The last Accomplishment of this Embassadour to God is it must come in the name of Christ As prayer without the help of the Spirit is but the cry of the Creature the heart will fall down like the heavy hands of Moses Exod. 17. 12. If this stone of help your true Eben ezer be not underneath 1 Sam. 7. 12. So 't is no better then presumption if presented in your own name or in the name of any Saint or Angel Christ is the only master of Requests Joh. 16. 23 24 26. Eph. 3. 12. The old Testament Saints cryed in prayer for the Lords sake Dan. 9. 17. and the New Testament Saints cry also for Christs sake Joh. 15. 16. Upon a two-fold account 1. As he is the only purchaser of access to God we are afar off in the first Adam but brought nigh by the second Eph. 2. 13 14. putting on us his own Robe for acceptance 2. He is the only Mediator of the Church the keeper of the great Seal in Heaven 1 Tim. 2. 5. Joh. 6. 27 37. Joh. 17. 12. this is shadowed to you as 1. No man was to offer up his own Sacrifice but he must put it into the hands of the Priest to offer it for him Levit. 1. 15 17. burn it and bring it c. 2. Every loaf of shew-bread had a dish of Frankincense upon it to perfume it for acceptance Levit. 24. 7. 3. While the people were praying without Zechary the Priest was offering Incense within Luke 1. 10. 4. The brazen Altar for Sacrifice was placed before the Golden Altar for Incense to shew there is no admission for prayer as Incense till first Christ our Sacrifice give us our Entrance Exod. 38. 30 39 40. as Jacob got the blessing in the garments of the Elder brother Gen. 27. 15. to 29. 28. The second general is the matter of your prayer as before the manner of it to wit according to Gods will 1 Joh. 5. 14. now his will is known either by his precepts what he hath commanded or by his promises what he hath ovenanted or by his Prophecies what he hath foretold those must be the bounds of prayer or more briefly those three may be reduced into one for Divine precepts and Prophecies are propounded to us in the nature of promises and so the Divine promise is the ground of every right humane prayer where-ever faith finds a promise it turns that promise into a Prayer and then God turns his promise into a performance Now the Divine promise which is the Christians Charter I will be to you a God c. Hebr. 8. 10. and all are yours 1 Cor. 3. 22. is wide enough in the general and there is no Cause why we should desire 't is further Enlargement Besides there is no condition you can fall into but there is a particular promise to that Condition if the word of Christ dwell richly in you Col. 3. 16. So as to find out all those Herbs of grace that grow in the Garden of the Holy Scriptures 29. You are bid to be Sober in Prayer 1 Pet. 4. 7. This is to observe Gods limits your Prayers must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 childish and feverish or distempred Prayers to aske neither Illicita unlawful things nor Inutilia unprofitable or hurtful things you may not aske Serpents instead of fish nor stones instead of bread the Disciples asked fire from Heaven upon the Samaritans Luke 9. 55. and the two Sons of Zebedee asked the priviledg of sitting on the Right and left hand of Christ Matth. 20. 21. they all went beyond the bounds of a Divine promise asking they knew not what Ver. 22. as Prayer is 1. An Act of Adoration so the hallowing of Gods name is first to be prayed see and nothing else without Subordination to his honour 2. As 't is an Act of Impetration so your own good and the good of others 1 Spiritual and 2 Temporal the good things of the throne first and then of the foot-stool Judg. 15 16. understanding what the will of the Lord is Eph. 5. 17. and referring all to his wisdom Act. 21. 14. Matth. 26. 29. 30. Lastly the consequent duties after prayer be four 1 walk humbly 2 wait patiently 3 work diligently 4 wear thankfully what you win by Prayer First of the first walk humbly if you have been truly and throughly servent in your praying work you will be very apt to catch cold after it and therefore you must still keep walking after duty and cool not over hastily lest you catch a cold and so a Consumption as before in the Chapter of Meditation you should take down your Soul by degrees and not grow remiss all on the sudden by letting your Spirit run freely into the World immediatly after your warm conversing with your God For there is the danger of deepest withdrawments to humble you after you have had the priviledg of highest Enlargements to help you Cant. 5. 1 2. after the spouse had been most largely feasting with her bridgeroom the very next news we hear of her is that she was fallen into a Spiritual slumber you may suppose it was through the want of this care she over-suddenly cooled and so catched a Spiritual cold and had she not had a blessed Physician that was as willing as able to help and heal her she might have fallen into a Spiritual Consumption can you be thus wise for your body in preventing such a danger the worser part of you which you have in common with beasts how much more ought you to be thus wise for your Soul that better part which you have in common with Angels beasts have bodies as well as men and Angels are Spirits as men have Spirits O be not more careful of the beast then of the Angel in you 31. And you must walk humbly too after Prayer Pride often follow Prayer and the worst Pride after the best Prayer you cannot be ignorant of Satans devices working in your own heart 2 Cor. 2. 11. 't is the Devils Chymistry to bring evil out of good as 't is Gods Chymistry to bring good out of evil Beelzebub that Prince of Flies will Flie-blow your best performances and make you proud of your most Seraphical Prayers as if God were then in your debt for them whereas you have done no more then your duty in so doing and 't is no matter of merit to pay your due debt and duty Luke 17. 20. and when you have done all you can you are but an unprofitable Servant coming far short both of Gods glory and your own duty Hence ought you to reflect upon your own imperfections in prayer after Prayer how your heart hath wandred in your work Moses could not keep his hands steady in prayer 't is only proper to God to have his hand stretched out still nor you your heart the best of Men cannot undergo any long intention you may be weary in prayer when you are not weary of
