the works of his worship but in those also of our conversation with men and putting our selvs in all our waies under his protection and that specially in the time of distresse or danger that as the bodily hand gets and gathers strength by being diligently used in works competent so may also the Spirituall hand do which Faith is Now as for our succesfull wrestling against the Rulers of the darknesse of this World and spirituall wickednesses in high places we must put on amongst other parcels of the Armour of God the Shield of Faith so must we not forget the Helmet of Salvation Hope whose strength is great to bear off all blows of temptation and that with chearfulnesse For what burthens of afflictions and temptations will not he cherfully undergo that expects undoubtedly their speedie ending in endlesse happinesse Alexander the Great meaning to invade Asia and giving away his riches aforehand being asked what he would reserv for himself answered Hope But what is the shadow to the substance He hoped for the Kingdom of Persia we of Heaven And what if his hope stretched it self to the Monarchy of the whole World It was but to this World wherein also it was frustrated and perished with him But the Anchour of our hope is cast within the veil and extendeth to the World to come being also firm and stedfast and which cannot be disappointed nor shall have other end then in being perfited in the end of all the full fruition and eternall possession of happinesse with God Were it not for hope the heart would break but we having this hope faint not but hold fast the profession thereof without wavering yea even glorie in afflictions under the hope of the glorie of God Lastly Touching Love as it is the affection of union so it makes after a sort the loving and loved one such being the force thereof as that he that loveth suffereth a kind of conversion into that which he loveth and by frequent meditation of it uniteth it with his understanding and affection Thus to love God is to become godly and to have the mind after a sort deified being made partakers of the Divine nature in its effects to love the World is to become a worldling and so of the rest Thus in the Parable of the Tares the Children of the Kingdom are called good Seed and Wheat as growing and becoming Wheat of the Wheat or Seed sowen in them as the Wheat ear groweth of the Wheat corn As on the contrarie ungodly men are said to have eyes full of Adulterie and the like and not onely to be sinfull but sin unrighteousnesse darknesse and beliall as being even metamorphized and transformed into the evils which they love and delight in Oh how happie is that man who by the sweet feeling of the love of God shed abroad into his heart by the Holy Ghost which is given him is thereby as by the most strong coards of Heaven drawn effectually and with all the heart to love God again who hath loved him first and so becomes one with him and rests upon him for all good and happinesse For this our love to God there is required not onely the positive affection of the heart aspiring unto union with God upon knowledg of him as the chiefest good both in himself and to us in Christ and a contentation in him so known and obtained but withall that we exercise prove and approve that our love to him in our love to such good persons and things as unto which he hath imparted some sparks of his goodnesse especially to his good Children and good Word and Ordinances He cannot love him that begetteth saith the Apostle who loveth not him and that in deed and truth who is begotten in truth of affection and in deed of action for his comfort and this with greater bent of both as the graces of God are more eminent in him Neither loves he God that loves not his Word and that both in affection of heart and effect of readie obedience to all his Commandments We must take heed of a shadowish love of goodnesse and pietie onely in the abstract and must love it in the concrete where both the person and good in him is visible in whom Hypocrites for the most part hate and persecute it He but pretends to others the love of goodnesse or imagines it in himself that loves not good men for it Lastly He that loves not his brother whom he sees how can he love God whom he sees not Not but that there is matter of love infinitely more then in any or all men but because for the loving of God we want the advantage of sense and motive of compassion by which our love to our distressed brethren is holpen This love is the fulfilling of the Law the love of God being the greatest Commandment and the love of our neighbour like unto it It is also that to which the Gospel in the end leads us by which Gospel or new Covenant God writes his Lawes in the mind and heart of his and so perfits the one in the other And so naturall to Christians is this brotherly love as that the Apostle makes account he needs not write to the Churches to teach them that which God taught them so many wayes By this we know our selvs to be raysed from death to life by it all others know us to be Christs Disciples if we love one another See said the Heathens pointing at the Christians how they love one another and see said the Christians of them how they hate another Oh that Heathens could not now say of Christians as they sometimes said of them If we were perfit in this Love we needed no other Law to rule us either in the duties towards God or our neighbours no more then do the Angels in Heaven and Souls of the Faithfull men departed who by the Law of Love alone do live both most perfit and most happie lives And indeed to love as we ought is a verie happie thing wherein we resemble God and the Angels as by the contrarie we complice with the Divel and wicked men who live in mallice and envie hatefull hating one another And howsoever naturally we desire rather to be beloved then to love yet is it incomparably a more both excellent and blessed thing to love then to be beloved as it is to give rather then to receav Besides Love is the Loadstone of Love And the most readie and compendious way to be beloved of others is to love them first They taking knowledg thereof will be effectually drawn to answerable good will if they be not harder then Iron and such as have cast off the chains and bonds of common humanitie for even Publicans and sinners love those that love them Yea admit thy love of them never come to their knowledg yet will God by the invisible
