us to think that if the Inferiour Animals have a kind of Felicity or Happiness attending their being and suitable to it that much more Man the nobler being should not be destitute of any Happiness attending his being and suitable to it 3. But rather consequently that Man being the nobler Creature should not only have an Happiness as well as Inferiour Animals but he should have it placed in some more Noble and Excellent rank and kind than that wherein the Brutes have their Happiness placed 4. It is plain that the Inferiour Animals have a Happiness or Felicity proportionate to their Nature and Fabrick which as they exceedingly desire so they do in a great measure Enjoy namely a sensible Good answering their sensible Appetite Every thing hath Organs and Instruments answerring to the Use and Convenience of their Faculties Organs for their Sense and Local motion and for their Feeding for their Generation of their kind Every thing hath its peculiar Instincts and Connatural Artifices and Energies for the Exercises of their Organs and Faculties for their Preservation and Nourishment Every thing hath a supply of External Objects answering those Faculties Desires and Instincts Meats proper for their Nourishment Places proper for their Repose difference of Sexes in their several kinds answering their Procreative Appetite And most commonly such a proportion of Health and Integrity of Nature as goes a long to that period of time allotted for their duration and in default thereof they are for the most part furnished with Medicines naturally provided for them which they naturally know and use so that they seem to want nothing that is necessary to the complement of a Sensible Felicity It is true they are in a great measure Subjected to the Dominion of Mankind which is sometimes over severely exercised but then they have the Benefit of Supplies from them Protection under them and if they meet not with Masters more unreasonable than themselves they find Moderation from them They are also exposed to the Rapine one of another the weaker Beasts Birds and Fishes being commonly the prey of the greater but yet they are commonly endued with Nimbleness v. Lactant. de Opific Dei c. 2. Artifices or Shifts to avoid their Adversaries But be these what Abatements of their Sensible Happiness may be yet they have certain Negative Advantages that conduce very much to their Happiness or at least remove very much of what might abate it and thereby render their fruition more free and perfect and uninterrupted for instance they seem to have no Anticipations or Fear of Death as a common Evil incident to their nature They have no Anticipations of Dangers till they immediately present themselves unto them They have no great sense or apprehensions of any thing better than what at present they enjoy They are not under the Obligation of any Law or under the Sense of any such thing and consequently the Sincereness of what they enjoy not interrupted by the strokes of Conscience under a sense of deviation from Duty or Guilt 5. It is therefore plain that if the Humane Nature have no greater or better Happiness than what is accommodate only to a Sensible Nature they have no greater Happiness than the Beasts have which is not reasonable to be supposed for a Nature so far exceeding them 6. Farther yet if the Humane Nature were not under a capacity of a greater Happiness than what is terminated in Sense mankind were much more Vnhappy than the basest Animal and the more Excellent the Humane Nature is above the Beasts nay the more excellent any one individual of the Humane kind were above another the more miserable he were and the more uncapable of being in any measure happy for the more Wise and Sagacious any man were the more he must needs be sensible of Death which sense would sower all the Happiness of a sensible Good the more sensible he must needs be not only of the shortness and uncertainty of sensible Enjoyments but also of their Poorness Emptiness Insufficiency Dissatisfactoriness It is evident that a Fool sets a greater rate upon a Sensible Good than a Man truly Wise and consequently the Fool could be the only man capable of Happiness for it is most certain that according to the measure of the Esteem that any man hath of any good he enjoys such is the measure of his Happiness in that Enjoyment Since the Happiness is somewhat that is intrinsecal to the Sense or Mind that enjoys it A thing really Good can never make that man Happy who is under a Sense of Evil or Inconvenience by that enjoyment so long as he is under that sense Since therefore it is preposterous and unreasonable to suppose that Man the best of terrestrial Creatures and Wise men the best of men should be Excluded from at least an equal degree of Happiness with the Beasts that perish and since it must needs be that a bare Sensible Good can never communicate to a man an Equal degree of Happiness with a Beast nor to a Wise man an Equal degree of Happines with a Fool it remains there must needs in common reason be some other subject wherein the Happiness of a Man of a Wise Man must consist that is not barely Sensible Good 7. All the good things of this Life they are but Sensible Goods and therefore they cannot be the true matter of that Happiness which we may reasonably think belongs to the reasonable Nature as such the former will appear by an induction of particulars which I shall pursue in order with the particular instances of their Insufficiencies to make up a true Happiness to the Reasonable Nature as well as that general that they are but Sensible Goods and meerly accommodated to a Sensible Life and Nature 1. Life it self is not as such a sufficient constituent of Happiness and the Instance is Evident because it is possible that Life it self may be Miserable there may be Life where there is Sickness Pain Disgrace Poverty and all those External Occurrences that may render life Grievous and Burthensome Life may indeed be the Subject of Happiness when it hath all those contributions that concur to make it such but Life alone and as such cannot be Happiness because there may be a Miserable Life 2. Those Bona Corporis or Compositi the Goods of the Body are not sufficient to make up a suitable Happiness to the Reasonable Nature as Health Strength for the Beasts themselves enjoy this and for the most part the Brutes enjoy a greater measure of these than Mankind and besides still there is that which is like the Worm at the root of the Gourd that spoils the Happiness that must arise from it viz. Mortality and Death which will certainly pull down this Tabernacle and Man hath an unintermitted Pre-apprehension of it which sowers the very enjoyment it self And in this as hath been said the Beasts that perish have a pre-eminence over Mankind for though both are
Mortal yet the Beast is not under that Pre-apprehension of it that Man incessantly hath whereby his Fruition of that Happiness of Health is the more Sincere and this consideration must run through all those other contributions of Sensible Goods that hereafter follow And as for Beauty the Happiness thereof as it is but fading and empty so the Felicity that it gives is not to the party that hath it but to others unto whom perchance it may be a delightful and amiable spectacle but not to him that hath it 3. There are a secondary sort of Bodily Goods namely Pleasures of the Senses as delightful Meats Drinks Sights Musick pleasant Odors and other Gratifications of the Sensitive Appetite or Lust as the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of Revenge the Lust of Desire c. These cannot make up a competent Happiness to the Humane Nature 1. They are but Sensible Goods common to the Beasts as well as Men. 2. Though they may be competent to make up the Happiness of the Sensible Nature yet they are not such to the Reasonable Nature because they are still accompanied with a present concurring Sense of Mortality which Embitters their very Enjoyment and renders them insipid if not bitter 3. The wiser the Man is the less he values them and consequently are at best a Happiness to Fools and such as degenerate from the Nobleness of the Humane Nature into the degree of Beasts by setting an Over-value upon them Again 4. They are transient and the Happiness of them is only before their Enjoyment when they are Enjoyed to Satiety they lose their Use and Value 5. These placenta sensus especially of the Sensual Appetite are not for their own sakes but in order to something else viz. To invite and excite the Appetite in order to the Preservation of the individual or the species and therefore cannot be in themselves in relation to a Reasonable Nature any Happiness since they terminate in something else 4. Those Bona Fortunae as Wealth Honour Power cannot at all pretend to make up a Happiness for the Reasonable Nature for though in truth we do not find so eminently in the animal Nature any such thing as Wealth or Honour but only somewhat analogal to it as in Ants and Bees yet these are of a far inferiour nature to the Bona Corporis whether Health or Pleasure for they are in their true Use only in order to them The primary Corporeal Good is Health and Conservation of the individual in his being next to that and indeed in order to it are the Refreshments and Supports by Eating and Drinking Wealth again is Subservient and in order to that viz. To have a convenient Store and Provision for the supply of the exigencies of Nature and preserving the individual what is more then Necessary for that is Superfluous Vain and Unnecessary Power again is only desirable to secure those Provisions from Rapine and Invasion so that in truth these are so far from making up a Happiness that they are only Provisional and in Order to those Goods of the Body which are before shewn incompetent to that End and without that respect they are vain and impertinent things But besides this there are certain Specifical Defects that accompany these Goods that render them utterly uncapable of making up a Happiness to Mankind 1 It is impossible they can be as large as the Humane Nature because unless there were some Poor none could be Rich unless some were Under there could be none in Power if all were equal in Wealth and Power there could be no such thing as Wealth or Power and consequently the supposition of Happiness in those who are Rich or Powerful would exclude the greatest part of Mankind from any share in that which must make up their common Happiness 2. In the fruition of all Wealth Honour and Power besides the common fate of Mortality which imbitters their very Enjoyment there is annexed a certain peculiar Infelicity that renders them uncapable of making up a Happiness For 1. They are the common mark of Covetousness Envy Ambition and Necessity which most ordinarily render Rich and Powerful and Great Men less safe than others and ordinarily they stand tottering dangerously and subject to fall 2. There is always Care and Anxiety attending the possessors of Great Honour Wealth or Power which imbitters the very injoyment and puts it out of the capacity of being a Happiness for it is impossible that great Cares and great Fears can consist with true Happiness And thus far of Sensible Goods 8. Besides these Sensible Goods there seem to be two sorts of Goods that Mankind is peculiarly capable of which are not common to the Beasts viz. First The Good of Esteem Glory and Reputation wherewith perchance the Beasts are not affected though some seem to have somewhat analogal to it but this cannot at all make up a Happiness to the Humane Nature 1. Because it is not accommodate to all Uses and Exigents Laudatur alget 2. Because it resides not in the party but in those who give it a man may have a great esteem with others and a low esteem of himself 3. It is of all others the most brittle and unstable possession those that perchance deservedly give it may undeservedly resume it a Word or Action mistaken by others a false Report Envy Emulation want of success in any one Action the mis-interpretation of the Superior or the Vulgar may quite overturn the greatest and perchance most deserved Reputation and render a man more despised and contemptible than he was before eminent or esteemed he that bottoms his Happiness upon such an unstable blast inherits the wind 9. But yet there are certain Bona Animae which are competible to Man but not to Beasts which are of two kinds according to the two great Faculties in Man his Understanding and Will viz. Knowledg and Moral Virtues and although these are excellent Goods yet exclusively of true and sound Religion they cannot make up that Happiness which we may reasonably Judg to be proper and specifical to the Humane Nature First Therefore for Knowledg there are these Incompetences in it in reference to our Happiness 1. Our Knowledg is very little and narrow in respect of the Object of it What we know is the least part of what we know not Though we daily converse with things natural even with the frame of our own bodies we scarce know the nature or cause or motion of any one Nerve or Muscle 2. Even in those things we think we know our knowledg is very Dark and Uncertain and from these ariseth 3. That our increase in Knowledg is our increase of Sorrow and Trouble Trouble to attain that little Knowledg we have and Sorrow in that we can acquire no more 4. The whole Scheme of Knowledg we attain for the most part serves only the meridian of our short unstable uncertain life And what kind of Happiness can that be which while we
mind 1. The former part of this Duty is to Know our Creator This is that which aged David commended to his young Son Solomon 1 Chron. 28.9 And thou Solomon my Son Know thou the God of thy Father And we have Two excellent Books wherein the Knowledge of God is discovered to us the Book of his Works the Works of his Creation and Providence and the Book of his Word contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament wherein he is more fully and explicitly and plainly discovered unto us These Books we are often to read and consider And this is the chief reason why Understanding and Reason is given unto Mankind and not unto the Beasts that perish namely that we might improve it to the attaining of the Knowledge of Almighty God in the due consideration of the Works and Word of God and hereby we learn his Eternity his Infiniteness his Wisdom his Power his Goodness his Justice his Mercy his Alsufficiency his Soveraignty his Providence his Will his Purpose concerning Mankind his Care of them his Beneficence towards them And the Nature of this Knowledge is not barely Speculative but it is a knowledge that is Operative that perfects our Nature that conforms it to the Image of that God we thus know that sets Mankind in its due state and station keeps it in its just subordination unto the God we thus know which is our greatest Perfection This Knowledge must necessarily make us love him because he is Good Merciful Bountiful Beneficent and therefore the Wise man chuseth to express him by that Title of Creator from whom we receive our very Being and all the good that can accompany it This Knowledge teacheth us to be thankful unto him as our Greatest Benefactor to depend upon him because of his Power and Goodness to fear him because of his Power and Justice to obey him because of his Power Justice and Soveraignty to walk before him in Sincerity because of his Power Justice and Wisdom In sum the several Attributes of Almighty God do strike upon the choicest parts and faculties and affections and tendencies of our Hearts and Souls and do tune them into that order and harmony that is best suitable to the perfecting of our Nature and the placing of them in a right and just posture both in relation to Almighty God our selves and others 2. The second part of our Duty is To Remember our Creator thus known which is to have the Sense and Exercise of this Knowledge always about us to set Almighty God always before our eyes frequently to think of him to make our application to him For many there are that may have a knowledge of God but yet the exercise of that knowledge is suspended sometimes by Inadvertence and Inconsiderateness sometimes by a wilful Abdication of the exercise of that Knowledge And these are such as forget God that have not God in all their thoughts that say to the Almighty Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways The Benefits of this Remembring our Creator are very great 1. It keeps the Soul and Life in a constant and true and regular frame As the want of the Knowledge so the want of the Remembrance of God is the cause of that disorder and irregularity of our minds and lives 2. And consequently the best Preventive of Sin and Apostacy and Backsliding from God and our Duty to him 3. It keeps the Mind and Soul full of constant Peace and Tranquillity because it maintains a constant humble and comfortable converse of the Soul with the Presence and Favor of God 4. It renders all conditions of life comfortable and full of contentment because it keeps the Soul in the presence of God and communicates unto it continual Influxes of Contentment and Comfort for what can disturb him who by the continual Remembrance of his Creator hath the constant acquaintance with his Power Goodness and Alsufficiency 5. Though no Man hath ground enough to promise to himself an Immunity from Temporal Calamities yet certainly there is no better expedient in the World to secure a Man against them and preserve him from them than this For the most part of those sharp Afflictions that befal Men are but to make them Remember their Creator when they have forgotten him that he may open their ears to Discipline and awake them to Remember their Creator Read Job 33. A Man that keeps about him the Remembrance of his Creator prevents in a great measure the necessity of that severe Discipline 6. In short this Remembrance of our Creator is an Antidote against the Allurements of the World the Temptations of Satan the deceitfulness of Sin It renders the best things the World can afford inconsiderable in comparison of him whom we remember it renders the worst the World can do but little and contemptible so long as we Remember our Creator it makes our lives happy our deaths easie and carries us to an everlasting Injoyment of that Creator whom we have here remembred The Injunction of the Duty of Remembring our Creator is the more importantly necessary 1. In regard of the great consequence of the benefit we receive from it as before 2. In regard of the great danger of omitting it The truth is the greatest part of the miscarriages of our lives are occasioned by the want of the remembrance of our Creator then it is that we fail in our Duty when we forget him 3. In regard of the many Temptations this World affords to make us forget our Creator the Pleasures and Profits and Recreations and Preferments and Noise and Business of this Life yea many of them which are in themselves and in their Nature lawful are apt to ingross our Thoughts our Time our Cares and to leave too little room in our memory for this great Duty that most deserves it namely The Remembrance of our Creator Our memory is a noble Cabinet and there cannot be a more excellent Jewel to lodge in it than our Great and Bountiful Creator yet for the most part we fill this noble Cabinet with pebles and straws if not with dung and filth with either sinful or at least with Unprofitable Impertinent Trifling Furniture 2. The Season for this Duty that is here principally commended is The days of our Youth And the Reasons that commend that Season for this Duty are principally these 1. Because this is the most Accepted Time God Almighty was pleased under the Old Law to intimate this in the reservation to himself of the first fruits and the first born And surely the first fruits of our Lives when dedicated to his remembrance are best accepted to him 2. Because this Season is commonly our Turning Season to Good or Evil. And if in Youth we forget our Creator it is very great difficulty to resume our Duty Commonly it requires either very extraordinary Grace or very strong Affliction to reclaim a Man to his Duty whose Youth hath been seasoned with ill Principles
