seen even these Men's Sun set and their last day come It is true then that as those mistaken fond self-flatterers have died so must I most certainly most unavoidably die 2. And I find Secondly by Observation of Multitudes whom I have seen or heard of dying that it is also a great Truth which I have been told that Men's Thoughts when dying touching things of Life namely touching Wealth Pleasures Mirth c. nay generally touching all the Actions and States of Men prove much different from what they are in the gaiety and jollity of their days Therein indeed they laugh at and reproach sober devout and mortified Men but upon their Death-beds they wish themselves in their Condition Perhaps while in the way of Gain and Business Men admire the splendor and value of Gold and think a Bag of it one of the most Sovereign Goods in the World They would venture Credit and Conscience and even Life to come by it But give Gold to any of those when dying and he 'll cry out Why do you torment me Alas that has been my Ruine Oh! that I could have but some ease of Conscience Oh! that I had but reason to hope God would have mercy upon me Oh! that I had minded Godliness as much as I have done Gain my Condition now had been otherwise Thus have we known it with people far in humane Esteem from being irreligious Yea take the lewdest and most debauch'd persons whom in their health nothing but Revelling and Lust and Hectoring and Profaneness would down with who would curse you for the least good Advice you gave them or even for beseeching God to have Mercy upon them Come to these Men when by God and a Disease or by the Magistrate and Proceedings at Law under the Sentence of Death and have they the same sense of their Bottles and Frolicks and Minions and mad Company Will they brave it as formerly Ask them which of the two you shall call to them a pack of merry Boys and Hectors or a Minister and which will they chuse Will Oaths and Damme's and Confound me Body and Soul or even their lewd Songs or but merry Stories be Musick now in their ears Far enough from it Now nothing but the Prayers of all good people is called for but too late for the most part God knows Thus much generally all Men are able to observe And it is a certain Truth if Men have their Senses and are of sound memory and reason Conscience is more awake and speaks louder and more impartially when they are in sight of death than ever They that choak'd and oppress'd it before hear and feel it then whether they will or no. And this I cannot but acknowledge to be a constant at least a general Truth 3. Nay further Thirdly Even at present do I not find within my own Breast and in my calm hours and true sense of things a great difference as well between good and evil Actions as the Effects and Products thereof Is Money unjustly gotten by Cozenage or Lying or Dissembling not to say worse so comfortably laid up as that which is the reward of my honest Pains and Industry Or would I be as content to leave my Son an Estate which I forced as out of the Fire by Oppression grinding the face of the Poor Falseness Subornations c. as one which my Ancestors fairly lest me or my own Frugality and honest Diligence acquired And so in a thousand other Cases Is not the like difference apparent Is Riot and Roaring and beastly prostituting my own and others Honour so amiable and yielding as much ease to the mind as Sobriety Gravity and Purity Nay even in others Is it as comfortable to me to hear Men lie and then swear to prove their Lies to hear them curse and damn or perhaps but even rail and rant at one another as to be entertained with grave or wise Discourse or over-hear devout people assembled at their Prayers in the Fear of God and with a decent Concord Further besides the inward Advantage of being vertuous and religious do I not see daily that Men by Vertue and Religion preserve themselves from a thousand Inconveniencies which others run into They keep and encrease perhaps their Estates their Credit their Ease their Quiet their Health the Love of their Neighbours and a good Interest in their Countrey with many more Felicities whereas others by contrary practices forfeit all So that a Man cannot but be sensible supposing him thus to go on thinking and considering with himself that Vertue and Religion give Men great advantage of others not only when going out of the World but even in the strength and vigor of their age and that as well in regard of inward Peace liking and approving or being at ease with themselves as in many worldly respects 4. Now will an outward Demureness and Hypocrisie a pretending that Religion or Vertue which Men have not do all this And truly Professors of Religion who are not religious in good Earnest are no better than demure Hypocrites Will I say deceiving the World and perhaps themselves too with a pretence to that Integrity that they have not administer Comfort to Men when dying or Content and Peace while in Life at a distance from Death Let me seriously consider of this and there will nothing appear more plain to me nor shall I be more sensible of any thing in the World than that such Temper as described would be a dying Torment to me a Hell before-hand and that it is really a reproach to me in my own sense of things at present if I am such I say if I be guilty of it my heart even now reproaches me for it 5. And after all these Thoughts thus in a train and dependance upon one another run through after such a thread of Reason spun by my Soul can I believe this Soul of mine is equal to that whereby Beasts live Is it no nobler of no longer duration than the Spirit of a Dog or of a Swine or of such vile Creatures Am I able to conceive think and put together all these things to no purpose And have I the sense and prospect of a Life to come an earnest desire too of Immortality and all this in vain Let me see Is it so as to my other Faculties Has God given me Eyes to see and yet is there neither Light nor Colours Has he given me Ears to hear and are there no sounds Has he given me a Mouth and Palate and provided a Stomach for reception of Meat and put an Appetite into it and parts and powers for digesting my Meat yet are there no kinds of Food Nothing fit to be tasted eaten digested Has he given me a Tongue to speak and an Understanding to frame Thoughts and direct that Tongue to utter them and are there no people in the World for me to converse with It is plain to me that none of my other Faculties are in