to the knowledg of God This knowledg we must seek with all earnest diligence and store it up carefully in the treasurie of our hearts that knowing God we may love him and trust to him and fear him and honour him that as the Daughters of Ierusalem though before marvailing what ailed the Spouse of Christ to be so affectioned towards her beloved and so earnestly to seek after him as she did when they once came to take knowledg of his perfit beautie would then seek him with her So we knowing God specially in the face of Christ Iesus may so be ravished with love of his Majestie as to have our whole heart set to seek and find him in whose presence is satietie of joyes evermore CAP. II. Of Gods love GOd loveth himself first and most as the cheifest good and all other good things as he communicates with them lesse or more the effects of his own goodnesse And from this infinit love of his own infinit goodnesse is it that he so severely punisheth some Creatures though the Work of his own Hands which he alwaies loveth For first The Creature by sin violating Gods Holinesse and despising his authoritie in his righteous Commandments and so going on in impenitencie and unbelief and withall it being impossible that Gods love of his own Holinesse and Iustice and the honour of the same and the love of the Creatures happinesse so obstinatly dishonouring him should stand togither it cannot be but that the latter must give way to the former and greater and the Creature so sinning become miserable rather then God forgetfull of his own honour and glorie God reveales his glorious Majestie in the highest Heavens his fearfull Iustice in the Hell of the Damned His wise and powerfull Prouidence is manifest through-out the whole World but his gracious love and mercie in and unto his Church here upon Earth which he therefore hath chosen and taken near unto himself that in it might be seen the riches of his glorious grace And albeit all things in God are infinit and one yet are the effects of his love more wonderfull and excellent then of any other his Attributes as appeares in that his greatest and strangest work of giving his only begotten Son to the cursed death of the Crosse for his Enemies out of his love and mercie This the Scriptures and worthily call a great mysterie and which for the rarenesse of it was not onely hidden from the Sons of Men but also from the verie Angels in their perfection of created knowledg Which manifold grace and wisdom of God they therefore desire to look into and learn by the Church Love in the Creature ever presupposeth some good true or apparent in the thing loved by which that affection of union is drawn as the Iron by the Load-stone But the love of God on the contrarie causeth all good wrought or to be wrought in the Creature He first liveth vs in the free purpose of his will and thence worketh good for and in us and then loves us actually for his own good work for and in us and so still more and more for his own further work And hence ariseth the unchangablenesse of Gods love towards us because it is founded in himself and in the stablenesse of the good pleasure of his own will And although the arguments of comfort be great which we draw from the certain knowledg of our love to him yet are those infinitely greater which are taken from the consideration of his love to us as being not onely the ground of the other but in him also infinite and vnchangable And hereupon it was that the Sisters of Lazarus seeking help for their sick Brother sent Christ word not that he who loved him though that were not nothing but that he whom he loved was sick As by the hand of a friend reached unto us we are made partakers of the strength of his whole body to hold or help us up so by the hand of the love of God reached down from Heaven in the Gospel we become interessed in the most comfortable apprehension and happy use of all other his attributes whatsoeuer The more wise powerfull holy glorious eternall and infinite God is the more happy are we by means of his love and mercy in Christ which moveth him to use and improve them all for our good and to communicate them with us as his friends in their effects so far as serves for our happinesse He whom God loves though he know it not is an happy man He that knows it knows himself to be happy Which caused the Apostle to make in his own name and in the names of all the beloved of God that glorious insultation over all the enemies of his their happines that they could not seperate him or them not from the power or wisdom or holinesse but not from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus From this love of God as from a Spring head issueth all good both for grace and glory Yea by it which is more all evill by all Creatures intended or done against us is turned to good to us By it our afflictions work together with our election redemption vocation c. for our good By reason of it the stones of the Feild are at