persons themselves in whom they are and to others Jam. 4.1 We may easily trace almost all the Sins and Enormities and Distempers and Troubles and Disorders that we observe in our selves or others to the Immoderation and Disorder of the Passions And therefore the due Moderation of them is of great consequence both for the attaining of true Tranquillity of Mind of great Regularity in all we do or say and to the common Peace Order and Benefit of Mankind The Moderation therefore of all our Passions consists principally in these two things 1. That they be not mis-placed or set upon wrong Objects as to Love that which we should not Love but possibly Hate or to Hate that which we should Love and so for the rest 2. That being rightly placed in respect of their Objects yet that they be not intended or acted beyond that degree that may be justly allowed to those Objects And this is properly Immoderation the former is merely Misprision Errour Enormity Folly And therefore when we speak of Moderation of our Passions it is intended in relation to those things about or upon which our Passions may be lawfully used or exercised so that they be kept within their just bounds and measures And since all the Objects of our Passions are either something that is Good or so thought as the Objects of our Love Joy Hope or something that is Evil or so esteemed as the Objects of our Hatred or Anger Sorrow Fear the true measure of these Affections or Passions is to be made according to the true measure of that Good or that Evil that is the present Object of my Passion If the Good or Evil be Great it deserves a greater intention of that Passion or Affection that is imployed about them if it be but little the measure of my Passion or Affection ought not to exceed it if it doth it becomes Immoderate And hence it is that the same Passion or Affection may be and indeed ought to be variously acted or intended about Objects of the same Nature yet under different degrees of Good or Evil I may at the same time have different objects of my Love different sorts or kinds of Good and of different allayes some more some less Good and my Love may be extended to them all at the same time but the degrees of my Love are diversified according to the diversity of the degrees of Good that each Object hath all circumstances adjuncts and consequences being considered The like may be said touching Evils that are the Objects of my Hatred Anger Sorrow or Fear The Moderation therefore of Affections requires these things principally 1. A Right Judgment or Estimate of things Good or Evil according to their true natures or degrees for without this we shall not only mistake in the degrees of Good or Evil but even in their very natures we shall not only take the Lesser Good or Evil for the Greater or the Greater for the Less but we shall be apt to mistake the things themselves and call Evil Good and Good Evil. Now it is certain that according to the Judgment that we have touching things Good or Evil and their Values and Degrees accordingly are our Passions and their Extents and Transports measured out If I Judg or Esteem that to be truly Good which indeed is not I deliver over to it my Affection of Love Joy or Hope and if I Judg that to be a Great and Important Good which is but Small or Inconsiderable yet according to the measure or proportion of such Estimate I measure out the degree of my Love Joy or Delight in such Good A Child will set as great a Rate and consequently allow as great a measure of his Love or Delight to a Rattle as a Boy doth to his Top and Scourg or as a Man doth to a Diamond all arising from the variety of their Judgment or Estimate of the Value of the thing And the like may be said of Evils and their several Degrees with relation to the Passions of Hatred Sorrow or Fear 2. The second thing required to Moderation is a Prudent staied Deliberation before the Passion be put into motion that so the Judgment be consulted touching the nature of the Object first whether it be Good or Evil and then what Degree of Good or Evil it hath for be the judgment never so Good yet if Passion run before it and be precipitate upon the first and sudden apprehension of the thing proposed or objected and so antivert the use of Deliberation and the ripening of the Judgment there must necessarily or at least ordinarily follow either Mistake or Disorder or Immoderation in the Passion of what kind soever and then the Mind is disturbed and put into disorder suddenly 't is difficult then to make a right Judgment or at least it comes too late and many times after the mischief is done by the hasty and precipitate Passion either without or at least within the Mind thus transported with Passion of any kind And therefore the General Rule for Moderation of all kind of Passions is resolutely to prescribe to a Mans self this Law That before he any way gives leave to his Passion he will pause and consider a while touching the Object presented what it is whether Good or Evil and if either then what Degree or Value it bears And when once a Man hath thus peremptorily resolved to give himself this Law and hath a little while inured himself to the practice of it he will find it easie and familiar This will better appear in the several instances of the several Affections or Passions of the mind principally in these of Love and Hatred or Anger Joy and Sorrow Hope and Fear 1. The Affection of Love is the Principal and Governing Affection of the Mind and the Root of all other Passions For whatsoever I love renders that hateful and displeasing which either prevents me from it or deprives me of it and so occasions the Passion of Hatred or Anger whatsoever I love makes me joyful or delighted in the Enjoyment of it or Sorrowful in the loss or deprivation of it and so produceth Joy and Sorrow whatsoever I love I hope for if absent or I fear the loss or deprivation of it and so produceth Hope and Fear The Object of this Affection is something that is Good or so apprehended The greater that Good is the greater is the Love of it Therefore the chiefest Good drawes out the chiefest Love and an Infinite Good an Unmeasurable and Boundless Love and since Almighty God is the chiefest and an Infinite Good there cannot be any Immoderation or Excess of Love to him and therefore this Moderation of our Affection of Love hath no place in relation to my Love of God for I cannot love him too much But this Moderation of this Affection principally respects the good things of this World as Wealth Honour Power Reputation Relations Friends Health of Body Pleasures and External
Adversity 2. But alass when we have used all the Care and Industry and Watchfulness we can who can say he hath made his wayes clean before God our Prosperity and the Temptations that await us from without and the Corruptions that are within us give us often falls that we know of and many more that we know not of if therefore the necessity of our condition subject us to Afflictions and the prevalence of our Corruptions subject us to Temptations what hope can I have to have a comfortable Affliction when I cannot hope to have an Innocent Conversation yet there is another expedient to ease and lighten Afflictions If thou canst not be Innocent yet be sincere and upright Hearted an Honest and Plain Heart that holds no confederacy with any known Sin keeps a quiet Conscience even under Affliction it self If thou hast not a perfect Life yet be careful in thy Prosperity thou keep a perfect Heart 3. But yet if thy Heart hath proved deceitful to thee and thou hadst fallen into any Sin yet there remains one expedient to stop and anticipate the malignity of it from mingling with thy Affliction Before Afflictions come be sure thou break of thy Sin by Repentance Every Sin leaves a kind of Poyson in the Soul and there it many times lies raked up till an evil day comes and then it begins to work to some purpose Sound and Serious Repentance fetcheth out this Core this nest of malignity cleanseth this Ulcer that Sin hath gathered And lest the malignity of Sin should remain in thy Soul when Affliction overtakes thee be careful 1. That thy Repentance be frequent and iterated and to that end let thy Examinations of thy heart and life be strict and daily Possibly thou mayst find a Sin upon the review that thou didst not before espie that may deserve a special Repentance but if thou dost not yet thy Sins of daily Incursion require a daily Repentance 2. That thy Repentance upon any known Sin committed be Speedy while thou art in thy Prosperity let it not lie upon thee till to morrow Who can tell whether some bitter Affliction may not overtake thee before thou hast repented and then that Sin will reach out its Venome and Malignity into thy Affliction and make it worse Therefore intercept that accursed influence of Sin by a speedy Repentance Thy Repentance will be the easier and thy Affliction the lighter thy Heart the stronger to bear it thy Access unto Heaven for Deliverance the readier When a Man lies under a Sin till Affliction come he hath two great Suits to dispatch in the Court of Heaven First To gain his Pardon Secondly To gain Deliverance from or strength under Affliction Be careful therefore to get the former dispatched in thy Prosperity thou hast the less to do under thy Affliction When Guilt and Affliction come upon a Man together they add to each others weight and difficulty of removal but Affliction meeting with a Conscience cleansed by Faith and Repentance is always tolerable and for the most part Comfortable it loseth its nature and becomes another thing It is a prevention of Sin a Corrective of Corruptions an Exercise of Grace a Conformity to Christ an Assurance of Gods love a Preparative for Heaven rather than an Affliction 4. Above all things be very careful that thy Affliction be not the just production of thy Sin or Folly for in the one case thou sufferest as an Evil Doer in the other thou sufferest as a Fool and in neither thou canst take any Comfort If thou sufferest without thy fault or for thy Vertue Piety and Goodness thou needest not be troubled for the one and thou mayst most justly rejoyce in the other but to suffer as an Evil Doer or as a Busie-body in other mens matters or for ill Language or Passionate Words or Disturbance of the civil Power these take away both the Comfort and the Glory of these Sufferings Nay though the end intended in these Extravagances may possibly be good and though the Punishment inflicted excede the due proportion and so hath somewhat of injustice or extremity in the infliction yet such a kind of suffering brings little Honour to God little Peace to a Mans self and little Advantage to others but rather the contrary A Man that hath Sins about him hath ill Companions and such as abate the Comfort even of an Innocent Suffering but when a Man suffers for a Sin or any unjustifiable Action his sufferings lose the name of Afflictions and become formally and in their own nature Punishments and in such a kind of suffering though sometimes the Goodness and Wisdom of God brings Good out of it to the party that suffers yet in such a Man doth not only undergo temporal Loss Pain and Inconvenience but hath the inevitable prospect of his Fault and Offence in them which makes the suffering the more bitter and distastful 5. Be careful to bring thy self to a right Estimate of the World and the Good or Evil of it Our over valuation of the World is that which makes us excede either in the Comfort we take in the enjoyments or in the Perturbation that we suffer in the Losses or Crosses of it and commonly according to the measure of our Love unto or valuation of the things of this life such is the measure of our Grief or Sorrow or Dispondency or Anger or Vexation that we entertain in our loss or disappointment in them for indeed all other Passions and Perturbations of the Mind are but the Handmaids of the Passions of Love or Love acted in a different shape or method if I set too high a value upon my Wealth or my Health or my Honour or my Relations or my Credit then my loss or disappointment of any of them will produce an Excess of Sorrow or Vexation or Despondency or Anger or Revenge Therefore let it be thy business in the time of thy quiet and prosperity in the first place to settle thy Judgment aright and consequently thy Affections aright in reference to Externals Consider first they are but Externals they have no ingredient at all into the Man a Man may be a Fool or a Vitious and wicked Man and yet injoy these things in a great measure and a Man may be a Wise a Just a Vertuous a Pious a Man a Man in the favor of God and yet be without them 2. They are in their own nature very uncertain things they are subject to a Thousand contingencies nay if they stand secured unto me with the greatest stability that may be yet my Body is subject to many weaknesses and Distempers and a Disease in my Body will render all these things insipid and vain to me What good or content will all my Wealth my Honour my fine Houses my great Retinue my great Power do me when I am in a burning Feaver in a painful Consumption nay under a fit of the Head-ach or Stone for so small a Distemper will make
CONTEMPLATIONS MORAL AND DIVINE The Second Part. LONDON Printed for William Shrowsbury at the Bible in Duke-lane and John Leigh at the Blew-Bell in Fleet-street 1676. THE PREFACE PArt of these things now published were intended to have been Printed and Published in the former Volume but not being so well Transcribed as I thought was necessary for the Press being not in place to see it corrected my self and the Term being so near that they could not be made ready and Printed before that time at the request of the Book-sellers who were loth to lose the opportunity of that Term for the publication of that Volume I was content to let them publish that alone as it is without any more but notwithstanding afterward intended this other Volume adding thereunto some other small things more than at first were intended to make it a just Volume near the proportion of the former provided it could be so timely finished as that it might appear to be but a part of the former Trespass though with a continuando and not a new presumption against the worthy Authour But when part of it had been so long detained in the hands of the Licencers that by reason thereof and of some other interventions that could not be I was unwilling to appear to the World to be guilty of a second Trespass against so excellent a person especially having both craved and obtained his pardon for the former and therefore wrote to the Book-sellers to desist from proceeding any farther therein till some fair occasion might offer it self to do it either with the Authours express consent or at least without offence to him But it was not long before I was much importuned by some special friends of the Authors to let them proceed and among the rest by a Person of Quality who hath a very high respect and esteem both for Him and his Writings and to whom I am very much obliged and besides I perceived that the Authour himself was very much importuned by some friends and persons of Quality for more of his Writings of this nature that which I did before foresee would be one consequence of the publication of the former Volume for although he hath written much of this nature it having been long the imployment of his Horae Sacrae yet hath scarce any even of his most intimate friends or acquaintance except my self and some of his own Family known so much But by the advantage of these importunities of other friends I did the more easily prevail with him to give leave that the Book-sellers might go on with what they were about And thus the Reader comes to enjoy the benefit of this second Volume For the Treatises contained in it there is one upon the same Subject with one of those in the former Volume that is Of Afflictions but such to say no more as doubtless will not seem tedious to any Pious person who hath already read the former For his Meditations upon the Lords Prayer they are so