Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	body_n	earth_n	life_n	8,616	5	4.6117	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86437	Contemplations moral and divine The second part.; Contemplations moral and divine. Part 2	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.	1676 (1676)	Wing H232; ESTC R229708	200,739	481

the more concernment The End which most concerns us to enquire after is the end of our Being why or for what end we were made for as that is the thing of the greatest moment to us so the ignorance or mistake therein is of the greatest danger Now touching this End of Man we must know 1. That in all wise workers that act by deliberation and choice the appointment of the end of any work belongs to him that makes it 2. In as much therefore as Mankind is in its Original the workmanship of God therefore it belongs to him to appoint the end of his own workmanship and of him it must be inquired 3. That in as much as God is the wisest worker and in as much as Mankind is a piece of excellent workmanship it becomes the Wisdom of God as to appoint man to an end of his own designing so to appoint him to an end answerable to the excellency of the work an end as much above other creatures as man exceeds them in worth and excellency So that certainly Man is ordained by God to an End and to an excellent End beyond the condition of other inferior Creatures for we see them all appointed for the use and service of Man to feed and cloath and heal and delight him What therefore is common to the Beasts as well as Man cannot be the End of Man The Beasts Eat and Drink and Live and Propagate their kind with as much delight and much more contentment than Man they are free from Cares and from Fears which Man is not and though they die so doth Man also therefore to live and eat and drink and perpetuate their kind is too low an End for Man And if so then much more is it below him to make Wealth and Honor and Power his End For they are but in order to his temporal life here either to provide for it or to secure it And besides that they cannot answer the desires and continuance of an Immortal Soul which Man bears with him And hence grows the Weariness and Vexation and Unquietness and Restlesness of Man in the midst of all Wealth and Honors and Pleasures therefore there is some other End to which Man was appointed Which is 1. In reference to God to glorifie him 2. In reference to Man an everlasting injoyment of God 1. To glorifie God two things are considerable 1. What it is for Man to glorifie God 1. There is a Glorifying of God common to all the Works of God in as much as they all bear in them the visible footsteps of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God Thus the Sun and Heavens glorifie God Psa 19.2 There is a glorifying of God properly belonging to Intellectual Creatures Angels and Men. 1. In his Understanding whereby he learns to know God in his Word and in his Works his Power Goodness Wisdom and Truth and with his heart admires and with his tongue praiseth him 2. In his Will whereby he submits to him Worships Fears him and in the course of his life Obeys him whereby he acknowledgeth his Soveraignty and submits to it Psal 50.23 He that offereth Praise glorifieth him and to him that orders his conversation aright will I shew the Salvation of God Both these are imperfectly done here but shall be perfectly done in the life to come 2. Why the Glorifying of God is made the Chief End of Man 1. It is the Chief End that God proposed in all his Works of Creation Prov. 16.4 He made all things for himself that is his own Glory In his Works of Preservation and Providence Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me In his Work of Redemption Ephes 1.6 To the praise of the glory of his Grace whereby he hath made us accepted in the beloved In his Work of Sanctification Matth. 5.16 That Men seeing your good Works may glorifie your Father who is in Heaven 2. It is but just it should be the Chief End of Man to glorifie God because it is a most Reasonable Tribute to pay to him for all his Mercies and Goodness From him we receive our Being and all the Blessings of it and it is but just for God to require and for Man to perform the due acknowledgment of the Goodness of that God from whom he receives them which is his Glorifying of God 2. To injoy God for ever 1. Two things are to be explained 1. What it is to injoy God 2. Why this is part of the Chief End of Man 1. To injoy God is either 1. In this Life which is to have Peace with God Assurance of Reconciliation with him for then we have Peace with our selves Contentment and Quietness of Soul Access to him as to our Father for all we want and Hope and Assurance of Everlasting Life which will make the Comforts of our Life safe and the Afflictions thereof easie and the End and Dissolution thereof Comfortable 2. In the life to come the fulness of fruition of the Knowledge Goodness Glory and Presence of God according to the uttermost measure and capacity of our faculties which in the Resurrection shall be great and capacious and this is called the Beatifical Vision 2. Why this is part of the Chief End of Man Because this is the Happiness and Blessedness of Man to injoy God and nothing besides can make him Happy which appears 1. in all other injoyments without the injoyment of God there is a great deal of Vanity and emptiness whether in Pleasures or Profits or worldly Advantages Men expect great matters from them but after a little injoyment of them they are weary and find themselves disappointed and that there is not that comfort in them that they expected and then they travel to some other worldly injoyment and there they find the like This therefore cannot afford Man his Happiness 2. In all other injoyments without God there is a great deal of Vexation and Trouble The Cares and Fears and Sorrows and Disappointments that we meet with in the injoyment of them doth out weigh all the Contentment and Benefit that we receive in them and therefore this cannot be our Happiness 3. All other injoyments without God have their End and Term Sometimes we over live them the Pleasures and Contentments of youth leave us when we are old And sometimes we see our Riches our Health our Earthly Comforts taken from us but if not yet when we die we leave them and yet our Souls continue after death and our Bodies and Souls continue after our Resurrection for ever The injoyments therefore of this Life cannot be our Happiness but that Happiness which continues as long as we continue which is the injoyment of the Favor Love and Presence of God for ever Now put both together The Glorifying of God and the injoyment of him for ever is the Happiness and Blessedness of Man the Chief End for which he was made Such is the

this Uncourteous dealing with our Lusts and Temptations will much countervail the unpleasingness of the Duty A man is tempted to a Sin he holds conference with it and is inticed to treat with it and to think of it and it pleaseth him but it is a Thousand to one if it stay there but unless some great diversion by the Grace of God or some External restraint by Shame or Punishment prevent him he commits the Sin and so Lust when it hath Conceived will bring forth Sin and Sin when finished will bring forth Shame and Death or at the best Shame and Sorrow How will a Man reckon with himself What am I the better for that Contentment that I took in this Sin the Contentment is past and that which it hath left me is nothing else but a mis-giving Conscience a sense of a displeased God ashamed to bring my mind in his presence a pre-apprehension of some mischief or inconvenience to follow me a despondency of mind to draw near to God under it and either a great deal of Sorrow and Vexation or Affliction under it or which is the usual gratification of Satan after Sin committed to put away the remembrance of a Sin past with the committing of another till at last the Guilt grows to such a moles that a Man is desperately given over to all kind of Villany and as his Sins increase his Guilt and Shame increaseth On the other side I have denyed my Lust or my Temptation and it is gone First I am as well without it as if I had committed it for it may be the Sin had been past and the contentment that I took in it and I had been as well without it but besides all this I have no Guilt cleaving to my Soul no sting in my Conscience no dispondent nor mis-giving Mind no Interruption of my Peace with God or my self I enjoy my Innocence my Peace my Access to God with Comfort nay more than all this I have a secret Attestation of the Spirit of God in my Conscience that I have obeyed him and have pleased him and have rejected the Enemy of his Glory and my Happiness I have a secret advance of my Interest and Confidence in him and Dependance upon him and Favour with him and Liberty and Access to him which doth Infinitely more than counter vail the satisfaction of an impure and unprofitable and vexing Lust which leaves no footsteps behind it but shame and Sorrow and Guilt 15. As Resolution and Severity to a mans self is one of the best remedies against the flatttery and deceit of Lust so there are certain Expedients that are subservient to that Resolution as namely First Avoiding of Idleness for the Soul in the Body is like a flame that as it were feeds upon that oily substance of the Body which according to the various qualifications or temper of the Body gives it a tincture somewhat like it self and unless the Soul be kept in action it will dwell too much upon that tincture that it receives from it and be too intent and pleased or at least too much tainted and transported and delighted with those fuliginous foul Vapors that arise from the Flesh and natural Constitution Keep it therefore busied about somewhat that is fitter for it that may divert that Intention and Complacency in those fumes that the inferiour part of the Soul is apt to take in them and so be tempted transported or abused by them Secondly A frequent and constant Consideration of the Presence of God and his Holy Angels Luke 15.7 10. 1 Cor. 4.9 who are Spectators of thy Constancy to God and his party and delighted in it or of thy Apostasie Bruitishness and Baseness of mind and grieved at it If a good Man were but acquainted with all my Actions and Motions of my mind upon the Advance of Lusts and Temptations it would make me ashamed to offend in his sight but much more if a pure and glorious Angel did in my view attend observe and behold me but when the Eternal God doth behold me who hath given me this Command to deny my Lusts and hath told me the danger of yielding to them that they bring forth Sin and Death and Hell offers his Grace to assist me promiseth Reward to my Obedience and Constancy how shall I then dare to offend with so much presumption Thirdly A frequent Consideration of Christ's Satisfaction Sufferings and Intercession These Lusts that now solicit me to their observance were those that Crucified my Saviour it was the end of his Passion to Redeem me not only from the Guilt but from the subjection to them It is he that beholds me how shall I trample his Blood under foot If I prostitute my self to them how shall I despise and as much as in me lies disappoint him in the very end of his Incarnation How shall I shame his Gospel before men and as much as in me lies put him to shame in the presence of the Father and all the Holy Angels when they shall be witnesses of my preferring a base Lust before him How can I expect the Intercession of my Saviour for me at the right hand of God who beholds me thus unworthily to serve a Lust though to my Damnation rather than obey my Redeemer to my Salvation 4. Frequent Consideration of Death and Judgment A base Lust solicites me to obey it Shall I accept or deny it It may be this may be the last action of my Life and possibly Death that might have been respited if I shall deny my Lust may be my next event if I obey it and as Death finds me so will Judgment find me Would I be content that such an act as this should be the Amen of my Life and it may be seal me up to eternal rejection Would I be content that my Soul should be presently carried into the presence of God under the last act of my Life to his dishonor Or on the other side if I deny this base importunate Messenger of Hell and it should please God to strike me presently after with Sickness or Death would it not be a more comfortable entrance into that black Valley with a clear Conscience and an Innocent Heart that could with Comfort say as once Hezekiah did upon the like occasion Isai 38.3 Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Fifthly A due Consideration of the Issue of those solicitations of Lust if assented unto the end of it is Death it will be bitterness in the end it cannot with all its pleasures countervail that bitterness that will most certainly attend it nor can it give any security against it Suppose thou art solicited to a thought or act of Injustice Impurity or Intemperance if thou wilt needs be talking with the Temptation ask it whether it be not a Sin against that God in whose hands thy Soul is and if it be whether his Anger and

that hath learned the Nature of the Soul and thinks that by death it shall attain a better or at least not a worse condition hath a great freedom from fear of Death and no small viaticum to attain Tranquillity of mind in his life And many such instances are given by the Stoicks especially Seneca and by Tully But when the latter came to an exquisite apprehension of his danger from Anthony his Philosophical Notions and Contemplations were too weak to bear up his mind against those fears and therefore in his Sixteenth Epistle Lib. 10. to Atticus he writes to him to this effect If thou hast any thing to comfort me gather it up and write it not out of Learning or Books for I have these here with me Sed nescio quomodo imbecillior est medicina quam morbus But I know not how it comes to pass the Physick is too weak for the Disease And Job though a Wise and Experienced Man and bore up pretty well in his Afflictions yet his friend Eliphaz tells him and that truly Job 4.3 5. Behold thou hast instructed many and thou hast strengthned the weak hands but now it is come upon thee thou faintest c. Men may have excellent Theories to support in Affliction and can apply them to others in that condition with singular dexterity and advantage yet when the case comes to be their own their Spirits sink under them because these Theories many times flote in the Understanding but are not digested deeply and practically in the Heart Secondly What ever you do gain this Habit and Temper of Mind Actuate and Exercise your Faith make even your Reckonings get your Peace and Assurance setled before Sickness comes For a Man in any kind of suffering besides possibly may learn them because his mind is or may be in his intire strength but most certainly Sickness is an ill time to begin to learn these Contemplations unless they are learned before the Distempers of the Body discompose the Mind and make it unfit to begin to learn It is a time when that which hath been before fitted and laid up in store in the Soul must be drawn out and exercised but it will be a most difficult business then to begin that Lesson which should be learned in Health though practised in Sickness II. Thus much for our Preparation to meet Afflictions Now concerning our carriage under them First In the beginning and first Onset of any Affliction be very careful to keep the Mind in a due temper Call in all your Aids of Reason Religion and Duty to keep you in a right frame and temper of Moderation for Affliction of any kind when it hath lain a while upon a Man will probably bring him into order but at the first Onset the Passions begin to flie out and play reaks and disorder the Soul and fill it with Perturbation Then immoderate Anger or Murmuring or immoderate Sorrow or Fear flie out and Men thereby become less able to bear for the future and many times flie out into that Immoderation and Distemper at first either in Thoughts or Words or Actions that they are sorry for after and so draw upon themselves a double trouble First to Repent of their folly and immoderation and then to fit themselves for sufferings it throws more grains of Sin into the Scale of Afflictions and makes it heavier and many times longer than otherwise it would be And after such Perturbation and Exorbitancy of Passion upon the first inroads of Affliction a Man hath much ado to bring himself into a right and due temper This was Jobs case in the beginning of his Affliction he flies out into more Impatience and Disorder than all the rest of the time therefore beware and see thou keep thy mind in temper and check Perturbation at the first Onset call together all thy Grace and Resolutions and Reason to keep thy mind in due temper at first Secondly On the first Onset of any Affliction Lift up thy heart to God desire his Assistance and Grace to inable thee to carry a due temper and frame of Heart This is not only thy Duty and expected from thee by God but it is a singular help to inable thee to avoid any present Distemper For first it is a means to supply thee with more strength from Heaven to order thy self aright 2. It brings thy Soul into the Presence of God before whom it were a shame to bring any Perturbation the Passions and Distempers of our Minds are under an aw in his Presence 3. It is a diversion of the present bustle and stir that Passions are apt to make and being diverted at first they do not so suddenly nor so easily fall into a disorder Commonly Passions are most disorderly and impetuous upon the first occasion And if they be then interrupted or diverted the succors even of common Reason much more of Grace have opportunity to rally themselves and prevent Immoderate Perturbation Thirdly Make as speedy an Inquisition as thou canst into thy own state and what the cause of this Affliction may be Let us search and try our ways is the voice of every Affliction and commonly every Affliction upon any person that lies under any Sin unrepented of and not forsaken soon leads the Conscience to point out that Sin and indeed most Afflictions in such a case carry upon them the very Inscription of the Sin and bear some Analogy or Proportion with it Adonibezeks Cruelty and Davids Adultery were as it were written in the Punishments they suffered and might easily bring them to their remembrance If thou sufferest in thy Estate consider whether either Immoderate Worldliness and Covetousness or Confidence and Glory in thy Wealth went not before If thou sufferest in thy Name consider whether thy Reputation hath not been thy Idol or whether thou hast not born thy self too high upon thy Reputation and so of other Crosses Fourthly If upon this inquiry thou findest Sin written upon thy Sufferings or in the bottom of them speedily Repent of that sin Humble thy self in the sight of God for it take up Resolution against it This is the voice the injunction that this Rod gives thee and here thy special duty is Humiliation Fifthly If upon search thou findest thy Heart and Conscience clear look upon this Affliction as a Dispensation sent from God and with all Humility submit to his hand and know that the most Wise God sends it for most wise ends though thou seest not any Enormity in thy self that might deserve it It may be it is to exercise thy Patience thy Faith thy Dependance upon him It may be he discerns that some Temptation is like to meet with thee or some Corruption is growing in thee that thou dost not perceive and he sends this Messenger to divert the one and to prevent the other study to improve this Affliction to that end and here thy special duty is Patience and Vigilance Sixthly But it may be upon this search

