thou seest Pleasure written upon the face of it that is as it is coming towards thee If thou wilt not believe this now thine experience shall shortly make it good and condemn thee for a stark fool in that thou hast so much teaching and yet would'st not learn that thou had'st eyes and could'st not see and that thou wast so oft forewarned of the vanity and deceitfulness of these Earthly pleasures and yet would'st be deceived And yet I will confess if the fault could then be mended after Experience hath taught thee the vanity of them and thou art going out of the world as a miserable wretch ready to be forsaken of the comforts which thou hast inordinately loved if then thou could'st recover thine affections and bequeath thine heart to God which the world did possess all thy life time then it would be some diminution of thy Sin and Folly But as sure as thou livest God will not take that heart at thy Death which thou would'st not give him in thy Life nor be put off with a Legacy when thou art dying and going out of the world to whom thou would'st give nothing all thy life-time But yet if the Lord would accept such an Offering from thee that heart that hath been so commanded all thy life long by such pleasures as the world affords will not be now at thine own command and dispose It will be hankering after the world when it is departing and leaving of it and would still live among these pleasures if it could and prefer them before Eternal Life with God But I beseech thee to consider whether it be not perfect madness to suffer thine affections to be thus captivated and bewitched with fading momentary delights They are little to be envied whose whole lives are but a Diversion from one pleasure to another But if any men on Earth are like to perish for ever and lose those satisfying pleasures at Gods right Hand for evermore these are the men It is not one of a thousand that recovers of their Surfeit when they come to be old that have lived their younger years wholly addicted to their carnal brutish delights and not a man that dies amidst such pleasures before his heart be weaned from them but is like to feel more bitter torment than such as have lived all their life-time in poverty and little ease Surely they that let out their hearts too freely to the things of this world forget that there is such a Text in the Word of God Love not the world nor the things of the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2.19 But that which makes some men that know this well enough to be mistaken is because they read of several rich men in Scripture that have their hands full of these Earthly comforts and see and hear of others that go to Heaven in the midst of great Possessions therefore they confidently conclude that they may enjoy them as well as others and yet be in a safe condition as if there were no difference between having and enjoying of them Their hearts were far enough from their Possessions as you might easily have seen if you had lived and conversed with them Though they had a large portion of their comforts a good measure of this Dung and Dross as the Apostle calls it yet they spread it to the good increase of Religion and Piety where they had to do they took little pleasure in this Dunghil neither did they spend their precious thoughts and time to encrease it But thy heart it may be is Wedded to these Carnal contentments and buried in this Dunghil and thy sweetest pleasures come in this way and when riches encrease thy heart is set upon them Psal 62.10 Let me tell thee that if ever Consideration open thine eyes thou wilt be as mad against these pleasures as ever thou wert mad for them And thou that do'st so industriously seek them with such careful study and endeavour wilt then be sick of them nulla major voluptas quam voluptatis fastidium No pleasure like that of contemning such transitory unmanly pleasures as these are if as Tully saith he is not worthy the name of a man that would live a whole day in such pleasures I am sure he is not worthy the name of a Christian that can live his whole life-time and prefer the pleasures of his body before the feasting of his Soul It 's the want of serious Consideration in this particular that makes so many lose the Joys of Heaven whilst they feast themselves with the Pleasures of the World Sixthly Another thing that should be the matter of your frequent serious Consideration is your latter end and the nearness of your dissolution This would make you wise indeed not to lay up riches and diet much less to treasure up sin and wrath against the day of wrath but to lay up in store a good foundation against the appointed time 1 Tim. 6.19 Rom. 2.5 It was the want of such heedful and attentive consideration that made Moses complain of the Israelites that they were a nation void of Counsel neither was there any understanding in them this made him wish so passionately O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Deut. 32.28 29. This made the same Moses to pray so to teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to true wisdom Psal 90.121 Who can think what a vapour his life is James 4.14 and make it shorter by neglecting the work it was given him for A man never begins to live till he lives to God and he that survives the most years after he hath begun this work may be truly said to live the longest although he reach not the age of many a Carnal minded man For a mans life is not to be