his hand or the Fornicator to cure his lust than to put out his eyes it were a cheap remedy A cheap and easy superficial Repentance may skin over the sore and deceive an Hypocrite but he that would be sure of pardon and free from fear must go to the bottom DIRECT XX. Live as with Death continually in your eye and spend every day in serious preparation for it that when it cometh you may find your work dispatcht and may not then cry out in vain to God to try you once again PRomise not your selves long life Think not of death as at many years distance but as hard at hand Think what will then be needful to your peace and comfort and order all your life accordingly and prepare that now which will be needful then Live now while you have time as you will resolve and promise God to live when on your death-bed you are praying for a little time of tryal more It is a great work to die in a joyful assurance and hope of everlasting life and with a longing desire to depart and be with Christ as best of all Phil. 1.21 23. O then what a burden and terror it will be to have an unbelieving or a worldly heart or a guilty Conscience Now therefore use all possible diligence to strengthen Faith to increase love to be acquit from guilt to be above the World to have the mind set free from the Captivity of the flesh to walk with God and to obtain the deepest most delectable apprehensions of his love in Christ and of the heavenly blessedness which you expect Do you feel any doubts of the state of immortality or staggering at the Promise of God through unbelief Presently do all you can to conquer them and get a clear resolution to your souls and leave it not all to do at the time of sickness Are the thoughts or God and Heaven unpleasant or terrible to you Presently search out the cause of all and labour in the cure of it as for your lives Is there any former or present sin which is a burden or terror to your Consciences Presently seek out to Christ for a Cure by Faith and true Repentance and do that to disburden your Consciences now which you would do on a sick-bed and leave not so great and necessary a 〈◊〉 to so uncertain and short and unfit a time Is there any thing in this World that is swâ—â—tâ—r tâ— your thoughts than God and Heaven 〈◊〉 which you cannot willingly let go Mâ—rtiâ—iâ— it without delay consider of its vanity compare it with Heaven Crucifie it by the Cross of Christ cease not till you account it loss and â—â—ung for the excellent knowledg of Christ and life eternal Phil. 3.7 8 9. Let not death surprize you as a thing that you never seriously expected Can you do no more in preparation for it than you do If no why do you wish a death to be tryed once again and why are you troubled that you lived no better But if you can when think you should it be done Is the time of uncertain painful sickness better than this O how doth sensuality besot the World and inconsiderateness deprive them of the benefit of their reason O Sirs if you know indeed that you must shortly die live then as dying men should live Choose your condition in the World and manage it as men that must shortly dye Use your Power and Command and Honour and use all your Neighbours and especially use the Cause and Servants of Christ as men should do that must shortly die Build and plant and buy and sell and use your Riches as those that must die remembring that the fashion of all these things is passing away 1 Cor. 7.29 30. Yea pray and read and hear and meditate as those that must die Seeing you are as sure of it as if it were this hour in the name of God delay not your preparations It is a terrible thing for an immortal Soul to pass out of the body in a carnal unregenerate unprepared state and to leave a World which they loved and were familiar with and go to a World which they neither know nor love and where they have neither heart nor treasure Matth. 6.19 20 31. The measure of Faith which may help you to bear an easie cross is not sufficient to fortifie and encourage your souls to enter upon so great a change So also bear all your wants and crosses as men that must shortly die Fear the cruelties of men but as beseemeth those that are ready to die He that can die well can do any thing or suffer any thing And he that is unready to die is unfit for a fruitful and comfortable life What can rationally rejoyce that man who is sure to die and unready to dye and is yet unfurnished of dying comforts Let nothing be now sweet to you which will be bitter to your dying thoughts Let nothing be much desired now which will be unprofitable and uncomfortable then Let nothing seem very heavy or grievous now which will be light and easy then Let nothing now seem honourable which will then seem despicable and vile Consider of every thing as it will look at death that when the day shall come which endeth all the joyes of the ungodly you may look up with joy and say Welcome Heaven This is tho day which I so long expected which all my dayes were spent in preparation for which shall end my fears and begin my felicity and put me into possession of all that I desired and prayed and laboured for when my Soul shall see its glorified Lord For he hath said John 12.26 If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be If any man serve me him will my Father honour Even so Lord Jesus remember me now thou art in thy Kingdom and let me be with thee in Paradise Luke 23.42 43. O thou that spakest those words so full of unexpressible comfort to a sinful woman in the first speech after thy blessed Resurrection Joh. 20.17 GO TO MY BRETHREN AND SAY VNTO THEM I ASCEND UNTO MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER AND TO MY GOD AND YOVR GOD. Take up now this Soul that is thine own that it may see the Glory given thee with the Father Joh. 17.24 and instead of this life of temptation trouble darkness distance and sinful imperfection I may delightfully Behold and Love and Praise thy Father and my Father and thy God and my God Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Luke 2.29 Acts 7.59 And now I have given you all these Directions I shall only request you in the close that you will set your very hearts to the daily serious practise of them For there is no other way for a ripe confirmed state of Grace And as ever you regard the glory of God the honour of your Religion the welfare of the Church and those