excellent and so far beyond what I am able to say in commendation of them that I shall leave it to the sense of the Reader who if he have any relish of sincere Religion Piety and Devotion cannot but be highly affected with them For those shorter Meditations I must acquaint the Reader that they were written when the Author was not only in his Journeyes but in such Journeyes wherein he had less freedom by reason of the Company which was then with him than he did ordinarily take when he had none but his own Attendants about him for I find in divers of them noted when and where they were written And these I was the more willing should be published in this Volume with the others because if the Importunities of friends which have not nor will be wanting can possibly prevail with the Author to publish any more of this kind himself I supposed he would rather make choice of some of his larger and more compleat writings than of these whereof some were never finished which yet I doubt not but will be very acceptable and profitable to the Pious Reader but possibly otherwise might not have been published at all And even from these shorter Meditations the Reader may receive a double benefit The matter of them may be such to him of it self but besides they exhibit an excellent Example in their Author as of the constant Pious and virtuous dispositions of his mind in general so in particular of his constant care to imploy those pretious portions of time as he calls them his Horae Sacrae in suitable and profitable Meditations from which he would not suffer himself to be wholly diverted either by his Company or any other of those occurrences by which we are often too apt to excuse our selves from the Duties and Exercises of Religion and Piety Let the pious Reader pray for the Prolongation of his Life and the Restitution of a competent measure of Health and Strength unto him which if it please God to grant doubtless his Studies in Private will be no less beneficial to Posterity than his Actions in Publick have been to the present age though the Consequence of these will reach to Posterity also Being far distant from the Press I must again crave the Readers favour to pardon and correct the mistakes of the Printer The several Treatises comprised in this Second Volume are AN Inquiry touching Happiness page 1. Of the chief End of Man p. 19. Upon Eccles XII 1. Remember thy Creator c. p. 43. Upon Psalm LI. 10. Cor mundum crea c. p 55. A Poem p. 73. The Folly and Mischief of Sin p. 75. Of Self-Denial not finished p. 82. Motives to Watchfulness in reference to the Good and Evil Angels p. 97. Of Moderation of the Affections p. 101. Of Worldly Hope and Expectation p. 116. Upon Heb. XIII 14. We have here no continuing City p. 125. Of Contentedness and Patience p. 136. Of Moderation of Anger p. 141. A Preparative against Afflictions p. 146. Of Submission Prayer and Thanksgiving p. 220. Of Prayer and Thanksgiving on Psal CXVI 12. p. 229. Meditations upon the Lords Prayer A Paraphrase upon the Lords Prayer AN INQUIRY TOUCHING HAPPINESS 1. ANy man that compares the Perfection of the Humane Nature with that of the Animal Nature will easily find a far greater Excellence in the former than in the latter For 1. The Faculties of the former are more Sublime and Noble 2. The very External Fabrick of the former much more Beautiful and fuller of Majesty than the latter 3. The latter seems to be in a very great measure ordained in a Subserviency to the former Some for his Food some for Cloathing some for Use and Service some for Delight 4. All the inferiour Animals seem to be placed under the Discipline Regiment and Order of Mankind so that he brings them all or the most of them under his Order and Subjection 2. It is therefore Just and Reasonable for
Goodness and Bounty of God that he doth not only injoyn Man his Duty to Glorifie him but also joyns with it Mans Happiness to injoy him for ever He that observes the former shall be sure not to miss of the latter In the same path and tract which leads us to Glorifie God which is our Duty we are sure to meet with our injoyment of him which is our everlasting Happiness and Blessedness And the business of the true Religion revealed in the Scriptures is to lead us to that Duty and to that Happiness which is the Chief End of Man He that wants this will be miserable in the midst of all worldly Enjoyments and he that attains this his Comforts here shall be blessed his Crosses Sanctified and his Death a gate to let him into a most Blessed and Glorious and Everlasting Life Thesis II. The Scriptures of both Testaments are the only perfect Rule for Mans attaining his Chief End This is the End why Man was made and which he ought principally to attend and look after but because to the attaining of the End it is necessary that the due means of attaining thereof be known and used And because as Almighty God the Maker of Man is he that alone must design the End of his own Work so likewise it belongs to him alone to chuse and appoint and order the means belonging to that end therefore as he is not wanting to us in appointing a Fit and Blessed End to Mankind so neither is he wanting in designing and discovering unto Mankind the Means for attaining to that End This means is called a Rule a fixed and setled direction teaching and shewing us what is to be known and what to be done and avoided in order to that end Beasts follow instincts of Nature in their actions But Man that is indued with higher faculties and ordered to a better End is to be directed to that End by a Rule given by that God who hath appointed his End This Rule therefore that must guide Man to his great End of his Creation requires 1. That it be a Rule given by God himself For as he appoints the End of Mankind so he alone must appoint the Means of attaining it and therefore the discovery thereof must come from him 2. That it be a certain Rule in respect of the great consequence that depends upon it Mans everlasting Happiness 3. That it be a fixed and setled Rule for Mankind is apt to straggle and wander full of vain imaginations which were not the Rule fixed and stable would corrupt and disorder it 4. A plain and easie Rule because it concerns all Men as well the unlearned and weak as the wise and learned their concernment is equal and therefore the Rule that tends to that common concernment is fit to be plain and familiar Since it is necessary therefore that there should be a Rule and such a Rule we are to consider whether God hath afforded such a Rule and what it is which is set down in these three particulars 1. That God hath given his own Word to be this Rule 2. That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are that Word of God 3. That those Scriptures are the Rule and the only Rule whereby Man may attain his Chief End 1. That God hath given us his own Word to be this Rule And this as before appears was necessary that the Direction to our Chief End should come from God 2. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Word of God Herein is to be observed 1. What those Scriptures are They are the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament excluding the Books commonly called Apocrypha These were written in several Ages by holy Men inspired with the Spirit of God 2 Tim. 3.16 Some parts thereof as the Five Books of Moses above Three thousand five hundred years since and that of the New Testament above One thousand six hundred years since And Almighty God who hath had a most special care of the Everlasting Good of Mankind hath by a wonderful Providence hitherto preserved them uncorrupted and hath dispersed them over all Nations in their several Languages that as the common Salvation concerned all Men so the means of attaining it might be likewise common to all Men. 2. Why the Divine Providence hath ordered it to be put into Writing It is true in the first Ages of the World till the time of Moses which was near Three thousand five hundred years the Will of God was not put into writing but was delivered over by word of mouth from Father to Son And this was the direction that Men had to know and to obey God 1. Because in those ancient Ages of the World Men lived long For Adam the first Man lived above Twenty years after Methusalem the eighth from Adam was born and Methusalem lived almost an hundred years after Sem was born and Sem lived above sixty years after Isaac was born So that in these three Men Adam Methusalem and Sem all the Truths of God for above Two thousand years were preserved and delivered over 2. Because the select Churhes of God were preserved in Families and were not National and so the knowledge of the true God kept in a smaller compass But when after the Ages of Men were shorter and when the Church of God grew to be National as it was after the Jews came out of Egypt then God himself wrote his Law in Tables of Stone and Moses wrote his Five Books And then and from that time forward the Sacred Histories and Prophesies under the Old Testament and the Gospel and other parts of the New Testament was committed to Writing for these Reasons principally 1. That they might be the better preserved from being lost or forgotten 2. That they might be the better preserved from being corrupted For that which is delivered only by word of Mouth is many times varied and changed in the second or third hand 3. That it might be the better dispersed and communicated to all Mankind And this was done in the Old Testament by Translations of it into Greek about two hundred years before Christ and dispersing it into a great part of the World And after Christs time both the Old and New Testament Translated into several Languages and since dispersed over the World which could not have been so well done had it not been at first in Writing Thus the Wisdom and Providence of God provides for the exigence of all times most wisely and excellently And having preserved part of this precious Jewel the Old Testament for the most part within the Commonwealth of the Jews till it was broken about the time of Christ by the Romans hath now delivered both to all Mankind 3. It is to be inquired Which the Author hath elswhere more largely considered What evidence we have to prove those Writings to be the Word of God And omiting many others we insist upon these principally 1. In
full and perfect than that knowledge which can be attained by the Light of Nature as appears in these two respects 1. Those things concerning God that the Light of Nature doth in some measure discover are more fully compleatly and clearly discovered by the Light of the Scriptures 2. The Scriptures do discover those things concerning God and his Works and our selves that were never discovered nor indeed discoverable by the Light of Nature which as they are of greatest importance to be known so being discovered by the Scriptures they do wonderfully clear and satisfie the defects of the Light of Nature As for instance in both kinds the Light of Nature discovers that there is a God but the manner of his subsistence in Three Persons yet in Unity of Essence is only learned by the Scriptures The Light of Nature discovers that he is the first Cause and Preserver of all things but the manner how all things were produced and when is only learned by the Scriptures The Light of Nature tells us that this God is to be worshipped and obeyed but in what manner he is to be worshipped and the particulars of his commands wherein he is to be obeyed it discoves not or at least very darkly The Scriptures only shew us clearly the manner of his worship and the certain Rule of our Obedience The Light of Nature shews us that there is a great defection and disorder in our Natures but whence it did arise or how it is to be helped the Scripture only teacheth The Light of Nature shews us that all Sin is an offence against the Purity Justice and Will of God and therefore deserves his anger and displeasure but how the guilt of Sin may be done away and the favor of God again procured is not within the reach of the Light of Nature to discover but is only learned from the Scriptures The Light of Nature teacheth that surely there is a Reward for the Righteous and a punishment of the obstinate sinner but how it shall be inflicted and when and how Mankind should be put into a capacity of receiving Rewards or Punishments by Resurrection from the Dead the Light of Nature discovers not or at least but darkly and diffidently and confusedly the Light of the Scriptures only discovers all plainly clearly and evidently These and divers other Truths are discovered in the Scriptures which the Light of Nature either not at all or if at all yet but darkly pointeth at 3. The Light of Nature is very uncertain and easily corrupted either by lusts or weakness or variety of Imaginations And from hence grew all the false gods false worships idolatries and supersititions among the Heathen that were only led by the Light of Nature changing the Truth of God into a lie and changing the Glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to a corruptible man Rom. 1.23 25. But the Light of the Scriptures is an unchangeable stable fixed Light not adulterated nor to be corrupted but though Mens imaginations and fancies be as unstable as the Waters and thereby corrupt and pervert themselves yet the Light of the Scriptures continue firm and stable unchangeable in the successions of thousands of generations Now the things that the Scriptures thus principally teach are two in order to the two great Powers or Faculties of Man 1. In order to his Understanding what is to be believed and to be believed principally touching God 2. In order to his Will or practical faculty What God requires to be done As touching the former What is to be believed Believing and knowledge and opinion differ in this 1. Knowledge is that whereby we certainly know any thing to be or nor to be by our Senses or Reason or Experience 2. Opinion is a doubtful uncertain Perswasion of mind that any thing is or is not yet not without a mixture of doubting or distrust 3. Belief is a certain perswasion of the truth of any thing upon the Credit and Authority of another Now if we be assured that whatsoever God saith is most certainly true as needs it must be because Truth is an essential Attribute of God and if we be perswaded surely that these Scriptures are the Word of God then of necessity we must believe whatsoever Almighty God in the Scriptures reveals And this is Belief So that the very same Truth that may be known by Reason or Observation may likewise be believed as revealed in the Word of God Though many things are to be believed because revealed in the Scriptures which cannot be fully demonstrated by Reason Thus though it be partly evident to Reason that God made the World and so is the object of our knowledge yet the same Truth as revealed in the Scriptures is to be believed and so is the object of our Faith Heb. 11.3 Through Faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God that is We do acknowledge and subscribe unto it as true because God in the Scriptures which are his Word hath revealed and discovered it unto us And as touching things to be done the duty God requires of us here is the difference between the performance of duties by a Man believing the Scriptures and another Man A Believer doth a good work for example a Work of Mercy and a Heathen or another Moral Man doth the same work and yet though the work be for the matter the same they very much differ in the value The Believer understands by the Word of God that it is a duty injoyned him of God to be merciful as our Father who is in Heaven is merciful he believes it to be the command of God and he doth it in obedience to that command and so it is accepted of God but another Man many times doth it or may do it not upon the same account but it may be meerly upon the inclination of his natural temper or for vain-glory and so it is not so much an act of obedience to God as love to himself And therefore in the former it is the Obedience of Faith in the latter an Action of Nature ECCLES XII 1. Remember now thy Creator 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 TWo things are principally commended to us in this Text. 1. A Duty injoyned to remember our Creator 2. The principal Season of that Duty The days of our Youth Which Season is recommended for this duty by way of preference above the evil days not as if the Remembring our Creator were unseasonable at any time but because the time of our Youth is more seasonable than that Evil time or those Evil days wherein we shall say We have no pleasure in them 1. The Duty injoyned is to Remember our Creator which imports two things 1. To know our Creator for we cannot remember what we have not some knowledge of 2. To Remember him often to call him to
