everlasting Punishment to the Sins of Men. In Dan. 12. 2. The Angel tells that Prophet that some should rise again from the Dead to Everlasting Life and some to Shame and Everlasting Contempt Our Saviour tells us that the Sentence upon wicked Men in the day of Judgment shall be depart from me ye cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25. 41. And in the last verse of the Chapter he says of them These shall goe away into Everlasting Punishment the Apostle in 2 Thess 1. â— calls the punishment intended for such Everlasting destruction And since in these and the like Scriptures where the Fates of Good and Bad men are spoken of the same phrase and expression is made use of concerning the duration both of the one and the other we have as much reason to fear that the one will be Eternal as to hope that the other will be so Since the just and immutable God appears plainly to have declar'd that he will thus punish the Sins of Men it is the greatest and most foolish presumption to expect the contrary Especially if we consider too that which has been set before us concerning the Evil and Provocation of Sin That 't is the affront of an infinite Majesty contempt of our Maker Rebellion against our Sovereign and Ingratitude to a Friend that it has nothing upon it of any impression of any Attribute of God but is the most unlike the most contrary thing to him in the World Upon these accounts sure we might easily believe that he has an infinite Hatred and Displeasure against it and that since that displeasure cannot be infinitely exercised upon a finite Being in the intenseness of his Sufferings it is but just in God to resolve that they shall be Eternally continued And though all Sins are not equal that yet the punishment of all shall be of the same duration because the wise Justice of God can make a difference between several Sinners in the different degree and intenseness of their Sufferings Besides though the Act of a Sin be short and of but a moments duration yet the guilt of it is a remaining and abiding thing When once a sinful Act is committed it remains done and cannot be recall'd and the Sinner remains guilty for ever unless he obtains his pardon by timely repentance And if repentance and the benefit of it be allow'd in Hell that State could not be called Death and Destruction as the Scripture usually names it But to conclude this particular let us consider that God's having threatned everlasting Punishment in vain is a great provocation to him to inflict it upon those that will not fear and avoid it The threatning is a fair warning to Mankind and a means fit and proper to make them avoid the Evil. The righteous God does not betray men into misery he has told them the worst that shall be the consequent of their Sins And shall he after all think this Punishment too great to be inflicted when men do not think it great enough to be feared Men chuse the vain Pleasures of Sin which are but for a Season with the Eternal torments that follow rather than a Life of Holiness and everlasting Happiness And shall they not have then their own choise Is there any wrong done them or have they hard measure when they were not at all imposed upon by God and have but what they close Application It is time now that I suggest what use we should make of these things which I shall do briefly and conclude 1. Let us take heed to our ways and be very watchful over our selves that we may avoid all that is sinful It is fit to be our greatest concern and care that which shall mingle it self with every other concern and our constant endeavour that we cease from evil and do good It is certainly true what Solomon says Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth always It is a very wise and happy thing to be always possest with a prudent care not to offend God Who has all our Interests both in this World and the next at his disposal whose displeasure can make us miserable for ever and in whose favour is life everlasting 'T is our wisdom and happiness to take care that we may avoid so vile and so ill a thing as Sin that which will so debase and pollute and disparage us To avoid that which our own Consciences must often upbraid us for what we must hereafter call our selves fools for and will make us vile in our own Eyes when ever we come to understand and consider it 2. What evil we have been guilty of for want of this care Let us as it were undoe it again by a hearty Repentance Shall we not mourn for so vile a thing as Sin for having contracted the greatest and most shameful disparagement for our having forfeited the everlasting favour of God and for having undone our selves And may we not justly hate that which has so much ill and mischief in it as this May we not justly hate what God abhors Should we not shew our love to him by hating what is so offensive and displeasing to him And then if we do sincerely abhor the Ills we have done we must forsake them for the future A man can never contentedly go on in the course that he himself does abhor And let us consider to perswade our selves to this Repentance the encouragement that God has kindly given us to practice it He has given us a promise of pardon if we will repent Though our Sins are so highly displeasing to him though he so justly hates them yet his infinite Mercy will forgive even the greatest and the greatest number of them upon our unfeigned Repentance Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa 55. 7. 3. Lastly since we fly from so great and mischievous an Evil as Sin is and betake our selves to so much good and happiness as infinite mercy bestows when we repent and return to our duty we should as much as can be hasten our Repentance we ought in reason to admit of no delay in such a matter If this has been at all delay'd by any it is too much Why should any man resolve that he will be vile and base that he will be odious to God and obnoxious to his wrath but a little longer This is a State not to be endured at all Who can tell how long the divine Vengeance will delay Who can assure himself that God will bear with him to the end of his delays Can we too soon be safe too soon be in favour with the Almighty Can we too soon cease to gather sorrows to heap up wrath to provide wo and misery for our selves Or can we too soon live as best becomes us as our reason and our everlasting
Interest require and begin to treasure up joys to lay up rewards and happiness for our selves These are things surely that cannot be done too soon If there be good reason to forsake a wicked Life at all 't is unreasonable in the least to delay the doing so When we come to condemn our selves in earnest for our Sins we shall condemn our selves too for continuing so long in them Let us all then be able to say with David at least from this time I made hast and delayed not O Lord to keep thy Commandments THE PRAYER O Lord the eternal God Creator and Owner and Sovereign Lord of all things By thee the Heavens were framed and all the Host of them by the breath of thy Mouth Thou hast made the Earth and the Sea and all that is in them and all that thou hast made is thine the World is thine and the fulness thereof all is of thee and through and to thee We who are now before thee here are a small handful of Creatures whom thou hast brought into Being from the Ground thou raisest our living Bodies and by thy mighty Power hast formed the Spirit within us And we Lord are thine thy Right and Property we are in nothing our own our Tongues are not our own our Thoughts are not our own the Members of our Bodies the Faculties of our Minds are not our own but thou art Lord over us We owe thee the entire Homage of our Souls and Bodies which are thine for we are thy People O Lord and the Sheep of thy Pasture We are those whom thou hast oblig'd to Love and Honour thee by innumerable benefits Thou hast fed and clothed and nourisht and protected us thou hast given us all our Enjoyments and thou holdest our Soul in Life We humbly acknowledge O Lord thy Right in us and we now own the Obligations thou hast laid upon us And we here present to thee our Bodies to be a Holy and living Sacrifice which is our just and most reasonable Service O Lord let us be accepted with thee through Jesus Christ We Confess that we have deserved thou shouldest reject and abhor us who have been hitherto so little concern'd to please thee who have so often and so exceedingly polluted our selves with that which is most odious and offensive to thee We are exceeding guilty and obnoxious to thy wrath and vengeance in that we have been Rebels against thy Sovereignty over us We have been unjust to thy Propriety in us we have been ungrateful to thy Goodness towards us We judge we condemn we abhor our selves for these things O do not thou enter into Judgment with us for in thy sight shall no Man living be justifyed We are heartily sorry for all our mis-doings the remembrance of them is grievous to us the burden of them is intollerable but thou O Lord whose Property is always to have mercy who hast promised Forgiveness to all that with a penitent Heart and true Faith in the Blood of Christ turn unto thee have mercy upon us Deal not with us after our Sins neither reward us according to our Iniquities Have mercy upon us O Lord according to the multitude of thy tender Compassions and blot out all our Transgressions We fly from thy Justice to the Footstool of thy mercy and there prostrate our selves in the Name of Jesus Christ O Lord for his Sake forgive us all that is past and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in Newness and Holiness of Life to thy Honour and Glory Do thou make us sincere in the Dedication of our selves again unto thee in this renewal of our Resolutions to serve thee Create in us O Lord a clean Heart and renew in us a right Spirit Do thou make us to love thy Law and to hate every false Way Cause us without delay to turn our Feet unto thy Testimonies and make us to delight in the way of thy Testimonies more than in all Riches O Lord rescue us we pray thee from the Bonds of our Beloved or habitual Sins save and deliver us from the Pollutions of a wicked World let us be blameless and harmless the Children of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation Deliver us from all the Craft and Subtilty and from all the fiery Darts of the wicked One And let us never be hardened by the deceitfulness of any Sin We pray also O Lord for the Conversion of others as well as of our selves O Let thy Gospel run and be Glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same and let many be turned from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan unto God That the Dominion of the Enemy may be diminisht and the happy Kingdom of thy dear Son may be enlarged We especially pray for the good Estate of thy Catholick Church that thou wouldest purge out of it all that does offend thee and Grant that all who profess and call themselves Christians may hold the Faith in Unity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace and in Righteousness of Life Look in Mercy upon these Nations to which we belong forgive our crying Sins and turn us from every evil way Bless us with the continuance of pure Ordinances and with a mighty Efficacy and Effect of them for the promoting of Piety Righteousness Charity and Sobriety amonst us Bless we pray thee our most Gracious King and Queen our Subordinate Magistrates those that Minister to thee in Holy things amongst us and all Ranks and Degrees of Men besides make us to fear thee to depart from all Iniquity to serve to thy Glory and to the Happiness and Welfare of each other and defend us all from all foreign or domestick Enemies of our Peace We commend also to thy infinite Mercies all our Friends Relations or Enemies those that have done us kindness we pray thee O Lord abundantly to requite them and those that have done us any Injury Father forgive them Let thy Word which we have this day heard have power to sanctifie and cleanse us from all unrighteousness We humbly hope for the mercy we have sought of thee this Day and desire we may commit our selves to thy careful and gracious Providence this Night and for evermore Lord bless and keep us lift up the Light of thy Countenance and guide us by thy Counsel till thou hast brought us to thy Glory All we humbly ask upon the Merits of Jesus Christ beseeching thee to hear us for his Sake and further in his own Words saying Our Father c. The MEANNESS of THIS PRESENT LIFE Prov'd and Apply'd Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Job 14. 2. He cometh forth like
