but it prepares us for and in a sense enters us into the Work of the other World for that I conceive lyes much in the holy use of the Tongue we hear of no other imployment of the Saints in glory but that they night and day are praising God he is always in their eyes he is ever in their mouth The work of Heaven will not be uncouth to them that have been much Exercised in holy Heavenly Discourse on Earth but for others that can scarce frame their mouths to a good word on Earth for my part I know not what they will do in Heaven though I think there is no great danger of their coming thither 3. No Discourse is so pleasant next to the Songs of Angels the pious conference of holy men is the sweetest melody our ears can be entertained with other things comparatively found harsh to the things of God neither at the instant affect the Ear with that pleasure nor afterwards leave it in that composure To reflect a little by way of comparison And first let us listen a little to what the World says a buzze there is in both ears but what do we hear Such a man hath play'd the Knave and such a man hath play'd the Fool such a Family is at great Discord or in great distress such a Nation is involved in War or such a Person hath shed the blood of War in Peace for ordinary we hear nothing but what it is a vexation to hear nothing but what may make our Ears to tingle or if ought seems at present to tickle them as profane Jests and idle stories may for a while do this tickling ends in torment the Ear is put out of Order and the Heart as being defiled is not a little discomposed He could see so little pleasure in the Speeches that he abhorred the Songs of Sinners as having no harmony in them their Mirth was rather his Sorrow Eccl. 7.5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the Wise than for a man to hear the Song of Fools But 2. In listning to holy Discourse we hear of the Love of God the glory of Heaven the Graces that do shine in some the Duties that are performed by others we hear of an end that shall be put to all earthly troubles whereby the sharpest sufferings are allayed and by what we may hear further death it self comes to be despised Are the stories we hear on one Ear and the other to be compared we may hearken long enough e're the Ear will be satisfied with hearing except we chance to hear something from Heaven all the good News is in the Word of God and to be heard from good men that bring us stories there-from 4. By neglecting holy Discourse you may lose opportunities of good both to your selves and others that you will wish you had taken 1. It may be as to your selves you were in Company with Persons eminent for grace and knowledg here was an opportunity of doing your own Soul good but by the stream of your impertinent tattle all savoury Discourse was diverted that Season was neglected afterwards you see your lack of knowledg the Instrument is removed Ah Fools do we not then cry out of our selves the opportunity is gone and we are undone How must it gall an awakned Jew to think what Discourse he had with Jesus Christ Is it lawful to give Tribute to Caesar Here is a Woman caught in Adultery Why do not thy Disciples Fast c. Ah! had I nothing else to enquire of my Saviour Would it not have been more pertinent to have asked what I shall do to be saved But he is gone and I must die in my sins How many Persons have we sent away that have had a word of wisdom in their hearts having learnt only what a Clock it was what weather what News forgetting to ask our own hearts what all this was to us and enquire of them things worthy of their wisdom and our learning Secondly as to others you may rue the opportunities you have lost here lay a poor wretch with one foot in Hell would he not have started back if he had had light to Discover his Danger Well you are together something you must say the same breath would serve for a compassionate admonition as a complacent impertinency which will redound to neither of your advantages you part the man dies in his sins and in the midst of Hell cryes out against you one word of yours might have saved me you had me you might have told me of my danger you forbore I hardned the Lord reward your negligence Oh give not poor Souls occasion to rail at you in Hell for your sinful silence or impertinent converse with them here on Earth You will pretend it may be want of matter in excuse for your forbearing holy Discourse Object No Friend it was want of mind Answ thou art not straitned in thy Subject but in thy self Religious matter has no End Eternity is not sufficient for it but thou art resolved also it shall have no beginning Well you know your duty and do as likes you 3. In order to the right management of our Tongue especial regard must be had to its scope what is aimed at in every motion of it either immediately or ultimately for without some scope it is vain talk and according to the goodness or badness of our scope it is ordinarily good or bad talk I say ordinarily for some talk is so bad that it is scarce capable of a good scope much less of being made good by it yet less evil it does become to instance in blasphemy and lying great moral evils both in their own Nature and no design can destroy the Nature of them in that the Word of God allows not but forbids the doing of evil that good may come of it yet speeches materially so have been passed over the evil as of simplicity pardoned and the good aimed at in them as of sincerity rather rewarded As Paul Rahab and the Egyptian Midwives might be instances but let us take heed of making them Examples But ordinarily as I said before the Scope does much unto the Specification of the Speech so much 1. That fair Speeches become foul if dirty designs be couched under them or carried on by them he cryes out therefore for help against the Flatterer as if he was a Murtherer Psal 12.1 2 3. Help Lord for the faithful fail they speak vanity every one with his Neighbour with flattering lips c. the Lord shall cut off all flattering lips Psal 55.21 His words are softer than Oyl yet are they drawn Swords The like may be said of the fawning Woman that entices to vice Prov. 5.3 4. The Lips of a strange Woman drop as an Honey-comb but her end is bitter as Wormwood sharp as a two-edged Sword 2. Good Speeches become evil to the users of them if evil be meant by them as if we couch under them to cover sinful purposes
out of his free good will to shew himself benevolentem hominibus as Grotius expresseth it gracious and favourable to man in that way of accepting him through Christ 2. The season of Grace is called the day of Salvation further to shew the Sect. 10 advantageousness of this season unto the improvers thereof We must not take Salvation here so largely as for deliverance from any evil or danger or the preservation from any trouble or distress nor must we take Salvation here so strictly and narrowly as to import only eternal Salvation in Heaven as it is taken Rom. 13.11 Now is your Salvation nearer than when you believed and heirs of Salvation Heb. 11.14 Nor must you take it so strictly as to import only the means of Salvation as it doth often in the Scripture Act. 28.28 Salvation is of the Gentiles but Salvation in this place comprehends both that happiness which is perfect and compleat in Heaven and also the entrance into it and the beginning of it in this life fitness for Salvation here and the fulness of Salvation hereafter in which sense the Gospel is called the Gospel of Salvation in Eph. 1.13 and the word of Salvation in Act. 13.29 and the Long-suffering of God is to be accounted Salvation in 2 Pet. by Salvation in these places being meant a fitness for Eternal Salvation by receiving the Gospel and improving the Long-suffering of God and the means of Grace and our being brought to the full Fruition of it in Glory So in this place the day of Salvation is that season wherein God bestows an entrance into Salvation here followed with a full perfection of it hereafter And so I have opened the sense of these two arguments whereby the Apostle urgeth us to the present improvement of the season Grace both as this is a season of fitness for working and so called a Time a Day and as 't is a Season of advantageousness to the worker and so called an accepted time wherein God accepts of sinners to be reconciled to them and a day of Salvation by the improving whereof God will certainly bring his People to the Fruition and the perfect Participation of Life and Salvation in Heaven Now having thus explained and opened the Sense of these two Arguments I shall only in the second place 2. Shew you the force and strength of them both distinctly to engage us to a present improvement of the season of Grace 1. And First I shall shew you the force of the first Argument and that is the fitness of this present season of Grace for our working and employment It is saith the Apostle 1. The Time 2. The Day Sect. 11 1. It is the Time I shewed you in the explaining of the sense of the first Argument the meaning