this would be more sutable for your Family than Ballads prophane and lascivious filthy Rymes which you should not suffer under your Roof SECT XI THirdly The manner how you should Worship God in your Family is chiefly to be minded for it is not any service that God will accept you may keep up a course of praying in your Family and yet live very unworthy of the great mercy of God in your wonderful preservation Therefore 1. In your Family worship God really and indeed with your heart and mind and all your strength do not seem to pray but pray indeed in your Family For this end consider 1. The God whom you serve in your Families is God indeed he is a real God therefore worship him indeed and in a real manner 2. The sins of your Families are real sins your own sins are real sins and your childrens sins are real sins and have real guilt therefore confess them really and mourn and sorrow for them really 3. The wants of your Family are real wants you do not seem to want outward mercies but except God supply you you will want them indeed 4. The supplies which God doth give you are real supplies God giveth you real health and real food and reâ—l cloathing for your Family therefore be real in your Family Worship 5. You and your Family are real in following of the World you work in good earnest and you buy and sell in good earnest And will you be real in the things of the World that concern your Family and will you not be real in your Family Worship 2. In your Family worship God Livelily not only with a true and sincere heart but with a lively heart take heed of dulness and formality take heed of sleeping at your prayers And here I would advise that Masters of Families would not put off their duties too long in the Morning till half the day be past nor too late in the Evening when the Family will be more disposed and inclined to sleep than to pray 3. In your Family worship God chearfully go not to Family Prayer as a task and burden but as a great favour and priviledge that you and your Children might call upon God 4. In your Family worship God constantly Some will pray on a Sabbath night but it may be not all the Week after Thus if you serve God in your Family it will be a great step to your walking in some measure answerably for so great preservation and then it will be a good discovery that God hath spared you in mercy to do him service in the Education of your Children and not in judgment to the encreasing of your sins only Thus far concerning the Duties of Families whom God hath spared in this time of Pestilence in general Of the several Relations in a Family next SECT XII SEcondly If you will live in some measure answerably to so great a mercy as Preservation from death in a time of great Mortalitie is then fill up the duties of your particular Relation wherein you stand Relative sins are very offensive unto God and a great scandal to Religion The fiâ—st of these Relations in a Family is First Conjugal betwixt Husband and Wife and the great duty incumbent upon them is mutuâ—l love in which many are deficient and many are excessive it being hard for such to let out their affections one to another so much as God commands and no more than God allows and both these extreams will terrisie conscience when such come to dye And this sin is more usually seen when death hath broken this Relation than while God continueth them together the Surviver then seeth he did not love his Wife and the Wife her Husband with that degree of love as that Relation called for or with a greater degree than was pleasing unto God when the love of this Relation did diminish the love they should have to God And how many breaches hath God made in this Relation to punish the sin of both extreams It may be thy love was Immoderate and therefore God hath taken thy Relation from thee Or it may be thy love was deficient and therefore God hath taken thy Relation from thee When thou wâ—st sick and thou thoughtest thou shouldest have died did not thy Conscience then accuse thee for one of these in thy Relation And yet hath God spared thee and thy Wife or thee and thy Husbâ—nd then what conscience did reproach thee for in this particular if thou wouldst answer Gods mercie in sparing of thee let this be reformed There are many this day may be lamenting not so much the loss of this Relation as that they did not walk sutablie in this Relation while they were in it this being the sting of their affliction Oh! methinks such as God hath continued in a Conjugal Relation in this time of great Mortality should look upon themselves now more engaged to perform their mutual duties with more care and conscience than before Such a one hath buried his Wife and such a one hath buried her Husband but God hath preserved you in your Relation you cannot live answerablie for this mercie but in a better discharge of your mutual duties How would you wish you had loved your Relation Wife or Husband if God had taken either away by death so do now when God continueth you both in life Because this conduceth so much to an answerable return for so great a mercie I will a little insist upon it And in the general if you would improve this mercie the direction is that your love and affection be such one to another as is the love betwixt Christ and the Church Eph. 2.25 Husbands love your Wives even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it And this love of the Husband must be requited with the love of the Wife for it is reciprocal Tit. 2.4 Teach the young women to be sober to love their Husbands SECT XIII BUT more particularly I shall speak to three things What manner of love is this Why they should have this Wherein they should manifest this love one to another If you will improve this mercie God hath vouchsafed you your love must have these properties 1. It must be a Superlative love that is in respect of all sublunarie things though your love to God and Christ must be more than your love one to another else it doth sinfully exceed for if any loveth Father or Mother Husband or Wife more than Christ he is not worthie of him yet in respect of all other persons and things in this world it must be more else it is sinfully deficient A man must love his Wife above all other persons above his Estate or whatsoever is dear unto him in this world and so the Wife Thus Christ loveth his Church and a believing soul above all other persons and the Church reciprocallie loves Christ above all other things in the world 2.
no better be you better and you will have the lesser trouble within though the better you are the more trouble you might have from men but that 's not so great matter 14. The better you are the more glory you will bring to God Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit Joh. 15.8 And what is your design in the world but to glorifie God and to do that and be that which tendeth most thereunto 15. The better you are the more you will credit Religion and realize the wayes of God it will appear that Religion is a real thing when it hath made bad men good and good men better If there were nothing else to disgrace the ways of sin this would be abundantly sufficient to behold the great wickedness of those men how bad they be that walk most therein 16. The better you are while you live the more undaunted you shall be when you come to dye The reason why we are so troubled in our sickness is because we were no better in our health conscience then remembers at such a time I sinned and at such a place I fell and in such company I defiled my soul be better in Health you will be the better in sickness and death 17. The better you are upon earth the weightier your crown shall be in heaven Those that be truly good shall have sure glory but those that are better shall have more There shall be no want of any thing to any one in heaven but yet some shall shine more eminently in glory than others Thus I have dispatched this particular also that you be better after such a signal providence as this for if you be not this very thing will be a greater Plague than the Plague upon the body and if you ask me wherein you should be better you must gather up that in the following Directions which shall be more particular and such as may be useful to prevent men from growing worse which was the first thing and helpful to promote this duty of being better which was the second thing I have spoken to DIRECTION II. HAth God spared you in time of Plague that you live in some measure answerably to so great a mercy carefully endeavour to live up to the purposes and resolutions and vows which you made to God in time of danger and distress Good purposes and holy resolutions when observed and put in practice are great helps to an answerable return to God for his mercies conferred upon us but holy Religious vows being something more than single purposes and resolutions being a promise made to God with due deliberation of something lawful in it self and in our power to perform as a testimony of our thankefulness unto God for some extraordinary mercy received or expected or deliverance from some great evil in extraordinary danger and distress do much promote a holy life whereby we may the better be inabled to walk in some measure worthy of what the Lord in mercy hath done for us or given to us In time of extraordinary danger or when we are in expectation of some extraordinary Mercy we have the example of the holy men of God in Scripture to binde our selves to endeavour to walk more close with God So Jacob Gen. 28.20 And Jacob vowed a vow saying if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on Vers 21. So that I come again to my fathers house in peace then shall the Lord be my God And this he was careful to perform Gen. 35.2 Then Jacob said unto his houshold and to all that were with him put away the strange gods and be clean and change your garments Vers 3. And let us arise and go up to Bethel and I will make there an altar unto God who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went Thus David made a vow to God when he was in danger of his life Psal 56.12 Thy vows are upon me O God I will render praises unto thee Vers 13. For thou hast delivered my soul from death And in the like danger Psal 116.3 The sorrows of death compassed me and the pains of hell gate hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow Vers 4. Then called I upon the name of the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul Vers 6. The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me Vers 8. Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling Vers 12. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me Vers 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people And hath not this been thy case Christian Reader did not the sorrows of death compass thee about Didst thou not finde trouble and sorrow Wast thou not brought very low and received the sentence of death within thy self Didst thou not then call upon the name of the Lord and resolve thou wouldst walk before the Lord if he would restore thee and hath not God delivered thy soul from death and thy feet from falling Then pay thy vows to God and perform to him thy promise and live up unto thy resolutions Tell me what were thy purposes when thou heardest the Plague had entered into thy Neighbours house when it came unto the family nearest unto thine What were thy resolutions when the Plague did enter into thy house and took one away and then another What were thy holy deliberate lawful vows when it seized upon thy body When thou betookest thy self unto thy bed to sweat out thy distemper When thou foundest Risings on thy Body Swellings and Carbuncles in several parts when the apprehensions of death did fill thy minde and the terrors of the Lord did fill thy heart when thou thoughtest thou hadst not many days to live and that thou wert near to death and another world and shouldest certainly dye if God did not preserve thee What didst thou think then And what didst thou purpose then and resolve upon then Didst thou not determine with thy self if God would spare thy life if God would give thee health again and try thee a little longer in the world that thou wouldest walk more holily and act for God more zealously That thou wouldest pray more frequently and more fervently That thou would minde the world less and heaven more That thou wouldest make Religion thy business as long as thou shouldest live Didst thou not resolve that God and Christ and things above should have more of thy heart and hearty love That thou wouldest then forsake loose and carnal company and associate thy self with those in whom thou couldst discern most of God and walked most conscientiously before him That thou wouldest no more take a cup too much nor club in the Ale-house and Tavern to the neglect of duties of thy family
duty Am I my brothers keeper 5 He despaireth of mercy vers 13. My punishment is greater than I can bear or My sin is greater than that it may be forgiven 6 He flyes from God vers 16. 7 He takes up with the pleasures and profits of the world without God vers 17. So Cain increased in wickedness So did Ahab 1 King 21. 1. He seeth Naboths Vineyard 2 He doth covet it and unlawfully desire that which was another mans vers 2. and would have bought that which Naboth had not a power to sell because it was the Inheritance of his Fathers vers 3. and Numb 36.7 3 He was discontent at Naboths answer though he gave him the Word of God as the reason of his denyal ver 4. 4 He doth unfaithfully report the words of Naboth as is usual with wicked men to doe vers 6. He leaves out the reason of Naboths denyal Because it was the Inheritance of his Fathers 5 He was guilty of Naboths death suffering Jezebel to use his Seal to effect it vers 8. And Elijah the Prophet chargeth Ahab with his death as being guilty of his blood vers 19. 6 He takes possession of that which was none of his own and which he got with the shedding of innocent blood contrary to the command of God Ezek. 46.18 The like steps you might perceive in Jezebels sin and if you trace her you will find her step by step to come up to an height of sin 1. She approves of Ahabs unlawfull desire vers 7. 2 She resolves to get by violence what Ahab did sinfully desire vers 7 8. 3 She makes her husband guilty of blood by gaining his consent to that which he would not act with his own hand vers 8 19 compared 4 She draweth other men and makes them partakers of her sin the Elders and Nobles vers 8 9. 5 She causeth two wicked men to take a false Oath against Naboth 6 She suggesteth the Charge that should be brought against him which was high and false ver 10. Let them swear that Naboth did blaspheme God and the King when indeed Naboth did neither 7 She prophanes Gods Ordinance she proclaimed a Fast she coloureth her wickedness with Religious pretenses 8 She obtains the murder of Naboth vers 13. They stoned by Jezebels counsel an innocent man to death This was the growth and gradation of Jezebels wickedness till it became monstrous great So Judas encreased in wickedness and grew worse and worse 1 He was an hypocrite 2 A Theife Joh. 12.4 5 6. 