as one respecteth another And our Relations to God and the several respective duties of those Relations are ordinarily much confounded The work of the Holy Ghost as we are baptized into the belief of him is poorly lamely and disorderly opened to the encouraging of the carnal on one hand or the Enthusiasts on the other Law and Gospel and Covenant and Covenant words and works the precepts of Christ and the operations of the Spirit are seldom thought on in their proper place and order and differences In a word Consectaries are confounded with principles Nature Medicine and Health the precepts and parts of Primitive Sanctity with the precepts and means of Mâ—dicinal Grace the End and the Means yea nothing more usually than words and things are confounded and disordered by the most that I say not by us all The circular motion of grace from God and by God and to God and in man the receiving duties as distinct from the improving duties and these as communicative and dispercing unto man from those ascendent unto God partly in the fruits and partly in the exaltation of the mind it self these are not to be found nor abundance more which I pass by in any just harmonious Scheme II. And O what confusion is in our Hearts or Wills and lameness defect as well as confusion which must needs be the consâ—quent of a lame and confused understanding It is so great that I am not willing to be so tedious as to open it at large III. And the confusion in our practices taking it in and expressing it will shew you your heart-confusion of it self But to open this also would be long and the regular order before laid down will shew you our disorders without any further enumerations or instances Only some of our lameness and partialities contrary to entire and compleat Religiousness I shall briefly mention because I think it to be of no small need to the most even of the more zealous part of Christians 1. In our Studies and Meditations we are partial and defective we search hard perhaps for some few Truths with the neglect of many hundred more 2. In our Zâ—al for Truth we are oft as partial greatly taken with some one or few which we think we have suddenly and happily found out and see more into than others do or in which we think we have some singular or special interest and in the mean time little affected with abundance of Truths of greater clearness and importance and of more daily usefulness because they are things that all men know and common unto you with the most of Christians 3. In your love to the godly and your charity in expressions and in your daily prayers what lameness and partiality is there Those that are neer you and conversant with you you remember and perhaps those in the Kingdom or Countrey where you dwell Or at least those of your own society opinions and party But when it cometh to praying for the world and all the Church abroad and when it cometh to the loving of those that differ from you what partiality do you shew 4. In the course of duties to God and man how rare is that person that doth not quite omit or slubber over some duty as if it were nothing while he doth with much earnestness prosecute another One that is much in receiving duties for themselves as hearing reading meditating praying can live all the week with quietness of conscience without almost any improving duties or doing any good to others as if they were made for themselves alone And some Ministers lay out themselves in Preaching as if they were all for the good of others but pray as little and do as little about their own heart as if they cared not for themselves at all or else were good enough already Some are constant in Church-duties perhaps with some superstitious strictness but in family duties how neglective are they They are for very strict discipline in the Church and cannot communicate with any that wear not the same badge of sanctity which they affect But in their families what prophaneness carelesness and confusion is there They can have family communion with the most ungodly servants that will but be profitable to them Dumb Ministers are their scorn but to be dumb Parents and Masters to their children and servants they can easily bear Formal preaching and praying in the Church they exclaim against but how formally do they pray at home and catechize and instruct their family If a Magistrate should forbid them to pray or catechize or instruct their families they would account him an impious odious persecutor but they can neglect it ordinarily when none forbiddeth them and never lay any such accusation on themselves Some are much for the duties of Worship in private but negligent of publick Worship and some are diligent in both that make little scruple of living idly without a Calling or doing the works of their Callings deceitfully and unprofitably They are censorious of one that is negligent in Gods Worship but censure not themselves nor love to be censured by others for being idle and negligent servants to their Masters and omitting many an hours work which was as truly their duty as the other Yea when they are told of such duties as they love not as obedience labour charity patience mortifying the flesh c. their consciences are just as senseless or as prejudiced or quarrelsom as the consciences of other men are against Religious exercises 5. And in our reformation and resisting sins of commission shell lameness and partiality is common with the most He that is most tender of a sin which is in common disgrace among the godly is little troubled at as great a one which hath got any reputation among them by the advantage of some errours In England through Gods mercy the prophanation of the Lords day is noted as a heinous sin But beyond Sea where it is not so reputed how ordinarily is it committed Many would condemn Joseph if they had heard him swear by the life of Pharaoh because through Gods mercy swearing is a disgraced sin But how ordinarily do the dividing sort of Christians rashly or falsly censure men behind their backs that differ from them upon unproved hearsay and gladly take up false reports and never shed a tear for many such slanders back bâ—â—ings and wrongs Many 〈◊〉 one that would take an oath or curse for a certain sign of an ungodly person yet make little of a less disgraceful way of evil speaking and of a piâ—vish unpleasable disposition and when they are in patient of a censure or a soul word are patient enough with their impatiency And it deserveth tears of blood to think how little the sins of selfishness and pride are mortified in most of the forwardest Christian even in them that go in mean attire How much they love and look to be esteemed to be taken notice of to be well thought of and well spoken of
grace and therefore he is an heir of Hâ—ll and belongs to me I ruled him and I must have him What would you think of a life of sin if once you had heard such accusations as these How would you deal by the next temptation if you had heard what use the tempter will hereafter make of all your sins 7. What if you had seen the damned in their misery and heard them cry out of the folly of their â—mpenitent careless lives and wishing as Dives Luke 16. that their friends on earth might have one sent from the dead to warn them that they come not to that place of torment I speak to men that say they are believers what would you do upon such a fight If you had heard them there torment themselves in the remembrance of the time they lost the mercy they neglected the grace resisted and wish it were all to do again and that they might once more be tried with another life If you saw how the world is altered with those that once were as proud and confident as others what do you think such a sight would do with you And why then doth the believing of it do no more when the â—hâ—ng is certain 8. Once more suppose that in your temptations you saw the tempter appearing to you and pleading with you as he doth by his inward suggestions or by the mouths of his instruments If you saw him and heard him hâ—ssing you on to sin perswading you to gluttony drunkenness or uncleanâ—ess If the Devil appeared to you and led you to the place of lust and offered you the harlot or the cup of excess and urged you to swear or curse or raâ—l or scorn at a holy life would not the sight of the Angler maâ— his gâ—me and 〈◊〉 your courage and spoil your sport and turn your stomâ—chs would you be drunk or filthy if you saw him stand by you Think on it the next tâ—me you are tempted Stout men have been apaled by such a sight And do you not believe that it 's he indeed that tempteth you As sure as if your eyes behâ—ld hâ—m â—t's he that prompteth men to â—â—er at godâ—iness and puts your wanton ribbald speeches and oaths and curses into yoâ—r mouths He is the Tutor of the enemies of grace that teacheth them docâ—è delâ—rare ingeniosè insanire ingeniously to quarrel with the way of life