person search into and when he has got any degree of satisfaction carefully treasure up in his Mind or Memory what gave him that satisfaction that he may be able to have recourse thereto at any time to re-inforce Assent and by virtue of what he believes to satisfie and assure himself of other Truths the perswasion of which he yet wants And thus understanding and being perswaded of the several Particulars of Religion it remains such Person go on conscientiously to practise what he knows and believes Having learn'd and being convinc'd that there is a God who made upholds and governs the World he will soon believe that this God as other Governors has given to his Subjects a Law and that what we call the Decalogue o◠Ten Commandments especially as expounded and improved by our Saviour is that Law and that thereby as our same Lord has taught us all Men shall be judged Upon this supposing such cordial Belief of all has been directed unto it will follow through the Grace of God that the man will live in the fear of God withstand Temptations break himself of evil Customs c. as one who shall be judged by this most Spiritual Law And that he may so do as taught he will daily and earnestly with all his heart pray to God he will seriously with real devotion and care use all other Means attend Sacraments wait on the Ministry of the Word conscientiously apply all he learns for his advance in Grace and daily watching over himself endeavour to grow better and wiser Summarily and in plain terms this is I say being in good earnest and serious in Religion for People to give their hearts to the understanding believing and practising the Christian Doctrine and Precepts and to perseverance and growth in such Practice Or more briesly as said to study constantly to be every day wiser and better God-wards And those who really will not set themselves thus to do must never think of being provided for another World Nothing will sit a man for that without such general Religious Care § 9. Now to bring men thus to give their minds in good earnest to Religion I can think of no other at least no shorter or properer way than to desire and conjure all sorts of People to accustom themselves to retire within themselves and think that they have Souls or an unseen part It is most certain the greatest number of Mankind perish for want of consideration and not exercising of those Faculties they have above Brutes By our Bodies we are Flesh and Blood equal in a sort to the Beasts that perish by our Souls we are a part of the unseen and indeed of the invisible World we are Minds or Understanding reasoning Beings nearly equalled to Angels either good or bad ones Now the Bane of most People is that the Brute or Beast-part alone lives acts and governs but the Angel-part as it were sleeps is oppress'd drown'd or buried And in the degree that this befalls men they are more or less defective in Religion Some men who altogether follow their fleshly Desires have no Religion at all others who govern them according to Rules of Civility have perhaps the outward Mode or Fashion of their Country-Religion So that to bring men I say to be in good earnest and serious in Religion I know nothing more likely to be effectual than perswading them to think to converse more with themselves and by using their Minds to bring themselves to feel that they have them that there are in them Souls or a spiritual unseen active Part. This if they were well sensible of they would conclude that as they have an unseen part so there may be an unseen world according as they are told there is and that as this their unseen part is truly the Man and the most excellent part of them so the unseen world is the most real and of greatest worth and moment That therefore these Souls of theirs should be look'd after and some provision made for them against they come to be stripp'd of their Bodies and to pass naked into the World of Spirits Further by this means they would find that it is their Bodies that eat and drink and sleep and are pleased and satisfied therewith and that when they have no Bodies they shall do none of these That therefore there must be otherguise satisfaction look'd after for their Souls In a word I can hardly believe that a thinking person can fail in the End to arrive at being serious in Religion especially if he set out with any sober and certain Principles one Thought will lead on another till by the Grace of God some divine Truth or other pierce or fix in his Heart and make way for the final Victory of Faith § 10. We will take a further and more distinct instance of the Case in a particular Train of Thoughts Suppose we then a man by himself and either upon the importunity of Ministers frequently rating People into seriousness or upon the instigations of his own Conscience some way awakened by God's secret Grace which one time or other is wanting to none under the Gospel suppose we I say such a person beginning to consider whether