further how this does also appear in the Exercises or Benefits which his matchless Lovebestows From the former head we learn what great things it can do from this we shall see what it does and has done And we shall see that as there is no Love like his there is none so great as He so there are no such Benefits any way to be obtained as by his Love These Exercises of Divine Favour are properly his lifting up of the Light of his Countenance upon us and these are able to contribute more to our Happiness than all things in the world besides them The Benefits which the peculiar Favour of God bestows are these 1. He does forgive and pardon all their Sins to them who are thus the Objects of his Love They become so by the Meritorious Death and Passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ which through their Faith is to them a Propitiation for Sin And therefore the righteous Judge of all the World being atton'd and reconciled he will no more impute to them their Iniquity And tho the imperfect Creatures do too often offend notwithstanding all their Care yet upon the renewal of their Repentance and their daily asking the Pardon of their Sins His Mercy for the sake of Jesus Christ daily gives them their Pardon Now every man that knows himself a Sinner and that did ever seriously consider what that imports and what belongs to such a Condition cannot chuse but acknowledge it an unspeakable Benefit to have his Sins all forgiven to be sure it is really such in its self The Man who is forgiven can think of God and not be troubled nor afraid can put up his Requests to the Throne of Grace with assured and comfortable Expectations He that knows this of himself knows too that the great Obstacle and Impediment of the Exercises of Divine Mercy is removed and he may hope that the Streams of it shall plentifully flow towards him He may hope that his Iniquities shall not withhold good things from him And what a Pleasure is it to think of an Enemy reconciled and become a faithful affectionate Friend And especially to know this of the Almighty and Eternal God! To know that Infinite and Eternal Perfections which were adverse and angry are reconciled and become kind How great and how sensible a Blessing must it be for a man to be able to say I that was obnoxious to an Infinite Eternal Wrath I that lay under the heavy load of a Just Curse which doom'd me to Everlasting Flames am now become an Object of Infinite and Eternal Love and an Heir of Heaven He who might have treated me with Everlasting severity I am sure will now use me with Everlasting loving kindness The foolish and unreasonable Ills that I have done and the base Affronts I have offered the great God shall cost me no more Sorrow than that of a wholesome Repentance This is a very happy and very pleasant Change in a Man's Condition This Blessing introduces a Peace that passes all understanding and indeed a Peace which the world cannot give For I may add that the assured Pardon of our Sins is absolutely necessary to our taking any considerable Comfort or Delight in any thing of this World for without this if we look into our Condition we must know that these are all aforfeited things that they are but lent us by the Patience of God our tranquility and prosperity depends upon the will of him who is justly displeased with us for our Sins and is daily provoked to put an end to it The unpardoned Sinner cannot consider his Condition nor understand it but he must be affrighted and troubled for he must see that the Sword of Divine Vengeance hangs continually over his Head and this must needs dash all his Joy But that is a very poor Felicity which cannot endure to be reflected upon and considered which if it be rightly understood is spoilt and lost if it be examined is none at all If therefore we would have a Condition in this Life which we may reflect upon and consider and take delight to do so we must have the Pardon of all our Sins assured and God reconciled to us And now I think we may conclude this Head with the Psalmist's words Psal 32. 1 2. Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity 2. Another blessed Exercise of the Divine Favour to the peculiar Objects of it is that he does sanctify them that he restores that most excellent Part of the Divine Image which we unhappily lost in the Fall of our first Parents We are taught that this is a Fruit of his Love Eph. 5. 25 26. where it is said Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that is by pouring out upon them the sanctifying Operations of the Holy Spirit who is compared to water Thus he expresses and exercises his Love to them that are the Objects of it And thus his Love grows from Compassion to a Complacency He that pitied them in their wretched Pollution loves them into loveliness He so shines upon them with the Light of his Countenance as to communicate Light and Brightness to them so as to adorn them with the bright Rays of his own Glory and then he takes delight in them But how great the Happiness of this Effect is let us see This is an Exercise of Divine Love which is exceeding Fruitful and full of Joys and Blessings A world of new Delights this brings a man acquainted with that he never knew before nor was capable of knowing till this blessed Change was wrought in him The Rectitude and Order of the Soul which this introduces is as pleasant as Health after Sickness There is now Ease for Pain Strength for Weakness Freedom for Confinement a comfortable Enjoyment of good things without loathing of them Life and Activity without faintness and weariness in well-doing and the Pleasure of an useful Life to our selves and others instead of that which was a Burden and a Trouble to both He that is sanctified has so far a well composed Mind He has calm Passions regular Appetites right and true Thoughts good and wise and safe Inclinations He can do that which is good which his Mind tells him he ought to do which his Conscience may applaud him for doing That which will please God and bring him Everlasting Advantages He can delight in Good and Vertuous Actions these have a great deal of a pleasing Lustre and Beauty in them and he has Eyes to see this now He has a mind capable of and exercised in the discerning of Spiritual things Wisdom Goodness Justice Faithfulness in the exercises and expressions of them are as pleasant to the Observation of a good Man as the most lovely and curious Colours are to a sound Eye or the most harmonious Sounds
shew Mercy to all Mankind Pour out thy Spirit upon all Flesh that they may know thee and seek thee and find and praise thee and rejoice in thy abundant Goodness Let thy continual Pity cleanse and defend thy Church Lord look down in mercy upon us and bless us that all the ends of the World may fear thee We pray thee do good to these Nations in which we live according thy infinite Sufficiency and our Necessities Oh let not our Iniquities with-hold good things from us but according to the multitude of thy tender Compassions blot out all our Transgressions Bless our Gracious King and Queen and make the one a Nursing Father and the other a Nursing Mother to that part of thy Church which thou hast planted among us and let their good Influence extend further to the Benefit of it and make Them the Honourable Instruments of Establishing Peace and Truth not only in these but also in the Neighbouring Nations to the Glory of thy great Name Bless all Ranks and Degrees of Men among us and make them to live to thy Glory to be conformable and obedient to our Governours and useful peaceable righteous and charitable one towards another in their several Stations We humbly pray for all Friends Relations Benefactors bless and preserve them from every evil Work and conduct them to thy Heavenly Kingdom Let this Day Oh Lord be happy to us in the fruitful and effectual Influences of thy Ordinances upon our Hearts and Lives Let us not be forgetful Hearers but be Doers of thy Word that we may be blest in our Deed. Grant us to lie down in Peace this Night to rest in Safety And be thou O God our Portion and Refuge in the Land of the Living and hereafter our exceeding great Reward for the sake of Jesus Christ in whose Name and Words we further present our Requests unto thee saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil Amen THE Heavenly Mind DESCRIBED and URGED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Colos 3. 