and learnedly to confute the arguments that would have saved them and subtilly to dispute themselves out of the hands of mercy and gallantly to scorn to stoop to Christ till there be no remedy and with plausible eloquence to commend the plague and sickness of their souls and irrefragâ—bly maintain it that the way to Hell will lead to Heaven and to justifie the sins that will condemn them and honourably and triumphantly to overcome their friends and to serve the Devil in mood and figâ—â—re and valiantly to cast themselves into Hell in despite of all the laws and reproofs of God or man that would have hindered them It being most certain that this is the Dâ—vils work and you durst not do it if he moved you to it with open face how dare you do it when faith would assure you that it 's as veriâ—y he as if you saw him More distinctly answâ—r these following Questions upon the foregoing suppositions Qâ—est 1. If you saw but what you say you do believe would you not be convinced that the most pleasant gainful sin is worse than madness and would you not spit at the very name of it and openly cry out of your open folly and beg for prayers and love reprovers and resolve to turn without delay Quest 2. What would you think of the most serious holy life if you had seen the things that you say you do believe would you ever again reproach it as preciseness or count it more ado than needs and think your time were better spent in playing than in praying in drinking and sports and filthy lusts than in the holy services of the Lord would you think then that one day in seven were too much for the work for which you live and that an hour on this holy day were enough to be spent in instructing you for eternity Or would you not believe that he is the blessed man whose delight is in the Law of God and meditateth in it day and night Could you plead for sensuality or ungodly negligence or open your mouths against the most serious holiness of life if Heaven and Hell stood open to your view Quest 3. If you saw but what you say you do believe would you ever again be offended with the Ministers of Christ for the plainest reproofs and closest exhortations and strictest precepts and discipline that now are disrelished so much Or rather would you not desire them to help you presently to try your states and to search you to the quick and to be more solicitous to save you than to please you The patient that will take no bitter medicine in time when he sees he must die would then take any thing When you see the things that now you hear of then you would do any thing O then might you have these daies again Sermons would not be too plain or long In season and out of season would then be allowed of Then you would understand what moved Ministers to be so importunate with you for conversion and whether trifling or serious preaching was the best Quest 4. Had you seen the things that you say you do believe what effect would Sermons have upon you after such a sight â—s this O what a change it would make upon our preaching and your hearing if we saw the things that we speak and hear of How fervently should we importune you in the name of Christ How attentively would you hear and carefully consider and obey we should then have no such sleepy preaching and hearing as now we have Could I but shew to all this Congregation while I am preaching the invisible world of which we preach and did you hear with Heaven and Hell in your eye sight how confident should I be though not of the saving change of all that I should this hour teach you to plead for sin and against a holy life no more and send you home another people than you came hither I durst then ask the worst that heareth me Dare you now be drunk or gluttonous or worldly dare you be voluptuous proud or fornicators any more Dare you go home and make a jest at piety and neglect your souls as you have done And why then should not the believed truth prevail if indeed you did believe it when the thing is as sure as if you saw it Quest 5. If you had seen what you say you do believe would you hunt as eagerly for wealth or honour and regard the thoughts or words of men as you did before Though it 's only the Believer that truly honoureth his Rulers for none else honour
in spirit can live upon a little and mind the things of the Spirit so much that they are more indifferent to their appetite And custom maketh abstinence and temperance sweet and easie to them For a well-used appetite is like well-taught children not so unmannerly nor craving nor bawling nor troublesome as the gluttons ill-used appetite is It troubles mens minds and taketh up their thoughts and commandeth their estates and devoureth their time and turneth out God and all that is holy and like a thirst in a dropsie it deâ—oureth all and is satisfied with nothing but encreaseth its self and the disease As if such men did live to eat when the temperate do eat to live 8 Lastly It is the height of this sin when you also cherish the gulosity and excess of others When for the Pride of great house-keeping you cause others to waste Gods creatures and their time and waste your estates to satisfie their luxury and to procure their vain applause Hab. 2.15 Wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink that puttest thy bottle to him and make-est him drunken also This is the Fulness which is forbidden of God Object But is it not said that Christ came eating and drinking and the Pharisees quarrelled with him and his Disciples because they did not fast as John and his Disciples did and they called him a gluttonous person and a wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners Answ 1. John lived in a wilderness upon locusts and wild honey and because Christ lived not such an austere eremetical life the quarrelsome Pharisees did thus calumniate him But Christ never lived in the least excess Mark that part of his life which they thus accused and you will find it such as the sensual will be loth to imitate 2. Christ was by office to converse with Publicans and sinners for their cure And this gave occasion to the calumnies of malice 3. There was a difference of Reasons for John's austerity and Christs But when he the Bridegroom was taken away he foretelleth that his followers should fast 4. Christ fasted forty daies at once and drank water and lived in perfect temperance Imitate him and we will not blame you for excess His example preached poverty in spirit Direct II. Remember the Reasons why fulness and gulosity are so much condemned by God viz. 1. A pampered appetite is unruly and feedeth your concupiscence The flesh is now become our most dangerous enemy and therefore it must be dangerous to pamper it to the strengthening of its lusts When even Paul was put to buffet and tame it and bring it into subjection for fear of proving a cast-away after all his wondrous labours 2. The pleasing of the appetite too much corrupteth the delight and rellish of the soul Delight in God and Heaven and Holiness is the summ and life of true Religion and the delights of sense and fleshly appetite turn away the soul from this and are most mortal enemies to these true delights For they that are after the flesh do mind or savour the things of the flesh and they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Rom. 8.6 7. And the carnal mind is enmity to God if it cannot be subject to his Law certainly it is unfit to rellish the sweetness of his Love and spiritual mercies 3. And the Thoughts themselves are corrupted and perverted by it They that should be thinking and caring how to please God are thinking and caring for their bellies Even when all their powers should be employed on God in meditation or in prayer their thoughts will be going after their fleshly appetite as Ezekiels hearers were after their covetousness 33.31 And as some of Christs hearers were after the loaves 4. The use of pleasing the fleshly appetite doth make men need riches which is a misery and a snare Such must needs have their desires satisfied and therefore cannot live on a little And therefore if they have riches their flesh devoureth almost all and they have little to spare for any charitable uses And if they have none they are tempted to steal or get it by some unlawful means And so it tempteth them to the love of money which is the root of all evil because they love the lust which needeth it 5. And it maketh them utterly unfit for suffering which Christ will have all his followers to expect He that is used to please his appetite will take that for a grievous life which another man will feel no trouble in If a full fed Gentleman or Dives were tyed to fare as the poor labourer doth at the best he would lament his case as if he were undone and would take that for half a martyrdom if it were on a pious pretence which his neighbour would account no suffering but a feast And will God reward men for such self-made