I. If the Heart must be created a new before it can be a clean Heart Certainly before it is thus new formed is is an Impure and unclean Heart And this that is here implyed is frequently in the Scriptures directly affirmed Gen. 7.5 The imagination of the thoughts of the Heart of Man is only Evil continually Jer. 17.9 The Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Mark 7.21 Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Adulteries c. And indeed all the Evils that are in the World are but evidences of the Impurity of the Heart that unclean Fountain and Original of them II. Concerning the second wherein the Vncleanness of the Heart consists The Heart is indeed the Crasis or Collection of all the Powers of the Soul in the full extent of it and therefore takes in not only the Will and Affections but the Understanding and Conscience and accordingly hath its Denomination proper to those several faculties as a Wise Heart a Foolish Heart a Believing Heart an Unbelieving Heart an Hard Heart a Soft Heart and the like But answerable to the propriety of the Epithete Clean or Unclean it principally concerns the Heart under the notion of Will or Desire and the Consequents that are thereupon and consequently according to the propriety of Application a Clean Heart is such a Heart as hath Clean Desires and Affections an unclean Heart is that which hath unclean and impure Desires a Heart full of evil Concupiscence And because the Cleanness or Uncleanness of the Desires are denominated from their Objects and not from the Affections or Desires themselves which are diversified according to their Objects Hence it is that a Heart that fixeth her Desires upon pure and clean Objects is said in that act to be a Clean Heart and that which fixeth its Desires upon Unclean or Impure Objects is an Unclean Heart in that Act Therefore before we can determine what an Unclean Heart is it is necessary to know what are Vnclean Objects the tendency of the Desires of the Heart whereunto doth denominate an Unclean Heart Generally whatsoever is a thing prohibited by the Command of GOd carries in it an Immundities an Impurity and Uncleanness in it But that is not the Uncleanness principally intended it is more Large and Spacious than the intent of the Text bears But there are certain Lusts and Impure or Immoderate Propensions in our Natures after certain Objects which come under the name of Vnclean Lusts and those are of two kinds the Lusts of the Mind and the Lusts of the Flesh for so they are called and distinguished by the Apostle The Lusts of the Mind are such as have their Activity principally in the Mind though they may have their Improvements by the Crasis and Constitution of the Body as the Lusts of Envy Revenge Hatred Pride Vain-glory. These are more Spiritual Lusts and therefore though they are more Devillish yet they are not properly so Unclean as those we after mention The Lusts of the Flesh are such Lusts as arise from our sensual Appetites after sensual Objects as the Lusts after Meats Drink and Carnal Pleasures And though these Objects are not in themselves sinful nor consequently the Appetites of them unlawful for they are planted in our Natures by the Wise and Pure God of Nature to most necessary and excellent Ends for the Preservation of our selves and our Kind yet they do accidently become Impurities and Uncleanness to us when inordinately Affected or Acted And these are those Vnclean Objects the Desires whereof do denominate an Vnclean Heart but principally the Latter the Lust of Carnal Concupiscence called by the Scriptures in an eminent manner the Lust of the Flesh 1 John 2.16 Fleshly Lusts that fight against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 Walking after the Flesh in the Lusts of Vncleanness 2 Pet. 2.10 Perchance bearing some Analogy to those Legal Uncleannesses in the Levitical Law especially to those of Levit. 15. Even the very natural Infirmities nay those that are not only tolerated but allowed carry in them a kind of Impurity and Uncleanness And hence grow those many Legal Impurities which disabled the Jews from coming into the Camp or Tabernacle till they were Purified as that of Leprosie touching of dead bodies unclean issues uncleanness after Child-birth uncleanness of natural Commixtions Lev. 15.18 Exodus 19.15 The uncleanness of natural Secessions Deut. 23.13 14. The washings of Aaron and his Sons Exod. 30.20 All which are but Emblems of the Impurity of the Heart and of the great Care that is to be used in the keeping of it Clean and the Reason is Morally and Excellently given Deut. 23.14 For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the Camp to deliver thee and to give up thine Enemies before thee therefore shall thy Camp be Holy that he see no Vnclean thing in thee and turn away from thee The Conclusion therefore is that this Carnal Concupiscence the Lust of the Flesh predominate in the Heart is that which principally and by way of Eminence in respect of the subject matter of it denominates an Unclean Heart But in as much as this Concupiscence hath somewhat in it that is natural and consequently is not simply of it self Sin or Uncleanness therefore it is requisite to give a denomination of Uncleanness and Impurity to those desires that there be some Formalities requisite to the denomination of this to be Unclean and Sinful which is when those Desires are not in subjection to right Reason for it being a proceed of the inferior Faculties the sensual Appetite when the same is not in subordination to that Empire which God hath given the more Heavenly and Noble Powers of the Soul it becomes Confusion and inverting of the order of Nature and this is principally Discovered when these Desires are 1. Immoderate 2. Unseasonable 3. Without their proper end 4. Irregular 5. Unruly and without the Bridle of Reason III. The Causes of this Uncleanness of the Heart are principally these two 1. The Impetuousness and continual solicitations of the sensual Appetite which continually sends up its foul Exhalations and Steems into the Heart and thereby taints and infects it The Soul of Man is like a kind of Fire which if it be fed with clean and sweet materials it yields sweet and comfortable Fumes but if it be fed with impure and unclean and stinking oyl and exhalations it is tainted with them and makes unsavory thoughts which are a kind of Fume that rise from this Fire and therefore if the distemper of the Body or sensual Appetite send up cholerick Steems into this sacred Fire it yields nothing but thoughts of Anger and Indignation If it sends up Melancholy and Earthy fumes it fills the Soul with black and dismal and discontented thoughts If it send up as most ordinarily it doth sensual and fleshly Steems it fills the Heart with sensual and wanton thoughts 2. The Weakness and Defect of the imperial part
benefit in the latter but yet not such as may with Considerable Advantage preponderate the Contentment of Lust which is present and sensible there ought to be a Conviction of such an Inconvenience in the former and such a Benefit in the latter as may most evidently and clearly preponderate the Contentment and Advantage of the satisfying of a Lust 3. And because though these Inconveniences and Benefits be never so great yet if there be but a faint and weak and imperfect Conviction of it it will work but a weak resistance against the Invasions or Rebellions of Lust and a sensible present enjoyment of what delights will easily preponderate the weak and faint and imperfect Convictions or Suspicions rather of what is Future It is necessary that such Convictions should be Sound Deep and Strong or otherwise they will be but Sluggish and Languishing opponents against the Rhetorick of Lusts that yield a present Delight or Advantage 4. And because though the Convictions are never so strong yet if they be not Accompanied with Constancy Vigilancy and supplemental Excitations as the opportunity requires the Constant and perpetual Importunity of Lust may happen upon a time of Intermission and gain an Advantage against a Soul habitually thus Convinced it is further necessary that there be a Frequent Constant Acting of that Conviction upon the Soul or otherwise it may be Intangled by the Assiduous Importunities of his Lusts These things being thus premised it is necessary to see what kind of Means it must be that must work such a Conviction of such weight and evidence that may rectifie the Judgment in reference to this Contest with the sensual Appetite and actuate such a Conviction to attain its due effect Moral Philosophy contains in it excellent Precepts and Reasonings to the subjecting of the sensual Appetite to the dictate of Reason and to a Moral Cleansing of the Heart But it cannot attain its end for though it propounds Inconveniences on the one side and Conveniences on the other yet they have great defects that make it Ineffectual The things which it proposeth are in themselves of unequal weight to the Pleasure and Content of satisfying the sensual Appetite viz. On the one side Fame and Glory and Reputation and Serenity of mind on the other side the Baseness of Lust in Comparison of the excellency of Reason that it is a thing common to us with the Beast and such like and therefore though these be fine Notions and such as may be weighty with old Men whose Lusts have left them yet with young Men they Import nothing And therefore the Philosopher well provides for it by determining that Juvenis non est idoneus auditor Moralis Philosophiae and Consequently it is a kind of Physick that may be good for them that need it not but of no use for them that want it for the truth is the Fame and the Infamy are not of weight equivalent to Counterpoise the satisfaction of a Lust in those that are Inclinable to them 2. Another great defect in the things propounded is this that is also common to Humane Laws that though they may be of some efficacy to prevent the External Act when it meets with Infamy in the Action or Reputation in the forbearing yet it doth inevitably give a dispensation to Sin if committed with Secrecy much less doth it at all Cleanse the Heart from the love of Lust the delight in it the Contemplation of it We are therefore to search for a higher or more effectual Conviction than this and therefore 1. We must see whether there be any thing that propounds some thing that may over ballance the Advantage of Lust or the love of it in the Heart 2. A means of Conviction of the truth and reality of the thing so propounded For the former it is apparent that the Sacred Scriptures and they alone do furnish us with such materials prohibiting not only the Acts of Lust but also the very Motions and Inclinations to it the Desires of the Heart of it the Love of the Heart to it and this under pain of the displeasure of God everlasting Death Hell fire on the one side on the other side in case of Obedience to this Command the Favor of God Everlasting Life and Happiness and in order to the discovering whether our Hearts walk in Sincerity according to the Command of God assures us that God beholds and observes the Motions Desires Inclinations Thoughts and Purposes of our Hearts and will one day lay them open When the secrets of all Hearts shall be Revealed And these are things that are of such a Nature as preponderates all the good that can be in Lust furnisheth the Soul with such Arguments against it as carries thunder in them 2. And that these may be effectually assented to by the Soul without which they Import nothing to the end we speak of there are these effectual Means which Almighty God affords us First The word of God which doth not only contain Materials and Perswasions for the Cleansing of the Heart but also a high evidence of the Truth and Reality and Benefit of those Materials and Perswasions it is a Convincing and a Cleansing word Jo. 15.3 Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you Secondly A high Congruity of the word of God in relation to a future life of Rewards and Punishments unto the very Sentiments of Reason and the light of Nature it self the Sense of which life of future Rewards and Punishments carries with it not only a Conviction of the great Advantage of a Clean Heart above an Unclean Heart but also a very effectual motive to the Cleansing of the Heart greater and more vigorous than all the Arguments of the best Philosophers Thirdly The Powerful Spirit of God works up in the Soul an assent unto them and that of such a strength as is no less Convincing than Science it self which is Faith and therefore Faith thus wrought purifies the Heart as well as the life 3. And for a Constant and un-intermitted Application and re-minding us of these Truths God is pleased to assist us with the continual assisting Grace of his Spirit acting in and by the Conscience which is in a great measure cleansed quickned and actuated which watcheth us and our very Thoughts and Chides them re-minding us of these great Truths which we have received and thereby actuating and acting our Faith of these Truths as often as the occasion offers it self 5. And by this means 1. The Intellectual Power of the Soul is restored in a great measure to its primitive Dominion or at least is qualified aright in order to the exercising of it 2. The Will wherein indeed the Empire of the Soul is principally seated is likewise restored to its Domination and Rule 1. Partly by these Impressions which are as before received by the Understanding and the practical Determination thereof for it is clearly presented now to her that it is the Greater
Good to deny Lust both in the Practice and Love of it than to Entertain it And Consequently the Will moves towards the Greater Good according to its proper and natural Inclination 2. There is yet a further Effect wrought upon the Will viz. The sense of the Love of Christ the end of his Death to redeem us from these Lusts whereby even by an obligation of Gratitude it takes up Resolutions of Obeying him This Truth though it be first received in the Understanding and entertained by Faith yet it doth immediatly work upon the Will and Affections viz. An Aversion to that Lust that Crucified her Saviour and which the same Saviour upon the Indearment of his own Blood begs us to Crucifie 3. There is yet a further work upon the Will by the secret and powerful working of the Spirit of God strengthning and perswading and restoring it to its Liberty and Just Soveraignty over the sensual Appetite A Poem THe Great Creator gave to Brutes the light Of Sense and Natural Instinct that might Conduct them in a Sensual Life by this They steer their course and very rarely miss Their instituted Rule nor yet reject Its Guidance or its Influence neglect But the Creators great Beneficence Gave unto Man besides the Light of Sense The Nobler Light of Reason Intellect And Conscience to Govern and Direct His Life and Actions and to keep at rights The Motions of his sensual Appetite But wretched Man unhappily deserts His Makers Institution and perverts The End of all his Bounty prostitutes His Reason unto Lust and so pollutes His Noble Soul his Reason and his Wit And Intellect that in the Throne should sit Must lacky after Lust and so fulfil The base commands and pleasure of her will And thus the Humane Nature's great Advance Becomes its greater ruine doth inhance Its Guilt while Judgment Reason Wit Improve those very sins it doth Commit Dear Lord Thy Mercy sure must overflow That pardons Sins which from thy Bounty grow THE FOLLY AND Mischief of SIN 1. IT is a most Vnprofitable and Foolish thing The Content that is in it is but Imaginary and dyes in the compass of a Thought The Expectation of it is nothing but Disappointment and the Fruition of it perisheth in a moment 2. It is the infallible Seed of Shame and Mischief which without it be intercepted by Repentance and the Mercy of God doth as naturally and infallibly grow from it as Hemlock and Henbane do from their proper Seeds and though the nature of some Sins is more speedy and visible in producing that Fruit yet most certainly sooner or later every Sin yields his Crop even in this life The best Fruit it yields is Sorrow and Repentance which though it be good in comparison of their Fruit ensuing if omitted yet certainly it is not without much Trouble and Discomposure of Mind and the Bitterness even of Repentance it self infinitely over-ballanceth the Contentment that the Sin did yield 3. Sin doth not only produce an Ungrateful Fruit but there is also a certain Spight and Malignity in the Fruit it yields carrying in it the very Picture Resemblance and Memorial of the Sin for the most part which doggs a Man in the punishment of it with the very Repetition of the Guilt aâ—lex talionis 4. It Poysons and Invenomes all Conditions If a Man be in Prosperity it either makes it an occasion of new Sins to cover or secure them that are past or it sowers and infests the very State it self with sad Pre-apprehensions of the Fruit due to his Sin Or hants him in his Jollity like as I have seen an Importunate Creditor a young Gallant which blasts all his Comfort and Contentment If a Man be in Adversity it adds Affliction to Affliction The best Companion of Affliction is a clear Conscience but when a Man hath outward Troubles and a Mis-giving Guilty Soul it makes his Affliction black and Desperate 5. It Discomposeth and disorders and unqualifies a Man for any Good Duty either to God or Man I pray but I bring along with me a sense of Sin that makes me Ungrateful to my self and how can I expect to be Acceptable to God the Pure and Holy God who hates nothing but Sin I beg Blessings but how can I expect to receive a Blessing from him whom I but lately presumptuously offended If my Son or Servant hath offended me and comes to ask a benefit of me I look upon it as a sawcy Presumption and can I expect to have better Entertainment from my Maker than I think fit to allow my fellow Creature The truth is there is no Petition comes seasonably from a Man under the Guilt of Sin but Pardon Forgiveness and Mercy If I do a Good Work the Sin that I stand guilty of makes the Comfort I take in it or in other commendations of it Insipid and Empty my Heart tells me there is a Sin in my Conscience that makes me ashamed to own the Good that is in the Action If I see a fault in another that my Place or Condition requires me to Reprove the sense of my own Guilt makes me either backward to Reprove or Condemn my self while I am Reproving another with such thoughts as these I am Reproving a Sin in another where I stand as Guilty in the sight of God as the person reprehended if he knew my Sin how justly might he throw my Reprehension into my own face and if he know it not yet the God of Heaven before whom I stand and the Conscience which I bear within me makes my Reprehension of another a Condemnation of my self If I go about any action of my life though never so Honest Just and Lawful yet my mis-giving thoughts make me either un-active in it or fill me with pre-apprehensions of mischief or disappointment in it how can I expect a blessing from God whom I have offended in any business I undertake I carry along with me in all I do the Curse that the Lord threatned Deut. 28.20 The Lord shall send upon thee Cursing Vexation and Rebuke in all that thou settest thy hands unto and verse 29. Thou shalt not prosper in thy ways and verse 34. So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see and verse 67. In the morning thou shalt say Would God it were Evening and at Evening thou shalt say Would God it were Morning for the fear of thine Heart wherein thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine Eyes which thou shalt see And Certainly all this grows from the Inconguity and Dissonancy that is between sin and the true right constitution of the Nature of Man that is thereby made unuseful for his proper Operations just as a sore or a bone out of joynt disables the proper serviceableness of a Limb or as a noxious humour disorders the Stomach Liver or Spleen in its proper Office or as a Disease or ill disposition of the Body makes it unserviceable to