computed by grey hairs or the number of years but by the work that he hath done If therefore thy work be undone when death is approaching to thee what shall I say that thou hast lived but a little while nay rather that thou hast not lived at all I must conclude therefore that to consider the shortness of thy life is the way to lengthen it and to put thee into such a happy condition that death shall be sure never to surprise thee O what a madness it is for men that are to live but a few years it may be days in the world never seriously to consider it till their days are at an end when they have but a few turns more to fetch in this World not to consider it and turn unfeignedly to God before they are turned out of the World where is that mans Wits that buries his thoughts alive in the impertinencies of this life and scarce thinks from one end of the year to the other that he must die and in that very day his thoughts must perish What doth that man do that Fidles
wood we have lost our selves in Thus it is if we count but for a day but if we go further and reckon for the month or year we shall find no end Who can count the Dust of Jacob Num. 23.10 or sum up the mercies he doth receive which are like the Dust of the Earth not for smalness but for multitude David observes them to come by whole loads Psal 68.19 Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with his Benefits But our Spiritual Miseries are yet more because they contain all our Temporals so far as they refer to a Spiritual end and how many more who can tell How many mercies concur in our Redemption Vocation Justification Sanctification How many considerations may be fetch'd from the Author from the meritorious cause from the persons that do receive from the instruments that do convey them from the frequency and reiteration of the particulars and from other circumstances of time and place which would swell our Accounts beyond all possibility of Numeration This is the first motive the infinite mercies we receive should prompt us to this Rememembrance Secondly Wouldst thou have God remember thee with compassion in thy greatest necessities then remember him with affection now It may be there are fearful days coming upon some of us before our final departure and solemn appearance before the Judge of all the World What though the Cloud that hangs over this Nation be but the bigness of a mans hand it may quickly grow bigger and blacker till it cover the face of the whole Heaven and bring down a storm of heavier misery upon those that have escaped Judgment hitherto There is nothing can fense a man from all possible Fears and Terrors if God forget us Wouldst thou not be afraid of evil tidings nor faint when the iniquities of thy heels compass thee about Wouldst thou not be confounded in the day of adversity when the Heaven frowns the Sea roars Esay 24.20 And the Earth shall reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man when the world shall be overturned and the transgression thereof shall be heavy on it and the hearts of wicked men shall fail them for fear Then keep alive such remembrance of him as hath been hitherto commended Then come what will nothing shall drive thee to desperation for the Lord God shall be thy confidence and with-hold thine heart from sinking Prov. 3.26 as well as thy foot from being taken This a great Cardinal in this Nation understood when it was too late and therefore when a Messenger from Henry 8. brought him the tidings of his doom and was sent to bring him away to Execution he pitifully complained That if he had served God as faithfully as he had endeavoured to serve his Master he had never met with such a reward As it is the top stone and the perfection of misery to be blotted out of Gods Remembrance so it is a happiness worth a World to be Remembred by him This supported David many a time when he was in miserable distress and brought to the greatest streights when Friends forsook him Enemies threatned him Saul hunted him like a Patridge about the Mountains and he was forced to flee from before his Face and to take Shelter amongst the Philistines whose Champion he had slain and from whom he had little reason to expect any succour and whilst he liv'd in banishment at Ziglag even that was suddenly surprized by the Amalekites and burnt with Fire and his Wives and Friends were taken away Captives and the People that were his only Guard being provoked spake of stoning him But though all this had been enough to have broken the heart of another man not acquainted with David's refuge yet see how David bore up and supported himself 1 Sam. 30.6 And David was greatly distressed for the People spake of stoning him because the Soul of all the People was grieved every Man for his Sons and for his Daughters But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God This helped Hezekiah to digest the proud message of the King of Assyria and to spread the railing Letter before him who he knew could put a Hook into Sennacherib's Nose and turn him back or else defend him against that Army that were grown so insolent by their Victories 2 Chron. 