sufferings How unfit is he to endure imprisonment banishment and want who hath alwaies used to please his flesh If God cast him into poverty how impatient would he be How plentifully and pleasantly would most poor Country-men think to live if they had but a hundred pounds a year of their own But if he that hath thousands and is used to fulness should be reduced to an hundred how querulous or impatient would he be 6. It maketh the body heavy and unfit for duty both duties of piety and the honest labours of your calling 7. It maketh the body diseased and so more unfit to serve the soul It is to be noted that the excess reproved by Paul at their Love-feasts was punished with sickness and with death And as that punishment had a moral suitableness to their sin so it is not unlike that according to Gods ordinary way of punishing it was also a natural effect of their excess 8. It is a most unsuitable thing to such great sinners as we are who have forfeited all our mercies and are called so loud to penitent humiliation when we should turn to the Lord with all our hearts with fasting weeping and mourning to be then pleasing our fleshly appetites with curiosities and excess is a sin that God once threatned in a terrible sort Isa 22.12 13. Fasting is in such cases a duty of Gods appointment Joel 2.12 Luke 2.37 1 Cor. 7.5 Cornelius his fasting and alms-deeds came up before God Acts 10.30 Daniel was heard upon his fast Dan. 9.3 Christ fasted when he entered solemnly on his work Matth. 4. And some Devils would not be cast out without fasting and prayer And is luxury fit in such a case 9. Lastly Remember what was said before that others are empty while we are full Thousands need all that we can spare And they are members of Christ and of the same body with us And so much as we waste on our appetite or pride so much the less we have to give And he that seeth his Brother in need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him when he cannot deny superfluities to himself how
and capacities by prayer and such distant means if they can do no more And the Religion which giveth every man so great an interest in the good of all others and engageth all men to do good to one another is evidently good it self 1 Cor. 12. Ephes 4.15 16. 29. And all this good is not destroyed but advantaged and aggravated accidentally by our sin So that where sin abounded there grace did superabound Rom. 5.15 16 17 18 19. Grace hath taken occasion by sin to be Grace indeed and to be the greater manifestation of the goodness of God and the greater obligation for gratitude to the sinner 30. Lastly All this Goodness is beautified by harmony it is all placed in a perfect order One mercy doth not keep us from another nor one grace oppose another nor one duty exclude another As it is the great declaration of Mercy and Justice wonderfully conspiring in God Mercy so used as to magnifie Justice Justice so used as to magnifie Mercy and not only so as to consist so also it worketh answerably on us It setteth not Love against filial fear not joy against necessary sorrow nor faith against repentance nor praise and thanksgiving against penitent confession of sin nor true repentance against the profitable use of the creatures nor the care of our souls against the peace and quiet of our minds nor care for our families against contentedness and trusting God nor our labour against our necessary rest nor self-denyal against the due care of our own welfare nor patience against due sensibility and lawful passion nor mercy to men against true justice nor publick and private good against each nor doth it set the duty of the Soveraign and the Subject the Master and the Servant the Pastor and the Flock nor yet their interest in any contrariety but all parts of Religion know their place and every duty even those which seem most opposite are helpful to each other and all interests are co-ordinate and all doth contribute to the good of the whole and of every part Ephes 4.2 3 15 16. And now peruse all this together but let it have more of your thoughts by far than it hath had of my words and then determine indifferently whether the Christian Religion bear not the lively Image and superscription of GOD the prime essential GOOD But all this will be more manifest when we have considered how POWER hath in the execution brought all this into effect CHAP. VI. The Image of Gods Power III. THE third part of Gods Image and superscription on the Christian Religion is his POWER And as mans own corruption lyeth more in the want of Wisdom and Goodness than of Power therefore he is less capable of discerning God in the impressions of his Wisdom and Goodness than of his Power seeing therefore he is here most capable of conviction and acknowledging the hand of God I shall open this also in the several parts in some degree 1. In the history of the Creation the Omnipotency of God is abundantly set forth which is proved true both by the agreeableness of the history to the effects and by much subsequent evidence of the Writers Veracity 2. The same may be said of Gods drowning the old world and the preserving of Noah and his family in the Ark. 3. And of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from Heaven 4. The many miracles done by Moses upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians and in the opening of the Red Sea and in the feeding of the Israelites in the wilderness and keeping their cloths from wearing for forty years and the pillar which went before them as a fire by night and a cloud by day for so long time and the darkness and thunder and trembling of the Mount at the giving of the Law with the rest of the Miracles then done not in a corner or before a few but before all the people who were perswaded to receive and obey the Law by the reason of these motives which their eyes had seen And if all this had been false if no plagues had been shewed on Egypt if no Red Sea had opened if no Pillar had gone before them if no such terrible sights and sounds at Mount Sinai had prepared them for the Law such reasons would have been so unfit to have perswaded them to obedience that they would rather with any reasonable creatures have procured scorn And to shew posterity that the history of all this was not forged or to be suspected 1. They had the Law it self then delivered in two Tables of stone to be still seen 2. They had a pot of Manna still preserved 3. They had the miracle-working Rod of Moses and Aaron kept likewise as a monument 4. They had an Ark of purpose to keep these in and that in the most inviolable place of worship 5. They had the brazâ—n Serpent till Hezekiah broke it still to be seen 6. They had the song of their deliverance at the Red Sea for their continued use 7. They had set feasts to keep the chief of all these things in remembrance They had the feast of unleavened bread which all Israel was to observe for seven daies to keep the remembrance of their passing out of Egypt in so great haste that they could not stay to knead up and make their bread but took it as in meal or unready dough They had the feast of the Passeover when every family was to eat of the Paschal Lamb and the door posts to be sprinkled with the blood to keep in remembrance the night when the Egyptians first born were destroyed and the Israelites all preserved And if these had been instituted at that time upon a pretended occasion which they knew to be untrue they would rather have derided than observed them If they had been afterwards instituted in another generation which knew not the story the beginning would have been known and the fiction of the name and institution of Moses would have been apparent to all and the institution would not have been found in the same Law which was given by Moses And it could not have been so expresly said that the Israelites did all observe these feasts and solemnities from the very time of their deliverance but in those times when the forgery began all would have known it to be false 8. And they had many other words and ceremonies among them and even in Gods Publick Worship which were all used to keep up the memory of these things 9. And they had an office of Priesthood constantly among them which saw to the execution and preservation of all these 10. And they had a form of civil Policy then established and and the Rulers were to preserve the memory of these things and the practice of this Law and to learn it themselves and govern by it so that the very form of the Common-wealth and the order of it was a commemoration hereof And the Parents were to teach and tell their children all
