God hath an absolute Title to you and that on more accounts then one You are his own as you are his creatures All souls are mine saith the Lord Ezek. 18. 4. And he hath Title to thee by Redemption as well as by Creation For to this end Christ dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord of the deâ—d and of the living Rom. 14. 9. We are not our own we are bought with a price and therefore should glorifie God in our bodies and our spirits which are his 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. For if one dyed for all then were all dead that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that dyed for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. And as you your selves are Gods own as he is your Creator and Redeemer so all that you have is his own as the bestower or as your Master that trusteth it in your hands Exod. 19. 5. Now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine And saith God to Job Job 41. 11. What soever is under the whole heaven is mine Psalm 50. 10 11 12. Every beast of the Forrest is mine the wild beasts of the field are mine the world is mine and the fulness thereof 1 Cor. 4. 7. What hast thou which thou didst not receive Thou hast not a minute of time which thou owest not to God nor a thought nor a word nor a farthing of thy estate And is it not the basest injustice and dishonesty to give these to thy flesh and deny them to him and think his service an unnecessary thing If thou wilt give the world and thy lusts any thing let it be that which thou canst truly call thine own As God saith to the Idolators Ezek. 16. 18 19. Thou hast set mine oyl and mine incense before them my meat also which I gave thee c. so may he say â—o thee It is his Time which thou hast consumed in idleness and in sinful delights and his Provision by which thou hast â—ed thy lusts But the sanctified man is devoted to God His study is to give him his own All the business of his life which you account his over-much strictness and preciseness is nothing but his Honesty to God in giving him his own You look your horse should travail for you and your Oxe should labour for you and your servant work for you because they are your own And shall not we give up all that we have to God that are much more his own Will you hang them that take your Own from you and count them Honest that deal worse with God Say not If Christ were here we would give it him For he hath told you how you should use all his talents in his Laws and if you deny them to the poor or any holy use that he requireth them you deny them unto him Read Mat. 25. 10. 40 41 42. 3. Do you think that an unnatural man is an Honest man One that will abuse his Father or Mother and scorn the bowels from which he sprung All the world is agreed on it that such are dishonest Honour thy Father and Mother is called the first Commandment with promise Exod. 21 17. He that curseth his Father or Mother shall surely be put to death See Prov. 20. 20. 30. 17. The eye that mocketh at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young
Power Wisdom and Goodness engaged to us for our Good and to be ours according to our necessity and capacity This O ye worldlings is the Riches of the Saints This is the Wealth that we will boldly boast of Boast you of your houses and lands and money and we will boast of our God Have you Houses and Towns and Countreys at command Be it so but the Saints have the God of the world to be their God Have you Kingdoms and Dominions We have the God of all the earth the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Set all your Riches in the ballance against him and try what they will prove Set all the world and the Kingdoms and Glory and Wealth of it in the ballance and try whether they are any more to God then one dust or feather to all the world yea they are nothing and less then nothing vanity and lighter then vanity it self Isa. 40. 16 17. This one Jewel containeth all our Treasure He is ours that hath all things What then can we need Psal 23. 1. He is ours that knoweth all things Who then can overreach us or undo us by deceit He is ours that can do all things What then should we fear and what power shall prevail against us He is ours that is Goodness and Love it self How then can we be miserable or what imperfection can there be in our Felicity They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches none of them can by any means redeem his brother nor himself that he should live for ever and not see corruption Psalm 49. 6 7 9. But God will redeem us from the power of the grave for he shall receive us Ver. 15. Let the workers of iniquity boast themselves a while Psalm 94. 4. Let the wicked 〈…〉 desire and bless the coveâ—â—â—â— whom the Lord abhorreth Psalm 10. 3. It is the Lord that is King for ever and ever that heareth the desires of the hamble that prepareth our hearts and prepareth his ear to hear Ver. 16 17. Our souls shall make their boast in God Psalm 34. 2. O tast and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him But you cannot say truly Blessed is the man that hath Lands and Lorships Blessed is the man that hath Crowns and Kingdoms Yea truly may you say Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and withdraweth his heart from the Lord. Jer. 17. 5. Fear the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him Psalm 34. 8 9 10. But when you have all the world you cannot say that you have no want Confounded then be the covetous Idolaters that boast themselves of their Idols Psalm 97. 7. But in God will we boast all the day long and praise his name for evermore Psalm 44. 8. What have you but the gleanings of our harvest and the crums that fall from the childrens table Our God is he that giveth you your prosperity He droppeth you these leavings from the redundancy of his Goodness when he hath given himself his Son and all things to his own All that we want and all that our souls desire is in God We have none in heaven but him nor any in earth that we desire besides him Psalm 73. 25. His loving kindness is better to us then life Psalm 63. 3. Our flesh and our heart faileth us and all the creatures fail us but God is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever Psalm 73. 26. Verily the Riches of all the Princes of the earth is less in comparison of him that is the Treasure and Portion of the Saints then a straw is to all the earth or a little dung to the shining Sun 2. Would you yet hear more of the Riches of Believers though more then God there cannot be The Lord Jesus Christ is their Head and Husband their Saviour and Intercessour at Gods right hand They are Married to him His Merits are thâ—irs for all those uses to which they need them It is he that Justifieth Who then shall condemn them He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall be not with â—iâ— also freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32 34. Christ is the Pearl of infinite valuâ— for whom we have willingly sold all Matth. 13. 45 46. And what are all your Treasures to this Treasure Ask â—â—â—l and he will tell you that had tryed both Phil. 3. 7 8. His 〈…〉 â—e counteth Loss for Christ yea all things he accounted but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ It is Love incomprehensible surpassing knowledge that is revealed to us in Christ Eph. 3. 18 19. The Riches of Christ are unsearchable Riches Eph. 3. 8. It is Christ that bindeth up our broken hearts that is the Peace-maker and Reconciler of our souls to God What he hath done for us and what he will do I shall tell you anon But the ungodly have no part in him nor have they any such treasure that will do for them what Christ will do for us Their Treasure is the wrath of God which they are heaping up against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God Rom. 2. 5. All the Treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Christ Col. 2. 3. And he hath them for us according to our measure as being our Treasurie our Head and made of God to us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. They are exceeding Riches of Grace that are shewed in the kindness of God through Jesus Christ to all that are sanctified by that grace Ephes 2. 6 7 8. Yea that you may see there is no comparison even that which you abhorr in a Christians case and account his misery and the worst of Christ is better then the best of your condition and then that for which you lose your souls For the very Reproach of Christ is greater riches then the Treasures of the world Heb. 11. 26. And it is the reproach that we undergo for Christ that you most abhorr and the treasures of the world that you highlyest esteem It is greater Riches to be one of them that are scorned and derided for the sake of Christ then to be one of them that hath the wealth of the world at his dispose And if the Reproach of Christ be greater Riches then all yours What then is his Life and Love and Benefits his Grace and Glory 3. Would you have the Riches of the Saints yet further opened to you Why the Holy-Ghost is in Covenant with them as their Sanctifier and Comforter And he is not only theirs himself by Covenant and Relation but he also dwelleth in them by his graâ—â—s and restoreth the image of God upon them They are the â—…ples of the Holy-Ghost which is in them 1 Cor. 6. 19. And by the Spirit and by Faith Christ dwelleth
1 Pet. 1. 15 16. And how high a command and strait a Rule is that given us by Christ Matth 5. 48. Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Well may it be called an exceeding Righteousness surpassing the Scribes and Pharisees which all have that enter into the Heavenly Kingdom Matth. 5. 20. There is nothing under Heaven that is known to man so like to God as a Holy soul Remember this the next time you reproach such All you that are the Serpents â—eed remember when you spit your venome against Holiness that it is the Image of God that your enmity is exercised against O what a strange conjunction of malignity and hypocrisie appeareth in the enemies of God among us A picture of Christ that is drawn by a Painter or a forbidden Image of God that is carved by an Image-maker in stone that hath nothing but the name of an Image of God these they will reverence and honour though God hath forbidden them to make such Images of him The Papists will 〈◊〉 before them and the prophane among us are zealous for them when in the mean time they hate the noblest Images of God on earth Forbidden Images of God have been defended by seeking the blood of his truest Images Do you indeed Love and Honour the Image of God Why then do you hate them and seek to destroy them And why do you make them the scorn of your continual malice Can you blow hot and cold Can you both Love and Hate both Honour and Scorn the Image of God Search the Scripture and see whether it be not the sanctified heavenly diligent servants of the Lord that are the Honourable Image which he owneth and magnifieth and gloryeth in before the world If this be not true then go on in your hatred of them and spare not These are not Images of stone but of Spirit not Images made by a Carver or a Painter but by the Holy-Ghost himself Not hanged upon a wall for men to look on but living Images actuated from Heaven by spiritual influence from Christ their head and shining forth in exemplary lives to the honour of their Father whom they resemble Matth. 5. 16. It is not in an outward shape but in spiritual wisdom and Love and Holiness of heart and life that they resemble their Creatour Whether you will believe it now or not be sure of it you malignant enemies of Holiness that God would shortly make you know it that you chose out the most excellent Image of your maker under Heaven to pour out your hatred and contempt against And in as much as you did it to his noblest Image you did it unto him 7. If all this be not enough to shew you the Honourable Nature of Holiness I will speak the highest word that can be spoken of any created nature under heaven and yet no more then God hath spoken even in 2 Pet. 1. 