32. And God remembred him verse 21 22. Yea when Esaiah was sent to him to bid him put his House in order and prepare for death it was Armour of Proof to him against the terror of death that he could say Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight which he could ne'r have done if God had not been highest in his Remembrance Esay 38.3 If thou beest one that canst drive out the thoughts of God in thy youthful healthful and more comfortable days expect not that he should remember thee in distress If whilst thou art surrounded with his mercies thou wilt forget that he is gracious to thee when thou art be set with misery and affliction he will forget to be gracious to thee Be wise now therefore and take in these thoughts as thou takest in the Air every day and other comforts which he sendeth thee and lay them up as thy greatest treasure These will sweeten the sowrest Cup and gild over the bitterest Pill and God will certainly remember thee if not to take away the evil yet take out the sting Ahasuerus may forget Mordecai and the Butler may be unmindful of Joseph and the preserved City may not remember the poor man that saved it but God will not forget those that remember him He will be thy refuge and strength and a very present help in the time of trouble Psal 46.1 And then thou needst not fear though the Earth be removed and the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea though the Waters thereof roar and be troubled though the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof ver 2 3. Then though thy Flesh begins to fail thee yet thy heart will not or if thy Flesh should fail thee and thy Heart also yet God would remember thee and be the strength of thy hope and thy portion for ever Thou mayst easily foresee the day when Sickness will break thy Body and earthly Delights will forsake thee and Death will be inexorable and take no nay then if thou hast cherished this Remembrance of God thou wilt dare to lay down thy Body in the Dust and as certainly foresee the joyful re-union of thy Soul and Body as now thou dost their uncomfortable dissolution Wouldst thou not then be forgotten of God when thy Friends and all the World will forget thee Then Remember him now Yea wouldst thou be content to go into the place of Forgetfulness and to be forgotten as a dead man out of sight Why all this will not discourage thee if thou hast this remedy at hand But on the
all born into the World in a state of Forgetfulness and that Naturally God is not minded by us he is not in all our thoughts 1. By a usually Hebraism in never a one of them so worthily regarded as he ought Psal 10.4 Oblivion goes before Remembrance in every Child of Adam I know Forgetfulness doth suppose that we either had or should have had the habit of which this is the privavation We cannot be said in any propriety of Speech to forget that which we never did or never ought to have Remembred As a thing can never be said to be blind which never saw nor ought to have seen But it is our miserable and unhappy case and condition that we were made to Remember God and to give him the highest of our Praises and had a Nature fit for so high and noble Service and yet are born into the World in a gross ignorance of God with a Nature that continually disposeth us to forget him and to entertain the most contemptible Vanities into our Thoughts and Affections before him This is the Disease that Christ came to Cure with the greatest pity and compassion to Mankind which it is the intenâ— of his Word and Cross and Spirit and all his Ordinances to remove and which is cured in a sincere and prevailing measure in all that shall see his Face to their comfort hereafter And although Infants are not actually guilty of this sin as neither they are of any other sin because they are not come to the use of their Reason and therefore cannot perform any act properly vertuous or sinful yet they have an oblivious Disposition a Seed in them that will bring forth this cursed Fruit when they are capable But for those that have pass'd an Infants state and are grown up to the use of Reason there 's nothing that they remember and think on less than God Secondly It 's here supposed that after any are recovered by Christ and awakened by his Word and Spirit to a due Remembrance of God they may fall back into such a degree of Forgetfulness again as that they may question whether ever they had a heart truly mindful of him though I believe they shall never totally and finally fall into Forgetfulness nor be forgotten of Christ if they be in the number of the Elect. And therefore though Christ commends the Church of Ephesus for her Faith and Patience yet he is said to have somewhat against her because she had left her Love Rev. 2.4 And she is warned to remember whence she is fallen and to repent and do her first works ver 5. These two particulars are evidently supposed in this last Proposition which I am now to prosecute and that Consideration of God his Word and Works is a necessary Remedy on our part to cure our hereditary Forgetfulness and bring us to the Remembrance I have been pleading for and to recover us after any Relapse And that for these Reasons First Because a Man can never come to the Remembrance of God till his Heart be sincerely affected with those truths that such a Remembrance doth pre-suppose but this can never be done without consideration There 's nothing that 's absent or Spiritual that can affect the Heart and get that Fort unless it be led in by Consideration that 's the Eye of the Soul and 't is the Eye only that can affect the Heart There 's nothing that can affect the Body or move the Bodily Passions that is not first apprehended by some Bodily Sense that is not seen or heard or perceived by some other