both to the Father and to us and so of our NEARNESS to God in and by him Our distance is the lamentable fruit of our Apostacy which inferreth our fears and estrangedness and backwardness to draw near to God It causeth our ignorance of him and our false conceits of his will and works it greatly hindereth both love and confidence whereas the apprehension of our nearness to God will do much to cure all these evils As it is the misery of the proud that God looketh on them as afar off that is with strangeness and abhorrence and disdain Psal 138.6 And accordingly they shall be far off from the blessed ones hereafter Luke 16.23 So it is the happiness of Believers to be nigh to God in Jesus Christ who condescended to be nigh to us which is our preparation to be yet nearer to him for ever Psal 148.14 34.18 145.18 Ephes 2.13 It giveth the soul more familiar thoughts of God who seemed before to be at an inaccessible distance which is part of the boldness of access and confidence mentioned Ephes 3.12 2.18 Rom. 5.2 Heb. 10.19 We may come boldly to the Throne of grace Heb. 4.16 And it greatly helpeth us in the work of Love to think how near God is come to us in Christ and how near he hath taken the humane nature unto him When a sinner looketh at God only as in himself and as he is estranged from the guilty he is amazed and confounded as if God were quite out of the reach of our love but when he thinketh how he hath voluntarily come down into our flesh that he might be man and be familiar with man and what a wonderful marriage the Divine Nature hath made with the humane this wonderfully reconcileth the heart to God and maketh the thoughts of him more sweet and acceptable If the life of faith be a dwelling in God and God in us and a walking with God 1 Joh. 3.24 4.12 15 16. Ephes 3.17 Gen. 17.1 24.40 5.22 6.9 Heb. 11.5 Then must we perceive our nearness to God The just apprehension of this nearness in Christs Incarnation and Relation to us is the chief means to bring us to the nearness of love and heavenly conversation Col. 3.1 3 4. Direct 8. Make Christ therefore the Mediation for all your practical thoughts of God The thoughts of God will be strange to us through our distance and terrible through our guilt if we look not upon him through the prospective of Christs humanity and cross God out of Christ is a consuming fire to guilty souls As our acceptance must be through the Beloved in whom he is well pleased so our thoughts must be encouraged with the sense of that acceptance and every thought must be led up to God and emboldened by the Mediatour Mat. 3.17 17.5 12.18 Ephes 1.6 Heb. 2.9 10 12 13 17. Direct 9. Never come to God in prayer or any other act of worship but by the Mediation of the Son and put all your prayers as into his hand that he may present them to the Father There is no hoping for any thing from God to sinners but by Christ and therefore there is no speaking to God but by him not only in his Name but also by his Mediation And this is the exercise of his Priesthood for us by his heavenly intercession so much spoken of by the Holy Ghost in the Epistle to the Hebrews Seeing we have a great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession Let us therefore come boldly to the Throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4.14 16. Direct 10. Hear every word of Scripture Precept and Ministerial Exhortation consonant to the Scripture as sent to us by Christ and from the Father by him as the appointed Teacher of the Church Hear Christ in his Gospel and his Ministers and hear God the Father in the Son Take heed of giving only a slight and verbal acknowledgement of the voice of Christ whilest you really are more taken with the Preachers voice as if he had a greater share in the Sermon than Christ hath The voice in the holy Mount which Peter witnesseth that he heard 2 Pet. 1.17 was This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Mat. 17.5 And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people Acts 3.23 When ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the Word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which worketh effectually in you that believe 1 Thes 2.13 The Sheep will follow him for they know his voice a stranger they will not follow John 10.4 5. Direct 11. Take every mercy from God as from the hand of Christ both as procured by his Cross and as delivered by his Mediatory Administration It is still supposed that the giving of the Son himself by the Father to this office is excepted as presupposed But all subsequent particular mercies are both procured for us and given to us by the Mediator Yet is it nevertheless from God the Father nor doth it evertheless but the more fully signifie his love But the state of sinners alloweth them no other way of communication from God for their benefit and happiness but by one who is more near and capable to God who from him may convey all blessings unto them Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in things heavenly in Christ Ephes 1.3 He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 Through the knowledge of him the Divine Power giveth us all things that pertain to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1.3 God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son 1 John 5.10 11. All things are delivered into his hand Joh. 13.3 17.2 Therefore receive every particular mercy for soul and body as from the blood and from the present mediation of Christ that you may rightly understand it and have it as sanctified and sweetned by Christ Direct 12. Let Faith take occasion by every sin to renew your sense of the want of Christ and to bring you to him to meditate and grant you a renewed pardon Therefore entertain not their mistake who tell men that all sin past present and to come is fully pardoned at once whether it be before you were born in Gods decree or Christs satisfaction or at the time of your conversion nor theirs who teach that Christ pardoneth only sins before conversion but as for all that are committed afterward he doth prevent the need of pardon by preventing all guilt and obligation to punishment except meer temporal chastisement The preparation
after pardon that your faith may be firm and powerful and quieting especially consider the following grounds 1. Gods gracious Nature proclaimed even to Moses as abundant in mercy and forgiving iniquitys transgressions and sins to these and upon those terms that he promiseth forgiveness though he will by no means clear the guilty that is will neither take the unrighteous to be righteous nor forgive them or acquire them in judgment whom his Covenant did not first forgive 2. The merciful Nature and of our Redeemer Heb. 2.17 3. How deeply Christ harh engaged himself to shew mercy when he assumed our nature and did so much towards our salvation as he hath done Heb. 8 9. 4. That it is his very office and undertaking which therefore he cannot possibly neglect Luke 19.10 2.11 John 4.42 Acts 5.31 13.23 5. That God the Father himself did give him to us and appoint him to this saving office John 3.16 18. Acts 5.31 13.23 Yea God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing to them their trespasses 2 Cor. 5.18 19. And God made him sin that is a sacrifice for sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him that is might be the publick instances of Gods merciful Justice as Christ was of his penal Justice and this by a righteousness given us by God himself and purchased or merited for us by Christ 2 Cor. 5.21 yea and be renewed in holiness and righteousness according to his Image 6. That now it is become the very interest of God and of Jesus Christ himself to justifie us as ever he would not lose either the glory of his grace or the obedience and suffering which he hath performed Isa 53.19 Rom. 5.12 13 18 19 c. Rom. 4. throughout 7. Consider the nearness of the Person of Christ both to the Father and to us Heb. 1 2 3. 8. Think of the perfection of his sacrifice and merit set out throughout the Epistle to the Hebrews 9. Think of the word of Promise or Covenant which he hath made and sealed and sworn Heb. 6.17 18. Titus 1.2 10. Think of the great seal of the Spirit which is more than a Promise even an earnest which is a certain degree of possession and is an executive pardon as after shall be declared Rom. 8.15 16. Gal. 4.6 11. Remember that Gods own Justice is now engaged for our Justification in these two respects conjunct 1. Because of the fulness of the merits and satisfaction of Christ 2. And because of his Veracity which must fulfil his promise and his governing or destributive Justice which must judge men according to his own Law of Grace and must give men that which he himself hath made their right 2 Tim. 4.7 8. 1 John 5.9 10 11 12. 