of the word Time I told you it did clearly import tempestivity opportunity the flower the cream the lustre the beauty of time But how doth this consideration that the present Season of Grace is the time of opportunity urge and inforce the duty of a present improving of the season of Grace In answer whereunto I offer these following considerations 1. The First is this The time of opportunity is that which we may easily let slip It is tempus labile a time that may easily slip between our fingers especially in Spiritual concernments It is needful therefore now instantly to lay hold upon it Opportunity is hardly embraced The learned Pharisees could not discern their opportunity by discerning the signs of Christ's coming as you have it in Mat. 16. and the beginning Nor could the Jews know their opportunity it was hidden from their eyes Luk. 19.42 Who is as the wise man saith Solomon in Eccl. 8. that is how rarely is the wise man to be found Where is he to be found But why so The wise man saith he discerneth time and judgment that is he is able to judge when things are to be done and therefore 't is rare to find such a wise man Embracing of opportunity is a wisdom that God alone must teach us by considering the shortness of our time to be so wise as to improve it Psal 90.12 And God concealeth the season the nick the juncture of time wherein he will bestow Grace upon us because he would have us always watchful and dependent upon him humble and serious in regarding every season It is easie to know seasons for civil affairs easy to know the season of a trade to sow to reap to buy to sell But in those affairs that concern our Souls it is hard to find out when they are to he performed Opportunity is so very short and sudden and men are so blinded with avocations pleasures prejudices and vain hopes that sometimes these make the season of regarding their Souls appear too soon sometimes they are so blinded with fear and discouragements by dangers and difficulties and seeming impossibilities that they think it too late So that indeed between sinful hope and fear it is hard to pitch upon the right season and nick of time for the saving of our Souls In every business but especially saving business the most difficult part of the work is the due limiting of it In our voyage to Heaven it is hard to save our tide not one of a thousand but lets it slip 2. Secondly Opportunity must be presently embraced and improved because the improving of it is a man's greatest wisdom They are called wise who so consider their latter end as that they pursue the present season of duty Deut. 32.29 They are the wise that discern time and judgment Eccl. 8.5 that is that discern the opportunity so as to have judgment for the embracing of it Therefore in Eccl. 10.2 The wise man's heart is said to be in his right hand that is the wisdom of his heart teacheth him to dispatch his affairs judiciously and dextrously both for manner and season The want of this wisdom discerning the season maketh a man like unto a beast Psal 49.20 It is worse to be like a beast than to be a beast To be a beast is no sin and comparatively no punishment But to be like a beast is both in a high degree Yea the very brute Creatures they are far wiser than is he that neglects his opportunity of Grace The Stork the Turtle the Crane the Swallow observe their seasons of coming into several Countries Jer. 8.7 8. They know their appointed season but my people know not the judgment of the Lord not discern the course or manner of God's dealings so as to embrace duty and avoid danger It is called a fool's property to want a heart when he hath a price that is an opportunity put into his hand to get wisdom Prov. 17.16 And therefore the 5 Virgins even for this piece of folly are called foolish even to a Proverb because they were not so wise as to know their opportunity And let a man be never so prudent for the world if he knoweth not the
the Course of this World after the Prince of the power of the Air the Spirit that works now in the children of disobedience among whom also we had our conversation in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind There all our Enemies appear abreast the Devil as the Grand deceiver and principal of all wickedness the World with its Pleasures Honours and Profits as the Bait by which it doth deceive us and steal away our hearts from God and pervert and divert us that we should not look after the one thing necessary the Flesh is that Corrupt Inclination in us which entertains and closeth with these Temptations to the neglect of God and the wrong of our own Souls this is very importtnate to be pleased and is the proper internal cause of all our mischief for James 1.14 Every man is inticed and drawn away by his own lust These must be renounced before we can return to God for till we put away our Idols we cannot incline our hearts to the true God Josuah 24.23 And these are the great Idols by which our hearts are estranged from him When God is laid aside self interposeth as the next Heir and that which we count self is the flesh Many wrong their own Souls but never any man hated his own flesh That which feeds the flesh is the World and the Devil by proposing the Bait irritateth and stirreth up our affections Therefore we must be turned from Satan to God we must be delivered from the present evil World we must abstain from fleshly Lusts for God will have no Co-partners and Competitors in our hearts 2. A devoting and giving up our selves to God Father Son and Holy Ghost as our God 2 Cor. 8.3 and Rom. 6.13 As our owner by Creation Psal 100.3 And by Redemption 1 Cor. 6.19 20. As our Soveraign Lord Jer. 24.8 Isa 26.13 Other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us c. As the fountain of our life and blessedness Psal 31.14 I trusted in the Lord I said thou art my God Lam. 3.24 The Lord is my portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him Psal 119.57 I have said thou art my Potion therefore I will keep thy Precepts II. As to our Progress and Perseverance which is our walking in the narrow way and shews the sincerity and heartiness of our consent in making the Covenant And besides this is not the work of a Day but of our whole Lives we have continual need of coming to God by Christ Here three things are required 1. As to the Enemies of God and our Souls there must be a forsaking as well as a renouncing the Devil must be forsaken we must be no more of his party and confederacy we must resist stand out against all his batteries and assaults 1 Pet. 5.8 9. the World must be overcome 1 John 5.4 5. and the flesh must be subdued and mortified Gal. 5.24 that we be no more governed by the desires thereof and if we be sometimes foiled we must not go back again but renew our Resolutions and the drift of our lives must still be for God and Heaven 2. As to God to whom we have devoted our selves we must love and please and serve him all our days Luke 1.75 we must make it our work to love him and count it our happiness to be beloved by him and carefully apply our selves to seek his favour and cherish a fresh sense of it upon our hearts and continue with patience in well-doing Rom. 2.7 till we come to the complete sight and love of him in Heaven 1 John 3.2 3. You must always live in the hope of the coming of Christ and everlasting glory Tit. 2.3 looking for the blessed hope and Jude v. 21. looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus unto eternal life As we did at first thankfully accept of our recovery by Christ and at first consent to renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh and resolve to follow God's counsel and direction we must still persevere in this mind and use his appointed means in order to our final happiness The sum then of our Christianity is that we should by true Repentance and Faith forsake the World the Flesh and the Devil and give up our selves to God Father Son and Holy Ghost that he may take us for his reconciled Children and for Christ's sake forgive all our sins and by his Spirit give us grace to persevere in those Resolutions till our full and final happiness come in hand Seventhly This Covenant consisting of such Duties and Priviledges God hath confirmed by certain visible Ordinances commonly called Sacraments as Baptism and the Lord's Supper both which but in a different manner respect the whole tenour of the Covenant For as the Covenant bindeth mutually on God's part and ours so these Duties have a mutual Aspect or Respect to what God does and what we must do on God's part they are a Sign and a Seal on our part they are a Badge and a Bond. 1. On God's part they are sealing or confirming Signs as Circumcision is called a sign or seal of the righteousness which is by faith Rom. 4.11 that is of the grace offered to us in Christ so is Baptism which came in the Room of Circumcision Col. 2.11 12. In whom ye are circumcised buried with him in Baptism Surely the Gospel-Ordinances signifie as much grace as the Ordinances of the legal Covenant if Circumcision was a Sign and Seal of the Righteousness which is by Faith a or pledge of God's good will to us in Christ so is Baptism so is the Lord's Supper they are a Sign to signifie and a Seal to confirm to represent the Grace and assure the grant of Pardon and Life As for instance Baptism signifies Pardon and Life so does the Lord's Supper Matth. 