only Will is a sufficient rule of his Justice thou owest an infinite subjection to him from whom thou hast received thy Being His Soveraignty over his Creature is even by the very right of Nature Infinite and Boundless Be contented therefore to bear whatsoever he inflicts without the least disputing of the Justice or Injustice of it This was that Excellent Contemplation of old Eli under the most severe denuntiation of Gods judgment It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good And it was that great Lesson that Jobs Afflictions was sent to teach him though he could not learn it till God himself as well for our Instruction as His taught him out of the Whirlwind but then he learned it and abhorred himself in Dust and Ashes for his former Ignorance and Frowardness 8. Yet further bear it patiently for that God that sent thee this Messenger doth behold and observe how thou entertainest it wherein we may with all due Reverence suppose the Lord of Heaven thus resolving Yonder is such a Man that professeth to Know and Fear and Love me and I see him nevertheless fond of his Wealth or Honor or some other Blessing I will give leave to Evil Men or Evil Angels as once in the case of my Servant Job to spoil him of Wealth and to cast him into Disgrace and I will observe his carriage and deportment under it and though I know what it will be yet I will make it now conspicuous both to Himself and Men and Angels And if his Deportment be not answerable to his Profession if he storm against my Providence or use unworthy Means to free himself or grow Impatient and Disorderly under it I will make his folly conspicuous and send more and sharper Visitations unto him till this fire of Afflictions hath brought him to his due temper of Patience Humility Submission to my Will Dependance upon my Power Subjection to my Soveraignty But if on the other side I see him humble himself under my hand Submit to my will Justifie me in his Sufferings Patient under them and Waiting my time to be delivered from them I will exhibit him before Men and Angels as a Patern of Patience and I will make him as Signal in his Deliverance as he is Eminent in his Patience Suppose thou couldst hear such a Deliberation and see and behold such Spectators of thy Deportment how wouldst thou indeavor to compose thy self with all Patience and Contentedness and Quietness and Resignation of thy self under the most severe Affliction And how little wouldst thou dare in such a Presence to discover or so much as entertain any Murmuring or Impatient thought Assure thy self though thou canst not with a bodily eye behold this Great Lord of the World beholding thee while thou art in this Scene of Affliction yet he beholds and observes thee and the very motion of thy Soul and the Glorious Angels though they cannot look into the secret retirements of thy Thoughts yet they behold thy external Deportment and are grieved if it be unseemly and unsuitable to the Honor of their and thy Lord and are glad to behold a Deportment suitable to the Ends and Glory of their Lord And the Evil Angels which irritate and provoke thee to Impatience are pleased and gratified if they effect it and ashamed and vexed if they are disappointed in it Believe it in a signal and eminent degree of Prosperity or Adversity thou art like a Man upon a Stage a spectacle exposed to the view of God and Men and Angels and Devils let thy carriage therefore be such as if thou didst as visibly behold thy Spectators as they most certainly do see thee Tenthly As thus thou art to bear thy Affliction patiently so indeavor to use it profitably and besides these advices before mentioned add to them these insuing 1. Learn by them to have a just Estimate of the World Affliction pulls of those fine gay Cloaths from the World by which in Prosperity it deceives us and renders it as it is a Vain Empty Vexing World 2. From that sound and just Estimate of the World Discipline thy Affections to a moderate and loose application to it It is true Afflictions do ordinarily imbitter the World to us and so for the present our Affections may be dull towards it but this arising meerly from Sense without a sound practical established Judgment it ordinarily lasts no longer than the Afflictions last and as they wear away and worldly comforts begin to grow up and increase so our love to the World comes on and grows up again But when a Man by the advantage of Afflictions digests this principle into his Judgment commonly it abides and moderates the love of the World notwithstanding the return of the Comforts and Advantages of the World 3. Keep up thy heart in a dependance upon Gods Power and Alsufficiency to deliver thee from Affliction or to support thee under it and labor by Observation and Experience to rivet this Dependance into thy Judgment and Choice It is most certain that almost every Man as long as he can have any thing to lay hold of besides will make that his Dependance The Sick Man will depend upon his Physician the Impoverished Man upon his Friends and the like but when there is nothing else to rest upon then Men will to their Prayers with the Mariners in the Storm but this being but an Act of Necessity as it riseth upon Necessity so it vanisheth with it When the Necessity is over and other Dependances come to hand we are apt to throw off our Dependance upon God Labor therefore for an Experimental and Judicious Dependance upon God Sometimes in Afflictions we begin to attain it but the best way is to begin to entertain such a Dependance before we are driven to it and then the Necessity of our Afflictions will fasten and improve it that it will stick with us after 4. By thy Afflictions learn to value and improve thy Hope and Assurance of Everlasting Life And indeed thy Necessity now doth in a special manner drive thee to it and it is a great End of Gods sending Afflictions that it may drive us off from the clasping of this present World and thereby carry us over to the valuation of our Eternal Condition Thy Wealth is gone and thy Honor and Reputation is sunk and blasted and thy Friends have forsaken thee and thy Body is mouldering to dust and rottenness and thy Soul sits hovering upon thy Lips ready to take her flight and all thy hold of this present life is broken and gone so that thou hast nothing now to lodge and fasten thy Hopes upon but the Promises of Everlasting Life thy interest in Christ the Hope of Everlasting Life and now if ever these things will be welcome to thee God hath scattered and broken all other Confidences improve this Vnum Magnum this one thing necessary that alone doth stand by thee when all things else forsake thee and

did lead him And all these and a world of the like Expressions in the Book of God to unvail the love of God to his Creatures and thereby to draw out an aweful love to him and an humble boldness to make an approach unto him Heb. 4.16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace and to bless our Redeemer who by the price of his Blood hath purchased this free liberty of access unto God as our Father Ephes 3.12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence Who as he hath purchased access for us so when notwithstanding that we are fearful and backward and ashamed to come is pleased in the virtue of his own Mediation to stand between the Glory and Brightness of the Father and us poor Creatures and to shew us more of his Goodness and Mercy than of his Glory and to receive our desires and to bring both them and us into the presence of his Father and our Father 2. As this Expression leads us unto God and gives us access so it gives us assurance of success in our Petitions This Prayer as is said is a comprehensive Prayer we thereby in an Abridgement ask whatsoever is necessary for this life or that to come but the Name of a Father is a comprehensive Name the Petitions that thou art asking are large Petitions and the Promise is yet more large John 16.23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you Matth. 7.7 Ask and it shall be given you But here is the Foundation thy application is to thy Father Matth. 7.11 If ye being evil know how to give good things to your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him Whatsoever thou canst find or expect from thy Natural Father so much and much more may'st thou expect from thy Heavenly Father Patience to bear with thy infirmities and failings Psalm 78.18 Compassion to pity thy suffering Psal 103.13 Goodness to supply thy wants Justice to avenge thy injuries Psal 105.14 Protection to defend thee from dangers Vigilancy and care to support thee against Temptations Mercy to pardon thy back-slidings Jer. 3.14 Skill to interpret and Tenderness to accept thy weak and stammering Petitions Providence and Bounty abundantly to reward all thy sincere performances Luk. 12.32 Fear not little flock it is my Fathers good will to give you a Kingdome And this Consideration of God as our Father when we come before him in Prayer as it teacheth us our duty so it doth most naturally teach us the three first Petitions to desire the Glory of his Name the Increase of the manifestation of his Kingdom and Power the full submission unto and desire of the fulfilling of his Will And as that relation looks downward upon us so it concludes the three last Petitions From whom shouldest thou desire or expect Mercy to forgive thee Conveniencies to supply thee Care and Protection to preserve and deliver thee from Evil if not from a Father and as from this appellation of a Father we gather Confidence in his love so in the next qualification or description of this Father we gather Confidence in his Power Which art in Heaven or Heavenly Father Matt. 6.26 To denote 1. The eminence of his Glory and Power The Heavens are the most Eminent and Glorious Creatures that our Eyes behold and speak much of the Glory and Majesty of God Psal 19.1 and in this adjunct of Heavenly we give him the acknowledgement and attribution of the Greatness of his Power and Glory Psal 1.5 For our God is in the Heavens and he hath done whatsoever he pleaseth 2. Heaven the Throne of his Majesty Psal 11.4 Isa 66.1 The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Foot-stool Psal 68.4 Extol him that rideth upon the Heavens Deut. 33.26 who rideth upon the Heavens for thy help and in his excellency upon the sky 1 Kings 8.49 Heaven thy dwelling place Which though it be the Seat of his glory yet it is not the circumscription of his Presence 1 Kings 8.27 The Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee Psal 113.4 his Glory is above the Heavens Isa 57.15 The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity an incomprehensible infinitude Psal 139.8 If I ascend into Heaven thou art there and if I make my bed in Hell thou art there Isa 40.22 It is he that sitteth on the Circle of the Earth So that his Presence is in all places and though in respect of his Creatures the greatest manifestation of his Presence is above the Heaven yet his Infinite and Essential Glory is equally in all places Now from this attribution we learn 1. Our Duty in Prayer As a Christian should always have his Conversation in Heaven from whenee he expects his Saviour Phil. 3.20 so in a special manner when he comes to God in Prayer Hence Prayer is called a drawing near to God Heb. 10.22 lifting up the Heart unto God Know therefore thou do'st or at least shouldest in Prayer bring thy Heart up into Heaven before the Throne of the Infinite Majesty which imports or inforceth these Consequents 1. Let thy Spirit be mingled with thy Prayers for there is no other way to draw near to God but by bringing thy spirit into his presence He is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit thy Body is here upon the Earth and thy words vanish before they are gone far from thee Thou canst not get before the presence of the Lord of Heaven but with thy Spirit and Soul and unless thy Prayer be the drawing near of thy Spirit to him thy Prayer is a Provocation and not a Service unprofitable and useless for thee and unaccepted and not regarded by God it dyes and is rotten in the Earth and it cannot come up to thy Father which is in Heaven 2. Let thy Spirit be a pure Spirit and thy Prayers be pure Prayers for what hath any thing that is impure to do with Heaven a place of Purity and Holiness None but the pure in spirit can see God Matth. 5.8 and none but pure hands are fit to be lifted up to him 1 Tim. 2.8 Psal 24.4 And that thy Spirit may be pure and fit to come up into this High and Holy Place and to have Communion with the Holy and Glorious God get thy Spirit and Soul and Conscience washed by the Blood of Christ and thy Prayers mingled with the Incense of Christ Rev. 8.3 and labour to get an Inherent Holiness a pure and a sanctified Heart and from that will thy Words and thy Conversation and thy Services and thy Sacrifices all which are but the Emanations and Fruit of thy Heart be Holy and bear some though a weak proportion to that place and to that Person whither thou art sending thy Prayers And more especially and particularly labour to cleanse thy Heart when thou art about to pray because thy Prayers are a drawing near unto God

his Lusts And this variety may arise by the difference of stations or degrees that may be but Bread for Solomon's Table which may be Quails for a meaner person the difference of relations and dependencies the difference of tempers and constitutions of body the difference of seasons and occurrences There may be a Season when our Lord gives us a commission to eat whatsoever our Soul desireth so it be done before the Lord and as in his presence Deut. 14.26 And there is a Season when slaying of Oxen and killing Sheep and eating Flesh is an iniquity not to be purged Isa 22.12 13 14. The Wise God that ordereth and disposeth all times and persons and circumstances doth with the same Wisdom fit them with suitable Concomitants and Adjuncts He hath made every thing beautiful in its time Eccles 3.11 But besides this Bread for our Bodies there is Bread for our Souls which comes under this Petition The Bread of Life and the Water of Life John 6.33 this is the Life of our Souls And as much as the Good and Support and Life of our Souls is of more concernment to us than the Life of our Bodies so is the Bread of our Souls of more concernment for us to ask than the Bread of our Bodies this is Christ John 6.34 I am the Bread of Life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Bread like the Widows Barrel of Meal that shall never diminish unto all Eternity This Bread our Lord hath been pleased already to give us Christ and his fulness and nothing is wanting if we have but a hand to receive it And this Bread we eat when we believe the Truth of God concerning him when we often contemplate upon the Mercy of God in giving him and upon that mighty Salvation which in him he hath given us when we have often recourse unto him for Grace and Mercy when we carry unto him all our stock of Love and Admiration and Dependence and Recumbence and Resolution of Spirit And here we find Bread for our Souls in the most comprehensive latitude accommodate to every condition of the Soul Here is Bread to feed and to strengthen it the Grace and Spirit of Christ Physick to cure and recover it the Satisfaction and Merit of Christ Varieties to feast and to refresh it the Promises of God Joy in believing unspeakable and full of Glory Bread that will satisfie yet never satiate but the more we feed upon him the greater is our plenty and the better our stomach To conclude then the whole consideration of this Petition When I pray for my daily Bread my Soul doth or should run out into such thoughts as these O Lord thou did'st at first freely give me my Being I could not deserve it when I was not The same Title that I have to my Being I have to my Preservation and Support of my Being it is still free gift and therefore I come to thee for my Bread upon no other terms than as a poor Beggar to a most bountiful Lord. And because thou hast commanded me to cast my care upon thee therefore I seek my Bread of thee for this day which thou hast hitherto lent me I desire to trust thee with my Portion and it is my happiness that my Portion is not in my own hands but in thine Give therefore I pray thee Bread for this day and when to morrow comes I will beg Bread of thee for to morrow and if thou givest me this day supplies beyond the expence of this day I will use it thankfully and nevertheless dependingly for I will renew my Petition for my daily Bread still It is thy blessing that gives my Bread power to nourish me And that which is Bread to day and sufficient for to morrow may without thy blessing upon it like the Israelites Manna kept beyond thy Command be Worms to morrow And because thou hast promised that verily I shall be fed Psal 37.3 upon that promise of thine I beg food and cloathing convenient for me If thou givest me no more or not so much give me Contentedness and Thankfulness and if thou givest me more give me Thankfulness for it Sobriety in the use of it and Liberality in the dispencing of it In giving me but Enough I am Steward for my self and in giving me more than Enough I am but a Steward of that abundance for others But above all Ever give me of the Bread of Life that whilest my Body is fed my Soul may not be starved either for want of that Everlasting Bread or for want of an appetite to it And forgive us our Debts Matt. 6. Our Sins Luk. 11. Sins We are all under the guilt of sin No man lives and sins not Eccles 7.20 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves 1 John 1.8 God made Man Righteous at first and gave him a Righteous Law and in as much as Man owed an infinite subjection to the Authour of his Being he owed an Exact Obedience to the Law of his Maker yet God was pleased to give him this Law not only as the Rule of his Obedience but as a Covenant of Life and of Death viz. that so long as he and his Seed should observe that Law so long they should enjoy Blessedness and Immortality and if they should break any part of that Law they should die the death The first man made a stipulation for himself and his Posterity and this was but just for he had in himself the Race of all Mankind all succeeding Generations are but pieces of Adam who had not nor could have their Being but from him and so it was but Reasonable and Just for him to contract for all his Posterity And as it was just in respect of the Person contracting so it was just in respect of the Manner of the Contract the Law that was his covenant was a just and righteous Law a Law sutable to the indowments and power of his Nature Again the Blessedness which by his obedience he was to hold was not of his own creating nor obtaining it was the free gift of God and it is but reasonable that the Lord of this gift might give it in what manner he pleased and it could not be unjust that the Lord that gave him this Blessedness should give it him under what Conditions he pleased but he gave it him under most reasonable and just Conditions viz. an Obedience to a most just and reasonable Law which suited with the ability and perfection of his Nature and therefore when upon the breach of Covenant by Man he withdrew that blessedness from him and his posterity he did no more than what was most just for him to do And thus we stand Guilty of that Sin which our first Father committed and are deprived of that Blessedness and Life which our first Father had and the Privation of that Blessedness and Immortality is Death Rom. 5.12 By one Man sin