12. Lastly Think of the many millions now in Heaven of whom many were greater sinners than you and no one of them save Christ came thither by the way of innocency and legal Justification There are no Saints in Heaven that were not redeemed from the captivity of the Devil and justified by the way of pardoning grace and were not once the heirs of death John 3.3 5. Rom. 3 4. Upon these considerations trust your selves confidently on the grace of Christ and take all your sins but as the advantages of his grace Direct 9. Remember that there is somewhat on your own parts to be done for the continuing as well as for the beginning of your Justification yea somewhat more than for the beginning even the faithful keeping of your baptismal Covenant in the essentials of it and also that you have continual need of Christ to continue your Justification Many take Justification to be one instantanious act of God which is never afterwards to be done And so it is if we mean only the first making of him righteous who was unrighteous As the first making of the world and not the continuance of it is called Creation but this is but about the name For the thing it self no doubt but that Covenant which first justified us doth continue to justifie us and if the cause should cease the effect would cease And he that requireth no actual obedience as the condition of our begun Justification doth require both the continuance of faith and actual sincere obedience as the condition of continuing or not losing our Justification as Davenant Bergius Blank c. have well opened and I have elsewhere proved at large As Matrimony giveth title to conjugal priviledges to the wife but conjugal fidelity and performance of the essentials of the contract is necessary to continue them Therefore labour to keep up your faith and to abide in Christ and he in you and to bring forth fruit lest ye be branches withered and for the fire John 15.2 3 7 8 9 c. And upon the former misapprehension the same persons do look upon all the faith which they exercise through their lives after the first instantanious act as no justifying faith at all but only a faith of the same kind but to what use they hardly know Yea they look upon Christ himself as if they had no more use for him either as to continue their Justification or to forgive their after-sins when as our continued faith must be exercised all our lives on the same Christ and trust on the same Covenant for the continuation and perfection of that which was begun at the time of our Regeneration Col. 1.23 1 John 2.24 Heb. 3.6.12 13. Heb. 6.11 12. 10.22 23. Direct 10. Vnderstand that every sin which you commit hath need of a renewed pardon in Christ and that he doth me prevent your necessity of such pardon And therefore you will have constant need of Christ and must daily come to God for pardon by him not only for the pardon of temporal chastisements but of everlasting punishments Of the sense of this I shall say more anon the proof of it is in the fore recited Promises and in all those texts of Scripture which tell us that death is the wages of sin and call us to ask pardon and tell us on what terms it may be had Direct 11. Yet do not think that every sin doth put you into a state of condemnation again or nullifie your former Justification For though the Law of nature is so far still in force as to make punishment by it your natural due yet the Covenant of Grace is a continually pardoning act and according to its proper terms doth dissolve the foresaid obligation and presently remit the punishment and as its moral action is not interrupted no more is our justified state There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus c. Rom. 8.1 John 3.16 18. 1 John 5.11 12. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins 1 John 2.1 2. If we confess our sins be
and some among men are meritorious And with God every act that is chosen by him to be a condition of his gift is pleasing to him for some special aptitude which it hath to that office This is the full truth and the plain truth about conditions Errour 18. There is no degree of pardon given to any that are not perfectly justified and that shall not be saved But the giving of the Spirit so far as to cause us to believe and repent is sâ—me degree of executive pardon Therefore we are justified before we believe Contr. There is a great degree of pardon given to the world before conversion which shall yet justifie and save none but Believers Gods giving a Saviour to the world and a New Covenant and in that an universal conditional pardon yea his giving them teaching exhortations and offers of free grace and his giving them life and time and many mercies which the full execution of the Law would have deprived them of is a very great degree of pardon God pardoned to mankind much of the penalty which sin deserved even presently after the first transgression in the promâ—se made to Adam Gen. 3.15 Many texts of Scripture which partial men for their opinions sake do pervert do speak magnificently of a common pardon which must be sued out and made particular upon our believing The world was before under so much impossibility of being saved by any thing that they could do that they must have procured all to be done first which Christ hath done and suffered for them which was utterly above their power They that were actually obliged to bear the pains of death both temporal spiritual and eternal are now so far redeemed pardoned and delivered that all the merit and satisfaction necessary to actual forgiveness is made for them by another and no one of them all shall perish for want of a Sacrifice made and accepted for them and an universal conditional pardon is enacted sealed and recorded and offered and urged on all to whom the Gospel cometh and nothing but their obstinate wilful refusal or neglect can deprive them of it And this is so great a degree of pardon that it is called often by such absolute names as if all were done because all is done which concerneth God as Legislator or Covenant maker to do before our own Acceptance of it Suppose a Prince redeem all his captive subjects from the Turkish slavery and one half of them so love their state of bondage or some harlot or ill company there yea if all of them do so till half of them are perswaded from it that they will not come away It is no improper nor unusual language to say that he hath redeemed them and given them a release though they would not have it That may be given to a man which he never hath because he refuseth to accept it when the Donor hath done all that belongeth to him in that relation of a Donor though perhaps as a Perswader he might do more This is the sense of Heb. 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins or made purgation of our sins he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high that is when he had become a sacrifice for sin and sealed the Covenant by his blood For actual personal pardon was not given by him before our acceptance This is the plain sense of 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing to them their trespasses that is purchasing and giving them a pardoning Covenant and hath committed to us the word and ministry of reconciliation Now then we are Embassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God John 1.29 36. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world that is as a sacrifice for sin As Heb. 9.26 Once in the end of the world he hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Though the sacrifice as offered only doth not actually and fully pardon it The same as Heb. 10.12 After he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God So Matth. 18.27 32. He forgave him the debt I forgave thee all that debt viz. conditionally and as David forgave Shimei Psal 78.38 He forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not that is he forgave the temporal punishment and suspended the execution of eternal punishment giving them yet more time and offers of repentance and of further mercy And so he forgave Ahab and Nineve upon their humiliation Numb 14.19 Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt until now So Psal 85.2 3. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people thou hast covered all their sins thou hast taken away all thy wrath Turn us O God of our salvation and cause thine anger to cease wilt thou be angry with us for ever So that they are two palpable errors here asserted by the objecters viz. that there is no degree of pardon to such as are not saved and that we are justified when ever we have any degree of pardon We may be so far pardoned as to have grace given us effectually to believe and yet our Justification or the Covenant-forgiveness of eternal punishment is in order of nature after our believing and not before it Errour 19. That our natures are as far from being able to believe in Christ as from being able to fulfil the Law of works and to be justified by it they being equally impossible to us and as much help is necessary to one as to the other Contr. To be justified by the Law of works when we have once broken it is a contradiction and a natural impossibility as it is to be at once a sinner and no sinner But so it is not for a sinner to believe in Christ The impossibility is but moral at most which consisteth not in a want of natural faculties or power but in the want of a right dâ—spâ—sition or willingness of mind And to fulfil the Law of God and to be perfect for the future is surely a far higher degree of spiritual grace and excellency than to be a poor weak sinful believer dâ—siring to fulfil it Therefore our sinful natures are much farther off from perfection than from faith 3. And though the same Omnipotency do all Gods works for all Gods Power is Omnipotency yet it is not equally put forth and manifested in all his works The moving of a feather and the making of the world are both works of Omnipotency but not equal works or exertions of it 4. And it is certain that in verum natura there is such a thing as a proper Power given by God to do many things that nâ—ver are done and that necessary grace which some call sufficient which is not eventually effectual for