26.28 29. That for our growth and nourishment this for our imitation Baptism is under our consideration at present that it hath respect to remission of Sins the Text is clear for it and so are many other Scriptures It was Ananias his Advice to Paul Acts 22.16 Arise and be Baptized and wash away thy sins and call on the Name of the Lord. So Ephes 5.26 That he might sanctifie and cleanse us by the washing of water through the Word The washing represents the washing away the guilt and filth of sin it signifies also our Resurrection to a blessed and eternal Life Baptism saveth by the Resurrection of Christ 1 Pet. 3.21 Well then it is a sealing Sign When God promised longer life to Hezekiah 2 Kings 20.8 he said What shall he the sign that the Lord will heal me So when he promiseth pardon and life to us What shall be the sign that the Lord will do this for us Baptism is this sign a witness between us and God Gen. 31.48 This heap is a witness between thee and me 2. On our part they are a Badge and a Bond to oblige us to the
not the Christ but that I am sent before him He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom c. he must increase but I must decrease John would not suffer any envy or prejudice to remain in the hearts of his Disciples against Christ upon his account but seeks to check it presently But he being now not present with them the Pharisees more easily ingaged them in this opposition and objection against Christ about Fasting to join with them therein And the zeal that John's Disciples had for the reputation of their Master might somewhat incline them also to it for they saw the people following Christ which they thought might be some eclipse to it and consequently to their own as they were his Disciples And besides they knowing the austerity and abstinence that was practis'd by John his meat being locusts and wild honey such food as he found in the wilderness they might be more easily offended at that greater liberty that was taken by Christ and his Disciples about eating and drinking Especially at this time when their Master was in Prison they thought fasting might be more seasonable than going to a feast as Christ and his Disciples did at the house of Levi as Grotius observes upon the place Next we have Christ's reply to the Objection and he presents it in a parable as I said the parable of a Bridegroom who at his wedding hath his Bridemen and Bridemaids attending him in the wedding chamber who according to the Hebrew Dialect are here called the Children of the Bride-chamber And is it then a proper season for their fasting while they are in the wedding-chamber and the Bridegroom with them Wherein Christ doth represent himself as a Bridegroom and his Disciples as the Children of the Bride-chamber And he doth now represent himself thus the rather to put these Disciples of John in remembrance of their Masters speech when he call'd Christ the Bridegroom As we read John 3.29 He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom And should then his Disciples fast and mourn while Christ the Bridegroom was with them And their Master John he profest that he was the friend of this Bridegroom and rejoyced greatly to hear his voice John 3.29 And therefore why should they be offended at his Disciples that they did not fast and mourn when their Master John rejoiced and had his joy fulfill'd in hearing his voice as we read John 3.29 And herein Christ doth intimate to them that if they were indeed his Disciples and the children of the Bride-chamber they would not fast neither for the children of the Bride-chamber cannot fast while the Bridegroom is with them But he adds The days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them and then shall they fast in those days And so I come to the Text. Wherein we may observe by the way 1. That Christ doth exempt his Disciples from observing those fasts that the Pharisees and John's Disciples were in the practice of Chemnitiu Harm in loco And the rather because they were observed especially on the Pharisees part Ex simulato pietatis studio out of ostentation of piety and for self-justification As he did exempt them from their other traditions so also from their fasts 2. That the Bridegroom was to be taken away which is to be understood of Christ's fleshly presence for his spiritual presence never was nor never will be taken away from his Church And this presence discontinues till his coming to judg the world and then the cry will be heard at Midnight Behold the Bridegroom cometh Mat. 25.6 The Bridegroom that was once visibly present on earth with his Disciples is so taken away that he will not be in that manner present with them again till his return from heaven And his taking away doth either respect the acts of men who by cruel hands took him from prison and from judgment and nail'd him upon the cross Isa 53 8. and took him out of the Land of the living Or else it respects the act of his Father who took him up into heaven after he had finisht his work here upon earth as it is said 1 Tim. 3. ult Received up into glory which is the more probable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though there is nothing in the original word to determine it to either sense 3. He also declares what the practice of his Disciples would be after his taking away Then shall they fast in those days so that he doth not deny the practice of Fasting to his Disciples but rather commends it only it was not at present seasonable as it afterwards would be Qu. But why should they fast after he was taken away Ans 1. Some say because till then the Holy Ghost was not given in such a degree as might fit them for such extraordinary duties Chrysost As Christ seems to intimate when upon this occasion he excuseth his Disciples as being not yet fit for such spiritual services No man putteth a piece of new Cloth into an old garment nor new wine into old bottles Mark 2.22 It 's true they might be able to keep fast days as the Pharisees did but Christ that values our duties by the frame of spirit exerted in them would not have them put upon extraordinary duties till they had a suitable measure of the spirit to enable them thereunto 2. Others and I think more properly understand the words of Christ with respect to the afflictions and persecutions that would come upon the Church after his ascension into heaven vvhich vvould give them great occasions of prayer and extraordinary supplications and vvhich vvould reduce them to such great sorrows and distresses vvhereby fasting vvould be not only seasonable but that principle of grace that vvould act them in other duties vvould also naturally lead them to it Not to take up again the practice of these Pharisaical Fasts as the Montanists would hence infer but the duty of Fasting as suited to Gospel times And these persecutions began early First by the Jews and then the Arrians and then the Heathen persecutions under the Dragon in the Roman Empire and then under the Beast with the seven heads and ten horns to whom the Dragon gave his seat and great power Rev. 13.2 And Christ foretold this to his Disciples before he vvas taken away That they that kil'd them would think they did God good service John 16.1 And that Nation should rise against Nation and Kingdom against Kingdom and there should be Famine Pestilence and Earthquakes Mat. 14.7 Now in these days should his Disciples fast Not that in these vvords Christ doth give an institution for fasting but declares what eventually would come to pass Neither doth he determine any particular days and times for fasting but only general during the absence of the Bridegroom they should fast in those days And indeed as soon as the Bridegroom was gone they began to have cause of mourning his absence it self was one great cause