of Honour from them Deo servire est regnare saith Augustin And David accounted it a greater honour to be Gods Servant then to be Israels King Psal 18. Title The great God is the most honourable Master who Employs his Servants in this most honourable work and will undoubtedly pay them with the most honourable wages even with an hundred fould in this life and in the World to come with life everlasting Mark 10. 30. I have no cause to doubt but that you are both of you already true Spiritual Pilgrims in this Divine walk and work And I cannot but be confident that you both do Ardently affect what soever may promote your Progress herein O that my poor Labours might contribute any thing to further your passage If but some few steps I could then wish every word were Ten every line a Leaf and every Leaf a Volum and that both my Tongue and my Pen might have ten-fold more of the Divine tincture upon them to be serviceable to you thereunto Your God and the God of your Fathers hath already done singular things for you and therefore he doth expect singular things from you Math. 5. 47. Where the Husbandman bestows his greatest cost there he expects his largest crop Your Trading and your Talents should be proportionable to whom much is given of them much is Required Luke 12. 48. I beseech you therefore as ye have received how ye ought to walk and to work in this paradise of christianity into which the second Adam hath graciously restored you as the first Adam cast you out in himself from thence so ye would abound more and more 1 Thes 4. 1. According to the Divine directions herein presented you That ye may follow the foot steps of your Father Abraham who followed God blind-fold when called as you have been out of one Land into another Heb. 11. 8. That ye may be called at last from Earth to Heaven in Soul and Body as ye are already in Spirit after ye have walked out your generation-work in Abrahams steps to be safely lodged in Abrahams bosom that the blessing of Abraham may come upon the hearts of your Son and Daughter and of their seed for ever and that your Walls and theirs may be continually before the Lord of the whole Earth Isa 49. 16. All this is the unfeigned desire and hearty Prayer which shall never be wanting of Your Worships sincerely and thankfully Devoted Christopher Nesse To the READER Candid and Christian Reader HEre I present you with the Walk and Work of a Christian upon Earth till he get to Heaven Wherein 1. Observe the matter And 2. The method hereof 1. The matter is twofold 1. Your Walk and 2. Your Work 1. As to your Walk there be three remarkable phrases in the holy Scriptures that all concern your Christian Walk 1. A walking with God 2. A walking before God And 3. A walking after God The first was that Walk of Enoch who is said to walk with God Gen. 5. 22 24. as a man walks with his friend with whom he is well agreed Amos 3. 3. hand in hand and heart in heart aequis passibus in equal pace and equipage And this he did not only for an hour or a day or a week or a month or a year but for 300 years Alas we can neither watch with Christ nor walk with God for the space of one single hour Mat. 26. 40. The second was the Walk of Abraham who is bid to walk before God Gen. 17. 1 that is to set himself evermore solemnly in Gods Presence as having the great God always in his Rear his Lieutenant-General and for his rereward Isa 52. 12. Thus the people of the God of Abraham had the cloudy pillar behind them in their passage through the red Sea Exod. 14. 19 20. where Jehovah himself brought up the Rear of 600000. Now to know that you are ever under Gods eye and ever before him this must needs make you walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accurately Eph. 5. 15. and not to take up one foot until you know where to set down the other walking exactly by line and by rule and as it were in a frame footing it rightly and uprightly as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Gal. 2. 14. striving to get to the very top of Godliness The third was the Walk of Israel who were commanded to Walk after the Lord Deut. 13. 4. as after the Captain-General of their salvation Heb. 2. 10. Thus the pillar of glory went before them through the wilderness and they followed after it in all their removes Exod. 13. 21 22. Thus Caleb with a better Spirit than that of the World walk'd after God fully Numb 14. 24. as the needle doth after the Load-stone that draws it Cant. 1. 4. Joh. 6. 44. you walk after a good guide while you walk after your good God and in so doing you cannot easily wander in this wilderness of the World This will be a blessed Antidote to you against cursed Apostacy 2 Pet. 3. 17 18. and thus God must be your All and in All Col. 3. 11. he must be with you before you and behind you also that you may be as a Ship under Sail carried end-ways strongly by a favourable Wind and fearing neither Rocks nor Sands in the River of Gods Paradise Psal 46. 4. Gen. 2. 