Displeasure be not a necessary consequence of that Sin and if it be may not he inflict the issues of that wrath of his when and in what measure he pleaseth and if he may what security can this Temptation give against it hath it an Arm of Omnipotence to secure me against the power of him that is Omnipotent and if it cannot what Compensation or amends can it make me to countervail the Damage of his Wrath or the very Danger of it Can the Pleasure or Contentment of the Sin do it alas the Pleasure will pass away in it may be a Life a Day a moment but the Guilt and Torment continues to Eternity Motives to Watchfulness In reference to the Good and Evil ANGELS AS we see Plants in a Nursery when they come to a due growth are Transplanted into Orchards and those that are unuseful are pulled up and cast into the Fire or as we see Boys in a Free-School such as are undisciplineable are after some years of probation sent away to Mechanical Imployments and those that are Ingenious and Diligent are Transplanted to the Universities So among the Children of Men in this Life those that are Vitious and Incorrigible are by Death rooted out and cast into a suitable Condition and those that are Vessels fit for their Masters use Towardly Plants are by Death Transplanted into another Region a Garden of Happiness and Comfort And possibly as by continuance of time they received Improvement and Perfection here So in that other Region they add to their Degrees of Perfection and are promoted to further Accessions and Degrees and Stations of Happiness and Glory till they come to the state of Spirits of just Men made perfect Could we see the Invisible Regiment of the World by the subordinate Government of Good and Evil Angels as once Elisha's servant saw the Fiery Chariots and Horsmen in the Mount it would give us another kind of representation of things than now they appear to us We have just reason to believe that there are infinite numbers of Spirits of both kinds that have their passings to and fro and Negotiations as well among themselves as among the Children of Men and as Ravens Kites and other unclean Birds haunt Carrion and as Vermine haunt after Putrefaction and are busie about it or as disorderly debauched Companions and Ruffians ever haunt out and hang upon a dissolute and foolish Heir till they have sucked out all his Substance and Wealth So the Impure and corrupted Angels haunt and flock about a Man given over to Vice till they have wholly corrupted and putrified his Soul and those Good Men whom they cannot win over to them they pursue with as much Malice and Envy as is possible and though they cannot come within them yet as far as they can they raise up External Mischiefs against them watch opportunities to insnare or blemish them though the Vigilancy of a better Guard and their own Prudence and Circumspection do for the most part disappoint and prevent them Besides the displeasure of the great God there be some Considerations even in reference to these Good and Evil Angels to make Good Men very Watchful that they fall not into presumptuous or foul Sins 1. It cannot chuse but be a Grief to the Good Angels Luk. 15.10 to be present and Spectators of the Enormities of those Matth. 18.10 for whose Preservation they are imployed 2. It must in all probability work in them a nauseousness and retiring themselves from such Offenders at least till they have renewed and washed themselves by Repentance and made their Peace with God in Christ For there is no greater Antipathy than between these Pure and Chast Spirits and any Sin or Foulness 3. It cannot chuse but be a most grateful Spectacle to these Envious and Malignant Evil Spirits who upon the discovery of such a fall of a Good Man call their impure Company together and make pastime about such an object as Boys do about a Drunken Man and upbraid the Sacred and Pure Angels Look here is your Pious Man your Professor Come see in what a condition he is and what he is about 4. It lays open such a Man to the Power and Malice of those envious Spirits they have gotten him within their Territories and Dominions and unless God in great Mercy restrain them renders a Good Man obnoxious to their Mischief And as the contagion and noysomness of Sin drives away the Pure and Holy Spirits so it attracts and draws together those Impure and Malignant Spirits as the smell of Carrion doth Birds and Beasts of prey It concerns us therefore to be very vigilant against all Sin and if through Inadvertence Infirmity or Temptation we fall into it to be diligent to make our Peace and wash our selves as soon as we can in the Blood of Christ and Water of Repentance OF THE MODERATION OF THE AFFECTIONS Phil. 4.5 Let your Moderation be known unto all Men. MOderation is that Grace or Vertue whereby a Man governs his sensual Appetite his Passions and Affections his Words and Actions from all Excess and Exorbitancy It refers 1. To the sensual Appetite 2. To the Passions of the Mind 3. To Speech and Words 4. To the Actions of our Life 1. Moderation in the sensual Appetite and this is properly Temperance which is a Prudent Restraint of our Appetite from all Excess in Eating Drinking and those other inclinations that gratifie our senses And certainly this becomes us not only as Christians but as Reasonable Creatures for the sensual Appetite and those inclinations that tend to the gratification of our External senses are in a great measure the same in Men and in Brutes and they are in the due order and use Good and Convenient for both we cannot live without them But Almighty God hath given to Mankind a Higher and a Nobler Nature namely Understanding and Reason which in the right posture and constitution of the Humane Nature is to Govern Guide Moderate and Order that inferiour Faculty that is common to the Brutes as well as to Man And that Man that keeps not this Regiment and Superintendency of his Nobler Faculty degrades himself into the condition of a Brute and indeed into somewhat worse for even the Instincts of Brutes do for the most part regulate their sensual Appetite from Excess and Immoderation But because this belongs to that distinct vertue of Temperance I forbear further Instances herein 2. Moderation of our Passions and Affections and these are here principally intended namely Love Hatred or Anger Joy Grief Hope Fear and those other mixt or derivative Passions that arise in Man upon the presentment of their several Objects And although the Passions of the Mind considered simply in themselves are a part of our Nature and not Evil but when duely regulated and ordered are of excellent Use to us yet if they once become unruly mis-placed or over-acted they occasion the greatest troubles in the World both to the
of my Reputation hath been my darling that I valued highest of any thing in the World and consequently a blemish cast upon me in this behalf would wound me deeper than any worldly loss yet a consequent of greater Importance would follow upon it which I value higher than my Reputation viz. The Honour of God the value and esteem of Religion would be wounded through this wound yet if this should befall me am I in a frame and temper of mind to bear it as I should can I be contented to sit under Reproach and Infamy with Patience and Quietness of mind can I content my self with the secret witness of my own Conscience attesting my Innocence though the Imputations under which I fit are as black as Hell can I chearfully make my secret appeal to the Searcher of Hearts and please my self with the Serenity of his Countenance towards me though I am cloathed with Calumnies and Reproaches can I wait his time for my Vindication and content my self though the World never know my Innocence so as my God and my Conscience can attest it if I have not arrived at this temper and pitch of mind it should be my labour to attain it for without it I sink under my Reproaches and Infamies but if I have attained it then under the most dark and cloudy storm of undeserved Reproach and Infamy I enjoy a Goshen within my self I have a beam of light that follows me in the blackest night and I Conquer my Reproaches by suffering them 5. But though this exercise of putting our selves under Notional Afflictions is of singular use to habituate and fit us for such a temper as becomes such a change yet this is not all Afflictions are not only Notional and Possible but there is something more in it there is a greater Probability of them than to be freed and exempt from them they are not only under that degree of things that may be but they come near to that degree of things that must be and that in these respects 1. In respect of our Sin and Demerits Although Afflictions many times are not principally intended as Punishments but are sent for higher ends yet it is most certain that they are deserved to be inflicted as Punishments and are in their own nature a most necessary consequent of Sin They are not expiatory or satisfactory Punishments but they are most certainly Fruits and Effects of Sin and worldly Crosses and Calamities do as naturally flow from precedent Sins as the Crop doth from the Seed that is Sown Now in as much as every day I commit some Sin or other it is no wonder if I reap the Fruits of it in Affliction It is a wonder rather that I meet with no more Calamities and Crosses in this World and it is a Mercy if I meet with them only in this World and not both in this and that which is to come Wherefore doth a living Man complain a Man for the Punishment of his Sin Certainly though they were no Devil or Wicked Men to inflict Punishment upon me as long as I carry Guilt and Sin about me it s no wonder if it raise storms upon me and therefore I have no cause to hope for an Immunity from Trouble so long as I have no Immunity from Sin 2. In respect of our Corruption we have seen Troubles and Afflictions under the former Consideration Sub ratione poenae under the nature of a Punishment in this Consideration sub ratione medicinae in the nature of a medicine The former shews somewhat of the Divine Justice to inflict them the latter much of the Divine Mercy to apply them The truth is our Natural Corruptions are very Many and very Great and for the most part they are most disorderly and dangerous when our condition is Prosperous it is indeed the Fewel of our Corruptions Pride and Vain-glory and Carnal Confidence and Security and Luxury and Intemperance and Insolence and Arrogance and Forgetfulness of God and of our selves and of our Mortality and of our Duty and a Thousand such kind of Vermin do grow and thrive upon Prosperity God Almighty therefore sends Crosses and Afflictions and Troubles and those to cure and chase away and starve these evil Beasts And let any Man observe it either in himself or others we are generally the worse for Prosperity and generally the better under Adversity what ever Sects or Professions we are of and it is a far greater difficulty to manage a Prosperous Glorious condition than a low or Afflicted condition Many times when I have read in the Scriptures that Affliction is the Lot of the Righteous and in the World ye shall have Tribulation I have looked upon it not only as the Issue of the Devil and wicked Mens hatred but also as the Wise Dispensation of Almighty God to suffer it for it is for their Safety and Benefit Affliction doth in no sort so much endanger a good Man to lose his Innocence Worth and Virtue as Prosperity Wealth and Honour do and therefore I have alwayes thought that Man the securest from Afflictions upon this account that useth his Prosperity with the greatest Piety Watchfulness Moderation and Equality of mind because such a Man keeps a check upon his Corruptions and so stands in less need of this Physick he is like a Man that in his health keeps a good and orderly Diet whereby in probability he stands in less need of a Corrective for Peccant Humours 3. As God out of his Mercy to Good Men sends many times Afflictions to cure or allay their Corruptions So the Devil or evil Men will be sure to inflict them out of Hatred and Envy at their Graces Marvel not if the World hate You it hated Me before it hated You. And it is a great marvel if any Good Man escape Afflictions upon this account for if he be such a one as being in Prosperity sets his Heart too much upon it then the Devil and the World endeavours to deprive him of his Comfort to draw him to Murmuring and Discontent and using of unlawful Means or unworthy Compliances to preserve that which he so much loves or if he be a Man that in his Prosperity keeps his Heart in a right frame and temper then the World or the Devil being disappointed in that condition endeavours to shake him with the other extream and though in reference to both there is Envy and Malice in the Devil inflicting yet there is Mercy and Wisdom in God permitting it in reference to the former for the checking and curing of this growth of Lust and Corruption in reference to the latter for the Tryal of the Sincerity of his Graces as in the case of Job 4. Another reason of the Necessity of Afflictions to Good Men is to carry their Hearts upwards and to make them reach after their Everlasting Hope and set a price upon it The Good things of this World though in our judgment we set not the like esteem
upon them as upon Heavenly yet they have this advantage that they are present and therefore affect the Sense and the Mind more than things that are better at a distance and therefore we are apt to set up our rest here And this is the reason that even Good Men though they value and prize Grace and the inwaâ—d favour of God yet they commonly love the World a little too much and divide their Affections too equally between God and the World and therefore study and indeavour such a Contemperation that they may hold both And hence it is that God who requires intirely the Heart doth many times make the world bitter to us to make us weary of his Rival that so we may with more Intireness and Integrity set our Hearts upon Him and upon that Everlasting Hope and long after and Integrity set our Hearts upon Him and it and satisfie our selves with the Expectation of it and make it our Treasure and set up our rest upon it and in it And these are some of those many reasons that evidence the Necessity of Afflictions 6. And now we will come to consider these Three matters 1. What Preparations we should use before Afflictions overtake us 2. What should be our Exercise under it 3. What should be our frame of mind in case of Deliverance from it I. And in the first place of the first of these We have seen that it is a Lot to be expected in this World we cannot upon any terms promise our selves an exemption from it nay if we should escape all other Temporal Calamities yet sickness and infirmities of Body will most infallibly overtake us they are part of that black guard that commonly attends death which is the inevitable Lot of the living It concerns us all therefore to be prepared for that which must necessarily sooner or latter be our condition in some kind or other it may be in many it may be in all kinds 1. Therefore the first Expedient Preparatory to Afflictions is this In the time of our Prosperity it must be our care to walk with as much Innocence Watchfulness and Circumspection as can be for it is a most certain truth that the Malignity and Sting and Venome of Affliction is not so much in the things I suffer as in the sense of my former Guilt and Sin No Man is in a better condition to bear Afflictions than he that hath the cleanest Conscience for as any distemper in any part of the Body draws all the mischievous and hurtful humours of the Body to that part so it is a most sure consequent of any manner of Affliction it brings all former Sins to remembrance and calls the thoughts of them together upon such an occasion When Joseph's Brethren were under a strait in Egypt under the threatnings and seeming jealousies of their unknown Brother then comes in the remembrance of their injury to their Brother and it is represented to them with all the aggravations that can be Gen. 42.21 We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Conscience that they had before stifled and injured now takes her time to be even with them and flies upon them when they are in a strait and then she will be heard though in their Prosperity she could not And this Return of the Remembrance of former Sins is the very Gall of Afflictions and that principally upon these two reasons 1. It is that which weakens and impares the strength that should bear them for for the most part all ternal Afflictions they concern the Body or the outward Man whether it be Poverty or Reproach or Sickness or Pain and if for all this the Mind be but free she will be able to bear them pretty well will suggest Reasons for Patience Hopes for Deliverance and Twenty allayes at least to mitigate the present sufferings but when that Mind and Reason and Judgment that should support is likewise wounded and vexed and tormented with the sense of past Sins and the Storms that are within be as violent and turbulent as those without there is nothing to bear up against the Afflictions the Soul it self that should support the outward Man wants support for it self 2. In all external Troubles as it is the Duty so it is the Nature of Man to fly to God and that application possibly gains Relief from it but howsoever it bears up the Man with a convenient strength against them the very liberty of recourse to God gains a Dependance a Hope a Confidence which supports in a very great measure under the Greatest Troubles but this Return of Sins past upon the Conscience and Memory if it doth not wholly deprive yet it doth wonderfully interrupt discourage and divert the Soul from this most admirable expedient When a Man shall have such thoughts as these I am under a very great Affliction either in my Estate Friends Name Body and I know no way to extricate my self but one and that is by application to the Almighty and Merciful God and if I could but do so I were safe but alass the Memory of my former Sins my breach of Covenant with him my frequent Relapses into Sin my Ingratitude to him they fall in upon me and I dare not I know not how I have not the face the confidence to come unto him and so I must lie and sink under as well my Guilt as my Affliction And although this is a very false way of Argumentation and such as is most displeasing to God and derogatory to his high Prerogative of Mercy as well in forgiving as in delivering who hath given to the most hainous Sinner and under the greatest Afflictions a Commission to ask his mercy both to Pardon and to Deliver and that with a Promise of Mercy yet it is most certain that what by our own weakness and what by the Devils subtilty the Remembrance of our past Sins doth most ordinarily make our addresses to God under our Afflictions very difficult Little therefore do people consider in the time of their Prosperity what a stock of Venom and malignity they lay up against an evil day by a dissolute and sinful life Affliction without this most accursed contribution were much more tolerable If thou meanest therefore to make thy Affliction easie keep thy Conscience clean before it comes thou hast then the Strength of thine own Soul to support thee and the liberty of Access to the most Mighty and Gracious God to deliver thee when thou canst in the sincerity of thy Heart with Hezek Isa 38.3 appeal unto God Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight I say with reverence keep God thy Friend in thy Prosperity and thou mayest with confidence resort to him and relie upon him in