there be any real necessity for him to trouble himself any further with Religion than to be in the general fashion of the Country and having cast away many things that have been urged upon him either as false or as uncertain or of little moment at length to bethink himself 1. Though all the other Particulars usually inculcated to persuade me to seriousness in Religion should be false and meerly little Arts and Inventions to awe me yet this is certain die I must sooner or later Not one escapes this perpetual Law Those who have thought themselves most exempted from the common Fate of all have notwithstanding at length whether they would believe it or no felt it and yielded thereto Perhaps there may have been some whom we have known or heard of in the World so fond as to say such an one died meerly for want such a one by fraud such a one by the neglect or mistake of his Physician such a one by his own ignorance or wilfulness But I have Wealth enough that I cannot want what is necessary to preserve me Knowledge enough timely to discover any decay in me and to prevent its prevalence or growing too much upon me Temper enough to secure or deliver my self from many incurable Evils which others run into and Caution enough to keep my self out of Violence or Harm's way and therefore I shall not die And yet this very person perhaps we know now to lie in his Grave We may have observed others to fansie to themselves a kind of Immortality by piece-meal This day they think they shall not die tomorrow and when tomorrow comes they cannot believe they shall die the next day and when that is come they are still persuaded they shall see another Sun yet have we
Compunction They were says the Text pricked at their hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compunged point by point pricked and wounded The like whereto is also recorded of David 2 Sam. 24. 10. David's heart smote him after he had numbred the People But the Name Conviction of Sin is taken out of St. John chap. 16. 8. Where we read it to be a promised Work of the Holy Ghost's that when he should come into the World he should reprove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Margin of our Bibles convince the World of Sin wherefore there is no fault at all to be found with that Term provided it be allowed that that conviction of Sin which leads to Contrition and Repentance must consist in the Sinner's sight and sense first of his own particular Guilt secondly of the real Evil of his Sin 1. Of a sight of Sin that is of our own particular Guilt We must not only see in general that we are Sinners Transgressors of the Laws of God at random but as to this or that kind and in these or these instances that we have offended against particular Commands Namely we have been or are either Covetous or Drunkards or Revilers or Extortioners or Unjust or Swearers or Blasphemers or Lustful and Unclean or Proud or Sinners in some of these or like kinds by divers particular Acts notorious in such or such part or parts of our Lives Thus St. Paul of himself who was saith he a Blasphemer and a Persecuter and Injurious 1 Tim. 1. 13. And in the aforementioned place the Original of this Phrase Conviction of Sin 't is said The Holy Ghost should convince the world of Sin on that peculiar account because they believed not on Christ Jesus Now this part of the Conviction of Sin is nothing but a particular accusation of Conscience which sometimes God in a great measure prevents us with without any endeavours of our own under the Ministry of his Word as in the Case of those Converts before spoken of Acts 2. Sometimes by the Holy Spirit 's secret and more immediate quickning or awakening Conscience as in the Case of David already also mentioned Or otherwise by some surprizing Affliction or cross Providence as in the Case of Joseph's Brethren when they had been apprehended and kept three days in durance for being as was pretended Spies We are say they verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Gen. 42. 21. Or perhaps in some other Methods But as for a full and due sight of all the Particulars of ones Guilt I conceive no person can attain to it without a strict and long scrutiny search or examination of Conscience without very mature and considerate enquiry into his Heart Life and Actions Which therefore every one who would reconcile himself to God must upon the first pricking or smiting of his heart in whichsoever of the Methods before-mentioned he feel it immediately set upon For where there is one Sin undoubtedly there are more God having therefore graciously shewn us some we being awakened thereby should search after the rest Convictions of Conscience from God should put us upon stricter self-examination No corner of our Heart as I may so say that is no part or powers of our Soul should be left unsearch'd An Enquiry after Sin should be made through all our Desires Designs Counsels Business and Employments and if possible through all the Actions and Parts of our Life So as to have all our Sins after some sort in order before us bare-faced and open 2. The other part of Conviction of Sin is a sight and sense of the Evil of Sin that it is not only foul and odious disagreeable to the true Principles of our Nature to what in our hearts we approve and unworthy of the sence and understanding of a Man making us brutish loathsome in the eyes of God and of all good and wise men and even of our selves when we are truly our selves and judge of things as they really are but also most mischievous and destructive that it at first brought Death and all temporal Miseries into the World that it brings upon us at present the Wrath and Curse of God Curses in our Persons Estates