10. to 15. This same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Revel 10. 9 10. Or little Book is a rude draught or Plat-form or Land-Skip of the Gospel-garden of Eden the true Spiritual Paradise of pleasure the sublimest Spring-garden of Scriptural-Holiness wherein you have not only pleasant Rivers as above but also delightful walks far surpassing the best gardens and galleries that can be found in this Chabul 1 King 9. 12 13. or dirty world Herein you are directed not to be Idle nor to stand still but to go forward as walkers do and to walk Arm in Arm as it were not only with God but with his holy Angels Zech. 3. 4 5 7. Mat. 22. 30. Isa 57. 2. And that not in one walk only but in many Delectable walks whereof this blessed Paradise of Piety consisteth insomuch that as the laborious Bee in a fruitful field of fragrant Flowers when Tyred with one Flower flyeth to another even so you when wearied with one walk or duty for you may be weary in it when you are not weary of it then may you pass to another without nauseating upon any one only you may walk Orderly out of one Ordinance to another Secondly as to your work which is as the walk the best work in the World though it be least minded by the World 't is a work wherein you serve the most honourable Master that employs his Servants in the most honourable work and will reward them with the most honourable wages to wit with an hundred fold in this life and in the world to come again with life everlasting Mark 10. 30. yea 't
is a work that is wages to it self as you will find within Psal 19. 11. In as well as for keeping Gods commands there is great reward 'T is verily as the work of glorified Saints and of glorious Angels it being of the same nature with theirs whose work is their wages O then you may rationally conclude with your self from hence What a shame it is that I who am created to an Eternal being and that do possess an Immortal Soul should spend 20. 30. 40. or 50. Years in Vanity if not in Villany all the time wearing the livery of a cursed Master being a Slave to Sin and Satan and never look up to God the best Master and the Supreme good Alas you may hop from Mountain to Hill Jer. 50. 6. And go Satans round Jab 1. 7. yet find no rest with Noah's Dove for the Soles of the Feet of your Soul until you come to the Ark of this blessed work your Soul is Created with such vast Capacities as nothing bears proportion either to ' its being or to ' its wants below God no Created being hath Room enough in it to entertain so ample and so endless a guest 't is of such unlimited desires that nothing but the Immortal God can satisfy an Immortal Soul Secondly Observe the method which is first general in the whole duty of Man to God this is held out in those three general Names 1. Of godliness 2. Of Religion 3. Of Christianity Together with the necessity of each then Secondly you have more particularly the many good duties of Man to God both personal and relative Treated upon and that with as much perspicuity and plainness as so little a Book would admit of If you meet with any passage that seems obscure ascribe it to the Curtnes of my stile who indeavours to say much in a little and after some acquaintance herewithal with a little pondering you will be able through grace to understand the darkest Sentence If you desire direction in natural and civil Actions c. As well as in Religious I refer you to my little piece called the Crown and glory of a Christian If either in that or in this any thing may be blest to your Soul and bring you further of from Sin and nearer God which is the best thing in the World Psal 73. 28 both for Living and Dying let God have all the glory for the gift how mean soever bestowed on me how unworthy soever 2 Cor. I. II. And let me have the Relief of your Prayers for further abilities and your faithful Improvement of those poor performances which I commend to your Candour and your Soul to God and to the Word of his grace Subscribing my Self to be Yours in the best Bonds Christopher Nesse London this 10th of April 1678. Short Rules for your general Direction Let your Thoughts be Divine Awful and Godly Talk be Little Honest and True Works be Profitable Holy and Charitable Manners be Grave Courteous and Cheerful Dyet be Temperate Convenient and Frugal Apparel be Sober Neat and Comly Will be Ready Obedient and Constant Sleep be Moderate Quiet Seasonable Prayers be Short Devout and Frequent Recreations be Lawful Brief and Seldom Mind be Suitable to your Means Memory be Of Death Judgment and Glory Conscience be Void of offence to God and Man Task be Always doing or receiving good Conversation be In Heaven while your commoration be on Earth Latter-End be That of the Righteous Hopeful in the Lord not Hopeless in Sin A well-wish to your weal in both Worlds Utinam Saptres Praeterita Malum Commissum Bonum Omissum Tempus Amissum Intelligeres Praesentia Vitae Brevitatem Salvandi Difficultatem Salvandorum Paucitatem Praevideres Futura Mortem quâ nihil inevitabilius Judicium quo nihil terribilius Infernum quo nihil intolerabilius I wish you would First make a wise use of things past to wit evil committed good omitted and time lost and gone Secondly consider things present to wit the shortness of life the difficulty of Salvation and the fewness of those that are to be saved Thirdly Foresee things to come to wit death than which nothing is more unavoidable the day of Judgment than which nothing is more terrible the pains of Hell than which nothing is more Intolerable A Christians Walk and Work on Earth c. CHAP. 1. 1. YOU must know that Man is the master-piece of the Worlds ' Maker God calls as it were a Counsel in Heaven saying Let us make man Gen. 1. 