that hath learned the Nature of the Soul and thinks that by death it shall attain a better or at least not a worse condition hath a great freedom from fear of Death and no small viaticum to attain Tranquillity of mind in his life And many such instances are given by the Stoicks especially Seneca and by Tully But when the latter came to an exquisite apprehension of his danger from Anthony his Philosophical Notions and Contemplations were too weak to bear up his mind against those fears and therefore in his Sixteenth Epistle Lib. 10. to Atticus he writes to him to this effect If thou hast any thing to comfort me gather it up and write it not out of Learning or Books for I have these here with me Sed nescio quomodo imbecillior est medicina quam morbus But I know not how it comes to pass the Physick is too weak for the Disease And Job though a Wise and Experienced Man and bore up pretty well in his Afflictions yet his friend Eliphaz tells him and that truly Job 4.3 5. Behold thou hast instructed many and thou hast strengthned the weak hands but now it is come upon thee thou faintest c. Men may have excellent Theories to support in Affliction and can apply them to others in that condition with singular dexterity and advantage yet when the case comes to be their own their Spirits sink under them because these Theories many times flote in the Understanding but are not digested deeply and practically in the Heart Secondly What ever you do gain this Habit and Temper of Mind Actuate and Exercise your Faith make even your Reckonings get your Peace and Assurance setled before Sickness comes For a Man in any kind of suffering besides possibly may learn them because his mind is or may be in his intire strength but most certainly Sickness is an ill time to begin to learn these Contemplations unless they are learned before the Distempers of the Body discompose the Mind and make it unfit to begin to learn It is a time when that which hath been before fitted and laid up in store in the Soul must be drawn out and exercised but it will be a most difficult business then to begin that Lesson which should be learned in Health though practised in Sickness II. Thus much for our Preparation to meet Afflictions Now concerning our carriage under them First In the beginning and first Onset of any Affliction be very careful to keep the Mind in a due temper Call in all your Aids of Reason Religion and Duty to keep you in a right frame and temper of Moderation for Affliction of any kind when it hath lain a while upon a Man will probably bring him into order but at the first Onset the Passions begin to flie out and play reaks and disorder the Soul and fill it with Perturbation Then immoderate Anger or Murmuring or immoderate Sorrow or Fear flie out and Men thereby become less able to bear for the future and many times flie out into that Immoderation and Distemper at first either in Thoughts or Words or Actions that they are sorry for after and so draw upon themselves a double trouble First to Repent of their folly and immoderation and then to fit themselves for sufferings it throws more grains of Sin into the Scale of Afflictions and makes it heavier and many times longer than otherwise it would be And after such Perturbation and Exorbitancy of Passion upon the first inroads of Affliction a Man hath much ado to bring himself into a right and due temper This was Jobs case in the beginning of his Affliction he flies out into more Impatience and Disorder than all the rest of the time therefore beware and see thou keep thy mind in temper and check Perturbation at the first Onset call together all thy Grace and Resolutions and Reason to keep thy mind in due temper at first Secondly On the first Onset of any Affliction Lift up thy heart to God desire his Assistance and Grace to inable thee to carry a due temper and frame of Heart This is not only thy Duty and expected from thee by God but it is a singular help to inable thee to avoid any present Distemper For first it is a means to supply thee with more strength from Heaven to order thy self aright 2. It brings thy Soul into the Presence of God before whom it were a shame to bring any Perturbation the Passions and Distempers of our Minds are under an aw in his Presence 3. It is a diversion of the present bustle and stir that Passions are apt to make and being diverted at first they do not so suddenly nor so easily fall into a disorder Commonly Passions are most disorderly and impetuous upon the first occasion And if they be then interrupted or diverted the succors even of common Reason much more of Grace have opportunity to rally themselves and prevent Immoderate Perturbation Thirdly Make as speedy an Inquisition as thou canst into thy own state and what the cause of this Affliction may be Let us search and try our ways is the voice of every Affliction and commonly every Affliction upon any person that lies under any Sin unrepented of and not forsaken soon leads the Conscience to point out that Sin and indeed most Afflictions in such a case carry upon them the very Inscription of the Sin and bear some Analogy or Proportion with it Adonibezeks Cruelty and Davids Adultery were as it were written in the Punishments they suffered and might easily bring them to their remembrance If thou sufferest in thy Estate consider whether either Immoderate Worldliness and Covetousness or Confidence and Glory in thy Wealth went not before If thou sufferest in thy Name consider whether thy Reputation hath not been thy Idol or whether thou hast not born thy self too high upon thy Reputation and so of other Crosses Fourthly If upon this inquiry thou findest Sin written upon thy Sufferings or in the bottom of them speedily Repent of that sin Humble thy self in the sight of God for it take up Resolution against it This is the voice the injunction that this Rod gives thee and here thy special duty is Humiliation Fifthly If upon search thou findest thy Heart and Conscience clear look upon this Affliction as a Dispensation sent from God and with all Humility submit to his hand and know that the most Wise God sends it for most wise ends though thou seest not any Enormity in thy self that might deserve it It may be it is to exercise thy Patience thy Faith thy Dependance upon him It may be he discerns that some Temptation is like to meet with thee or some Corruption is growing in thee that thou dost not perceive and he sends this Messenger to divert the one and to prevent the other study to improve this Affliction to that end and here thy special duty is Patience and Vigilance Sixthly But it may be upon this search
former Murmuring and Impatience under the visiting hand of God But again Suppose thy Affliction wait upon thee till thy dissolution yet it is but a Night but an hour of Affliction This Night and this Hour will end with thy life and this life of thine is but a Span and then thy day will dawn and thy Sun will arise and thy Affliction will vanish and never return again 4. Bear it patiently Because thy Patience will shorten thy Affliction The Tryal and Improvement of thy Patience is one of the chief ends and business of thy Afflictions It is sent to teach thee that Lesson and the sooner thou learnest it the sooner the business is dispatched and the Discipline dismist Thy Impatience doth but protract and lengthen out thy Discipline If thou wouldst be discharged of this importunate and troublesome Messenger speedily dispatch his business and he is likely the speedier to leave thee 5. Bear it patiently Because thy Patience will make thy burthen the more easie and tolerable When God sends Afflictions to tame a Man and bring him to a right temper believe it he will not be over-matched he will bring thee down and if one Affliction will not do it he will add more and make thy bond the stronger and can and will yet visit thee sevenfold more till he hath reduced thee to Patience and Humility Struggle not with him for he will be too hard for thee If thou bear thy Yoke patiently thou wilt bear it easily but if thou fling and toss like a Wild Bull in a Net thou mayest hamper thy self worse and thy Yoke will gall thee the more but it will neither break the Net nor the Yoke Be contented therefore Resign up thy self to his Will with Humility and receive the chastisement of thy folly with Patience thou wilt have this double Advantage by it First The great God will then lay no more upon thee for he hath attained his end and purpose by what he hath already inflicted but will either remove it from thee or put his own hand to help thee to bear it Secondly By the quietness and composure of thy mind thou wilt be of greater strength to bear thy burthen and with more ease under it for it is a most certain truth That the turbulency and storming and strugling of the mind is that which makes Affliction more sharp and troublesome than the nature or quality or measure of Affliction it self it is the mind that gives the value and weight of external Prosperity or Adversity Take two Men the one of a proud and great Spirit as they call it the other of a mild humble patient Spirit we shall easily see that a small disgrace or loss shall more afflict and torture the former than Five times as much of either or both shall trouble the latter And this is the true reason why Afflictions at the first are more troublesome and grievous than after though they continue the same At the first they meet with a mind unacquainted with it and contesting against it as a Heifer unaccustomed to the Yoke but when by time and continuance the mind is accustomed to it though the Yoke be the same yet it finds no such severity and importableness in it A Patient Heart gains that habit quickly which custom length of time and necessity doth with more difficulty produce in another temper 6. Bear it patiently because thou hast an Example of greater Patience under a greater Cross in a most innocent person Thy Saviour hath left a Copy of his own Patience for thee to imitate and thy Affliction is sent to thee to teach thee to write after his Copy and to conform thee to the Captain of thy Salvation who was made perfect by suffering consider the disparity of the persons He most innocent without any Sin to deserve it Thou a person laden with Sin that meritoriously deserves as much if not more than thou hast a capacity to bear He the Son of God cloathed with Innocent Flesh Thou a Worm cloathed with Impurity and Sin Consider the disparity of the Sufferings He a Man of Sorrows under the Persecution of those whom he came to save subjected to all the scorns and torments that the wit of most Exquisite Malice could inflict and above all this under the sense even of the wrath and seeming desertion of his Father Thou it may be hast lost some Estate or Reputation or art in Prison or Banishment or Sickness or Pain but under all this dost or mayest injoy that Peace and Pardon and Favor of God that his sufferings purchased for thee The ingredients of His Cup nothing but Gall and Vinegar but thy Cup though never so seemingly bitter yet sanctified and sweetned by His Sufferings And yet under all this As a Sheep before his Shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth though his most Innocent Humane Nature shrunk at the pre-apprehensions of this bitter portion yet with Patience he resigned up his Will to his Father Not my Will but thine be done In sum as His Patience was meritorious and expiatory for thy Sin so it was left as a Patern and Example for thy practice 7. Bear it patiently For it is reached unto thee from the hands of God though it may be by the hands of most vile and accursed instruments and this consideration is enough to tutor thee to an Invincible Patience 1. It is the Dispensation of God who is Infinite in Mercy and Goodness and therefore it is most certain it is a Message of Mercy for He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men. Be sure that it coming from the Fountain of Goodness and Love it hath a Blessing in it though thou canst not at the present see it 2. It comes from the Hands of the most Wise God that doth all things for most excellent ends and even in those Dispensations that are most obscure and rugged that we cannot unriddle yet there is always a complication of most Soveraign and Excellent designs which shall not be disappointed 3. It comes from the hands of that God that is under the relation of a most tender Father that hath the very same Bowels of Mercy Goodness and Love to us in his corrections as in his favors A poor silly child when a Father either corrects him for a fault or takes that from him that will hurt him or keeps him hard to his Book or other imployment or denies him somewhat that is noxious to him thinks his Father deals hardly with him when in truth the very same tender and Fatherly love that discovers it self in more grateful dispensations is the cause and companion of these The same is thy case and mine be patient therefore it is the hand of a Father that afflicts thee and that may assure thee that it is for thy good and it shall be in measure 4. It comes from that God that is thy absolute Lord that hath that unlimited right over his Creature that his
himself the Glory and Honour and Praise thereof might return unto himself who only can be the adequate End of himself of all he doth Thanksgiving therefore and Praise answers the greatest and most noble End in the World If I want and pray for what I want my immediate End therein is my own Good and yet that End is too narrow if I propound not to my self to Praise and Glorifie the Bounty of that God which answers my Prayer 3. Again whereas all the Irrational and inanimate Creatures in the World do passively praise Almighty God in that they bear every one of them the Inscription of his Wisdom Goodness Power The Reasonable and Intellectual Natures of Men and Angels have that noble Advance that they can and may Actively and Intentionally Glorifie and Praise the Goodness of God and it is indeed the noblest Harmony that they can make when they summon all their Understanding Will Affections all that is within them to Praise that God to whom they owe their Being and Benefits And the Wise and Glorious God doth therefore Communicate the sensible Experimental Eminent Influences of his Mercy Goodness and Bounty unto the Reasonable and Intellectual Natures of Men and Angels that they might touch and strike upon those noble strings of the Heart and Mind and Affections that may thereupon return the Harmony of Thanksgiving and Praise to the great Lord of the World And surely the Nature of Man in its true state and temper is as naturally and effectually moved to the returning of Thanksgiving to God for Mercies received as a well tuned Lute or other Instrument doth give an Harmonious sound upon the touches of a skilful Artist And most certainly that nature is strangely out of Tune and Order that upon Mercies received makes not a sweet return of Thanksgiving and Praise This therefore as it is the noblest so it is the most natural production of the Reasonable Nature the fullest of Congruity to the right disposition of its Faculties Almighty God sends upon the Children of Men Benefits Blessings Deliverances Favours And the fruit that he doth and that most justly expect is a Crop of Praise Glory Honour and Thanksgiving Call upon me in the day of Trouble and I will Deliver thee and thou shalt Glorifie me And it is a barren degenerate stupid Heart that yields not such fruit of such a Semination So that Praise and Thanksgiving is Con-natural to our very Faculties the tribute that the Rational Nature naturally payes to the Divine Being as his Benefactor the very fruit that the great Lord of the Harvest expects for all his Goodness and Mercy 4. The truth is Thanksgiving is the very End of Prayer and as the End is more noble than the means conducible to the End so therefore is the Duty the business of Thanksgiving in its self though equally necessary yet more noble than Prayer it self I want something that I would desire Almighty God to give me and I therefore pray my Merciful Lord grants me my desire and gives me what I pray for and therefore gives it and gives it upon my Prayer to him that therefore his Mercy and Goodness may be more Evident unto me and that thereupon I may Praise and Glorifie and give Thanks unto him And if with the Nine Lepers in the Gospel I receive the Benefit I ask and do not with the Tenth give Glory to God for the Benefit I receive I disappoint both the Giver of what he designed in the Gift and disappoint my very Prayers in that which is their just and proper End And hence it is that our Blessed Lord in that absolute form of Prayer which he hath taught us premiseth the first and greatest Petition of the Hallowing or Glorifying of the Name of God and the first the great the regnant Petition that is to influence all the rest that follow especially those that are for the supplies of our own wants 5. Whereas in Prayer we ask that we may receive from God Almighty God hath been pleased to Honour and Dignifie our Duty of Thanksgiving with so much condescention of his Majesty that he receives or at least interprets it as a Receipt from his poor Creature It is true our Praises add nothing to his Perfection and self-sufficiency Nay our very Thanksgiving and Praise is but a gift that he gives to himself He gives us a Being that may be Capable to Praise him gives us Hearts and Affections that may be willing to Praise him gives us Grace that may enable us to Praise him gives us Benefits that may Excite us to Praise him gives us Directions how to Praise him gives us Laws Commands Promises Encouragements to Praise him So that in truth our very Thanksgivings and Praises to him are but his own work and yet such is his Goodness that he takes and accepts and Rewards our Praises and Thanksgivings as if they were our own Actions And whereas in Prayer we receive from him in Thanksgiving he is pleased so far to Honour this Duty as if he received somewhat from us and accordingly accepts and rewards it Meditations UPON THE Lord's Prayer MEDITATIONS UPON THE Lord's Prayer Matth. 