Almighty God in the entrance into our Prayers And because our thoughts are easily taken off from these considerations and like Moses Arm our Faith soon declines and our light soon burns out and because there is an equal necessity of Intention of spirit as well in our last request as in our first our Saviour teacheth us to remind those considerations that may support and fortifie our Souls in the close of our Prayers as well as in the beginning that so the consideration of Almighty God his Power and Goodness who is the Beginning and the End the First and the Last may be also the Beginning and the End as of our Prayers so of all our Services Thine is the Kingdom Thou art the only and absolute and rightful Soveraign of all thy Creatures and to thee do all the Creatures in the World owe an Infinite subjection for by thy Power and Goodness they were created and are preserved and yet if it were possible that Infinitude could admit of degrees the children of Men owe a more Infinite subjection unto thee than any of the rest of thy Creatures for thou yet sparest unto them that being that by sin they have forfeited unto thee and yet more than this those whom thou hast redeemed by the Passion of thy Son and sanctified owe thee yet a more Infinite debt of subjection than the rest of the Children of Men and because thou art our King whither should we go to make our requests but unto our King in whom all Authority is justly placed and if thou art our King it is but reasonable for me to desire That thy Name may be glorified that all the subjects of thy Kingdom according to their several conditions may Magnifie and Glorifie the Name of their King That thy Kingdom may come with evidence and demonstration of it self and that all thy Creatures as they owe a just subjection to thee so they may duly perform it that those that have rebelled against thee may return and be brought into subjection to thee that though other Lords have had an usurped dominion over us yet that thy Kingdom may break in pieces all Usurpations and recover thy revolted subjects unto their just Allegiance That thy Will the only rightful Law and Rule of Justice may be done in all places of thy Dominion in Earth and Heaven and that all thy Creatures may submit freely to this thy Will which is the only rule and measure both of their perfection and obedience The Wills of Earthly Kings are subject to Error Oppression and Injustice and therefore thy Providence hath regulated their administrations by Laws and Rules but thy Will is the only Rule Exemplar and Foundation of Justice therefore let thy Will be done That thou wouldest give us our daily bread when the seven years of plenty had filled Pharaoh's store-houses and were after entertained with seven years of Famine the Egyptian's cryed unto their King for bread Gen. 41.55 And whither should we go for Bread for our Bodies but to our King who is Lord of all the store of the World and gives meat to all his Creatures in their season and feeds the young Ravens when they cry And whither should we go for bread for our Souls but to Thee our King who hast intrusted this Bread of Life under the hands of our Joseph our Saviour that thou wouldest Forgive us our sins For our sins are as so many Treasons against thy Majesty and thou alone canst remit against whom alone we can offend the pardoning of Sins as it is thy peculiar Prerogative for who can forgive sins save God only so it is thy Property a part of thy Name pardoning iniquity transgression and sin Exod. 34.7 That thou wouldest deliver us from Temptation the cause of sin and from Evil the fruit of sin from the incursions of that Rebel against thy Majesty the Prince of Darkness for whither should the Subjects fly for Protection but to their King and though that Prince hath a Kingdom too yet it is regnum sub graviore regno the very Kingdom of Hell is subject to thy Authority and therefore as thou art our King we beseech Thee Protect and Deliver us And the Power There may be a lawful and a just Authority where yet there wants Power to act it but as thou hast a just Sovereignty and Authority over all thy Creatures so thou hast an Infinite Power to do whatsoever thou pleasest nothing is too hard for thee Evil Men and evil Angels though they resist thy Authority cannot avoid thy Power My requests that I have here sent up unto thee they are great requests but yet they are all within thy Power to grant Sin hath drawn a cloud and darkness over our understandings that we cannot see thee It hath infused a malignity into our wills that we cannot abide thee and how then shall we sanctifie that Name which we know not or if we know yet we hate it But thou hast Infinite Power to scatter this darkness that we may see thee to conquer this perversness that we may love and glorifie thee The Prince of darkness hath set up his usurped power and is become the Prince of the World and sets up strong holds in our hearts and mans them with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness but thou hast Infinite Power even by a poor despised Gospel to pull down these strong-holds to subdue those Principalities and Powers to bind the strong man that keeps the House and to set up thy Throne and thy Kingdom even where Satan's seat is The state of our nature is so changed that we that were once fitted for an obedience to thy Will are now become enemies to it resisters of it dead to the obedience of it but thou hast infinite Power by thy very Word of Command to quicken us as well as to create us to change our Natures to conform our Wills to the obedience of thine that so thy Will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Sin hath put a curse into the Creature that it hath lost much of that effectual power to support and to preserve our Nature that once it had and it hath put a disorder into the whole Creation so that it is a wonder to see that such a World of men and Creatures amongst whom sin hath sown such a disorder and enmity should be one able to live by another yet thou hast power to remove that curse to provide for the several Exigencies of all thy Creatures according to their several conveniencies to feed us in times and places of necessity to make a Raven our purveyor a Cruise of Oyl or a Barrel of Meal to be a supply for three years Famine Our daily sins committed so often against so great a duty against so many Mercies so much Patience so much Love so much Bounty received from one that owes us nothing are enough to sin away any stock of Pardoning Mercy and Patience below Infinitude But thou hast

are attaining we cannot secure to be of any long or certain continuance and vanisheth or proves utterly unuseful when we die Of what use will then the knowledg of Municipal Laws of History of Natural Philosophy of Politicks of Mathematicks be in the next World although our Souls Survive us As to the 2. Namely Moral Virtues It is true Aristotle 1. Ethicor. Cap. 7. Tells us that Happiness or Blessedness is the Exercise or Operation of the Reasonable Soul according to the best and most perfect Virtue in vita perfecta in a perfect Life But he tells us not what that vita perfecta is nor where to be found and yet without it there is no Happiness But even this exercise of Virtue though much more noble than the bare habit of Virtue which is but in order to Action or Exercise if considered singly and apart and abstractively from the reward of it is not enough to constitute a Happiness suitable to the Humane Nature 1. The Actions of Virtue for the most part respect the good and benefit of others more than of the party that exerciseth them as Justice Righteousness Charity Liberality Fortitude and principally if not only Religion Temperance Patience and Contentation are those Virtues that advantage the party himself the rest most respect the good of others 2. We find it too often true that most good men have the least share of the comforts and conveniencies of this Life but are exposed many times even upon the account of their very Virtues to Poverty Want Reproach Neglect so that their very Virtues are occasions oftentimes of such Calamities which must needs abate the perfection of Life which is a necessary ingredient into Happiness 3. But if their life be not rendred grievous upon the account of their Virtues yet they are not thereby priviledged from many Calamities which render their lives unhappy and oftentimes renders them uncapable of the exercise of those Virtues which must make up their Happiness Poverty disables them from acts of Liberality Neglect and Scorn by great Men and Governors renders them uncapable of acts of distributive Justice Sickness and tormenting bodily Diseases many times attack them and render their lives miserable and many times disables even their very intellectuals and to these disasters they are at least equally lyable with others and if all these Calamities were absent yet there are two states of life which they must necessarily go through if they live that in a great measure renders them necessarily uncapable of these actions of Virtue namely the Passions and Perturbations of Youth and the decays and infirmities of Old Age. 4. The highest Good attainable by the exercise of Virtue in the party himself is Tranquillity of Mind and indeed it is a noble and excellent portion but as the case stands with us in this life without a farther prospect to a life to come even such a Tranquillity of mind is not perfectly attainable by us and hath certain appendances to it that abate that sincereness of Happiness that is requirable in it to compleat the Happiness of the Humane Nature and these are principally these two 1. The necessity that we are under considering the weakness of our nature by our daily failings Errors and Sins to turn aside from the perfect rule of Virtue whereby we are under a kind of moral necessity of violating or abating that Tranquillity of mind so that it seems in it self morally impossible either fully to attain or constantly and uniformly to hold that Tranquillity of mind 2. Still Mortality Mortality Death and the Grave terminates this Felicity if it only respect this life and the fear and pre-apprehension of such a termination sowers and allays even that Felicity which Tranquillity of mind otherwise offers This fear and anticipation of death as the Apostle says Heb. 2. detains men Captive all the days of their life and in a great measure breaks that Tranquillity of mind which is the constituent of this Happiness Again though Virtue and Virtuous actions have had their Elogia by excellent Philosophers Orators Poets and we are told by them that Si Virtus oculis cerneretur it would appear the most beautiful thing in the World yet it hath had but few followers in respect of the rest of the World and possibly would find a much colder entertainment if the recompence of Reward were not also propounded with it and believed Therefore there is and must be somewhat else besides bare Platonick Notions of Virtue and naked proposals of it that must give it a conquest over the satisfaction of our Lusts and Pleasures especially in the time of our Youth and Strength and before old age overtake us And hence it is that in all ages wise Rulers and Governors have annexed sensible Rewards and Honours and such things as have a lively and quick relish with them unto the exercise of Virtue And hence it is that the most wise God himself hath not propounded Virtue and Goodness to the children of men singly as its own and only Reward but hath also promised and really and effectually provided a Recompence of Reward for it that Happiness which I have been all this while in quest after and hath made Virtue and Goodness the way the method to attain that happiness which is in truth the end of it Upon the whole matter I therefore conclude that the Happiness of Mankind is not to be found in this life but it is a flower that grows in the Garden of Eternity and to be expected only in its full complement and fruition in that life which is to succeed after our bodily dissolution that although Peace of Conscience Tranquillity of mind and the sense of the favour of God that we enjoy in this Life like the bunches of Grapes brought by the Spies from Canaan are the prelibations and anticipations of our Happiness yet the complement of our Happiness consists in the Beatifical Vision of the ever blessed God to all Eternity where there is a vita perfecta a perfect life free from Pain from Sorrow from Cares from Fears vita perfecta a perfect life of Glory and Immortality out of the reach or danger of Death or the loss of that Happiness which we shall then enjoy in the presence of the ever Glorious God in whose presence is fulness of Joy and at whose right hand are Pleasures for evermore Amen OF THE Chief End of Man what it is AND The Means to attain it Thesis I. The Chief End of Man is to Glorifie God and everlastingly to enjoy him WHen we come to any reasonable measure of understanding the first question we propound concerning the actions of our selves or others is to enquire concerning the End why this or that is done and the propounding of an End to what we do is one thing that gives us Reasonable Creatures a priviledg above the Beasts And the wiser we grow the more we enquire after and propound to our selves more excellent Ends and of

mind 1. The former part of this Duty is to Know our Creator This is that which aged David commended to his young Son Solomon 1 Chron. 28.9 And thou Solomon my Son Know thou the God of thy Father And we have Two excellent Books wherein the Knowledge of God is discovered to us the Book of his Works the Works of his Creation and Providence and the Book of his Word contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament wherein he is more fully and explicitly and plainly discovered unto us These Books we are often to read and consider And this is the chief reason why Understanding and Reason is given unto Mankind and not unto the Beasts that perish namely that we might improve it to the attaining of the Knowledge of Almighty God in the due consideration of the Works and Word of God and hereby we learn his Eternity his Infiniteness his Wisdom his Power his Goodness his Justice his Mercy his Alsufficiency his Soveraignty his Providence his Will his Purpose concerning Mankind his Care of them his Beneficence towards them And the Nature of this Knowledge is not barely Speculative but it is a knowledge that is Operative that perfects our Nature that conforms it to the Image of that God we thus know that sets Mankind in its due state and station keeps it in its just subordination unto the God we thus know which is our greatest Perfection This Knowledge must necessarily make us love him because he is Good Merciful Bountiful Beneficent and therefore the Wise man chuseth to express him by that Title of Creator from whom we receive our very Being and all the good that can accompany it This Knowledge teacheth us to be thankful unto him as our Greatest Benefactor to depend upon him because of his Power and Goodness to fear him because of his Power and Justice to obey him because of his Power Justice and Soveraignty to walk before him in Sincerity because of his Power Justice and Wisdom In sum the several Attributes of Almighty God do strike upon the choicest parts and faculties and affections and tendencies of our Hearts and Souls and do tune them into that order and harmony that is best suitable to the perfecting of our Nature and the placing of them in a right and just posture both in relation to Almighty God our selves and others 2. The second part of our Duty is To Remember our Creator thus known which is to have the Sense and Exercise of this Knowledge always about us to set Almighty God always before our eyes frequently to think of him to make our application to him For many there are that may have a knowledge of God but yet the exercise of that knowledge is suspended sometimes by Inadvertence and Inconsiderateness sometimes by a wilful Abdication of the exercise of that Knowledge And these are such as forget God that have not God in all their thoughts that say to the Almighty Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways The Benefits of this Remembring our Creator are very great 1. It keeps the Soul and Life in a constant and true and regular frame As the want of the Knowledge so the want of the Remembrance of God is the cause of that disorder and irregularity of our minds and lives 2. And consequently the best Preventive of Sin and Apostacy and Backsliding from God and our Duty to him 3. It keeps the Mind and Soul full of constant Peace and Tranquillity because it maintains a constant humble and comfortable converse of the Soul with the Presence and Favor of God 4. It renders all conditions of life comfortable and full of contentment because it keeps the Soul in the presence of God and communicates unto it continual Influxes of Contentment and Comfort for what can disturb him who by the continual Remembrance of his Creator hath the constant acquaintance with his Power Goodness and Alsufficiency 5. Though no Man hath ground enough to promise to himself an Immunity from Temporal Calamities yet certainly there is no better expedient in the World to secure a Man against them and preserve him from them than this For the most part of those sharp Afflictions that befal Men are but to make them Remember their Creator when they have forgotten him that he may open their ears to Discipline and awake them to Remember their Creator Read Job 33. A Man that keeps about him the Remembrance of his Creator prevents in a great measure the necessity of that severe Discipline 6. In short this Remembrance of our Creator is an Antidote against the Allurements of the World the Temptations of Satan the deceitfulness of Sin It renders the best things the World can afford inconsiderable in comparison of him whom we remember it renders the worst the World can do but little and contemptible so long as we Remember our Creator it makes our lives happy our deaths easie and carries us to an everlasting Injoyment of that Creator whom we have here remembred The Injunction of the Duty of Remembring our Creator is the more importantly necessary 1. In regard of the great consequence of the benefit we receive from it as before 2. In regard of the great danger of omitting it The truth is the greatest part of the miscarriages of our lives are occasioned by the want of the remembrance of our Creator then it is that we fail in our Duty when we forget him 3. In regard of the many Temptations this World affords to make us forget our Creator the Pleasures and Profits and Recreations and Preferments and Noise and Business of this Life yea many of them which are in themselves and in their Nature lawful are apt to ingross our Thoughts our Time our Cares and to leave too little room in our memory for this great Duty that most deserves it namely The Remembrance of our Creator Our memory is a noble Cabinet and there cannot be a more excellent Jewel to lodge in it than our Great and Bountiful Creator yet for the most part we fill this noble Cabinet with pebles and straws if not with dung and filth with either sinful or at least with Unprofitable Impertinent Trifling Furniture 2. The Season for this Duty that is here principally commended is The days of our Youth And the Reasons that commend that Season for this Duty are principally these 1. Because this is the most Accepted Time God Almighty was pleased under the Old Law to intimate this in the reservation to himself of the first fruits and the first born And surely the first fruits of our Lives when dedicated to his remembrance are best accepted to him 2. Because this Season is commonly our Turning Season to Good or Evil. And if in Youth we forget our Creator it is very great difficulty to resume our Duty Commonly it requires either very extraordinary Grace or very strong Affliction to reclaim a Man to his Duty whose Youth hath been seasoned with ill Principles