4. where it is expresly said that the Godly are partakers of the Divine Nature I know that it is not the Essence of God that is here called the Divine Nature that we partake of we abhor the thoughts of such blasphemous arrogancy as if that grace did make men Gods But it s called the Divine nature in that it is caused by the Spirit of God and floweth from him as the Light or sunshine floweth from the sun You use to say the sun is in the house when it shineth in the house though the sun it self be in the firmament so the Scripture saith that God dwelleth in us and Christ and the spirit dwelleth in us when the Heavenly Light and Love and Life which streameth from him dwelleth in us and this is called the Divine Nature Think of this and tell me whether higher and more Honourable things can easily be spoken of the sons of men 1 Joh. 4. 16. God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him O wonderful advancement high expressions of a creatures dignity Blessed be that Eternal Love that is thus communicative and hath so enobled our unworthy souls with what alacrity and delight should we exalt his name by daily praises that thus exalteth us by his unspeakable mercie Psal 75. 10. 89. 16 17. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound they shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance In thy name shall they rejoyce all the day and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted For thou art the glory of our strength and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted For the Lord is our defence and the holy one of Israel is our King Psal 148. 13 14. Let them praise the name of the Lord for his Name alone is excellent his Glory is above the Earth and Heavens He also exalteth the horn of his people the Praise of all his Saints He hath first exalted our blessed Head even highly exalted him by his own right hand and given him a name above every name Act. 2. 33. 5. 31. Phil. 2. 9. and with him he hath wonderfully exalted all his sanctified ones Heb. 2. 10. 11. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to Glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of One for which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren 1 Cor. 12. 12. For as the Body is One and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ What greater honour can man on earth be advanced to And the Honour of the just is communicative to the societies of which they are members The Churches are called Holy for their sakes Prov. 11. 11. By the blessing of the upright the City is exalted but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked Prov. 14. 34. Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people Let therefore both the persons and Congregations of the Saints continually exalt the name of God O Bless the Lord for ever and ever and blessed be his glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise Neh. 9. 5. The Lord liveth and blessed be our Rock and exalted be the God of our Rock of our salvation 2 Sam. 22. 47. Psal 30. 1. I will extoll thee O Lord for thou hast lifted me up Psal 27. 6. And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy I will sing yea I will sing praises unto the Lrrd. Psal 28. 8 9. The Lord is their strength the saving strength of his annointed He will save his people and bless his inheritance and feed them also and lift them up for ever Psal 147. 6. The Lord lifteth up the meek and casteth the wicked down to the ground Thus shall it be done to
Righteousness are not a more Honourable employment then the sordid drudgery of the world must say also that the life of a worldling is more Honourable then the life of the holy Angels and the heavenly host They are obeying and praising God and living in the sense of his dearest love while you are sinning and scraping in this Earth And can you believe that your life is more Honourable then theirs If not you must confess that the Godly that come nearest the work of Angels do live a more Honourable life then you When Christ called Peter to leave his fishing and follow him and be his servant he tells him that he will make him a fisher of men as intimating that it was a more honourable work to catch souls by the Gospel and win them to God and to salvaâ—ion then to catch fishes To please God and save our souls and further others in obeying him to their salvation is the Highest work that the sons of men are capable of while they live in flesh As the Priests were sanctified to draw nearer unto God then the common people and to be employed in his most Holy service so are the godly separated by grace from the ungodly world and brought nearer God and used by him in the noblest works In a great house there are not only vessels of Gold and of Silver but also of wood and of earth and some to honour and some to dishonour 1 Tim. 2. 20. If a man therefore purge himself from sin he shall be a vessel unto honour sanctified and meet for the masters use and prepared unto every good work Ver. 21. The Vessel that Swine are fed in is not so Honourable as that which is used at a Princes table If you would know what use the Godly are employed in read 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. As lively stones they are built up a spiritual house they are a holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God which shall be acceptable by Jesus Christ They are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people that they should shew forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light The holy Scriptures tell you the work of Saints Compare them with the work of the drunkard the glutton the gamester the fornicator or the covetous or ambitious worldling and let your reason tell you which is the more Honourable Psalm 34. 9. O fear the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him Psal 31. 23. O Love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful Psal 89. 5 7. The heavens shall praise thy wonders O Lord thy faithfulness also in the Congregation of the Saints God is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of the Saints and to he had in reverence of all them that are about him These are the employments of the Saints 6. Moreover the Godly have the most Honourable entertainment by the God of all the world They are bid welcome when others are rejected The door is opened to them that is shut against the wicked They are familiar with Jesus Christ as the children of the family when others are strangers whom he will not know Cant. 5. 1. Matth. 25. 10. Matth. 7. 23. I will profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity Psalm 1. 6. For the Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish The faithful are feasted by him when the rest are examined with a Friend how comest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness Matth. 22. 12 13. They are called the children that have the bread and the rest are called the dogs of which some are without and those within do feed but on the crums that fall from the childrens table Matth. 15. 26 27. Revel 22. 15. Hear the Lords invitation and his promise Isa 55. 2 3. Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness Encline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you Who is it that is admitted into the Tabernacle of the Lord and who shall dwell in his holy hill He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord Psalm 15. 1 2 4. The upright shall dwell in the presence of the Lord. Psalm 140. 13. God will save Sion and the seed of his servants shall inherit it and they that love his name shall dwell therein Psal 69. 35 36. And Blessed is the man whom thou choosest O Lord and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts he shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy House even of thy holy Temple Psal 65. 4. Saith David Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the Land that they may dwell with me he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me Yea Christ entertaineth faithful souls with a spiritual feast of his own flesh and blood His flesh to them is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed John 6. 55. and he that eateth and drinketh these shall live for ever Verse 54 56. The returning Prodigal is met with joy and quickly embraced in his Fathers arms the fatted Calf is killed for him a ring and new apparell is provided him and musick must express the Joy for his recovery Luke 15. O how welcome are converted sinners to the God of mercy And as they are welcome at their first return so are they in all their attendance on him and addresses to him and service of him while they continue in his family They have boldness now to enter into the Heliest by the new and living way that is consecrated and are invited to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith Heb. 10. 19 22. In Christ we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him Ephes 3. 12. And God hath made us accepted in the beloved to the praise of the glory of his grace Ephes 1. 6. We are living sacrifices acceptable unto God Rom. 12. 1. And our services though weak are sacrifices acceptable and well-pleasing to him Phil. 4. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 3. 5. 4. when the prayers of the wicked are abhorred of the Lord his people serve him acceptably in reverence and godly fear Heb. 12. 28. He answereth their prayers and often speaketh peace unto them and signifieth his acceptance of them If they could bring him a house full of Gold and Silver they would not be so welcome to him as they are in bringing him their hearts their humbled hearts their broken tender melted hearts that burn in Love to him and flame up towards him in desires and in holy praise To
that are but honest-hearted may certainly understand them Which quiets and pleaseth and satisfies the mind 3. And yet there is an exciting Difficulty in many things that are offered to our Knowledge which doth but make our holy studies the more delightful If the Word of God were so plain and obvious to all that it might be all understood at the first reading the plainness would bring our Sacred Knowledge into contempt as being an easie common thing Things common and easily got are little set by But when the plainness is such as may prevent our despair and dissatisfaction and yet the Difficulty such that it may hold us in study and prevent our contempt it makes the most delightful Knowledge It is Pleasant to find some daily addition to our Light and to be on the gaining and thriving hand and this upon our diligent search Successes are as pleasant as a present fulness of supplies The daily blessing of God upon our studies and humble learning addeth to our delight So that all this set together may shew you how pleasant a thing it is to have the Knowledge of a Saint Especially if you add that he hath an Exporimental and so a sweeter Knowledge then the most learned men have that are ungodly He hath tasted that the Lord is gracious and he hath tasted the sweetness of his Love and of all the Riches of his Grace in Christ and of his full and precious promises and of the inward powerful workings of his spirit His experimental Knowledge is the most Delightful Knowledge The Pleasure of Natural Knowledge is great but the Pleasure of saving Knowledge is much greater I do not believe that ever any of the Ambitious troublers of the world that let go Heaven that they may Rule on Earth have half the Pleasure in their Greatness and usurped Dignities as an honest Student hath in his Books and studious exercises and successes But if