6.9 After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father c. BY the Sin of Adam and the Corruption and Obliquity that thereupon entred into the humane nature Mankind had contracted a three-fold mischief 1. Guilt that needed an Expiation 2. Blindness that needed an Illumination 3. Perverseness and Rebellion that needed Power and Victory to subdue it In the fulness of time God sent his Son into the World with healing for all these Diseases 1. He sent his Son to be our Sacrifice and our Priest and not only so in his own Person but by derivation unto those that believe on him he hath imprinted upon them and communicated unto them a participation of his own Office and hath made them Kings and Priests 1. By making an Atonement for them with his Father whereby they are accepted John 16.26 27. I say not unto you I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you not to Exclude the continuance and Efficacy of his Intercession but to intimate the fulness of our Reconciliation that having made us of his houshold Ephes 2.19 we may have access to the Master and Father of the Family Ephes 2.18 for through him we have access unto the Father 2. By sending his own Spirit to instruct and warm and fit our spirits to come into the presence for through him we have access by one Spirit Ephes 2.18 teaching what to ask and inabling us to ask as we should Rom. 8.26 For we know not what we should pray for as we ought 2. As he made him a Sacrifice for our Guilt so he sent him to be a Light for our darkness John 1.5 the World was all in Darkness and Error the most Exact Sublimate Wits inscribed their Altar To the Unknown God They were ignorant of things to be known and of
Comprehensive Prayer and therefore fit to be supplemental unto thine own prayers Thy present wants or fears or desires carry thy spirit in thy own prayers eagerly and vehemently in pursuit of those thy wants fears or desires because they are things presently incumbent upon thee and in thy view and by that means thou dost many times in thy prayers overshoot many matters that are of more concernment it may be for thee to ask as the Glory of God thy preservation from future inconveniencies that are not yet in thy view and this prayer gathers up thy omissions calls home thy spirit unto that frame and temper of heart that is fit viz. Submission to the Will and Glory of God in the first petition of this Prayer furnisheth in a short Compendium to pray over that which thou hast before asked and to pray for that which before thou hast omitted 4. As it is a Comprehensive Prayer and contains much so it is a Compendious Prayer and contains much in little The Wise and Merciful God knowes the frailty of our Nature and therefore hath fitted us according to our own narrowness with abridgments he knowes the shortness of our Memory and therefore he gave his Will under the Old Law in Ten Words Christ he gave us another abridgment of that abridgment Love God and thy Neighbour God also knowes the weakness of our spirits and therefore he gives us a short Prayer that in the using of it our spirits may bear up and the fire last till the Prayer ended It is true when we have a continuing sense of Evil felt or feared upon us our spirits are able to hold out a Prayer long in warmth and heat But when the matters of our desires are not so apparent to our sense our spirits are apt to grow cold before we come at the end of it Here is a short Prayer furnish'd in all things fit to be asked and such as thy spirit may go along with to the End without being tyred It is true that a Man shall usually find more intention of spirit in his own prayers than in this Bless God that thou hast this intention of spirit in thy own prayers and neglect them not but pray for pardon that thou wantest it in this and strive to amend it Now the great Cause of the unprofitable use even of this Prayer and of divers other Ordinances grows from this That people use them without a distinct and deep consideration of the things contained in them The Sun in the Firmament is the greatest Wonder in the World and of infinite more consideration than the appearance of a new Star or a Comet But the commonness of the Sun makes Mankind pass over that without any observation and yet look upon the latter with much admiration and astonishment Just thus it is with this and other Prayers This Prayer being taken up and learnt with our speech we swallow by whole-sale and never weigh it or consider it but other Prayers of our own or others whilest they are new to us we use more attentively and it may be more profitably It should therefore be our care to rub out the Corn out of this Ear to Examine and Consider this excellent Prayer distinctly that so in the use of it a full understanding and affection may go along with it without which it is no Prayer for in Prayer we have to do with the God of the Spirits of all flesh that judgeth not neither regardeth the bare repetition of words the thing condemned by our Saviour when he commanded this Prayer But by the uniting our Souls and Spirits to him our words are not so much our prayers as the consequents and signs of our prayers The known Division of this Prayer is first the Preamble Secondly the Requests Thirdly the Conclusion 1. The Preamble Our Father which art in Heaven The general duty we learn from it is this that we come not suddenly and unseemly in our Requests to him but as much as may be to prepare our Souls with fitting apprehensions and affections before we come to ask of him with apprehensions of his goodness that may draw us to him in that he is our Father and with apprehensions of his Greatness that may make us consider our distance and come before him with Reverence in that he is in Heaven Eccles 5.2 Be not rash with thy Mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth it teacheth thee thy distance and it is fit thou should'st throughly digest that apprehension before thou ask that thy asking may be with Reverence External Reverence of it self is inconsiderable but as it is the figure of that internal Reverence that is in the Soul Where the external Reverence is without the internal it is base and odious Hypocrisie a dead and a despised performance a picture of Piety without life But the internal Reverence of the Mind cannot be without an external expression of it The Forms or Natures that God hath put into every creature are those which shape their external figure in some proportion answerable to their internal Form And it is as impossible for an heart sensible of the Majesty Glory Greatness and Power of God to come before him either with a petulant sawcy presumptuous or unseemly carriage as it is for the Form of a Lamb or a Child to render it self either in the shape of a Lion or a Wolf Again God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth As thou hast a business to do to prepare thy heart with the sense of thy distance that thy desires may be with a sutable humility when thou prayest so thou hast need of preparation to bring up thy heart out of that Earth wherein thou art unto Heaven to defecate that Earthy heart of thine that it may be fit to come into the presence of the God of Heaven When God beholds the highest things in nature the Heavens he humbles himself he descends below his own Excellency Psalm 113.6 And if thou art a Sutor to this great King it is fit thou shouldest come unto the Throne of his Majesty and not expect that he should come to thy Cottage to be importuned though yet he doth this also in his great Mercy and Condescention yet it is not fit for thee to expect it Again thy lifting up of thy heart to him is thy Advantage the nearer thou drawest to his Glory and Presence so it be with an humble and clean heart the more thou wilt partake of his Bounty and Goodness the fitter thy heart will be to have communion with him The Holy and Glorious Angels and Souls departed partake more of his fulness and perfection than Man doth because by the purity of their nature they have a nearer approach to the Fountain of Good than Man hath and the nearer or farther off the Spirit of a man
comes or keeps off from God the more or less of his Goodness he participates Now in this act of prayer we endeavour to lay hold of his Goodness and Promises Necessary it is therefore we bring our hearts by preparation as near to him as we can 1. That we may be near unto him and in this nearness consists an advantage of Communion with him 2. That we may be like him and that likeness is every day increased by our beholding of him whereby we are in some measure translated into the same Glory 3. That we may be in our proper place God hath communicated his goodness to all things according to their several degrees of perfection in those stations wherein his own Great and Infinite Wisdom placed them and the place of Man was nearer to God by his nature than he can now arrive unto in this Life in his own Person though we have a High-Priest that continually bears our names before our Father And certainly if it be at any time seasonable for a Man to wind up his heart in the greatest nearness to God that he can do it is when he comes before him in Praises for the things he hath and Petitions for the things he wants Learn therefore in general to bring up thy heart as near as thou canst to the great God in preparation and meditation before thou offerest thy Prayer that thy sacrifice may be mingled with a true fire and thy Soul may be raised up with the due consideration of what thou art about and who thou art to deal withal Touching the Particulars in this Preamble Our Father Two things are herein considerable 1. How God is said to be our Father 2. What Frame or temper of heart and spirit this blessed relation and conception of him as a Father ought to raise in us especially when we come before him in Prayer As to the first God hath the appellation or relation of a Father principally in these respects 1 By Creation Thus he is the Father of all things But in as much as Paternity and Filiation are relations of persons not of bare subsistency properly therefore in this respect he is called Father in relation to Angels and Men to Men Isa 64.8 But now O Lord thou art our Father we are the clay and thou our potter Mal. 2.10 have not all one Father hath not one God created us Luke 3.38 which was the Son of Adam which was the Son of God And as to Men so in a more near relation to the Souls of Men and the blessed Angels who participate more immediately of his Image and perfection Jam. 1.17 The Father of lights Heb. 12.9 The Father of Spirits Zec. 12.2 The former of Spirits Job 38.7 And all the Sons of God shouted for joy 2. By special susception or undertaking either without an intervenient Contract thus he is pleased to own a more special Paternity towards those that have most need of him Psal 68.5 A Father of the Fatherless or by an intervenient Contract thus he was a Father in a more near Relation to the Jewish People who as a Child is called by the Name of his Father so they did as it were bear his Name Jer. 14.9 We are called by thy Name leave us not Isa 63.16 Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and accordingly he evidenced himself towards them in all the care and tenderness of a Father Deut. 32.11 As an Eagle fluttereth over her Young c. Hos 11.1 When Israel was a Child I loved him Rom. 9.4 and called my Son out of Egypt But these Relations are yet too large and spacious 3. By Adoption in Christ Which Relation is thus wrought by an Eternal Stipulation between the Father and the Son the Son was to take upon him our Nature by a supernatural Conception and to stand as a publick Person and Mediator between the Father and lapsed Man and appointed that as many as should by true Faith lay hold on him there should be a kind of Union wrought between Christ and that Believer and in that Union the Father looks upon all that which was in the Believer as imputed to Christ and all that which was in Christ as imputed to the Believer Was there Sin and Guilt in the Believer it is laid on Christ and he bears all Iniquities Isa 53.6 Is there Righteousness in Christ the Believer hath that Righteousness the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Is Christ the First-born of God Psa 89.25 26. Though we cannot partake of his Primogeniture yet we partake of his Sonship John 1.12 As many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God John 20.17 I ascend unto my Father and to your Father to my God and to your God Gal. 4.5 That we might receive the Adoption of Sons And by vertue of this Union we partake of the inheritance of Sons Joynt-Heirs with Christ Gal. 4.7 of the Spirit of Sons Gal. 4.6 And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts c. And by vertue of this Filiation we have the Priviledges of Sons Access with boldness unto the Father Ephes 2.19 Care and tenderness of our Father over us Matth. 6.32 For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things Audience from him John 16.26 At that day ye shall ask in my Name c. For the Father himself loveth you Now this Appellation and Relation of a Father in the first Entrance into Prayers carries up our hearts unto these Considerations 1. That we should by all means labour to be in this relation to God viz. that he should be our Father for why do we call him so unless he be so to us and that we should not be contented barely with the Relation unto him as we are Men for so were even the Athenians who inscribed their Altar To the Unknown God His Off-spring Acts 17.28 nor with the Relation arising out of an external Profession and Covenant but with that nearest Relation of Paternity arising by our Union with Christ 2. And consequently that all our Applications to God in Prayer must be in and through Christ for through him is this Relation wrought and it is a Relation of Nearness and Union which is the greatest Nearness Ephes 2.13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were a far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ and 19. of the House-hold of God our Union unto God growes by our Union to Christ who is one with the Father John 17.23 I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and this is the meaning of asking in his Name John 16.26 through him we have an access to the Father Ephes 2.18 3. We learn with what Affections we should come to him in our Prayers And these arise either from the consideration of our duty as Children or from the consideration of that which we