Physical passive Reception as Wood receiveth the Fire and as our Souls receive the Graces of the Spirit but it is a Moral Reception or Reputative which is Active and Metaphorical This will be better understood when the object is considered which is Christ Jesus the Lord To receive Christ as Christ or the Anointed Messias and as the Saviour and our Lord is to believe that he is such and to consent that he be such to us and to trust in him and resign our selves to him as such The Relation we do indeed Receive by a proper passive Reception I mean our Relation of being the Redeemed Members Subjects Disciples of this Christ. But the person of Christ we only Receive by such an active moral reputative Reception as a Servant by consent Receives a Master a Patient by Consent receives a Physitian a Wife by consent receives a Husband and a Schollar or Pupil by Consent receives a Teacher or Tutor or the Subjects by Consent receive a Sovereign So that it is the same thing that is called Receiving Jesus the Lord and believing in him as it is expounded Joh. 1.12 There are three great observable acts of Faith essential to it the first is Assent to the truth of the Gospel the second is Consent or Acceptance of Christ and Life as the offered good the third is Affiance in Christ for the accomplishing of the ends of his Office Now the word Faith doth most properly express the first act and the last and the word Receiving doth most properly express the middlemost but which ever term is used when it is Justifying Faith that is spoken of all three are intended or included By what hath been said you may discern whether you have Received Christ or not For your Faith may be known by these acts which are its parts 1. If you sincerely believe the Gospel to be true which must be with a belief so strong at least as that you are resolved to venture your happiness upon this belief and let go all for the hope that is set before you 2. If an offered Christ in his Relation as a full and perfect Saviour be heartily welcom to you If you consent to the Gospel offer and are but truly willing to be his and that he be yours in that Relation Faith is not only called a Receiving of Christ but is oft exprest by this term of Willing him And therefore the Promise is to Whosoever will Rev. 22.17 and the wicked are denyed a part in Christ because they will not have him reign over them Luke 19.27 or Will not come to him that they may have life Joh. 6.40 even because they would none of him Psal. 81.11 12. which is because they are not true Believers or Disciples of Christ. 3. If you thus by consent take Christ for your Saviour Teacher and Lord it must needs follow that you fiducially rely upon him or trust him to accomplish the ends of his Relations that you trust to him for deliverance from the guilt and power and punishment of sin and for quickning strengthening and preserving Grace and for everlasting life that you resign your selves up to him as his Disciples to learn of him with a confidence or trust that he will infallibly teach you the way to happiness And that you also give up your selves to him as his Subjects with a Trust that he will govern you in truth and Righteousness in order to your Salvation and will defend you from destroying enemies This much is of the very Being of Faith or the Receiving Christ Jesus the Lord And these parts are inseparable he that hath one in truth hath all Whenever we find in Scripture the Promise of Justification or Salvation made to us if we believe it is this believing and none but this that is intended It is not only believing in Christ as a Sacrifice or Priest that is the Faith which Justifyeth and believing in him as a Teacher or Lord that sanctifyeth the effects are not thus parcelled out to several essential parts of this same Faith but it is this one entire Faith in all these essential parts that is the undivided condition of all these benefits and in that way of a Condition of the free Promise it doth procure them So much for the meaning of the first words Receiving Christ Jesus the Lord I will be briefer about the next The second is walking in him which is no more but the living as Christians when once we are become Christians and using that Christ to the ends which we received him for when once we have received him Two things are necessary to such as we that have lost our way the first is to get into the right way and that is to get into Christ who is the way the other is to travel on when we are in it For it is not enough to bring us to our Journeyes end that we have found out the right way The next word to be explained is rooted Which doth not intimate that any are really planted into Christ without any rooting in him at all but by rooted is meant deeply rooted For the Roots increase under ground as well as the Tree above ground Rooting hath two ends and both are here implyed The first is for the Firmness of the Tree that blustring winds may not overturn it The second is for nutriment that it may receive that nourishment from the earth which may cause its preservation growth and fruitfulness This is the Rootedness of Christians in Christ that they may be confirmed in him against all assaults and may draw from him that nutriment that is necessary to their growth and fruit The next term is built up in him No house consisteth of a bare Foundation Five things are expresly contained in our being built up in him The first is that we are united or conjoyned to him as the building is on the Foundation The second is that we rest wholly on him as our support as the building doth on the Foundation The third is that we are also conjoyned one unto another and are become one spiritual building in the Lord. The fourth is that the Fabrick doth increase in bigness as the house doth by being built up so that it importeth our increase in Grace and the increase of the Church by us The fifth is the fitness of the building to its intended ends and use Till it be built up it is not fit for habitation And till Christians are built up God hath not that use of them to which he doth intend them The next term is stablished or confirmed in the Faith which signifyeth but that strengthening and fixing of us that may prevent our fall or shaking And it compriseth these two things First that we be soundly bottomed on Christ who is our Foundation And secondly that we be cemented and firmly joyned to each other And this comprehendeth their stability in the doctrine of Faith And therefore he addeth as ye have been taught to fortify