and Names Curses in our Families Relations and all our Concerns Curses more than we can well comprehend yet are all these present Curses nothing in comparison of what it will bring upon us without Repentance a Portion with the Devil and his Angels The Wrath to come or the Vengeance of everlasting Fire And this part of the Conviction of Sin is nothing else but the Sentence or Doom of Conscience upon the former Convictions Now with this also sometimes does God prevent us either by the Ministry of the Word or by secret Terrors immediately sent into the Conscience flashing as it were Hell-fire in our faces or by more moderate Afflictions sealing instructions to our Ears The Degrees wherein Holy Men are exercised herewith as well have been as are and ever will be very different But it is surely the Duty as well as Interest of every one who would be penitent and holy either in Heart or Life to endeavour by a frequent consideration as well of the real shamefulness vileness and detestable Nature of Sin as of the Dangers thereby present and future to Body and Soul Person and all personal Concerns to possess their hearts with a deep sense of its Evil. 'T is as certain as God is true that Mischief will hunt the wicked man to overthrow him Psal 140. 11. And be sure your Sin will find you out Numb 32. 23. There is no possibility of flying from Guilt except a man could fly from himself nor of flying that is escaping from punishment except it were possible to fly from God These things he should frequently and seriously think upon whosoever would fix in his Heart a sight and sense of his Sin the honest endeavour whereof is the first step to true Repentance § 8. A Second is Contrition Brokenness of Heart so named from Psal 51. 17. or sorrowing after a godly sort as the Apostle calls it 2 Cor. 7. 11. when looking upon our Sin we really in heart are afflicted for it and mourn over it This ordinarily through the Grace of God follows naturally upon the other in the conversion of every Sinner but in case we find it either always to have been much wanting or at present decayed and lost to our sense in us there is no such way to beget or raise it again as to endeavour to heighten the sight and sense of our own Guilt and God's infinite Grace and Goodness To this purpose the several aggravations of our Sins are to be considered We it may be from our Cradle to our present Age have all along been in such Circumstances that all our Sins are exceeding sinful What Mercies has God continually heaped
After this how can I think of neglecting him through any tenderness of face Especially when I am at present in so far better that is easier and more tolerable Circumstances than he was I perhaps am laugh'd at by some Fools or Mad-men for obeying him but I am otherwise at ease and to have Heaven for the reward of overcoming this petty private affront Shall then such inconsiderable Trifles make me wave or forgo my Duty Far be it from me In any other Case whatsoever by like Consultations or Considerations as in these Cases now set down shall we through God's Grace and Blessing upon our honest endeavour find out particular means and by such thought work our hearts to particular resolution for breaking our selves of any other or whatsoever Sins we have found more peculiarly prevalent in us And thus as to the second Step of this Head of Practice The Third will be A particular Resolution or as occasion serves Vow touching the use of those Means which we have found most proper to amend us and touching such instances of our Manners which upon enquiry we have found most to need Reformation All general Resolutions we know must be performed in particular instances of Life and Action and therefore a particular Resolution touching those Means which by consideration we have found proper to each Case will be no less necessary than the general Resolution first proposed as to the main Body of the Work As for example Suppose avoiding ill Company be one Means I have found out to keep me from Intemperance and Excess or from loss of Time c. I 'll immediately resolve not only against loose but against vain Companions I 'll keep home more abandon certain Familiars estrange my self from such and such I 'll set my self certain employment so much for such a time c. Suppose again contenting my self with sufficient Provisions and abandoning a too peremptory Resolution I had taken up to be rich to such a degree be the Means I have discovered proper for the remedying my unjust oppressive dealing I 'll resolve on that and immediately order my Affairs accordingly But in such Cases as these perhaps single resolution will not suffice to hold our unstable Souls sometimes therefore but with much caution and deliberation we may do well to add Vow David or whatever holy Man was the Author of that Psalm did so Psal 119. 51. I have said that is resolved with my self to keep thy Words and lest that should not do ver 106. I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments Thus as to the first Part of the Method for breaking our selves of Sin by such Acts as are to be done for the present Those which are to be continued are the prosecution of these Resolutions or Vows by a constant study of Mortification and by daily endeavours of proficiency in Holyness through the whole following part of our Life Now the treating hereof belongs not to this first Class of Advices but is to be set down in the second Part. In the mean while we are to proceed with what yet remains for our present making our peace with God § 14. And now after this Practice of Repentance Faith interposes again and that not meerly Faith towards God or a belief of the Being Nature and Providence of God as hitherto most insisted on but Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ or Faith as called by the Apostle Rom. 3. 