sense Now Consideration supplies that to the Soul which the five Senses do to the Body it 's the Eye Ear and Taster of the Soul whereby it discerns what is good or evil to it and accordingly the Soul doth either embrace or abhor yea it mâ—st discover not only good and evil but the degree in which any thing is good or evil before the Soul can be suitably affected therewith which can never be done with any consideration If this Eye be shut set the greatest Danger before a Man and he will not fear set the greatest Delights before him and he will not be moved to desire them What 's the reason that a wicked Man goes on in sin and will not forsake it when you display Hell before his Eyes but because he considers it not It appears to him not to be so terrible because this Eye is shut If you run a Sword at a Man whose Eyes are shut and sees it not he will not endeavour to avoid the thrust but he that hath his Eyes open and sees what 's coming towards him will quickly start back and decline that instrument of Death A careless Man that never considered well what a fearful thing it is to fall into the Hands of God Heb. 10.31 noâ— how intolerable his Displeasure is when it shall break forth in good earnest and burn like a consuming fire will venture on it for a little deluding pleasure A Man that considers not the worth of his Soul will neglect it and not think it worth so many Prayers and Tears and such diligence as must be used to procure the Salvation thereof for till his Heart be touched with a lively feeling and sense of these truths he will not neglect them and live after the Flesh and if he doth not weigh and consider them his Heart will never be made to feel them What 's the reason that Men hug and embrace a little dirt and filth and suffer their Affections to cleave so fast to their Carnal Contentments It can be resolved into nothing better than that they do not consider what Sin and Folly they are guilty of and what an impediment they are being embraced to the true content and happiness of their Souls otherwise they would not nor could not be so mad as embrace the present World and to prefer it before the World to come Well then is it Consideration that must bring a Man to a worthy Remembrance of God because it opens the Eye and affects the Heart and puts an edge upon every Truth that doth bias and dispose the Soul to this Remembrance that it 's felt and entertained with some sincere measure of submission The Soul is such a Subject that cannot be wrought upon without its own consent and that 's not easily gained to any thing that 's of a reforming saving tendency unless frequent and serious Consideration make way The Soul will never consent to any purpose that the Flesh should be afflicted and humbled that it's Affections and Lusts should be mortified and subdued till Consideration shew the necessity thereof and the Death that will follow if this Death do not go before There are some truths that are preparative to this Remembrance which though they are easie to be known yet they will never be drunk in or digested till Consideration shew their excellency and plead their great necessity and importance to us and give
the greatest Honour Pleasure Profit unless it be the Hypocrites and formal Professors that slight it over and whose Hearts are not engaged in the Work Mic. 2.7 Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly Verily there is a reward for the Righteous Psal 58.11 I mean such a one that comes not behind his Duty but keeps company with it You may safely and confidently aver to him that soweth Righteousness there is a sure reward as well as shall be Prov. 11.28 Many a refreshing joyful Song he hath whilst he is scattering this Seed what then will the joy of the Harvest be if Plowing and Sowing be such a pleasing Work I confess in all other Service that doth not refer to this the question may be truly put What doth it profit Where is any pleasure that my Heart and Soul can taste and find I have many a time come home by Weeping Cross when I have travelled hardest in the affairs and matters of this Life But he that saith his Heart hath found no sweetness nor reward in his approximation unto God and in the exercise of his Worship if he understands himself he doth but proclaim his Hypocrisie and tell the World that his Heart is defective in the Work That he doth not Worship his Maker and Redeemer in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4.24 That he doth not consider to whom he doth repair nor what he may expect nor who is ready to intercede for him if he doth but look to him with a believing Heart otherwise if these things come under any due Consideration he could not find no taste nor sweetness in such a Service nor return with such a dry and empty Heart from the Fountain of infinite Joy and Fulness Could a Man come to the Sun and not be enlightened and stand under it's warm refreshing Beams and not be revived Could a Man touch the Hem and Border of Christs Garment and feel no Virtue come forth for his Refreshment much less can a Man stand in the presence of his Glory and have no reflections of Light and Comfort from him You may as well say that a Man may feed upon the most nourishing Sustenance and concoct what he eats and yet not thrive at all As that a Man may thoroughly and seriously consider the great sanctifying Truths and live under the power of such Thoughts and find nothing of Gust and Relish in them