3 A traitour to his Lord. 4 He despaired of mercy 5 He murdered himself The groweth of sin is intimated in that expression of the holy-Ghost Gen. 15.16 The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full It was increasing but their measure was not full sin would increase In infinitum but there is a measure that a swearer or a drunkard and all wicked men shall fill up and then God will call them to an account Mat. 23.32 Fill ye up then the measure of your Fathers Thus from the word of God I have shewn that wicked men do grow in sin and wax oftentimes worse and worse SECT III. Secondly ARguments drawn from Reason do evidence this that wicked men are apt to grow in sin I will take up with three only least I be too large in this Direction And they are taken First A natura peccati From the Nature of sin Secondly Ab impulsu Diaboli From the Instigation of the Divell Thirdly Ab absentia contrarii From the absence of that which should keep them from sinning more and more Removetur prohibens I. This appears from the Nature of sin that is predominant in ungodly men that swayes and Byasseth them in all their actions and ruleth in them and exerciseth authority over them 1. One sin doth incline and dispose the heart to sin again The first sin inclined all men to commit more where grace is predominant the heart is inclined to love God and to obey God the generall scope of such a mans life and the bent and inclination of his heart is towards God and duty to grow in grace and become better and better Now Contrariorum contraria est ratio natura Sin doth dispose the heart to sin and to depart from God more and more Heb. 3.12 It makes the bent of the heart to Backslide further and further from God Hos 11.7 It makes the heart set to do evill Eccles 8.11 The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil As is the tide to the boate so is sin to mans heart 2. Sin is of a multiplying nature as sin committed inclineth the heart to the iteration of the same sin so one sin begets another of another kind as drunkenness and gluttony begets lust and malice revenge as one circle in the water multiplies to twenty out of one root of a tree grow many armes out of one arme many branches out of every branch many twigs From the same fountain proceed many streames from the same body of the Sun many Beames So from one sin are many multiplied So Adams first sin hath multiplied Innumerably 3. In wicked men there is a complication and a connexion of sins Sins thus multiplied are linked one to another and are twisted together as there is a chaine of graces in a godly man that if you draw one link you move the whole chaine when you exercise Faith upon a promise suppose of eternall Life this sets all his graces on exercise as one wheele in a Watch moveth all the rest Faith applying this promise stirreth up love to God that made the promise and hath prepared the thing promised it inflames holy desires after it desires put on to diligent indeavours to obtain it it begets a lively hope which earnestly yet patiently waiteth for the possession of it So there is a concatenation of sin therefore sin is compared to a body in which all the members by sinewes and ligaments are knit together that though all the members do not grow to an equall quantity but some are bigger some lesse yet all do proportionably grow so though all sins in a wicked man are not of the same magnitude but in some drunkenness is greatest in some pride in some covetousness yet all sin is growing in them and therefore must necessarily be worse and worse as unbelief makes a sinner fearless of Gods threatnings and fearlesness makes him secure and security hardneth his heart and when his heart is hard and his Conscience seared he will be very bad 4. Sin is of an infectious nature an infectious disease doth not only spread unto others as one man sick of the Plague may infect a whole Parish but getteth nearer and nearer to his heart and seizeth upon his very vitals that he waxeth sicker and sicker and at last brings him to his grave So one sin doth not only infect others as one drunkard inticeth another
them still The sins that were offensive unto God at first are amongst us still the sins continue the Judgement removed Oh stand and wonder at this that when Justice hath cut down so many that Mercy yet hath spared so many especially if you seriously consider Gods holiness and purity Gods justice and severity Gods infinite hatred unto sin and that it is not the death of thousands that can satisfie Gods Justice nor the death of those that are gone down into the grave that have pacified Gods wrath for us that do yet remain alive What may be the Reasons 1. God hath done this for his own Names sake If you goe to the Church-yards and Burial places in and about the City and see the heaps of dead bodyes and ask Why hath God done this We must answer We all have sinned If you goe into your houses and dwelling places and finde so many living after so great a Mortality and ask why hath God done this We must answer It is for his own Name sake The Plague was inflicted because we had displeased him but it is removed because Mercy hath pleased him We had deserved the inflicting of it but could not merit the removing of it In this late Providence Justice and Mercy have been wonderfully magnified Justice in removing so many thousands and laying them in their graves Mercy in sparing so many thousands and maintaining them in life that have been so long walking in the Valley of the shadow of death This is because God in the midst of Judgement hath remembred Mercy Ezek. 36.21 But I had pity for mine holy Name ver 22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel thus saith the Lord God I doe not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy Name sake So when God gives good things as well as when he removeth evil it is for his Name sake God hath taken away your sickness and plague-sores and given you health Vers 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loathe your selves in your own sight for your Iniquities and for your Abominations V. 32. Not for your sakes doe I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded for your own wayes O house of Israel Oh if you have been spared for his Names sake then let all the praise of your life be unto his holy Name But then you must not be worse but better than you were 2. God hath removed his Judgement in answer to the Prayers of his people Prayer hath been an ancient Antidote against the Plague and many have been preserved from the grave as a return to prayer and so it hath of old been prevalent for the removing of the Plague And therefore Magistrates commanding the people to fast and pray proceeded in Solomons course to have it removed 1 King 8.37 If there be in the Land Famine if there be Pestilence whatsoever Plague whatsoever sickness there be What must they do then Vers 38. What prayer and supplication prayer you see is a Panpharmacum a remedy for every disease soever be made by any man or by all thy people Israel which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and spread forth his hands towards this house Vers 39. Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive Prayer is the remedy prescribed by Solomon But what are the persons whose prayers shall prevail for the removing of so sore a judgement Not those that have Plague-wishes so often in their mouthes but the prayer of any man that knoweth i. e. seeth and is sensible of the Plague of his own heart 3. God may remove judgements for the benefit of his Elect that yet may be unconverted and in mercy to them who may be yet in their sins God may stay this Plague it might be for some yet unborn that may proceed from the Loyns of some that are now worse than they were before The patience and long-suffering of God is conducible to the conversion and salvation of Gods Elect 2 Pet. 3.15 And doth lead men to repentance Rom. 2.4 Many peradventure have not yet repented whom God will bring to glory and he that hath designed them to the end will preserve them in life till the means have been effectual to fit them for that end 4. God may spare some that are worse by removing judgements because as yet they are not ripe enough for slaughter The Oxe is spared longer time because not yet fit for the Shambles Thus God spared Jerusalem till they had filled up the measure of their sins Mat. 23.32 And so God exercised patience towards the Amorites till their iniquity was full Gen 15.16 God may remove and keep off judgement from some and this may be in judgement to them as he may in mercy deny some mercies unto some SECT XII What are the aggravations of this great impiety to be worse after Gods sorest judgements than they were before THat many wicked men are so we have shewed before and given the proof and reasons of it But wo to you whose case this is Is this the return you make to God Is this the fruit of his patience and forbearance to you Do you thus requite the Lord Oh foolish people and unwise Deut. 32.6 Will you seriously consider this evil frame of heart and this ungodly practise in your lives in these following particulars I. Are you worse then you were before then you are more like unto the Devil than you were before and the more unlike to God that made you A man full of all sin and bent to every wickedness is called a childe of the Devil Act. 13.10 The Devil sins as much as he can and thou dost as wickedly as thou canst Jer. 3.5 It is a folly in men to picture things immaterial and invisible and living by things without life material and visible never send a man to view the picture of the Devil with a cloven foot drawn by Art the most exact and accurate lively picture of the Devil as a Devil that is as a sinner is the worst of wicked men and who are worse than thou that neither mercy can draw nor judgement drive to God and Christ II. The worse you grow and the further you proceed in sin the more impudent you will be in the commission of it The beginnings of sin are often done with blushings of face but the progress in sin is voide of all modesty then you will be drunk and glory in it then you will swear and not be ashamed of it Jer. 6.15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush Pro. 7.13 III. The further thou proceedest in making progress in thy sin the more it is to be feared thou wilt never return but if thou shouldest the more thou hast to sorrow for It is but very rare that God bringeth
those back that are come up to an height of sin sometimes he doth that none might despair but very rarely that none might presume It is to be feared thou art forsaken of God and he hath left thee to thy self when word nor rod can reclaim thee from thy sin nor put a restraint upon thee from waxing worse IV. The worse thou art after such a judgement The sooner God will be provoked to hast on thy destruction by some other God hath not spent all his arrows in the late judgement he hath his Quiver full still and if thou go on when God giveth thee yet a space to repent after so great a warning by the Plague he will ere long cast thee into a bed of trouble Rev. 2.21 22. Thy increased wickedness is to Gods wrath as the blast to the fire will quickly blow it up into a flame though thy conscience is asleep yet thy damnation slumbereth not 2 Pet. 2.1.3 while thou lingerest in thy sin Gods judgements do not linger but are upon the wing and the worse thou art the sooner will they befall thee and be more heavy when they come Jer. 48.16 The calamity of Moab is near to come and his affliction hasteth fast V. The worse thou growest the more thou heapest up treasures of wrath and every sin is adding to the pile of that fire by which thou must eternally be burned temporal judgements might quickly befall thee but if they do not eternal damnation shall overtake thee and the higher thou goest in wickedness the lower thou shalt sink and lye in hell God will proportion thy degrees of torments to thy growth and progress in sin Now thou hast a treasure of sin Mat. 12.35 And God hath his treasures of wrath Deut. 32.34 And as thou layest in sin to the treasury of sin so God layeth in wrath to the treasury of wrath Rom. 2.5 Thy present preservation is but a reservation to greater indignation then is discovered in a Plague Tarditatem supplicii gravitate compensabit deus He will recompence the delay of thy misery and punishment with the weight and load of it Job 36.13 VI. To be worse and more wicked after so great a judgement will be to slight and set at nought the justice of God when you have seen with your eyes the dreadful heaps of dead Corpse that it hath made in every Church-yard Have you not seen that God is displeased with sin and will you go on to do worse as if you would bid defiance to God even when he is angry and displeased Have you not seen that there is wrath in God and that justice will call sinners to his barre by dragging them out of this world And will you after all this go on to sin against a just God and as it were say let justice do its pleasure I will have mine this doth aggravate your sin VII To be worse after such a judgement will be to sin against the Patience and the mercy of God that hath spared thee and waiteth to see what thou wilt do after such a visitation The mercy of God is the attribute thou intendest to appeal to it is that which thou hopest in but by this thy wickedness thou wilt turn mercy it self against thee that which thou wilt make thy request unto must be the mercy of God but this will plead against thee and patience will plead against thee Lord will Mercy say when thousands dyed weekly in London I had pity upon this sinner and did spare him when the Angel went through the Streets and Lanes in London I Mercy marked out this man for longer life but he abused me and sinned the more And I shall Patience say waited some moneths or years after the Plague to see if the mercy shewed him would any thing work upon him but I was abused too as well as Mercy The longer I Patience did lengthen out his life the more he added to his sins and therefore now we both Patience and Mercy deliver him up into the hands of Justice to deal with him according to his sins and according to the wrong he hath offered unto us Oh how will thy mouth be stopped when Mercy and Patience shall plead against thee sins against Mercy and protracted Patience are aggravated sins and the pleadings of Mercy and Patience against a man will be the most piercing cutting pleadings VIII The worse thou art the more thou wilt have to answer for and the greater accounts thou wilt have to make when ever thou shalt dye The more thou sinnest the more sins shalt thou finde in the book of Gods remembrance and in the book of thine own Conscience when thou shalt be brought before the Barr of God So many sins committed before the Plague begun and so many while the Plague continued and so many when it was stayed and this sinner spared When it shall be set down in the book of God such a sinner was drunk so many times while the Plague was round about his habitation so many Oaths he swore when he saw multitudes buryed every day so long the Plague was in the Parish where he dwelt and in the house in which he lived and he never made one hearty prayer unto God all that time And such notorious sins in and after a time of a sweeping Plague will multiply thy account and aggravate thy misery IX To be worse after such Judgements will be to adde Incorrigibleness to thy former wickedness As before thou didst shew that thou hadst an unteachable heart so now thou declarest thou hast an incorrigible heart Thou wouldest not be instructed by Gods Word neither wilt thou be corrected by Gods Rod thou didst stop thine ears against Gods Word and thou hardenest thy heart against his Rod. But if thou wilt not be corrected by a Plague thou shalt be tormented in the Infernal Pit X. To be worse after such a Judgement will be high Ingratitude Thy life was the dearest thing thou hast in the world except the sin in thy heart for skin for skin and all that he hath he will give for his life except his sin and he will venture his life and lose it too before he will part with his sin and hath God kept thee and is this thy thanks to God to dishonour him more and to provoke him more As if he had spared thee for no other end but to sin against him Oh what is Ingratitude if this be not Oh now for Gods sake and for thy precious souls sake that as thy body hath hitherto escaped the grave so thy soul may if possible escape the damnation of hell Be entreated Sinner to consider the evil of thy present practice after such a narrow escape of death and the grave Oh wilt thou that art but briars and thorns set thy self against God that is a consuming fire Dost thou sleight the wrath of the Almighty or despise his power or contemn his Judgements Dost thou think that thou canst grapple with