26 Us all us the whole Wisdom of the Trinity was exercis'd in the making of Man The consultation and deliberation therein plainly demonstrates that there was then the bringing forth of a piece of work of greatest moment and importance and therefore what is said of Behemoth He is the chief of the ways of God Job 40. 19. may more eminently be said of Man he is the chiefest of the ways and of the works of God The Sun Moon and Stars are but the work of Gods fingers Psal 8. 3. But man is the work of his hands Psal 139. 14 15. Job 10. 3. 8. Hence David speaking of Man first wonders and then speaks and when he hath done to speak he hath not done to wonder Psal 8. 1. 9. 2. Every Creature of God is indeed a wonder yea little Creatures those Decimo-sexto's of the Creation are great wonders as well as the great Behemoth and other large Folio's thereof for the infinite Wisdom and Power of the Creator is manifest in couching up both life and motion in such a little compass as in Insects Flies Ants c. But Man is the greatest wonder as having the excellency of all other Creatures in him he is the abridgment of all wonders You believe that God is a Spirit and you see that the World is a Body Man is an Epitome of both 1. Of God in respect of his Spirit And 2. of the World in the composition of his Body as if the great Jehovah on purpose to set forth a plain mirrous of himself and his work designed to bring into this one narrow compass of Man both the infiniteness of his own nature and the vastness of the whole world all together 3. The soul of Man resembles the circumference of Heaven as being everywhere over the little world his brain the Sun that gives light to this little world and the senses stand round about it as so many Stars His heart represents the Earth in its Center his liver is as the Sea from whence flows the blood in all its circulations the like correspondency you may easily imagine in all other parts too long to particularize Hence is it that Tertullian calls the World a great Man and Man a little world Man the Microcosm is Gods Text as it were and all other Creatures in the Macrocosm or great world are as so many plain Commentaries upon that dark Text. 4. You may learn a little further herein if you would have yet more
forme but you cannot die by a forme T is the power of godliness that is godliness indeed Godliness quasi Godlikeness it makes you like God as ungodliness makes you unlike God holy as he is holy 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. 22. As Godliness is the recovery of the Image and likeness of God which man lost by ungodliness in eating the forbidden fruit So 't is the whole frame of grace spreading like blessed leven over all the three measures of meal not only the understanding will and memory but also the Body Soul and Spirit Matth. 13. 33. 1 Thes 5. 23. through the gracious overshadowings of the holy Ghost Godliness is as it were God manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. as God was manifest in the flesh of his Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodily Col. 2. 9. Joh. 1. 14. So God is manifest in the Flesh of his Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritually as the Father Son and Holy Ghost are all said to take up their abode and to live to dwell to tabernacle and to temple in them Joh. 14. 23. 17. 23. Gal. 2. 20. Eph. 3. 17. Revel 21. 3. 1 Cor. 6. 19. Rom. 8. 11 c. 23. Godliness is a compound of all the graces of the Spirit as so many Ingredients to the making up of this blessed Composition 't is the life and exercise of every grace of faith and love of joy peace and praise of Self-denial and devotion of patience and obedience of hope and perseverance It containes in it your trusting in God your worshipping of God and your obedience to God yea lastly your very Victory and Triumph over all your Enemies the flesh the World and the Devil Godliness therefore must be the main thing that you must look for and labour after as 't is the main thing that God looks after Psal 14. 2. God looked down from Heaven what for Not to see how fair how strong how Rich how great how Honourable Men were but how good how godly how Righteous how Religious they were 24. Hence Solomon tells you that wisdom is the principal thing and with all your getting you must get it principally Prov. 4. 7. and one greater than Solomon even your blessed Saviour bids you Seek first the Kingdom of God and all other things shall be added unto you as paper and pack-threed are cast into the bargain Matth. 6. 33. Godliness is the Sublimest wisdom 't is wisdom that is from above Jam. 3. 17. and the fear of God is the beginning of this wisdom Psal 111. last Deut. 4. 6. Yea 't is not only the beginning of it but 't is also the middle and the ending thereof too Say the world what it will Godliness is the greatest gain 1 Tim. 6. 6. and brings a great deal of gain with it besides it self though it self be great gain Godliness is great gain of it self though no more be gained but it self having the promises of both lives annexed to it 1 Tim. 4. 8. 'T is a fat land and fruitful of all sorts of blessings at its gates are all manner of pleasant fruits laid up for those that do inhabit it Cant. 7. last 'T is a tree of life on which do grow Temporal Spiritual and Eternal blessings and you may count all the Stars sooner than all the mercies that come flying upon the wings of Godliness 25. Yea Godliness is not only great gain but 't is better than gain for you cannot carry your gain 1 Tim. 6. 7. out of the World but you may your Godliness and your works of Piety shall follow you into a better world Revel 14. 