you compare the Pleasures of their Greatness and Commands with the Pleasure of a true Believing soul in his life of Faith and sweet fore-thoughts of his Heavenly Inheritance I must plainly tell you that we disdain the comparison Again I say that if you will compare the Drunkards the Fornicators or the Ambitious or Covetous mans delight with the solace that I find in my retired studies even about natural common things I disdain the comparison But if you compare their Pleasure with that little alas too little pleasure that I find in the believing thoughts of Life Eternall I do not only disdain your comparison but detest it Were I minded to be long I would shew you from these twelve particular Instances the abundant Pleasure of Holy Knowledge 1. What a Pleasant thing is it to know the Lord the Eternal God in his blessed Attributes The dimmest glimmering Knowledge of God is better then the clearest Knowledge of all the mysteries of nature 2. How Pleasant is it to know the works of his Creation How and why and when he made the world and all that is therein 3. How Pleasant is it to know the blessed Son of God and to behold the face of his Fathers Love that is revealed in him as his fullest Image 4. How Pleasant is it to know the Law and Gospel the Matter and the Method the litteral and spiritual sense to see there the mind and will of God and to see our Charter for the Heavenly Inheritance and read the Precepts and the Promises and the Examples of the faith and patience of the Saints 5. How Pleasant is it to know the Heavenly operations of the Holy Ghost and the nature and action of his several Graces and the uses of every one of them to our souls and especially to find them in our selves and to be skilled in using them 6. How Pleasant is it to know the nature and frame of the Church of Christ which is his Body and to know the difference and use of the several members To understand the office of the Ministry and why Christ hath set them in the Church and how much love he hath manifested therein that they should preach to us and offer us Reconciliation in his name and stead 2 Cor. 5. 19. and marry us unto Christ in Baptism receiving us in his name into the Church and holy Covenant and that in his name and stead they should deliver us his body and blood and absolve the penitent sinner from his sins and deliver him a sealed pardon and receive the returning humbled soul into the Church of Christ and Communion of the Saints 7. How Pleasant is it to know the nature and use of all Christs Ordinances The excellencies of his Holy Word the use of Baptism and the refreshing strengthening use of the Supper of the Lord the use and benefit of Holy prayer and praises and thanksgiving and Church-order and all parts of the Communion of the Saints 8. Yea there is a holy Pleasure in knowing our very sin and folly When God bringeth a sinner to himself though his sin be odious to him yet to know the sin is Pleasant and therefore he prayeth that God would shew him the bottom of his heart and the most secret or odious of his sins 9. And it is Pleasant to a Christian to know his Duty It very much quieteth and delighteth his mind when he can but know what is the will of God When the way of Duty is plain before him how chearfully can he go on whatever meet him and how easie doth it make his labour and his suffering 10. Yea it is Pleasant to a Believer to understand his very danger Though the Danger it self be dreadful to him yet to know it that he may avoid it is his desire and his delight 11. And how Pleasant is it to understand all the Helps Encouragements and Comforts that God hath provided for us in our way and how many more are for us then against us 12. But above all how Pleasant is it to know by faith the life that we must live with God for ever and what he will do for us to all eternity in the performance of his holy Covenant I do but briefly name these Instances of Delightful Knowledge which are sweeter to the holy soul then all the Pleasures of sin to the ungodly Do you think that any of you hath such solid Pleasure in your sins as David had in the Law of God when he meditated in it with such delight and saith How sweet is it to my mouth even sweeter then the honey and the hony-comb Surely you dare not compare with him in Pleasures 2. Another part of Holiness that is Pleasant in the Nature of it is that which is subjected in the heart or affections And here is the chiefest of its sweetness and delights 1. The very compliance of the Will with the Will of God and its Conformity to his Law doth carry a quieting Pleasure in it That soul is happyest that is nearest God and likest to him and that
for ever and when the force of Love doth open our lips that our mouthes may shew forth his praise it is pleasant both to God and us The Lord himself doth put on joy as delighting in his peoples praise and when they joyn obedience with holy worship they are pleasant in his eyes Jer. 9. 24. Isa 62. 4. 42. 1. Zeph. 3. 17. He meeteth him that Rejoyceth and worketh righteousness and that remembers him in his wayes Isa 64. 5. Would you taste of the sweetest life on earth Learn then to Delight your selves in God Do you want recreation Be acquainted with his Praise Is there not a better cure for Melancholy here among the servants of the Lord then in an Ale-house or in the company of transgressors Their carnal pleasures are unwholsom for you like luscious fruits that will make you sick But the delights of Faith are safe and healthful Fleshly pleasure is windy and deceitful and weakeneth and befools the soul But the Joy of the Lord is our strength Neb. 8. 10. A little may be too much of fleshly pleasures and it is of very hard digestion and leaves that behind that spoils the sport But the further you go in the Delights of Faith the better they are and the sweeter you will find them You may quickly catch a dangerous surfet of your fleshly pleasures but of spiritual Delights the more the better For they are curing reviving and much confirm and exalt the soul Our spiritual pleasures are so heavenly and have so much of God and Glory in them that they must needs prepare the soul for heaven and be excellent helps to our salvation O therefore if you would live a Pleasant life draw near to God and by Faith behold him and by Love adhere to him and take a view of his infinite Goodness and all his perfections and behold him in his wonderous works and then break forth into his chearful praises and you shall taste such pleasures as the earth affordeth not Lanch forth into the boundless Ocean of Eternity and let your hearts and tongues expatiate in the Praise of the Heavenly Majesty and use this work and ply it close and be not too seldom or customary or careless in it and you shall find the difference between the Pleasures of Faith and of the flesh of a Holy and of a sensual life Psalm 135. 2 3. Ye that stand in the House of the Lord in the Courts of the House of our God Praise the Lord for the Lord is Good sing praises to his Name for it is pleasant Psal 71. 8. Let my mouth be filled with thy Praise and with thy honour all the day Psal 96. 2. 6. Sing unto the Lord bless his name shew forth his salvation from day to day Honour and Majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his Sanctuary O that the Lord will but shine upon my soul with the Light of his countenance and open my heart to the entertainment of his Love and hold a gracious Communion with my soul by his holy Spirit and keep open these doors to me and continue this liberty of his House and Ordinances which we enjoy this day that I may joyn with a faithful humble people in holy Communion and in his Praise and Worship and that with a heart that is suitable to these works I shall then say with David Psal 16. 6. The lines â—â—faln to me in pleasant places I have a goodly heritage I will â—â— for no greater pleasures or honours or advancement in this world Let who will surfet on the pleasures of the flesh Here doth my soul delight to dwell Psalm 27. 4 5 6. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the daies of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his holy Temple For in the time of trouble he will hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me he shall set me up upon a Rock And then shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me therefore will I offer in his Tabernatle sacrifices of Joy I will sing yea I will sing Praises to the Lord. Till I come to the promised Everâ—… Pleasures I shall ask of God no greater Pleasures These would be as much as my soul in the prison of flesh can bear Till 〈…〉 to the Land of Promise may I but have these clusters of 〈…〉 in my present Wilderness I shall not repine My heart 〈…〉 shall be glad and my glory shall rejoyce and at death my flesh 〈…〉 in hope For as the Lord now sheweth me the path of 〈…〉 so in his presence is 〈…〉 of Joy and at his right hand are 〈…〉 for 〈…〉 Pâ—… 4. Another Pleasant Holy Duty is Our holy Communion with Christ and his Church in the Lords Supper This is a holy Feast that is purposely provided by the King of Saints for the entertainment of his family for the refreshing of the weary and the making glad the mournful soul The night before his bitter Death he instituted this Sacramental Feast He caused his Disciples to sit down with him and when they had partaked of the Passover the Sacrament of Promise and had their taste of the old wine he giveth them the New even the Sacrament of the better Covenant and of the fuller Gospel-Grace He teacheth them that his Death is Life to them and that which is his bitterest suffering is their Feast and his Sorrows are their Joyes as our sinful pleasures were his sorrows The slain Lamb of God our Passover that was sacrificed for us that taketh away the sins of the world was the pleasant food which Sacramentally he himself then delivered to them and substantially the next day offered for them The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world John 6. 33. He is the Living Bread which came down from Heaven If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the bread that he giveth is his flesh which he hath given for the life of the world ver 50 51. Except we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood we have no life in us Whoso eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath Eternal life and he will raise him up at the last day For his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed He that eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him As the Living Father hath sent the Son and he liveth by the Father so he that eateth him shall live by him This is that bread that came down from Heaven not as the Fathers did eat Maâ—â—â— and are dead he that eateth this bread shall live for ever I know that to an unbelieving carnal wretch the Sacrament is but a common thing For Christ himself and his Gospel is â—o better in his