Omnipotency and make thy party good against Almighty strength Didst thou ever read of any one that hardened himself against God and prospered and dost thou think that thou shalt be the first who art thou or what is thy strength or what were thy Ancestours that thou dost thus in pride and stubbornness of thy heart dare the great eternal God who can look thee into hell and frown thee in a moment into another world Sure if thou hadst the knowledge of God of thy self of sin of the guilt of sin of Hell and the torments thereof thou wouldest not thus proceed to adde these new sins to thy former old sins but wouldest fall down upon thy knees and cover thy face in the very dust before the Lord in deep humiliation for thy sins and wouldest own it as a Mercy so great that cannot be express'd that the Plague hath been so vehemently raging round about thy habitation and it may be hath been upon thy body and thou yet alive and thy body not rotting in a cold grave nor thy soul roaring in a hot Hell think on this this is Mercy and wilt thou so abuse it SECT XIII What are the signs of a man that waxeth worse and worse under all the Means that God useth to make him better MY purpose is not here to speak of the declinings of Grace in the hearts of Gods people which never is so much because not total to denominate them absolutely bad though they make them worse because on the losing hand being compared with themselves when better in the lively actings and daily increase of grace but of the growth of wicked men in sin and Impiety which may be discerned by these symptomes I. The less a man is attending upon God in the use of holy Means the worse he is Thou wast wont to keep up a constancy or at least a frequency in holy duties though thou never didst perform them in a right manner nor from a right principle nor for a right end yet time was that thou couldest not omit them but thy natural Conscience would reproach thee and molest thy peace and though the performance of those duties in thy manner and way did never prove thee to be good yet the total omission of them now doth prove thee to be worse inasmuch as thou hast shaked off all form of Religion and dost not profess thy self to be at all Religious but hast stifled Natural Conscience and laid aside a sense of a Deity which before did stir thee up to do some Homage unto God Thou didst pray but now thou dost not thou didst hear but now thou dost not it is because thou art worse II. The lesse thou lyest under the common workings of the Spirit of God the worse thou art Though thou hearest and prayest as before yet the Spirit of God doth not strive with thee as before Thou wast wont to finde thy heart something affected and to have some common convictions and relentings for sin and some purposes and resolutions to forsake thy sin and leave thy wicked wayes and company and almost perswaded to come over unto Christ but now thou art no more affected than the seat thou fittest upon and the Pillar thou leanest against thou hast quenched the motions of the Spirit and he in wrath hath departed from thee and leaves thee to the hardness of thy heart and the blindness of thy minde and then thou must needs be waxing worse III. The more thou art found in the Iteration and Repetition of the acts of sin the worse thou art Thou wast wont to swear but seldom but now Oaths are frequent in thy mouth Thou wast wont to be drunk more seldom but now it is thy weekly or thy daily practice Iteration of sin is an aggravation of sin The number of thy sins and the greatness of thy guilt is hereby encreased and thou made worse IV. The more kinds of sins thou dost usually fall into the worse thou art Thou wast wont to swear but not to be drunk but now both Thou wast wont to be drunk but wast not given to uncleanness but now thou art and to uncleanness thou addest scorning at godliness vvhen sometimes thou seemedst to approve it and speak for it and to thy scorning of godliness thou proceedest to the persecution of godliness when before thou didst pretend to favour and to countenance it Thou art increased in thy wickedness V. The fewer self-Reflexions the worse thou art Thou wast use to reflect upon thy wayes and sometimes consider of thy deviations from the Rule of holiness and thy Conscience did check and did reprove thee but now thou goest on and never lookest back so much as to consider wherein thou goest astray and though thou art more wicked and more vile yet thou hast more peace and quietness in thy wayes It is because thy heart is more hard and thy Conscience more seared and thou worse VI. The greater Light thou sinnest against and the more thou goest on against the Dictates of thy Conscience the worse thou art Conscience discovereth to thee the evil of thy wayes the wickedness of thy life Conscience threatneth thee with damnation with the loss of God and Happiness and thundereth against thee and doth disturb thee in thy sin and yet thou goest on against thy knowledge and dost imprison the Truths of God thou art worse VII The more of thy heart and will is in thy sinnings than before the worse thou art now than before The more the will doth give consent and the more the will doth choose wickedness the greater progress thou hast made in thy sinful courses Though a Childe of God doth commit a sin yet because his will and the bent of his heart is against it the lesser is the aggravation of his sin when he can say The thing that I doe I would not I allow it not So when thou art wilful in thy sin thou frequentest wicked company and thou wilt doe it thou prophanest the Lords day and thou wilt do it this maketh thee to be very bad The more of resolution and purpose of heart the more of the choice and consent of the will in sinning the greater is the sinner VIII The lesser force divine Arguments have upon thy heart to keep thee from sin than before thou art so much worser than thou wast before Time was that Arguments taken from the Wrath of God from the Torments of Hell from Judgement to come from the Curses written in the Law of God did awe thy heart and restrain thy hand from the open actings of thy grosser sins these were once the banks that dammed up thy wickednesse but now thou sleightest all these that Hell doth not affright thee and the wrath of God doth not awe thy heart but the Spring and Fountain of sin within is risen higher and overflowes these banks and like water spreads it self and diffuseth it self in the general course of thy life IX The lesser force humane Arguments have upon
thy heart to keep thee from sin than before thou art so much worser than thou wast before Though abstaining from sin upon such accounts doth not prove the truth of grace yet the committing of sin notwithstanding these doth argue growth of sin Now these humane Arguments that did formerly restrain thee were such as these 1. Shame amongst men Thou hadst an Inclination to wicked company but thou wast ashamed to be seen amongst them and therefore didst not associate with them But now thou thinkest it no shame or if thou dost thou hast a face of brass and an heart of stone and blushest not Thou art worse 2. Care of Reputation Thou wast tender of thy Credit and good Name and though thou hadst a love unto some sins that would have disgraced thee amongst men yet now thou wilt blot thy Name and lose thy Credit and sacrifice thy Reputation to satisfie thy Lust 3. Costliness of sin Some sins are very chargeable and call for great expence and thy love to thy Money and natural affection to thy Wife and Children was a barre which did restrain thee from them Thou wouldest not feed and satisfie thy filthy Lusts because it would be chargeable to thee thou refrainedst from riotous Prodigals because company with them would wast thine Estate But now thou thinkest no cost too great no charge too much that thou mayest have thy fill of sin but tradest and labourest and workest to get something to maintain thy Lust and wilt rather that thy Wife and Children should want bread at home than thou shouldest not have enough to spend upon thy sins abroad Thou art now grown to an exceeding magnitude in sin that thou art monstrous to beholders 4. Health of body Such sins that tend to the impairing of thy health thou wouldest not commit Thou didst refrain not so much because they would damn thy soul as destroy thy body Thou thoughtest excessive drinking would shorten thy life and hasten thy death and bring thee sooner to thy grave that acts of uncleanness would fill thee full of loathsom diseases and leave some mark upon thy body whereby thou wouldest be noted for an unclean adulterer But now thou wilt venture health and life and all that thou mayest more freely sin and the very food thou earest is now not only to nourish thy body but to provoke thee to lust Verily thou art much worse than thou wast 5. Fear of death When the fear of God would not prevail to keep thee from sin yet fear of death somtimes hath done it and according to the strength of the fears of death have been thy restraints from sin but now thou canst think of death and speak of thy death and yet act thy sinne 6. Displeasure of men Thou hast had dependance upon some that hate such sins that thou lovest in thy heart but because thou wouldest not loose their favour thou hast bridled thy sin but now thou layest the reignes loose upon the neck of thy lusts and wilt proceed to obey them let who will be displeased thereby When thou wilt displease thy best friend and them upon whom thou dost depend for lively-hood and maintenance that thou mayst please thy lust it is a sign that sin is very high in thy heart any one of these formerly were a sufficient bolt to keep thee from grosser sins but now all put together are too weak a signe that sin is so much the stronger X. The more thou hast had experience of the dreadfull effects of sin and the more God hath punished thee for thy sin and yet wilt proceed the greater sinner thou art God hath punished thee with poverty as the fruite of thy sin with diseases in thy body with horrours in thy conscience with the death of thy relations when thou hast tasted the bitterness of sin to set against the pleasures of sin when God hath put worm-wood and gall into thy sin yet thou art bent upon it thou art very bad XI The more thou justifiest and defendest thy self after the commission of sin than formerly so much the worser thou art than formerly When thou wast reproved thou wast use to acknowledge thy sin and to confess thy wickedness but now thou dost plead for thy lust and pleadest for thy evil wayes and takest the quarrell of sin upon thy self it is a signe thy heart is more wedded to thy lusts by how much the more thou espousest its cause XII When thou art more presumptuous in thy sinnings and addest more contempt of God and pride and contumacy than formerly the worse thou art Sins of presumption are scarlet sins of a crimson dye when a man sinneth against God and blesseth himself in his wickedness and presumeth of Gods mercy and presumeth upon the patience of God a man that sins presumptuously makes a bold adventure against express threatnings of the Law of God and is mingled with great contempt of God it is no less than reproaching and despising of God himself Num. 15.30 But the soul that doth ought presumptuously reproacheth the Lord and that soul shall be cut off from among his people vers 31. Because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment that soul shall be utterly cut off his iniquity shall be upon him XIII The more mercies thou sinnest against than formerly the worser thou art than before God hath given thee more mercies and multiplyed many good things upon thee and yet thou committest more sins than when thou hadst fewer mercies to make Gods mercy to be fewel for thy lusts is an aggravation of sinning for as much as it is contrary to the end of mercy which is to draw men off from sin every mercy thou receivest hath a voice and its language is repent of sin return to God Rom. 2.4 God loadeth thee with mercy and the more thou pressest him down with thy sin the more good and the more mercifull God is to thee the more vile and rebellious thou art against God this is to be highly wicked XIV The more thou drawest others into sin by thy entisements or example than before so much the worse thou art When thou art not content to sin alone not to dishonour God thy self but drawest and incouragest others to do so also and so damnest thy own soul and others too and makest thy self guilty of the bloud of those thou allurest with thee into sin The more sins thou committest thy self the worse thou art and the more persons thou dost influence by thy sin to partake with thee the worse thou art Thus if thou wilt compare thy self what thou art now with what thou hast been formerly thou mightest discern how much more thou sinnest now than thou didst before SECT XIV What considerations may be usefull to stop the streame of such mens wickedness that yet are waxing worse and worse BEcause I am loath to leave thee with a bare conviction that thou art worse than thou wast wont to be I shall add a
art thou that thus dost sin or what is God against whom thou sinnest dost thou know thy self and thine own weakness And dost thou know God and his Almighty power art thou any better than chaffe before the winde of Gods wrath art thou any better than stubble before a consuming Fire canst thou make thy party good against God Then why dost thou take thy bed when he layeth his finger light upon thee or why dost thou complain and art so restless under the pain of the tooth-ache why dost thou roar so much under the pain in thy bowels and why dost thou groan when he makes thee sick why art thou sick and why wilt thou dye if thou canst contend with God But if thou canst not poor Worm thou canst not why then wilt thou proceed and increase thy wickedness more and more to provoke him more and more Fifthly How canst thou call thy self a Christian while thou daily increasest in thy sin against God and Christ Christians have their denomination from Christ because they follow his steps and own him for their Lord and Master Christ was holy and so is every true Christian Christ hated sin and so doth every true Christian Christ did the will of his Father and thou art doing the will of the Flesh and of the Devil That which consisteth of a head of one kinde and members of another is monstrous If any creature had the head of a man and the members were the members of a beast it would be monstrous Christ is an holy head and all his members united unto him are holy members therefore thou art none of them Take it as thou wilt thou art not a Christian that should not be thy Appellation thou art more rightly called a sinner a Childe of the Devil Sixthly How canst thou goe unto thy Prayers and yet go on in thy sin and come to the Word preached and hear drunkenness reproved and go away and be drunk How canst thou sit in thy Pew and hear the Minister from God tell thee the drunkard shall be damned and all thy Neighbours know thee for a drunkard and yet hold up thy head Where is thy shame art thou become impudent where is thy fear of God and his Word art thou utterly hardened where is thy Conscience is it quite seared Seventhly Dost thou think that God will never call thee to an account Dost thou think that time will alwayes last dost thou think thy soul shall live for ever and yet do that which will bring thee to an eternity of misery and expose thy self for a little momentany pleasure unto eternal torments Thus I have set before thee these Considerations whereby thou mayst be brought to bethink thy self and at last enquire What would you have me to doe I answer thee 1. Make a stand and pause a little with thy self whether it be not so with thee or no and labour to convince thy self of the hainousness of thy sins in making such an increase and growth in sin 2. When thou art convinced thus urge it upon thy heart till thou feelest it begin to melt and to be dissolved in thy breast Use thy Reason for thy souls good after this manner Oh God hath been good to me and I have been wicked against God God was alwayes good to me and I have been alwayes evil against God God multiplyed