13. besides Godliness is such a blessed thing in it self that it is a reward to it self in as well as for keeping Gods commandments there is great Reward Psal 19. 11. therefore look upon it as not only your duty but also your priviledg not only your work but your reward too Wickedness is a punishment to it self in the many Cordoliums and heartquakes that do attend it but Oh the peace and pleasantness that is found in the pathes of Divine wisdom Prov. 3. 17. a sweet tranquillity of mind doth always attend upon a Godly life 26. You may aske all those blessed spies which the Lord hath sent to spie out this Land of Godliness as they did the Land of Canaan Numb 13. 17 18 19 20 27. they can tell you that the Land is a good Land a fat not a lean Land a land that floweth with Milk and Honey and they can shew you some of those blessed clusters of Canaans grapes saying this is the fruit of the land The plagues of the Lord fall upon those that bring an evil report upon this good land Numb 13. 32. with 14. 37. The Apostle tells you that Godliness is profitable unto all things The Babylonians faith Plutarch make 360 commodities of the Palm Tree but there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thousand benefits to be got by godliness Riches Honours Delights Pleasures life and length of days Seed and posterity are all entailed upon godliness Prov. 3. 15 16. Oh who would not then turn Spiritual purchaser and with all his gettings get Godliness with any pains and for any price the least dram whereof is saving and so better worth then the Riches of both Indies 27. They bring up an evil Report upon this good land that slanderously say Godliness doth beggar Men whereas 't is more truly said that ungodliness doth begger Men. That this contrary is the truth the Vales of Godliness are above the wages of wickedness the gleanings of the former is above the whole Vintage of the latter do but look into the world and you may behold many fair Estates have been melted away by Whoredom Idleness Pride and Drunkenness Such ungodly wretches are doubly undone by their own ungodliness they are undone in this life and undone in the life to come while the little that a godly Man hath by a special blessing of God upon his godliness doth encrease to a thousand Psal 37. 16. Abraham Job David and others were richer than any and so might Men be now If they could or would be as godly as they were They sought godliness and Gods Kingdom first and therefore other things sought them and so they would do us would we or could we but run the same method They did not read Gods truth backward making Earth their Throne and Heaven their footstool as the Heathens Vertue after Money Philosophy teaches to seek first bona Animi the good of the Soul and Divinity Regnum Dei the Kingdom of God then the over-plus shall be added as the wise God Judges meet the Proverb of blind Popery shall shame those slaunderers Meat and Mattens never hinders thrift 28. Another evil report upon godliness is that it destroys all mirth delight and pleasure alas Swine think that sheep have no pasture because they feed not upon draff as they do So the wicked World accounts godliness a Melancholy fancy
Earthly Adam in your natural Estate If you belong to Christ and Salvation you must bear the Image of the Heavenly Adam Christianity being both the Imitation and the participation of the Divine nature is the reducing of the Image of the first and fallen Adam into the second 't is the bringing back of the Earthly Image of fallen Man into the Heavenly Image of the holy God wherein Man was first Created in Righteousness and true Holiness 1 Cor. 15. 48 49. Eph. 4. 24. This being done for you and in you you have the Right Picture of Christ your practice answering both your principles and profession 16. The true Christian is like a pair of compasses that keeps within compass the one foot to wit his principles standing fast in the Centre and the other foot to wit his practice walking round the circumference yet both feet do correspond sweetly together in paralel lines each with other Thus ought there to be a sweet Harmony betwixt your principles and your practice and your Conversation must not give the lie to your profession you must make straight your paths Heb. 12. 13. 1 Sam. 6. 12. The Kine held strait on their way to Bethshemesh So must you to the house of the Sun of Righteousness as the Word Bethshemesh signifies your Eyes must look Right on and your Eyelids look straight before you Prov. 4. 25. 'T is the crooked Serpent Esa 27. 1 that brought Man to crooked wayes Psal 125. 5. Corrupt Nature runneth in a Crooked channel but 't is Christs work to make things crooked straight Esa 40. 4. 17. Some creatures are commended for being comly in their goings Prov. 30 29 sure I am every true Christian should be so he should lead a convincing life and be of a comly and commendable conversation such an one as becomes the Gospel Phil. 1. 27 and as becometh Holiness Tit. 2. 3. both young and old Male and Female should be of a comly deportment you must walk worthy of God who hath called you to his Kingdom and glory 1 Thes 2. 12 his livery you must wear his Image you must bear and his Kingdom you are called unto and therefore you must carry as Children of a King Judg. 18. 18 and as Children of the Kingdom Remember saith Menedemus to Antigonus when he was to go to a Feast where a Famous Harlot was to be a guest that you are a Kings Son do nothing unworthy of such an Honourable Title Scipio African when solicited to filthiness by an Harlot Answered Vellem si non essem Imperator It is below an Emperor and Nehemiah said better shall such an one as I flee Neh. 6. 