2. Set your Affections on Things above and not on things on the Earth HOW well did the Bounteous Creatour of all things contrive the Nature of Man for the making him exceedingly Happy He put into our Constitution an Immortal Spirit join'd to a Living and Sensible Body And so he made us capable of the Delights of both Worlds the Spiritual and the Material By our Souls we are capable to enjoy and delight in Spiritual Objects and their Properties and Qualities We are capable of a rational spiritual Delight in sensible Objects and we are capable to enjoy and delight in God himself and his Infinite Eternal Perfections And by our Bodies which are allied to this World we are capable of a sensual Delight in the things of it to enjoy and please our selves with the Properties Vertues and Qualities belonging to Material things So bounteous and kind was the Creatour to Man in the Forming of him But alas Man has not been kind to himself He did not remain long in the happy State which he was first set in but by following too much the Pleasures of his Sense he lost all the greatest Pleasures of his Mind By eating the Forbidden Fruit he sinned against God lost his Favour and the Enjoyment of him became alienated from God and his Mind became subject to the shameful Disease of Sensuality A low and sordid Propensity to Earthly things did from henceforth possess him and a wretched Incapacity and Averseness towards Heavenly and Spiritual things We are condemned to enjoy only the lowest and weakest and the least part of our Happiness to gnaw as it were on the Shell of Pleasure and enjoy no more than the Brute Beasts do We following the unhappy Fall of our Nature do amuse and entertain our selves only with the poor Objects of Sense utterly forget and neglect our higher Capacities and our true Happiness It is the whole Business of our Religion in all the parts of it to recover us from this shameful and deadly Fall to draw us off from this our wretched Attachment to this World and turn us from a false Happiness to a true one The scope and aim of all its Doctrins Precepts Promises Threatnings Motives and Assistances is this to make us truly happy And the Sum of all is to bring us to what the Apostle here exhorts to in saying Set your Affections on Things above not on Things on the Earth By Things above he means those very things which were recommended to you by the Discourse immediately foregoing this as the chiefest and the true Objects of our Happiness He means God himself who is our Chief Good and the Expressions and Exercises of his peculiar Favour and Love He meâ—â—â— the Graces which the Holy Spirit works 〈◊〉 the Souls of Men which perfect and adorn and compose the Mind He means the everlasting Blessedness which is to come the Happiness and Joys of Heaven By advising to set our Affections on those things he means they should be much the Objects of our Minds he intends the Application of the whole Soul to them and the employing of all our Powers about them The Original word which we render here set your Affections has this large Import and Signification and might be rendered Mind those things which are above Let your Judgments esteem them your Wills chuse and your Affections follow them And not on Things on the Earth that is rather than the Things of the Earth It is according to the Custom and Phrase of the Hebrew Language to express thus when it only intends to prefer the former things it speaks of before the latter So in Hos 6. 6. The Prophet in the Person of God says I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice that is rather than Sacrifice he intended to express God's preference of Mercy before Sacrifice Here then the Apostle who was an Hebrew of Hebrews speaking after the Phrase and Manner of his own Language must be understood to mean Set your Affections on Things above rather than on Things on the Earth Mind those Things most let them have the preference with you He does not forbid nor does our Religion forbid the moderate seeking and enjoyment of the Good things of this World We are not bound to be unsensible of their Goodness to take no delight in them nor absolutely and wholly to refuse or reject all sensual Pleasures The things of this World are good in their Kind and
that thou hast been pleased to make us capable to know and meditate on thy Self to chuse and love thee to desire and enjoy thee who art an Infinite Eternal Good and in whose presence is fulness of Joy Oh how ready should our Hearts be at all times to say Whom have we in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that we can desire besides thee But alas we are degenerated we are fallen from our Original Excellency we are sunk into Sensuality we need to be put in mind and told wherein our true Happiness lies and to be excited urged and exhorted to pursue it We hover here below and seldom have any thoughts or desires moving upwards the objects of Sense detain us with them and we feed on Husks among Beasts we stay and abide upon the lowest and the smallest part of our Happiness Lord we are miserable we are undone and shall perish for ever if thy pity do not rescue us from the Love of these low Things Oh Pardon our guilty and heal our distempered Souls Discover thy self to us and make us love thee shed abroad thy Love abundantly in our Hearts Make us to rise by the Creature to the Creator Guide us by the streams to thee the Fountain of their Goodness and make us as we ought to love thee above all things Let us be governed by thy Love in the whole course of our lives and readily deny our selves to please thee and keep thy Commandments Let us firmly believe the glorious Things which thou hast prepared for them that love thee and draw our Hearts after them to endeavour that our Treasure may be in Heaven in Immutable things And direct us we pray thee so to pass through things Temporal as that we finally lose not the things Eternal Have mercy O Lord upon all Mankind Let the Earth be filled with Knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the Sea and all Men be directed and led in the way to true Happiness Give to all Nations Unity Peace and Concord Pour down an abundant measure of thy Spirit upon thy Church that the Gospel may run and be glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Let them prosper that love it and let not the Gates of Hell ever prevail against it We pray especially for that part of it which thou hast graciously placed in these Nations and hitherto wonderfully detended Lord make it a very fruitful Vineyard and purge out of it all that is contrary to true Doctrin and Godliness Bless we pray thee our Gracious King and Queen and the Royal Family with all Spiritual and Eternal Blessings and give them long and happy Possession of the Throne of these Kingdoms to thy Glory and our Comfort Bless all in Authority under them help them truly and indifferently to administer Justice to the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the maintainance of thy true Religion and Vertue Give grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrin honour thee and guide thy People committed to them in the way of Blessedness Let all the Subjects of this Realm be subject to thee in Loyalty and Subjection and due Obedience to those that are over them in Church and State and let Piety Love Righteousness and Peace and Truth abound among us We commend to thy Fatherly goodness all that are in any Distress and Affliction all our Friends and Relations we pray for our Enemies do for all beyond what we are able to ask or think We humbly ask a comfortable and safe rest this Night and that it may please thee to make the out-goings of the Morning to rejoice Let thy word which we have heard this Day guide our Conversations and let us bring forth in them the Fruits of the Spirit let not the Cares of this World or the Deceitfulness of Riches choke the Word and render it unfruitful but grant we may live to the Glory of thy Name and to the Peace and Salvation of our own Souls by Jesus Christ in whose most comprehensive words we sum up our Requests saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Necessity of Obedience TO THE COMMANDS of GOD Proved and Stated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven HOW common a thing is it among those that have heard the glad Tidings of the Gospel for Men to take up a presumptuous reliance upon the Merits of Jesus Christ with neglect of Obedience to the Commands of God! Some of the most profligate and careless Sinners will hope to be saved And if one ask them how They will say by the Merits of Jesus Christ Many indulge themselves in their darling Sins and yet hope to be saved by the Merits of Christ And most certain it is that the Doctrins of some Teachers give occasion to this presumption They occasion Men to think there is nothing necessary to their Salvation but strong Believing and so to endeavour nothing but that and to rely upon the Righteousness of Christ so as to neglect all Endeavour after any Righteousness of their own And this Error and Delusion where it obtains does often prove able to harden a Man against the most earnest Exhortations to leave his Sins yea and even against the most plain Rebukes of Providence for them and to frustrate all other Means of Grace and Conversion whatever It is therefore of great Importance to remove it out of the way and this I shall endeavour by discoursing on these words of our Saviour which if they had been well considered together with many other plain Scriptures it had prevented the entertainment of such Imaginations in the Minds of Men. He had been in a long Discourse enforcing many of the Commands of the Moral Law And now towards the close of this Discourse he begins in this Verse to tell them of what importance and necessity it was to them to practise what he had taught He plainly teaches that no belief in him would avail them any thing if they did not together with it keep the Commands of God Not every one says he that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
thy Mercies our Friends Relations and even our Enemies and all that are in Adversity We render thee Thanks O Lord for all the Mercies of this Day in particular but especially for the Liberty of thy House and for the Means of Grace we have there enjoyed Hear O Lord the Prayers we have offered to thee Bless thy Word and Sacraments to us whenever we enjoy them let them be thy power to our Salvation We humbly beg thy Protection for this Night and evermore even unto thy Heavenly Kingdom for the sake of Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory world without End OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Pleasantness of Religion Demonstrated and Improved Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Prov. 3. 17. Her Ways are Ways of Pleasantness THese words are spoken of Wisdom as you may see by Verse 13. of this Chapter where Solomon begins the Commendation of that Saying Happy is the Man that findeth Wisdom and the Man that getteth Vnderstanding The Merchandize of it is better than the Merchandize of Silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Length of Days is in her right Hand and in her left Hand Riches and Honour then he adds Her ways are ways of Pleasantness And by Wisdom of which he says these great things he means Religion or the Wisdom of good and vertuous living to which the Scripture it self does elsewhere plainly give that Name Job 28. 