and the Forgetfulness of God 3. Because the time of Youth is most Obnoxious to forget God there is great Inadvertency and Inconsiderateness Incogitancy Unstableness Vanity Love of Pleasures Easiness to be corrupted in Youth and therefore necessary in this season to lodge the Remembrance of our Creator in our Youth to be an Antidote against these defects to establish and fix the entrance of our lives with this great Preservative the Remembrance of our Creator 4. When Almighty God lays hold of our Youth by a timely Remembrance of himself and thereby takes the first possession of our Souls commonly it keeps its ground and seasons the whole course of our ensuing Lives it prevents and anticipates the Devil and the World It is true it may possibly be that Natural Corruption and Worldly Temptations may suspend the actings of this Principle but it is rarely extinguished It is like that abiding seed remaining in him spoken of by John 1 Joh. 3.9 Which will recover him again 5. The last reason is because there are Evil Days that will certainly come which will render this work of Remembring our Creator difficult to be first begun and therefore it is the greatest Prudence imaginable to lay in this stock before they come for it will certainly stand us in great stead when they come It is the greatest Imprudence in the World to defer that business which is necessary to be done unto such a time wherein it is very difficult to be done and it is the greatest Prudence in the World to do that work which must be done in such a season wherein it may be easily and safely done He that lays in this store of Remembrance of his Creator before the Evil Day come will find it of the greatest use and service to him in that Evil Day Now those Evil Days are many and all of them befall some but some of them will certainly befall all Mankind 1. An Evil Day of Publick or Private Calamities He that beforehand hath laid in this stock of Remembring his Creator will be easily able to bear any Calamity when it comes but a man that hath not done this before hand will find it a very unseanable time to begin to set about it when Fear and Anguish and Perplexity and Storms and Confusion are round about him and take up all his thoughts 2. The Evil Day of Sickness is an unseasonable time or at least a very difficult time to begin such a business When Sickness and Pain and Disorder and uneasiness shall render a man Impatient and full of Trouble and his Thoughts full of Disorder and Discomposure and Waywardness then it will be found a difficult business to begin the Remembrance of our Creator It is true no time is utterly unacceptable of God for this work but surely it is best to begin before this Evil day come for then it will be a comfort and mitigate the Pains and Discomposure of Sickness when a man can thus reflect upon his life past as Hezekiah did in his Sickness Remember O Lord that I have not failed to remember my Creator in the days of my Health 3. The evil Day of Old and Infirm Age which is a Disease and burthen of it self and yet is ever accompanied with other Sicknesses Pains and Diseases and a Natural frowardness and Morosity and Discontentedness of mind and therefore not so seasonable to begin the undertaking of this work as the flourishing Youth And indeed a man cannot reasonably expect that the Great God who invites the Remembring our Creator in the Days of our Youth and hath been ungratefully denied should accept the Dreggs of our Age for a Sacrifice when we have neglected the thoughts of him in our strong and flourishing age But on the other side that man that hath spent the time of his Youth and Strength in the remembrance of his Creator may with comfort and contentment in his old and feeble age reflect upon his past life with Hezekiah Remember O Lord I pray thee that I have not failed to remember thee in the days of my Youth and Strength and I pray thee accept of the endeavours of my Old Decayed Age to preserve that Remembrance of thee which I so early began and have constantly continued and pardon the defects that the natural decays of my strength and age have occasioned in that duty 4. The evil day of Death when my Soul fits hovering upon my lips and is ready to take its flight when all the World cannot give my Life any certain truce for a day or for an hour and I am under the cold embraces of Death then to begin to remember my Creator is a difficult and unseasonable time But when I have began that business early and held on the Remembrance of my Creator it will be a Cordial even against Death it self and will carry my Soul unto the Presence of that God which I have thus remembred in and from the days of my Youth with Triumph and Rejoycing Briefly therefore 1. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because thou knowest not whether thou shalt have any other Season to Remember him Death may overtake thee and lay thee in the Land of Forgetfulness thy Spring may be thy Autumn and thy early bud may be the only fruit that Mortality may afford thee 2. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because it is a time of Invitation neglect not this Season because thou knowest not whether ever thou shalt be again invited to it Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth that thy Creator may remember thee in the days of thy Sickness and Old Age and in the Evil Day 4. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth lest thy Creator neglect thee in the Evil Day Neglected Favours especially from thy God may justly provoke him never to lend thee more Because I called and ye refused I also will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear cometh Prov. 1.24 26. 5. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because it will heal the Evil of Evil days when they come it will turn those days that are in themselves Evil to become days of Ease and Comfort it will heal the Evil of the day of Affliction of Sickness of Old Age and of Death it self and make it a passage into a better a more abiding Life OF THE Vncleanness of the Heart and how it is Cleansed Psal 51.10 Cor mundum crea in me Deus THis Prayer imports or leads us into the Consideration of these things 1. What the condition of every mans Heart is by Nature It is a foul and unclean Heart 2. Wherein consists this uncleanness of the Heart 3. What is the ground or cause of this uncleanness of the Heart 4. Whence it is that the condition of the Heart is changed It is an act of Divine Omnipotence 5. What is the condition of a Heart thus cleansed or wherein the cleanness of the Heart consists

I. If the Heart must be created a new before it can be a clean Heart Certainly before it is thus new formed is is an Impure and unclean Heart And this that is here implyed is frequently in the Scriptures directly affirmed Gen. 7.5 The imagination of the thoughts of the Heart of Man is only Evil continually Jer. 17.9 The Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Mark 7.21 Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Adulteries c. And indeed all the Evils that are in the World are but evidences of the Impurity of the Heart that unclean Fountain and Original of them II. Concerning the second wherein the Vncleanness of the Heart consists The Heart is indeed the Crasis or Collection of all the Powers of the Soul in the full extent of it and therefore takes in not only the Will and Affections but the Understanding and Conscience and accordingly hath its Denomination proper to those several faculties as a Wise Heart a Foolish Heart a Believing Heart an Unbelieving Heart an Hard Heart a Soft Heart and the like But answerable to the propriety of the Epithete Clean or Unclean it principally concerns the Heart under the notion of Will or Desire and the Consequents that are thereupon and consequently according to the propriety of Application a Clean Heart is such a Heart as hath Clean Desires and Affections an unclean Heart is that which hath unclean and impure Desires a Heart full of evil Concupiscence And because the Cleanness or Uncleanness of the Desires are denominated from their Objects and not from the Affections or Desires themselves which are diversified according to their Objects Hence it is that a Heart that fixeth her Desires upon pure and clean Objects is said in that act to be a Clean Heart and that which fixeth its Desires upon Unclean or Impure Objects is an Unclean Heart in that Act Therefore before we can determine what an Unclean Heart is it is necessary to know what are Vnclean Objects the tendency of the Desires of the Heart whereunto doth denominate an Unclean Heart Generally whatsoever is a thing prohibited by the Command of GOd carries in it an Immundities an Impurity and Uncleanness in it But that is not the Uncleanness principally intended it is more Large and Spacious than the intent of the Text bears But there are certain Lusts and Impure or Immoderate Propensions in our Natures after certain Objects which come under the name of Vnclean Lusts and those are of two kinds the Lusts of the Mind and the Lusts of the Flesh for so they are called and distinguished by the Apostle The Lusts of the Mind are such as have their Activity principally in the Mind though they may have their Improvements by the Crasis and Constitution of the Body as the Lusts of Envy Revenge Hatred Pride Vain-glory. These are more Spiritual Lusts and therefore though they are more Devillish yet they are not properly so Unclean as those we after mention The Lusts of the Flesh are such Lusts as arise from our sensual Appetites after sensual Objects as the Lusts after Meats Drink and Carnal Pleasures And though these Objects are not in themselves sinful nor consequently the Appetites of them unlawful for they are planted in our Natures by the Wise and Pure God of Nature to most necessary and excellent Ends for the Preservation of our selves and our Kind yet they do accidently become Impurities and Uncleanness to us when inordinately Affected or Acted And these are those Vnclean Objects the Desires whereof do denominate an Vnclean Heart but principally the Latter the Lust of Carnal Concupiscence called by the Scriptures in an eminent manner the Lust of the Flesh 1 John 2.16 Fleshly Lusts that fight against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 Walking after the Flesh in the Lusts of Vncleanness 2 Pet. 2.10 Perchance bearing some Analogy to those Legal Uncleannesses in the Levitical Law especially to those of Levit. 15. Even the very natural Infirmities nay those that are not only tolerated but allowed carry in them a kind of Impurity and Uncleanness And hence grow those many Legal Impurities which disabled the Jews from coming into the Camp or Tabernacle till they were Purified as that of Leprosie touching of dead bodies unclean issues uncleanness after Child-birth uncleanness of natural Commixtions Lev. 15.18 Exodus 19.15 The uncleanness of natural Secessions Deut. 23.13 14. The washings of Aaron and his Sons Exod. 30.20 All which are but Emblems of the Impurity of the Heart and of the great Care that is to be used in the keeping of it Clean and the Reason is Morally and Excellently given Deut. 23.14 For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the Camp to deliver thee and to give up thine Enemies before thee therefore shall thy Camp be Holy that he see no Vnclean thing in thee and turn away from thee The Conclusion therefore is that this Carnal Concupiscence the Lust of the Flesh predominate in the Heart is that which principally and by way of Eminence in respect of the subject matter of it denominates an Unclean Heart But in as much as this Concupiscence hath somewhat in it that is natural and consequently is not simply of it self Sin or Uncleanness therefore it is requisite to give a denomination of Uncleanness and Impurity to those desires that there be some Formalities requisite to the denomination of this to be Unclean and Sinful which is when those Desires are not in subjection to right Reason for it being a proceed of the inferior Faculties the sensual Appetite when the same is not in subordination to that Empire which God hath given the more Heavenly and Noble Powers of the Soul it becomes Confusion and inverting of the order of Nature and this is principally Discovered when these Desires are 1. Immoderate 2. Unseasonable 3. Without their proper end 4. Irregular 5. Unruly and without the Bridle of Reason III. The Causes of this Uncleanness of the Heart are principally these two 1. The Impetuousness and continual solicitations of the sensual Appetite which continually sends up its foul Exhalations and Steems into the Heart and thereby taints and infects it The Soul of Man is like a kind of Fire which if it be fed with clean and sweet materials it yields sweet and comfortable Fumes but if it be fed with impure and unclean and stinking oyl and exhalations it is tainted with them and makes unsavory thoughts which are a kind of Fume that rise from this Fire and therefore if the distemper of the Body or sensual Appetite send up cholerick Steems into this sacred Fire it yields nothing but thoughts of Anger and Indignation If it sends up Melancholy and Earthy fumes it fills the Soul with black and dismal and discontented thoughts If it send up as most ordinarily it doth sensual and fleshly Steems it fills the Heart with sensual and wanton thoughts 2. The Weakness and Defect of the imperial part

of the Soul the Reason and Understanding and this Defect is commonly upon these two occasions 1. The Soul wants a clear Sense and Judgment that these Desires are not fit to be gratified but to be denied at least when they become Immoderate or Unseasonable It is ordinarily our Infirmity to judge of things as they are at present and therefore if the Present presents it self pleasing or displeasing we accordingly entertain it or refuse it without any due prospect to the event or state of things at a distance either because we Know it not or Believe it not or Regard it not If a Man being solicited to unwarrantable or unseasonable carnal Pleasures hath not a prospect that the end thereof will be bitterness or if he have such a Prospect yet he believes it not or if he do yet if his Judgment prefer the satisfaction of a present Lust before the avoiding of an endless pain it is no wonder if he submit to the solicitation of his sensual Appetite 2. But if the Judgment be right yet if the Superiour and more noble part of the Soul have not Courage and Resolution enough to give the Law to the Inferiour but yields and submits and becomes base the sensual Appetite gets the throne and Captivates Reason and rules as it pleaseth and this is commonly the condition of the Soul after a fall for the sensual Appetite once a Victor becomes Imperious and Emasculates and Captivates the superior Faculty to a continued Subjection And this is the Reason why when Lusts of any kind especially that of the Flesh having gotten the Mastery makes a Man indued with Reason and Understanding yet infinitely more Intemperate and Impure than the very Beasts themselves which have no such Check or Advantage of Reason for those noble Faculties of Phantasie and Imagination and Memory and Reason it self being prostituted to Lust doth bring in all the Advantages of its own perfection to that service and thereby sins beyond the extent of a bare sensual Creature the very Reason it self invents new and prodigious Lusts and Provisions for them and fulfillings of them the Phantasie improves them the Heart and Thoughts feed upon them and so by that very Perfection of his Nature which was placed in him to Command and Regulate these Lusts or Desires of the sensual Appetite becomes the most exquisite and industrious Advancer of them and makes a man infinitely worse than a Beast for a Beast hath no antecedent speculations of his Lust no provisions for them but when the opportunity and his own natural propensions encline him to them when he hath fulfilled his Lust thinks no more of it but Man by the advantage of his Reason his Phantasie his Memory makes Provisions for his Lusts yields up his thoughts to speculations of them studies stratagems and contrivances to satisfie them So that by how much his nature is the more perfect his sensual Lusts are the more exquisite and unsatiable and by this means his Heart becomes Unclean a very Stewes of Wantonness and Impurity a box full of nothing but stinking and unsavory Vapors and Steems the very sink receptacle of all the Impure desires of the Flesh where they are cherished and entertained and sublimated into Impurities more exquisite and yet more filthy than ever the sensual Appetite could arrive unto and this is an Vnclean Heart And upon these Considerations a man may easily see how little ground there is for to think there should be a Communion between Almighty God or his most Holy Spirit with a man thus qualified 1. The Heart as it is the seat of the Desires is the only fit Sacrifice to be offered up to God as it is the Chamber of our thoughts it is the only fit Room to entertain him in as it is the fountain of our Actions the fittest part to be assisted with the Spirit of God it is the only fit thing that we can give to God and indeed the only thing in effect that he requires of us 2. Again that God is a most Pure God his Spirit a most Pure and delicate Spirit and let any man then judge whether such a nasty impure unclean Heart is a fit Sacrifice to be offered to such a God or a fit receptacle for such a Spirit It therefore imports such a man that hopes to have Communion with God to have his Heart in a better Temper Again it seems more than probable to me that as a Body fed with poysonous and unwholsome Food must needs by such a Diet contract foulness and putrefaction So the very Soul of Man which hath so strict a Conjunction with and union to the Body by continual Conversation with and Subjection to such unclean and fleshly thoughts receives a Tincture and an imbasement by them which if there were no other Hell must needs make it Miserable in its Separation upon these two Respects 1. Upon the Consideration of that Ugliness which it hath contracted by those impure Conversations and which it might have avoided if it had in the Body exercised its proper Empire over them 2. By that Disappointment which it finds in the State of separation from the fulfilling and satisfying those sensual Inclinations which it effected here and now carrieth with it but stands utterly disappointed of any satisfaction of them IV. We consider How it comes to pass that a Heart thus naturally unclean is Cleansed which in general is by a Restitution of the Soul to its proper and native Soveraignty and Dominion over the sensual Appetite and those Lusts that arise from the Constitution of the Body and the Connexion of the Soul to it And this Restitution is answerable to the Depravation or Impotence whereby the Soul is Subjected and Captivated under those Lusts which are principally these following 1. The first ground of the Impotency of the Soul in subduing of the sensual Appetite is in the Understanding which is so far weakned or darkned by natural Corruption that it is ready in point of Judgment to prefer the present fruition of Corporal Pleasures and the satisfaction of the sensual Appetite before the denying of it for it sees and finds a present contentment in the former but sees not the danger and inconvenience that will insue upon it nor the benefit and advantage that will insue upon a due Restraint and Moderation of them It finds a present Contentment and Satisfaction in the one but it hath not the Prospect of the other or if it have yet the Conviction thereof is so Weak and Imperfect that the Pleasures of Sin for a season do overcome and subdue it For the Cure therefore of this Error and Impotency in the Judgment there ought to be 1. A Conviction that there is a Danger and Inconvenience that will certainly attend the Dominion of Lust over the Soul and a Benefit and Advantage that will attend the Victory of the Soul over these Lusts 2. And because there may be an Inconvenience in the former and a