is upon that work Though it be the highest and noblest part of Worship and should be done with all the heart and might and with a participation of a kind of Angelical reverence devotion and spirituality and if it were so we should see it by some of the signs of reverence and affection Yet alas when we think the best of them should be striving with God or rapt up in his Praises they do but Hear us Pray as they hear us Preach and think they have done fair to give us the hearing They sit on their Seats in Prayer or use some crooked leaning gesture perhaps looking up and down about them perhaps half asleep but few of them with eyes and hands and hearts lift up to Heaven do behave themselves as if they believed that they had so nearly to do with God I know reverent gestures may easily be counterfeited but that shews that they are good when Hypocrites think them a fit cover for Hypocrisie for they use not to borrow credit from evil but from some good to be a cover to the evil And it leaveth the neglects of the godly more unexcusable when they will not go so far herein as hypocrites themselves nor by their behaviour in a publick Ordinance so much as seem to be seriously imployed with God And if we try the Graces or obedience of Professors alas how small shall we find them in the most How little are most acquainted with the life of Faith How little do they admire the Redeemer and his blessed work How unacquainted are they with the daily use and high improvement of a Saviour for access to God and supportation and corroboration of the Soul and for conveyance of daily supplies of Grace and help against our spiritual enemies How few are they that can rejoyce in tribulation persecution and bodily distresses because of the hopes laid up in Heaven and that can live upon a Promise and comfortably wait on God for the accomplishment How few that live as men that are content with God alone and can cheerfully leave their flesh and credit and worldly estate to his disposal and be content to want or suffer when he sees it good for them What repinings and troubles possess our minds if the flesh be not provided for and if God do but cross us in these worldly things as if we had made our bargain with him for the flesh and for this World and had not taken him alone for our portion How few can use prosperity in riches and health and reputation with a mortified weaned heavenly mind Nay how few are there that do not live much to the pleasure of the Flesh and pamper it as indulgently under the appearance of temperance and Religion as others do in grosser wayes Do but try the godly themselves by plain and faithful reproof of their corruptions and see how many of them you will find that will not excuse them and take part with the enemy and be offended with you for your close reproof If any of them be overtaken with a scandalous fault and the Pastors of the Church shall call them to open Confession and expression of Repentance though you would little think a penitent man should once stick at this and refuse to do any thing that he can do to repair the honour of God and his Profession and to save the Souls of others whom he hath endangered yet how many will you find that will add a wilful obstinacy to their scandal and will deliberately refuse so great and clear and necessary a duty So great is the interest of Self and Flesh in them and consequently so little the interest of Christ that they will live in impenitency in the eye of the Church and venture on the high displeasure of God come on it what will and resist the advice of their best and wisest and most impartial friends rather than they will so far deny themselves as to make such a free and faithful confession They are many of them so much for holy discipline that they are ready to fall out with Church and Ministers and to be gone to a purer society because it is not exercised But on whom On others only and not upon them When they need Discipline themselves how impatient are they of it and how do they abhor it and what a stir do they make before they will submit even more sometimes than a Drunkard or a Swearer so small is their Repentance and detestation of their sin whereby they shew that their zeal for Discipline and Reformation is much out of pride that others may be brought to stoop or be cast out from them and not out of a sincere desire to have the refineing and humbling benefit of it themselves And if any among them be either faulty or reported so to be who is forwarder than many Professors of Godliness to backbite them and speak of their faults when they cannot hear nor answer for themselves nor receive any benefit by it and if another that hates backbiting do but reprove them they 'l slander him also for a defender of mens sin But when they should go in Christs way and tell men of their faults and draw them to Repentance and if they hear not take two or three and speak to them again how hardly can you draw them to the performance of this duty What shifts and frivolous excuses have they then Nay they will reproach the Church or Minister for not casting such out or not keeping them from Communion before they have done or will be perswaded to do these duties that must go before Alas how little hearty love is there to Christ in his Members even in them that are confident they love the brethren How few will do or suffer much for them or relieve them in their want as suffering with them How small a matter a word a seeming wrong or disrespect will turn their love into estrangedness or bitterness If