Peace and Comfort in some Degree are as inseparable from Grace if Consideration bring it into Exercise as Light is from the Sun And as Consideration doth gather strength and is more lively and vigorous so will the Exercise of Grace be more fervent and when Grace is upon the Wing and in a hasty flight Heaven-wards the Virgins that are her Companions Peace and Joy and Comfort I mean will not be dead and unactive but will like the shadow keep company and resemblance with the Body to which they do belong And they that are most frequent and strong in the Exercise of their Grace Faith Love and Hope will have the stronger and more frequent Consolations and Refreshments And therefore David whose Faith and Love and Thankfulness to God were continually working had the the greater sense and experience of this inward Joy and Comfort And such was the degree thereof oftentimes that he could not contain himself but he must needs break forth into Songs and Triumph How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than Honey to my Mouth Psal 119.103 O how I love thy Law it is my Meditation all the day ver 97. Thy Statutes have been my Songs in the House of my Pilgrimage ver 54. The service of God must needs be tedious and irksome to them that have their minds on something else and think not what a courtesie they do themselves whilst they draw near to God with the Heart What a favour it is to approach such a presence What an Honour it reflects upon them and what advantage there comes in every way to him that offers a Sacrifice fit for God to accept 2. Exhortation SEcondly Having shewed you what an Obstruction Inconsideracy is to the Remembrance of God and instanced in two woful inconveniences that necessarily flow from an incogitant heedless Service of God By this time I hope our Eyes may be a little opened to see what a sin it 's to be defective in so great a Duty as Consideration is and therefore it 's the more seasonable to warn and beseech you that you would not at one dash blot out all true Worship of God and solid Peace and Comfort out of your own Hearts by a sin so inconsistent with the Rational Spiritual Nature that God hath bestowed upon Man Must not he that hath made both Soul and Body be worshiped with both and served with their united strength As the Eye guides the Body so doth Consideration first stir up and then steer and govern the Soul in all its operations and therefore if you leave out that the Soul cannot stir or move suitably to its Nature If then Forgetfulness of God be a sin that you would not for all the World be found guilty of at the great trying day then be sure not lay the Foundation of such a guilt by the neglect of Consideration Use that Faculty in all things if you would they should be wisely pone but fail not to use it in the service of God and in the matters of highest importance And as you have to do with God in all things either mediately or immediately in a nearer or remoter manner so it behoves you to consider if you will discharge the Duty and rightly perform your Work There are but two sorts of Actions that a Man hath a capacity to produce and in both we have to do with God 1. There are some Actions that have God for their Object or something immediately subservient to him and their end also Such are all Actions of Religious Worship whether External as Prayer Praises solemn Invocation of his Name in an assertory or promissory Oath hearing of the Word participation of the Sacraments or Internal as Faith Love Reverence Dependance Trust Submission 2. There are other Actions that have not God but something else for their Object yet they should have God for their Principal and Vltimate End Such are all the Actions where we have to do with Creatures whether They be Acts of Labour Refreshment In Study the Object about which our Action is conversant is that which our thoughts are exercised about whither it be Names or Things In Trafique the Object of our Action is that with or for which we Trafique In Eating and Drinking the Object is our Meat and Drink But the end in all these should be the pleasing of God and the promoting his Glory which is done when we ask Counsel of him and humbly beg his Direction in all these and heartily devote the Knowledge the Strength the Gain which comes in by these Actions
of Earthly Prosperity but that 's but a meer negative and no positive Act whereas true Contentment is something positive And that Soul that hath it doth not only hold its peace and say nothing to the contrary but with deliberation speaketh Peace to a Man upon the surest and most infallible grounds The plain truth is the Soul of an ambitious and voluptuous Worldling may seem to be satisfied and acquiesce if he hath what the World can afford him because he doth not believe or consider The end of all things is at hand 1 Pet. 4.7 But sense hath a full mastery over him being gratified to the full and doth make the Mind drunk that it cannot make an impartial enquiry into the worth of what the Man for the present is so much pleased with O if such a one did consider and believe he would like his condition worse than that of the vilest Begger He could not look into the Word of God and see such dreadful passages against those that have their Affections set upon the World and Pleasures thereof nor read the terrible Description of those Men that have the Riches of this World and are not rich towards God Luke 12.21 and not tremble and