token of ill behaviour under Government and do disguise Children of the most comly structure in the world Thus of the first general in Childrens duties The second is concerning the Latitude and extent of Childrens obedience in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text. We cannot imagine this is so universal and absolute as Obedience to God or that the obligation lies in any thing beside the mind of the supreme Governour of Heaven and Earth or dissonant to the holy will of our Lord for only that obedience is required which is well-pleasing and grateful unto him So that the Power demanding it must have a warrant from him unless we should embrace the horrid opinion of the daring Atheist in his Leviathan †c. 42 p. 234. who impiously affirms that if a Christian be commanded by his lawful Prince or Soveraign whose authority was first paternal to say he doth not believe in Christ it is lawful to obey which atheistical tenet doth either post-pone the command of God to the command of man which is most abominable or without further enquiry doth account it a divine precept which would prefer an hellish error to the Heavenly verity overturn the whole Christian institution and set up diabolical adoration ‖ Dr Templar Idea Theol. Levia p. 96 97 251. 101 102. 'T would introduce an infallible spirit in all Civil as the Papists pretend to have in their Ecclesiastical Government yea quite exterminate all regards of Conscience and raze out the common notions of good and evil whereas all subjection which is not of faith i. e. agrees not with the judgment of Conscience propounding it's dictates under the reason of the Divine will is sin (x) Rom. 13.1 4.5 with 14.23 God is only arbitrary and absolute Lawgiver (y) Jam 4.12 And as Constant the Father of Constantine the Emperour affirm'd they could not be faithful Subjects unto him who easily contemn'd God and their Conscience neither Children be truly obedient to their Parents who do so Our obedience then ought to be only in all things acceptable to our supreme Lord and Master And therefore the Apostle hath elsewhere express'd the command to obey in the Lord (z) Eph. 6.1 5 6. which is the same as unto the Lord and unto Christ fearing God (a) Colos 3.22 23. in opposition to the pleasing of men This doth moderate the commands of Parents and regulate the obedience of Children Wives and Servants 'T is true had Parents kept their original rectitude their commands would never have been other than consonant to the Divine pleasure and Law of Nature but the fall that disordered that harmonious and happy constitution and now their precepts do often thwart or jar with the will of him who is Soveraign Lord whom to please is the determination or limit as well as motive to Childrens obedience This agrees with the sense of Arch-bishop Anselm †Comment in Colos in his tantummodo quae praâ—eptum Domini non excedunt c. 580 years ago expounding my Text. How it will rellish now with those of his order in an Hypothesis of theirs I determine not But he saith that Natural and Ecclesiastical Carnal and Spiritual Parents are to be obeyed in all things only in the Lord i. e. saith he in those things only which are not beside or Do not exceed the precept of the Lord because it is pleasing unto God that in such a manner we should obey them It should seem he held then according to truth that if a Superiour should exceed his commission by imposing any preter-evangelical Canon for Doctrine or practice the Inferiors non-conformity thereunto was no transgression For in obeying the commands of a subordinate power (b) Acts 4.19 5.29 Exod. 1.17 we are primarily to take care that the rights of the absolute Soveraign remain inviolable seeing God gave the Parent that Authority he hath in requiring that which is displeasing to God he hath none And as the Child is to obey him so he is to obey God without whose warrant his child is not oblig'd to active obedience but passive or submission by suffering the penalty with cheerfulness that is pleasing to God in such a case For the truth is It is thank-worthy if one for Conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully (c) 1 Pet. 2.19 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is acceptable with God whatever acceptance it find among men there is a grace in this behaviour before God Now the great thing Children are to look at in their obedience to Parents is that it be well-pleasing to God so saith my Text and if they obey without his warrant who can secure them they shall do what is acceptable with him God is to have an affection predominant to that we have for our Parents (d) Mat. 10.37 Luke 14.26.9.59 60 61. We must not dishonour him in pretension to honour them In things impious or dishonest Parents have no authority herein disobedience would be just and obsequiousness criminal Hence we find Acrotatus commended amongst the Antients because when his Parents had required of him to do an unjust thing he answered I know you are willing I should do that which is just for so you taught me to do I will therefore do that which you desire I should but what you bid me I will not do A denial in this case is to be express'd in all humble language Hierocles though no Christian hath notable things about the extent of Childrens obedience for he arguing in this case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ‖ Comment in Câ—rm Pytbag p. 53 c. If in all things we must obey our Parents how shall we go astray from piety and other vertues if through the pravity of their manners they lead us into those things which are not altogether honest and commendable If sometime their will be not consonant to the Divine Laws He gives this answer amongst others * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If indeed the Divine Law draw you to one thing and your Parents to another in this disagreement of wills it is more excellent to choose those things which are better and in those only to be inobservant of the commands of Parents wherein even they themselves obey not the Divine Laws for it cannot be that he who is resolv'd to observe the rules of vertue can consent to them by whom they are neglected but in all other things we ought as much as we can to honour our Parents viz. in bodily observance and a most ready free supply of things necessary sith they have right to use those they have brought forth and nourished c. Neither will the Parents unkindness be enough to discharge the Child from obedience which is to be yielded in all the circumstances of their lives And that considering 3. The great reason to engage in the duties of Childrens obedience in the Lord is undoubtedly the most cogent Motive
they were evil might there not be some fleeting good mixed with them as a poisonous toad hath something useful No Only evil Well but there might be some intervals of thinking and though there was no good thought yet evil ones were not always rouling there Yes they were Continually not a moment of time that man was free from them One would scarce imagine such an inward nest of wickedness but God hath affirmed it and if any man should deny it his own heart would give him the lye Let us now consider the words by themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imagination properly signifies figmentum of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to afflict press or form a thing by way of compression And thus 't is a metaphor taken from a potters framing a vessel and extends to whatsoever is fram'd inwardly in the heart or outwardly in the work 'T is usually taken by the Jews for that fountain of sin within us †Alii rectâ—ùs dicunt non esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nâ—si in malum Merc. in loc Mercer tells us it is always used in an evil sense But there are two places if no more wherein it is taken in a good sense Isa 26.3 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whose mind is stayed and 1 Chron. 29.18 where David prays that a disposition to offer willingly to the Lord might be preserved in the Imagination of the thoughts of the heart of the people Indeed for the most part 't is taken for the evil imaginations of the heart as Deut. 31.21 Psal 103.14 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maimon More Nevoch Par. 3. c. 22. Amam Censur in locum The Jews make a double figment a good and bad and fancy two Angels assign'd to man one bad another good which Maimonides interprets to be nothing else but natural corruption and reason This word imagination being joyn'd with thoughts implies not only the compleat thoughts but the first motion or formation of them to be evil The word Heart is taken variously in Scripture It signifies properly that inward member which is the seat of the vital spirits But sometimes it signifies 1. The understanding and mind Psal 12.2 With a double heart do they speak i. e. with a double mind Prov. 8.5 2. For the Will 2 Kings 10.30 All that is in my heart i. e. in my Will and purpose 3. For the affections as Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart i. e. with all thy affections 4. For conscience 2 Sam. 24.5 David's heart smote him i. e. his Conscience check'd him But Heart here is used for the whole soul because according to Pareus his note the soul is chiefly seated in the heart especially the Will and the affections her attendants because when any affection stirs the chief motion of it is felt in the heart So that by the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart are here meant all the inward operations of the soul which play their part principally in the heart whether they be the acts of the understanding the resolutions of the Will or the blustrings of the affections Only evil The Vulgar mentions not the exclusive particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so enervates the sense of the place But our Neighbour Translations either