league with us the beasts of the Feild at peace with us yea even the very Sword that killeth us the Fire that burneth us and the Water that drowneth us is a kinde of Spirituall and invisible league with us to do us good Vpon the knowledg of this love of God shed abroad into our hearts by the Holy Ghost is laid the foundation and ground-work of whatsoever good thing we return again unto God with acceptation at his hands Vpon this we do build our Faith and confidence in him By this our cold and frozen hearts are not onely thawed but inflamed also with love again to him and to men for him As the Earth being heated by the beams of the Sun beating upon it reflecteth heat again towards the Heavens upon all the bodies between it and them Lastly from hence arise all the pleasing services wherewith we present his Majesty For howsoever we ow our selvs and whatsoever we are or can do vnto him as our gracious and powerfull Creatour absolute Lord yet can we do nothing heartily as we ought but from the Faith feeling of his love in Christ by the motion of the Spirit of a sound minde given unto us But being once drawn sweetly by the coards of Gods goodnes love we readily pleasingly follow after him as being debters and constrained not by necessity but w ch binds more strongly by love The tokens of this love of God in Christ are not onely by us highly to be prized but carefully to be discerned lest we bring our selves into a fools paradise and grow presumptuously secure which is the fore-runner of suddain and
certain destruction We must therefore in this scrutiny neither trust our selvs nor any other creature but God alone in the testimony of his Word Spirit which knows makes known the minde of God and by which we may unerringly learn First what the tokens of his love are and secondly who they are which partake of them and thirdly that we our selvs are of that blessed number Now amongst them all there is none so certain and infallible though those of feeling be more joifull as the gracious work of true repentance in the mortifying of the old man in his sinfull affections and in the quickning power of Christs Spirit to willing though weak obedience to all Gods Commandments As we may certainly know that the Sun shines by the beams and heat thereof below though we climbe not into Heauen to see so may we haue certain knowledge of Gods gracious love towards us without searching further then our own hearts and waies and by finding them truly and effectually turned from sin to God As God may so far hate some evill in a person for example the Adultrie of David and other sins accompanying it as to punish the same severely in this World and yet not hate the person himself so may he on the other side love some good in a man so far as to reward it highly in this life and neverthelesse not love but hate the person-in whom it is found as may be seen in the zeal of Iehu for the Lord against wicked Ahab and his House And if our narrow and partiall hearts can upon occasion hold and preserve this difference between persons and things how much more may and doth the same right well stand with the distribution of rewards and punishments made by the most holy and wise God As then when the Lord manifests some signes of his anger at us and hatred against the evils in us we must take heed we conclude not presently that therefore we in our persons are hated of him and cast-awaies except the evils raign in us without repentance so must we on the other side take more care considering how by selflove we are commonly in more danger thereof that we câ—oclude not of the love of God towards our persons from everie effect of some kinde of love and likeing of some particular good things in us and not except those good things be such as make us good also as Faith and holines do trans-forming us as it were into their Nature and kinde as in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares the good Seed is expounded the Children of the Kingdom because they grow of the good Seed of the Gospel and by their regeneration as it were turn verie Word and Spirit CAP. III. Of Gods promises THe promises of God are a kinde of midle thing between his purpose and performance of good unto them whom he loveth And as wicked Iezabel could not satisfie her hatred of Elyas the Prophet in intending evill to him and executing it upon him in time as she could unlesse with all she thundred out against him terrible threatnings in the mean while So much lesse can the love of our good God satisfie it self in a gracious purpose of good towards us in his heart and actuall performance of it accordingly in due time except with all he make it known unto us before hand both for our present comfort in the knowledg thereof and for the ground of our hope and expectation of the good things promised and accordingly to be receaved at his hands in their time He haveing by his promise bound over unto us both his love and truth and other Attributes for performance And herein the Lord provides verie graciously for his poore Servants who are oft-times brought into that distressed state both outward and inward as they have verie litle els save the promises of God wherewith to comfort themselvs Which yet are sufficient if we improve them as we ought considering first his love moveing him to promise and the unchangeablenesse of it secondly his wisdom directing him to promise nothing unfit thirdly his power enabling him and fourthly his truth bindeing him to all performance In regard whereof God hath made himself a debtor though not by receaving from us yet by promising unto us promise being as we say due debt God ever performeth what and as he promiseth and not one