12. 18. A Godly conversation is very graceful to the Gospel and the Gospel gains much glory by you if you walk in the beauty of Holiness you are called not only to his Kingdom but also to his glory 1 Thes 2. 12. and therefore the Spirit of glory should rest upon you 1 Pet. 4. 14. This is the smooth bark that evidences the good Tree as well as the Root bole branches leaves and fruit to be a Tree of Righteousness the planting of the Lord Isa 61. 3 to be of Gods not of the Devils planting and watering a clear-skinn'd Tree not full of Bur-knots is the most hopeful for fruit So is the Man that hath a shining conversation as the shining of Moses face so the shining of your life doth evidence you have been with God in the Mount They took notice of the Apostles that they had been with Jesus Act. 4. 13. This makes even a Nebuchadnezzar confess these are the servants of the most high God Dan. 3. 26. Those virgin-Virgin-Souls that followed the lambe had their Fathers name Writ in their foreheads Revel 14. 1 4. though you shall be Judged according to Men in the flesh yet should you live according to God in the Spirit 1 Pet. 4. 6. and not do folly in Israel Gen. 34. 7. 19. The Levitical Law doth likewise tell you what beasts are clean and what unclean all which are a shadow of things to come Col. 2. 16 17. Whereby Israel was taught to study purity and to know that the very Creatures are all defilled with Mans Sin Those beasts were accounted clean that both chewed the Cud and divided the hoof Therefore the Camel was numbred amongst the unclean though he chewed the Cud becausehe divided not the hoof by all which you must understand in Levit. 11. 3. c. That it is not enough for you to ruminate upon the word of God in your most serious Meditations which is your Spiritual chewing of the Cud but you must part the hoof too in putting a difference betwixt good and bad Actions You must not only think on the Commandments of God but so think on them as to do them Psal 103. 18. Cleansing your self from all filthiness hoth of flesh and Spirit 2 Cor. 7. 1. you must not only profess the word but you must practice it also you must add to your Faith Virtue Temperance c. 2 Pet. 1. 5. and then are you accounted a clean Sacrifice to the Lord. To practice Sermons you hear is the best kind of Repeating Sermons live Sermons as well as hear them 20. As the Law concerning clean beasts Levit. 11. 6 doth teach you that good Meditation should end in a good Conversation for a Copy is not only to be Read over by him that learns to Writ but it must be Written after also and Lessons of Musick must be practiced by those that would learn it So the Law concerning clean Fishes teachs you the same they must have Fins and Scales First Fins to steer their motion so must you have the Fins of knowledg Faith and Divine dispositions to direct you and to set you forward in the things of God And secondly Scales for smoothing their passage for their Ornaments and safety So your Scales of good works must be set so close and so neer one another that no Air of Temptation may come between them as Job 41. 15 16 17. Levit. 11. 9. You must have the Scales of Piety Patience and the Fins which are as Wings of Divine affections to carry you cheerfully end ways into Divine Actions that you may be holy as God is Ver. 44. which is the end of this Law and clean meat to Gods sight and palate Now of a Religious Godly and Christian Conversation in particular And first of Meditation CHAP. III. 1. HItherto of Conversation in General which is the Practick part of Religion Godliness and Christianity now of a Religious Godly and Christian Conversation in particular which is a large Field of discourse You have here a breviary thereof contracted into a narrow compass wherein you may View the whole Duty of Man to God and Man in Respect of the Conversation the Agenda or things to be done besides the Credenda or things to be believed I told you before there is the Conversation of your thoughts as to
loose threeds from ravelling out 4. 'T is as the hammer that drives the nail of Divine truth to the very head 5. 'T is as the Art of the Bee sucking Honey out of Flowers then in your Soul a Spiritual Deborah which in Hebrew signifies a Bee when it gathers the sweetness of many Spiritual Flowers and then works it up in the Hive of the hidden Man of the heart Lastly Meditation doth after a sort transform you into the Image of truth as 2 Cor. 3. 18. making truth one with you and you one with it and turning all you hear and Read into Juice and blood by a kindly digestion 15 That you may manage this Meditation the better and make work of your work you must consider there be three main steps herein to wit 1. Ingress 2 Progress 3. Egress the first step is the hardest as is shewn above Paragraph 5. 6. 7. therefore take those two grand Rules of Direction about your Ingress 1. Your heart must be prepared 2. your subject must be profitable as to the first you must pray your heart into a Meditating frame a praying heart is the best Meditating heart and a Meditating heart is the best praying heart those two twin duties like the City buildings shore up and succour each the other It is said of Gersom that he hath sometimes spent four houres in banishing bad thoughts and in working up his heart into Tune for this Angelical duty You may not begin this duty with a Raw and a cold but always with a warm heart 'T is a Rule in Physick Medicandum est cum coctis non cum crudis Your thoughts will be Raw till they be boiled in a warm heart Psal 45. 