express it as we do Only or to that sense that they were Certainly or no other than evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Continually The Hebrew All the day or every day Some Translations express it verbatim as the Hebrew Not a moment of a man's life wherein our hereditary corruption doth not belch out its froth even from his youth as God expounds it Gen. 8.21 to the end of his life Whether we shall refer the general wickedness of the heart in the Text to that age as some of the Jesuites do because after the Deluge God doth not seem so severely to censure it Or rather take the exposition the learned Rivet gives of it referring the first part of the Verse and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth to those times Gen. 8.21 Rivet in Gen. exercit 51. and the second part to the universal corruption of man's nature and the root of all sin in the world The Jesuites argument will not be very valid for the extenuation of original corruption from Gen. 8.21 For if man's imaginations be evil from his youth what is it but in another phrase to say they were so continually But suppose it be understood of the iniquity of that age may it not be applied to all ages of the world David complains of the wickedness of his own time Psal 14.3 Psal 5.9 Yet St. Paul applies it to all mankind Rom. 3.12 Indeed it seems to be a description of man's natural pravity by God's words after the deluge Gen. 8.21 which are the same in sense to shew that man's nature after that destroying judgment was no better than before Every word is emphatical exaggerating man's defilement Wherein consider the Universality 1. Of the subject Every man 2. Of the act Every thought 3. Of the qualification of the act Only evil 4. Of the time Continually The words thus opened afford us this Proposition That the thoughts and inward operations of the souls of men are naturally universally evil and highly provoking Some by cogitation mean not only the acts of the understanding but those of the will yea and the sense too But indeed that which we call cogitation or thought is the work of the mind imagination of the fancy Cartes Princip Philos Part. 1. Sect. 9. 'T is not properly thought till it be wrought by the understanding because the fancy was not a power designed for thinking but only to receive the images imprest upon the sense and concoct them that they might be fit matter for thoughts and so 't is the Exchequer wherein all the acquisitions of sense are deposited and from thence received by the intellective faculty So that thoughts are inchoativè in the fancy consummativè in the understanding terminativè in all the other faculties Thought first engenders opinion in the mind thought spurs the will to consent or dissent 't is thought also which Spirits the affections I will not spend time to acquaint you with the methods of their generation Every man knows he hath a thinking faculty and some inward conceptions which he calls thoughts he knows that he thinks and what he thinks though he be not able to describe the manner of their formation in the womb or remember it any more than the species of his own face in a glass In this discourse let us first see what kind of thoughts are sins 1. Negatively A simple apprehension of sin is not sinful Thoughts receive not a sinfulness barely from the object That may be unlawful to be acted which is not unlawful to be thought of Though the will cannot will sin without guilt yet the understanding may apprehend sin without guilt for that doth no more
Consolation this is to be our familiar and frequent Discourse wherein we should be most delighted and whereby we may be most edified Deut. 6.6 7. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up Col. 3.16 Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another What will we advise in Order to the more easie and profitable management of this Duty 1. Furnish your selves with all variety of pious matter that you may have a word to adapt every occasion and bring out of your Treasure new or old according to the Season hence you will have a presentness of mind to the work and there will be a peculiar gratefulness in your words as savouring neither of force or affectâ—tion in this sense Christ had the Tongue of the Learned Mat. 13.52 and thus he would have every Scribe instructed this would make our Discourse still pertinent that it could not well be rejected Prov. 25.11 a word upon the wheels he calls it Isa 50.40 in respect of readiness and regularity 2. Affect your heart with what you are about to speak David waited till his heart was hot and the fire burned and then he spake Psal 39.3 And then it is that your words will slow from your mouths and glow upon your Companions hearts you seem in carnest and they know not how to take it in jâ—st 3. Fortifie your selves for such Discourse reckoning you may meet with discouragements but put on the brow of brass be not dismayed nor ashamed let iniquity be ashamed and stop its mouth but while vanity and all manner of Ribaldry passes currant in every Company let not good Discourse creep into a corner as if it alone were guilty Say as Paul I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ and resolve to walk and talk according to it say the World what they will of thee for it 4. Watch occasions to fall most handsomly upon it not as putting by Discourse of a lower allay but as improving it ingraffing your good Fruit on their Crab-stock as Christ hath given you frequent Examples and assure your selves the more Natural and insensible your transition is the easier and better will the Discourse be entertained in as much as the Company is less affronted than if their Discourse was directly put by and yours preferred 5. Labour to make your good Discourse every way as grateful as it may wisely considering persons you are conversing with what is to be said and how every thing may take best that you say because the Preacher was wise he sought out acceptable Eccl. 2.10 as well as profitable words and no doubt acceptable that they might be profitable Now there are several things give a grace and are a great set off to our words some of which commend them to one and some to others and some to all To begin with those that are more general and adorn all Discourse such are measure season suitableness sweetness foundness c. These must be still regarded or Company may justly be offended as being some way abused their time seems not valued their businesses regarded their passions considered their Persons or parts duly reverenced when their Ears are impertinently entertained or perpetually with the same things tired And then more particularly modesty wins much on Superiors familiarity on Inferiors a pleasant Lepor or Saltness upon Equals freeness on Friends Courteousness on Strangers meekness on Offenders plainness on the Ignorant You need take least care to please the wise for he heeds the matter and can make allowances for the manner of the Discourse Quest Is that Lepor or Saltness of Speech we spoke of allowable in holy Discourse The grounds of doubt are in that the Apostle seems to reckon it inconvenient in any Discourse Ephes 5.4 And it may look like a transgression of that peculiar gravity that seems proper for our Religious Discourse First Answ It is generally granted that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which this Jâ—sting or facetious expressing our selves condemned here by the Apostle is noted is of a good signification and was of good Reputation among the soberest Heathen and imported as they deemed one of the great vertues or graces of Speech as shewing readiness of wit and sweetness of manners in which Original sense Calvin says of it that it is worthy of a Free and ingenious man 2. It is as generally supposed that this Lepor or Saltness of Speech was ordinarily abused and under pretence of wit most men played the Fools venting the froth instead of the Flower of their brains which the Apostle is thought to have respected in joyning together jesting and foolish talking And you know that a Jester and a Fool are even Synonymous terms among us none more idly squandring away their wit without respect to those chief ends for which God gave it and they are obliged to use it minding only the tickling of the flesh having no regard to the profiting of the Spirit This abuse of wit that was even become general I conceive the Apostle le ts fly at as also they apprehended that Translated the word by scurrility into which this Lepor was degenerated Now our wit may be reckoâ—ed to be abused 1. When we are conceited of it and use it purely in Ostentation of self and contempt of others hereby we are injurious to our own Souls nourishing Pride which it should be our great business to pluck down 2. When we are immoderate in it and either vainly or extravagantly lavish it Wit should be used like Salt sparingly a grain or two does well a meal surfeits It speaks vanity in us and nourishes over-much levity in others and two to one we run dregs if we know not when to have done medling with every thing and every one 3. When we are offensive by it either to God's holy Ears by our Profaneness or to our Brother 's by over-sharpness and we should be especially tender where there is more than ordinary weakness or plainness and a greater Liberty may be used in this latter kind where there is great wickedness or conceitedness 4. When to any base ends we prostitute it as first to expose holy things or Persons to the scorn of Fools lessning their repute and reverence by our light mentioning of them or playing upon them this is a degree of Blasphemy or Secondly when we design it only to make sport and raise Laughter among those especially which we should rather provoke to weeping From all this it appears that there needs great Caution in the use of this gift or faculty But yet that it may be both innocently and advantagiously used and Christian gravity maintained I shall briefly prove from Scripture Examples even in most serious and