Lord if your merry companions do please you better then the Communion of the Saints or if you cannot submit to the order and discipline of the family of Christ that you may partake of his provision you may follow your own corrupt desires and see whither they will lead you But here it is that I shall choose my pleasures till I reach the everlasting pleasures And though in this low communion of imperfect Saints we see but in a glass and have but some small imperfect Sasts of the glorious things which Hope expecteth yet this is more then all that earth and flesh can yield and it is most perfect Pleasure that by these is revealed sealed and Represented Sacraments can assure us of perfect joys though they give us but little joy in hand Obj. But if Sacraments be so pleasant why then saith a disconsolate soul have I found no more pleasure or comfort in them Answ Even in the soul that 's made alive by Grace diseases may much corrupt the appetite and make the sweetest thing seem bitter Are not Sacraments sweet to you and do you not delight in the communion of God and of his Saints I will not say much to you lest it seem degrestive but briefly ask you these few Questions 1. Are the thoughts of God of Christ of Heaven sweet to you If they be me thinks the Ordinances should be sweet If they be not it s no wonder that you sét light by Sacraments if you can set light by Christ and heaven it self Quest 2. Is not sin grown sweet to you If it be the ordinances will not be sweet no nor unless your sins grow bitter Quest 3. Doth not the world grow sweet to you and your condition or expectations and your thriving state more plesant to you then heretofore If so no wonder if Sacraments and all spiritual things do lose their sweetness Quest 4. Have you been faithful in your preparation by free confession true humiliation strong resolution hungring and thristing after Christ and all this furthered by diligent self-examination An unprepared soul must blame it self if it find not the sweetness of the Ordinance The holy appetite and relish that is necessary to your Delight must be stirred up much in your Preparations Quest 5. Are you careful and conscionable humble and holy in your lives If you neglect God in your ordinary conversations and walk not with him on other daies you are unlike to meet him comfortably here And if you are slight and careless in your ordinary duties you will find here that God took notice of it Quest 6. Do you faithfully endeavour to exercise Faith Repentance Love and all Sacramental Graces in the use of the ordinances You come not to a meer receiving but to a Work Have your souls been adorned with the wedding garment and do you come hither for a meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ Do you see him by faith and take all that is here Represented to you as if you had seen the things themselves Do you remember that your Lord is coming and do you lift up your heads in the expectation of your Redemption and do this in remembrance of him till he come An idle loytering in Gods work is not the way to find the sweetness of it Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. l. 1. init gives it as a Reason why every one took his own part of the Bread of the Sacrament in those times because man being a free agent must be the chooser or refuser of his own happiness The Papists on the contrary do but gape and the Priest doth pop the bread into their mouths having first perswaded them that it is not bread Do you not expect to receive the spiritual benefits just as the Papists do receive the Bread as if you had nothing to do but gape As if your presence here were as much as is to be expected from you for your edification How can you tast the sweetness that is offered when you do not exercise your spiritual senses Quest 7. Do you exercise faith as well as feeling in judging of the benefit of Sacraments Pardon and Justification and Title to Salvation are benefits which in themselves you cannot feel It is by Believing the promise that you must know them If God have promised a blessing on his Ordinance it is sure to the faithful soul as if we felt it though perhaps we may seem long without it Heaven it self which is the principal end of Ordinances will not be attained in this life and yet the Ordinace is not in vain Quest 8. Have you the true understanding of the use of Sacraments of the abundant Love that is here set forth and the freeness and fulness of the Promise here sealed If not no wonder if you taste not the sweetness when you know not how to break the shell that you may feed on the kernel of the Ordinances Quest 9. Have you not troubled your own souls and muddyed your comforts by causeless doubts and ignorant scruples about the gestures or manner or persons that you joyned with or some such circumstances as these If so no marvel if you lose the comfort Quest 10. Or at least have you not been negligent in the review and after improving of the Ordinances and have you not thought that all was done when you had received Any one of these miscarriages may make this pleasant duty bitter or at least deprive you of the most of the delight But if your hearts be suted to the work and you deprive not your selves of the offered consolation you shall find that God deals bountifully with you and will feast you even with Angels food 5. The publike worship being all thus sweet how sweet are the Lords days these holy seasons that are wholly consecrated to this work How light is the Christian that hath this day cast off his worldly cares and business and cogitations and hath set himself apart for God as if there were to world to mind On the week days he doth walk with Goa But so that his necessary worldly business doth frequently divert and distract his mind But what a sweet and happy day is this when he may strip himself of these distractions as he doth of his work-day courser cloaths and may wholly apply himself to God As the Bee goes from flower to flower labouring at all but with a Pleasant labour to gather Honey and prepare for winter so doth the Christian especially on the Lords day employ himself in labour and delight and the more he laboureth the more is his delight From Prayer he goeth to Reading and to the instructing his family if he be a superiour or learning if he be an inferiour and have helps From private worship to publike and from publike to private again and gathering Honey food and sweetness to his soul from all Tell me you childish brutish wantons Do you think in your heart that you have as much solid joy and pleasure in a play day or in
give 3. Holiness removeth fears and troubles and therefore must needs be a Pleasant state It removeth the fears of the wrath of God and of damnation and the fears of all destructive evils It tends to heal the wounded soul and pacific the clamorous conscience and abate all worldly and groundless sorrows for which the wicked have no true cure 4. Holiness is the destruction of sin and sin is the cause of all calamities and therefore Holiness must needs be Pleasant 5. Holiness doth consist in rejoycing Graces that are exceeding pleasant in the exercise as Faith Hope Love Patience c. yea it consisteth in Joy it self Rom. 14. 17. 6. It fits the soul for Communion with God who is the fountain of Delights and it brings us near him and acquaints us with him as a God of Love and therefore must needs be a Pleasant state 7. You see by experience that when once men have tryed a Holy life they think they can never have enough of it The more Holy they are the more Holy they would be He that hath most would fain have more And the weakest desireth no less then to be perfect And do you think men that have tryed it would so long after more and more if it were not pleasant Judge also by the labour and diligence of the godly who seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and make it the principal business of their lives Would they make all this ado for nothing Or for that which is a matter of no delight Judge also by the delights which they voluntarily forsake when they let go all their sinful pleasures and renounce all the glory of the world would they make this exchange if they had not found a more pleasant course and that which tends to everlasting pleasure 8. You see also that the truly Godly when once they have tryed a holy life will never go back again to their former pleasures but loath the very remembrance of them It is not all the honours and riches and pleasures in the world that can hire them to forsake a holy life Sure therefore they find it the most pleasant course if not in sensible delights yet at least in easing their consciences and securing their minds from the terrours that sinful pleasures would produce If they found that Godliness answered not their expectation they have leisure enough and temptations too many to turn back into the state from whence they came But how would they abhorr such a motion as this 9. If Holiness were not a Pleasant thing it could not help us to bear up under all afflictions nor make us rejoyce in tribulation as it doth That which can sweeten gall and wormwood must needs be very sweet it self That which can make reproach and scorn and poverty and imprisonment either sweet or tolerable is sure it self a pleasant thing 10. Lastly if Holiness were not pleasant it could not make Death it self so easie nor take off its terrours nor cause the Martyrs to suffer so joyfully for Christ Death is the King of terrours and so bitter a cup that it must needs be a pleasant thing indeed that can sweeten it BEsides all this that hath been said let me briefly have some general aggravations of the Delights of Holiness And compare it as we go with the Delights of the ungodly 1. The Delights of Holiness are the most Great and Glorious and Sublime delights They are fetcht from the most Great and Glorious things It is God and his Grace and everlasting glory that feed our pleasures Whereas the Delights of sensual men are fed with trifles What do they rejoyce in but the fooleries of sin and the filthyness of their own transgressions What is it that contenteth them but a dream of honour or the good will and word of mortal men or a brutish sportfulnesse or the pleasing of the itch of lust or the provision that they have laid up for the flesh The treasures of a Kingdom excell not the treasure of a childs pin-box the thousandth part so much as Heaven excells the treasure of the ungodly Judge therefore by the matter that feeds their pleasure which of the two is the more pleasant life to sport in their own shame and laugh at the brink of misery with the ungodly or to delight our selves in the Love of God and rejoyce in the assured hope of Glory with the true believer 2. The Delights of Holiness are the most rational well-grounded sure delights They are not delusory nor grounded on mistakes or fancies They are warranted by the truth and All-sufficiency of God and the certainty of his promise and the immutability of his counsels and the sure Reward prepared for his Saints None but a lying malicious Devil or his instruments that participate of his nature or a blind corrupted partial flesh will ever go about to question the foundations of our faith and comforts The hopes and comforts that are built upon this Rock will never fall nor make us ashamed But the ungodly rejoyce in their own delusions It is ignorance and errour that they are beholden to for their mirth They laugh in their sleep or as mad men in their distraction Did they know that Satan rejoyceth in their joyes and that an offended God is alwayes present and how poor a matter it is that they rejoyce in it would marr their mirth If they saw the Hell that they are near or well-considered where they stand and what a case their souls are in they would have little list to play or laugh If they knew aright the shortness of their pleasures and the length of their sorrows and in what a doleful case their wealth and fleshly delights will leave them it would turn their laughter into mourning and lamentation So that they rejoyce but as a sick man in a phrensie or as a fool upon some good news to him that is false upon meer mistake 3. The Delights of Holiness are the most pure Delights and most entire and compleat There is no Evil in it mixed with the Good and therfore nothing to interrupt the joy Our joyes indeed are too much interrupted but that is not from any hurt that is in a holy life but by the contrary sin which Holiness must work out If men take poyson let them not blame nature that strives against it if they are sick but let them blame themselves and the poyson that puts nature to expell it In Holiness it self there is nothing but Good and therefore nothing that should grieve us But it is far otherwise with sensual delights As they are sinful they are wholly evil As they are natural feeding upon the creature alone they are as it is a mixture of Vanity and Vexation Every creature hath its unsuitableness and imperfection by which it disturbeth even where it pleaseth and troubleth where it comforteth and frustrateth and disappointeth more then it satisfieth The more we Love it usually the more we suffer by it That