benefit in the latter but yet not such as may with Considerable Advantage preponderate the Contentment of Lust which is present and sensible there ought to be a Conviction of such an Inconvenience in the former and such a Benefit in the latter as may most evidently and clearly preponderate the Contentment and Advantage of the satisfying of a Lust 3. And because though these Inconveniences and Benefits be never so great yet if there be but a faint and weak and imperfect Conviction of it it will work but a weak resistance against the Invasions or Rebellions of Lust and a sensible present enjoyment of what delights will easily preponderate the weak and faint and imperfect Convictions or Suspicions rather of what is Future It is necessary that such Convictions should be Sound Deep and Strong or otherwise they will be but Sluggish and Languishing opponents against the Rhetorick of Lusts that yield a present Delight or Advantage 4. And because though the Convictions are never so strong yet if they be not Accompanied with Constancy Vigilancy and supplemental Excitations as the opportunity requires the Constant and perpetual Importunity of Lust may happen upon a time of Intermission and gain an Advantage against a Soul habitually thus Convinced it is further necessary that there be a Frequent Constant Acting of that Conviction upon the Soul or otherwise it may be Intangled by the Assiduous Importunities of his Lusts These things being thus premised it is necessary to see what kind of Means it must be that must work such a Conviction of such weight and evidence that may rectifie the Judgment in reference to this Contest with the sensual Appetite and actuate such a Conviction to attain its due effect Moral Philosophy contains in it excellent Precepts and Reasonings to the subjecting of the sensual Appetite to the dictate of Reason and to a Moral Cleansing of the Heart But it cannot attain its end for though it propounds Inconveniences on the one side and Conveniences on the other yet they have great defects that make it Ineffectual The things which it proposeth are in themselves of unequal weight to the Pleasure and Content of satisfying the sensual Appetite viz. On the one side Fame and Glory and Reputation and Serenity of mind on the other side the Baseness of Lust in Comparison of the excellency of Reason that it is a thing common to us with the Beast and such like and therefore though these be fine Notions and such as may be weighty with old Men whose Lusts have left them yet with young Men they Import nothing And therefore the Philosopher well provides for it by determining that Juvenis non est idoneus auditor Moralis Philosophiae and Consequently it is a kind of Physick that may be good for them that need it not but of no use for them that want it for the truth is the Fame and the Infamy are not of weight equivalent to Counterpoise the satisfaction of a Lust in those that are Inclinable to them 2. Another great defect in the things propounded is this that is also common to Humane Laws that though they may be of some efficacy to prevent the External Act when it meets with Infamy in the Action or Reputation in the forbearing yet it doth inevitably give a dispensation to Sin if committed with Secrecy much less doth it at all Cleanse the Heart from the love of Lust the delight in it the Contemplation of it We are therefore to search for a higher or more effectual Conviction than this and therefore 1. We must see whether there be any thing that propounds some thing that may over ballance the Advantage of Lust or the love of it in the Heart 2. A means of Conviction of the truth and reality of the thing so propounded For the former it is apparent that the Sacred Scriptures and they alone do furnish us with such materials prohibiting not only the Acts of Lust but also the very Motions and Inclinations to it the Desires of the Heart of it the Love of the Heart to it and this under pain of the displeasure of God everlasting Death Hell fire on the one side on the other side in case of Obedience to this Command the Favor of God Everlasting Life and Happiness and in order to the discovering whether our Hearts walk in Sincerity according to the Command of God assures us that God beholds and observes the Motions Desires Inclinations Thoughts and Purposes of our Hearts and will one day lay them open When the secrets of all Hearts shall be Revealed And these are things that are of such a Nature as preponderates all the good that can be in Lust furnisheth the Soul with such Arguments against it as carries thunder in them 2. And that these may be effectually assented to by the Soul without which they Import nothing to the end we speak of there are these effectual Means which Almighty God affords us First The word of God which doth not only contain Materials and Perswasions for the Cleansing of the Heart but also a high evidence of the Truth and Reality and Benefit of those Materials and Perswasions it is a Convincing and a Cleansing word Jo. 15.3 Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you Secondly A high Congruity of the word of God in relation to a future life of Rewards and Punishments unto the very Sentiments of Reason and the light of Nature it self the Sense of which life of future Rewards and Punishments carries with it not only a Conviction of the great Advantage of a Clean Heart above an Unclean Heart but also a very effectual motive to the Cleansing of the Heart greater and more vigorous than all the Arguments of the best Philosophers Thirdly The Powerful Spirit of God works up in the Soul an assent unto them and that of such a strength as is no less Convincing than Science it self which is Faith and therefore Faith thus wrought purifies the Heart as well as the life 3. And for a Constant and un-intermitted Application and re-minding us of these Truths God is pleased to assist us with the continual assisting Grace of his Spirit acting in and by the Conscience which is in a great measure cleansed quickned and actuated which watcheth us and our very Thoughts and Chides them re-minding us of these great Truths which we have received and thereby actuating and acting our Faith of these Truths as often as the occasion offers it self 5. And by this means 1. The Intellectual Power of the Soul is restored in a great measure to its primitive Dominion or at least is qualified aright in order to the exercising of it 2. The Will wherein indeed the Empire of the Soul is principally seated is likewise restored to its Domination and Rule 1. Partly by these Impressions which are as before received by the Understanding and the practical Determination thereof for it is clearly presented now to her that it is the Greater

its proper Actions so doth the Sins and Defilements and Guilt the result of it upon the Soul disable it in its Works and Offices and this is the evidence of it Every thing is then in its right Constitution when it is in that state that the Wise God of Nature ordered it and so far as it declines from that position or state so far forth it looseth its Usefulness and proper Happiness and therefore it is consequently evident that every thing that loseth its Usefulness and Happiness is out of that Constitution that God Almighty meant for it and therefore in as much as apparently all Sin doth introduce this Disorder and Irregularity it is plain that Mankind thereby is in another condition than God at first made him and intended he should be in Hence therefore It is apparent That all Sin is against Nature and a Violation and Breach even of the Law and Order of Nature which is nothing else but the Station Course and Frame that God with most Admirable Wisdom and Goodness framed for Man Man stands in a double subordination 1. A Subordination within himself viz. Of the Faculties inferiour to the Superiour And 2. A Subordination to something without himself viz. To the Will of his Creator which though it seems extrinsecal yet in truth it is essential and necessary The Internal Subordination is of the inferiour parts and faculties to the Superiour viz. The Sensual Appetite and Passions to Reason and to Judgment God hath committed the Body of Man and those Faculties that are subservient to it unto the Government of the Light of Judgment and Understanding that he hath put into the Soul and because as it is most just that the Soul and its Superiour Faculties should be subordinate to the Will and Direction of God so the Soul stands in need of that Direction in order to the Government of his little Province committed to him and therefore as it happens in Government when the People break the subordination to the Intermediate Magistrate or the Intermediate Magistrates break the subordination to the Supream presently there insues Disorder and Mischief and Confusion so when the Body or those Faculties that are exercised in order to it as the natural Lusts and inclinations of the Body or those that result much from it as the Passions prevail upon the Judgment or Reason either by their Violence or want of due Vigilance and Severity in the Soul in its Administration or if the Reason and Judgment do neglect or cross the Commands of God or make not use of the Divine Directions to assist and guide her in her Administration this is Sin and presently brings Confusion and Disorder and Discomposure in the whole man and makes it Unserviceable for the Ends to which it was ordained Of Self-Denial 1. GOd Almighty hath substituted the Soul of Man as his Deputy or Vieegerent in that Province which is committed to him and expects an Account from the Soul at his return or sooner how he hath managed that Province or petty Dominion committed to him 2. The Province or Territory committed to the management of the Soul are his Body and those Affections and Inclinations incident to it and the Place Condition Relation Abilities and opportunities put into his hand by Providence and Divine dispensation together with that Body in this World 3. The end of this Substitution of the Soul in this Province is first the Improvement of the Revenue of this Principle viz. The Glory of his Name Secondly The improvement of the perfection and advantage of the Soul the perfecting of the Soul thereby in a Conformity to his Masters will and fitting of it self and the Body with it for a more noble and divine condition and imployment 4. The Breach of that Trust committed to the Soul consists either in the want of that due Improvement of the Province committed to the Souls Vicegerency according to the Advantages that it hath which is the Case of the unprofitable Servant that did not mis-imploy his Talent but did not Improve it to his Masters Advantage or which is worse Mis-government and Misimployment of the Province committed to its Charge to the disadvantage of the Soveraign and it self 5. The Mis-government of our Province consists principally in one of these particulars viz. Either in the original and primary Defection of the Soul it self in its Commands and Proceedings whereby it Studieth Practiseth and Commands Originally and Primarily against its Principal and this is Devilish or Secondly in the want of Exercise of a due Superintendency over its Province whereby the Subjects which should be under its Rule and Superintendency are not kept in their due Subjection neither to the Vicegerent nor to the Soveraign but rebell and by their Rebellion either wholly cast off their Vicegerent and Soveraign together or by degrees draw over the Vicegerent or Deputy to their Defection 6. The great Engins of this Defection are the Corrupt Inclinations of the sensual Appetite Lusts and Passions of the Body and especially those which are the great Favorites and most powerful in respect of their Congruity to the Natural Inclinations and temper or rather distemper of the Body or those Temptations which the World offers especially such as are most incident to the Place Station Relation or Condition wherein we stand in the World The former come under the name of the Lust of the Flesh the latter under the name of the Lusts of the Eye and Pride of Life 7. Those Lusts and Temptations are the Instruments in the hand of Satan either by Solicitation to Corrupt or by Power to oppose the Vicegerency of the Soul under God and to bring it over by Allurements or Force to a Defection from him and in both ways fight against the Soveraignty of God and consequently his Glory and against the Perfection of the Soul and consequently its Happiness 8. Those Lusts are of greatest Power that have the greatest dearness to the Body either in respect of Age Complexion Inclination Condition or Station and therefore of greatest Danger to the Soul and fight against it with greatest Advantage In a young Man or a strong sanguine Complexion Luxury Wantonness and Uncleanness are most ordinarily most prevalent In an old or Melancholy Man Covetousness In a middle Aged or Cholerick Man Anger Ambition Violence In a Rich or Powerful Man Oppression Disdain Pride In a Poor Man Discontent Rapin. And there is scarce any Man but hath some Beloved Lust or Sin that he will be content to sell all the rest of his Lusts for the enjoyment of that tempt him to a Lust not suitable to his Complexion Age or Condition he will easily reject it but if it be a Lust suitable to his Age Complexion or Condition he will hardly or with difficulty enough refuse it 9. As every Lust suitable to our Age Complexion or Condition is of greatest power and consequently of greatest Danger so every such Lust once entertained in Practice becomes of

unruly Beast without a Chain for it is certain the due Government of this Affection governs all the rest And now if we look abroad into the World or indeed but strictly and impartially observe our selves we shall easily observe a marvellous want of Moderation of this Affection For not to mention the misplacing of this Affection upon what we should really hate we may see a great Irregularity in the Measure and Order of Exerting this Affection about things that we may in their measure and kind love we talk indeed of loving of God above all and of the great value we set upon our Souls and Everlasting life and of Self-Denial and against loving of the World and how vain and contemptible a thing the World is But for the most part they are but Words and Speculations when we come to Practice and Life there appears nothing or very little that answers these Notions and Speculations little of that Moderation that those Notions import We love the World the Wealth the Honour the Pleasures the Profits of it with all our Souls we make it our principal business to attain and enjoy it we account it our greatest Calamity when we are crossed or disappointed in it One Man sets his whole heart upon his Greatness another upon his Wealth another upon his Pleasures and Recreations another upon his Preferment another upon the Favour of Great Men another upon Applause of his Learning or Eloquence another upon the Beauty of a Mistress or Servant nay so Childish we many times are that we are inamoured on very Toyes as fine Cloaths handsome Furniture a fine House splendid Entertainments a fine Head of Hair or Mad Antick Postures or Complements Affected Words Gestures or Phrases Apish Imitations Plays and Gaming new Fashions that many there are that make such Feathers as these the Principal Objects of their Love the Business and Study of their Lives and are as much concerned in their disappointment herein as if they were undone These are preposterous and want Moderation in their Affection because they have no true Judgment or Estimate of things according to their true Values THE VANITY AND VEXATION THAT Ariseth from Worldly Hope and Expectation IT is very evident to every Mans experience that Hope and Expectation of Good is the great Wheel or rather Weight that moves Man to all Actions and Undertakings The Plough-man ploughs in Hope and the Merchant-Adventures in Hope and the Scholar Studies in Hope and the Soldier Fights in Hope and so for all Humane Actions And thus it must needs be for in Hope or Expectation there are these Ingredients 1. Some End that a Man hath in prospect which carries a Complacency and Suitableness to the mind as to be Rich or Powerful or Learned or Applauded These are the ordinary ends of ordinary Men but there are ends of a nobler Condition as to be everlastingly happy c. But of these nobler and higher Ends I do not now speak 2. That end is also represented as an End Possible and Attainable 3. That there be also a Means proposed probably conducing to the attaining of that End and the Hope or Expectation of that End is the Spirit or Life that puts a Man upon the use and exercise of that Means thus conducible to it For the most part the Complacency that is taken in the Exercise of the Means to the attaining of the End proposed is at all times equal and most times exceeds the Complacency that is taken in the injoyment of the End when attained for the reason hereafter given For the End is present in Expectation in the most ample and Comprehensive Image or Idea thereof that can be And this is that which quickens and drives on Action with intensiveness proportionable to that measure of Worth and Value that the Soul puts upon the End thus prospected And therefore he that hath a great and high Expectation and Value of the End propounded acts with Vigor and Industry he that sets but a low Price or Valuation upon the End as a business but little preponderating the Trouble and Industry to attain it is cold in his Prosecution of it But if the Labor and Industry that is required in the use of that means appear to equal the Good that is attained in the End the whole action is for the most deserted as he that sets a great Value upon Wealth or Honor spares no pains to attain it So he that sets but a low value upon it is flat and lazy in his prosecution of it and he that looks upon it as not countervailing the pains in acquiring it sits still and is idle in it For the most part the Good Things of this World are presented to Men in expectation not only in their best dress but in an Elevated Value above what is in truth in them and this is therefore so upon a double Reason 1. The Wise Providence of God permitting it and that for this excellent End to keep Men in Action and in Motion which is of singular use for Mankind For if the things exciting the ordinary Actions of Life did appear with no greater an Elevation than possibly they do really and intrinsically bear the most part of Mankind would sit still and do nothing This very fallacy that Men put upon themselves in over expecting is a Spur to Action and Motion which in most Men would be wholly intermitted unless the very Worldly concerns did set them in Action as the end stands thus represented to their Expectation 2. Mankind being indued with a Fancy or Imagination that hath not only a power of separating the Good of every thing from the Evil that may possibly accompany what it expects but also of stuffing and filling the Good with great Imaginary Advances it doth to please and gratifie it self exercise both these Delightful Deceits If it finds any good in what it expects it doth upon choice thrust away and remove all that Evil that is really annexed to it that so it may not be vexed with the pre-apprehensions of it and it multiplies and augments and advanceth and magnifieth that Good that it hath left that so he may with the greater delight expect what he by this phantasie hath wrought himself up to a belief that he shall injoy The misery and unhappiness that falls upon Mankind from this advance of the Hope and Expectation of Worldly Ends is observable in one of these Events thereof 1. It may be there is an utter Frustration of the whole thing designed and aimed at and so his Expectation is like the dream of the Hungry Man in the Prophet Isai 29.8 that dreamed he had Eaten and he wakes and behold he is hungry 2. If he attain the End he expected be it Wealth or Honor or Pleasure or the like yet many times there doth attend it some signal Mischief or Evil that he had not before the patience to think of that doth render the whole injoyment to be utterly a thing mischievous

and Pilgrimage not of my Repose and Rest but must look further for that Happiness And truly when I consider that it hath been the Wisdom of God Almighty to exercise those Worthies which he left as Patterns to the rest of Mankind with this kind of Discipline in this World I have reason not to complain of it as a Difficulty or an Inconvenience but to be thankful to him for it as an Instruction and Document to put me in remembrance of a better Home and to incite me to make a due provision for it even that Everlasting Rest which he hath provided for them that love him and by pouring me thus from Vessel to Vessel to keep me from fixing my self too much upon this World below But the truth is did we consider this World as becomes us even as Wise Men we may easily find without the help of any such particular Discipline of this Nature that this World below neither was intended nor indeed can be a place of Rest but only a kind of Laboratory to fit and prepare the Souls of the Children of Men for a better and more abiding State a School to exercise and train us up into habits of Patience and Obedience till we are fitted to another Station a little narrow Nursery wherein we may be dressed and pruned till transplanted into a better Paradise The continual Troubles and Discomposures and Sicknesses and Weaknesses and Calamities that attend our lives the shortness and continued Vexations occurring in them and finally the common examples of Death and Mortality of all Ages Sexes Conditions of Mankind are a sufficient instruction to convince reasonable Men that have the Seriousness and Patience to consider and observe That we have no abiding City here And on the other side if we will give our selves but the leasure to consider the Great Wisdom of Almighty God that orders every thing in the World to ends suitable and proportionable the excellence of the Soul and Mind of Man the great Advances and Improvements his Nature is capable of the admirable means the Merciful and Wise God hath afforded unto Mankind by his Works of Nature and Providence by his Word and Instructions to inable him for a Nobler Life than this World below can yield will easily confess that there is another State another City to come which becomes every Good and Wise and Considerate Man to look after and fit himself for And yet let a Man look upon the generality of Mankind with a due and severe consideration they will appear to be like a company of mad or distempered People The generality of the World make it their whole business to provide for a Rest and Happiness in this World to make these vain acquests of Wealth and Honor and Preferments and Pleasures of this World their great if not only Business and Happiness and which is yet a higher degree of frensie to esteem this the only Wisdom and to esteem the careful Provision for Eternity the Folly of a few weak melancholy fanciful Men Whereas it is in truth and in due time it will most evidently appear that those Men that are most sedulous and solicitous touching the attaining of their Everlasting Rest are the only true Wise Men and so shall be acknowledged by those that now despise them Wisd 5.4 We Fools accounted his life Madness and his end to be without Honor How is he numbred among the Children of God and his Lot is among the Saints When I come to my Inn I have this consideration presently occurs to me If my Lodging be good and fair the Furniture splendid the Attendance great the Provisions good and well ordered yet I streight consider this is not the place of my Rest I must leave it to morrow and therefore I set not my Heart upon it And again if my Inn be but poor my Entertainment mean my Lodging decayed I do not presently send for Painters Carpenters and Masons to Repair or Beautifie it but I content my self with it and will bear with the inconveniencies because I consider it will be but for a night and to morrow I shall be gone and possibly come to my home where I shall be better convenienced And although the truth is that this World is little other than our Inn to entertain us in our Journey to another Life and our stay in it is many times very short yea our longest stay here in comparison of Eternity is infinitely more short than a nights lodging at an Inn in comparison to the longest life here yet it is a wonderful thing to observe how much we are taken up with the concerns of this our Inn what a stir we keep about it what pains and cost we imploy in it how much of our time is laid out upon it as if it were our only home If our Lot cast us upon a handsome Lodging as it were and in it furnished with Wealth or Glory or Honor How we pride our selves in it how goodly we look upon our selves how happy we think our selves what care we have to make it more Rich Glorious and Splendid And on the other side if our Lot cast us upon a lower meaner Station if we are Poor or Sickly or Neglected or under Hatches what a deal of Impatience and Discontent and Unquietness appears Nay though our Lodging and Entertainment in this Inn of the World be pretty well and will serve till we take our Journey yet if it be not so Fine and Splendid and Rich and Comely as anothers if our Meat be enough to suffice nature if our Cloaths enough to protect us from cold if our House good enough to keep off the Storms and defend us from Injuries yet if these be not so good as such a Mans or such a Neighbors not so good as my Ancestors or Relations Lord What a deal of Unquietness and Complaining and Envy and Impatience and Turbulency of mind there is in Men What Designs and Frauds and Plots and Underminings and Undue Means Men take to advance their own condition and to depress others and all this while never consider that which would easily cure the extravagance as well of one hand as of the other Namely This is not my home it is but my Inn if it be Beautiful Splendid Convenient if my condition in it be Wealthy Honorable Prosperous I will not set my heart upon it nor think any better of my self for it nor set up my Rest in it It is but my Inn I must leave it it may be to morrow On the other side if it be but Poor Weak Infirm Ignoble Low I will content my self it is but my Inn it may serve for my passage I shall it may be leave it to morrow and then if I have taken that due care that becomes me in my provision for my Eternal State I am certain the case will be mended with me however my Inn be Poor Mean Inconvenient Troublesome it is but for a night my home will be better