even throw away such Earthly Luggage that is such an impediment in the way to Salvation if he could not be otherwise rid of it And as the inconsiderate Mans great and principal End is no higher so he is as foolish and void of Understanding in his choice of the means whereby he would attain his End Alas that ever Men that have such excellent parts and means for their Improvement that are bred up to more Understanding than other Men should so disparage their very Reason and Judgmenâ— as to think that Hawking and Hunting and Carding and Dicing and Courting and Feasting and such like Courses should bring a Man to Content and Happiness If they did but consider they could not possibly judge this unless their Reason were besotted and there were some considerable flaw in their understanding Faculty I deny not but in reference to their intended End they have made a wise and prudent choice and hit upon the fittest means Their end being the pleasing of the Flesh what can they do more wisely than to make provision for it to fulfil the Lusts and Desires thereof Rom. 13.14 and to live at Ease And so the Children of this World as our Saviour hath affirmed are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light Luke 16.8 Their end though by accident being to lose the Life which is to come what can they do more shrewdly than to save this present Life Since their end is to destroy their Souls can they take a more prudent course than to love the World and the things of the World and keep all thoughts of a future state out of their Minds as much as may be lest they should be converted and saved This their way is their folly Psal 49.13 But the Man that Considers will look higher and be sure to project for all Eternity and make nothing his chief End but what will never fail and therefore hath a wiser reach than the most applauded admired Wit that is Earthly Minded And he is as wise in the choice of the means whereby he makes towards his End they being no other than what God himself hath prescribed and therefore can never miscarry his End is to save his Life for ever and therefore he will venture to lose it here Matth. 10.39 His end is to get him Everlasting Honour and to embalm his Name to all Eternity and therefore he doth rejoyce when Men revile him and speak all evil of him falsly for Christs sake Thus you see that Consideration maketh a Man truly and solidly wise This is the first benefit of Consideration 2. Consideration is a work accompanied with the sweetest Pleasure and Contentment The meer agitation and exercise of the Intellectual is sweet to one that knows how to employ them But when moreover the Objects of the Mind are such as do enlighten purifie and rejoyce the Heart such a Man if he know how to manage the work must needs advance himself to a high degree of pleasure The reason why some Christians grow weary and faint in the Service of God and walk heavily in the bitterness of their Souls a great part of their Life if not all is because they do not more frequently approach the Fountain of Joy and Gladness in their Meditations of him and do not so well consider the evil of Sin to forsake it more heartily nor clear up their interest in Christ and Evidences for Heaven by daily Consideration Were these things better considered they would be better known and what a pleasure would it be to think upon God and Heaven and Christ if we had but 〈…〉 â—â—â—erest in them Thus you see some of the fruits of Consideration Fourthly As the benefits of Consideration are unspeakably great so the mischiefs of Inconsideracy are as sad 1. God threatens it heavily Psal 28.5 Because they consider or gard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his Hands he will destroy them and not build them up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because they did not understand in the Original for Consideration and Vnderstanding are so near a kin that they are both expressed by the same word and Esay 5.12 13. And the Harp and the Viol and the Tabret are in their Feasts but they regard not the Work of the Lord nor consider the operation of his Hands So Hos 7.2 They consider not in their Hearts that I remember all their Wickedness now their own doings have beset them about they are before my Face Neither doth he barely threaten some Execution is done Job 34.26 27. He striketh them as wicked Men in the open sight of others and the Reason follows because they turned back from him and would not consider any of his ways 2. It 's an Argument of Brutishness and Folly Psal 92.5 6. O Lord how great are thy Works and thy Thoughts very deep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Man that 's led by Lust and not by Reason we render it a Brutish Man knoweth not neither doth a Fool understand or consider this As it is Reason and Understanding that makes a Man differ from a Bruit and become more excellent than a Beast so Consideration is nothing else but the use of his Reason without which he must needs live like a Beast To speak plainly he that will not use his Reason and consider and so live like a Man that should be guided by this higher Principle he will be guided by a lower Principle and be led by Sense and Feeling as a Beast is And a little that is present and felt shall weigh more with such a one than one that 's to come though ten times greater Hence it is that though God threaten a wicked Man and one that lives by sense with Hell and Damnation it hath no