thing which we most excessively love is ordinarily our sharpest scourge That friend whom we most excessively love is usually our greatest sorrow either by their failing our expectations or by our failing theirs or our insufficiency to accomplish the good which we desire of them If they prove unkind it is more grievous then the unkindness of many others If they prove faithful how deeply do we suffer with them in all their sufferings Their wants do pinch us as our own Their reproaches are our shame Their losses take as much from us Their sickness paineth us Their death half killeth us And he that is so happy as to have many such friends is so unhappy as to have more burdens fears and griefs to suffer and more deaths to die then other men But especially to ungodly men these earthly comforts are uncomfortable because they have none of the Divine delights that are the kernel and the spirits but take up with the shell or husk And because their mirth is mixt with their own misery which conscience sometime gripes them for with such deep remorse as cools their comforts And some thoughts of the shortness of their pleasures will be stepping in and ending them before their time So that the bitterness of worldly things surpasseth the delight 4. The Delights of Holiness are Deep and Solid and therefore do stablish and corroborate the Hearts But sensual delights are like childrens laughter they are slight and outside and flitting and vain As children laugh in one breath and cry in the next so worldly joys are followed at the heels by sorrows For they lie not deep and fortifie not the heart against distresses as the delights of faith and holiness do 5. The Pleasures of the Saints are the gift of God and allowed of by him commanded by his word and promoted by his promises and mercies and are but the fruits of his Everlasting Love And being so Divine they must needs be excellent But the Pleasures of ungodly worldly men are partly forbidden and condemned by God and partly contradicted and confounded by his terrible threatnings and the discovery of his wrath There is no Peace saith the Lord to the wicked Isa 48. 22. 57. 21. God doth disown and protest against their peace If they will keep it and make it good it must be against his will He forbiddeth joy to a rebellious people Hos 9. 1. Rejoyce not O Israel for joy as other people for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God He calleth them to weeping and mourning and renting of the heart Joel 2. 12 13. Hear what God saith to them in their greatest pleasures Jam. 5. 1 2 3 4 5. Go to now ye rich men weep and howle for your miseries that shall come upon you Your riches are corrupted and your garments moath-eaten Your gold and silver is cankred and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eate your flesh as it were fire yee have heaped treasure together for the last days Yee have lived in pleasure on earth and been wanton Yee have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter A man would think it should either Turn them or Torment them and fill their hearts with continual horrour to sind God thus solemnly protesting against their peace and sentencing them to woe and sorrows 6. The Pleasures of the Godly are clean and noble and honest and honourable They delight in things of greatest worth for which they had their Natures their Time and all But the Pleasures of sinners are base and filthy They Delight as swine in wallowing in the mire and as the dog to eat his own Vomit 2. Pet 2. 22. They delight to wrong the God that made them and by whom they live and to cross the ends of their lives and mercies and to drive away all true delights and to undo themselves This is the matter of their delight 7. The Devil is a great enemy to the Delights of Holiness which is a sign that they are excellent He doth what he can to keep men from the Holy State lest they should meet with the Happiness that attends it And if he prevail not in this his chief design he doth what he can to fill up the lives of believers with calamities All the enemies that he can raise up against them shall by temptations scorns or injuries assault their comforts All the storms that he can raise shall be sure to fall upon them How busie is he to fill them with fears and doubtings and to cast perplexing thoughts into their minds or to misâ—ead them into some perplexing ways and fasten on them entangling doctrines or disquieting principles How cunningly and diligently will he argue against their peace and comforts and seek to hide the Love of God and dishonour the blood and grace and covenant of Christ and cross the comforting workings of the spirit How subtilly will he question all our Evidences and extenuate all Gods comforting mercies and do all that he can that the godly may have a Hell on Earth though they shall have none hereafter It is sure an excellent Joy and Pleasure which Satan is so great an enemy to 8. The Delights of Holiness do make us better They are so far from disordering the mind and leading us to sin that they compose and purifie the mind and make sin much more odious to us then before No man hates sin so much as he that hath seen the pleased face of God and tasted most the sweetness of his grace and tryed the pleasant paths of life And therefore it is that when a believer comes from fervent prayers or from heavenly conference or meditation or from hearing the blessed word of life laid open plainly and applyed powerfully to his soul he would then abhor a temptation to sensual delights if they were set before him Till we lose the relish of Holy things and suffer our Delight in God to fade we are seldome taken in the snares of any fleshly vanities Money is dirt to us and honour a smoak and lust doth stink as long as we maintain our delight in God He is the best and highest Christian that hath most of these spiritual delights But fleshly Pleasures make men worse They intoxicate the mind and fill it with vanity and folly They are the snares to entrap us and the harlots that do bewitch us and defile the soul that should be chaste for God The noise of this sensual foolish mirth doth drown the voice of God and Reason so that in the needfullest matters they cannot be heard In their hunting and hawking diâ—ing and carding drinking and revelling feasting and dancing how little of God or heaven is on the sinners mind seldome is the soul so unfit for duty so uncapable of instruction so hardened against the word and warnings of the Lord as in the depth of sensual delights Then it is that they are foolish disobedient and deceived when they are serving divers lusts and pleasules as
language from their mouths even the joyful praises of their Redeemer and the thankful acknowledgements of his abundant love How sweet unto their souls is the remembrance of kindness and how delightful a work is it from day to day to magnifie his name 5. You must also distinguish between those weak mistaken Christians that understand not the extent of the Covenant of grace and those that do understand it If a believer by mistake should think that the grace of the Gospel extendeth not to such as he because he is unworthy and his sins are great no wonder if he be troubled As you would be if you should conceive that your lease were not made to you but to another or as a malefactor would be if he thought his pardon belonged not to him but to another man But hence you should rather observe the riches and excellencies of the Gospel and the happiness of the heirs of promise then dream that its better be strangers to the holy Covenant still They are better that have a promise of life and understand it not then they that have none But those that know the freeness and fulness of the promise and study with all Saints to comprehend what is the bredth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 18 19. do use to walk more comfortably according to the riches of that grace wich they do possess 6. Consider also that most of these complaining Christians are glad that they are in any measure got out of their former state and therefore apprehend their cause to be better then it was before Or else they would turn back to the state that they were in which they would not do for all the world And therefore they take a godly life to be far more pleasant to them that do attain it 7. Moreover the sorrow of believers is such as may consist with Joy At the same time while they are grieved that they are no better they are gladder of that measure of grace which they have received then they would be to be made the rulers of the world While they are mourning for the remnant of their sins they are glad that it is but a remnant that they have to mourn for Yea while they are troubled because they doubt of their sincerity and salvation they are more sustained and comforted with that little discerning which they have of their evidences and with their hopes of the everlasting love of God then they could by all your sinful pleasures Try the most dejected mournful Christian whether he would change states and comforts with the best and greatest of the ungodly The soul of man is so active and comprehensive that it can at once both rejoyce and mourn While they mourn for sin and feel affliction believers can have some rejoycing taste of Everlasting Life 8. Yea the godly sorrow of a believer is the matter of his joy He is gladder when his heart will melt for sin then he would be to be your partner in your carnal pleasures He would not change the comfort that he findeth in his penitent tears for all your laughter 9. The Joy of a believer is intimate and solid as I said before according to the object of it and not like the fleering of a fool or the laughter of a child or the sensual mirth that Solomon called Madness And therefore it is not so discernable to others as carnal mirth is And therefore you think that the servants of Christ are void of pleasure when they have much more then you It is little ridiculous accidents and toys that make men laugh but great things give us an inward sweet content and joy which scorns to shew it self by laughter And what can be a fitter object of such great content then to be a member of Christ and an heir of heaven 10. Moreover this sorrow of the Godly is but medicinal and a preparative to their after-Joys It doth but work out the poison of sin which would marr their comforts and drive them to Christ and fit them to value him and tast the sweetness of his love and grace 11. And as it is not the state and life of a Christian but his fasting days or time of Physick so the comforts of the godly ordinarily do far exceed their sorrows at least in weight if not in passionate sense They have their hours of sweet access to God and of heavenly meditation and delightful remembrance of the experiences of his love and perusal of his promises and communion with his people and of the exercise of faith and hope and love And with those Christians that have attained stability and strength these comforting graces are predominant and their life is more in Love and Praise then in vexatious fears and sorrows And it should be so with all believers Love is the Heart of the new creature It is a life of Love and Joy and praise that Christ calls all his people to and forbids them all unnecessary doubts and sorrows and keepeth them up so