28. The Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Vnderstanding The Ways of Wisdom then means the Practice of Religion and Vertue This he says is very pleasant He has Joy and Pleasure in abundance who steadily lives in a religious and good course of Life This is the import and sense of these Words And if this be true here is a very sensible and important inducement to a good Life contained in them There is nothing usually more powerful and attractive with Mankind than Pleasure nothing which they more earnestly or more universally covet If then it can be made appear that there is a great deal of this even in well-doing this may be a means to allure Men to the trial of it and to divert them from those courses of Wickedness which draw many into Everlasting Perdition by the allurement of Pleasure To make this good and to prove what Solomon here says will be the chief business of this Discourse And I do not doubt but it will be beyond any Man's Power to deny or question this who shall soberly consider the following Particulars 1. The Principle from whence all true and sincere Religion proceeds and springs is Love and that must needs render it highly pleasant in the Practice of it This must be the Principle and Spring of true and sincere Religion All the Duties we perform towards God or Man must proceed from Love to God and Man This must be the Principle of our good Actions and wherever true Love is it will be a Principle of good Actions All the instances of Duty required of us are but such things as Love it self will put us upon such as Love naturally suggests and does incline to He that truly loves God cannot chuse but seek what will please him and endeavour to do all that and he must endeavour to avoid whatever would offend God He must delight to contemplate the Divine Perfections to think upon the Object that he loves to adore and worship God to seek and promote the Love and Honour of him So he that loves his Neighbour sincerely must delight in and desire the Wellfare and Happiness of Men he must endeavour to promote it as much as he can and will be far from wishing or endeavouring any evil to any Man or from delighting in what does happen to any And this now is even a Demonstration of the Pleasantness of a Religious Life that all of it is nothing else but the Exercise of Love He that is driven to do his Duty by Fears and Terrors performs indeed an ungrateful Task and goes on in these ways with Reluctancy and Sorrow But he that is drawn with the Cords of Love follows with Joyfulness He will run and not be weary whom Love inspires He minds not is not discouraged with any Ruggedness of the way but is rather pleased with Difficulties and put on than troubled or retarded because they give him opportunity to express the greater Love This renders the Labours of Religion easy and even Sufferings delightful I take pleasure in Infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christ's sake says a great Lover of Jesus 2 Cor. 12. 10. It was the strength of Love in the Primitive Followers of Jesus which made them very laborious and diligent in Religion and made them suffer much even to the most cruel and tormenting Deaths and do both with unspeakable Joy and Pleasure They prov'd what a great Lover of God said long ago Cant. 8. 6 7. Love is strong as Death Many waters cannot quench Love neither the Floods drown it All the Task of Love is pleasant and nothing is counted hard or uneasy which that enjoins us 2. Another thing that renders the Practice of Piety and Vertue very pleasant and therefore proves it so is the fitness and reasonableness of all that which Religion enjoins us to do It is most highly equitable and just in all the parts of it and is most perfectly what the Apostle calls it Rom. 12. 1. namely Reasonable Service There is nothing required of us within the whole compass of our Duty but what a Man 's own Mind and Reason upon serious consideration must needs be perfectly satisfied in nothing that he can have any reason to be ashamed of or to think below him or unfit for him to do or that he can justly upbraid or condemn himself for doing How reasonable and just are all the Duties of Piety towards God This will appear upon a fair stating and proposal of them Is it not highly so that we reverence and adore an infinitely glorious and excellent Being That we trust the Original Truth That we love the Sovereign and the Fountain Good That we obey the supream Authority of the World in all
Heritage govern them and lift them up for ever And make all that name the Name of Christ duly concern'd to adorn the Doctrin of God our Saviour in all things Let thy gracious Presence dwell in the Land of our Nativity bless us with Peace and Plenty with the Means of Grace and the Efficacy of them to enlighten our Minds to cleanse our Hearts to heal our Divisions to teach us all from the Highest to the Lowest our several Duties towards thee Give Health and Happiness to our King and Queen and teach us and all their Subjects our Duty towards them Bless and direct all inferiour Magistrates make them a Terror to evil Doers and a Praise to them that do well Let those that Minister in Holy things be a good Example to the Flock and make us Followers of them as they are of Christ We Implore thy Mercy upon all that are in Affliction especially upon those who are persecuted for Righteousness Sake give them Patience under their Sufferings and a happy Issue out of all their Afflictions Accept our humble Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving which we have this day offer'd to thee in thy Sons Name And make the Word which we have heard to have such Influence upon our Hearts and to bring forth such Fruit in our Lives as thou dost expect from it Give us a Night of safe and comfortable Rest preserving us from Fear and Danger And when we awake in the Morning let us chearfully return to our Duty in all our ways acknowledge thee and do thou graciously direct our Steps for the Sake of Jesus Christ In whose Words we conclude these our poor imperfect Addresses OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Easiness of Religion EXPLAINED and IMPROVED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Mat. 11. 29 30. Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart And ye shall find rest to your Souls For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light IT is a strange and wonderful Degeneracy that the Humane Nature is fallen under as appears from the wonderful Aversness that is in all Mankind to a religious and a vertuous Life Religion is the greatest Ornament and Glory of the Humane Nature It is the Cure of all our Defects and Disparagements It is our true and compleat Perfection And yet we commonly appear to be most easily withheld from the Practice of it We devise Excuses to neglect it we receive the most false and unreasonable Prejudices against it without any Examination of them We do often obstinately persist in Wickedness against the most weighty Inducements to do well These Words of the Blessed Jesus who came into the World to save Sinners and to that Purpose has taught us as well as died for us do meet with one of the Prejudices against an Holy Life which he knew to be very common in the Hearts of Men And that is the Imagination that Religion is a Task too hard for Humane Nature and utterly impossible to be perform'd Because we must indeed take some Pains to be Religious our lazy and unwilling Souls magnify the little Oppositions into Mountains of Difficulties and make us think we shall never be able to get over them and the way down to the bottomless Pit seems easie and smooth is strow'd with Pleasures Riches and Worldly Honours and these things easily allure and engage us to follow that Against this fatal and discouraging Prejudice our Saviour says in the Words of our Text Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart And ye shall find rest unto your Souls For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light Take my Yoke upon you That is charge your selves with the keeping my Commands submit to my Government For this Meaning the Word Yoke is wont to have in Scripture For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light It shall be possible to you to keep my Commands you shall find I do not require of you that which you cannot perform that the Difficulties you may meet with are not invincible And further to encourage the taking up his Yoke he adds Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart If ye take up this Yoke ye but take up that which I have born my self I am of a meek and submissive mind I do not disdain to be subject to the Laws of Religion I then command you nothing but what I have practised my self and your Obedience to these Laws will be your Imitation of me And he adds further Ye shall find rest to your Souls This shall be Peace and Happiness to you In discoursing upon these Words I think it may be useful for the better promoting the Design of them to insist upon these Three Heads 1. To shew in what Sense it may be said that the Commands of God are easie to be observ'd Which will be both Explication and Proof of our Saviours Words 2. To suggest by what means we may best render this easie to our selves 3. To urge by some proper Motives the Use of those Means In the First place I shall shew you in what Sense we may understand this that 't is easie to keep the Commands of God And this will be sufficiently represented in the Three following Particulars 1. This is easie to a vigorous and earnest Endeavour ' Tit true there will be continual Opposition made against it by that Corruption that has gotten Possession in our Souls and by the frequent Assaults of Temptation from the World and the Devil But yet these are Difficulties that shall be overcome by an earnest and diligent Endeavour Our Saviour says Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13. 24. By the strait Gate he means the way of Religion which the Opposition of our Spiritual Enemies and our own unworthy Averseness do render a strait Gate This we cannot pass without Striving and a good Endeavour but with this he intimates we may do so This will ccomplish what we desire but many seek to enter in and shall not be able To lazy Wishes 't is exceeding difficult indeed invincibly Difficult to be Religious He that cannot persuade himself to strive with Earnestness and Patience shall never become so And this