25. Faith in his Blood For him as bleeding for us upon the Cross as sacrificed upon that Altar hath God set forth to be a propitiation and it is by the Blood of his Cross that he made peace Col. 1. 20. 'T is the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God that purges our Consciences from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. 'T is by that one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. This is that Fountain set open to the House of David and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for Sin and for Vncleanness Zechar. 13. 1. Hither therefore after all Confessions Contrition Tears Resolutions Vows and endeavours of Reformation the faithful Soul comes Here it exerts new Acts of Faith that is Trust Affiance and Dependance And as the Holy persons Matth. 28. 9. did corporally to our Saviour after his Resurection so must true Penitents as it were catching the Crucified Jesus by the Feet hold him fast after a spiritual sort as their only hope and refuge that only name given under Heaven that Dear Jesus which redeemed us from the Wrath to come and with Christ thus not in their Arms but Heart look up to the Eternal Father for pardon and peace through the Son of his Loves This distinct trust in Christ as sacrificed for our Sins in this Order or thus in conjunction with such practice of Repentance as set down exerted or exercised I conceive of most essential and singular Force to the perfecting our Peace both with God and in our own Consciences § 15. And now I see not any thing which remains speaking as to a certain course of transient Acts ordinarily to compleat a Man's Reconciliation with God except we should say it is requisite to Cloath all these Acts with serious and suitable Prayer Prayer is that Christian Duty which as I may say alone as it were gives a body to all the Acts of Grace in the Soul or as one well observes It is indeed that single Duty wherein Dr. Owen of the Spirit of Prayer every Geace is acted every Sin opposed every good thing obtained or impetrated of God Without it Contrition and Faith and Resolution are after a sort airy and volatil This fixes them and makes them substantial mature and permanent Nay it raises and strengthens or heightens them Prayer is such an Office as not only actuates or draws out into Exercise all Christian Graces but makes the Soul more earnest and zealous in the Actings of them Having therefore proceeded as above directed towards making thy Peace with God cast thy self in secret at the Throne of Grace in earnest and humble supplication confessing and bewailing thy Sin with the Exercise of all the Contrition thou canst excite passing Sentence on thy self acknowledging what thou hast deserved but withall pleading the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ the atonement made by the Blood of his Cross and casting thy self upon God's mercy through that great and alone true Propitiation bringing indeed the heartiest Purposes and making the firmest Resolutions thou can'st endeavouring to the utmost of thy Power to perform all that concerns thee on thy part by the Covenant of Grace but after all acknowledging thy self an unprofitable servant Luke 17. 10. disclaiming therefore any righteousness of thine own and beseeching Pardon for thy very Repentance begging to be sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus and to be found in him For he is the Lord our
up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Now though it may seem at first that in this kind of good works namely those usually called works of Charity only rich people are capable of laying up Treasure in Heaven or providing themselves hereafter any measure of happiness yet if we consider there are many good Offices or kind services that even the meanest sort sometimes may perform to their Superiors and that such services are of real value we may and must account that poor people endeavouring to do all the good they can to the Bodies Souls Estates or good names of others are as really charitable and if diligent to do such good as abundant in the work of Charity in their way as the most magnificent publick Benefactors in theirs and consequently will be as surely and gloriously rewarded He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Mat. 10. 41 42. In which surprising promise and as it were excess of Divine grace and goodness poor people ought for their comfort to take notice of three things 1 How small matters from them to whom little is given God esteems as Alms Even a Cup of cold water given to a fellow Christian as such or haply a little room or harbour in a corner of the poor Cottage to a weary or wet Passenger 2 How largely God will reward it with a righteous man's or a Prophet's reward according to the nature of the person we designed to do good to 3 The sureness of the reward Verily I say unto you he shall not lose his reward that is by an ordinary Figure he shall most certainly receive it Let no one then think he cannot be Charitable or bountiful because he is not rich but let him not fail to do all the good Luk. 12. 