Adversity 2. But alass when we have used all the Care and Industry and Watchfulness we can who can say he hath made his wayes clean before God our Prosperity and the Temptations that await us from without and the Corruptions that are within us give us often falls that we know of and many more that we know not of if therefore the necessity of our condition subject us to Afflictions and the prevalence of our Corruptions subject us to Temptations what hope can I have to have a comfortable Affliction when I cannot hope to have an Innocent Conversation yet there is another expedient to ease and lighten Afflictions If thou canst not be Innocent yet be sincere and upright Hearted an Honest and Plain Heart that holds no confederacy with any known Sin keeps a quiet Conscience even under Affliction it self If thou hast not a perfect Life yet be careful in thy Prosperity thou keep a perfect Heart 3. But yet if thy Heart hath proved deceitful to thee and thou hadst fallen into any Sin yet there remains one expedient to stop and anticipate the malignity of it from mingling with thy Affliction Before Afflictions come be sure thou break of thy Sin by Repentance Every Sin leaves a kind of Poyson in the Soul and there it many times lies raked up till an evil day comes and then it begins to work to some purpose Sound and Serious Repentance fetcheth out this Core this nest of malignity cleanseth this Ulcer that Sin hath gathered And lest the malignity of Sin should remain in thy Soul when Affliction overtakes thee be careful 1. That thy Repentance be frequent and iterated and to that end let thy Examinations of thy heart and life be strict and daily Possibly thou mayst find a Sin upon the review that thou didst not before espie that may deserve a special Repentance but if thou dost not yet thy Sins of daily Incursion require a daily Repentance 2. That thy Repentance upon any known Sin committed be Speedy while thou art in thy Prosperity let it not lie upon thee till to morrow Who can tell whether some bitter Affliction may not overtake thee before thou hast repented and then that Sin will reach out its Venome and Malignity into thy Affliction and make it worse Therefore intercept that accursed influence of Sin by a speedy Repentance Thy Repentance will be the easier and thy Affliction the lighter thy Heart the stronger to bear it thy Access unto Heaven for Deliverance the readier When a Man lies under a Sin till Affliction come he hath two great Suits to dispatch in the Court of Heaven First To gain his Pardon Secondly To gain Deliverance from or strength under Affliction Be careful therefore to get the former dispatched in thy Prosperity thou hast the less to do under thy Affliction When Guilt and Affliction come upon a Man together they add to each others weight and difficulty of removal but Affliction meeting with a Conscience cleansed by Faith and Repentance is always tolerable and for the most part Comfortable it loseth its nature and becomes another thing It is a prevention of Sin a Corrective of Corruptions an Exercise of Grace a Conformity to Christ an Assurance of Gods love a Preparative for Heaven rather than an Affliction 4. Above all things be very careful that thy Affliction be not the just production of thy Sin or Folly for in the one case thou sufferest as an Evil Doer in the other thou sufferest as a Fool and in neither thou canst take any Comfort If thou sufferest without thy fault or for thy Vertue Piety and Goodness thou needest not be troubled for the one and thou mayst most justly rejoyce in the other but to suffer as an Evil Doer or as a Busie-body in other mens matters or for ill Language or Passionate Words or Disturbance of the civil Power these take away both the Comfort and the Glory of these Sufferings Nay though the end intended in these Extravagances may possibly be good and though the Punishment inflicted excede the due proportion and so hath somewhat of injustice or extremity in the infliction yet such a kind of suffering brings little Honour to God little Peace to a Mans self and little Advantage to others but rather the contrary A Man that hath Sins about him hath ill Companions and such as abate the Comfort even of an Innocent Suffering but when a Man suffers for a Sin or any unjustifiable Action his sufferings lose the name of Afflictions and become formally and in their own nature Punishments and in such a kind of suffering though sometimes the Goodness and Wisdom of God brings Good out of it to the party that suffers yet in such a Man doth not only undergo temporal Loss Pain and Inconvenience but hath the inevitable prospect of his Fault and Offence in them which makes the suffering the more bitter and distastful 5. Be careful to bring thy self to a right Estimate of the World and the Good or Evil of it Our over valuation of the World is that which makes us excede either in the Comfort we take in the enjoyments or in the Perturbation that we suffer in the Losses or Crosses of it and commonly according to the measure of our Love unto or valuation of the things of this life such is the measure of our Grief or Sorrow or Dispondency or Anger or Vexation that we entertain in our loss or disappointment in them for indeed all other Passions and Perturbations of the Mind are but the Handmaids of the Passions of Love or Love acted in a different shape or method if I set too high a value upon my Wealth or my Health or my Honour or my Relations or my Credit then my loss or disappointment of any of them will produce an Excess of Sorrow or Vexation or Despondency or Anger or Revenge Therefore let it be thy business in the time of thy quiet and prosperity in the first place to settle thy Judgment aright and consequently thy Affections aright in reference to Externals Consider first they are but Externals they have no ingredient at all into the Man a Man may be a Fool or a Vitious and wicked Man and yet injoy these things in a great measure and a Man may be a Wise a Just a Vertuous a Pious a Man a Man in the favor of God and yet be without them 2. They are in their own nature very uncertain things they are subject to a Thousand contingencies nay if they stand secured unto me with the greatest stability that may be yet my Body is subject to many weaknesses and Distempers and a Disease in my Body will render all these things insipid and vain to me What good or content will all my Wealth my Honour my fine Houses my great Retinue my great Power do me when I am in a burning Feaver in a painful Consumption nay under a fit of the Head-ach or Stone for so small a Distemper will make

me take no contentment or satisfaction at all in all or any of these enjoyments the truth is they are but Provisions for the Flesh and in order to the Body and when the Body is under a distemper they become but insignificant useless things He that is under a strong Pain or Disease finds as little contentment though he lie on a soft Bed richly furnished in a Chamber richly hanged in it a Cupboard furnished with massie Plate as if he lay in a Cottage 3. They are but for a time Death will at last overtake me and as all my Riches and Pleasures and Honours and Worldly Accommodations cannot prevent or buy it off so neither will they be of any comfort or value to me in that hour Indeed they may make death more troublesom and unwelcome to me but they cannot at all secure me against it The plain truth is Death doth undeceive and open the eyes of the Children of Men it teacheth us to put the true value upon every thing as it deserves My Riches and my Honour my Pleasures and my Profits my Gallantry and my Policy which I made much reckoning of in my life time when Death comes I shall perceive them to be but Vanity at the best and set no Esteem upon them but Piety and Prayers and Charity and Interest in God and in the Merits of Christ and the Promises of the Gospel that perchance in my life time I esteemed as dry and useless things I shall then see to be of greatest value and accordingly prize them These I shall carry with me into the succeeding World but all my Worldly Comforts when I pass through this strait Gate of Death I shall leave behind me as a Snake leaves behind his antiquated Skin when he passeth through a brake and never make use of them or take comfort in them more And when I come unto the other side of this dead Lake the Fruitions of all my life past will be forgotten or at least remembred as a Man remembers a Dream when he awakes only the Good or Evil of my past life will stick upon me unto all Eternity Why then should I set my Heart upon that which is of so small a value so little use so short and so uncertain a continuance they are things which I may lose while I live but I am sure I cannot keep them when I die and if they take their farewel sooner they do but their kind and at best do but a little anticipate their last and necessary valediction I resolve therefore I will not set my Heart upon them but carry a loose and flaccid Affection towards them And if I lose them I will not over-much afflict my Soul for the loss of that which I had not much reason to value while I had it And as thus a Man should tutor himself to a just Estimate of the Good things of the World so a Man should bring himself to a just and due Esteem of the Evil things of the World such as Sickness and Pain and Imprisonments and Reproach and Want and the like There are these two things that do much allay the severity of those Evils 1. They are but Corporal they reach no farther than the Body the Husk the outward Man the Cottage they cannot at all get so deep as the Soul 2. They are but Temporal It is most certain that Death will cure and heal these Evils and possibly these Distempers and Sufferings the less severe they are the more tolerable the more severe the more in probability they will hasten and advance the cure As nothing that hath an end can make a Man truly Happy so nothing that hath an end can make a Man truly Miserable because he hath under his greatest Misery the Lenitive of Hope and Expectation of a Deliverance 6. But yet farther Gain Assurance of thy Peace with God in Christ and consequently of thy future Happiness and be frequent in the Contemplation and Improvement of it This is the great Engine of a Christian a Magistery that was never attained by the most exquisite Philosopher nor is attainable but in and by the knowledge of Christ who brought Life and Immortality to Light It is the great expedient whereby a Man attains Victory over the World whereby he is able to injoy Prosperity with Moderation and undergo Affliction with Patience 1 Joh. 5.4 This is the Victory which overcometh the World even your Faith When a Man under the severest Afflictions shall have this Assurance and these Contemplations It is true I am in as low a condition as the World can cast me my Estate torn from me by the basest of Men and I and my Children exposed to extream Want and Necessity so that I am become little better than a Vagabond upon the Earth for the very attaining of Bread or at best am driven to the hardest and most sordid imployment that can be consistent with honesty for my supplies of Necessaries and if by chance my own sweat or others charity supply me to day I cannot imagine what shift to make for to morrow and if this were a condition to which I had been born or in which I had been bred use might have made it easie and familiar but it is not so I am fallen into this low condition from a plentiful and liberal condition wherein I had my Table crowned with plenty and as I wanted not Charity to imploy my Plenty so I wanted not Plenty to supply my Charity Again I was in the greatest Reputation and Esteem among Men that may be but now I am fallen under the saddest the basest Scorn and Obloquy and Reproach and Imputation that can be and all this without any cause my Enemies Triumph over me with Scorns Derisions and Exprobrations my former Friends bestow upon me a kind of Scornful Pity that is more bitter than the upbraidings of my Enemies the abjects and dregs of the people make me their by-word and the Calumnies under which I suffer are of such a nature that none dares be my Advocate but the silent Testimony of my own Conscience and Innocence Again under all these pressures it had been some allay if I were but a Citizen of the World that I had but the liberty to forsake the place of my suffering and go to some more auspicious or tolerable corner of the World but in that I am also prevented my liberty is taken from me and I am penned up in the narrow dark loathsome stinking confines of a most odious Prison without the benefit of Light or Friends or indeed of any other Company than such as make my Imprisonment the more intolerable Chains and Vermine and the most accursed Malefactors Again I suffer not only under restraint of a loathsome Goal but I am exposed to lingring Torments Racks and Whips and Famine and Nakedness and Cold and continual Threats and sad Expectations of worse to follow if worse there may be Again dismal and painful and tormenting Diseases

seise upon my Body no part of my Body free from pain no place affords me ease no Cordial gives me comfort my Breath short and painful and even loathsome unto my self my eyes consumed and weary with expectation of Deliverance my Heart faint and not able to support its weak and languishing motion my Stomach gone and not able to receive or digest the most pleasant meat my exhausted consumed Body standing in need of supply and yet unable to receive it my Intrails parcht and scorcht with burning heat which is nevertheless the more increased by that which should allay it my Limbs and Joynts and Arteries torn and racked with tormenting Convulsions my Sleep gone or more troublesome than if I were awaked no posture no place affording me ease or relaxation in the Morning I wish it were Night and in the Night I long for the Morning my easie Bed assords me no ease and I desire to rise and when I am risen I cannot bear it I must presently lie down importunately longing for this or that meat and when I have it loathing the very sight of it In sum the whole mass of my Blood corrupted and my whole Body a bag full of putrefaction stink and corruption loathsome to my self and others a very Carcass bound to a living Soul tired with her burthen exquisitly sensible of it unable either to bear it or deliver her self of it These be some of those sad attendants that accompany this condition and it may be all those Calamities befal a Man at once together with the loss of Friends or near Relations as in the case of Job and then what remains to denominate a Man perfectly miserable if the calamities of this World can do it But if under any or all of those Pressures I can upon sound grounds and assurance rest upon my Hope of Immortality these and a thousand more External miseries will not only be tolerable but easie When I can upon sound Convictions and Experiences practically entertain my self with such thoughts as these It is true I am as miserable in Externals as the World can make me but in the midst of all my External Losses and Poverty I have in my prospect a Kingdom prepared for me that cannot be shaken a Treasure in Heaven above the malice and reach of Men and Devils and after a few days spent in my poor Pilgrimage through this World I shall as surely possess it as if I were already actually invested in it and as this Hope doth allay the sharpness of my passage so in my arrival to my Happiness my present suffering will make my future rest more welcome That Beam of Light and Comfort that this Hope darts into my Soul will inlighten my darkest Night here and walk along with me to my Canaan when my Hope shall be swallowed up in Vision and Fruition in the midst of all the Storms and Reproaches and Vilifyings that the World heaps upon me I injoy the Comfortable Presence and Favor of my God in my Soul and his Suffrage and Attestation and Acceptance of my Innocence which doth infinitely more over-ballance the Frowns and Contempts of the World than the favor of the greatest Prince doth over-weigh the Reproaches of the basest Peasant In the midst of my closest and darkest Restraints I have that converse which the strictest guard the strongest Bars cannot exclude I have the Presence and Conversation of my Saviour Christ and his Blessed and Sacred Spirit which doth cure and heal the noysomness and supply the retiredness of my closest Restraints and this company makes my Prison a Temple wherein I can with his Blessed Apostle with a chearful Heart magnifie my God my Soul and Mind is at liberty and free in despight of Gates of Brass and Bars of Iron In the midst of all my Pains and Sickness and the tedious declination of my Body to its final corruption and dissolution I can satisfie my self with an expectation of a happy Resurrection when this weak and frail and dying Body of mine shall be made like unto the glorious Body of my glorified Saviour and translated into the Company of Saints and Angels where there shall be no Sickness nor Sorrow nor Pain nor Sin nor Death and I shall meet with those Friends and Relations of mine which died before me in the same hope I look upon these my present Pains and Sickness and Weakness as the Harbingers of that dissolution which shall put an end to them and begin my Happiness and hereupon I bear them not only with-Patience but Comfort the greater their Violence is the sooner they will finish their business and rend away this mortal corrupted Carcass from my Immortal Soul and even in the instant of my dissolution can by the eye of my Faith discern the Blessed Angels ready to transport my Soul cleansed by the Blood of Christ into the joys of Heaven and my Blessed Redeemer standing on the other side as it were of this dead Lake ready to receive me and lead me into those Heavenly Mansions of Rest and Happiness which he went before to prepare for me This Hope and Assurance as it makes the best things of this World in their best appearance and dress but light and vain and empty and nothing So it makes the worst things that the World and Mortality can inflict or suffer light and easie For these light Afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal 2 Cor. 4.17 18. These be some of those Preparations that will admirably fit and prepare us to meet with Afflictions and in them these two things are to be remembred First That we do not only content our selves with Notions and bare Speculations of these things but that we may practically digest them into our Hearts and Resolutions for if they be but notional only Afflictions when they come will easily rend and defeat these Notions I have known many Men that have had very excellent Notions of this kind and could discourse excellently of them nay could urge them very effectually upon others but when any little Cross hath overtaken them they have been quite out of all Patience and Comfort and as much to seek how to entertain it as those that had never known any such matter nay a poor experienced Christian that could not talk half so much hath received the shock of Affliction with much more Christian Resolution than the other and the reason is The former had digested these Matters barely into Notion and the latter he made it Practical and Cordial When I read Plutarch and Seneca and Tully I find excellent Instances and Reasonings to support the Mind in Afflictions and many times upon the soundest Grounds that can be Plutarch de Animae Tranquillitate tells us That he