we hew out to our selves broken cisterns that can hold no water and forsake Thee the Fountain of living waters In thee alone is true content and full satisfaction to be found O Lord as sensible of this our very guilty and very dangerous Errour we desire for the future to return unto thee to esteem thee our chiefest Good and to desire thee above all things Our Hearts are now ready to say each of us for our selves Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name We desire O Lord to praise and to honour thee with all the excellent Faculties and Powers that thou hast given us We devote our Reason and Understanding to thee to learn and meditate on thy glorious Excellencies thy wonderful works and the instances of thy obliging Goodness We devote all the power of our Wills to thee to chuse thee to fix upon thee as our chief Good to submit to thy will as the rule and law of ours We devote our Affections to love thee above all things to fear and reverence thee to hope and trust in thee to hate what thou hatest and love what thou dost love We devote all our Members unto thee to be governed by thy wise and righteous Laws We desire O Lord we purpose to love and serve thee the Eternal Infinite and most Bounteous Good with all our Heart and Soul and Strength O Lord strengthen we pray thee and confirm our too feeble and wavering Resolutions Create thou us again in Christ Jesus unto good works Let us not live estranged from thee whom we are made capable to enjoy both here and hereafter Make us in love with Holiness and Vertue as the health and rectitude of our Minds as our brightest and most advantageous Ornaments and the most useful and most durable Riches Renew in us most loving Father thy decayed Image and create us to righteousness and true holiness Learn us to see thy glorious Perfections in the visible things about us to make a religious Use of all that we enjoy in this World in loving thee for what is Good praising thee for what is Excellent in them and giving thee Thanks for whatever we enjoy of them We humbly recommend to thy infinite Mercies all Estates and Conditions of Men O Lord lover of Souls pity those that sit in darkness and bless them with the Knowledge of thee and of thy Christ whom to know is Life everlasting rescue them from their miserable Bondage under the Enemy of Mankind and bring them into the Kingdom of thy Son We pray thee bless and defend the Christian Church let the Gifts and Graces of thy good Spirit be abundantly poured out upon it purge it from all things displeasing to thee and give it peace and great enlargement Be merciful to that Part of it which thou hast planted amongst us in these Nations Water it plenteously with the Dew of thy Heavenly Blessing make it fruitful in all good Works and a Praise in the Earth We pray thee bless our King and Queen and all subordinate Magistrates and those that are the Ministers of thy holy Word and Sacraments make them all in their several Places and Stations useful to the promoting Piety and Vertue amongst us And make all those that are under them peaceable and obedient teachable and submissive to their Laws and godly Counsels Grant that we may all lead peaceable and quiet lives in all Godliness and Honesty Visit and relieve all those that are in any Trouble or Affliction Bless our Relations requite our Friends and Benefactors and forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and turn their Hearts Finally O Father of Mercies we give thee Thanks for all thy Care of our Immortal Souls for all that thou hast done for their Happiness and Well-fare We pray thee bless to our spiritual Advantage those Ordinances of thine which we have this Day been partakers of Give us leave to commit our selves to thy Protection for this Night and reward our trust in thee with safe and comfortable Rest that being well refresh'd we may return the next Morning chearfully to our several Businesses and Duties and do thou accept us in all we pray through Jesus Christ in whose Name we present our selves and all our poor Services unto thee and in whose most comprehensive Words we conclude these our imperfect Prayers saying Our Father c. OF Vain Thoughts OR INCONSIDERATION With the Mischiefs and Remedies Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Psalm 119. 113. I hate Vain Thoughts but thy Law do I love OUR Care and Endeavour to live well must begin within us or it will prove vain and ineffectual We must keep the Heart with all diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life Solomon says Prov. 4. 23. According to which our Saviour teaches us That out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and out of the good or evil treasure there proceed good or evilactions We must then take notice what our Thoughts are if we would have our Life good and not neglect them as Men too commonly do and this is what the Psalmist plainly intimates in these Words I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love I shall not trouble you with long Criticizing upon the words lest I should be guilty my self of what I intend to discourse against It shall suffice to observe for the justifying of our translation that the Original word here translated Thoughts is used with that significancy in other places of Scripture Particularly 1 Kings 18. 21 Where it seems to signify unsetled and irresolute Thoughts such as could not determine them to a fixed and steady Obedience to the Truth and in Job 4. 13. where it signifies such Thoughts as the roving Imaginations of the Night are wont to be employed in In both these places it signifies such as are not well guided nor directed And by reason of this use of the word in those places I doubt not but it is very fitly done that our Translators have added the word Vain in the Text to determine and signify what sort of Thoughts the Psalmist meant by the use of the word here I shall therefore understand this Text according to the import of the word Vain in our Language and shall represent it as signifying thus much I hate all idle roving and useless Thoughts such as are not considerate and designed and directed to some good and worthy purpose all inconsiderate Thinking As there are a great many idle impertinent words spoken among Mankind many very useless and unprofitable conversations and as there are especially in the briskness and activity of Childhood and Youth a great many very idle and trifling actions done by
serious enquiring Thought whether they are in Favour with God or not Whether the Almighty be to them a Friend or an Enemy That never did set themselves down seriously to examine into this Matter or that would continue the enquiry till they came to a well-grounded Determination concerning their State And do such indeed desire an Interest in the Love of God Are there not also many that take no care to please God who follow their own Inclinations without any regard to his Will and Laws and so do daily affront and displease him And and are these concern'd for an Interest in his Favour These that live in gainful or pleasant Sins and will not be persuaded to leave them for the Favour of God Or they that live in the habitual constant Practice of the most needless Sins such as Swearing Cursing Backbiting Slandering or in the most mischievous and hurtful Sins such as Intemperance and Prodigality and will not leave them for the Favour of God Are they concern'd for an Interest in that How many besides are there that put off this Concern and Care and bid it stand by till they have accomplisht some other Designs Do they not think that they may accomplish Designs which will be of Advantage to them without the Favour and Blessing of God upon them Do they not think those Designs more necessary and advantagious to them than that And is not this to slight and undervalue that To account it but a needless or an indifferent thing Thus it is but too evident that a great many neglect this Blessedness And by these things we may understand our selves if we will compare them with our own Carriage and may see whether we have been in this Folly or not And indeed it may hereby appear that the best of us may charge our selves with having been too deep in it that we have followed the things which are seen too much and the unseen things too little We have loved and sought the Creature more than the Creator But we must not observe this without making our selves sensible of the Guilt and Folly of it and Resolutions to be careful for the future that we may avoid it Let this then be the Matter of our Shame and Sorrow Let us consider how we must needs have offended God herein That we have been guilty of the Idolatry of the Heart in loving and seeking more the things of this World than the enjoyment of God that we have been herein very ungrateful to his Creating Goodness in despising and neglecting that Happiness which he made us capable to enjoy that we have despised the Blood and Death of the Redeemer whereby an Attonement has been made for our Sins and Salvation purchast for us at a costly Rate even the Salvation which herein we have neglected Let us own then that we have greatly sinned so far as we have been guilty in this Matter and have deserved the most terrible Punishment We have deserved that God should put us off with any thing rather than his Love while we have been seeking any thing more than that We deserve to feel the everlasting Terrors of his Anger if we despise his Love and may reckon it an amazing Instance of his Mercy and Patience that we are yet spared and have time to recollect and amend our selves Let us confess our Sin and resolve to amend it Let us by frequent consideration of the Necessity the Usefulness the Happiness of God's Favour bring our selves to have a mighty esteem and value for it and raise in our selves the most earnest desires and longings after it Let us readily put far away from us all things that will forfeit and lose the Favour of God Let us be diligent and industrious in our Duty in doing the things that will please him And then let us ask for this and we shall receive it Let us seek and we shall find let us knock and this full Treasury of Blessings shall be opened to us THE PRAYER INfinite and Almighty Lord our God Thou art he who hast made the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and all that is in them Thou art the Fountain Good and the sufficiency of every Creature in Heaven and Earth We acknowledge O Lord it is in thee that we live move and have our Being and all our fresh Springs are in thee Thou art an Infinite Good and after all thy Communications to thy Creatures dost remain the same In thee still does all Fulness dwell To thee O Lord do we poor and miserable Creatures make our humble Addresses Thou alone hast the words of Eternal Life Thou only canst make us happy In thy Favour is Life even Eternal Life and thy loving kindness extends beyond the bounds of our present mortal Life Oh Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us and bless and be merciful unto us Enlighten our darkness strengthen our weakness sanctisy our unholy and polluted Natures communicate of thy fulness to the supply of all our wants that we may rejoice in thy Goodness and always live to thy Glory Lord we humble and abase our selves before thee for that we have heretofore so little valued thy Favour or concern'd our selves to enjoy it We foolish Creatures have been ready to prefer any thing before it we have valued the gratifying of impertment and unreasonable desires the getting a little worldly Gain the enjoying a little sensual Pleasure above the matchless Blessings of thy Love We have not believed thy Goodness nor been able to trust thy Favour and Love to take care of and provide for us Thus are we exceeding guilty and while we remain thus estranged from thee we can never be happy We beseech thee O Lord deal not with us after our Sins neither reward us according our to our Iniquities When we humbly confess our Sins do thou graciously forgive them and cleanse us from all our unrighteousness Make us for the future to value thy Love above all things and therefore to set our selves with great care to do those things that are well-pleasing in thy sight and to avoid whatever is offensive to the pure Eyes of thy Glory Let us be sensible that it is only the pure in Heart that can see thee and therefore be industrious to cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in thy Fear Lord we give thanks for thy Forbearance and Patience towards us that thou hast not yet cut us off and sent us to Eternal misery that we have yet Means of Grace and Hopes of Glory Let thy Goodness and Forbearance lead us effectually to unfeigned Repentance and end in a full remission of all our Sins Transform us into thy likeness by the renewing of our Minds and let the light of thy Countenance beautify and adorn us Love us into loveliness Oh thou Almighty Love that thou mayest then delight in us and we as we ought may have our chief delight in thee We pray thee