good thing for another as some think no not Heauenly for Earthly nor a greater good for a lesse For howsoever so to do might stand with his bountie and goodnesse yet his truth bindes him to his Word which is Truth Spirituall good things necessarily accompanying Salvation he promiseth absolutely unto his other good things ordinarily upon condition Which considering that through our abuse of them they may prove prejudiciall to our Spirituall man if so be the Lord should promise absolutely as the former it were many times indeed not to promise a benefit but to threaten a hurt rather And truly we may observe in the dangerous fals miscariages of the wise Salomon unto whom temporall good things were absolutely promised in the fullest measure and accordingly performed how graciously our wise and good God provides for our slipperie state in scantling his promise of good things of that kinde to our Spirituall skill and care of useing them for the advantage of our true and eternall happinesse We are therefore first to beware that we expect not absolutely temporall prosperitie lest by so doing we both wrong the Lords truth and our own Faith in the things promised indeed by doubting of them because we have failed of obtaining of other things by us presumed of but not promised by the Lord. Secondly We must as firmly beleeve and expect the performance of temporall promises as the Lord hath made them as of eternall For albeit his loue do not manifest it self in like degree in promiseing both yet his truth is alike bound to exhibit both being once promised Neither is that person in earnest with God who pretending Faith for eternall good things yet dare not trust his Word for temporall Such as despise Heavenly things and loue earthly usually pretend their trusting of God for the former of which they are indeed profanely secure but will trust themselvs and their own fingers for Earthly which in truth they set by I must therefore thus conclude with my self touching those matters Seeing God hath promised all good things to them that love him If this or that bodily good thing good in it self be indeed for my good I shall receave it from him in due time And if I receave it not it is a reall testimonie from him that indeed it is not good for me how much soever I desire it As Gods goodnesse shines most clearly in his promises so mans perversnesse abuseth and misapplieth them above all other parts of his Word A great many divide Gods promises from the other parts of his revealed
due in Religion we hust have him both for the Object and Appointer of our worship The Apostate Israelites of old and Antichristians since are said to have worshiped Divels not for that they did at least ordinarily direct their worship unto Divels but for that at least more commonly they followed their suggestions in the devised manner of worshiping though even the true God As in directing our worship unto him alone we honour and acknowledg his Majestie and Fatherhood as being our Father in heaven so in receaving it from him as the onely Institutor we honour and acknowledg both his love in providing and his wisdom in contriving and his authoritie in commanding the manner of his service and means of our salvation thereby This Religion is the means of Gods worship and withall of mans happinesse which two main ends God in great wisdom and mercie hath joyned togither inseperably that the desire of the latter might provoke to conscience of the former and the exercise of the former effectually promote and further the obtaining of the latter And this being the onely way to happinesse ought to be common to all men rude and skilfull base and honourable high and low And so all Chistians are one in Christ and Christ one in and unto them For though the terrene and worldly state of the persons who are Christians be verie different yet is their Spirituall estate of Christianitie all one There is one Lord Christ through whom and one Faith by which they are justified and that equally one Spirit by which they are sanctified though in different degrees One calling of God begun and perfited by the same Gospel and Ordinances thereof No mans highnesse of worldly estate can set him above the lowest part of it or them nor anyes mean-nesse keep him down from flying as high a pitch of Christianitie as any other An afflicted outward state stands in need of Religion to sustain it a prosperous to perfit it in eternall happinesse besides the moderating of it in the mean while And seeing our Religion is to God alone and onely the manifestation of it to men we ought to be alike grounded in it and resolved of it and zealous for it whether we enioy the fauour of the times or the contrarie All things requisite for the performance of Religious exercises are not parts of Religion but some are of naturall necessitie others for civill order and comlinesse The former need neither be taught nor commanded being imposed by absolute necessitie which is the strongest Law and most pressing Master that may be The other are such as without which all exercises of Religion would be confused and unorderly and like the Chaos which God made in the beginning void and without form and whose face darknesse covered For these the generall rules of the Word with common sence and discretion are sufficient Notwithstanding though things be not therefore comely and orderly because they are done of custom or commanded by authoritie but are therefore both used and commanded lawfully because they are comely and orderly yet if either custom commend or authoritie command things that are such indeed wise godly and peaceable men should hold themselvs even therefore the more bound unto them