they be tryed by an ill word or a wrong how touchy and froward and impatient do they appear and it 's well if they prove not downright malicious or return not reviling for reviling Alas how much pride prevaileth with many that seem to go far in the way of Piety How wise are they in their own conceits How able to judg of controversies and how much wiser than their Teachers before they can give a good account of the Catechism or Fundamental truths How well do they think of themselves and their own parts and performances How ill do they bear dis-esteem or under valuing and needs they must be noted for some body in the world How worldly and close handed and eager of gain are many that say they despise the World and take it for their enemy If any duty be cross to their profit or credit with men how obstinate are they against it and such interest hath the flesh in them that they will hardly believe that it is their duty How censorious are they of others
and ye have snuffed at it saith the Lord of Hosts and ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick thus ye brought an offering should I accept this of your hand saith the Lord But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his Flock a Male and voweth and Sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing for I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts and my Name is dreadful among the Heathen If you better knew the Majesty of God you would knew that the best is too little for him and trifling is not tollerable in his service When Nadab and Abibu ventured with false fire to his Altar and he smote them dead he silenced Aaron with this reason of his Judgment I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people will I be glorified Lov. 10.1 2 3. That is I will have nothing common offered to me but be served with my own holy peculiar service When the Bethshemites were smitten dead 50070 men of them they found that God would not be dallyed with and cryed out Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God 1 Sam. 6.20 2. Consider also It was an exceeding great price that was payed for your Redemption For you were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Fathers but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. It was an exceeding great Love that was manifested by God the Father and by Christ in this work of Redemption such as even paseth Angels and men to study it and comprehend it 1 Pet. 1.12 Eph. 3.18 19. And should all this be answered but with trissâ—ng from you Should such a matchless Miracle of Love be answered with no greater 〈◊〉 especially when you were purposely 〈◊〉 from all iniquity that you might be sanctified 〈◊〉 a peculiar people zealous of good works 〈◊〉 14. It being therefore so great a price that you are bought with remember that you are none of your own but must glorify him that bought you in body and spirit 1. Cor. 6.20 3. Consider also that it is not a small but an exceeding glory that is promised you in the Gospel and which you live in hope to possess for ever And therefore it should be an exceeding Love that you should have to it and an exceeding care that you should have of it Make light of Heaven and make light of all Truly it is an unsuitable unreasonable thing to have one low thought or one careless word or one cold Prayer or other performance about such a matter as eternal glory Shall such a thing as Heaven be coldly or carelesly minded and sought after Shall the endless fruition of God in glory be look't at with sleepy heartless wishes I tell you Sirs if you will have such high hopes you must have high and strong endeavours A slow pace becomes not him that travelleth to such a home as this If you are resolved for Heaven behave your selves accordingly A gracious reverent godly frame of spirit producing an acceptable service of God is fit for them that look to receive the Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12.18 The believing thoughts of the end of all our labours must needs convince us that we should be stedfast and unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 O heatken thou sleepy slothful Christian Doth not God call and Conscience call Awake and up be doing man for it is for Heaven Hearken thou negligent lazy Christian Do not God and Conscience call out to thee O man make hast and mend thy pace it is for Heaven Hearken thou cowardly saint hearted Christian Do not God and Conscience call out to thee Arm man and see thou stand thy ground do not give back nor look behind thee but fall on and fight in the strength of Christ for it is for the Crown of endless glory O what a heart hath that man that will not be heartned with such calls as these Methinks the very name of God and Heaven should awaken you and make you stir if there be any stirring power within you Remissness in wordly matters hath an excuse for they are but trifles but flackness in the matters of Salvation is made unexcusable by the greatness of those matters O let the noble greatness of your Hopes appear in the Resolvedness exactness and diligence of your lives 4. Consider also that it is not only low and smaller Mercies that you receive from God but mercies innumerable and inestimable and exceeding great And therefore it is not cold affections and dull endeavours that you should return to God for all these mercies Mercy brought you into the World and Mercy hath nourished you and bred you up and Mercy hath defended and maintained you and plentifully provided for you Your bodies live upon it Your Souls were recovered by it It gave you your being It rescued you from misery It saveth you from sin and Satan and your Selves All that you have at the present you hold by it All that you can hope for for the future must be from it It is most sweet in quality what sweeter to miserable souls than Mercy It is exceeding great in quantity The Mercy of the Lord is in the Heavens and his faithfulness reacheth to the Clouds His Righteousness is like the great Mountains His Iudgments are a great deep Psal. 36.5 6. O how great is his goodness which he hath laid up for them that fear him which he hath for them that trust in him before the sons of men Psal. 31.19 His Mercy is great unto the Heavens and his truth unto the Clouds Psal. 57.10 And O what an insensible heart hath he that doth not understand the voice of all this wondrous mercy Doubtless it speaketh the plainest language in the World commanding great returns from us of Love and praise and obedience to the bountiful bestower of them With David we must say Blessed be the Lord for he hath shewed me marvellous kindness in a strong City O Love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth all the faithfull Psal. 31.21 23. Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth Vnite my heart to fear thy Name I will praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorify thy name for evermore for great is thy mercy towards me and thou hast delivered my Soul from the lowest Hell Psal. 86.11 12 13. Vnspeakable Mercies must needs be felt in deep impressions and be so savoury with the Gracious soul that methinks it should work us to the highest resolutions Unthankfulness is a crime that Heathens did detest And it is exceeding great unthankfulness if we have not exceeding great love and obedience under such exceeding great and many mercies as we possess 5. Consider that they are exceeding great helps and means that you possess to further your holiness and obedience to God and
I meddle not now with the Lapsed Christian as such nor with those Giants in holiness of extraordinary strength nor with the perfect blessed Souls in Heaven But it is the Christian who hath attained that confirmation in grace and composed quiet fruitfull state which we might ordinarily expect if we were industrious whose Image or Character I shall now present you with I call him oft-times A Christian indeed in allusion to Christs description of Nathaniel Joh. 1.47 and as we commonly use that word for one that answereth his own profession without any notable dishonour or defect As we say such a man is a Scholar indeed and not as signifying his meer sincerity I mean one whose heart and life is so conform to the Principles the Rule and the Hopes of Christianity that to the Honour of Christ the true Nature of our Religion is discernible in his conversation Mat. 5.16 In whom an impartial Infidel might perceive the true nature of the Christian Faith and Godliness If the World were fuller of such living Images of Christ who like true Regenerate Children represent their Heavenly Father Christianity would not have met with so much prejudice nor had so many enemies in the World nor would so many millions have been kept in the darkness of Heathenism and Infidelity by flying from Christians as a sort of people that are common and unclean Among Christians there are Babes that must be fed with milk and not with strong meat that are unskilfull in the word of righteousness 1 Joh. 2.2.12 13 14. Heb. 5.12 13 14. and Novices who are unsetled and in danger of an overthrow 1 Tim. 3.6 Joh. 15.3 5 c. In these the nature and excellency of Christianity is little more apparent than Reason in a little childe And there are strong confirmed Christians who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil Heb. 5.13 14. and who shew forth the glory of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light of whom God himself may say to Satan and their malicious enemies as once of Job Hast thou not seen my servant Job c. This Christian indeed I shall now describe to you both to confute the Infidels slanders of Christianity and to unteach men those false descriptions which have caused the presumption of the profane and the irregularities of erroneous Sectaries and to tell you what manner of persons they be that God is honoured by and what you must be if you will well understand your own Religion Be Christians indeed and you will have the Comforts indeed of Christianity and will finde that its Fruits and Joyes are not dreams and shadows and imaginations if you content not your selves with an imagination dream and shaddow of Christianity or with some clouded spark or buryed seed The Characters I. A CHRISTIAN INDEED by which I still mean a sound confirmed Christian is one that contenteth not himself to have a seed or Habit of Faith but he Liveth by Faith as the Sensualist liveth by sight or sense Not putting out the eye of sense nor living as if he had no Body nor lived not in a world of sensible Objects But as he is a Reasonable creature which exalteth him above the sensitive Nature so Faith is the true information of his Reason about those high and excellent things which must take him up above things sensible He hath so firm a Belief of the Life to come as procured by Christ and promised in the Gospel as that it serveth him for the Government of his Soul as his bodily sight doth for the conduct of his Body I say not that he is assaulted with no temptations nor that his Faith is perfect in degree nor that believing moveth him as passionately as sight or sense would do But it doth effectually move him through the course and tenour of his life to do those things for the life to come which he would do if he saw the Glory of Heaven and to shun those things for the avoiding of damnation which he would shun if he saw the flames of Hell Whether he do these things so fervently or not his Belief is powerfull effectual and victorious Let sight and sense invite him to their Objects and entice him to sin and forsake his God the objects of Faith shall prevail against them in the bent of an even a constant and resolved life It is things unseen which he taketh for his treasure and which have his heart and hope and chiefest labours All things else which he hath to do are but subservient to his Faith and Heavenly interest as his sensitive faculties are ruled by his Reason His Faith is not only his Opinion which teacheth him to choose what Church or Party he will be of but it is his Intellectual Light by which he liveth and in the confidence and comfort of which he dyeth 2 Cor. 5.7 8 9. For we walk by faith not by sight We groan to be cloathed upon with our heavenly house Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him Heb. 10.3 Now