11. Exod. 12.29 Deut. 26.22 Josh 4.6 21 22. 22 24 27. Therefore the writing of Church-history is the duty of all ages because Gods Works are to be known as well as his Word And as it is your forefathers duty to write it it is the childrens duty to learn it or else the writing it would be vain He that knoweth not what state the Church and world is in and hath been in in former ages and what God hath been doing in the world and how errour and sin have been resisting him and with what success doth want much to the compleating of his knowledge 5. And he must have prudence to discern particular cases and to consider of all circumstances and to compare things with things that he may discern his duty and the seasons and manner of it and may know among inconsistent seeming duties which is to be preferred and when and what circumstances or accidents do make any thing a duty which else would be no duty or a sin and what accidents make that a sin which without them would be a duty This is the knowledge which must make a Christian entire or compleat 2. And in his Will there must be 1. A full resignation and submission to the Will of God his Owner and a full subjection and obedience to the Will of God his Governour yielding readily and constantly and resolutâ—ly to the commands of God as the Scholar obeyeth his Master and as the second wheel in the clock is moved by the first And a close adhering to God as his chief Good by a Thankful Reception of his Benefits and a desirous seeking to enjoy and glorifie him and please his Will In a word loving him as God and taking our chiefest complacency in pleasing him in loving him and being loved of him 2. And in the same will there must be a well regulated Love to all Gods works according as he is manifested or glorified in them To the humanity of our Redeemer to the glory of Heaven as it is a created thing to the blessed Angels and perfected spirits of the just to the Scripture to the Church on earth to the Saints the Pastors the Rulers the holy Ordinances to all mankind even to our enemies to our selves our souls our bodies our relations our estates and mercies of every rank 3. And herewithall must be a hatred of every sin in our selves and others Of former sin and present corruption with a penitential displicence and grief and of possible sin with a vigilancy and resistance to avoid it 3. And in the Affections there must be a vivacity and sober fervency answering to all these motions of the Will in Love Delight Desire Hope Hatred Sorrow Aversation and Anger the complexion of all which is godly Zeal 4. In the vital and executive Power of the soul there must be a holy activity promptitude and fortitude to be up and doing and to set the sluggish faculties on work and to bring all knowledge and volitions into practice and to assault and conquer enemies and difficulties There must be the Spirit of Power though I know that word did chiefly then denote the Spirit of Miracles yet not only and of Love and of a sound mind 5. In the outward members there must be by use a habit of ready obedient execution of the souls commands As in the tongue a readiness to pray and praise God and declare his Word and edifie others and so in the rest 6. In the senses and appetite there must by use be a habit of yielding obedience to Reason that the senses do not rebel and rage and bear down the commands of the mind and will 7. Lastly In the Imagination there must be a clearness or purity from filthiness malice covetousness pride and vanity and there must be the impressions of things that are good and useful and a ready obedience to the superiour faculties that it may be the instrument of holiness and not the shop of temptations and sin nor a wild unruly disordered thing And the harmony of all these must be as well observed as the matter As 1. There must be a just Order among them every duty must keep its proper place and season 2. There must be a just proportion and degree some graces must not wither whilst others alone are cherished nor some duties take up all our heart and time whilst others are almost laid by 3. There must be a just activity and exercise of every grace 4. And a just conjunction and respect to one another that every one be used so as to be a help to all the rest I. The Order 1. Of Intellectual graces and duties must be this 1. In order of Time the things which are sensible are known before the things which are beyond our sight and other senses 2. Beyond these the first thing known both for certainly and for excellency is that there is a God 3. This God is to be known as one Being in his three Essential Principles Vital Power Intellect and Will 4. And these as in their Essential Perfections Omnipotency Wisdom and Goodness or Love 5. And also in his perfections called Modal and Negative c. as Immensity Eternity Independancy Immutability c. 6. God must be next known in his Three Personalities as the Father the Word or Son and the Spirit 7. And these in their three Causalities efficient dirigent and final 8. And in their three great works Creation Redemption Sanctification or Perfection producing Nature Grace and Glory or our Persons Medicine and Health 9. And God who created the world is thereupon to be known in his Relations to it as our Creator in Unity and as our Owner Ruler and Chief Good efficient dirigent and final in a Trinity of Relations You must know how the Infinite Vital Power of the Father created all things by the Infinite Wisdom of the Word or Son and by the Infinite Goodness and Love of the holy Spirit As the Son redeemed us as the eternal Wisdom and Word Incarnate sent by the eternal Vital-Power of the Father to reveal and communicate the eternal Love in the Holy Ghost And as the Holy Ghost doth sanctifie and perfect us as proceeding and sent from the Power of the Father and the Wisdom of the Son to shed abroad the Love of God upon our hearts c. 10. Next to the knowledge of God as Creator is to be considered the World which he created and especially the Intectellual Creatures Angels or heavenly Spirits and Men. Man is to be known in his person or constitution first and afterward in his appointed course and in his end and perfection 11. In his constitution is to be considered 1. His Being or essential parts 2. His Rectitude or Qualities 3. His Relations 1. To his Creatour And 2. To his fellow-creatures 12. His essential parts are his soul and body His soul is to be known in the Vnity of its Essence and Trinity of essential faculties which is its natural
will not let man know it also and turn one sin against another and let the love of Reputation help to subdue the love of Lust Opening a sin yea or a strong temptation to a sin doth lay an engagement in point of common credit in the world upon them that were before under the divine engagements only It will be a double shame to sin when once it 's known And as Christ speaketh of a right hand or eye so may I of your honour in this case it is better go to Heaven with the shame of a penitent confession than to keep your honour till you are in Hell The loss of mens good opinion is an easie price to prevent the loss of your salvation Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy So 1 John 1.9 10. James 5.15 16. Direct 14. Especially take heed of heinous sins called mortal because inconsistent with sincerity Direct 15. And take heed of those sins which your selves or others that fear God are in greatest danger of Of which I will speak a little more distinctly CHAP. XIII What sins the best should most watchfully avoid and wherein the infirmities of the upright dâ—ffer from mortal sins Qâ—est WHat sins are religious people who fear sin most in danger of and where must they set the strongest watch Answ 1. They are much in danger of those sins the temptations to which are neer and importunate and constant and for which they have the greatest opportunities They have senses and appetites as well as others And if the bait be great and alwaies as at their very mouths even a David