his mercy upon me and I multiplyed my sins against God if he had not given me bread to eat I had dyed with hunger and if he had not given me drink I had perished with thirst but what he gave me for my nourishment I have abused to gluttony and drunkenness I have fought against God with his own mercy and made his goodness an encouragement to me in my wickedness He lengthened out his mercy and I did lengthen out mine iniquity Oh what rich grace and patience is this that I am not in Hell Oh this was long-suffering indeed to bear so long with such a Swearer and Drunkard as I have been and when the dreadfull Plague hath taken away my Companions in sin yet I am left behinde Oh that it may be that I may repent and turn to God! Woe is me I have been damning of my precious soul and have spent my dayes hitherto in dishonouring of a good and patient God 3. Then resolve with thy self that by the grace of God thou wilt forsake and leave those practises and wilt no longer continue in thy wickednesse say Now I see this is not my Way to happiness swearing and lying and drunkenness is not my way to the Kingdom of God The Devil hath deceived me and my Companions have deceived me and my own wicked heart hath beguiled me I will by the grace of God I will do so no more I am resolved I will do so no more And write down thy Resolution that thou mayest have it under thine own hand that such a day thou didst resolve to do so no more 4. Beg of God that thou mayst be deeply humbled for what thou hast already done and labour that thy sorrow may be proportionable to what thy sins have been 5. Make haste to Christ and take him and receive him for thy Lord and Saviour and submit to him upon his Gospel-terms as willing he should rule thee as ever thou wast for sin to rule thee 6. Then endeavour to be as good as thou hast been bad as holy as thou hast been wicked as eminent for piety as thou hast been exemplary for iniquity speak for Holinesse as much as ever thou didst speak against it and love the wayes of God as much as thou wast wont to hate them and by persevering so to doe thou shalt finde great mercy will be shewn to thee who hast been so great a sinner SECT XV. NOw I will draw some Corollaries from this first branch of this Direction and so pass on unto the second Is it the Nature of sin to make men worse and worse and do wicked men usually wax worse and worse Then learn 1. The evil that there is in sin There is a depth in the evil of sin that cannot be fathomed and a length in the evil of sin that cannot be measured that is very bad that makes men so in every condition as grace is very good that turneth every thing for the best to them to whom it is infused 2. Learn that wicked men are never from under a curse Let their condition be what it will prosperity is a curse unto them adversity is a curse and deliverances are in wrath When they do increase in riches they do increase in sin envy not the prosperity of the wicked 3. Learn the bottomless depth of iniquity in a wicked mans heart He was bad twenty years ago he was a grief to all the godly in the Town and Parish where he lived but yet he is many times worse than before 4. Learn what abundance of guilt an old sinner goes with to his grave when he comes to dye
but if thou hadst then dyed thou wouldest without doubt have been eternally damned because thy resolutions were not penitential resolutions as appears by the fruit of them in my returning to thy sin again and that thou didst not indeed love God and his holy ways for if thou hadst thou wouldest nor so soon no never after turned from them in the general course of thy conversation 11. This will encourage the devil to more frequent tempting of thee For if by temptation he can prevail with thee to do that which is contrary to thy resolution what hopes will he have to draw thee into sin against which thou hast made no such particular resolution If he overcome thee where thou art strongest what spoil will he make upon thee where thou art weakest It is a great advantage we give unto the devil when we sin against our resolutions 12. This will be a great provocation unto God when thou dost sin not only against his Precepts but against thy own purpose not only against the obligations he layeth upon thy soul by Mercy and Afflictions but against the Obligations thou layst upon thy self by thy Purposes and Resolutions And in thy Affliction and fears didst thou not apprehend God to be exceedingly provoked but thou must after he hath preserved recovered thee go on to provoke him more 13. If this neglect be found in thee who hast the truth of grace yet it will much hinder thy confidence at the throne of grace and stop the Influences of the Spirit of God and obstruct the illapses of the Spirit from descending upon thy heart When thou keepest thy resolutions and keepest out of the wayes of sin thou canst go to God with an humble holy boldness and pour out thy heart with much enlargedness before God and there is sweet intercourse betwixt God and thee thou feelest thy heart to burn in love to God and thou perceivest God to bear a love to thee and oh how sweet is this unto thy soul But when thou neglectest to watch against sin and to walk with God when thou hadst resolved to do both when thou goest to thy duty thou wilt finde Conscience reproach thee and thy heart straitned and thy mouth stopped and thy confidence abated thy heart much estranged from God and God carrying himself as a stranger unto thee when thou art upon thy knees And this is the bitter fruit of a careless heart after heightned Resolutions 14. If this neglect be found in thee that hast the truth of grace it will much occasion the doubting of the sincerity of thy heart A Childe of God may fail and be remiss in prosecuting of his purposes sometimes but if he be it will make him jealous of his own heart and suspicious that it is not well betwixt God and him and is not that a sore evil and much to be opposed and lamented which doth blot thine Evidences for heaven and will make thee question whether thou hast one dram of grace in truth conferred upon thee infused into thee Thus I have finished this Direction also shewing how you may live in some measure answerable to the great goodness of God in sparing you in time of Plague when so many thousands fell round about you By being carefull to be as good when the Sickness is over as you purposed and resolved to be when you were in expectation of death and waiting for your change and dissolution when the Arrowes of God were flying amongst you in the time of this sore Judgement of the Plague DIRECTION III. HAth God spared you in time of so great Contagion that you live when others are dead or were you sick and are recovered then Endeavour that the Cure may be a thorow Cure that your Soul be healed as well as your body that there be not spiritual Judgements upon your Soul when temporal Plagues are removed from your Body You may observe that such that came to Christ with diseased bodies Christ healed their bodies and their souls too he took away their corporal sickness blindness distempers and the guilt of their sins too Mat. 9.1 2. Many are delivered from a Corporal Plague that yet are infected and in danger of eternal death by the Plague upon their hearts That remain under spiritual Judgements and Soul-sickness when temporal Judgements and corporal sicknesses are cured and removed When St. John wrote to Gaius he desired that it might be as well with him as to his bodily health as it was in respect of his soul and spiritual health 3 Ep. John v. 2. Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayst prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth But it may be matter of our desire concerning those that remain alive and are well after this Visitation that their souls may prosper and be in health even as their body prospereth It is a greater mercy to have an healed soul in a sickly body than to have spiritual sickness remain in an healthful body It is not so great a Judgement to have the body full of Plague-sores as to have the soul full of reigning sins If your body be cured and not your soul the cure is but half done Therefore in speaking to this Direction I shall shew these things 1. Wherein it appears that sin is the sickness of the soul 2. Wherein it appears that sin and spiritual Judgements upon the soul are worse than sickness and temporal Judgements upon the body 3. How we may know whether our souls are healed of spiritual sicknesses 4. What they must do that lye under soul-sickness that they may be healed 5. What such should do that are healed of their soul distempers to improve the Cure to the glory of God SECT I. I. Wherein doth it appear that sin is the souls disease and the sickness thereof In these particulars 1. SIcknesses and diseases do abate and take away the Appetite Sick men have not the Appetite to their food as men in health have So sin takes away the spiritual appetite of the Soul that it doth not hunger after Christ nor thirst after righteousness and hinders its feeding upon Christ and the Word of God which is the spiritual food for the souls nourishment and growth 2. Sickness and diseases do abate the strength and activity of the body So sin doth weaken the soul and all the faculties thereof and doth disable it in all its actings to and for God 3. Sickness and diseases often fill the body full of pain aches and sores making men to cry out Oh my head and oh my heart and oh my bowels I am pained I am pained So sin doth fill the soul full of racking fears and perplexing torments and doubts and sometimes make some sinners cry out I am undone I am undone I am damned I am damned 4. Some diseases do stupifie and make men insensible and those are the worst So sin sometimes makes some sinners stupid and unsensible of their misery and
danger 5. Sickness and diseases do take away mens delight in those things which men in perfect health do take pleasure in Sick men have no delight in the pleasures of the world and in the riches of the world which other men finde So sin takes away that delight in God and spiritual duties and in heavenly things which those whose souls are cured do experience 6. Sickness and diseases do spoyl the beauty of the body They spoil the fairest complexion and make the ruddy cheeks to become pale and many diseases bring deformity in the room of beauty So sin doth spoyl the soul of that spiritual beauty wherewith it was adorned in its first Creation which did consist in likeness unto God so that now instead of the likeness of God there is nothing but blackness and deformity that the soul that was comely and amiable in the sight of God is now become loathsome and abominable SECT II. II. Wherein doth it appear that Soul sickness and spiritual Judgements upon mens hearts are worse thâ—n sickness and temporal Judgments upon mens bodyes THough most men in the World look upon bodily sickness and corporal Judgments to be more dreadful than sin upon their souls yet if we take a right estimate and make a true judgment of both spiritual Judgements are the greater evils In respect of the 1. Cause or manner of conveyance 2. Signs of greater wrath 3. Subject in which they do reside 4. Number being many 5. Effect that they do produce 6. Difficulty of cure 7. Want of sense 1. Spiritual Judgements and soul-sicknesses are greater evils than temporal Judgements and sickness upon the body in respect of the cause or manner of Conveyance which is by natural propagation and so unavoidable Sin is born with us it is derived from Parents to Children from one generation to another There are some diseases that are conveyed from Parents to Children but this is not general nor perpetual to all generations But the propagation of spiritual diseases is universal and general it is constant and perpetual The seed of all sin is derived from Adam to all his Posterity 2. Soul-sicknesses and spiritual Judgements upon mens hearts are Signs of greater wrath than bodily sicknesses are You may be sick of the Plague and yet God may love you you may have bodily afflictions and God may be at peace with you and because he loves you he may afflict you But spiritual Judgements as judicial hardness blindness are signs of Gods anger yea his sorest displeasure yea which is more they are signs of Gods Hatred to such a man that lyeth under them Now that which doth alwayes argue Hatred in God to a sinner is worse than those things that might proceed barely from his Anger and sometimes from his Love God loathes and abhorres that man the plague of whose heart is not at all cured 3. Spiritual Judgements and soul-sicknesses are greater evils than temporal and corporal sicknesses are because they be spiritual and have the heart and soul for their seat and subject As mercies are better that are spiritual and that are soul mercies so Judgments and sicknesses spiritual are the greater evils because they are the disease of the better and more noble part of man that which doth corrupt the soul must be worse than that which doth corrupt the body by how much the soul is more excellent than the body 4. They are worse because they are more numerous there is more diseases in the soul than in the body If the body be diseased in one part it may be well in all the rest if in more yet not in all if in all yet your case is not so bad But there is no sinner but is diseased in every part there are spiritual distempers in all the faculties and powers of the soul in the Understanding Will Affections Conscience Memory Phantasie In the members of the body no part free Nay there are many spiritual diseases in every faculty in the Understanding there are many ignorance errour c. in the Will many stubbornness choosing the Creature and sin before God c. In every affection of the soul there are swarms of sin In the heart there are innumerable distempers evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts blasphemies false witness Maâ— 15.19 Spiritual diseases naturally be all in every man and be in every part of every man 5. They are worse in regard of the Effects The effects of bodily sickness at the utmost and the greatest is but the death of the body it brings the body to the dust and the grave it doth but separate from friends and betwixt the body and the soul But the effects of spiritual soul-sicknesses except they be healed are dreadful and inconceivably great great and dreadful in this world but greater and more dreadful in the world to come they cause Gods anger they deprive the sinner of communion with God they will separate betwixt God and him for ever they will bring the soul to the place of Devils and the torments of the damned 6. They are worse in regard of difficulty of Cure Bodily distempers may be cured by the skill of man in the use of natural means but the sickness of the soul with nothing but the blood of Christ Of which more afterwards 7. They are worse in regard of the want of sense Where one man cryes out of the hardness of his heart and complains of the unbelief and earthliness of his heart there are many cry out of the sickness of their bodyes If their finger doth but ake they are sensible of it but though the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint and exceedingly distempered yet they are not sensible of it Therefore though God hath cured the Plague of thy body and not the Plague of thy heart if thy bodily disease is removed but the sickness of thy soul remain without cure thy case is deplorable And while thou art rejoycing that thou hast escaped the Plague thou hast more cause to goe unto thy Chamber and be deeply humbled and mourn before God for the Plagues and Judgements that remain upon thy Soul SECT III. III. How may a man know whether he be healed of Soul-sickness THe cure of these distempers are but partial yet so far are they healed that they shall not be the death of the soul The cure will not be perfect till we die Death we say cures all distempers and so it doth those of the soul There is a double wound that sin doth make there is the wound that doth certainly destroy the soul by hindring it from salvation and eternal life and there is the wound that destroyes the peace and comfort of the soul So there is a double Cure which Christ doth work the one for the safety and happiness of the Soul the other for the peace and comfort of the Soul The first of these we enquire after 1. Every man that is healed of Soul-sickness hath been