1. And raw Meditations have no healing Vertue in them to a Sin-Sick-Soul 16. When you have through Divine assistance prepared in some measure your heart then secondly make choice of some profiting Subject such as may edify your Soul you must not come to the bush which the Lord is in the midst of with your shoes of Worldly-mindedness upon you Exod. 3. 5. When you go up to Mount-Moriah with your offering you must with Holy Abraham leave the Servants and the Ass at the foot of the Hill Gen. 22. 5. When you are with Moses to ascend this Mount of Meditation the Law is peremptory the beast that touches the Mount shall surely die Exod. 19. 12 13. you must be better then a beast and more then a Man yea you had need be an Angel for this Angelical work 17 At your Ingress or entrance into this duty you will find earthly thoughts to proffer themselves and press upon you with Importunity but Heavenly thoughts must with Importunity be sued for and sought after When you would think of Heaven and Heavenly things then will you thoughts of Earthly things lay Ambushments in your way and Intercept you those Birds that have their Wings daubed with Bird-lime cannot Flie much less mount up towards Heaven you may not be like Martha who was cumbred about many things but with Mary you must chuse the better part for the Subject of your Meditation you may not be as the Scarabeus or Horse flie that passes over a whole field of Flowers and at last lights upon some filthy dung you must rather be a Deborah a Divine Bee as above that flies over the dung with abhorrency and fixes upon the most fragrant Flowers or as the Noble Hawk in her flight that passeth over Crows and Jack-daws as unworthy of her pursuit and falls upon Birds of better prey 18. If yet worldly thoughts hinder your entrance upon your work you must pray them away as Abraham did the fowles that trouble him in his Sacrifice Gen. 15. 11. And though they be thoughts that are needful enough as how to care for your Family at another time yet must you then say to them as Hushai said of the Counsel of Achitophel 't is not good at this time 2 Sam. 17. 7. Family-cares have their proper Season but at this time they are unseasonable Suppose yet further that several good thoughts do come together into your mind at once know that this may hinder your entrance through the wiles of Satan also as when a great many people crowd in at a door all at once they all Stick fast and none can enter In this case you must single out from the rest your selected Subject that it may pass alone without crowding and reserve the rest to come singly on in their proper place and Season 19. Your selected Subject must be either something concerning God or something concerning your self First concerning God either his works or his word 1. Meditate on the works of God not only on such as are common to the World such as Creation and providence be but also on such as are proper and peculiar to his Church and Children We have thought on thy loving kindness saith the Church Psal 48. 9. we have silently mused Hebr. it being better admired then expressed So must you muse on Gods love to your Soul 1. on his electing love O think with your Self should not you give God a room in your heart at this time who gave you a room in his heart before times even from all Eternity Eph. 3. 11. 2ly on his redeeming love think then how God bestows Christ the best of all things even on you the worst of all things for you know more evil to your self then to all the World beside think also O this surpassing love of God in bestowing a Christ on you and not on others that for ought you know better deserved him and possibly might have made a better Improvement of him Joh. 14. 22. 20. And thirdly Meditate upon Sanctifying love O wonderful condescension that ever the Spirit of Holiness should vouchsafe to dwell in such a dirty dog-hole as your defiled Soul and that an House of unclean Spirits it may be a whole Legion of them for as Luther saith tot doemonia quot crimina So many Sins so many Devils Should ever become the Temple of the Holy Ghost And thus may you Meditate also upon Justifying love Fourthly which is such an Act of Divine grace as is equally vouchsafed to the weakest if true as to the strongest Saint to poor you if a Christian in truth as well as to great Paul or to the blessed Virgin and eternity shall not add to the matter of it though perhaps it may to the manner of it Fifthly upon Adopting-love which makes Sons and Daughters of Children of the Devil as well as of wrath and gives a lease of the best Inheritance not only for three lives yea not only for a thousand years but for eternity even for ever and ever 21. Lastly upon glorifying-love whereof indeed you are not Capable in this life Peter got but a glimpse of it at Christs transfiguration and he was plainly intoxicated with it so that he wist not what he said Matth. 17. 5. c. O admire that
had them to enjoy such means of grace yea but one day thereof and such days of Salvation as are bestowed upon you God hath not dealt so with many Nations nor with many persons as he hath dealt with you and the Land of your Nativity Psal 147. 19 20. 't was a Special favour and vouchsafement to Israel that God committed to them the lively and life-giving Oracles Rom. 3. 2. there is a chiefly set upon it being a matter of great trust to know your Masters Will is a choice Talent There is much in that of Luke 12. 48. as there was chiefely in the other the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Signifies to deposit or lay up as a matter of great worth The poor Pagan World lay under a long night of darkness having only the twinkling Star light of the fallen nature wherein they wander wofully yet not so wide as to miss of Hell Their Star-light indeed leaves them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inexcusable Rom. 1. 