strictly from sin that he may prevent their sorrows And if you will judge whether Holiness be a pleasant course you must goe to the prescript and consider the nature and use of Holiness and look at those that live according to the mercies of the Gospel and not look at the dejections and sorrows of those that grieve themselves by swerving from the way of Holiness as if you would judge that Health is unpleasant because you hear a sick man groan And yet even these weak and mournful Christians usually have more joy then you The very preservation of their souls from that despair which sin would cast them into if they had not a Christ to fly to and the little tasts of mercy which they have felt and the revivings that they find between their sorrows and the hopes they have of better days are enough to weigh down all your pleasures and all their own sorrows 12. Lastly consider that this is not the life of perfect Joy and therefore some sorrows will be intermixt Comfort will not be perfect till Holiness be perfect and till we arrive at the place of perfect joy What 's wanting now while we live in a troublesome malignant world shall shortly be made up in the Heavenly Jerusalem when we have admittance into our Masters joy And then all the world shall be easily convinced whether sin or duty a fleshly or or Holy life hath the greater Pleasures and contents Object But it is not only the weakness of professors but the very way that is prescribed them that must bear the blame For they are commanded to fast and weep and mourn Answ 1. That is but with a medicinal necessary sorrrw for preventing of a greater sorrow as bitter medicines and blood-letting and strict diet are for the prevention of death God first commandeth them to take heed of sin the cause of sorrow But if they will fall and break
prosperity do you Glory in the Lord When they boast themselves in their riches or reputation do you imitate holy David who professeth Psal 34. 1 2 3. I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in thy mouth My soul shall make her boast in the Lord the humble shall hear thereof and be glad O magnifie the Lord with me and let â—…lt his name together And Psal 44. 8. In God will we boast 〈…〉 the day long and praise thy Name for ever By such spiritual joyfulness your lives would be a continued Sermon and you might thus preach home more souls to Christ then the most excellent preacher by bare perswasions Poor sinners would begin to pitty themselves that live so far below the Saints and they would think with themselves It is not for nothing that these men rejoyce and are comfortable even in the loss of all those things that we take all our comfort in For the honour of your dearest Lord and for your own felicity and for the sake of the miserable souls about you I beseech you Christians do your best to reach this sweet and joyfullest life and to avoid those inordinate troubles and despondencies which are like to cross these blessed ends And pray for me and the rest of his servants that the Lord will forgive us our dishonouring of his name our wronging our own souls and our discouraging the world from living unto God by our living so far below his mercies and so unanswerable to the unspeakable treasures of his Saints and that for the time to come we may lay this duty more to heart and by the comforting spirit may be elevated to the performance of it But I suppose some will say Tâ—â— tell me how I should live for the encouragement of others is but to draw me to an hypocritical affectation and counterfeiting of joy and courage as long as I am unable inwardly to rejoyce and can see no sufficient cause of my rejoycing in my self Answ 1. I shall by and by shew you that you have sufficient yea unspeakable cause of joy 2. And now I shall only say that you are not to suspend and forbear your comfort till you have full assurance of your own sincerity your probabilities and weakest faith and hope will warrant a more comfortable life then you can live And it is not hypocrisie but a necessary duty to do the outward actions that are here commanded us though we cannot reach to that degree of inward comfort that we desire For we do not hereby affirm our selves to have the joy which we have not I am not perswading any man to lye but only we express as fully as we are able that little which we have And a little indeed a very little of such a high and heavenly nature grounded on the smallest hopes of everlasting life will allow you in the expression of it to transcend the greatest delights of the ungodly And also we do perform the external part both as a commanded duty and as a means to further the inward rejoycing of the soul So outward solemnity and feasting in dayes of Thanksgiving are as well to further inward Joy as to express it Even as mean attire and fasting and humblest proâ—trations before the Lord on dayes of Humiliation are as much to further inward Humiliation as to express it The behaviour of the body hath an operative reflexion on the mind and therefore should be used not only for the discovery but for the cure of the soul If you cannot restrain your anger as you desire it is no hypocrisie but your duty to hide it and to refrain from the sinful effects And if you can but use your selves some time to behave your selves in your anger as if you had no anger in meekness of speech and quietness of deportment anger it self will be the quicklyer subdued and in time will be the easier kept out If you cannot restrain your inordinate eppetite to meat or drink for quality or quantity it is yet no hypocrisie but your duty to hold your hands and shut your mouthes and refrain the things to which you have an appetite And if you will but use your selves a convenient time to forbear the thing you will subdue the appetite If the drunkard will forbear the drink and the glutton his too much desired dish and the sportful gamesters their needless and sinful recreations they will find that the fire of sensuality will go out for want of fuell As the too wanton Poet saith concerning wanton Love Intrat amor mentes usu dediscitur usu Qui poterit sanum fingere sanus erit Use kindleth it and use quencheth it He that can but live as a sound man shall at last become a sound man If you cannot overcome your inward Pride as you desire you must not therefore speak big and look high and swagger it out in bravery and accompany with gallants to avoid Hypocrisie But you must speak humbly and be cloathed soberly and accompany with the humble And 1. this is the performance of one part of your duty 2. and it is the expression of your Desires to be more humble and consequently of some humility contained in these desires 3. and it is the way to work your hearts to that humility which you want or the way in which you must wait on God for the receiving of it So if you cannot overcome the Love of the world as you desire do not therefore forbear giving to the poor for fear of Hypocrisie But give the more that you may perform so much of your duty as you can and may the sooner overcome your worldly love Some trees will be killed with often cropping But if they will not it is better that a poysonous plant should live only in the root then sprout forth and be fruitful Even so if you cannot overcome your inward doubts and fears and sorrows as you desire yet let them not be fruitful nor cause you to walk so dejectedly before the world as to dishonour God and your holy profession And if you have not the inward comfort you desire express your desires and the hopes and smallest comforts that you have to the best advantage for your Masters honour And you will find that a holy chearfulness of countenance expression and deportment will at last much overcome your inordinate disquietments and much promote the joyes which you desire But yet that you may see cause for the cheerfulness to which I now exhort you I next adde 3. If thou have but one spark of saving grace it is not possible for thee now to conceive or express the happiness of thy state and the cause thou hast to live a thankful jeyous life If thou have no grace thou art not the person that I am now speaking to If thou have no grace whence is it that thou so much desirest it What is it that causeth thee to lament the want of it and walk so heavily but because thou art
Sing unto the Lord sing Psalms unto him talk of all his wonderous works Glory ye in his holy name let the heart of them rejoyce that seek the Lord Psal 105. 1 2 3. The Saints shall shout aloud for joy Psal 132. 9 16. Be glad in the Lord O ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Psal 32. 11. Behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed Behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and shall houle for vexation of spirit Isa 65. 13 14. Abundance such passages tell you what manner of persons it is that God delighteth in and what he would have you be and doe These I have recited to shame the godly out of their undecent troubles and dejectedness as you would shew a child his face in a glass when he cryeth that he may see how he deformeth it The very Kingdom of God consisteth in righteousness and Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost If you would live as is most pleasixg unto God and as beseemeth those that are indeed believers let the joy of believers be as far as is possible your ordinary frame And if by sin you wound your souls and bring smart upon your selves dwell not in that wounded smarting state but go to your Physicions and beg of God that he will restore to you the joy of his salvation and make you to hear the voice of joy and gladness that your broken heart and bones may rejoyce Psa 51. 8 12. And take notice throughout all the Scripture whether you find the servants of God so much complaining of their want of assurance and of their frequent doubtings of their own sincerity and his love I think you will find this a very rare thing in the ancient Saints They were sensible of sin as well as we and they were as sensible of Gods afflicting hand and oft as Job David Hezekiah c. complained under it perhaps with some excess and too much questioning Gods favour to them as if he had forsaken them But besides and without any such affliction to live in ordinary trouble of mind through the doubting of their sincerity and of Gods special love and to be exercised in the complaining and disconsolate way as now abundance of Christians are this I find little of the Scripture Saints The reason was not because they had more holiness and less sin than many that now are thus cast down For the Gospel time excelleth theirs in degrees of grace and I think the greater care that Christians have of their hearts and of inward rectitude and communion with God and their fuller apprehensions of the life to come and so of their greatest hopes and dangers is one great cause But yet there are worse concurring causes The Love of God and his readiness to shew mercy should not be more questioned now when it is so abundantly revealed by Christ then it was in times of darker revelation The servants of God did formerly conceive that nothing but sin could make man miserable and therefore when they had sinned they repented and instead of continuing doubts and fears they bent their resolutions against their sins and having cast away their gross and wilful sins and continuing the conflict against their unavoidable infirmities which they hated they knew that the door of mercy was still open to them and that if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father who is the propitiation The time that is now spent in doubting and complaining and asking How shall I know that I sincerely repent was then spent in Repenting and reforming and using the means that God hath appointed for the conquering of sin and then trusting to his