Ver. 19. And ye shall teach them your Children speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up View this Scripture well ye Masters of Families and be ashamed of your neglect of reading the Scripture in your houses you should talk of it at home and abroad morning and night when your Familie should be with you You should read the Scripture to your Family for these Reasons 1. Because the Word of God is the spiritual food of the souls in your Family It is the bread of Life It is milk for the nourishing of their souls 1 Pet. 2.2 It is to be preferred above their necessary food Job 23.12 Now will you give them bread for their bodies and deny them bread for their souls Their souls can no more live without spiritual food than their bodies can without corporal Take heed you deny not bread to your children and servants souls 2. Because the Word of God is the spiritual Armour for the preserving your Family from being robbed by your spiritual Enemies the Devil Sin and the World You will have some weapon in your house to defend your self fâ—om thieves Why the Devil will play the thief in your house and will steal away the souls of your Children and will steal away the souls of your Servants and will you not put so much as a Weapon into their hands to defend themselves Your Children and Servants will be stollen away by the Spirits if you arm them not with the Word of God which is the Sword of the Spirit Eph. 6.17 3. Because the more you read the Word of God to them the better they will be to you and the better perform the duties of their Relation You complain of disobedient Children why do not you read the Scripture to them more to teach them that God requires them to be obedient to you You complain of bad Servants why do not you then read the Word of God to them more that they may know their duty better by reading the Scripture to them Make them but good Christians and then they dare not but be good Children and good Servants 4. Because the Word of God is able to make them wise unto Salvation You would have your Children wise to live in the World you would have them wise to get Riches and a great Estate You would have your Servants wise to do your work and to go about your business And would you not have them wise for their souls Would you not have them wise for heaven and the Life to come If you would then acquaint them with the Word of God 2 Tim. 3.15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus And he is wise indeed that is wise enough to save his soul In repeating what you hear in the publick Congregation in discoursing to your Family what sin was reproved and what duty was inforced and what were the Arguments and Motives thereunto What Christ preached more publickly he repeated to his Disciples which were as his Family more privately Mar. 4.10 and 7.17 Mat. 13.36 37. and the Apostle commanded Wives to ask their Husbands when they came home the things that were delivered in the Congregation 1 Cor. 14.34 35. This would keep your Children and Servants better imployed on the Lords day than to be standing Idle at your doors or walking sinfully in the fields This would make them profit more by the Word preached if you would repeat it to them and use them to give account of what they hear In Catechizing of your Family and teaching them the Principles and Fundamentals of Religion Mans Innocency by Creation Mans misery by the Fall Mans Recovery by Christ and the terms of the Covenant of Grace the meaning of the ten Commandments what sin in them is forbidden what duties are required this is Gods plain Injunction that you should do so Deut. 6.6 7 8 9. and the meaning of the Sacraments Exod. 12.25 26 27. 1. To Teach them while they are young is a good means to make them good when they are old Prov. 32.6 Train up a child in the way he should go when he is young and he will not depart from it when he is old but if you let them alone till they be accustomed to do evil it will be hard to reclaim them Jer. 13.23 Quo semel est Imbuta recens c. 2. This will be an effectual meanâ— to keep them from being seduced and led away with Eâ—â—ours and false Doctrine 3. It will be great cruelty to the souls of your Children and Servants to neglect it Will you carry your self towards your little ones as the Ostrich doth towards her young ones Job 39.14 Which speaking of the Ostrich leaveth her eggs in the earth and warmeth them in the dust Ver. 15. And forgetteth that the foot may crush them or that the wild beast may break them Ver. 16. She is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers 4. It would be to break your Vow which you made when you brought your Children unto Baptism Did you not promise they should forsake the Pomps and Vanities of this World and that you would bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and will you dedicate them to God in Baptism and leave them to the devil all their life after Consider I beseech you it may be God in mercy and pity to your Childrens and Servants souls hath spared you in this late-Late-great Mortality and consider whether your conscience doth not accuse you of great neglect towards some of your Children and Servants which are now lying in their Graves it may be there hath dyed a poor servant out of your house which you never spake to in good earnest about the matters of his soul or doth not your heart wish that he were with you again that you may instruct and teach him and will you do so to those that do remain it may be some of them that have died out of your house are gone to hell through your neglect and will you have no more piâ—y upon those that yet are with you The other now are out of the reach of your Counsells and Instructions but these are not what was wanting in you towards those that are dead and gone make up to those that live and do remain In singing forth Gods praises in Psalms and spiritual Songs this is an Ordinance of God Eph. 6.19 Jam. 5.13 You must sing with grace Col. 3.16 Exercise your grace of joy in God in commemoration of Gods benefits of holy desires of Godly sorrow as the occasion and the matter of the Psalm require this is the sweetest Harmony in the ears of God You must sing with understanding with sense and feeling and to the Lord to his glory as in his presence
Contagion would resolve to live together you would so far as concerns you in this respect live in force measure answerably to so great a mercy else you cannot Hath God spared you to be more unkind one to another To be bitter one against another To grieve one another Or do you think this is the Improvement you should make of this mercy God forbid SECT XVI SEcondly The next Relation I consider in a Family is between Parents and Children whom God hath continued after this great Mortality God hath taken away Parents from others and they are lest Orphans but God hath continued thy Parents Both or one to thee What doth God require from thee in answer to a sutable return for this mercy God hath taken away Children from others and bereaved them of those that were dear to them but God hath continued thine all or some to thee what doth God require at thy hands in answer to a sutable return for so great a mercy It is that Parents and Children should fill up the duties of this relation else you can never walk worthy of this mercy But more particularly First Parents if they would live answerable to his mercy of Children continued to them must be careful First In instructing of them in the things of God and training them up in the waies of God this is the duty of both Parents Pro. 1.8 My son hear the instruction of thy Father and forsake not the Law of thy mother Prov. 31.1 The words of King Lemuel the Pâ—ophesie that his mother taught him This mothers might do when they are dressing of their Children Do not think you do enough if you make provision for your children and get a portion for them Let me tell you that is the leâ—st part of your duty as hard as you think it is but you must give them instructions and that 1. Timelily before they are accustomed to evil they are born in natural hardness and by frequent acts of wickedness they will contract habitual hardness and then if God clap upon their hearts judicial hardness your Children are undone for ever Children before they can goe can run from God and before they can speak plainly can speak wickedly Teach them not to be proud of their fine Clothes teach them not Revenge by giving you a stroak to beat others these be the buddings of Pride and Revenge in little Infants 2. Instruct them frequently They are apt to learn evil but backward to learn any thing that is good There must be Line upon Line Deut. 6. 6 7. You must whet the things you speak unto them that they may pierce their hearts frequently inculcate the same things upon them and instil the knowledg of God into them by little and little 3. Instruct them affectionately Let them perceive when more grown up that they are matters of Weight and Moment that you speak to them about When you speak of Heaven and Hell of God and Sin let them see that your hearts are affected with what you say Secondly In Correcting of them for the evil of Sin He that spares the Rod spoiles the Childe better you correct them here than God damne them hereafter The Rod is as needful for your Children as their Food Prov. 22.15 Folly is bound in the heart of a Childe the Rod of Correction shall drive it far from him Do this 1. Timelily a young Twigg is flexible and easie to be bent break them of wicked Words and Wâ—ies betimes or else they may break your heart when they are bigger Adonijah was Davids Dâ—â—ling an â—he was wanting in correcting of him and he Rebelled before he died and usurped the Kingdom before his Fathers death 1 King 1.5 Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself saying I will be King and he prepared his Horsmen and Chariots and fifty Men to run before him Vers 6. And his Father had not displeased him at any time in saying Why hast thou done so Too much indulgence will make undutiful and disobedient Children 2. Proportionably to their fault Do not Correct a small offence over sharply nor an hainous sin too slightly if you are too severe for a small offence they will hate you if you are too indulgent in a great offence they will despise you This was Elyes sin that he did not correct the hainous sin and reprove the abominable practise of his Sons with greater severity 1 Sam. 2.23 And he said unto them Why do ye such things for I hear of your evil dealings by all this People Vers 24. Nay my Sons for it is no good report that I hear ye make the Lords People to transgress It is no good report that was too good a word for so hainous wicked Works it was an abominable thing that was reported by others and committed by his Sons But see what God saith to Ely Vers 29. Thou honourest thy Sons above me and God severely punished his Children for their vile offence and the Father for his so cold reproof as you may read in the following Verses 3. Compassionately do not Correct your Children in the heate of Passion but with bowels of compasion when the Rod is in your hand let there be tender love in your heart 4. Discreetly Observing the temper and disposition of your Childe which you correct if you Scourge and frown upon one as much as is needful for another you will discourage him if you scourge not another more than this that is more tender spirited you will not break him Correction is like a Medicine in which the Physitian hath respect to the constitution of the Patient Children are like Herbs some if you cut and tread will grow again but if you do as much to other Herbes you kill them 5. Seasonably There is much wisdom in Parents in timeing their Correcting of their Children if you correct them for some faults before others you will discourage them take the fittest season 6. Penitently When you correct your Children judge your self first and repent for your own sin or else you do but beat your self 7. Believingly When you exercise your child with the Rod do you exercise faith upon the Promise Thirdly In Praying much for them many pray for Children before they have them but neglect to pray for them when God hath given them as though their being were a greater blessing than their well-being you must add Prayer to Instruction and Correction for it is not onely your Instruction nor Correction but Gods blessing given in to servent Prayer that will make your Children good When you look upon your little Infants as they are sucking at your breasts or laughing in your faces or playing in your armes oh consider the seed of sin that they have in their hearts that they by Nature are the children of wrath and when you go to pray for them use such considerations that might make your heart to mourn over them and for them When you consider they are enemies to God
can you not mourn for them upon your knees when you consider they are lost children except mercy find them that they are damned children except free grace save them Can you not mourn abundantly and pray servently for them Can you consider they are by Nature without the Image and Likeness of God and not be grieved at the heart that your child is a little Traitor against the King of Heaven a little Rebel against the glorious God and will you not pray that his heart may be changed Could you weep and grieve if your Child were a Monster if it had a body of one kind and an head of another if it had an Arme too much or a Leg too much or little why its misery is more by Nature then all this and yet can you not mourn in your Prayers for him Fourthly In Choosing for them some lawful Calling and putting them forth unto some Religious familie Choose not a Calling that hath more snares and temptations attending it then usually others have and place them in such families where they may learn the way to Heaven as well as the way to be rich in the World If you put them forth to an ungodly family you may loose all your former labour in Instruction Correction and Prayer for will you give your Childe an Antidote and then care not if he run into a Pest-house among persons that have running Plague Sores or would you not judge it presumption in any so to do without a special call but the former is greater and higher and more dangerous presumption than the latter in as much as the death of the Body of your Child is endangered by the one but the damnation of his Soul is endangered by the other Fifthly In careful disposing of them in Marriage That you Match them to godly Persons and if you can into a godly family or to one that hath Religious Relations Take heed of Marrying them to the children of the Devil though their outward advantage be never so much Thus Abraham took care that his son Isaac should not take a Wife of the Daughters of the Canaanites amongst whom he dwelt Gen. 24.3 If you thus take care for your children whom God hath continued to you in this great Mortality you act in this respect in some measure answerably to so great a Mercy SECTION XVII Secondly Children if they would live answerably in their Relation to so great a Mercy as is Gods sparing their Parents and continuing them unto them must be careful of filling up the Duties of their Relation and the Duty of Children is set down in Col. 3.20 Children obey your Parents in all things for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord In which observe 1. The Charge Obedience 2. The Persons charged Children younger elder poor or rich 3. The Persons to whom this obedience is to be given Parents Father Mother whether Poor or Rich. 4. The extent of this obedience In all things 5. The limitting and enforcing Reason for this is well-pleasing to the Lord therefore the all things are to be limitted to things lawful else it would not please the Lord but they must in those things because it pleaseth God Now if you that are Children would walk worthy of Gods Mercy in sparing your Parents to you in this contagious times you must obey them in these Particulars 1. In receiving Instructions from them in hearkning to their wholsome Counsel and Advice Prov. 3.1 My son forget not my Law but let thine heart keep my Commandments Prov. 4.1 2 3 4. and 5.1 2 7. and 6.20 c. and 7.1 2 3. 