according to his Divinity and whence according to his Humanity what things he suffer'd and why what is the Vertue of his Resurrection what Gifts of the Spirit he promised and gave to the Faithful But it should also be taught what sort of Men the Members must be to whom he may and will be the Head What sort he requires and makes and loves and redeems and brings to everlasting Life When these things are insisted upon says he then Christ is preached Christus Evangelizatur Aug. de Fide Operibus Tom 4. This Preaching then does not take men off from relying upon Christ it does not tend to make them depend upon themselves for Salvation but it shews them in what way they must rely upon Christ for Salvation that they may certainly succeed in the doing it 2. To improve yet a little further what has been said we may thence learn the Vanity and Deceitfulness of their hopes of Salvation who lead wicked and ungodly Lives they that live in their Sins and yet hope to be saved expect to come to Heaven by the way to Hell they depend upon the Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ without taking the only course to have an Interest in them 3. There is not only folly and deceit in these Hopes but also there is great guilt and provocation in them For this is to turn the Grace of God into Wantonness which is that St. Jude Ver. 4. earnestly condemns when we encourage our selves in Sin from the undertaking of the Redeemer What is said of him in the Gospel is an encouragement for Men to forsake their Sins but not to continue in them This is the greatest abuse that can be of redeeming Love it is contrary to the end and design of it The Mediator took the Name Jesus to signify that his purpose is to save his People from their Sins And indeed his design had been a very strange one if he had come to procure a Dispensation for our Love of infinite Goodness for our Reverence of an infinite Majesty and of our Obedience to the Creator of all things if he had come to dispense with the Laws of Equity and Justice of Mercy and Charity of Truth and Faithfulness towards our Neighbour This is a design unworthy of the Holy Jesus this had not been to glorify the Father and how can it be but highly displeasing to impute to him such a Design as this Opinion and Practice must be reckon'd to do And yet further This is contrary to the Obligation of redeeming Love as well as to the Design of it and must needs be upon that account very displeasing It was the greatest Instance of divine Love to give his Only begotten Son to Die for us and then it is the greatest Obligation to the Love of God And is it not a most enormous and unjust requital to make this an encouragement to the living in hatred against him To live in constant rebellion and contempt This must needs give the highest and most guilty Aggravation to the Sins of Men that can be Let us consider then how much we are obliged by the Love of God to love him and that if we love him we must keep his Commandments The PRAYER OH most merciful and gracious God thy mercy is everlasting and thy truth endures from Generation to Generation Thou hast helped us in our low Estate through the greatness of thy Mercy When we had rendred our selves deserving of everlasting Misery and utter Rejection from thy favour and care thou didst then take care for us and laidst help upon One that is mighty and able to save to the uttermost Oh who can conceive or express the Love of God to us in Christ Jesus It passes knowledge We give thee O Lord most humble and hearty Thanks for this thy unspeakable Gift We thank thee for our Saviour's excellent Doctrins and Instructions whereby he shews us the way to happiness for his most holy and good Life whereby he leads us in the way to it and is become an encouraging Pattern and Example of Well-doing We bless thee for his meritorious Death whereby he has made an Attonement for our Sins has purchased for us thy sanctifying Grace and thy infinite eternal Favour Oh what reason have we to say what shall we render unto the Lord for all his Benefits How many ways O Lord hast thou deserved our highest praises our supream Affections and our best Obedience But Oh how unsensible have we ungrateful wretches been of this thy great Mercy How backward and slow to comply with the just and reasonable Terms of Salvation We are loth to part with our Sins even for the Love of Jesus or to wean our Affections from this World for the hopes of Heaven Yea we are apt to fall into the guilty and pernicious folly of turning the Grace of God into wantonness of encouraging our selves to continue in our Sins upon presumption on thy Mercy in Christ Jesus and of expecting Salvation by him while we have neglected the terms and conditions of obtaining it O Lord awaken us at length to a due and wise Care of our own Souls Of thy infinite Mercy pardon our past Neglects and give us for the sake of Jesus Christ what thou requirest that we may be partakers of the great Salvation Give us an unfeigned Repentance for all our past Transgressions stedfast and sincere purposes of new Obedience Give us an humble lively Faith in him such as may engage us to follow him make us love and chuse his Commands ready to deny our selves for his sake and to devote our selves entirely to him to live to him that died for us let it bring forth much fruit in a diligent and industrious Obedience and seek and expect our acceptance and reward only by Vertue of his Merits and spotless Righteousness Let such a Faith we pray thee be formed or promoted in us by the Ordinances we have this day enjoyed Let us lie down in peace with thee this Night and repose our selves under the protection of thy Providence If it please thee that we shall awake again in this World let our Hearts be full of a thankful Sense of thy Mercies and a Concern to shew forth thy Praise in the Course of our Lives We humbly recommend to thy Mercy and Favour all Mankind beseeching thee to enlighten those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of Death to bring into the way of thy Truth all such as have erred and are deceived To replenish thy Church abundantly with the Gifts and Graces of thy good Spirit to comfort and relieve any of thy Servants that are desolate and afflicted to prosper those that seek the Peace of thy Jerusalem We implore thy Mercy upon the Land of our Nativity Lord let Peace and Righteousness Charity and Piety setle and abound among us Rule and guide thou our Rulers in thy Fear Teach our Teachers Bless comfort and encourage thy Ministers both in Church and
this Exhortation we may consider that without doubt the Pleasures of Religion are the strongest and sweetest of any They sink deeper into a Man than any other and affect him more as they enter into his Mind and put all the inward Powers of that into a pleasing Exercise and Motion They possess more of a Man than those that touch only his Body and Senses The Mind of Man is the most and as we may say the greatest part of him It has most Desire and greatest Capacity of Pleasure It is much more sensible both of Pleasure and Pain than the duller Body The Psalmist speaks the greater Sweetness and Excellency of Religious Pleasure when he says of the Law of God If it sweeter than the Honey and the Honey-comb Psal 19. 10. He means the practice of Religion and Vertue the doing any Duties commanded by the Law of God afforded him a far greater Pleasure and Delight than e're he could by his Senses receive from the most pleasant things of this World 2. Since there is so much Pleasure in well-doing this may justly persuade Men off from the guilty Pursuit and Enjoyment of the Pleasures of this World Why should a Man suffer himself to be guilty for the sake of any Pleasure when he may enjoy that which is very Rich and Sensible without being so It is most certain that Guilt will greatly allay the briskest Pleasures of this World In the midst of guilty Laughter the Heart is sad These are always best and sweetest to him that regularly and soberly uses them that uses them according to the Rules of Religion Thus he shall hurt neither his Body nor his Soul nor his Estate nor his Neighbour while he pleases his Appetites and gratifies his Senses and so he avoids the unpleasing Farewell of a troubled Conscience He does not destroy the Appetite while he pleases it but keeps himself in a capacity to have always a very lively Relish and Sense of his Pleasures The irregular and intemperate Man makes a Drudgery of those of this World and turns their fine Relish eager and four And the other sort that is the high and delicate ones of Religion he utterly deprives himself of In a vertuous and religious Course of Life a Man may enjoy both sorts but in that which is guilty and irreligious he cannot well enjoy either This is the First Use may be made of this Discourse 2. A Second is this It ought to persuade Men to betake themselves steadily to a religious and good Course of Life It was said by the Spirit of God that the ways of Religion are ways of Pleasantness with Design to recommend them to the Sons of Men. He spoke this in a kind Condescention to our Nature and Inclination to make a Bait of Pleasure which we are so apt to dote upon And this surely should be a very powerful Argument to this purpose This ought much rather to induce Men to be Wise and Vertuous to act as becomes them and pursue their true Happiness than to make them guilty of Folly and Sin of what is shameful and hurtful to them and of what will incur their everlasting Misery And how great an Obligation to Obedience is it that the Laws of our Religion are thus contriv'd that the Universal Sovereign has made the Instances of our Duty so reasonable and so good that we may delight in our Duty and the Performance of it will reward it self They would exceedingly aggravate our Wickedness and shew a strange Obstinacy in Sin and Enmity to God if we should rather refuse all this Happiness and Pleasure than submit our selves to the Laws of Religion And thus I have far enough urg'd this Argument in our Text to shew that they who will do wickedly do obstinately refuse their own Interest And to furnish the Consciences of Sinners with such a Conviction as will at one time or other prove a sharp Sting and Torment if they will not suffer it now to restrain them from Wickedness THE PRAYER MOst Great and Glorious Lord God! the Infinite and Perfect Being The greatest Excellency