grace and Covenant in the blood of Christ for pardon And it would be better with us if we did thus Judge now by all these Scriptures and by the course of former Saints how God would have you behave your selves Do you not read an hundred times of their joy and thanks and praising God and calling upon others to praise him for once that they perplexedly question their sincerity But perhaps youâ—le say that your strength is so weak and your sins and enemies so strong and all your duty so imperfect and unworthy that having such continual cause of trouble you cannot choose but walk in heaviness and in fears I answer you 1. But why do you not tell what you have as well as what you want Have you not greater cause to say My sins being mortified at the root and all forgiven and my soul renewed and reconciled unto God and I being made an heir of Heaven how can I choose but live in joy 2. Are you heartily willing to forsake your sins and overcome the things of which you so complain or are you not If you are not why do you complain of them and why will you not consent to let them go and use Gods means to overcome them If you are willing then they are but your pardoned infirmities For that 's the difference between infirmities and reigning sins Whatsoever sin consisteth with a greater Habitual willingness to avoid that and all other sin then to keep them is but an Infirmity for it stands with present saving grace and is always Habitually or virtually repented of and actually when grace by knowledge and consideration hath opportunity and advantage to produce the act 3. And when once you are truly ingraffed into Christ he is your worthiness and your righteousness and the treasury of your souls and what you want in your own possession you have in his hands and as what you have is but his gift so what you want he is able and ready to supply Look not too much to your selves as if your safety and happiness were principally in your own hand God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his son He that hath the son hath life 1 Joh. 5. 10 11. It is through him that we can do all things so far as he strenghteneth us and without him we can do nothing Make use of him therefore as the Lord of life and joyfully acknowledge all that you receive and stand not dejectedly lamenting that you need him If you would have the waters of life goe to the fountain and do not sit down and fruitlesly vex your selves with complaining of your wants instead of seeking for supplyes Is there not an all sufficient Physicion of souls at hand Doth he not freely offer you his help what though you are not suddenly cured wounds may be caused in an hour but they use not to be cured in an houre Stay his time and use his remedies and cheerfully trust him and you shall find the cure successfully go on though it will not be finished till death 5. Consider also that it must needs be the best and most desirable life which is likest to our life in Heaven And therefore as Heaven is a state of Joy so Joy
fancie that it is an excellent thing to be Rich and Renowned and to rule over others or to have plenty of all accommodations for your flesh and then because God satisfieth not these carnal fancies you think he neglecteth you oâ— deals hardly with you As if every person in the Town should murmur because they are not Bâ—yliffs or Justices when if they had the wit to know it they are but kept from a double encumberance and from a burden which perhaps would break their backs When the people are thus befooled by the flesh into brutish conceits of the nature of felicity and into an over-valuing of these worldly things they are then always eitheir tickled by deluding pleasures or troubled for the crossing of their carnal wills so that they grow out of relish and liking with the true and durable delights Take heed therefore of this carnality Dir. 4. Study the greatness of the mercy which you have received You abound with mercies and yet undervalue them and over look them and sweeten not your souls with the serious observation and remembrance of them you study principally your afflictions and your wants And thus when you live in a land that floweth with milke and honey you will not feed on the prepared feast but keep still the gall and wormwood in your mouths and how then should you be acquainted with the pleasures of a holy life Yea you must use to look more to the spiritual part of all your mercies and see the love of God that appeareth in them and taste the blood of Christ in them and lose not the kernel and take not up with the common carnal part which every wicked man can value and enjoy Consider in all your mercies what there is in them for the benefit of your souls much rather then how they accommodate your flesh Could you do thus you would find the benefit of afflictions and that the denyal of what you have accounted your necessary mercies is not the smallest of your mercies And thus judging truly by the spirit and not by the flesh there is no condition except that of sin in which you might not find cause of joy Dir. 5. Take heed of sinning Keep still upon your watch against temptation sin is the cause of all your sufferings when it promiseth you delight it is preparing for your sorrow when it flattereth you into presumption it is preparing for despair when it promiseth you secresie and security it prepareth for your shame and be sure your sin will find you out Numb 32. 23. If therefore you have offended delay not your Repentance and spare not the flesh in your return but unless the honour of God forbid it take shame to your selves by free confession and make the fullest reparation of the injury that you can to God and man If you would thus get out the thorn that vexeth you the ways of God would be more pleasant Dir. 6. Daily live in the exercise of faith upon the everlasting pleasures Dwell as at the gates of Heaven as men that are waiting every hour when they are called in and when death will draw aside the vaile and shew them the blessed face of God And take heed that the enmity of interposing Death prevail not against the Joys of faith But look to Christ that hath conquered it and will conquer it for you And if thus you could live as strangers here and as the Citizens of Heaven that are ready to step into the immortal pleasures you would then taste the Pleasures of a holy life in the first fruits and foretasts thereof It is your Treasure that must Delight you As your Heart must be there so your pleasure must be derived thence Strangers to Heaven will be strangers to the Believers Joys As the pleasure of the Carnal world consisteth in the sense of what they have in hand so the pleasure of Believers consisteth in the fore-apprehensions of what they shall enjoy with God for ever If therefore you exercise not those apprehensions if you look not frequently seriously and believingly into the world that you must live in for ever how can the comforts of that world illustrate and refresh you in this present world The Light and Heat which is the Beauty and Life of this lower world proceedeth not from any thing in this world but from the Sun which is so far above us and sends down hither its quickning influence and rays They are not the genuine comforts of Christianity which are not fetcht from the world above Dir. 7. If you would have the experience of the Pleasures of a life of Faith and Holiness neither desire nor cherish any fears or sorrows but such as as are subservient to Faith and Hope and Love and preparatory to Thankfulness and Joy Think not Religion consisteth in any other kind of sorrows Nay if any other should assault you be so far from taking them for your duty or religion as to resist them and lament them as your sin That is true and saving Humiliation 1. which makes you vile in your own eyes and loath your selves for sin 2. And maketh you more desirous to be delivered and cleansed from your sin than to live in it how sweet or gainful soever it may seem and 3. which maketh you set more by a Saviour to deliver you than by all the pleasures riches and honours of the world What ever want of Grief or tears you find if you have these signs your Repentance and humiliation is sincere Do not therefore refuse your Peace because you have not greater sorrows nor disturb your souls by strugling for excessive sorrow Take not part with them but do your best to cast them out if they are such as would destroy your Love and Joy and drive you from Christ and hinder your Thansgivings Know that the Life of your Religion consisteth in the Holy Love of God and of his Image and servants and holy ways Love is your duty and your felicity and reward Therefore let all tend to the exercise of Love and value most those means which most promote it and think your selves best when you abound most in Love and not when you are overwhelmed with those Fears and Griefs which hinder Love Study therefore above all the Love of God revealed in Christ which is the best attractive of your Love to him and hate all suggestions which would represent God unlovely and undesirable to you Dir. 8. Use cheerful company Not carnal but holy not such as waste their time in unprofitable frothy speeches or filthy or prophane or scornful jeastings But such as have most of the sense of Love and mercy on their hearts and are best acquainted with a Life of Faith and whose speeches and cheerful conversations do most lively manifest their sense of the Love of God and of the Grace of Christ and the eternal happiness of the Saints There is a delightful and encouraging virtue in the converse of joyful thankful heavenly believers Use
it therefore if you can have it Dir. 9. In your addresses to God in holy worship be sure that Praise and Thansgiving have its due proportion They are the chief and most excellent and acceptable part and therefore let them not have the smallest room Though your sins and wants be as great as you imagine in your complaints it is yet your duty to Praise the Excellencies and Attributes and works of your Creator and to be Thankful for the preparations made by Christ and freely offered you so that they shall certainly be yours if you accept them But much more Thankful should you be that have but the evidence of Desire and Consent to prove your Interest in Christ and in his Covenant I would intreat poor troubled fearful souls to Resolve upon this one thing which is reasonable necessary and in their power that when they are upon their knees with God they will spend as much of their Time and words in confessing mercies and Praising God as in confessing sin and condemning themselves and lamenting their wants and weaknesses and distress Though they cannot do it cheerfully as they should let them do it as they can And at last while they keep in the right way of duty and use themselves to the commemoration of that which is sweet and grateful to the soul Religion it self will become sweet and grateful and chearfulness of heart will be promoted by our own considerations expressions The same I desire of them as to their Thoughts that they will do their best to spend as many thoughts and as much time upon Mercy as upon sin and misery and upon the Goodness and Love of God in Christ as upon his threatnings and terrous Dir. 10. If you would taste the comforts of a holy life be sure that you give up your selves to Christ without reserve and follow him fully and place all your hopes and confidence in his promised rewards Serve him with your best yea with your all and not with some cheap and heartless service Comforts are the Rewards of faithfulness They that do God the most sincere and costly service and save nothing from him which he calleth them to lose are likest to be encouraged by his sweetest comforts It is sluggish neglects and unfruitfulness doing no good in the world but