2. In submitting to their Correction without murmuring and repining 3. In being content with your Diet and Apparel that your Parents provide for you 4. In yeilding them sustenance and Maintenance if they come to Poverty if you be able to supply them they gave you maintenance when you could not provide for your selves do you so for them if they need though you work hard to help them 1 Tim. 5.4 But if any Widow have Children or Nephews let them first learn to shew piety at home and to requite their Parents for that is good and acceptable before God Though Children can never fully requite their Parents for they had their being by them and what if they have help by you in outward things you had your being by them and that is more Take heed of being ashamed of your Parents if they be poor and you are raised to an higher degree in the World than ever they were but to disown them would be impious 5. In submitting to their choise of a Calling for you 6. In disposing of you in Marriage Change not your Condition without their Consent as Isaac Gen. 24. and Sampson Judg. 14.1 2. Nay Ishmael obeyed his Mother in his Marriage Gen. 21.21 and will you be worse than Ishmael 7. In all things though they be cross to your humour though it might not please you yet if it please your Parents you must do it But that I may not lay a snare for Childrens Consciences and put a Staff into ungodly Parents hands to drive their Children to Hell you must take this distinction of things viz. Things are either Simply good and necessary and these must be done though your Parents forbid you as Praying Reading Scripture c. Simply evil and unlawful and these must not be done though your Parents command you as to play or work upon the Lords day to lie and defraud in dealing Neither good nor evil in their own nature though every thing is good or evil considered in all circumstances and in all these you must obey your Parents And the reasons of this obedience to your Parents are such as these 1. Gods command Ephes 6.1 Children obey your Parents in the Lord. V. 2. Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first Commandment with Promise That is the first Command with Promise in the second Table for there is a Promise in the second Command of the First Table of shewing Mercy unto thousands c. 2. This is right or justice Ephes 6.1 Thou hadst thy being and thy education by thy Parents therefore it is justice thou shouldest obey them 3. Christs Example He was obedient to his Parents Luke 2.51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them 4. Gods Judgments upon disobedient Children Absalom Rebelled against his Father and God cut him off in the very act of his Rebellion 5. It is pleasing to God If it were in any thing that would displease God you must not do it for you must please your Heavenly Father rather than your Earthly but if it be pleasing unto God you must not deny it you please God when you please your Parents in things lawful 6. God might punish you with disobedient Children hereafter if you are disobedient to your Parents now Thus Children also will walk so farr answerably to so great a Mercy as
would improve this Mercy that God hath spared you you must live to God and walk in newness of life DIRECTION IX HAth God spared you in time of so great Contagion Then keep upon your heart a constant sense of Gods distinguishing Providence in his preservation of you Let not length of time if God give it you wear off the greatness of this his Mercy towards you if you forget Gods goodness you will not walk worthy of it This was the sin of the People of Israel for whom God did such great things Psal 78.10 They kept not the Covenant of God and refused to walk in his Law Vers 11. And forgot his Works and his Wonders that he had shewed them Psal 106.21 They forgot God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt God hath done great wonders for you in preserving of you in the valley of the shadow of death God hath not given you over unto death God hath not laid you in the Grave where you would soon have been forgotten do not you lay Gods Mercy towards you in the grave of oblivion nor bury his mercy of saving you alive in forgetfulness David laid a charge upon his Soul that he should not forget the benefits of the Lord towards him Psal 103.2 Set down therefore and Record your danger what it was Such a Moneth in such a Year the Plague was nigh my dwelling it came into my house it took away so many of my Children and Servants but God spared me he took away the Wife the Husband of my bosome but God spared me yea it was upon my Body so many Plague-Sores were running at once and God delivered me from the Grave and from the very jawes of death and will you forget this while you live That you may have and keep a sense of Gods mercy to you in preserving of you consider these few particulars 1. Consider you had deserved the Plague and death by the Plague as well as those that have fallen into their Graves thereby and it may be more too do not think that those that have died were greater sinners than you Luke 13.2 And Jesus answered and said unto them suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things Vers 3. I tell you nay but except you repent ye shall all likewise perish Vers 4. Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell and slew them think ye that they were sinners above all Men that dwelt in Jerusalem Vers 5. I tell you nay but extept ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Do you think that those whom the Plague hath slaughtered that they were greater sinners then all that dwelt in London Take heed of such conceptions Or if many have fallen in this judgment that were of worser Lives than you yet none have fâ—llen that had worser Hearts than you naturally hâ—ve Nay have not your sins been capable of greater â—ggravations than the sins of many Dâ—unkards and Swearers and prophane Peâ—sons that did never sin against a God that pardoned their sins that did never sin against such love nor after such experiences of the working of Gods Spirit upon their hearâ—s as you have had Nay consider that you are not likely â—o do God that service nor bring to God that Glory that some of them might have done that are now in their Grâ—ves if God had spared them and yet God hath lengthened out your life Oh what an Obligation should this be to you to remember Gods Mercy that you had Plague-deserving-sins but yet you had not the Plague that you have death-deserving-sins and yet you are not dead 2. Consider you had a Body as liable to Infection as many others had There were such natural causes in your Body that might have laid you in your Grave if God had not prevented it and did not you suck in the same Aire as others did yea as others breathed out and yet God hath kept you 3. Consider you had no better Preservatives nor Cordials then many others had that yet by the Plague are laid silent in the Grave and are now resting in the dust and others that now are dead used the same meanes as you did and it may be more and better too and yet God denyed his blessing to the use of those meanes that were more probable to prevent Infection then yours were by this you may be convinced that it was the hand of God that hath preserved you and therefore by this you should be obliged to remember and keep upon your heart a sense of Gods mercy towards you 4. Consider you have been in more visible danger and when you were called did venture further then many others did some were more reserved and kept from Company more than you have done being called to Duty where Visited Persons have been as to help them that were sick of this Distemper c. and yet some that lived more retiredly and kept themselves more close were Visited and are dead and yet you have escaped this is the finger of Divine Providence and will you let the sense of this weare off from your heart 5. Consider that you have been more weakly and more infirme of Body then many of them that the Plague hath removed Many that were more likely to out-live you are cut down before you Many that were strong and of healthful constitutions are laid in the Dust while you that have been waiting for your dissolution many Moneths or Years because of the infirmity of your Body and the frequent distempers that have been upon you are preserved 6. Consider how great a Mercy your praservation is not onely to your self but to those to whom you are related You have many little Children that are not able to help themselves nor to provide for themselves that in all likelihood would have been exposed to hardships and to want if God had taken you from them They are sharers in this Mercy of your Preservation and the more are concerned in it the greater the Mercy is and the deeper and more lasting sense it should make upon your heart The thoughts of your Children did increase your feares and trouble when you were in danger and should not the consideration of this advance the greatness of the Mercy of being continued to them DIRECTION X. HAth God spared you in time of Pestilence when he hath taken away many of your own Relations then the fewer objects you have for your love now the stronger let your love be towards God then it was before In steâ—d of murmuring against God that you have lost those whom you did love the greater let your love be to God since you hâ—ve not so many for to love Love lâ—id out upon many objects is the weaker buâ— love united and spent upon one object is tâ—e stronger As those that have but one only Son love that more then those that have more do love any because their love is divided
amongst them all It may be God had too little of your love and it was â—n offence and griefe unto your God that the Creaâ—ure should have that love which wâ—s due unto himself and therefore he hath cut off the Sâ—reâ—es that you may get nearer to the Fountain Thy Relation had more of thy affection then came unto his share and therefore in stead of Murmuring be more in loving of thy God and this will be to live answerably to Gods Correcting and Afflicting of thee in the loss of thy Relation and to his Mercy in sparing of thy self And look what Relation it is that is taken from thee while thou survivest and get clearer evidences that God will be in stead of that Relation to thee and be better to thee than that was Hast thou thy Husband removed by this Contagious Disease now make out more to God that he would be an Husband to thee Hast thou lost thy Children or thy onely Son see more diligently that God hath bestowed his onely Son upon thee and this will much satisfie and quiet thy heart Hath God done thee any wrong if he hath taken thy onely Son from thee and hath given his onely Son to thee Thus since you did survive others that are taken from you improve your Affliction and your Mercy in being advantaged in Spirituals and this will be to live in some measure answerably to Gods dealing with you DIRECTION XI HAth God spared thee in time of Plague then see what it was that thy Conscience did most accuse thee or commend thee for when the Plague was nigh thy dwelling or thou wast in fear and danger and order thy life accordingly What sin was it that thy Conscience did reproach thee for in a time of danger and in feares of death whether of omission or commission publick or secret of what nature soever it was and let it be the design of thy heart in the course of thy life to mortifie that sin and keep it under that thou carefully avoid the occasions thereof that when death shall certainly come and conscience shall have no more occasion or just ground to reproach thee thou mayest see that God in mercy did prolong thy dayes till thou hadst got the victory over and the pardon and the evidence of the pardon of that sin What was it in thy feares and when thou wast in expectation of death that Conscience did approve in thee it did then approve thy diligence in thy Family go on in this still it did approve of thy strickt and holy walking with God go on in that which was good and thy rightly inlightned Conscience did commend in thee and this will be to live in some measure answerably to so great a mercy as is Gods preserving of you in a time of such a wasting Plague DIRECTION XII HAth God spared you in such a time of so great Mortality and Contagion then learn to trust your self and all your Affairs with God for the time to come You have lived in time of danger and have been in hazard of your life and yet God hath preserved and kept you God hath called some to abide in the City because they could not remove their habitation without neglect of duty for where our duty lies and where our work is that God calleth us unto there we may trust God though our danger be never so great because while we are in our duty we are in our way and God hath promised to keep us in all our wayes in time of Plague Psal 91.11 Many had opportunity of retiring into the Country without neglect of duty without running away from duty those that went from their duty and work which God expected they should there have done have cause to be humbled for their slavish feares of death and great distrust in God and the use of meanes for preservation is not inconsistent with trusting in God but is supposed and included in it else it is not trusting in God but presumption but many were obliged to abide upon the place and God hath preserved you amongst them Oh what an obligation and encouragement is this for you for the time to come to put your trust in God in the use of meanes in a way of duty and the more you are able to commit your self to God in future dangers the more you do improve this Providence of God in preserving of you But because we need all helps and supports for putting our trust in God I shall lay down some considerations to help you more and more to trust in God premising first the nature of it that you may perceive what it is that you are exhorted to when perswaded to trust in God Trusting in God is a special fruit of faith and hope whereby the soul looking upon God in Christ through a Promise is in some good measure freed from fretting feares and cutting cares about the removing or preventing of some evil or the enjoying or procuring of that which is good 1. It is a fruit of faith for therefore a Man trusteth in God because he believeth and is perswaded of the truth of what God saith and believeth the performance of his promise and so it is called fiducia fidei 2. It is a fruit of hope for therefore I trust in God because I hope it shall be with me according to his Word If I had no hope of this I could not trust in God and so it is called fiducia spei 3. This trust hath God in Christ through a Promise for its object We trust in God through Christ eying the Promise For the Promise of God is the foundation of our trust in God and the Promise of God draws forth the hearts of his People to trust in him Psal 119.42 I trust in thy Word 4. The effect of this trusting in God is the quietation of the heart and a freeing of the Soul proportionably to the degree of his trust from fretting feares and cutting cares about good and evil to be avoided or procured Psal 56.3 What time I am afraid I will trust in thee Vers 4. In God will I praise his Word in God I have put my trust I will not fear what Flesh can do unto me The Arguments for the moving you to trust in God for the future are such as these 1. Will not you trust in God after such rich and full experience that you have had of Gods taking care for you Hath God cared for your life and will not you trust him for Food and Raiment experience is a great support for confidence in God 2 Cor. 1.10 Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us When David had had experience of Gods delivering him from the Lion and the Bear he trusted in God to deliver him from the hands of the uncircumcised Philistine 1 Sam. 17.37 When thou hast been in danger God hath kept thee and when thou hast