Religion is the best thing and the corruption of it the worst neither hath greater mischief and villanie ever been found amongst men Iewes Gentiles or Christians then that which hath marched under the Flag of Religion either intended by the seduced or pretended by Hypocrites The Iews in zeal of God such as it was persecuted Christ himself to the death and Saul in a kind of zeal of the Law was no lesse then a blasphemer persecuter and oppressor Pompey the Roman having erected that arcem omnium turpitudinum would not call it the stage or stews as it was but the Temple of Venus And what shall we think of the Spaniards Romish zeal who by their own Bishops relation in his first instance of Spanish cruelty hanged upon one Gallows thirteen innocent Indian women in honour of Christ and of his twelue Apostles But God is not pleased with good intentions exercised in evill actions much lesse either pleased or deceaved with the vizzards of impietie and inhumanitie But as he will repay unto the wicked according to their evill works of all kinds so will he render double vengeance unto them who under the liverie of Religion seek countenance for impietie and wickednesse A man hath in truth so much Religion as he hath between the Lord and himself in secret and no more what shews soever he makes before men and makes sound proof of his Religion both before God and men so far as he is forward and readie to everie good work especially to the works of mercie towards them that need Pure Religion and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and widows in their affliction and to keep a mans self unspotted from the World There are many civill Hypocrites who if they converse honestly and kindly with men presume of great acceptance from God though they have little care to know his will in his Word and lesse to observe his Precepts and Ordinances of Worship There are also Religious Hypocrites not a few who because of a certain zeal which they have for and in the duties of the first Table repute themselvs highly in Gods favour though they be far from that innocencie towards men specially from that goodnesse and love indeed which the Lord hath inseperably joyned with a truly-Religious disposition Such persons vainly imagine God to be like unto the most great men who if their followers be obsequious to them in their persons and zealous for them in the things which more immediately concern their honours and profits do highly esteem of them though their dealings with others specially meaner men be far from honest or good But God is not partiall as men are nor regards that Church and Chamber Religion towards him which is not accompanied in the House and Streets with loving kindnesse and mercie and all goodnesse towards men Such are also stuffed with selflove in their verie service of God and do but flatter him for their own advantage For if they love not and that in truth and deed their brother whom they see how can they love God whom they see not Besides they sacrilegiously divide the two Tables of the Law one from another making the two great Commandments which Christ saith are like one to another to be unlike in effect In these Pharisaism lives and Faith is dead who as they shame Christianitie and Christ in it what in them lyes so shall their recompence from him be answerable at that day when everie man shall receav honour or shame according to the works specially of mercie and goodnesse that way which he hath done or not done in the flesh The common saying As good never a whit as never the better
purpose as the most do to cover preceeding evils which they are more ashamed to confesse then to practise helps therein the Divell in his own businesse But whosoever loves and makes a ly hath no right to the tree of life nor shall enter the gates into the holy City but shall remayn without with dogs and sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murderers and Idolaters we see with whom the Lord ranks lyers what reckning soever the world makes of them or they of themselvs He that tels one ly is not onely the more prone to tell another and so a third which is common to all evill doers but for the most part necessitated so to do for the covering of the former as beggars cover one patch with another and that a lesser with a greater and often a simple ly with a false oath as was Peters case Besides he that is once taken in a manifest ly will hardly escape suspition when he speaks the truth that I may not say with one that he deservs not to be trusted no not in that wherein he desires you would not trust him Neyther doth he wrong himself alone for after time but others also who speak the truth By somes lying others when they speake truely are not credited specially such as have any conformity with them in other things that is oft seen in effect which is said of the Host that being once deceaved by one that held his hat before his eyes when he gave thanks at meat would never trust any afterwards that used that fashion CAP. XIIII Of knowledg and Ignorance THe first lyne of the repayred Image of God in man and that by which he is first united to God is sound knowledg the second is the sincere love of the heart which draw with them in the third place the other affections and senses of soul and body As the waggon is guided by the waggonner and he by his ey so is the body by the soul and it by the ey of understanding and knowledg If the ey be single the whole body wil be full of light To beleev a thing futher then we know it is indeed impossible to love it lightnes to hate it injustice seeing it may deserv the contrary for ought we know He that knows not in his measure what he ought to know specially in