weighty matters And I note eminently three occasions where there may seem needful some more than ordinary strain of Speech or use of Salt in it 1. If what we say be for Food or Physick to a Sick or weak stomacked Person that may otherwise nauseate it this Salt may be useful to give it a relish and get it the easier down for which purpose the plain way of speaking was waved by Nathan 2 Sam. 12.1 c. And again by another Prophet 1 Kings 20.38 c. And almost generally by our Saviour without a Parable he scarce spake any thing there was no coming upon those kind of Persons without circumventing of them On the like necessity we should endeavour to shew like ingenuity that we may catch Persons with guile that will not otherwise come to hand 2. If our words be intended for Swords this kind of Speech doth set a keenness upon them for which purpose it is most frequently used in Scripture as you may see notable instances 1 Kings 18.27 2 Kings 17.32 33. The proud Fool will not be convinced often by plain Reason that there is almost a necessity of irrision we must make him ridiculous that his Folly may be conspicuous when he is throughly exposed he may chance be humbled I take the wise man as directing us to this method with this sort of men Prov. 26.5 Answer a Fool according to his Folly lest he be wise in his own Conceit according to his Folly that is according as his Folly does deserve answer him sharply smartly utterly silence him that he may take care to speak wiser another time repone illi verbera virgam as one says answer him with words as smart as Rods the Fool 's back requires them Prov. 26.3 3. Eccl. 12.11 If as Nails we would drive our words to which also they are compared there is a tendency in this pleasantness of Speech to fasten them and fix them more firmly in the memory whence I conceive old dying Jacob gave his last Blessing in such harmonious words as some of them are bearing allusion to his Sons names such as Jehudah Jodudah Dan Jadin Gad Gedud c. The Mother 's imposed their names for one Reason but something in their future condition the Father sees that agrees well enough to their names whereon he chooseth to read their destinies as it were by them for the more easie remembrance of them I would not these Examples should be abused to prevent which let me only caution That we gravely sparingly and for like necessary ends do imitate them or pretend no Patronage from them To proceed 6. Naturalize this Discourse if possible and as far as possible to you then and not till then you will speak with ease and speak with a grace and this facility is chiefly got by frequency We must in a manner confine our selves to this dialect that we may get this Excellency in it for which purpose let your converse be most with those that speak this Language and converse with all that are any way capable in this Language provoke them to it use them to it necessitate them to it if they will converse with you be as one that could hardly speak any thing but it from your youths accustom your selves to it in your Houses and among your familiars initiate your selves herein they will bear with your stammerings which you might be ashamed of before Strangers and having once got take heed you do not forget the Language but inure your selves daily to it you may travel through the World with it it is one of the Learned Languages that all Scholars 〈◊〉 have been bred in Christ's School understand you herein have conâ—â—se with them and it is no great matter if you are a Barbarian to others if it quits you of their Company it does you a kindness if this way you can be quit of vile and vain Companions it is the honourablest way you can be rid of them and so far as separated from them you have Heaven's happiness on Earth better a great deal they should be angred and estranged from you upon the holiness of your Discourse than you grieved or defiled by the commonness or Profaneness of theirs Though I must also tell you if once this Discourse was habitual to you it might be better born in you and no body would expect other from you but as they had occasions of dealing with you might probably be awed into a Conformity to you Further to engage you so far as may be in this holy strain of Speech take these Motives 1. No Discourse is so proper for you as Christians Motives it being the Language of the Countrey to which you do belong further your concerns generally lye in the word all that are worth speaking of why should you in a manner talk of any thing else It is almost an impertinency for a Christian to talk of this World wherein he is a Stranger and whereof he can call little his own but a burying place This was the utmost I find great Abraham to have grasped after or reckoned of in this World that he made sure of Gen. 23.4 20. I am a Stranger and Sojourner with you give me a possession of a burying place And the Field and the Cave was made sure to Abraham for a Burial place Truly this is all we are sure of here below that if we talk of any thing in this World it is most proper to talk of our Graves and our daily readiness to drop into them into which Discourse David Naturally fell when his Company would not bear higher Psal 39.4 c. Lord make me to know my end and the measure of my days what it is that I may know how frail I am But turn him to the Word he has something there God Christ Men Angels Life Death things present things to come all things are his Confine then to your own matters especially since you have so large a Field Every one talks of their proper concerns Navita de ponto Have you nothing of your own to talk of or is it not to compare with what others so much please themselves to prattle about For shame Christians that you alone should rove and ramble at this rate holy heavenly Discourse is that one would expect from you and that alone seems pertinent to you 2. No Discourse is so profitable One may hear a deal of other chat and be neither the better nor wiser or at least we are instructed unto some little mean designs but when we talk out of the Word we are in the way of Learning or Teaching what will be for our universal accomplishment for as he says 2 Tim. 3.16 The Scripture is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works Yea such Discourse does not only fit us for the work of this World the best the noblest Atchievements in it
known to be really the Saviour of the World and by making his followers better than others that he and his Doctrine and Religion are known to be the best Travellers tell me that nothing so much hindreth the conversion of the Mahometans as their daily Experience that the Lives of the Greek Christians and others that Live among them are too ordinarily worse than theirs More drunkenness and more falshood lying deceit it 's said are among those Christians than among the Turks If that be true those are no true Christians but woe be to them by whom such offence cometh I have oft heard those Souldiers justly censured as profane who turn Churches into Stables without great necessity But how much more hurtfully profane are they who for carnal ends confound the World and the Church and keep the multitude of the most sensual ungodly Persons in their Communion without ever calling them Personally to Repentance and use the Church Keys but to revenge themselves on those that differ from them in some Opinions or that cross their Interest and wills or that seem too smart and zealous in the dislike of their Carnality Sloth and Church-pollutions When the Churches are as full of scandalous sinners as the Assemblies of Infidels and Heathens the World will hardly ever believe that Infidelity and Heathenism is not as good as the Christian Faith It is more by Persons than by Precepts that the World will judge of Christ and Christianity And what Men on Earth do more scandalize the World more expose Christianity to reproach more harden Infidels more injure Christ and serve the Devil than they that fill the Church with impious Carnal Pastors as in the Church of Rome and then with impious Carnal People maintained constantly in her Communion without any open disowning by a distinguishing reforming Discipline When such Pastors are no better than the soberer sort of Heathens save only in their Opinion and formal words and when their ordinary Communicants are no better it 's no thanks to them if all turn not Infidels that know them and if Christianity be contemned and decay out of the World And it 's long of such that disorderly separations attempt that Discipline and distinguishing of the godly and the notoriously wicked which such ungodly Pastors will not attempt See Lev. 19.17 Mat. 18.15 16. 