a one that hath unsearchable Wisdom to Rule us infinite Power both to protect us and break our Enemies in pieces and is not profited by our Service Job 22.2 Can a Man be profitable to God as he that is wise may be profitable to himself Thou owest thy hearty Subjection unto God He made thee and is thy rightful and absolute Sovereign and when thou hadst turn'd Traitor to him He hath not set thee up as a Monument of his terrible Wrath and Vengeance But hath laid the Government upon his Son so nearly allied to us by the Assumption of our Nature and relaxed the Rigour of his Law promising to accept sincere Service and Love though perfect Obedience be due O what a◠Aggravation will this be of our Sin if we still continue it after the Grace of God hath so much abounded towards us Rom. 6.1 and persist in our Rebellion we know too well what it is to be Rebels against God our Redeemer but we little imagin what it is to be sentenced and condemned for Rebels at the great and terrible Day 2. Secondly Every Unbeliever hath the Guilt of all his former Sins fast bound upon him not one of them is pardoned every Commission yea and every Omission every idle Thought and Word and Action with all their several Aggravations stand still upon Record uncancell'd God hath pass'd an Act of Indempnity and Oblivion and proclaimed wonderful Grace and Mercy to penitent Sinners but the Unbeliever whilst such hath no share nor portion in it The Blood of Christ hath infinite virtue to cleanse sinners from all unrighteousness 1 John 1.9 but it 's only such as do believe The Law of God the Creatour or Covenant of Works which threatneth Death to every Sin is still in Force to such as are not the sincere Subjects of Christ by Faith the wrath of God abideth upon such John 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Every violation of the Law makes it due to the sinner and Faith in Christ is the only means to remove it but where that is wanting there it continues and abides If one sin unpardoned will sink the Soul of the transgressour into everlasting condemnation into what unspeakable misery and horrour will that vast Number that he hath committed force the sinner who will not come unto Christ nor submit himself to his Redeemer Look to thy self and answer it as thou canst that wilt not come unto Christ to be thy Advocate and answer for thee stand upon thy own Legs as well as thou art able that wilt not bottom thy self by Faith on Christ endure the storm of God's wrath as well as thou canst that wilt not anchor thy Soul upon the Redeemer of the World Thou seest the worst of it if thou canst make light of it it 's but bearing all the Sins thou hast committed upon thy own Body and Soul and the Wrath of God due to them And if thou takest this to be a tolerable and a light Burden continue still in thy unbelief 3. Thirdly If thou art no true Subject of Christ by Faith in him thou art a Slave of Satan and a Vassal to thine own Corruption There are but two principal Masters Christ is one whose Right it is And Satan is the other though an Usurper If thou wilt not devote thy self to him who is thy lawful Lord and Master thou wilt be under the Commands of a Cruel Tyrant There are but two Generals Christ the Captain of our Salvation Heb. 2.10 and Satan the Ring-leader to destruction and one thou must fight under There are but two sorts of Servants either thou art the Servant of Righteousness or else thou art the Servant of Sin Rom. 6.16 If Christ do not dwell in thy Heart by Faith Ephes 3.17 Satan hath got possession and thou art a Member of that wicked Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. that efficaciously worketh in the Children of Disobedience Ephes 2.2 He formeth thy Conceptions frameth thy Discourses animateth all thy Actions steereth thy whole Conversation and when there is need instigateth thee to any Wickedness though thou art secure and little suspectest 't is he that prompteth thee in all thou goest about If thou hadst an eye to see what influence he hath upon all thy Actions it would make thee to abhor all thou doest Indeed there are wicked Habits and Dispositions that strongly move and hurry thee into the same wickedness which the Devil would have thee to commit for if thou wert meerly passive it would be thy Misery but not thy Sin But now having no part in Christ thou art at once led by thy own Corruption and the Enemy of all Goodness into all Sin and Mischief No Turkish slavery comparable to this wherein the sinner is wounding and tearing and wracking himself every day and yet though he feels the smart sometime perceives the mischief he doth himself he cannot nor will forbear You would look with pity upon a Madman gnashing and cutting himself and bless God that you are sober when you see the pernicious Effects of Madness And yet if you are impenitent unbelievers you are guilty of far worse Cruelty to your Souls 4. Fourthly If thou art a Unbeliever thou art not sure to be one Day longer out of Hell and Eternal Misery thou hangst over the Pit of Destruction by the single Thread of thy Life and if the Twine break as it is a Miracle it doth not every hour all the World cannot save thee Let not a deceived Heart turn thee aside that thou canst not by Faith in Christ deliver thy own Soul nor say is there not a Lye in my Right Hand Esa 44.2 Thy Riches and thy Honours cannot prevent thy Death much less can they procure a Release from it least of