a Solomon a Noah is not safe 2. They are in danger of those sins which they little think of for it is a sign that they are not forewarned and fortified nor have they overcome that sin for victory here is never got at so cheap a rate especially as to inward sins If it have not cost you many a groan and many a daies diligence to conquer selfishness pride and appetite it 's twenty to one they are not conquered 3. They are much in danger of those sins which they extenuate and count to be smaller than they are For indeed their hearts are infected already by those false and favourable thoughts And they are prepared to entertain a neerer familiarity with them Men are easily tempted upon a danger which seemeth small 4. They are much in danger of those sins which their constitutions and temperature of body doth encline them to and therefore must here keep a double watch No small part of the punishment of our Original sin both as from Adam and from our neerest Parents is found in the ill complexion of our bodies The temperature of some inclineth them vehemently to passion and of others unto lust and of others to sloth and dulness and of others to gulosity c. And grace doth not immediately change this distemper of the complexion but only watch over it and keep it under and abate it consequently by contrary actions and mental dispositions Therefore we shall have here uncessant work while we are in the body Though yet the power of grace by long and faithful use will bring the very sense and imagination and passions into so much calmness as to be far less raging and easily ruled As a well ridden horse will obey the Rider and even dogs and other bruits will strive but little against our government And then our work will grow more easie For as Seneca saith Maxima pars libertatis est bene moratus venter A good conditioned belly is a great part of a mans liberty meaning an ill conditioned belly is a great part of mens slavery And the same may be said of all the senses fantasie and passions in their respective places 5. We are much in danger of the sins which our callings trades and worldly interest do most and constantly tempt us to Every man hath a carnal interest which is his great temptation and every wise man will know it and there set a double watch The carnal interest of a Preacher is applause or preferment The carnal interest of Rulers and great men I shall pass by but they must not pass it by themselves The carnal interest of Lawyers and Tradesmen is their gain c. Here we must keep a constant watch 6. We are much in danger of those sins the matter of which is somewhat good or lawful and the danger lyeth only in the manner circumstances or degree For there the lawfulness of the matter occasioneth men to forget the accidental evil The whole Kingdom feeleth the mischief of this in instances which I will now pass by If eating such or such a meat were not lawful it self men would not be so easily drawn to gluttony If drinking wine were not a lawful thing the passage to drunkenness were not so open The apprehension that a lusory lot is a lawful thing as Cards Dâ—ce c. doth occasion the heinous sin of time-wasting and estate-wasting gamesters If apparel were not lawful excess would not be so easily endured Yea the goodness of Gods own Worship quieteth many in its great abuse 7. We are much in danger of those sins which are not in any great disgrace among those persons whom we most honour and esteem It is a great mercy to have sin lie under a common odium and disgrace As swearing and drunkenness and cursing and fornication and Popish errours and superstition is now amongst the forwardest Professors in England For here conscience is most awakened and helped by the opinion of men or if there be some carnal respect to our reputation in it sometimes yet it tendeth to suppress the sin And it is a great plague to live where any great sin is in little disgrace as the prophanation of the Lords day in most of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea and they say tipling if not drunkenness in Germany and as backbiting and evil speaking against those that differ from them is among the Professors in England for too great a part and also many superstitions of their own and dividing principles and practices 8. But especially if the greater number of godly people live in such a sin then is the temptation great indeed and it is but few of the weaker sort that are not carryed down that stream The Munster case and the Rebellion in which Munster perished in Germany and many other but especially abundance of Schisms from the Apostles daies till now are too great evidences of mens sociableness in sinning We all like sheep have gone astray and turned every one to his own way Isa 53 6. And like sheepâ—n â—n this that if one that is leading get over the hedge all the rest will follow after but especially if the greater part be gone And do not think that our Churches are infallible and that the greater part of the godly cannot erre or be in the wrong For that would
words which are apt and orderly and moving and to do all with such skill and reverence and seriousness as tendeth not to encrease but to cure the dulness hypocrisie and unreverence of others Eccles 5.1 2. Matth. 6.7 8 9 10 c. Direct 11. Pray as earnestly as if God himself were to be moved with your prayers Yet so as to remember that the change is not to be made upon him but upon you As when the Boat-man layeth hold upon the bank he draweth the Boat to it and not the bank unto the Boat Prayer fitteth you to receive the mercy both naturally as it exciteth your desires after it and morally as it is a condition on which God hath promised to give it when you pray you tell God nothing which before he knew not better than you But you tell him that in confession and petition which he will hear from your own mouths before he will judge you meet for the mercies which you are to pray for In summ pray because you believe that praying Believers shall have the promised blessing And believe particularly and absolutely that you shall have that promised blessing through Christ because you are praying Believers and therefore the persons to whom it is promised CHAP. XXIII How to live by Faith towards Children and other Relations Direct 1. BElieve Gods Promises made to Believers and their seed of which I have written at large in my treatise of Infant-baptism And labour to understand how far thoâ—e promises extend both as to the persons and the blessings There was never an age of the world in which God did not distinguish the holy seed even Believers and their Children from the rest of the world and take them as those that were specially in his Covenant Direct 2. Let not your conceits of the bare birth-priviledge make you omit your serious solemn and believing Dedication of them unto God and entering them into his Covenant For the reason why your seed is called Holy and in a better case than the seed of Infidels is not meerly because they are the off-spring of your bodies and have their natures from you much less as deriving any grace or vertue from you by generation But because you are persons your selves who have dedicated your selves with all that you have absolutely to God by Christ And they being your own and therefore at your disposal your wills are taken for their wills so far as you act in their names and on their behalf And therefore when you dedicate them to God you do but that which you have both power and command to do And therefore God accepteth what you so dedicate to him And Baptism is the regular way in which this dedication should be solemnly made But if through the want of a Minister or water or time this be not done your believing dedication of your child to God without Baptism shall be accepted For it is the substance and not the sign the will and not the water which God requireth in this case Quest But what then shall we think of the children of godly Anabaptists whose Judgement is against such dedication Answ Many whose Judgement is against baptizing them is not against an offering or dedicating them to God And those who think that they are not allowed solemnly to enter them into Covenant with God yet really do that which is the same thing For they cannot be imagined to be unwilling to dedicate them to God to the utmost of that interest and power which they understand that God hath given them and doubtless they most earnestly desire that according to their capacity they may be the children of God and God will be their God in Christ And this vertual dedication seemeth to be the principal requisite condition But yet as the unbaptized are ordinarily without the visible Church and its priviledges so if any be so blind as neither explicitely nor vertually to dedicate their seed to God I know no promise of their childrens salvation any more than of the seed of Infidels Direct 3. If the children of true Christians dedicated by the Parents will to God through Christ shall die before they come to the use of reason the Parents have no cause to doubt of their salvation It is the conclusion of the Synod of Dort in Artic. 