20. but cannot lead them to the Star of Jacob the bright and Morning Star nor to life and Salvation Act. 4. 12. 2. God hath Magnified above all things his name by his Word Psal 138. 2. To the words there may be Read or as our Reading is thou hast Magnified thy word above all thy Name If God Magnifie his word above all how should you Magnifie it accordingly while you have the day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 2. The word must be admired and highly esteemed before it have a through work upon your heart Act. 13. 48. 2 Thes 3. 1 2. You must esteem it as Job did not only above your dainties and superfluities but even above your necessary food without which you cannot Subsist Job 23. 12. 'T is better to want your daily bread that perisheth with using then this bread of life Joh. 6. 27. I had rather want meat drink sleep sight light any thing every thing said Selneccer then want the word of God and Luthers Rapture was I had rather live in Hell with it then in Heaven without it O then what a blessing do you enjoy in hearing the Word 't is Epistola Creatoris ad Creaturam Gods letter from Heaven to Man the very Reading whereof hath a blessedness annexed to it Revel 1. 3. So it be but Read both with affection and application 3. More particularly there is a three fould duty to be observed in this Religious exercise as in the former 1 Something before 2 Something in and 3 Something after In all these the heart of Man is apt to miscarry as Christ intimates in two Cautions he gives you Mark 4. 24. take heed what you hear and Luke 8. 18. take heed how you hear In the former he Cautions you about the matter of your hearing and in the latter about the manner of it As to the first of those you must be like the careful Husbandman who is very choice in his seed very Curious and Critical he will not commit corrupt seed to his fruitful Soil so neither must you lend your ear to the Devil or to any of his Chaplains Sin came into the World first by the door of the ear your great grand-Mother Eve listned more to Satans lies then to Gods truth and though the Devil be not ever Mendax a lyar yet is he Semper-fallax always decitful speaking truth only with a purpose to deceive 2 Cor. 11. 3. a cozener 4. The Devil did only Equivocate to our first Parents yet is he called a down-right lyar Joh. 8. 44 c. He began his Kingdom by a lie and he upholds it by lies to this present day O how shameful then or rather shameless are those Popish Doctors that Preach up Equivocation as a comfortable Doctrin to afflicted Catholicks calling back as it were that pest from Hell and from that old Equivocator that subtle Serpent when he was but young out-witted your first Parents now that he is old and ye young Children Eph. 4. 14. take heed he doth not cozen you either by himself or by any of his Chaplains with their finely spun Threds of Popery Christ saith my sheep hear them not for they know not the voice of strangers Joh. 10. 5 8. for they have their Senses exercised to discern good and evil Hebr. 5. 14. yea they have a Spirit of discerning 1 Cor. 12. 10. to discerne the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2. 16. Bread from Stones and fish from Serpents and what the Chaff is to the Wheat Jer. 23-28 they hate euery false way Psal 119. 104. and 't is Impossible for them to be fully and finally deceiued Matth. 24. 24. you may know those Imposters by their lightness as well as by their lies Jer. 23. 32. they shall not profit this people at all saith the Lord and yet they may much hurt them Lam. 2. 14. loose and lewd courses as well as loud and lying discourses are the brand God puts upon Satans Spelman by their fruits you shall know them Matth. 7. 15 16. the evil communication of such as are Trumpe and Triumphant in this day do corrupt good manners 1 Cor. 15. 33. 5. As hitherto of the matter so now of the manner of hearing Herein Observe those Directions 1 Before hearing 2 In it and 3 after it First before you must prepare to meet your God in this duty also as well as in the two former to which I refer you Moreover your heart must be prepared for this duty more especially First Direct by laying aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness Jam. 1. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. when you come to the sincere Milk of the Word your fallow ground must be plowed up that you sow not among Thorns Jer. 4. 3 4. If your stomach be soul and clogged with bad humours you first purge it before you feed and fill it otherwise what-ever you Eat will but nourish those corrupt and morbifick Humours so will it be with your Soul when 't is clogged with Sin Christs Market is then fore-stalled and your heart so fraught with false Lovers and like the Inn at Bethlehem so full of other Guests that there will be no Room for Christ Luke 2. 7. There is much unsuitableness betwixt a filthy Spirit and the pure word of God and therefore must you put away all filthiness both of flesh and Spirit 2 Cor. 7. 1. never to have any more to do with your idols Esa 30. 22. pull up every weed and cast it away to prepare for the seed the House must be swept clean for Entertaining the King of glory 6. The second Direct about preparation is you must lay aside not only all filthy Sins but also all worldly thoughts and cares of this life which will choak the seed of the Word Mat. 13. 22. Especially when those Thorns overtop the Corn which naturally they will do 't is good ground indeed 't is a good heart wherein grace over-tops corruption and not corruption grace Wherefore lay Gods charge upon Worldly