33. to others that lies in his way Hereby he provides himself Bags which wax not old a treasure in heaven that faileth not That is he makes a happy preparation for another world § 9. But there is one sort of good works or of Charity to others which transcends far all other Bounty and that is Charity to the souls of Men labour in instructing those who are ignorant of God and of their Duty in retrieving and delivering men from a leud course of life to being serious and strict in Religion in bringing them home to Christ and his Church This is a Charity as far surpassing that which is meerly extended to Mens bodies as the soul in excellence surpasseth the body He that can help a soul to Heaven before him hath certainly sent an unvaluable treasure thither For if any man err from the truth and one convert him let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins James the last 19 20. Wherefore to conclude this Head touching good works Let us be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. ult And thus as to the third Duty in our first Period of providing for our selves a Happiness in another world against we leave this Matter and a Method suitable for Devotion to the Fourth Chapter FIrst Examine Whether ever hitherto thou hast thought in good earnest of laying up treasure or securing thy self a Happiness in Heaven Shouldest thou die this moment what reasonable hopes hast thou that thou shouldest be blessed in that other world or after death rest from thy Labours Particularly 1. Hast thou any sound clear or even tolerable conceptions and rational sense of the life or happiness of a soul abstract or separate from the body Or art thou not as it were drown'd in brutish Apprehensions understanding none but a sensual life And are not Spiritual and Heavenly things in a manner Dreams Fables and Romances to thee 2. Hast thou lookt upon it as thy Duty and Concernment above all things to secure to thy self a happiness to come 3. Didst thou ever seriously set thy self by Resolution and Prayer to chose the Everlasting God for thy happiness Does thy soul in any such measure cleave to him at present as that thou canst with any probable hope claim him for thy Portion 4. Hast thou pursued this choice by an honest endeavour of holy life and abounding in good works according to thy quality and power Or hast thou not been idle a Loiterer and secure flatterer of thy self never really active herein Or what is worse yet very frequent dost thou not meerly profess to know God but in works deniest him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Tit. 1. vers ult Secondly Having thus strictly examined thy Conscience in the fear of God by Serious Prayer set thy self First to Confess thy particular guilt in this case according to the true answer of thy Conscience In which behalf if thou hast practised the Devotional parts annext to the foregoing Chapters and especially the Directions of the last thou canst not be at any loss Accuse thy self sincerely and unbosom thy heart before God by going over again the Particulars Remember the Holy God loveth truth in the inward parts and will be readier both to become thine and make thee his if he see thee to be cordial in the endeavour of making him thy choice Further proceeding in Prayer 2dly Look upon Acknowledge and adore God as the only true Happiness of Man's Soul as the Father of Spirits who made thy Soul for himself and put into it this property that it can be satisfied with nothing below himself And if thou findest an inward sense hereof in thy heart immediately as another act of Prayer 3dly Bless God for this Token of good for such certainly it is to thee a sign that notwithstanding all thy neglects of God notwithstanding all thy pursuits and wandrings after Airy bubbles of happiness in this World he has not yet totally cast thee off and left thee to thy own vain heart Wherefore now 4ly By way of Petition beg of him that he will graciously through Christ Jesus vouchsafe to become thy Treasure and portion As in the foregoing Chapter directed offer him up thy heart and beseech him to accept it and both to make and keep it his Lament thy wandrings and thy long alienation from thy alone true good Acknowledge thy Disappointments of Happiness and perpetual missing of satisfaction in the World and beseech of God again and again that he will enable thee with purpose of heart to cleave unto
easie to demonstrate the sinfulness unreasonable and mischievous consequents of worldly incumbrances than to cast them off or find our a proper way to be rid of them And the mischief is Men are usually unwilling to be delivered of this Evil. They are golden Chains which this World casts about us and those Men think too precious to fling away However let me consider have I a Treasure in Heaven Is God my Happiness Does this World only put me at enmity with God at least keep me at a distance with him Does it debase and enslave my Soul as I cannot but be sensible Shall I not then be willing to be free from business and slavery To be in perfection and possess'd of a blisful State To behold God face to face To love admire and enjoy him rejoycing before him and in him Eternally Without Weariness without Satiety nay even without Intermission or Allay of the highest pleasure my Nature is capable of Can I refrain desiring at least consenting to be thus blessed Can I choose but long for such Change and to that purpose shall I not sit loose to any thing that shall hinder it Now if I duly attend to my own daily Experience my worldly Affairs Cares and Business do much hinder any present Relish of or Preparedness for these Joys They take me off even from minding them and if I suffer them still to possess my Thoughts and Affections they will hinder me in my very passage to them nay possibly obstruct it totally Let me then resolve to put both my Self and Affairs into such Order as that I may at any time be ready to quit them whensoever and howsoever my Lord shall Call Let my mind be so composed and my worldly Affairs so disposed as that if God please suddenly to Call me hence there may be nothing in my Affairs which may much require my longer attendance on them and I my self may be as