thinking to be saved by a dull profession that makes so many uncomfortable professors as there be Though I know that on the other extream too many live in pining sadness by not understanding the Covenant of Grace which accepteth of sincerity and secureth the weak and infants in the family of Christ But yet the barren unprofitable Christians I mean that comparatively are such though they be sincere shall find that God will not encourage any in sloathfulness by his smiles and consolations Direct 11. If you would know the Rest and Comfort of Believers see that you Rest in the Will of God in all Conditions as the Center and only bottom for your souls His will is not to be reduced to yours strive therefore to bring yours most fully and quietly to his Gods Will is the Universal Original and End of all things and there is no Felicity or Rest for man but in the fulfilling and pleasing and disposals of his will Be not too desirous of the fulfilling of your own wills and murmure not against the disposals of the Will of God It cannot but be Good which proceedeth from that will which is the Spring of good The accomplishment of Gods Will is the perfection of all created beings being that End for which they are all created If you Rest in your own wills your Rest will be imperfect disturbed and short of duration For your wills are the wills of weak and vicious men They are frequently misguided by an ignorant mind and perverted by a corrupt and byassed heart But Gods will is never misguided nor ever determined of any thing but for the best If you Rest here you Rest in safety you may be sure you shall never be deceived by him You may Rest in constant peace and quietness for God is unchangeable and will not be off and on with us as we are with him and with our selves As you pray that his Will may be done acquiesce in the doing of his Will and whatever befall you repose and satisfie your hearts in this Direct 12. Lastly let me add that when you have all the Directions that can be given you trust not too much to your own understanding and skill for the application of them to your selves in any weighty difficult cases But as you will not think it enough for the health of your bodies to have Physick Books and Physick Lectures unless you have also a Physicion who knoweth more then you to direct you in the application so think it not enough that you have the best Books and Sermons unless you have also a faithful and judicious Pastor whose advice you may crave in particular difficulties and who may direct you in the discovery of your own diseases and applying the fittest remedies in their seasons and measures with such Rules and Cautions as are necessary to the success If God had not known that there would still be many children and weak ones in his family that would stand in need of the instruction support and encouragement of the strong he would never have settled Pastors in his Church to watch over all the flocks and to be alwayes ready at hand for the confirmation and encouragement of such as need their help There had been no Physicions if there had been no diseases Tire not your Physicions with needless consultations for easie and ordinary cases but be not without them in your greater straits and wants and doubts And blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ And whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and salvation 2 Cor. 1. 4 5 6. While you are sick or infants the stronger must support you You cannot stand or go or suffer of your selves And God is so tender of his weak and little ones that he hath not only given strength to others for their sakes and commanded the strong to bear the burdens and infirmities of the weak Gal. 6. 1 2. Rom. 15. 1 2 3 4. but also established the Ministerial office much for this end Mal. 2. 7. For the Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts Not that we should disclose our Consciences and depend for guidance on every ignorant or ungodly man that hath the name and place of a Priest Even among the Papists men have leave to choose such Confessors as are fittest for them If the Priests depart ouâ— of the way and cause many to stumble at the Law and corrupt the Covenant of Levi the Lord will make them contemptible and base before all the people according as they have not kept his wayes but been partial in the Law Mal. 2. 8 9. But use those that are qualified and sent by the Spirit of God who in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God have had their conversation in the world especially to you-wards 2 Cor. 1. 12. Such as you have acknowledged in part that they are your rejoycing as you also are theirs in the day of the Lord Jesus vers 14. Not using them as such as have dominion over your faith but as those that by office qualification and willingness and disposition are Helpers of your Joy vers 24. In the saithful practice of these Directions you will find that Holiness is the most Pleasant way and that the Godly choose the better part and that the ungodly sensualists do live as BRUTES while they unreasonably refuse to live as SAINTS FINIS I. C. Scaliger Epidorp 1. 7. p. 296. Hoc quod Valeo Non queo quod debeo Quid 〈◊〉 Mensura meaâ—es tu Domine immensa potestas Non ego tua Quodque habeâ— tu mihi dedisti Quodque do non do sed accipis hoc enim dedisti Tu solus tibi satis es tu mihi tibique Nec te laudo ubi laudo sed ipse te ipse laudas Me persiciens non tua sic laudibus ornans Queis me ad te trahis haud ego te traho super me Me praeveniens hic ades ut mihi superfis
no relief 3. Another duty that Holiness consisteth in is Thanksgiving and Praise to the God of our salvation He that knows not that this work is Pleasant is unacquainted with it If there be any thing Pleasant in this world it is the praises of God that flow from a believing loving soul that is full of the sense of the mercies and goodness and excellencies of the Lord Especially the â—â—animous conjunction of such souls in the high praises of God in the holy Assemblies Is it not pleasant even to Name the Lord to mention his Attributes to remember his great and wonderous works to magnifie him that rideth on the Heavens that dwelleth in the light that cannot be approached that is cloathed with Majesty and Glory that infinitely surpasseth the Sun in its â—rightness that hath his Throne in the Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him and yet he delighteth in the humble soul and hath respect to the contrite yea dwells with them that tremble at his Word Is any thing so pleasant as the Praises of the Lord How sweet is it to see and praise him as the Creator in the various wonderful creatures which he hath made How pleasant to observe his works of providence to them that read them by the light of the Sanctuary and in Faith and Patience learn the interpretation from him that only can interpret them But O how unspeakably Pleasant is it to see the Father in the Son and the God-head in the man-hood of our Lord and the Riches of Grace in the glass of the holy Gospel and the manifold wisdom of God in the Church where the Angels themselves disdain not to behold it Ephes 3. 10 11. The praising of God for the incarnation of his Son was a work that a chore of Angels were employed in as the instructors of the Church Luke 2. 13 14. There is not a promise in the book of God nor one passage of the Life and Miracles of Christ and the rest of the History of the Gospel nor one of the holy works of the spirit upon the soul nor one of those thousand mercies to the Church or to our selves or friends that infinite Goodness doth bestow but contain such matter of Praise to God as might fill believing hearts with Pleasure and find them most delightful work Much more when all these are at once before us what a feast is there for a gracious Soul O you befooled fleshly minds that find no pleasure in the things of God but had rather be drinking or gaming or scraping in the world awaken your souls and see what you are doing With what eyes do you see with what hearts do you think of the Works and Word and Wayes of God and of the Holy employments that you are so much against For my own part I freely and truly here profess to you that I would not exchange the Pleasure that my soul enjoyeth in this one piece of the holy Work of God for all your mirth and sport and gain and whatever the world and sin affords you I would not change the delights which I enjoy in one of these holy dayes and duties in the mentioning of the eternal God and celebrating his praise and magnifying his Name and thinking and speaking of the riches of his Love and the glory of his Kingdom no not for all the pleasure of your lives O that your souls were cured of those dangerous diseases that make you loath the sweetest things You would then know what it is that you have set light by and would marvail at your selves that you could taste no sweetness in the sweetest things Can you think that your work or your play your profits or your sports are comparable for pleasure to the Praises of the Lord If Grace had made you competent Judges I am sure you would say There is no comparison Hear but the testimony of a holy soul yea of the Spirit of God by him Psal. 147. 1. Praise ye the Lord for it is good to sing Praises to our God for it is pleasant and praise is comely Psalm 149. 1 2. Praise ye the Lord sing unto the Lord a new song and his Praise in the Congregation of Saints Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him let the children of Zion be joyful in their King For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people he will beautifie the meek with salvation Let the Saints be joyful in Glory let them sing aloud upon their beds Let the high Praises of God be in their mouth c. Psal 95. 1 2 3. O come let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to him with Psalms For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all Gods Psalm 96. 1 2 3 4. O sing unto the Lord a new song Sing unto the Lord all the earth Sing unto the Lord bless his Name shew forth his salvation from day to day Declare his glory among the Heathen his wonders among all people For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised Honour and Majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his Sanctuary Did not this holy Prophet find it a Pleasant work to Praise the Lord Yea all that Love the Name of God should be Joyful in him Psalm 5. 11. Every one of his upright ones may say with the Prophet Isa 61. 10. I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord My soul shall be joyful in my God For he hath cloathed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robes of righteousness as a Bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels For as the earth springs forth her bud and as the Garden causeth the things sown in it to spring forth so the Lord will cause Righteousness and Praise to spring forth before all the Nations It is a promise of Joy that is made in Isa 56. 6 7 8. To the sons of the stranger that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the Name of the Lord to be his servants every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my Covenant Even them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my House of Prayer What a joyful thing is it to a gracious soul when he may see the reconciled face of God and feel his Fatherly reviving Love and among his Saints may speak his Praise and proclaim his great and blessed name even in his Temple where every man speaketh of his Glory Psalm 29. 9. If the Proud are delighted in their own praise how much more will the humble holy soul be delighted in the Praise of God! When the Love of God is shed abroad in the heart and Faith doth set us as before his Throne or at least doth somewhat withdraw the veil and shew us him that lives