the just shall live by faith Heb. 11.1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Most of the examples in Heb. 11. do shew you this truth that true Christians live and govern their actions by the firm Belief of the promise of God and of another Life when this is ended v. 7. By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith V. 10. Abraham looked for a City which had foundations whose builder and maker is God Moses feared not the wrath of the King for he indured as seeing him who is invisible v. 27. So the three witnesses Dan. 3. and Daniel himself ch 6. And all Believers have lived this life as Abraham the Father of the faithfull did who as it is said of him Rom. 4.20 Staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God The Faith of a Christian is truly Divine and he knoweth that Gods truth is as certain as sight it self can be however sight be apter to move the passions Therefore if you can judge but what a Rational man would be if he saw Heaven and Hell and all that God had appointed us to Believe then you may conjecture what a confirmed Christian is though sense do cause more sensible apprehensions 2. The weak Christian also hath a faith that is Divine as caused by God and resting on his word and truth And he so far liveth by this Faith as that it commandeth and guideth the scope and drift of his heart and life But he believeth with a great deal of staggering and unbelief And therefore his Hopes are interrupted by his troublesom doubts and fears and the dimness
predominant in him But alas he is too easily tempted into Religious passions discontents contentious disputations quarrelsome and opprobrious words and his judgement lamentably darkened and perverted whenever contentious zeal prevaileth and passions do perturb the quiet and orderly operations of his soul. He wanteth both the knowledge and the experience and the mellowness of spirit which riper Christians have attained He hath a less degree of Charity and is less acquainted with the mischiefs of unpeaceableness And therefore it is the common course of young professors to be easily tempted into unpeaceable waies and when they have long tryed them if they prove not Hypocrites to come off at last upon experience of the evils of them and so the young Christians conjunct with some hypocrites make up the rigorous fierce contentious and vexatious party and the aged riper Christians make up the holy moderate healing party that groan and pray for the Churches peace and mourn in secret both for the ungodliness and violence which they cannot heal Yea the difference is much apparent in the Books and Sermons which each of them is best pleased with The ripe experienced Christian loveth those Sermons that kindle Love and tend to Peace and love such healing Books as do narrow differences and tend to reconcile and heal such as Bishop Halls Peace-maker and Pax terris and all his writings and Bishop Davenants Bishop Mortons and Bishop Hall's Pacificatory Epistles to Duraeus and Mr. Burroughs's Irenicon Ludov. Crocius Amyraldus Junius Paraeus's and many other Irenicons written by forein Divines to say nothing of those that are upon single controversies But the younger sowre uncharitable Christians are better pleased with such Books and Sermons as call them aloud to be very zealous for this or that controverted point of Doctrine or for or against some circumstance of worship or Church discipline or about some fashions or customs or indifferent things as if the Kingdom of God were in them Rom. 14.1 2 15 16. 3. But the seeming Christian is either a meer temporizer that will be of that Religion whatever it be which is most in fashion or which the higher powers are of or which will cost him least Or else he will run into the other extream and lift up himself by affected singularities and by making a bustle and stir in the world about some small and controverted point and careth not to sacrifice the peace and safety of the Church to the honour of his own opinions And as small as the Christian Church is he must be of a smaller society than it that he may be sure to be amongst the best while indeed he hath no sincerity at all but placeth his hopes in being of the right Church or Party or Opinion And for his Party or Church he burneth with a feverish kind of zeal and is ready to call for fire from Heaven and to decieve him the Devil sendeth him some from Hell to consume those that are not of his mind Yet doth he bring it as an Angel of light to defend the Truth and Church of Christ And indeed when the Devil will be the Defender of Truth or of the Church or of Peace or Order or Piety he doth it with the most burning zeal You may know him by the means he useth He defendeth the Church by forbidding the people to read the Scriptures in a known tongue and by imprisoning and burning the soundest and holiest members of it and abusing the most learned faithfull Pastors and defendeth the flock by casting out the Shepherds and such like means as the murders of the Waldenses and the Massacres of France and Ireland and the Spanish Inquisition and Queen Maries Bonefires and the Powder-plot yea and the Munster and the English rage and phrensies may give you fuller notice of He that hath no Holiness nor Charity to be zealous for will be zealous for his Church or Sect or Customs or Opinions And then this zeal must be the evidence of his piety and so the Inquisitors have thought they have religiously served God by murdering his servants and it is the badge of their honour to be the Devils hang-men to execute his malice on the members of Christ and all this is done in zeal for Religion by irreligious Hypocrites There is no standing before the malicious zeal of a graceless Pharisee when it riseth up for his carnal interest or the honour and traditions and customs of his Sect Luk. 6.7 And they were filled with madness and communed with one another what they might do to Jesus Luke 4.28 Acts 5.17 13.45 John 16.2 Rom. 10 2. Phil. 3.6 Acts 36.10 11. The zeal of a true Christian consumeth himself with grief to see the madness of the wicked But the zeal of the Hypocrite consumeth others that