entered into the World and death by Sin and Vers 19. By one Mans Disobedience many were made Sinners 1 Cor. 15.22 In Adam all die And by this Sin of Adam all were made Sinners by these two wayes 1. By actual participation of his disobedience for we were then in him but that is not all for upon that reason every Man should stand guilty of all the Sins committed by any of his Progenitors since Adam which seems not to agree with the profession of Almighty God Ezek. 18.20 The Son shall not bear the Iniquity of the Father But the case is not alike for Adam was created in integrity and perfection in an ability to perform the Law and so was a fit person to stipulate for his posterity 2 And as he was a person so qualified so the Covenant was made between God and him both for him and his posterity and 3 As we suffer in the penalty of his Disobedience so we had enjoyed the benefit of his Obedience we had come into the World with the same Liberty of Will and Integrity and Perfection of Nature that he had But all these are wanting in any other person in the World 1. A defect of Nature is gone over all that none is fit to stipulate for himself and his posterity 2. No such contract hath been at any time made between God and any other Man 2. By a necessary Consequence for God having justly withdrawn from Man his Blessedness and Perfection and Sin having corrupted and imbased his Nature we by propagation from him derive a corrupted depraved Nature full of impotence and rebellion and disorder Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean God was pleased to communicate to Man a being in the Essence of a Man and to communicate unto him a degree of Purity Immortality Wisdom and Perfection beyond the compass of his Natural subsistence but this latter was communicated to him under a covenant which when he broke he lost and not only lost that but even stained and corrupted and imbased that very being that after he had sinned he retained And this is the old Man corrupt according to the deceivable Lusts Ephes 4.22 A body of death Rom. 7.24 And this Depravation of our Nature was followed with the continual Corruption and at last with the dissolution of Nature and that not only in those who had sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression by an actual breach of an express Law Rom. 5.14 But in all that were partakers of Adams corrupted Nature even Infants and so Death passed over all And as thus we partake of Original Sin as well by being virtually actors in it as also by derivation of a corrupted Nature so this corruption of our Nature produceth in all our Lives continued and renewed Actual Sins the conceptions of Lust Jam. 1.15 And these Actual Sins according to the difference of those commands of God which are violated are either Sins of Omission or of Commission and both come under the extent of this Petition by the name of Sins or Trespasses Luk. 11. by the Name of Debts Matt. 6. For we owe unto God Duty and Obedience and every Violation of that duty leaves us so much indebted unto God the least of which is impossible to be paid when once incurred because it is impossible for us to make that not to have been which hath already been and impossible for us by all our future Obedience were it as exact as the will of God requires to expiate a Sin past for still that perfect obedience is no more then we owe we have therein but done our duty and are but unprofitable Servants but if it were possible to think that one act of perfect obedience to God would expiate for any Sin past yet such is the Corruption of our Nature that not one such act can be found there is in our best actions a mixture and adherence of some defect or other that makes it become the subject still of this Petition that which needs Mercy to Pardon and therefore cannot contain Merit to Deserve So then all are concluded under Sin Gal. 3.22 and consequently under Guilt the effect of Sin and consequently under death and a curse the wages of Sin And this Sin guilt and curse is so closely bound to every one of Adams posterity that there is no possibility in the best of them to deliver themselves from it therefore O Lord teach us to pray Forgive us Forgiveness is an act of Free Grace whereby our offended God freely and without any Merit of ours remits the Sin the Guilt and Punishment the Person offended is he only that can forgive the rule was true though misapplyed Mar. 2.7 Who can forgive Sins but God only and Forgiveness is an act of most free Mercy and nothing of Merit in the person forgiven Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy Sins Misery which is the effect of Sin is the Object of Mercy but it is not the Desert of it especially when that very Misery under which we are brought by Sin is a Misery wilfully contracted by our selves and not only so but is still a sinning Misery a Misery accompanied with stupidity and senslessness with aversion opposition against that God and that very Mercy that should deliver us God commends the freeness and fulness of his Goodness to us by taking that season to be Merciful when our condition is most Miserable not because our misery deserves his pity Ezek. 16.6 I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live Yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live This Forgiveness is thus wrought Man that was infinitely bound to love and obey the Author of his Being most unrgatefully and unnecessarily sinned against him and thereby deservedly incurred the everlasting curse of the most Just and True God and forfeited his being yet though Man had destroyed himself Almighty God of his own Free Will and without any other Motive and by his own Infinite Wisdom contrived a way whereby his most exact Truth and Justice might be satisfied and yet his creature saved and his Mercy and Goodness might be infinitely evidenced unto Men and Angels By an Everlasting Covenant between the Father and the Son the Son he must assume our Nature and offer it up as One Sacrifice for Sin for ever Heb. 10.12 This was that Mystery hid from Ages and Generations the Mystery that the Angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 The Great Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 The great End of the Creation of Man And by this Sacrifice thus freely given by our offended Lord we have Redemption even the Remission of our sins Ephes 1.7 Colos 1.14 And Pardon thus freely given by the Father and yet thus dearly bought by the Son is with abundance of Love and Grace proclaimed and tendred unto all in all the World
of God to soften that heart again 2. Make a frequent and serious Examination of thy past Actions measure them by the Rule of the Word of God and find out that accursed thing whatsoever it be that is displeasing to him so that as much as may be thou maist distinctly and with reference to particular sins or faults or failings pray over this Petition There is not a day but by a wary observation thou wilt not only find a general indistinct distemper which is to be the subject of this request but particular special eminent Evils that deserve a particular reflection upon them in the repetition of this Petition Let us search and try our wayes and turn to the Lord our God And to this end 3. Endeavour to keep thy Conscience always Wakeful Vigilant Tender be content to listen to her chidings she soldom quarrels without a cause but suppressing checking and stifling the language of Conscience makes her at last either sullen or senseless or outragious A vigilant Conscience will prevent thee from many sins but if it do not it will tell thee of them and bring thee upon thy knees and make this Petition seasonable and a Pardon gotten thereupon acceptable and comfortable for how can that Man with any sense beg Pardon for a sin when he scarce finds himself sensibly guilty of any This Petition is delivered up but carelesly and coldly and fruitlesly by such a person 4. Give God the Honour of his Justice even when thou suest for the Benefit of his Mercy in aggravation of thy sins to the due height in owning damnation and utter rejection as the just reward of every sin humble thy Soul truely and deeply for it This will make thy Prayer earnest and thy Pardon dear it gives to God the Honour of his Justice and the Glory of his Mercy which is all the Tribute thou can'st pay unto him for his free Goodness in giving thee that Pardon without which thou wert eternally lost 5. Give thy Mediator the Honour and End of thy Redemption Thy Saviour died it is true to obtain thy Pardon but wilt thou continue in sin that Grace may abound sin that thou maist be pardoned and renew thy sins that God may renew his Pardon God forbid Thou dost as much as in thee lyeth disappoint the End of Christ's Death who therefore died that he might redeem unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Let the begging of thy Pardon be ever accompanied with a resolution not to offend again otherwise God that sees thy heart looks upon thy asking of Pardon as a higher and more impudent and presumptuous sin than that which thou seemest to beg the forgiveness of 6. Upon the discovery of any particular sin which in a special manner concerns thee beware of these things 1. Sleeping in it without recourse to God for Pardon for it or slipping over it in thy Prayer without a particular animadversion upon it Be content to open this sore The longer it is kept covered the worse it is Thou must know that every sin is written before God with a point of a Diamond and though thou art contented to forget it or by incursion of time to wear out the remembrance or at least the horror of it yet it is written and thou shalt be sure to hear of it and the longer it continues the harder thy heart grows and the deeper doth the canker and stain of that Sin work and spread into thy Soul and the more difficultly is thy Pardon obtained and yet the less earnestly sought It is a secret curse in thy bosom that makes all thy services to God unacceptable and unsavory and who can tell when the decree may come out when this Sin will ripen into an eminent Judgment Therefore clear thy account with God betimes let not the guilt of a Sin lye long upon thy conscience but make thy peace betimes sue out thy Pardon speedily Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth 2. Yet after a Sin freshly committed fall not presently to beg thy Pardon till thou hast humbled thy Heart and put it into a fit frame to come into the presence of God till thou hast got a sense that it is an evil thing and a bitter to depart from him till thou hast crept to thy Saviours Feet for his Blood to wash thee and for his Righteousness to cover thee and for his Mediation to bring thee otherwise a defiled polluted creature into his Fathers presence under his Patronage till thou hast mourned over him whom thou hast pierced and been ashamed before him of thy miscarriage and acted thy Faith upon his All-sufficient satisfaction till thou hast taken up Resolutions of future amendment and then in the Name and Mediation of thy Saviour fall upon thy knees and beg thy Pardon As we forgive our Debtors Luk. 12. For we forgive our Debtors Here we Learn 1. That it is our Duty to forgive others Matt. 18.21 22. Upon their repentance Luk. 17.4 If he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him and that upon these considerations 1. From that conformity that is or should be in our Nature to the Nature of God he is slow to anger and of great Mercy Psal 145.8 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy Mic. 7.18 And Christ coming to renew the broken Image of God in Man and to renew him after the Image of him that created him doth enjoyn imprint this part of the Divine Image Luk. 6.36 Be ye merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful And Mercy in the Heart is that excellent habit from whence forgiveness proceeds And hence it is that where the Spirit of Christ comes it assimilates the Nature to that disposition Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness 2. From that great commandment enjoyned by God in the Moral Law Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And much more inforced under the new Covenant even to the Love of our very Enemies Matt. 5.44 I say unto you Love your Enemies and consequently forgive your Enemies for Love is that affection that produceth Pardon and this injunction lyes upon us under the same obligation whereby we are bound to love our Brethren for the Love we owe to God is that grand Obligation that binds to whatsoever he commands Joh. 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandments Therefore if ye love me love and pity and pardon your Enemies 3. From that great Equity and Reason the proportion of Gods dealing with us Matt. 18.32 I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I had pity on thee Colos 3.13 Forbearing one another and forgiving one another even as Christ
Will may be performed by us and all Man-kind in some measure answerable to what is done by thy Glorious Angels in Heaven that we may do it Chearfully without Murmuring Sincerely without Dissimulation Speedily without Delay or Procrastination and Constantly and Uncessantly without Deficiency or Fainting And that we may not at all fail in our duty herein be pleased daily more and more to reveal thy Heavenly Will unto us that so our Wills on Earth may answer thy Will in Heaven and keep us alwaies careful and circumspect in sincerity and integrity of heart to keep close unto it that neither the corruptions of our own hearts the seducements of Satan the deceits of this present World may at any time withdraw us from the Obedience of thy most Perfect and Holy Will Give us this day our daily Bread And now most Gracious Father as we have Petitioned Thee for things that more immediately concern thy Glory Kingdom and Will we beg Thee to give us leave to Petition Thee for some things that more immediately concern our selves Blessed Lord thou hast given us our Being and yet when thou hast so given it us we cannot support our selves in that Being one day nay onemoment without thy further Influence and Bounty We therefore beg of Thee our Daily Bread and in that all the Blessings and convenient Necessaries for our support We beg bread for this Life Thou that feedest the young Ravens when they cry we that are thy Children beg of Thee to feed us with food convenient for us Thou that cloathest the Lillies of the field give us cloathing for our covering and defence and all those necessaries and convenient supplies for our wants and conditions And because it is thy Blessing that giveth our Food ability to nourish us our Cloaths to keep us warm and all other outward supplies their serviceableness and usefulness for our Conditions we beg thy Blessing may come along with thy Benefits And because it is part as well of our Duty as of that State and Condition wherein thou hast placed us in this Life that in the sweat of our brows we should eat our bread enable us we beseech Thee for the Duties of our several Callings and Imployments and bless our Labours that we may serve Thee faithfully therein and may be enabled thereby honestly to provide for our selves and Families And as we beg of Thee this meat that perisheth the convenient supplies of our external conditions in this life so we beseech Thee give us that Bread that may feed us unto everlasting life an Interest in the Righteousness and Merits of thy Son Jesus Christ thy Grace and the Direction Guidance and Sanctification of thy Holy Spirit whereby we may be directed strengthned and comforted in a walking according to thy Will here and may everlastingly enjoy thy Presence and Glory hereafter And forgive us our Trespasses Thou art the great Creator Lord and Governor of all the World and art in a more special relation the Soveraign the Father the great Benefactor of Man-kind and therefore may'st most justly expect from the children of Men our uttermost Love and Fear and Reverence and Obedience and thou hast by the Light of Nature and by that greater Light of thy Holy Word revealed unto us a most Holy and Righteous Law to which we owe a most entire and sincere Obedience and yet notwithstanding all these obligations we poor sinful Creatures do daily and hourly violate that Holy Law of thine both in Thought Word and Deed we omit much of what thou requirest of us and we commit often what thou forbiddest us we are deficient in the remembrance of thee in our Love to thee in our Fear of thee We often omit those Duties that thou requirest of Invocation Thanksgiving Dependance and when we perform them they want that due measure of Love Humility Reverence Intention of mind that thou most justly dost require and deserve we omit those duties of Charity Justice Righteousness that we owe to others that Sobriety Temperance Moderation Vigilance that relate to our selves and we daily commit offences against thee the Glorious God against our neighbours against our selves contrary to the injunctions of thy Holy Law revealed to us and these we often reiterate against Mercies Chastisements Promises of better Obedience And although many of our Neglects and Offences immediately concern our selves or others yet they are all offences against thy Holy and Righteous Law and against that Subjection and Obedience and Duty and Thankfulness that we owe unto thee And when we have done all this we are not able to make thee any satisfaction for any of the least of our offences or neglects but only to confess our Guilt and to beg thy Mercy Pardon and Forgiveness We therefore come unto thee who art our Lord and Soveraign whose Prerogative it is to forgive Iniquity Transgression and Sin to thee which art our Father who art full of Pity and Compassion to thy Children though disobedient and backsliding Children to thee who art a Father of Mercies as well as of Men and hast delight in Forgiving thy disobedient and returning and repenting Children and we confess our Sins our backslidings our failings And upon the account of thy own Mercy and Goodness upon the account of thy Son's Merits and Sufferings upon the account of thy own Promises contained in that Word whereupon thou hast caused thy Servants to trust Pardon the sins of our Duties and the sins of our Lives the sins of our Natures and the sins of our Practice the sins of our Thoughts Words and Actions the sins of Omission and the sins of Commission the sins of Infirmity Failing and daily Incursion and the sins of Wilfulness Presumption and Rebellion whereof we stand guilty before thee Our Request we confess is great The Debt whereof we desire Forgiveness is a great and a vast debt but we ask it of the great and glorious Monarch of the World we ask it of our gracious and merciful Father and from that glorious God who rejoyceth more in multiplying Pardons upon repenting sinners than the Children of Men can delight in offending As we forgive them that Trespass against us And besides all this we have been taught by him that knew thy Will to the full that if we from our hearts forgive those that trespass against us thou that art our Heavenly Father wilt forgive us our Trespasses against thee Upon this Promise of thine we lay hold In obedience to thy Commands we forgive our brethren their offences against us and beg thee therefore to make good that thy Promise of Forgive us our offences It is true our forgiving of others cannot merit thy Pardon of us When we forgive we do but our duty because thou commandest it And besides the Trespass that we remit is but to our Brother and is but a small inconsiderable trespass in comparison of those Trespasses whereof we beg the forgiveness of Thee his Trespass not an hundred pence ours