waiting upon him partly to carry us on to more Importunity and Continuance in Prayer and by this means our Souls are made the better by drawing nearer and nearer to him that is the Fountain of Light and Goodness for the repetition of Prayers rectifies the Soul brings it nearer to God lays more hold upon his Strength and Goodness as the sinking Man draws himself nearer to the shore by the repeated laying hold upon that Cord that is from thence thrown out to save him Neither doth he rest here for the Deliverance he sends is not barely sent to deliver us from the Affliction or Danger nor barely to gratifie our Prayers but to bring us yet nearer to God and to make us active Instruments to give Glory to that God that hath thus delivered us whereby at once we are drawn nearer to the Fountain of our own Happiness and Almighty God receives and attains the great end of his Goodness in the active Glory and Gratitude that he receives from his Creature And this is attained 1. By a kind of Natural Instinct Ingenuity and implanted Tendency as I may call it of a Good Nature whereby unless a Man be a fool or hath put off the common Rudiments of Humanity he is carried out to Thankfulness Gratitude and an indeavor of complacency to him that is his Benefactor which as it is the most rational consequence imaginable so it is a principle so riveted in the very Constitution of Humanity it self that even without any antecedent ratiocination or rational discourse it doth presently and at first view and antecedently antevert any rational discourse of the Mind We are Grateful and study to be complacent to him that doth us good without any using of Topicks or Arguments by a kind of Natural Instinct or Sympathy 2. By a kind of Stipulation or bargain made by Almighty God with his poor Creature to have this Tribute of Gratitude and Benevolent Affection from his Creature as the Tribute and return of his Goodness and Beneficence Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me And this Retribution as it is most admirably Con-genious and Con-natural to the right constitution of the Humane Nature so it is the most Reasonable and the most Noble and the most Easie and the most Beneficial Retribution in the World to him that makes it For first Whereas the Creature in his Prayer seeks and in the returns thereof receives something from God in his Gratitude and Glorification of God he performs that which his Maker graciously accepts as a return made to him from his Creature Secondly By this means he attains the two great Ends of his Being namely the Glorifying of God and the Improvement of his own Felicity for Gratitude and Thankfulness brings the Soul to a nearer approach to God if it be possible than his very Prayers doth because it is the greatest motion of Love and Beneficence in the Soul unto God that can be and the nearer the Soul is moved unto God the nearer it is joyned to its Life its Perfection its Happiness The more it participates of the Love the Goodness the Influence the Communication of the Divine Goodness OF PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING Psal CXVI 12. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his Benefits towards me THere are two great Duties that we ow unto God which are never out of season But such as we have continual occasion and necessity to use whilest we live namely Prayer and Thanksgiving Prayer Is always seasonable in this life because we ever stand in need of it we always want something and have always occasion to fear something although we could be supposed in such a state of Happiness in this World that we could not say we wanted any thing yet we have cause to pray for the continuance of the Happiness we injoy which is not so fixed and stable but that it may leave us I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved Thou hiddest thy face and I was troubled We are never out of the reach of the Divine Providence either to Relieve or Afflict us and therefore we are under a continual Necessity of Prayer either to Relieve and Supply us or at least to preserve and uphold us Thanksgiving is likewise always seasonable because we are never without something that we receive from the Divine Goodness that deserves and requires our Thankfulness It may be we want Wealth yet have we not Health If we want both yet have we not Life If we want Temporal Blessings yet have we not Eternal Everlasting Blessings If we have any thing that is comfortable to or convenient for us we have it from the Goodness and Bounty of God And though we have not all we would yet we have what we deserve not and what we prize and value and therefore while we have any thing we have occasion of Thanksgiving to our great Benefactor But yet it seems though both those Duties be highly due and necessary yet Thanksgiving hath a kind of preference even above Prayer it self in these considerations especially 1. The Duty of Thanksgiving seems to be a more Permanent Duty even than Prayer it self and of a greater extent and durableness The Blessed Angels and the Saints that are and shall be settled and fixed in a state of full and unchangeable Happiness that enjoy whatsoever they can desire and therefore have no reason to pray for more because they cannot enjoy more than they do yet have an Everlasting occasion of Thanksgiving for that Happiness they Everlastingly enjoy And as this is their Everlasting occasion so it is and shall be their Everlasting business unto all Eternity to Praise and Glorifie God And as the Beams of the Divine Goodness shall Everlastingly shine upon them so there will be an Everlasting Reflection as it were of the same Goodness in the necessary and uncessant returns of Praise and Thanksgiving by them 2. The Duty of Thanksgiving seems to be a Duty of more noble Nature than even Prayer it self because it answers more appositly and closely the noblest End in the World namely the Glory of God which certainly is a more ultimate and noble End than even the very Good of the Creature It is true Almighty God receives no accession to his Happiness and Perfection by all the Honour and Praise and Thanksgiving that all the Creatures in the World can pay him yet the Glory of his Majesty is the chief ultimate End why he made all things Rev. 4.11 Thou art worthy to receive Glory Honour and Power for thou hast Created all things and for thy pleasure they were and are Created It is true the proximate immediate reason of the Creation of all things was that the Redundant Goodness of Almighty God might be communicated unto Being derived from him by Creation But the ultimate and more universal End was that by this Communication of the Divine Goodness unto something without

Comprehensive Prayer and therefore fit to be supplemental unto thine own prayers Thy present wants or fears or desires carry thy spirit in thy own prayers eagerly and vehemently in pursuit of those thy wants fears or desires because they are things presently incumbent upon thee and in thy view and by that means thou dost many times in thy prayers overshoot many matters that are of more concernment it may be for thee to ask as the Glory of God thy preservation from future inconveniencies that are not yet in thy view and this prayer gathers up thy omissions calls home thy spirit unto that frame and temper of heart that is fit viz. Submission to the Will and Glory of God in the first petition of this Prayer furnisheth in a short Compendium to pray over that which thou hast before asked and to pray for that which before thou hast omitted 4. As it is a Comprehensive Prayer and contains much so it is a Compendious Prayer and contains much in little The Wise and Merciful God knowes the frailty of our Nature and therefore hath fitted us according to our own narrowness with abridgments he knowes the shortness of our Memory and therefore he gave his Will under the Old Law in Ten Words Christ he gave us another abridgment of that abridgment Love God and thy Neighbour God also knowes the weakness of our spirits and therefore he gives us a short Prayer that in the using of it our spirits may bear up and the fire last till the Prayer ended It is true when we have a continuing sense of Evil felt or feared upon us our spirits are able to hold out a Prayer long in warmth and heat But when the matters of our desires are not so apparent to our sense our spirits are apt to grow cold before we come at the end of it Here is a short Prayer furnish'd in all things fit to be asked and such as thy spirit may go along with to the End without being tyred It is true that a Man shall usually find more intention of spirit in his own prayers than in this Bless God that thou hast this intention of spirit in thy own prayers and neglect them not but pray for pardon that thou wantest it in this and strive to amend it Now the great Cause of the unprofitable use even of this Prayer and of divers other Ordinances grows from this That people use them without a distinct and deep consideration of the things contained in them The Sun in the Firmament is the greatest Wonder in the World and of infinite more consideration than the appearance of a new Star or a Comet But the commonness of the Sun makes Mankind pass over that without any observation and yet look upon the latter with much admiration and astonishment Just thus it is with this and other Prayers This Prayer being taken up and learnt with our speech we swallow by whole-sale and never weigh it or consider it but other Prayers of our own or others whilest they are new to us we use more attentively and it may be more profitably It should therefore be our care to rub out the Corn out of this Ear to Examine and Consider this excellent Prayer distinctly that so in the use of it a full understanding and affection may go along with it without which it is no Prayer for in Prayer we have to do with the God of the Spirits of all flesh that judgeth not neither regardeth the bare repetition of words the thing condemned by our Saviour when he commanded this Prayer But by the uniting our Souls and Spirits to him our words are not so much our prayers as the consequents and signs of our prayers The known Division of this Prayer is first the Preamble Secondly the Requests Thirdly the Conclusion 1. The Preamble Our Father which art in Heaven The general duty we learn from it is this that we come not suddenly and unseemly in our Requests to him but as much as may be to prepare our Souls with fitting apprehensions and affections before we come to ask of him with apprehensions of his goodness that may draw us to him in that he is our Father and with apprehensions of his Greatness that may make us consider our distance and come before him with Reverence in that he is in Heaven Eccles 5.2 Be not rash with thy Mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth it teacheth thee thy distance and it is fit thou should'st throughly digest that apprehension before thou ask that thy asking may be with Reverence External Reverence of it self is inconsiderable but as it is the figure of that internal Reverence that is in the Soul Where the external Reverence is without the internal it is base and odious Hypocrisie a dead and a despised performance a picture of Piety without life But the internal Reverence of the Mind cannot be without an external expression of it The Forms or Natures that God hath put into every creature are those which shape their external figure in some proportion answerable to their internal Form And it is as impossible for an heart sensible of the Majesty Glory Greatness and Power of God to come before him either with a petulant sawcy presumptuous or unseemly carriage as it is for the Form of a Lamb or a Child to render it self either in the shape of a Lion or a Wolf Again God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth As thou hast a business to do to prepare thy heart with the sense of thy distance that thy desires may be with a sutable humility when thou prayest so thou hast need of preparation to bring up thy heart out of that Earth wherein thou art unto Heaven to defecate that Earthy heart of thine that it may be fit to come into the presence of the God of Heaven When God beholds the highest things in nature the Heavens he humbles himself he descends below his own Excellency Psalm 113.6 And if thou art a Sutor to this great King it is fit thou shouldest come unto the Throne of his Majesty and not expect that he should come to thy Cottage to be importuned though yet he doth this also in his great Mercy and Condescention yet it is not fit for thee to expect it Again thy lifting up of thy heart to him is thy Advantage the nearer thou drawest to his Glory and Presence so it be with an humble and clean heart the more thou wilt partake of his Bounty and Goodness the fitter thy heart will be to have communion with him The Holy and Glorious Angels and Souls departed partake more of his fulness and perfection than Man doth because by the purity of their nature they have a nearer approach to the Fountain of Good than Man hath and the nearer or farther off the Spirit of a man

the stain and take away the power of sin to re-imprint the Image of God that was defaced by sin to rescue the heart from the love of sin and consequently from the power of sin to transmit into the Soul new Principles new Affections new Wills Psalm 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power As he came with Light to rectifie the Understanding so he came with Righteousness to rectifie the Will The strength of a King rests in the Love and Will of his People when Christ conquers the Will from the Love and Submission to sin he conquers Man from the Dominion and Kingdom of sin 3. And as thus by Light he conquered the Kingdom of Darkness and by Righteousness the Kingdom of Sin so he comes with Life also and conquers us from the Kingdom of Death When our Saviour died he entred into the Chambers of Death and conquered this King of Terrors took away the malignity and sting of it by taking away Sin the sting of Death healed these bitter waters by his own passing through them and by his Resurrection triumphed over the power of death for us by the vertue of that Resurrection delivering our Souls from the second death and our Bodies from the first death and giving us a most infallible assurance of a final victory over death by an assured and blessed Resurrection Thus Death is swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15.54 2. And as Christ hath purchased him a People by Victory so his Regal Office is considerable in the Government of this people that he hath so acquired He hath given them a Law to Live by the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which makes them free from the Law of sin and of death Rom. 8.2 The Law of God vindicated from the false glosses which the corruption of men had in succession of time put upon it a Law sweetned and strengthned and actuated by the Love of God wrought in the Soul a Law though of the highest Perfection and Purity yet accompanied with the Grace and Assistance of Christ to Enable us to perform it in some measure and accompanied with the Merits of Christ to pardon and the Righteousness of Christ to cover our defects in our performance of it He hath given them a new heart and this Law of his written in this heart He hath given them of his own Spirit a Spirit of Life to Quicken them and of Power to Enable them to Obey And because notwithstanding this conquest of Christ of a People to himself they are still beset with Enemies that would reduce them to their former bondage he watcheth over them and in them by his Grace wasting and weakning and resisting their corruptions by new supplyes and influences from him quickning their hearts by renewed derivations of Life and Spirit from him which otherwise would sink and die under the weight of their own Earth encountering Temptations that like Foggs and Vapours arise out of our own flesh or like storms or snares are raised or placed by the Devil against us either by diverting them or by giving sufficient Grace to oppose them These and the like administrations doth our Saviour use which though they are secret and not easily discerned by us and though they are ordered without any noise or appearance yet they are works of greater Power and of greater Concernment and of equal reality with all the visible administrations of things in this world which are more obvious to our sense and are the effects of that invisible Government of Christ and of that Promise of his Behold I am with you alway even unto the end of the World Matth. 28.20 This is that Kingdom of God within them Luk. 17.21 consisting in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 casting down Imaginations and every high thing that Exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 3. As in his Government so his Regal Office is Evidenced in his Judgment And this Judgment of his being one of the Acts or Administrations of this Kingdom is oftentimes called the Kingdom of God His Judgment of Absolution and Reward to his Subjects and his Judgment of Condemnation and Destruction to the Rebels and Enemies of his Kingdom 2. And as we have the consideration of the King of this Kingdom and consequently of his Subjects Revel 15.3 Just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints So the various Administrations of this Kingdome are frequently called the Kingdome of God and the Mysteries of the Kingdome Matth. 13.11 24 31 44 45 47. Matth. 25.1 14 c. And as the Administrations of this Kingdom are often called the Kingdom so are the Instruments of this administration 1. The Word or Gospel of the Kingdome which must be preached through the whole World Matt. 24.14 and is therefore committed to the ministration of an Angel to dispence it to all Nations Revel 14.6 That great Engin which though seemingly weak and dispensed by weak and despicable Men God hath chosen to confound the things that are mighty 1 Cor. 1.27 to pull down strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 to gather his Elect for the perfecting of the body of Christ the fulness of him that filleth all in all and therefore this publication of the Gospel is oftentimes called the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 3.2 The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Luk. 10.9 The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you and if a Man consider the Mighty and Strange Effects that this everlasting Gospel hath had in the World for these many Hundred Years notwithstanding the many disadvantages upon which it entred and hath continued in the World we may well say that it is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 the Rod of his strength sent out of Sion Psal 110.2 that the Message of a Crucified Christ published by poor despised men to a World that never saw him or if they did saw no beauty or comliness in him to a World full of prejudicies against him prepossessed with an opinion of their own Wisdom with Religions extremely opposite traduced to them from their Ancestors of which Men are naturally tenacious that this Message of Christ not with a promise of Glory or Riches in this World but with a plain prediction of poverty scorns persecutions and Death to those that entertain it and with a promise of future Life that they never saw nor can see till they see this no more should conquer Millions of Souls to the profession and Love of Christ and to an austere self-denying despised Life here doth evidence and convince that there is the strength and Wisdom of God that is ingaged in this wonderful yet most positively predicted conquest of the World 2. The work of the Spirit of God preparing and pre-disposing the Heart to the receiving of the Gospel of the Kingdom convincing the Heart of that Sin and that Death