the matters of God is but a beast amongst men He that knows what is simply needfull and no more is a man amongst men But he who knows according to the helps vouchsafed him of God what may well be known and so far as to direct himself and others aright is as a God amongst men And to this purpose the Lord tels Moses that he should be to his brother Aaron in stead of God Such bear the lively Image of Gods wisdom The knowledg even of things evill is good and the greater the better so as it be neither experimentall nor with approbation nor have other infectious accessorie joyned with it The Apostle knew Satans devises better then the Corinthians did And God onely wise and good onely knows all the both good and evill of men and Angels And so pleasing a thing is knowledg to reasonable Creatures not unmeasureably degenerated as the light is pleasant to him that hath eyes to behold it that not onely they who strive to attain unto it by likely means but even many who hold a course tending to all ignorance and errour do desire it as a naturall good and if not much the thing it self yet the opinion of it hating the imputation of ignorance as a matter vile and reproachfull By how much the more monstrous are many and grown out of kind who make reckning that it concerns not them to get or have any more knowledg then is simply necessarie for the maintaining of a poore barren and half-bruitish life How many specially of the meaner sort to let passe mens secure yea affected ignorance in Divine things would think it half curiositie in themselvs or others of their rank to know the East from the West or what the reason is of the Suns setting and rising again everie day though they see the thing continually before their eyes The punishment of Nabuchednezzar is upon such people who had an Oxes heart in a mans body Of them that seriously desire and carefully use means to obtain knowledg the ends are verie different Some desire to know that they might know which is curtositie Some that they might be known and that is vanitie Some onely to make profit of their knowledg and that is covetousnesse Some on the other side to edifie better themselvs and this is true wisdom And some withall to do good to others which is godly charitie The means to get knowledg specially Divine are First to love it If thou cryest after knowledg and liftest up thy voyce for understanding If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and finde the knowledg of God The second is the knowledg of our ignorance It being an effect of Christs comming that they which see not to wit in the conscience of their own blindnesse might see and that they which see might be made blind To which joyn that of the Phylosopher that many more would attain to knowledg and wisdom if so many did not think that they had alreadie attained to it A third is the fear of God to which he hath made the promise of revelation of his secrets and to teach such the way which they shall chuse who will also set themselvs the most carefully to learn it A fourth is prayer by which this wisdom and knowledg as with a strong hand is fetcht from Heaven A fifth is the reading and meditating upon specially the Divine Scriptures and withall other approved Authours For as the affections are most moved by hearing so the judgment is best informed by reading The last means is the companie and societie of wise and understanding men whereupon it was that the Queen of Sheba pronounced the Servants of Salomon happie which continually stood before him to hear his wisdom They who profit not in knowledg and wisdom by conversing with wise men are unworthy of their companie and worthy to keep or keep with Oxen and Asses Besides the forementioned meanes of getting knowledg there is a mediocritie and mean-nesse of outward estate not a little advantageable to this purpose which if it be too low and depressed keeps down the disposition ingenuous and apt to great things as his Emblem imports who holds a wing in the one hand but hath the other clogged with a great stone On the other side a state great and prosperous usually lifts up men above the love of knowledg and learning making them arrogant in themselvs and fastidious of the labour and industry requisite for the getting of understanding and
that we pray to the intent to inform God but our selvs both what our wants are which we desire supply of and from whom also we expect it nor yet to move God to doe that which before he purposed not as one man is moved by the importunity of another but to move our selvs and make our own hearts beleev the performance of that which God before both purposed and promised for therefore David found in his heart to pray unto God to establish his house because God had revealed unto him that he would build his house And if we look for this honour at our childrens hands that they should ask of us such things as they want and as we purpose to bestow upon them how much more is it agreeable to our duty and Gods right that we by prayer begg at his hands all good things both purposed and promised by him afore hand By this all things are sanctified to our use which are sanctified in themselvs by the word of God by it we have spirituall right to our dayly bread in what aboundance and by what naturall or civill right soever we possesse it before by it we obteyn many good things of all sorts at Gods hands unto which we could atteyn by no art or industry or other help as the favorites of kings get more by begging then any other can do by any other facultie Besides as by conversing with men we do by litle and litle learn their manners and have bred between them and us a certain mutuall affection so by our conversing