by the light of the fire his Religiousness may be seen You may see the Christians fervent Love of God by the fervent flames which he can suffer for his sake And you may see the fervent Love of the Hypocrite by the flames which he kindleth for others By these he cryeth with Jehu Come and see my zeal for the Lord 2 King 10.16 2 Sam. 21.2 LV. 1. A Christian indeed is one that most highly esteemeth and regardeth the interest of God and mens salvation in the world and taketh all things else to be inconsiderable in comparison of these The interest of Great men and Nobles and Commanders yea and his own in corporal respects as riches honour health and life he taketh to be things unworthy to be named in competition with the interest of Christ and Souls The thing that his heart is most set upon in the world is that God be glorified and that the world acknowledge him their King and that his Laws be obeyed and that darkness and infidelity and ungodliness may be cast out and that pride and worldliness and fleshly lusts may not hurry the miserable world unto perdition It is one of the saddest and most amazing thoughts that ever entreth into his heart to consider how much of the world is overwhelmed in ignorance and wickedness and how great the Kingdom of the Devil is in comparison of the Kingdom of Christ that God should forsake so much of his Creation that Christianity should not be owned in above the sixth part of the world and Popish pride and ignorance with the corruptions of many other Sects and the worldly carnal minds of Hypocrites should rob Christ of so much of this little part and leave him so small a flock of holy ones that must possess the Kingdom His soul consenteth to the Method of the Lords Prayer as prescribing us the order of our Desires And in his prayers he seeketh first in order of estimation and intention the Hallowing of Gods name and the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven before his daily bread or the pardon of his sins or the deliverance of his own soul from temptations
shall be overcome by his own successes and the just shall conquer by patience when they seem most conquered The name and form and image of Religion the carnal hypocrite doth not only bear but favour and himself accept But the Life and serious practice he abhorreth as inconsistent with his worldly interest and ends For these he can find in his heart with Ahab to hate and imprison Micaiah and preferr his four hundred flattering Prophets 1 King 22.6 8 24 27. If Luther will touch the Popes Crown and the Fryers Bellies they will not scruple to Oppose and ruine both him and all such Preachers in the World if they were able John 11.48.50 Acts 5.28 LVI 1. A Christian indeed is one whose Holiness usually maketh him an eyesore to the ungodly world and his charity and peaceableness and moderation maketh him to be censured as not strict enough by the superstitious and dividing sects of Christians For seeing the Church hath suffered between these two sorts of opposers ever since the suffering of Christ himself it cannot be but the solid Christian offend them both because he hath that which both dislike All the ungodly hate him for his holiness which is cross to their interest and way and all the Dividers will censure him for that universal charity and moderation which is against their factious and destroying zeal described Jam. 3. Even Christ himself was not strict enough in superstitious observances for the ceremonious zealous Pharisees He transgressed with his Disciples the tradition of the Elders in neglecting their observances who transgressed the commandment of God by their tradition Matth. 15.2 3. He was not strict enough in their uncharitable observation of the Sabbath day Matth. 12.2 John that was eminent for falling they said had a Devil The Son of man came eating and drinking and they say Behold a man gluttonous and a wine bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners But wisdom is justified of her Children Mat. 11.18 19. And the weak Christians Rom. 14.1 2 3. did censure those that durst eat those meats and do those things which they conceived to be unlawful They that erre themselves and make God a Service which he never appointed will censure all as lukewarm or temporizers or wide conscienced men that erre not with them and place not their Religion in such superstitious observances as Touch not taste not handle not c. Col. 2.18 21 22 23. And the raw censorious Christians are offended with the Charitable Christian because he damneth not as many and as readily as they and shutteth not enow out of the number of believers and judgeth not rigorously enough of their wayes In a word he is taken by one sort to be too strict and by the other to be too complyant or indifferent in Religion because he placeth not the Kingdom of God in meats and dayes and such like circumstances but in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.15 16 17. And as Paul withstood Peter to his face for drawing men to make scruple or conscience of things lawful Gal. 2.11 12 13. so is the sound Christian withstood by the superstitious for not making scruple of lawful things 2. And the weak Christian is in the same case so long as he followeth prudent pious charitable guides But if he be taken in the snares of superstition he pleaseth the superstitious party though he displease the World 3. And whereas the solid Christian will not stir an inch from truth and duty to escape either the hatred of the wicked or the bitterest censures of the Sectary or the weak the Hypocrite must needs have one party on his side For if both condemn him and neither applaud him he loseth his peculiar reward Matth. 6.2 5. 