which hath overspread the whole race of Mankind and of the Truth and Efficacy and sufficiency of that Redemption which came by Christ and is published in that Word striving and contending with and mastering and over-ruling the opposition of the will against it Calming and quieting and rectifying the distempers and disorders and misplacings of our affections opposing and subduing the lusts of our sensual appetite inlightning and quickning and cleansing the conscience and bringing it about to take part with God and the actings of this Spirit upon our Souls mingling the word of the Gospel conveyed into the Heart with a secret and powerful Energy whereby it becomes a Seed of Life in the Heart growing unto Eternal Life And thus as at first the Motion of the Spirit of God upon the face of the waters and the powerful word of Command produced the several Creatures so by the like Motion of the Spirit upon the Heart and the powerful call of the Word of Christ by the publication of the Gospel is wrought this Second Creation of the new Creature Ephes 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest stand up from the Dead and Christ shall give thee life And these two great Instruments produce in the Heart two active or operative Principles which after they are produced are not only an Effect of the work of God but also become instrumental for the increase of it viz. Faith and Love Faith whereby we receive this Message of Salvation and entertain it and rest upon it and Love whereby out of the apprehension of this great Love of God to us we love him again we love him because he loved us First And this Love of God ingageth the Soul to a Sincere Obedience to the Will of God The Misery from which we are redeemed is so great the Price by which we are redeemed so invaluable the Glory and Blessedness to which we are redeemed so full and all these appearing so to the Soul by Faith that the Soul can think nothing too much to return to that God that hath so freely done so much for it Thus Faith worketh by Love And this is that Kingdom of God that is within us Luk. 17.20 the subjection of the whole Soul to the Scepter and Rule of Christ If he command Purity of Life forsaking of all things denying our selves crucifying our Lusts laying down our Lives the Soul is tutored to that subjection unto the Will of Christ that it chearfully obeys him in this and whatever he commands This is that Kingdom of God Rom. 14.17 consisting in Righteousness a full Conformity of the Soul to the Will of God the only and absolute Rule of Righteousness Peace upon the sense and belief of reconciliation with God through him that is our Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost upon the apprehension of the Protection and Love of Christ our King and that Glory which he hath most assuredly prepared for all his Subjects 3. We have the Degrees of the Manifestation of this Kingdom Here and Hereafter the Kingdom of Grace and the Kingdom of Glory both making but one Kingdom of God under different degrees of manifestation God by his Word and Spirit casts into the Soul a Seed of Life like that grain of Mustard-seed whereunto the Kingdom of Heaven is resembled Matt. 13. And this seed of Life abideth in the Heart 1 John 3.9 And there it quickens and fashions and moulds the Heart to the Image of God it opposeth and struggleth against Lusts and Temptations which labour to stifle and to kill this Seed of Life and like the leaven that was hid in the 3 measures of Meal Mat. 13.33 It doth by degrees assimulate the whole inward Man to this living principle and conforms the Life unto it Now though this principle of Life is thus operative yet in respect of the outward view it is a hidden Life The External appearance of this Life is reserved till Christ who is our Life shall appear and then shall that hidden Life be revealed Colos 3.4 Behold now we are the Sons of God 1 John 3.2 But it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him By this seed of Grace sown in our Hearts we become the Sons of God and of this Sonship we have a secret Evidence in our own Souls but there shall be a fuller Manifestation of it when Christ who is our Life shall appear So then the Kingdom of Grace and of Glory are the same Kingdom but under a different manifestation that a concealed Kingdom a seed in the ground this the Manifestation of that Kingdom a seed in the Tree To conclude When thou prayest Thy Kingdom come let thy Soul enlarge it self in these or the like desires O Lord I know thou art King of Heaven and Earth and the least of all thy Creatures in their most seemingly Casual and inconsiderable events and motions are under thy most certain and powerful Providence Yet such is our blindness and so mysterious are the ways of thy Providence that sometimes we are at a loss and desire with thy Prophet Jer. 12.1 to expostulate with thee touching thy Judgments If it stand with thy Glory and Will I beseech thee let all the events and occurrences of the World appear to be under thy Administration and Government that all may see thy Wisdom and thy Power and thy Justice and thy Goodness in all the passages of it and that all men may be convinced that thou the most High rulest in the Kingdoms of Men and that all thy Works are Truth and thy ways are Judgment and those that walk in pride thou art able to abase Dan. 4.32 37. That they may all acknowledge he is a God that Judgeth in the Earth Psal 58.11 And because thou hast a more peculiar Kingdom even those that thou hast given unto thy Son let that Kingdom of thine come do thou send out thy Spirit and thy Word into the World and subdue the Hearts of all People to the Belief and Obedience of the Gospel of Christ that all the Kingdoms of the World may be the Kingdoms of God and of Christ Bring in the Jews and the fulness of the Gentiles that there may be one Fold and one Shepherd and let thy Son ride on victoriously conquering and to conquer and preserve thy Flock from the mischiefs that are from without Oppression and Persecution and from those that are from within Divisions and Heresies Let them walk as becomes the Subjects of the Prince of Peace Purity and Truth in Unity Holiness and Truth that they may appear to be the People of thy Holiness Rule every Member thereof by thy Grace preserve them from their Enemies within them Lusts and Defections from their Enemies without them the Incursions of Satan Make hast to fulfill the number of thine Elect and when thy Kingdom of Grace is consummate then let thy Kingdom of Glory come the day of the manifestation of thy Righteous

Power and All-sufficiency of God and lastly with Recourse to God by Prayer against them for Except the Lord keep the City the Watchmen wake but in vain Psal 127.1 2. The second means is that which our Saviour teacheth us in this Petition Prayer unto God the Father who is faithful and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able 1 Cor. 10.13 Through our Lord Jesus Christ who hath suffered himself being tempted and therefore is able to succour those that are tempted Heb. 2.18 By the Eternal Spirit who hath promised to guide us into all truth John 16.13 That the Almighty and Eternal God who so far condescends unto us as to offer us his Hand to lead us and his Strength to support us that sees all our wayes and our wandrings and the snares that are spread for our feet would be pleased to guide us by his Hand and by his Eye that we may keep the true and old way and if any snares be laid there for us by the Enemy of our Peace that he would either remove or break the snare or lead us about by them or lift us over them That he would be pleased to cleanse our Hearts from our corruptions the nursery of our Temptations that he would prepare us and instruct and strengthen us by his Mighty Spirit to discern and to oppose and to overcome the deceits and seductions of our own Hearts To conclude therefore this part of this Petition O Lord God Almighty that beholdest all my ways I find that I walk in the midst of Snares and Temptations the great Enemy of my Salvation and his Retinue are continually about me and watch for my halting secretly and undiscoverably soliciting my Soul to sin against thee almost in every occurrence of my life and every motion of my mind and having in any thing prevailed against me either he quiets my Soul in my sin or disorders my Soul for it and by both prevents or diverts me from coming to thee to seek my Pardon as a thing not necessary to be asked or impossible to be gained Again the Men among whom I live scatter their temptations for me by Perswasions to sin by evil Examples by success in sinful practices And if there were no Devil or Man to tempt me yet I find in my self an everlasting seed of Temptations a stock of corruptions that forms all I am and all I have or do even thy very Mercies into Temptations when I consider thy Patience and Goodness to me I am tempted to Presumption to Supineness to an Opinion of my own worth when I consider or find thy Justice I am tempted to Murmuring to despair to think the most Soveraign Lord a hard Master In my Understanding I am tempted to secret Argumentation to Atheism to Infidelity to dispute thy Truth to curiosity to impertinent or forbidden enquiries If I have Learning it makes me Proud apt to despise the purity and simplicity of thy Truth to contend for Mastery not for Truth to use my Wit to reason my self or others into Errors or Sins to spend my time in those discoveries that do not countervail the expence nor are of any value or use to my Soul after death In my Will I find much averseness to what is good a ready motion to every thing that is evil or at least an incertain fluctuation between both In all my Thoughts I find abundance of Vanity when imployed to any thoughts of most concernment to my Soul full of inconsistency unfixt unsetled easily interrupted mingled with gross apprehensions When I look into my Conscience I find her easily bribed and brought over to the wrong party allayed with self-love if not wholly silent unprofitable and dead In my Affections I find continued disorder easily misplaced and more easily over-acted beyond the bounds of Moderation Reason and Wisdom much more of Christianity and thy Fear In my sensual Appetite I find a continual fog and vapour rising from it disordering my Soul in all I am about with unseasonable importunate and foul exhalations that darken and pollute it that divert and disturb it in all that is good that continually solicit it to all sensual Evils unto all immoderation and excess In my Senses I have an Eye full of Wantonness full of Covetousness full of Haughtiness an Ear full of Itching after novelties impertinencies vanities a Palate full of Intemperance studious for curiosities a Hand full of violence when it is in my power a Tongue full of unnecessary vain words apt to slander to whisper full of vain-glory and self-flattery If thou givest me a healthy strong Body I am ready to be proud of it apt to think my self out of the reach of sickness or death It keeps me from thinking of my latter end or providing for it I am ready to use that strength to the service of sin with better advantage more excess and less remorse If thou visitest me with sickness I am surprised with Peevishness Impatience with solicitous care touching my Estate and Posterity and Recovery and my thoughts concerning thee less frequent less profitable than before though my necessity be greater If thou givest me Plenty I am apt to be Proud Insolent Confident in my Wealth reckoning upon it as my Treasure think every thought lost that is not imployed upon it or in order to increase it loth to think of Death or Judgment If thou visitest me with Poverty I am apt to murmur to count the Rich happy to cast off thy service as unprofitable to look upon my everlasting hopes as things at a distance Imaginary Comforts under Real wants If thou givest me Reputation and Esteem in the World I am apt to make use of it to bear me out at a pinch in some unlawful action to use it to mislead others to use any base shift to support it If thou cast me into Reproach and Ignominy my heart is apt to swell against the means to study Revenge and to die with my Reputation though it may causelesly be lost and to have the thoughts and remembrance of it to interfere and grate upon my Soul even in my immediate service to thee any Cross sowers at my blessings and carries my heart so violently into discontent for it may be all single affliction which I deservedly suffer that I forget to be thankful for a multitude of other Mercies which I undeservedly enjoy If I am about a good Duty I find my heart tempted to perform them Carelesly Formally Negligently Hypocritically Vain-gloriously for false or by-Ends and when I have done them my heart is puft up with Pride opinion of Merit looking upon my Maker as my Debtor for the Duty I owe him and yet but slightly and defectively performed to him How then can I expect Power from my self to resist a Temptation without when I find so much treachery within me I therefore beseech thee most Merciful and Powerful Father to send into my heart the Grace and strength of thy blessed

Good to deny Lust both in the Practice and Love of it than to Entertain it And Consequently the Will moves towards the Greater Good according to its proper and natural Inclination 2. There is yet a further Effect wrought upon the Will viz. The sense of the Love of Christ the end of his Death to redeem us from these Lusts whereby even by an obligation of Gratitude it takes up Resolutions of Obeying him This Truth though it be first received in the Understanding and entertained by Faith yet it doth immediatly work upon the Will and Affections viz. An Aversion to that Lust that Crucified her Saviour and which the same Saviour upon the Indearment of his own Blood begs us to Crucifie 3. There is yet a further work upon the Will by the secret and powerful working of the Spirit of God strengthning and perswading and restoring it to its Liberty and Just Soveraignty over the sensual Appetite A Poem THe Great Creator gave to Brutes the light Of Sense and Natural Instinct that might Conduct them in a Sensual Life by this They steer their course and very rarely miss Their instituted Rule nor yet reject Its Guidance or its Influence neglect But the Creators great Beneficence Gave unto Man besides the Light of Sense The Nobler Light of Reason Intellect And Conscience to Govern and Direct His Life and Actions and to keep at rights The Motions of his sensual Appetite But wretched Man unhappily deserts His Makers Institution and perverts The End of all his Bounty prostitutes His Reason unto Lust and so pollutes His Noble Soul his Reason and his Wit And Intellect that in the Throne should sit Must lacky after Lust and so fulfil The base commands and pleasure of her will And thus the Humane Nature's great Advance Becomes its greater ruine doth inhance Its Guilt while Judgment Reason Wit Improve those very sins it doth Commit Dear Lord Thy Mercy sure must overflow That pardons Sins which from thy Bounty grow THE FOLLY AND Mischief of SIN 1. IT is a most Vnprofitable and Foolish thing The Content that is in it is but Imaginary and dyes in the compass of a Thought The Expectation of it is nothing but Disappointment and the Fruition of it perisheth in a moment 2. It is the infallible Seed of Shame and Mischief which without it be intercepted by Repentance and the Mercy of God doth as naturally and infallibly grow from it as Hemlock and Henbane do from their proper Seeds and though the nature of some Sins is more speedy and visible in producing that Fruit yet most certainly sooner or later every Sin yields his Crop even in this life The best Fruit it yields is Sorrow and Repentance which though it be good in comparison of their Fruit ensuing if omitted yet certainly it is not without much Trouble and Discomposure of Mind and the Bitterness even of Repentance it self infinitely over-ballanceth the Contentment that the Sin did yield 3. Sin doth not only produce an Ungrateful Fruit but there is also a certain Spight and Malignity in the Fruit it yields carrying in it the very Picture Resemblance and Memorial of the Sin for the most part which doggs a Man in the punishment of it with the very Repetition of the Guilt a●lex talionis 4. It Poysons and Invenomes all Conditions If a Man be in Prosperity it either makes it an occasion of new Sins to cover or secure them that are past or it sowers and infests the very State it self with sad Pre-apprehensions of the Fruit due to his Sin Or hants him in his Jollity like as I have seen an Importunate Creditor a young Gallant which blasts all his Comfort and Contentment If a Man be in Adversity it adds Affliction to Affliction The best Companion of Affliction is a clear Conscience but when a Man hath outward Troubles and a Mis-giving Guilty Soul it makes his Affliction black and Desperate 5. It Discomposeth and disorders and unqualifies a Man for any Good Duty either to God or Man I pray but I bring along with me a sense of Sin that makes me Ungrateful to my self and how can I expect to be Acceptable to God the Pure and Holy God who hates nothing but Sin I beg Blessings but how can I expect to receive a Blessing from him whom I but lately presumptuously offended If my Son or Servant hath offended me and comes to ask a benefit of me I look upon it as a sawcy Presumption and can I expect to have better Entertainment from my Maker than I think fit to allow my fellow Creature The truth is there is no Petition comes seasonably from a Man under the Guilt of Sin but Pardon Forgiveness and Mercy If I do a Good Work the Sin that I stand guilty of makes the Comfort I take in it or in other commendations of it Insipid and Empty my Heart tells me there is a Sin in my Conscience that makes me ashamed to own the Good that is in the Action If I see a fault in another that my Place or Condition requires me to Reprove the sense of my own Guilt makes me either backward to Reprove or Condemn my self while I am Reproving another with such thoughts as these I am Reproving a Sin in another where I stand as Guilty in the sight of God as the person reprehended if he knew my Sin how justly might he throw my Reprehension into my own face and if he know it not yet the God of Heaven before whom I stand and the Conscience which I bear within me makes my Reprehension of another a Condemnation of my self If I go about any action of my life though never so Honest Just and Lawful yet my mis-giving thoughts make me either un-active in it or fill me with pre-apprehensions of mischief or disappointment in it how can I expect a blessing from God whom I have offended in any business I undertake I carry along with me in all I do the Curse that the Lord threatned Deut. 28.20 The Lord shall send upon thee Cursing Vexation and Rebuke in all that thou settest thy hands unto and verse 29. Thou shalt not prosper in thy ways and verse 34. So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see and verse 67. In the morning thou shalt say Would God it were Evening and at Evening thou shalt say Would God it were Morning for the fear of thine Heart wherein thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine Eyes which thou shalt see And Certainly all this grows from the Inconguity and Dissonancy that is between sin and the true right constitution of the Nature of Man that is thereby made unuseful for his proper Operations just as a sore or a bone out of joynt disables the proper serviceableness of a Limb or as a noxious humour disorders the Stomach Liver or Spleen in its proper Office or as a Disease or ill disposition of the Body makes it unserviceable to