among thy Creatures lies in their greatest Likeness and Conformity to thee We give thee Thanks O Lord for that thou hast made us capable of so great Honour as the resembling of thee in our Actions for that thou hast laid upon us such Laws as guide us to a noble Conformity to the Divine Nature Thou didst of thy bounteous Goodness make Man upright inclin'd to such Actions and suited to thy excellent Law But alass we have defiled and polluted our selves with Sin and are become averse and unwilling impotent and unable to keep thy Commandments Our carnal Minds are Enmity to thee and are not subject to thy Law nor can be till they be Renewed Sanctified and Created again in Christ Jesus unto Good Works O Lord open thou our Eyes to behold the wondrous and alluring Excellencies of thy Law Work in us to will and to do according to thy good Pleasure Rectify the Apprehensions the Relish of our Souls that we may find thy Commandments to be sweeter than the Honey and the Honey-comb Lord make us so steddy and diligent in our Duty so practised and inured to it and so in love with it that we may find thy ways to be to us as they are in themselves ways of Pleasantness Shew and convince us of the Equity and Reasonableness of all thy Service that it is perfect Freedom that it is our greatest Honour that the Wisdom of good Living is our best Ornament even as a Chain of Gold about the Neck Encourage us we beseech thee to our Duty with a constant Sense of thy Presence with us of thy gracious Eye and Regard to all we do Let us know thou dost accept our sincere Endeavours and imperfect Performances through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ Inable us to hope in thy Mercy and assure us that if we put our Trust in thee in Well-doing we shall not be confounded But especially we pray thee O Lord shed abroad thy Love abundantly in our Hearts Let Love possess us Love move Love direct and byass us make us to love thee with all our Hearts and our Neighbours as our selves so shall we be reconcil'd to thy Commandments so shall we run and not be weary we shall ever walk before thee and not faint in that blessed way Renew us O Lord after thine Image and make us Holy as thou art Holy and Good as thou art Good Merciful as thou our Heavenly Father art Merciful and Forgiving as thou art ready to Forgive Let our Lives and Conversations shew forth the Vertues of him that has called us to his Kingdom and Glory Look down in Mercy upon all Mankind rescue the miserable Slaves of the Devil who is the Ruler of the Darkness of this World from their sad Bondage under him and bring them into the happy Liberty of the Children of God Save thy People O Lord and bless thine
moment which we have continually provoked we had perisht irrecoverably Oh how great and wonderful is thy Patience and Goodness in continuing and supporting and watching over such provoking Sinners We admire we praise thee for thy Long-suffering towards us and since thou hast given space to do it we repent of all our past Sins we purpose and desire to lead a new and good Life and we humbly sue for thy pardoning Mercy When we with Sorrow and Shame confess our Sins do thou we pray thee forgive our Sins and cleanse us from all Unrighteousness Give us a true and unfeigned Repentance and the Grace to amend our Lives according to thy Holy word Teach us that denying all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts we may live soberly righteously and godly in this present World spending the rest of our Days to thy Honour and Glory In this way make us to seek an Inheritance in the World to come that since we have here no long abode no certain Duration no abiding State we may have a Treasure in Heaven an Inheritance in the next World that fadeth not away Make us so sensible of the short and uncertain condition of this our present Life that our Affections may be wean'd from this World and set upon the things to come teach and inable us so to pass through things Temporal that we finally lose not the things that are Eternal We pray thee let not this day be utterly lost to us but give us Comfort and good Fruit of our Attendances upon thee O Let thy Ordinances be to us the means of a Glorious and Eternal Life Grant us to lie down this Night in Peace while thou makest us to dwell safely Let our waking Thoughts in the Night-season instruct us Give us cause in the Morning to rejoyce in thy Goodness and Lord Comfort this our wretched mortal Life with thy Blessings let us see thy Goodness in the Land of the Living We beseech thee to have mercy upon all Men Grant them to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent to their eternal Salvation Save thy People O Lord and bless thine heritage govern and lift them up for ever We pray thee Bless these Nations wherein we live be thou as a Wall of Fire round about us and our defence against all thine Enemies and ours O purge and cleanse us from our Sins that we may be meet for the Favours of thy Providence Grant our King and Queen a long and happy Reign over us give them great Prosperity and Peace Direct all our Magistrates so to govern themselves in their several places as may be to thy Glory the good of thy Church among us and to the Safety Honour and Welfare of their Majesties and their Kingdoms Teach all our People duely to fear thee to be subject and obedient to those that are over them in Church or State and to live in brotherly Love and Unity one among another We humbly recommend to thy Goodness O Father of Mercies all that are in any Trouble or Affliction give them Patience and Submission to thee and in due time deliver them We pray thee bless all our Friends and Relations do good to our Enemies and make them to be at Peace with us All this we humbly ask in the Name of Jesus Christ and further whatever he himself hath taught us to pray saying Our Father c. The USEFULNESS of EARLY RELIGION TO Old-Age demonstrated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ECCLES 12. 1. Remember now thy Creatour in the days of thy Youth while the Evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them NOtwithstanding the great uncertainty of humane Life and though none of us can tell how short his appointed time may be Though we see persons of every Age descend into the Grave some in their early Infancy and some in Youth in their full strength as well as some in an old Age Yea which is very strange though we see that a great many more die young than there are that live to any great Age yet do Mankind commonly promise themselves a long Life on Earth All expect this almost though but few attain it We believe that we may live as long as the oldest Persons that we see or know And this vain Imagination proves a fatal and mischievous snare to a great many For because they may live long as they think they will not trouble themselves betimes to prepare to die though it is as true that they may not live long They set the practice of Religion and the concern of their Souls aside for the present because they shall have as they suppose time enough to mind them hereafter They apply themselves wholly now to the Business and Pleasures of this Life and refer their Reformation and Religion to old Age. And thus while they think they have much time to spend they squander away and lose much from their main concern and with their time they lose Eternity and their Souls too Their time is spent and their Day of Salvation is over before they have secured and wrought out their Salvation And Death snatches many of them away in the midst of their worldly Cares and Pleasures and so they are undone for ever To meet with and cure if it may be this Errour I shall insist a little upon these words of Solomon Wherein he intimates the Unreasonableness and Folly of delaying to repent and be religious till old Age though it be supposed that we may or though it could be certain that we shall live to old Age. We may reckon that the latter part of this verse is a reason and argument to enforce his advice in the former part of it and that his meaning is this Remember now thy Creatour in the days of thy Youth because the latter end of a long Life will be Evil days and such as you shall say I have no pleasure in them To be religious in youth will be the best preparation against the evil days to come and in those days you will need those consolations and advantages which a religious and vertuous Course that has been before them will then afford Many other arguments are commonly insisted upon by those that handle this Text to persuade young Persons to mind Religion and Vertue but I shall set them all aside and insist upon this alone which seems chiefly if not only intended in the Text. To do this with the better success if it may please God I shall divide the following Discourse into three parts 1. To shew what is meant by Remembring our Creatour in the days of our Youth Because 't is usually thought that Youth may
committing it are taken from them How often do we find the profane Person then profane the habitual Swearer cursing and swearing with his last Breath How often is the covetous Person taken up with his worldly Affairs thinking and talking of his Bags and Possessions or of gainful Bargains and further gettings even to the very minute when he must lose and part with all How often is the proud and vain Person then vain and proud too even then concerned about Beauty and Cloaths about trimming up and adorning the poor wretched Carkass which is likely within a few moments to be but rottenness and putrefaction This hardness at Death and unconcernedness even then about a future State is a very tremendous and deplorable Judgment of God which very often falls upon those who have long resisted the means of Grace and refused to repent and turn to him He gives up the obstinate Sinner to a Judicial hardness which the very near approach of Death and Judgment shall not be able to move He lets him be forgetful of himself at the point of Death because he was and would be all his Life long forgetful of God and his Duty to him He would not make sure of his pardon before and now he shall have no thought or concern about it And there is yet another hindrance the of delaying Sinners repentance at the point of Death which all such are in great danger of and many fall under and that is Despair The same Adversary of their Souls who tempted them before to presume will now if they are at all awakened and sensible of their condition be very ready to hurry them into this And surely there is too much ground for such a temptation in the case of him who has deferred his Repentance till now He must be in great danger of falling into a hopeless and despairing Sense of his Condition if he has any at all whose own Conscience with the Adversary can tell him he has squandered away the time of mercy and his day of Grace is come to its end before he has secured the Grace and Favour of God He has spent his whole Life in Sin and Rebellion against him that made him to whose Glory he ought to have lived and whose Mercy and Love he