willing to leave them as they are fit to be left which is the Fourth Duty in Order to a Happy Death and what we are at present to consider more narrowly Here indeed may seem to be Two distinct Duties put together under one Head The Reducing our Worldly Affairs into such Order and our Minds to such a frame as that we may be ready for a sudden removal But the main intention and effect aimed at being one and single namely the Soul's disintanglement or freedom for its flight and that not being to be obtained but by these two joynt means and they too so interfering as we shall see there was reason thus to joyn or unite them For supposing a Mans Worldly Affairs in confusion and disordered it will be very hard for him even upon the most evident and unavoidable approach of death so to quiet himself as to be willing to go instantly out of this World and leave them so Again suppose a Mans Affairs never so well modelled and settled but yet his heart running out after the World and fixing upon it it will be impossible for him with ease to quit or bid adieu to what he desires so much and so passionately delights in or dotes upon These two therefore in practice cannot and must not be separated nor is there any disentanglement except both be effected But suppose such care and practice as to both as here directed there will ensue a certain disentanglement from this World in the Soul which so practises § 3. Now for proper directions to this purpose the following particulars may be effectual 1. Set bounds to thy own desires and even to thy designs of getting Consider with thy self what may suffice thee and thine and resolve to acquiesce therein not concerning thy self to be farther rich And for adjusting and determining what may be sufficient Consult not so much with the Cravings of unreasonable Appetite or with Opinion I might say Pride and Ambition as with the Necessities and Conveniences of Nature and of thy Degree Station or Condition Plain and Common People ought not to think of living equal to the Gentry Gentlemen not of living like Nobles and proportionably is it to be resolved touching Men of other Orders and Degrees Now such measures being taken and according to them Men propounding to themselves no more than what may comfortably carry them in such or such a rank through the World leaving to theirs what may also with Vertue and Industry as beforesaid support them like their Relatives we shall find the generality of Men might most reasonably take up within much narrower bounds than usually they do and so make their Lives much happier their Hopes of future blessedness much more assured and their Death 's much more Comfortable than are the Lives Hopes and Deaths of most Common Christians For such People can neither live happily nor die comfortably who still spend their whole time in getting or in aiming at more There must be time to use to enjoy and then to dispose of as well as to get if we will have comfort either in Life or Death And such times those can never have who never think they have enough but are still crying and designing More More and plodding for it How soon might that Man be rich who would satisfie himself with the Necessities or even decent Conveniencies of Nature And these certainly most People ought to satisfie themselves with But what Man can ever be rich who accustoms himself to esteem nothing to himself a superfluity and so nothing enough Alas how little is it that Nature requires and what a little more with Frugality and Prudence would supply or administer decent conveniencies It is Si ad Naturam vives nunquam eris pauper Si ad Opinionem nunquam eris dives Exiguum Natura desiderat Opinio immensum Epicurus Vt Seneca Epist 6. still I say only Opinion that suffers not Men of Ordinary Estates to be rich for Opinion indeed never will be satisfied Those therefore who will not set due bounds to their desires with respect to the requisits of Nature and the Condition of themselves and theirs must in the greatest plenty still be poor unsatisfied unquiet in perpetual turmoil and in most uneasie concernment and consequently most unfit for Death Indeed such Persons cannot be conceived in the greatest abundance to have either Mind or Estate settled This therefore must be resolv'd on in the first place Now to be short such competency either thou hast or thou hast not If thou hast thy business is as soon as may be so to settle all as will presently be directed If thou hast not consider what way of living thou art in Is it such as therein thou hast a reasonable prospect before thee that by industrious proceeding in thy Calling or way of Life thou shalt get what thou judgest may be a Competency Or else art thou a Person of an unsettled rambling Mind and Life fixt in no Calling living at large or what is the same in effect living befides or beyond
of Heaven except he die to his power a just man In plain English then 1. The first business here thou hast to do is To make a true and plain Inventory of thy Estate Debts and Credits This however it may be too tedious to be done by thy self in secret yet it must be here resolved upon ordered to be done and a general contrivance of it laid At least when done it will be expedient in secret between God and thy self to View Examine and Consider it 2. Next being thou art upon Preparation for Death which strips thee of all thou must set thy self in good earnest to think of parting with all and bidding adieu at least in heart and affection at the very present to this world To make thee serious in such thought Possess thy self by way of Meditation of the following Points briefly 1. It is appointed for all men once to die and this fate most certainly and unavoidably attends thee