with God in prayer we learn the manners of heaven and feel encrease both of love in us to God and of God to us Lastly by prayer we obteyn with the good things prayed for the confirmation of our fayth in Gods goodnes towards us whereof he giveth us testimonie in hearing and granting our requests put up unto his majestie And in this respect a good thing receaved by prayer hath a double good in it God is to be invocated not onely with the heart and with the tongue but as one speaks with the hand also as Asa and the men of Iudah prayed to God and fought with their enemies And for us to ask any thing at the hands of the Lord which withall we do not offer our selvs ready instruments to effect and bring to passe is to tempt Gods power and to abuse his goodnes To pray for that which we desire not is to mock with his majestie as Austin confesseth of himself that in his youth he begged of God chastitie and continencie but was affrayd lest he should be heard too soon of him All things live by heat and the life of prayer stands in the heat of earnest and fervent desire And how should we make account that God should hear us if we hear not our selvs or look that God should be mindefull of us if we our selvs mynde not with intention of thought and desire what we ask of him I sayth the Father prayed when I was litle with no litle affection that I might not be beaten in the school But how many grown men pray but with litle if any affection that they may not be beaten in hell Our prayers must be earnest as well for small things as great temporall as eternall but with difference of degrees of earnestnes according to the degrees of goodnes or necessity of the things prayed for But as for fayth our very degree should be the same whatsoever the thing be which we pray for according to Gods will seeing the truth of his promise upon which our fayth resteth is the same in all things small and great and alwayes infallible We ought as wel and as much to beleev a small thing as a great if God have promised it and as he hath promised because his truth and power are as great in performing all things though with different degrees of his love He hath not absolutely promised temporall good things in the particulars and so sometimes denyes them in love to his children as seeing them unfitting for them and sometimes again he grants the desires of his enemies in wrath and indignation as he did of the rebellious Israelites desiring quayls Besides if the Lord should not sometimes grant unto his that ask them the good things of this life even plenteously men would think they belonged not to him If he should grant them to all and alwayes it would be thought that for them and them alone he were to be served and so in serving him men should not be godly but covetous But above all things we must take heed we ask nothing evill of God for that were to transform and turn him what in us lyes into Sathan himself Whosoever sayth one will bring his enterprizes to good effect must begin with prayer to God and end with praysing of him And he that begins not his work in that manner specially being of any difficultie or weight is in danger if it succeed rayther to end in his own prayses then in Gods And if it succeed not he may thank his own prophanenes in passing by God And as we are to pray upon all occasions so specially in the time of trouble as children are alwayes running to their fathers but cheifly when they get hurt or fear danger Then even hypocrites are forced to God and this partly out of a naturall desire of releif and partly by a naturall perswasion of the power and goodnes of the creatour by which he is able and willing to help his distressed creature and so Ionahs maryners in the extremitie of the storm went every one to his God But as God is a sanctuarie to flye unto for his faithfull servants in the time of need whither he leads them by his holy spirit given them so is it not fayth but impudency for hypocrites and such as in their quiet prosperous estate have not hearkned to God speaking to them in his word and works to presse upon him in their affliction for help and succour without true and unfeyned repentance and sorrow as well yea more for sin then punishment accompanying it And though they call upon him he will not answer though they seek him early they shall not finde him And if he that stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poore shall crye himself and not be heard how much more he that stops his ears against the Lord calling and crying unto him in his word The prayers of such are abhominable and sin And how miserable must his state needs be unto whom that becomes sin by which the godly obteyn remedy against sin and all other miseryes A readines to pray earnestly to God for good things the same improved accordingly is a kinde of pawn from heaven to him that hath it that he shall receav the good things prayed for both because all true prayer is by the teachings