now stands in need of That he has utterly lost one Life and shall not be trusted with another that as he can never undoe the Ills he has done so he has no time left to alter his Course in and live it better And when he thinks with himself that at such and such times he was invited and earnestly urged to repent and break off his Sins and he had some good motions towards it in his mind but he made a shift to stifle those motions he slighted the good Counsel and despised the necessary Reproofs How apt must he be in the midst of such thoughts to fall into despair to think that God will now only laugh at his Calamity that if he should repent he shall be refused And then he will neglect it as thinking it now too late and that it would be in vain This is the sad Case of many a dying Sinner who has lived all his life in the contempt of God and Religion He now gives himself for lost and goes to Hell expecting to go to Hell He throws away his last minutes in despair after he has wilfully lost his whole Life before in presumption So many things there are which may hinder a man from having any mind or thought to repent at last But now when no man can possibly tell but some one or other of these may be his case when he comes to die if he neglects this before how plainly unreasonable and extravagant is it to put off our Repentance to that time 4. Another Argument to dissuade men from relying upon a Death-Bed Repentance may be this What Repentance men do practice in that condition it is very seldom sincere and true Some indeed are struck then with a mighty fear of God and dread of their final Sentence and of the Punishments of Hell which they are conscious to themselves they have deserved and which they think are near the getting hold on them And in this fright they are full of confessions of their Sins and condemnations of themselves for their former Evil life and earnestly they sue for pardon and mercy and make great protestations how good they will be if it will but please God to spare them But alas all this with the most of men in this condition is but false and dissembled all this does seldom arise to a true and sincere Repentance It proceeds in the most from a wrong Principle They only dread the Wrath of God and the Punishments of Sin they do not hate their Sin they are not truly fallen out with it they do not love God nor are heartily reconciled to his Commandments True Repentance ought to be entirely voluntary and free but this is entirely forced They talk of leaving only what is leaving of them and of sinning no more when they think they shall not have opportunity to entertain themselves with their beloved Sins any more It is possible a man in this condition may think himself that his Repentance is sound and his Resolutions are hearty but it is very easie for him to be deceived It is easie says one for a man to think he has no mind to do that which he plainly sees it is not in his Power to do Possibility says he is the best Proof and Trial of the Will If thou dost not while thou canst do this does most manifestly and truly shew that thou hast not the Will to do There is a great deal of dissembled seeking to God and pretended Conversion to him under distress and affliction among the Sons of men Such was that of the Jews spoke of in Psal 78. 34. where 't is said When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God But it is added in verse 36 37. of that Psalm Nevertheless they did flatter him with their Mouth and lied unto him with their Tongue for their Heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant In like manner the late penitent makes perhaps very earnest Addresses to God but it is only to get out of his present distress and if this be granted and his fears are over he soon forgets all the good promises that he had made Of those who make these good Vows and Protestations in their Sickness and Danger a very small proportion do fulfil them when they have escaped their danger which shews they are for the most part false and deceitful ones The most of them return after a little while to their abdicated Sins like the Dog to his Vomit or the Swine that was washt to wallowing in the Mire Or instead of those nauseated Sins says one Hamm. Pract. Cat. they make choice of some other new Path to Hell
let us betake our selves to repent and turn to thee to mortifie all carnal and corrupt Affections to cease from all Evil and to Good Make us O Lord seriously to consider the great uncertainty to us of what is to come let us not presume upon thy Mercy and so encourage our selves to continue in our Sins lest we thereby put an end to the Exercises of thy Mercy towards us Let us not be so foolish as to provoke thee by our unnecessary delays to cut us off by a sudden and untimely Death or to Doom us to a final and judicial Hardness let us not put off our Repentance to such a time as is not convenient to do it in or to such a time when we are likely to be deceiv'd and imposed upon by our own false Hearts in the doing it but make us now to set about it while thou callest us to it and art ready to assist us and to make us sincere and art certainly willing and ready to accept it O Lord thy ready Grace should find us always ready to receive it and thy pardoning Mercy should find us always ready to seek it Let this O Lord we pray be the Day of thy Power upon every one of us and make us willing to renew our baptismal Covenant now to devote our selves to thee again and to resolve that we will not henceforth live to our selves but to thee to make thy Holy Laws the rule of our Actions and to endeavour in all things to Honour and Glorifie thee And do thou Graciously accept us according to thy Promises declared unto Mankind in Christ Jesus and give strength and stability to these our Resolutions Extend we humbly beseech thee thy Goodness to all the Heathen and Infidel Nations let a mighty and powerful Call go forth among them and turn them to the knowledge of thee the only true God and of Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Be mindful of thine ancient People the Jews and bring them to the acknowledgment of the true Messiah Pour out an abundant measure of thy Spirit upon thy Church that we may see and understand what is evil among us and may repent and do our first Works Lord in thy Mercy reform these Nations wherein we live from Atheism and Profaneness from Pride and Schism from Envy and Malice and all Uncharitableness from Luxury and Riot and Sloth and Idleness Uncleanness and Intemperance Let us not go on to provoke thee by these our Sins lest our Iniquity prove our ruine We pray thee to Bless abundantly our King and Queen and all that are in Authority under them in Church and State make them a Terrour to all that is evil and a Praise to them that do well that we may be all Happy in a great increase of Vertue and true Godliness amongst us Bless all our Relations and Friends and Acquaintance and keep their Hearts and Minds in the Knowledge and Love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose Name we humbly beg the Mercies of the Night we thank thee for those of the Day past for all that we have received and for our good hopes of more to come To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without End Our Father c. FINIS Books Printed for John Wyat at the Rose in St. Paul 's Church-Yard A Practical Exposition on the Ten Commandments by Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-Derry An Enquiry into several Remarkable Texts of the Old and New Testament which contain some difficulty in them with a probable Resolution of them By John Edwards B. D. Sometime Fellow of St. John's Colledge Cambridge in 2 parts Octavo An Enquiry into the Constitution Discipline Government Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church that flourished within the first three Hundred Years after Christ Faithfully Collected out of the Extant Writings of those Ages in 2 parts by an impartial hand The Christian Virtuoso shewing that by being addicted to Natural Philosophy a man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good Christian by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esquire The History of the Life of Katharine de medicis Queen Mother and Regent of France or the Exact Pattern of the Present French King's Policy The Subjects of the following Discourses Sermon I. THE Great Excellency of the Soul of Man demonstrated and improved Pag. 1 Serm. II. Of Vain Thoughts or Inconsideration with the Mischiefs and Remedies p. 27 Serm. III. Of true Happiness wherein it lies demonstrated p. 49 Serm. IV. The Heavenly Mind described and urged p. 75 Serm. V. The Necessity of Obedience to the Commands of God proved and stated p. 98 Serm. VI. The Great Duty of Thankfulness urged directed p. 116 Serm. VII The Pleasantness of Religion demonstrated and improved p. 134 Serm. VIII The Easiness of Religion explained and improved p. 152 Sermon IX The Unprofitableness of Sin demonstrated p. 177 Serm. X. God's Hatred of Sin demonstrated and improved p. 201 Serm. XI The Meanness of this present Life proved and applied p. 225 Serm. XII The Usefulness of Early Religion to Old-age demonstrated p. 249 Serm. XIII Of a Death-Bed Repentance shewing how unreasonable it is for any Man to rely upon it p. 273 Jer. 10. 25. Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the Families that call not on thy Name Joshua 24. 15. As for me and my House we will serve the Lord. Deut. 6. 6 7. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine Heart And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine House ERRATA PAg. 29. l. 31. r. he might p. 51. l. 26. for that r. than p. 77. l. 23. r. to them p. 87. l. 5. dele p. 103. l. 2. r. Eph. 6. 1 2 3. p. 143. l. 16. dele p. 155. l. 2. for ' tit r. ' t is p. 184. l. ult r. interests Books Written by John Norris M. A. Rector of Bemerton near Sarum A Collection of Miscellanies consisting of Poems Essays Discourses and Letters in large Octavo Price 4 s. Theory and Regulation of Love a Moral Essay in Two Parts To which are added Letters Philosophical and Moral between the Author and D. More in Octavo Price 2 s. Reason and Religion or the Grounds and Measures of Devotion considered from the nature of God and the nature of Man in several Contemplations with Exercises of Devotion applyed to every Contemplation in Octavo Price 2 s. 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Two Treatises concerning the Divine Light The First being an Answer to a Letter of a Learned Quaker which he is pleased to call A Just Reprehension to John Norris for his Unjust Reflections on the Quakers in his Book entituled Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life The Second being a Discourse concerning the Grossness of the Quakers Notion of the Light within with their Confusion and Inconsistency in explaining it All these Printed for and Sold by Samuel Manship at the Black-Bull near the Royal-Exchange in Cornhil SEneca's Morals by way of Abstract by Sir Rogar L'Estrange Printed for Samuel Manship