1 Cor. 5. Tit. 3.10 Jer. 15.19 Psal 15. 2 Thes 3. Rom. 16.17 2 Tim. 3.4 5. III. But O how great an honour is it to God and to Religion when Kings Princes and States do zealously devote their Power to God from whom they do receive it and labour to make their Kingdoms Holy When Truth Sobriety and Piety have the countenance of humane powers and Rulers wholly set themselves to further the faithful Preaching and practising of the Holy Faith and to Unite and strengthen the Ministers and Churches and to suppress Iniquity and be a terror to evil doers it taketh Satan's great advantage out of his hand and worketh on carnal Men by such means as they can feel and understand Not that God needs the help of Man but that he hath setled Officers and a Natural Order by which he usually worketh in the World And as it cannot be expected that an unholy Parent and Master should have a Holy Family or an unholy Pastor a Holy Church unless by extraordinary Mercy no more can we expect that ungodly Magistrates should have a godly Kingdom or Common-wealth of which the Sacred History of the Jewish and Israelitish Kings doth give you a full confirmation But this I must now say no more of And thus I have told you in Twenty particulars what are those good Works in which the Light of Christians must shine before Men to the Glorifying of God Object Doth not Mat. 5.10 11 12. Contradict all this Blessed are ye when men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Answ No You must here distinguish 1. Of Men. 2. Of Righteousness and Good Works I. The Men that we have to do with are 1. Ordinary Natural Men Corrupted by Original sin but yet not hardened to Serpentine Malignity as some are 2. Or they are Men that by sinning against Nature and common Light are forsaken and given up to malignant minds II. The Good Works which Natural Light and humane Interest can discern and commend do differ from those which are merely Evangelical of Supernatural Revelation 1. Malignant Persons hardened in Enmity will scorn and persecute Holiness it self and even that Good which Reason Justifies and therefore are called unreasonable wicked Men 2 Thes 3.2 Good works with these Men make us odious unless they are such as gratifie their Lusts 2. But there are Natural Men not yet so hardened and forsaken who are usually them that the Gospel doth Convert And these have not yet so blinded Nature nor lost all sense of good and evil but that they honour him that doth good in all the Twenty particulars which I have named and think ill of those that do the contrary though yet they relish not the Christian Righteousness and things of Supernatural Revelation for want of Faith Let us briefly now apply it This informs us what an honourable state Christianity and true Godliness Vse 1 is when God hath made us to be the Lights of the world to shine before Men to the Glory of his Holiness as the Sun and Stars do to the Glory of his Power No wonder if in Glory we shall shine as Stars in the Firmament of our Father if we do so here Dan. 12.3 Mat. 13.43 Phil. 2.15 This must not make us proud but thankful for our Pride is our shame and our Humility is our Glory And what wonder if all the Powers of darkness do bend their endeavours Vse 2 to obscure this Sacred Light The Prince of darkness is the Enemy of the Father of Lights And this is the great war between Christ and Satan in the world Christ is the Light of the World and setteth up Ministerial Lights for the world and for his House his work is to send them forth to teach them and defend them and to send his Spirit to work in and by them to bring Men to the everlasting Light And Satan's work is to stir up all that he can against them high and low learned and unlearned and to put Christ's Lights both Ministers and People under a bushel and to make the world believe that they are their Enemies and come to hurt them that they may be hated as the Scorn and off-scouring of the world and to keep up Ignorance in Ministers themselves that the Churches Eyes being dark the darkness may be great But let us pray that God would forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and turn their hearts and that he would open our Lips that our mouths may shew forth his praise and though his Ministers and People have their faulty weaknesses that he would be merciful to our Infirmities
grain of mustard-seed it will remove mountains 't is not imaginable what great things a little grace will do when stirr'd up and acted the strength of God is in it out of the mouths of babes and sucklings he ordains strength Psal 8.12 The smallest degree of true grace is able to secure it self against the gates of hell at least so far as to prevent a total overthrow Nay let me say further though with submission I am perswaded that never any child of God fell before a temptation under the actual exercise of that measure of grace be it more or less that God hath given him to withstand it I do not Arminianize upon facienti quod in se est c. I speak not of the power of nature but true grace acted to the highest degree of attainment 't is that which does great things and hath the blessing he that is faithful in a little shall be ruler over much but if the good man slumber and sleep no wonder if the enemy break in upon him when we are putting forth our selves to the utmost in any conflicts with Satan God with the temptation will find out a way of escape that we may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 in that very hour it shall be given Mark 13.11 Mat. 10.19 when we seem to be surpriz'd and over-matched by a temptation God will come in with more strength and out of weakness we shall become strong Heb. 11.34 thus little David overcomes great Goliah with a sling and a stone the Devil himself flyes from the Children of God when they resist him in the strength of that grace they have to him that hath shall be given the weak shall be as David and David as God vel as the Angel of God Many times weak Christians don't put forth that strength which they have would they but lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12.12 their spirits would return and their courage would increase and something might be done but alas they give way to their fears and despairing thoughts lye flat upon the ground and give up all for lost they don't attend to the actings of their hope whilest it goes by another name all is despair as good never a whit as never the better 't is to no purpose for them to do any thing they are past recovery undone for ever O my brethren don't give the Devil such an advantage against you but set your selves to act that grace you have be it never so little look among the ashes blow up the least sparks you see you don't know how soon it may break out into a flame and remember this that repeated acts of weak grace are equivalent to strong grace both as to thy success and God's acceptation who requires no more of thee than what is proportionable to that which he hath given to thee 7. Consider that all graces are joyn'd with their contraries in this state of imperfection here below no faith but is unequally yoked with some unbelief no hope without some despair and desponding that which is perfect is not yet come and that which is imperfect is not yet done away we are flesh as well as spirit and they two are contraries As there is some kind of hope in presumption so there may be some kind of despair in hope no degree of true Christian hope is consistent with the damning sin of final despair but some degrees of despondency and that which thou callest despair and which in a degree is so may be consistent with saving hope and so it holds true in all other graces from that mixture of corruption wherein the weakness of every grace doth lye yet grace is grace still hath all its essential parts and deserves not that nick-name which thou puttest upon it all dimness is not stark blindness every cloud doth not make mid-night what must you have all or none 't is indeed a sign of sincerity to covet all grace and as true a sign of humility and submission to the will of God thankfully to accept of a little owning those first fruits of the Spirit which in due time will be seconded with an after increase to thy plenary content and satisfaction our heavenly Father waters every plant of his own planting that it may bring forth more fruit therefore do not call every weak act of Hope despair do