23.5 6 7 8. LVII 1. The confirmed Christian doth understand the necessary of a faithful Ministry for the safety of the weak as well as the conversion of the wicked and for the preservation of the interest of Religion upon earth And therefore no personal unworthiness of Ministers nor any calumnies of enemies can make him think or speak dishonourably of that sacred office But he reverenceth it as instituted by Christ and though he loaths the sottishness and wickedness of those that run before they are sent and are utterly insufficient or ungodly and take it up for a Living or Trade only as they would a common work and are Sons of Belial that know not the Lord and cause the offering of the Lard to be abhorred 1 Sam. 2.2 17. Yet no such temptation shall overthrow his reverence to the office which is the Ordinance of Christ much less will he be unthankful to those that are able and faithful in their office and labour instantly for the good of souls as willing to spend and be spent for their Salvation When the World abuseth and derideth and injureth them he is one that honoureth them both for their work and masters sake and the experience which he hath had of the blessing of God on their labours to himself For he knoweth that the smiting of the Shepheards is but the devils ancient way for the scattering of the flock Though he knoweth that if the salt have lost its savour it is good for nothing neither fit for the land nor yet for the dung-hill but men cast it out and it 's trodden under foot he that hath ears to hear let him hear Luk. 14.34 35. Mat. 5.13 14. Yet he also knoweth that he that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward Matth. 10.41 42. And that he that receiveth them receiveth Christ and he that despiseth them that are sent by him despiseth him Luk. 10.16 He therefore readily obeyeth those commands Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as those that must give account 1 Thes. 5.12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in Love for their work sake and be at peace among your selves 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine 2. But though the weak Christian be of the same mind so far as he is sanctified yet is he much more easily tempted into a wrangling censoriousness against his Teachers though they be never so able and holy men and by seducers may be drawn to oppose them or speak contemptuously of them as the Galathians did of Paul and some of the Corinthians accounting him as their Enemy for telling them the truth when lately they would have pluckt out their eyes to do him good Gal. 4.15 16. 3. But the Hypocrite is most easily engaged against them either when they grate upon the guilt of his bosome sin or open his hypocrisie or plainly cross him in his carnal interest or else when his
the seed of Grace is grown up into Glory and all the world whether they will or not shall discern between the Righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not between the clean and the unclean and between him that sweareth and him that feareth an oath And though now our Life is hid with Christ in God and it yet appeareth not to the sight of our selves or others what we shall be yet then when Christ who is our Life shall appear we also shall appear with him in Glory Heb. 12.22 23. Rev. 22.3 4 5 14 15. 21.3 4 8. 2 Thes. 1.9 10. Mat. 5.4 6. Mal. 3.18 Eccles. 9.2 1 Joh. 3.2 3. Col. 3.3 4. Away then my soul from this dark deceitfull and vexatious world Love not thy diseases thy setters and calamities Groan daily to thy Lord and earnestly groan to be cloathed upon with thy house which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 4. that mortality may be swallowed up of Life Joyn in the harmonious desires of the Creatures who groan to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.20 21 22. Abide in him and walk in Righteousness that when he shall appear thou maist have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming 1 John 2.28 29. Joyn not with the evil servants who say in their hearts Our Lord delayeth his coming and begin to smite their fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken whose Lord shall come in a day when they look not for him and in an hour that they are not aware of and shall cut them asunder and appoint them their portion with the Hypocrites where shall be weeping gnashing of teeth Mat. 24.48 49 50 51. O watch and pray that thou enter not into temptation And be patient for the Judge is at the door Lift up thy head with earnest expectation O my soul for thy Redemption draweth near Rejoyce in hope before thy Lord for he cometh he cometh to judge the world in Righteousness and Truth Behold he cometh quickly though faith be failing and iniquity abound and Love waxeth cold and scoffers say where is the promise of his coming Make haste O thou whom my soul desireth and come in Glory as thou first camest in Humility and conform them to thy self in Glory whom thou madest conformable to thy sufferings and humility Let the Holy City New Jerusalem be prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and let Gods Tabernacle be with men that he may dwell with them and be their God and wipe away their tears and death and sorrow and crying and pain may be no more but former things may pass away Keep up our Faith our Hope our Love And daily vouchsafe us some beams of thy directing consolatory Light in this our darkness And be not as a stranger to thy scattered flock in this desolate wilderness But let them hear thy voice and find thy presence and have such conversation with thee in Heaven in the exercise of Faith and Hope and Love which is agreeable to their low and distant state Testifie to their souls that thou art their Saviour and Head and that they abide in thee by the Spirit which thou hast given them abiding and overcoming in them and as thy Agent preparing them for eternal life O let not our darkness nor thy strangeness feed our odious Unbelief O shew thy self more clearly to thy Redeemed ones And come and dwell in our hearts by Faith And by holy Love let us dwell in God and God in us that we grope not after him as those that worship an unknown God O save us from Temptation And if the messenger of Satan be sent to buffet us let thy strength be manifest in our weakness and thy grace appear sufficient for us And give us the patience which thou tellest us we need that having done thy will we may inherit the promise And bring us to the sight and fruition of our Creator of whom and through whom and to whom are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen FINIS