ready blessed is he whom his Lord when he cometh findes so doing Young folk may dye shortly but the aged cannot live long The green apple may be pluckt off or shaken down by violence but the ripe will fall of it self It is wisdom therefore to provide for death in youth there being many more that dye in youth or childehood then that survive till old age but madnes it is to neglect preparation when age commeth Though in truth few dye well in age that have not lived well in youth That we may once dye the great death aright and in peace it is requisite that we dye dayly many litle deaths both by outward afflictions inward mortifyings of our worldly and corrupt lusts We should so live as being content to dye when God calls us hence and that upon knowledg of the nature cause and event of death and out of a good conscience towards God and men And not in senseles blockishnes overcomeing death as the most do by forgetting it as if a man overcame his enemy by getting as far from him as he could nor yet by desperate wearisomnes of life for any troubles in it but as being willing yea desyrous to live to serv Gods providence for good upon earth It is ill sayth the wise heathen to wish death but worse to fear it But godly Christians are to doe both in different respects To desire it as it stands with Gods will that they may be free from sin and misery it being best for them to be dissolved and to be with the Lord To fear it as being in it self a fearfull punishment of sin the dissolution of the most excellent creature upon earth and an end of further praysing God in his church and performing particular offices of goodnes and love to men And in truth though grace have this effect with them that desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ that they do not dye onely patiently but even dye with delight and live patiently yet nature causeth that not onely they that know they must dye as all doe but they also which beleev that after death they shall enjoy a more happie state desire the deferring of it so loath to part are the two old acquayntances the body and soul. Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saincts when they dye for or in â—ayth and a good conscience as the gold melting and dissolving in the furnace is as much esteemed by the gold-smith as any in his shop or purse Pretious also it is whilst they live and that which God will not lightly suffer to befall them And if he put their tears in his bottle he will not neglect their blood nor easily suffer it to be shed Neyther doth death when it comes part him and them though it part man and man yea man and wife yea man in himself his soul and body Freinds shew themselvs faythfull in sticking to their freinds in sicknes and all other afflictions but they how affectionate soever must leav them in death and are glad to remove them and to haue their dead buried out of their sight But the fruit of Gods love reacheth unâ—o death it self in which he doth his beloved ones the greatest good when freinds can do no more for them He that sayd Before death and the funerall no man is happy spake the truth as he meant of the happines which can be found in worldly things But both he and they who have so admyred his saying should have considered that he who is not happie before death in worldly things cannot be happy in them by it which deprives him of them all and of life it self which is better then they and for which they are But miserable indeed is the happines whereof a man hath neyther beginning nor certainâ—ie but by ceasing to be a man The godly are truly happy both in life and death the wicked in neyther We are not to mourn for the death of our christian freinds as they which are without hope eyther in regard of them or of our selvs Not of them because such as are asleep with Iesus God will bring with him to a more glorious life in which we in our time and theirs shall ever remayn with the Lord and them Not of our selvs as if that because they had left us God had left us also But we should take occasion by their deaths to love this world the lesse out of which they are taken heaven the more whether they are gone before us and where we shall ever enjoy them Amen FINIS THE TABLE Conteyning the Contents of everie Chapter CHap. j. Of mans knowledg of God fol. 1. Ch. ij Of Gods love 4. Chapt. iij. Of Gods promises 9. Chapt. iiij Of the works of God his power wisdom will goodnes c. shineing in them 13. Chapt. v. Of created goodnes 21. Chap. vj. Of Equabâ—litie and perseverance in wel-doing 29. Chap. vij Of religion and differences and disputations thereabout 38. Chap. viij Of the holy Scriptures 53. Chapt. ix Of authoritie and reason 65. Chapt. x. Of fayth Hope and Love Of fayth Reason and Sense 73. Chapt. xj Of Atheisme and Idolatrie 84. Chapt. xij Of Heresy and Schism 87. Chap. xiij Of truth and falshood 90. Cha. xiiij Of knowledg and ignorance 95. Chapt. xv Of simplicitie and craftines 101. Chap. xvj Of wisdom and folly 104. Chap. xvij Of discretion 110. Cha. xviij Of Experience 112. Chap. xix Of examples 114. Chapt. xx Of counsell 119. Chap. xxj Of thoughts 124. Cha. xxij Of speach and silence 127. Cha. xxiij Of books and writings 135. Cha. xxiiij Of good intentions 139. Cha. xxv Of means 141. Cha. xxvj Of labour 143. Ch. xxvij Of callings 147. Ch. xxviij Of the use and abuse of things 152. Cha. xxix Of riches and povertie 155. Chapt. xxx Of sobrietie 162. Chap. xxxj Of liberalitie 166. Chap. xxxij Of health 172. Cha. xxxiij Of afflictions 176. Ch. xxxiiij Of iniuries 184. Chap. xxxv Of patience 190. Cha. xxxvj Of peace 195. Ch. xxxvij Of Societie and friendship 199. Ch. xxxviij Of Credit and good name 209. Cha. xxxix Of contempt and contumelie 214. Chapt. xl Of envie 218. Chapt. xlj Of slander 221. Chap. xlij Of flatterie 225. Chap. xliij Of suspicion 227. Chap. xliiij Of appearances 231. Chapt. xlv Of offences 235. Chap. xlvj Of temptations 238. Chap. xlvij Of conscience 244. Cha. xlviij Of prayer 247. Chap. xlix Of oaths and lots 253. Chapt. l. Of zeale 257. Chapt. lj Of hipocrisy 260. Chapt. lij Of sin and punishment from God 264. Chapt. liij Of rewards and punishments by men 270. Chap. liiij Of affections 273. Chap. lv Of fear 278. Chapt. lvj Of anger 283. Chap. lvij Of humilitie and meeknes 287. Chap. lviij Of Modestie 293. Chapt. lix Of mariage 296. Chapt. lx Of children and their education 304. Chap. lxj Of youth and old age 314. Chap. lxij