not call every fit of despair final despair what if the Sun be set must it never rise more if thou art cast down art thou utterly forsaken if mercy is at present gone out of thy sight must it be clean gone for ever these are but the breakings out of those peccant humours that will be predominant sometimes in the best of men By what hath been said we may answer those Objections which the Devil makes against our hope from the weakness of it I have but one thing more to add by way of direction to weak Believers who are never in more danger of being drawn into despair than when they are musing upon their sins examining and judging themselves by the Law charging themselves home with all that guilt that lyes upon them in order to their further humiliation in the sight of God then does the Devil many times strike in and suggest such frightful considerations to them that make them start back further than God would have them Therefore I shall now shew how we should prepare our selves for how we should order and manage our selves under a deep and serious consideration of our sins and unworthyness which we are called to and it is requisite the swelling temper of our proud hearts requiring it sometimes to set our selves apart for this work Zach. 12.12 The Direction is this Take down along with thee into the Valley of conviction contrition and self-abhorrency so much of a sense of Gods love and free grace in Christ as may keep thee from being overwhelm'd and from sinking into despair before you set out be sure you have some hold at least of the hemm of the garment of Christs righteousness you know not what foul weather what storms and tempests what thunder and lightning you may meet with before you return carry your cordial along with you though you never smell to it or tast it but in a fainting fit my meaning is you should take at least some general view of mercy before you take a strict particular view of sin usually they are the deepest and truest humiliations that are occasion'd by some previous sense of Gods love to us Ezek. 16.61 63. A man that is to go down into a deep pit he does not throw himself head-long into it or leap down at all adventures but fastens a rope at top upon a cross beam or some sure place and so lets himself down by degrees So let thy self down into the consideration of thy sin hanging upon Christ and when thou art gone so low that thou canst endure no longer but art ready to be overcome
not ingenit or connate with me I had it not from nature or natural light No it was purely adventitious being in part infused by God and in part acquired by my self I was not made with it but I was taught it Where and how did he learn it not at the feet of Gamaliel not in the Schools of the great Philosophers but in the school of Christ and by the teachings of the Spirit He might say of this what he saith of his Office Gal. 1.1 it was not of man nor by man but of God 1. He attained unto it not by the teachings of man's wisdom but by the teachings of the holy Ghost to allude to that 1 Cor. 2.13 This blessed Spirit set up a supernatural light in him wrought a supernatural work in him gave in divine and supernatural discoveries to him and so he arrived at his Contentment And further he learnt it in a subordinate sense by his own prudent observation Christian experience dayly and constant †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Homil. 15. in C. 4. ad Philip. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Phot. Dicens didici significat hanc rem esse disciplinae exercitationis atque hujus rei habitum longo usu se assecutum Estius exercise all of which when Sanctified and blessed by God do contribute much to the making of the heart quiet in every condition The word notes also the mysteriousness of heavenly Contentation I have learnt it saith the Apostle as a great Secret as a thing that lies out of the Common road and is not so easie to be understood This notion is not so fully reached by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used as it is by another word used in the next verse Every where and in all things I am instructed c. 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render by instructed others by initiated It implies * Initiatus sum Beza Utitur verbo quod rebus Sacris convenit ut significet pio esse ad haec omnia à spiritu sancto sanctificatos consecratos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim est sacris initiari Est igitur Sacra institutio Zanch. I am consecrated to this knowledg of Contentment in all estates Dr. Sibbs Saints-Cordial p. 4. Est propriè initiari mysteriis Erosm Dicit institutus sum ut in sinuet hanc ratio nem vitae velut sacrum mysterium se divinitus edoctum esse Est enim in Graeco verbum à quo mysteria dicuntur Estius Initiatus sum i. e. institutus Non formidavit Apostolus vocem Graecae superstionis ad meliores usus transferre Nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vox hinc venit In Glossario 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 initio imbuo Diod. Siculus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grot. Usurpavit hoc verbum omnium pertinentissimé Nam omnino sacra est haec disciplinae Christianae Scientia c. Et institutio illius non est simpliciter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed sacra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Muscul Innuens Apostolus hanc vitae rationem velut grande sacrumque mysterium à Deo divinitus accepisse Velasquez both initiation and also instruction in things sacred and mysterious as is commonly observed Now saith Paul I am instructed both to be full and to suffer hunger as if he had said This indeed is a very mysterious thing yet God hath brought me to the knowledg and practice of it So that Contentment is not a facile or common matter such as is open and obvious to every person but 't is an abstruse hidden secret thing there are mysteries in it which only some few do discern it carries an holy art and skill in it which he that hath learned is one of the greatest Artists in the world Paul had arrived at this Art for he had learned in every c. The observations from the words are four Observations raised Obs 1. Such who are true Disciples of Christ partakers of the true spirit of Christianity they have learned to be Content Obs 2. True Contentment is a divine and supernatural thing 'T is a flower which doth not grow in nature's garden but God plants it in the Soul He only knows and lives it who is taught of God and who learns it by the teaching of the Spirit Some of the †Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seneca de tranquil animi As Austin speake of Seneca upon another account Libertas quae Scribenti affuir viventi defuit See this opened in M. Burroughs of Contentment P. 17. c. Heathen Moralists have spoke much and wrote very well of it but yet they 't is to be feared were great strangers to the practice of it 'T is the sincere Christian only who doth indeed live it There must be a Divine light beamed into the Soul the communication of special grace from Christ the supernatural workings of God's Spirit in the heart or else there can be no true Contentment Obs 3. Christian Contentment hath great mysteries wrapped up in it A contented life is a mysterious life The Apostle speaking of the Doctrine of Godliness saith 't is a great mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 Wee may say the same of the practical part of godliness as it lies in Contentment 't is a great mystery Here is a man that hath very much and yet he is not contented here is another that hath little or nothing and yet he is contented surely there is a mystery in the case Obs 4. Then a man doth truly know and live Contentment when he hath learned in every state and condition therewith to be content Paul's contentment was universal extending to all occurrences of Providence I have learned in every state c. every where and in all things I am instructed c. 'T is not enough in this or that want and cross to be contented but in every thing that befalls us we must be so and then we have indeed learnt this heavenly lesson These are the Doctrinal Truths which the Text presents us with I have named them but shall not fall upon the prosecution of all or any one of them 'T is the Duty it self which I am only to speak unto And concerning that too I am not to lanch out into the General handling of it so as to treat upon the several Heads which are proper to it which work is already done fully and profitably by many of our own Writers I am confined to one Particular about it which will be mainly directive to shew How and by what means this blessed Contentation may be attained The main Question propounded and answered A threefold notion of Contentment 'T is a very important Question which I am to answer this Morning viz. What are all Christians to do that they with Paul may learn in every state to be content For the more distinct answering of which I will consider Contentment in a threefold notion as it