1. And the reason is this If the Parent and child be in the same Covenant then if that Covenant pardon and adopt the Parent it doth pardon and adopt the child But the Parent and child are in the same Covenant Therefore c. God hath but one Covenant on his part which is sealed by baptism as I have proved at large to Mr. Blake Indeed some are only externally in Covenant with him on their part that is they did covenant only with the tongue and not the heart And consequently God is no further in covenant with them than to allow and command his Ministers to receive them into the Visible Church and give them its priviledges and is not as a Promiser in Covenant with them at all himself either for inward or for outward blessings He hath not one Covenant which giveth outward and another which giveth inward blessings And it is here supposed that the only condition prerequisite on the Infants part that he may have right to this Covenant and its blessings is that he be the seed of a true Believer and dedicated in Covenant to God by the Parents will or act Actual Faith is not prerequired Seminal grace may be inherent but 1. Not known to the Baptizer 2. Nor prerequired as a condition but liker to be given by vertue of the Covenant Nothing else therefore being prerequisite as a condition it followeth that as the Parents dedicating themselves to God if baptized at age is the condition of their certain title to the present blessings of the Covenant viz. that God be their Father Christ their Saviour and the Spirit in Covenant to operate in them to sanctification and their sins are all pardoned and they are heirs of Heaven even so upon the Parents dedication of their children to God they have right to the same blessings else why do we baptize them seeing Baptism in the true nature and use of it is a solemn dedicating them to God in that same Covenant and a solemn investing them in the relations and rights of that same pardoning Covenant and not in any other I do not say that all baptized Infants so dying are saved be they the children of Infidels or Heathens and remaining their true propriety nor those that are offered and baptized never so wrongfully or hypocritically nor will I stay to dispute for what I have asserted But 1. I exhort Christians believingly to dedicate their children in Covenant with God in Christ And 2. To believe that if they so dye that Covenant of Christ forbiddeth them to doubt of their salvation Direct 4. Let your Duty be answerable to your hope And do not only pray for your childrens
Matth. 25. 2 Pet. 4.13 Direct 7. Thinks what a day it will be to the shame of sin when it shall be the reproach and terrour of the world and to the Honour of Holiness when faith obedience and love shall be the approved honour of all the Saints And what a day of admirable Justice it will be when all that seems crooked here shall be set strait O the difference that there will then be in the thoughts of sin and holiness in comparison of those that men have of them now Direct 8. Think what a confounding day it will be to the infernal Serpent and all his seed Matth. 25.41 16. When impudent boasters shall then be speechless and all iniquity shall stop her mouth Matth. 25.44 22.12 Psal 107.42 And when Lazarus shall be seen in Abraham's bosome and the enemies of the Saints shall see them advanced as Haman did Mâ—rdecai and rejoycing when the Glory of Christ is revealed 1 Pet. 4.13 When every scorners mouth shall be stopped and all stand guilty before their Judge Rom. 3.4.19 and the wretched unprepared souls must for departing from God be sentenced to depart into misery for ever Matth. 25.41 46. Jude v. 6. Direct 9. And think what a change that day beginneth both with the Saints and with the world What a glory is it that we must immediately possess in body and soul and how we must partake of the Kingdom of our Lord Saints shall be scorned and persecuted no more The threatnings and promises of Christ shall be no more denyed by unbelievers Sin will be no more in honour nor pride and sensuality bear sway The Church will be no more ecclipsed either by its lamentable imperfections and diseased members or by the divisions of sects or the scatterings of the cruel or the slanders of the lying tongue Ephes 5.17 Satan will no more tempt or trouble us Rev. 12.9 Matth. 25.41 Sin and death will be excluded and all the fears and horrours of both For the face of Infinite Love will perfectly and perpetually shine upon us and shine us into perfect perpetual Glory Love and Joy and will feed these and the thankful and praâ—seful expressions of them to all eternity Matth. 5.46 2 Cor. 4.17 Rev. 2 3. Direct 10. Lastly Think how neer all this must needs be If the day of the Lord was near in the times of the Apostles it cannot be far off to us If the worlds duration be to six thousand years the time which arrogant presumption most plausibly guesseth at it will be less than 350 years to it Though we know not the time we know it cannot be long And let me conclude with a warning to both sorts of Readers And 1. To the ungodly unprepared sinner Poor soul dost thou believe this dreadful day or not if not why dost thou dissemble by professing it in thy Creed if thou do how 〈◊〉 thou live so merrily or quietly in a careless unprepared state Canst thou possibly forget so great so sure so near a day Alas it will be another kind of meeting than Christ had with sinners upon earth when he came in meekness and humiliation not to judge and condemn the world bâ—t to be falsly judged and condemned by them John 3.17 12.47 Nor will it be such a meeting as Christ had with thee either by his Ministers that called thee to repent who were men whom thou couldest easily despise or by his Spirit which thou couldest resist and quench or by his afflicting Rod which did but say to thee Go sin no more lest worse befall thee Joh. 5.14 Heb. 12.10 12. 1 Tim. 5.24 Nor as the Judgment of mans Assize which passeth sentence only against a temporal life Luke 12.4 Nor like the treaty of a Judas with his new awakened conscience here O no! It will be a more glorious but more dreadful day It will be the meeting not only of a creature with his Creatour but of a sinner with a just and holy God and of a despiser of grace with the God whom he despised O terrible day to the unbelieving ungodly carnal and impenitent Heb. 10.31 2.3 10.12 Luke 19.27 There must thou appear to receive thy final doom to hear the last word that ever thou must hear from Jesus Christ unless his everlasting wrath be called his Word And O how different will it be from the words which thou wast wont to hear Thou wast wont to hear the calls of grace Mercy did intreat thee to return to God Christ by his Ministers did beseech thee to be reconciled But if thou intreat him for pardon and peace with the loudest cryes it would be all in vain Matth. 7.21 22 23. Prev 1.27 28. Now the voice is Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world John 1.29 But then it will be Behold he cometh with clouds end every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him Rev. 1.7 And behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upâ—n all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Jude 14 15. Now he entreateth you to come to him that you may have life John 5 40. But then you will cry to the Mountains to fall upon you and the hills to cover you from his presence Luke 23.30 Rev. 6.16 Now he saith Behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Rev. 3.20 But when once you hear that midnight cry Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye forth and meet him then they that are ready shall go in and the door shall be shut against the rest Matth. 25.9 10. The door of mercy shall be shut Your Reprobation will be then made sure Rom. 9.22 2.5 The day of thy visitation is then past Luke 19.41 42. No more offers of Christ and mercy No more intreaties to accept them No more calls to turn and live Minâ—sters must no more preach and perswade and intreat in vain Friends must no more warn thee and pray for thee All is done already that they can do for thy soul for ever No more strivings of the Spirit with thy conscience and no more patience health or time to be abused upon fleshly lusts and pleasures All these things are past away 1 Cor. 7.31 2 Cor. 4.17 And the door of Hope will be also shut No more hope of a part in Christ No more hope of the success of Sermons of Prayers or of any other means No hopes of pardon of justification of salvation or of any abatement of thy woe Luke 16.25.26 Behold this is the accepted time behold this is the day of salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 Heb. 6.4 5 6 8