in particular Thou must die But thou knowest not that is men in health and common Circumstances generally know not How by what mean in what condition c. nor when nor where whether by a disease or by accident as we speak Whether in thy senses and with use of speech c. or not Whether to morrow or the next Day or next Week or Month or even this night may thy soul be required of thee Whether at home in thy bed or in the field c. 2. Death deprives thee of the enjoyment of all things and persons here No possible fruit to thee of any the least part of what thou hast after death 3. Is it not then much better and more becoming a reasonable being much more a wise discreet person as we would be thought to be to part with all considerately gravely willingly and in good order than by constraint in a hurry to be snatcht away with both Mind and Estate all in confusion 4. Thou art no whit the nearer Death when a wise creditable Religious disposal of all is made than before Only thou art readier for it let it come how and when God pleases A brief Meditation upon these reasonable Heads methinks should dispose a man to the practice of all the Directions delivered in the Body of the Chapter 3. As to point of Prayer the matter hereof will be to several persons different according to their different condition as to this world Yet I think men of all conditions rich and poor may agree in the following Particulars as too commonly pertinent and seasonable enough unto all sorts 1. By way of Confession setting forth and bewailing their adhesion to this world 2. By way of Petition beging of God a disentangled heart a mind content with such things as we have Heavenly affections true Christian contempt of this world c. But as to the differences of mens concerns in this Point By the result of the first Point of Enquiry above mentioned Particular persons will find themselves in different Conditions namely either Rich or Poor or in a midling condition And it is to be remembred here what has been above suggested we must estimate our selves Rich or Poor with Relation to our Degree or Rank An ordinary person that is worth five hundred Pound is truly richer than a Person of Quality or a Nobleman that dies worth five thousand perhaps fifty thousand Now in case upon such Enquiry or Examination as above we find our selves rich or considering our Quality not Poor but in good midling condition Here will be 1 Matter of further Enquiry or Examination whether this Estate was gotten by our own Industry or left us If the former have we got it justly in a fair industrious way of following our Vocation Or have we not opprest some particular Persons or Families to inrich our selves In such case 2 Here is Confession necessary in the first place at least to God Then pursuant to the second Direction in the Body of the Chapter must follow 3 A Resolution of being just and this cannot be in the present case without restitution to the injured person according to Direction the third In which behalf it will be necessary 4 To take Advice so that here there must be something of Confession to Man at least to a Friend or Spiritual Guide Which being done or for the present honestly resolved upon 5 Prayer and Supplication to God for pardon must succeed The sin and its aggravations are to be considered how long lived in Against what light what checks of Conscience And accordingly our Prayers must be more earnest and so in due method peace is to be made with God On the other side if the Body of the Estate we have were left us yet here again will be 1 Matter of Enquiry and Self-examination What Stewards we have been Have we encreased our Patrimony or been Prodigal Have we been the better for being so early provided for Have we more improved our Souls in Knowledge and in Vertue by means of the liberal fortunes left us by our Ancestors or of our liberal Education consequent to that and of leisure consequent to all Have we done good to our Poor Neighbours Relations c. And in case we have increased our Paternal Estate by what means did we so encrease it By just or unjust practices According to all those and possibly more differences which enquiry will suggest 2 Suitable Confessions and Supplications are to be addrest to God But admit all be found to be just or indeed whether it be or no it will still concern all rich persons in Prayer 1 To beg of God pardon for all unknown sins in way of inriching themselves or but of keeping and maintaining what they have for unknown sins all men have 2 To give Praise and Thansgiving to that Bountiful God whose blessing alone maketh rich and who has not taken vengeance on them to blast their Estates 3 To implore of God both Wisdom and Will to dispose of all so as may turn to his Glory and their own future accounts Again in the other case suppose we find our selves poor or which is little better incumbred Here will be fit matter of Self-Examination whether our Poverty and Incumbrances be our fault through some improvidence of our own or only our misery and inselicity If the former such sin or sins of ours which have occasioned our Poverty or Incumbrances are to be repented of according to the Directions given for repenting of other sins If the latter we are to consider No misery befalls man by chance Afflictions come not out of the dust but Lam. 3. 33. from the hand of God Nor does God afflict willingly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mero motu 〈◊〉 arbitrarily grieve the children of men There is certainly in thee some reason of this thy Poverty Search what it is Humble thy self for what thou conjecturest it to be and quietly submit thy self to his Wisdom and Will acknowledging thy self to hae deserved worse than thou