been in sickness God hath restored thee and if it be good for thee he will do so again 2. Will not you trust in God that is All sufficient and Allmighty able to deliver you from any evil able to bestow upon you any thing that is good He can remove your feares and he can fill your desires According to your perswasions of a Mans ability to help you caeteris paribus will your trust be in him 2 Cor. 1.9 For we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead That God that can raise the dead may be trusted in any case or condition You have found him able 3. Will not you trust in God that is so willing to do you good you may acknowledge Gods all-sufficiency to be a support for your trusting in him but the doubts that you find in your Soul whether God be willing to do you good is a cause of your too frequent distrust in him You must believe that God is a God of mercy and ready to do for his People whatsoever he seeth conduceth to his glory and their good and you may know his willingness by his promises which are various according to the condition that you are or may be in You have found him willing and yet will you not trust him 4. Will not you trust in a God that is faithfull in all he saith He declares his willingness to do you good to supply your wants to preserve you in dangers by his promise for a Promise of God is a declaration of his will for the bestowing of some good thing upon his People through Christ and his will and purpose he will never change and his Promise he will not suffer to faile Will you trust a Man that is faithful to his word and not God especially after you have found him faithful in performing promise unto you 5. Will not you trust in God that is infinite in Wisdom and knowes how to order all your affaires when your condition is altogether intricate and you know not how to winde your self out of difficulties then your wise God can do it 2 Pet. 2.9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation And will you not trust a God that is able and willing and faithful and wise especially after you have experienced all these in God in the late dangers and feares of death that you have been in or shall these qualifications of power willingness faithfulness and wisdom in Men in their measure be a ground of your putting civill trust in them and shall not all these that be in God without measure be a ground of your putting Religious trust in him 6. Will not you put your trust in God since it is his due it belongs to him of right it is a part of your Spiritual Homage which you owe to God Religious trust doth so belong to God that it will be Idolatry to place it in any thing besides Psal 115.7 8 9 10 11. It doth so properly and solely belong to God that it is a Periphrasis of God to be the confidence of all the ends of the earth Psal 65.5 Give to God the things of God and give to the Creatures no more than belongs unto them You have nothing else to trust to you must not place Religious trust in men not in great Men and Nobles Psal 118.8 9. nor in Riches 1 Tim. 6.17 not in Horses and Chariots Psal 207. not in your own Righteousness and Religious duties Ezek. 33.13 7. Will not you trust in God who is so nearly related to you Men are apt to trust too much in thâ—ir eâ—rthly Friends and Relations We put civil trust and confidence in our neer Relations because of the affection that they bear unto us Thus Children trust to their Parents and Wives in their Husbands and one Friend in another God is your Father your Husband and your Friend and yet will you not put your trust in him 8. Will not you put your trust in God for smaller things since you trust him for the greatest you trust in God to deliver you from the torments of Hell and will not you trust him to deliver you from farr lesser evils you trust in him for Pardon and for eternal life and will you not trust in him for smaller matters Will you trust him wiâ—h your Soul and not with your Body for Eternal Life and not for Temporal would you trust a Man for thousands and not for Pence especially when the Providence of God extends to the smallest concernments of his children even to an hair of their heads Mat. 10.30 When must we put our trust in Goâ— In general I answer At all times Psal 62.8 Trust in him at all times ye People pour out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us In Particular trust in God 1. In time of Sickness and Affliction upon your Body Job 13.15 Though he slay me yet will I trust in him 2. In time of outward Wants in the losse of all things 1 Sam. 30.3 to 7. Hag. 3.17 3. In time of Desertion when you have not the smiles of his Face Isa 50.10 4. At the hour of death commit your Soules to him trust him with your Soul Psal 31.5 6. 5. In times of greatest inconstancy Psal 46.1 2 3. 6. In times of Evil Tidings Psal 112.7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. Thus if you trust God more because of the experience you have had in Gods keeping of you you do in this improve this Mercy DIRECTION XIII HAth God spared you in time of so great Mortality Then give thankes to God and the Praises that are due unto him for so great Preservation Every Person should be very thankful unto God that hath kept him alive and every Family should sound forth his Praises You spent time extraordinary in seeking God by Prayer in your Closet in your Family that he would preserve you and hath God done so in answer to your Prayers and will you not spend some time extraordinary in and with your own Family in thankful acknowledgments of Gods love unto you and his care over you Oh set some time apart every Family whom God hath preserved or so many that are left in every Family in solemn praisings of God for his signal preservation vouchsafed unto you In the time of your trouble you called upon God he hath delivered you and now you should glorifie him Psal 50.15 and God is glorified by you when you offer praises to him Ver. 23. In the pressing you to the practice of this Direction I shall do three things 1. How or with what must those that are preserved from death in time of Plague give thanks to God or glorifie God for this mercy 2. With what Arguments should the people of God that are spared press themselves to give praises to God 3. What course must such take
God and when you take your flight into heaven and are perfectly removed from sin sorrow suffering temptation wants you shall do nothing else but love and praise and admire God And will you not in the mean while accustome your self to that work on earth which shall be your imployment in heaven And will you not take occasion hereunto by so great a mercy as God at such a time as this hath vouchsafed you 4. Is not God most worthy of your highest and your heartiest praises You were not worthy of Gods mercies you were not worthy of life but God is worthy of the best of your praises were they as perfect as the Hallelujahs of the Saints in heaven God indeed is above all praise Neh. 9.5 But yet he is pleased with his peoples praising of him 5. Will you praise the efficacy of your Antidotes and the skill of your able Physitian by whose help you have been under God preserved And will you not be much more in praising of God for your safety when without his blessing all had been ineffectual Will you praise the Instrument and means and say I had an able Doctor and not the principal cause of your preservation and say I had a good God 6. Will not you praise God for his mercy towards you no not for your life when this is all that God requireth at your hands that you should be thâ—nkful for your life and thankfully improve it for his glory You cannot make a requital but God expecteth some return you cannot make a retaltation but God looketh for some retribution And will not you think an alms ill bestowed upon that beggar that will not give you thanks And will not life be continued to the aggravation of your sin if you are not thankful for it 7. Is not this a duty that will well become you A Christian doth then act most like a Christian when he is praising God in tongue in heart and life Psal 33.1 2. and 147.1 Praise is comely for the upright Three things are very comely To weep as a Sinner to walk as a Saint to rejoyce as a Son 8. Will not you give to God the glory of his preserving providence when if you do not that are Gods people none else will The wicked that are spared they will not they cannot praise God they will dishonour him they will speak to Gods dishonour and act to Gods dishonour so that if you do not praise God for his sparing so many alive none else will And shall God be without all thankful acknowledgments of his remembring mercy in the midst of judgment God forbid That amongst all the thousands that are spared there should be none found making some thankful return to God This number will be but small amongst the Ten Lepers that were cleansed there was but one found thankful If you would not have God to lose the glory of his providence then you must be the men that must honour him for it Many wicked men were not found praying to be preserved much less will they be found praising when they are preserved 9. Have you more cause to bless God for life than others have and yet will not you do it Your life is more sweet and comfortable to you than the lives of wicked men are or can be forasmuch as you have those comforts with life and that Communion with God in life that wicked men have not They live only a natural life and have only the sweetness of natural life but you with this life have also the comforts of an higher life and yet will not you bless God for it They are delivered from the Grave for a while but not from the wrath of God too from the Grave but not from the danger of hell too but so are you And have you so much cause to bless God for life and will you want an heart to bless him 10. Is this the most effectual way to have life continued to you and yet will not you do it To have life continued will be to be thankful for it else God finding you unthankful when the Plague is over might commission death by some other distemper to take that from you which you would not be thankful for 11. Is not life the sweetest of all earthly mercies and more to be prized and yet will not you be thankfull to God for it that hath so signally continued it unto you Skin for skin and all that a man hath he will give for his life And yet will not you give thanks to God for life What earthly thing will you be thankful for â—nd what mercy upon earth will you make returns to God for if not for life 12. Do you finde unthankful Men placed amongst the greatest rank of sinners and yet will you be unthankful Unthankful Persons are numbred among Blasphemers Covetous Disobedient to Parents such as are without Natural affection false Accusers Despisers of those that are good c. 2 Tim. 3.2 3 4. and will you yet be unthankful and that for your Life Thus by these considerations you should press your heart to give Praises to God for this so great Preservation SECTION III. III. WHat is the course that those that remain after this Judgment should take to be thankful to God and to render Praises to him for the Preservation of themselves and those of their Relations continued to them Take these Rules 1. If you would render Thankes to God in Tongue in Heâ—rt and Lâ—fe for this Mercy then get a right judgment of the worth and greatness of the Mercy that you and some of yours are continued after this Visitation Those that do not prize a Mercy will never be thankful for it What a Mercy is life to you that are not yet assured of the love of God What a Mercy is life to you that are not yet certain of the Salvation of your Soules or if you are sure of Heaven yet is life to you a great Mercy that you have time to do the Works that God hath appointed you to do Consider also what a Mercy it is to have your Children continued that you may yet Instruct them and Pray for them that you may see Christ formed in them before you or they do die 2. If you would be thankful for life and have an heart to render Praises to the Lord for your own and your Relations consider how uncomfortable your Life had been had God continued you and taken away your neerest Relations and how uncomfortable your Life would have been had God continued them onely and taken you away from them You may consider while you live the Discomforts of your Relations and the sorrow of their hearts if God had removed you by death What an uncomfortable Widow would your Wife now have been what uncomfortable Orphans would your Children now have been You have enough before you and amongst you that are sad Instances of this Oh consider this and it will be a meanes to make you
thankful and to give to God the Glory of your Preservation 3. Retain in your memory the greatness of this Mercy when you have apprehended how great it is a forgetfull person will be an unthankful person When David would have his Soul to bless God for his Mercy he layes a charge upon himself not to forget the Benefits he had received Psal 103.2 Bless the Lord oh my Soul and forget not all his benefits Record Gods Mercy to you herein and get it imprinted on the Table of your heart forgetfulness is a great hinderance to every duty as some Men forget their sins and they will not be humbled for them Some Men forget Gods Mercies and they will not be thankful for them some forget both and are neither penitent nor thankful So to remember some things and forget others is very injurious to Mens Soules as Some remember Gods Mercy and forget their sins and these presume Some remember their sins and forget Gods Mercy and these despaire But it is best to remember both our sins and Gods Mercy the one will make us humble and the other thankfull 4. Let the Relations that God hath continued unto you have a roome in your heart and affection according to the measure that God commands He that hath Children spared and hath not sutable affections for them will not cannot be thankful unto God for the continuance of their lives and so Husbands and Wives but then you must love them and your own life but according to the measure that God allowes For to love any of these your Relations or your Life immoderately will not be to be thankful for them but to abuse them and make Idols of them Let your own Life and your Relations have their allowance of your love but no â—re 5. Pray to God for a Praising Thankful heart for this Mercy God gives us all our Mercies and God must give us a Thankful heart for these Mercies else we cannot give to God the glory of them When you were in your danger you were afraid least God should deny you life when you Prayed unto him for it but are you as afraid least you should not have an heart thankfully to improve it when he hath granted it unto you You Prayed for life now Pray to God to make you thankful and thankfully to improve it 6. Labour to keep your Graces lively and vigorous To Praise God is a lively Work and a dull heart cannot do it You must love God for his Mercy if you would Praise him for his Mercy You must delight in God if you would Praise him the more lively your graces are the more sweet and comfortable your Life will be and the more comfort you have in life the more your heart will be engaged to give God the glory of it and so shall you be found amongst those few that do endeavour to live in some measure answerably to so great a Mercy as Preservation from the grave in a time of Plague FINIS The first pâ—rt of the first Direction contains 7 Questions Question First Six things premised for explication * Peâ—deâ— haec peccati differentia graduum 1 A respectu personae a qua admittitur 2 A gâ—nere natura rei 3 Ah intensione remissione actus 4 ratione et modo patrandi 5 A circumstantiis loci temporis c. Ames â—ed p. 65. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Vitam â— Dei appellat vitam illam qua deus vivit in suis quamque praecipit approbat Beza in loc * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opera quaestus * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. quasi agatur de luâ—â—n ita ut â—liuâ— alium superare conteâ—dâ—t Beza in loc Scriptures shewing many wax worse Nemo repente sit turpissimus sed sensim sine sensu Psal 1. v. 1. opened a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tam id quod consulitur quam quod consilio efficitur by th b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mos consuetudo studium quae sunt quasi viae per quas incedunt versonturque by th * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ambulavit metaphoricè usurpatur de vita moribus actionibus * Nomen plurale absque singulari ex conjugatione Pihel deductum idcoque significationem intendit ac Habitum denotat â—iâ—lmer in Psal Arguments proving wicked men wax worse From sin Sin disposeth the heart to sin Sin begets sin Sin is linked to sin Rom. 6.6 Sin infects the sinner Sin is unsatiable Oculi sunt in amore duces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Satan Absence of Grace Question Second 10 rounds in the sinners Ladder to hell Natural Concupiscence Temptation Inclination â—am 1.14 is inticed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifiâ—th baiting as men doe bait for fishes Rom. 7.7.14 15 16 17. Consent Action Iteration Habit. Hardness contracted * Peccata sive sint commissionis sive omissionis per multiplicationem diuturnam in consuctudinem ducta inveterata pravum habitum gignunt ac quasi callum obducunt voluntati simuâ—â—c menti Ames Med. p. 67. Hardness judiciall 7 things about Gods hardning mens heaâ—ts Deus concurrit ad actum non ad malitiam actûs * Excaecatio activa tribuitur Deo Satanae homini scipsum excaecanti satanas Homo in ista actione gravissimè peccant deus autem justissimè agit Strangius de volun Dei circa peccatum p 819. Modi notandi sunt quibus dicitur Deus indurâ—re 1 Quia Deus juste deserit eos a quibus desertus est suumque auxilium subtrabit aut denegat privatque eos donis suis quibus illi perverse abusi sunt idem p. 824. 2 viam eis aperit objecta occasiones subministrans quibus illi flagitia exequantur ut in perniciem suam ruant 826. 3 Offert confert aut facit ea quae sua natura hominem ad bonum converterent atque ad illustrandum emollieadum volerent sed abutentium vitio fit ut magis obdurentur p. 827. 4 flagella flagellorum remotio adversa impiorum indurationem promovent iisque pulsati inster ineudis sub malleo magis indurescunt p. 828. Finall impenitence Question Third Prosperity makes the wicked worse * Psal 50.18 19 20 21. Adversity makes wicked men worse Deliverances make wicked men worse Wicked men are worse By the Word * Sciendum est Evangelium non perimere quenquam sed evangelii contemptum Bez. in 2 Cor. 2.16 By the Sacrament Grande id nefas quando remedium non modo non proficit aegro sed in venenum vertitur Par. in 1 Cor. 11. Question Fourth Reasons are 1. From God 2. From the Elect converted 3. From Elect unconverted 4. From Reprobates Question Fifth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnium quo qui laborat ad quodvis scelus paratus est Joh. 8.44 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In crastinum recondere quo significatur homines dum cupiditatibus suis quotidie indulgendo
Gods sparing their Parents to them if they thus obey them SECTION XVIII THirdly The next Relation I consider in a Family is the Relation of Masters and Servants whom God hath spared in this great Mortality and if you would live in some measure answerably to this Mercy as it is a Mercy to some to have Servants and it is a Mercy to others to have Masters then you must fill up the duties of your Relation First Masters Duties are set down Col. 4.1 Masters give unto your Servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven where you have 1. The Charge that is given to do that which is just and equal 2. The Persons to whom this Charge is given Masters 3. The Persons unto whom this justice and equity must be shown Servants 4. The Reason to enforce it knowing that ye have a Master in heaven There is no Man that is a Master but he hath a Master and that is God 1. Masters must not impose upon their Servants any thing simply unlawful that is not just to Work or carry Burdens upon the Lords day without necessity c. 2. Masters must not impose upon their Servants things above their strength though they be lawful this is not just 3. Masters must not deny their Servants convenient Food nor their due Wages this is not just 4. Masters must not turn away their Servants when they are sick who served them when they were in health and strength without their consent this is not just 5. Masters must not deny them necessary time for the performance of their necessary duties unto God this is neither just nor equal It is but equity if Servants spend their time in your service that you should allow them some time for the Service of God and the saving of their souls for to wear out their Bodies in serving you now and for want of time to Read and Pray to have their Soules damned hereafter would be a very unequal unjust and unreasonable thing SECT XIX Secondly Servants if you would live answerably for the Mercy of God in sparing you then performe the Duties God requireth at your hands towards your Masters The Duty of Servants is set down Eph. 6.5 Servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of heart as unto Christ Vers 6. Not with eye-service as Men-pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart Vers 7. With good will doing service as to the Lord and not to Men. Vers 8. Knowing that whatsoever good thing any Man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free To this the Apostle addeth Servants obey in all things your Masters knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ Col. 3.22 23 24 25. in both which places the Apostle meets with the usual defects of Servants in their Relation which are 1. Half Service 2. Eye Service 3. Hypocritical Service 4. Prophaneness in Service 5. Irreverence in Service 6. Grudging in Service 7. Baseness of mind in Service To these are opposed Service 1. In all things 2. Not eye-service 3. In singleness of heart 4. In the fear of God 5. Trembling 6. From the heart and with good will 7. A glorious reward 1. Servants must do all the service they owe unto their Masters not to do one thing and leave another undone but you must obey in all things i. e. lawful 2. Servants must not give eye service That is onely in their Masters sight and presence but must be as careful of their Masters business in his absence as if he were looking on them they must not do their work as those that are serving Men who cannot alwaies see them but as the servants of Christ serve him who believe that he alwaies sees them and let Servants remember that though Masters do not alwaies see them yet God doth 3. Servants must performe the Works of their Masters service in singleness of heart with uprightness and without dissimulation they must not be hypocrites in Mens service as they must not in the Service of God Servants must do all from obedience to Gods Commands and yield therefore obedience to wicked Masters in lawful things 1 Pet. 2.18 Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear not onely to the good and gentle but also to the froward So to poor Masters though they can give them but mean wages 4. They must do it in the fear of God As the servants of God must pray in the fear of God and hear in the fear of God so they that are servants to Men must do their work in the fear of God then they must not Curse and Swear at their work nor talk sinfully nor speak or sing obscenely 5. Wiâ—h reverence to their Masters 1 Tim. 6.1 Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own Masters worthy of all Honour that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not blasphemed If thou serve a poor Master yet being thy Master thou art bound to honour him else thou will be a reproach to the Name of God and his Doctrine 6. They must not grudge the Service they do but do it from the heart and with good will Servants hearts must not be set upon their Masters business they cannot give away their heart from God but they must do their Work from the heart i. e. willingly cheerfully 7. They must not onely aime at the wages they have from their Masters that is poor and low and sordid to work and labour for such a reward but as those that know if they do their service be it never so mean and servile in obedience to Gods command and for his glory they shall have a reward in Heaven God will reward the mean service of a poor servant with an eternal Crown 8. They must be faithful in their Masters business they must not purloin steal and secretly convey away any thing of their Masters Estate Money or Goods or sell it at under-rate to his Masters real prejudice and dammage by private contract between himself and the buyer to consider him for his cheap Bargain Tit. 2.9 Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own Masters and to please them well in all things not answering again Vers 10. Not purloining but shewing all good fidelity that they may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things When thy hand is in thy Masters Box and thou art pilfring away his Money to Game to keep Company or spend any way without his knowledge this is Theft and God seeth thee though he do not and if thou hast purloined or stole any thing thou art bound to restore it if thou canst and to confess thy fault and be humbled and do so no more 9. They must be frugal for their Masters that though they steal nothing
to get a thankful heart for so great a mercy SECT I. HOw or with what must those that are preâ—erved give thanks to God This must be done three waies 1. You must praise God with your tongues Your lips must shew forth his praises Psal 51.15 Your tongue must sing aloud of Gods righteousness and mercy For this end God hath preserved you Psal 30.11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing thou hast put off my sackcloath and girded me with gladness Ver. 12. To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent O Lord my God I will give thanks unto thee for ever By glory David means his tongue The Tongue is the glory of a man it being his priviledge above all Creatures with the tongue to form articulate words having distinction of sound for the communicating of the conceptions of his mind unto others Thus we should praise God by speaking of his excellencies and perfections of his nature of his works and waies of his dealings with us of the danger he hath delivered us from of the good he hath given to us of the salvation he hath wrought for us 2. You must praise God with your heart as well as with your tongue for as prayer for mercy with the tongue without the heart will not be profitable to us so praises with the tongue for mercy received without the heart will not be acceptable unto God To praise God with the heart is the very heart of our praises Thus David that before called upon his tongue to bless God doth also elsewhere call upon his soul to do it Psal 103.1 Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name God blesseth us by giving good things unto us Eph. 1.3 We bless God when we do thankfully acknowledge the good things we receive from God You must then stir up your soul and all that is within you unto this great work of praise for so great Preservation 3. You must praise God in your lives and by your works and conversations You must not only speak Gods praises but you must live to his praise you must do it with life and in and by your life Life is the mercy I call upon you to praise God for and you must do it by your life You may praise God with your lips and not with your hearts but if you do indeed praise God with your heart you will also do it by your life If you will give thanks indeed you must live thanks The best thanks-giving is thanks-doing Thus if you would be thankful for the life of your children shew it by your religious care in their holy Education That God might not say of you I spared such a mans Children in time of Plague and afterwards he brought them up to dishonour me and to sin against me if you would be thankful for your own life then lay it out in holy walking with God SECT II. WIth what Arguments should the people of God urge their own hearts thus in tongue in heart and life to praise and glorifie God for his preserving of them Work your heart hereunto with these following Arguments Consider 1. Should not you thus praise God for your preservation from danger by the Plague Who did make this one of your Arguments to prevail with God by prayer in time of danger to preserve you Did not you reason thus with God in time of sickness Lord lengthen out the life of thy servant O Lord deliver my soul O save me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks What profit is there in my bloud when I go down into the pit Shall the dust praise thee Shall it declare thy truth The grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth The living the living he shall praise thee Were not these your pleadings at the throne of grace And did not you promise to God and purpose in your heart that if God would spare you you would celebrate his praises And shall not there be a correspondence betwixt your actions when you were in fears and your actions when your great danger by the Plague is over 2. Should not you thus praise God for your preservation Who have such examples for your practice recorded in the Scripture When Hezekiah had been sick and was recovered he sang forth the praises of the Lord Isa 38.19 20. When David had been in danger of death and was delivered he deliberates with himself what he should return and render to the Lord Psal 116.12 13 c. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will take the cup of Salvation and will call upon the name of the Lord. Ver. 17. I will offer unto thee the sacrifice of thanks-giving For your imitation consider Davids practice 1. He propounds a case of conscience Since I was brought low and the Lord hath helped me since the sorrows of death have compassed me about and God hath delivered me what shall I render What must I do What return must I make And he presseth himself to this by four forcible Arguments in these words for all his benefits towards me He considered First Benefits received Kindnesses call for acknowledgments favours are obliging We must give thanks in and for afflictions much more when we are delivered I deserved judgments but benefits have been my receipt Secondly The Author of them His benefits The kindnesses of men should not be forgotten much less the benefits of God Your life is a benefit and God is the Author of it Thirdly The Number of them All his benefits they were many not a few Three things are innumerable Gods mercies to us Our sins against God The evils that good men suffer Psal 40.5 12. Fourthly The Person to whom they were given For all his benefits to me Hath God indeed given such mercy to me Hath God continued life to me so vile so unworthy Oh what shall I render 2. He resolves this case propounded I will take the Cup of salvation I will offer the sacrifice of praise God hath taken from you for the present the Cup of death which was to so many a Cup of trembling he hath removed your Cup of affliction and instead thereof hath given you a Cup of Consolation and a cup running over with variety of mercies and will not you take the Cup of Salvation and offer the Sacrifice of praise Do you see David in the like case so diligent and inquisitive what to render and so peremptory and resolute to offer praise to God and will not you go and do likewise 3. Is not this the noblest work you can engage in to praise God and to celebrate with thankfulness the greatness of his mercy and goodness It is the work of Angels to be praising