all can they Ransom thee from Destruction thou art hasting to it every Moment and thou knowest not what one Day or Hour may bring forth Prov. 27.1 As sure as thou livest so surely thou shalt dye for ever if thou go forward in unbelief when once thy Breath is departed from thy Body and how many ways that may be stop'd who knows And wilt thou yet stand out against the gracious Offers of thy Redeemer and linger in Infidelity and run the hazard of Eternal Destruction Nay it s no hazard but as undoubtedly certain as the Word of God is true O that unbelievers would ponder this that they would but consider their latter End what a few Breaths more they have to fetch before they are turned into Everlasting Despair How dare you lye down to sleep lest you should awake in Hell How dare you rise lest it should be to Judgment and Condemnation How can you enjoy your Life one Moment that know not but that the next Moment you must exchange it for Endless Torment and Misery And how will you do to give up the Ghost
go no further than the Bible Look not on the Vine saith Solomon when it is red when it giveth its colour in the Cup when it moveth it self aright At the last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adder Prov. 23.31 32. When the World smiles most and looks the most pleasingly it usually gives the most mortal stab Let the Experience of all Ages speak out and tell us plainly how the World hath used its greatest Followers and Admirers some it hath taken from the Top of all their worldly Dignity and Glory and made the very Scorn and Contempt of all Thus it served the famous Bellisarius that great and worthy Commander under the Emperour Justinian Thus also it served Seianus the great Favorite of Tiberius and Pillippa the Catanian that was so famous in the Court of Naples Thus it used the great Darius Cyrus Craesus and the proud Bajazet with infinite others that were gotten to the height of worldly Prosperity But those that it hath used best it hath left them at last to grapple with Death and Judgment It saves none from the devouring stroke of Death It accompanies none beyond the Grave Thither if it chance to bring any of its Paramours there to be sure it leaves them Their Glory shall not depart after them Psalm 49.17 The Happiness and Felicity of the World will be sure to leave us in our greatest need These Goards will be sure to wither before the Morning of the Resurrection when we shall need most Protection from the scorching heat of God's wrath But if we go to the Sanctuary there we may more certainly learn how it hath and will befriend those that have doted most upon it and have ventured the Favour of God and their Everlasting Hopes for the World Psalm 92.7 When the wicked spring as the grass and all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever And how doth the World then stand up in their behalf when they are betrayed thereby to such a fearful Destruction It leaves them to the stroke of Justice to shift for themselves Job 20.5 6 7. The triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment Though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever as his own dung All they which have seen him shall say Where is he This is the Portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed unto him by God Job 20.29 Thus the World gives up its Lovers to the Wrath of God and shall come in as a Witness also to their Everlasting Confusion Ninthly The prevailing Love of any thing here on Earth is a Sin not fit to be pardoned if a Man dye in it And it is an infallible Mark of one that shall perish without Mercy yea and of one whom God hateth 1 John 2.15 Love not the world nor the things of the world If any man love the world in this predominant measure the love of the Father is not in him And James 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is emnity with God He therefore that will be a friend of the world is an enemy unto God Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not that is love them not less his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters and his own Life much more all other things he cannot be my Disciple These are the plain Passages of God's Word that shew manifestly how every one shall be sure to speed that loveth any thing here below more than Christ No Apology can be made for such a one neither is such a one a Subject capable of Mercy if he live and dye in that state that sets so light by it and God the Author of it as to prefer such a short liv'd Trifle before him That say unto God Directly or by Consequence by Word or Practice stand thou here at my Foot-stool when the World is exalted and set up in Honour and Esteem In a word to love any Thing more than God is a Sin that the Gospel hath no pardon for if it be final because it argues an ungodly Heart and he that 's ungodly cannot be a Believer or a Christian Because the Means presuppose the End and Christianity which is the way to God presupposeth Godliness or some Love to God who is the End intended or desired And without Faith the Gospel Grant giveth no Remission of Sin Tenthly Till a Man can contemn the World in the sense before stated he is no better than a Brute so far is he from the Life and Spirit of a Christian Christianity doth not depose but always suppose Reason It doth refine and not subvert and undermine it And where a Man is not got so high as the sober use of his Reason he is not fit to be a Disciple of Christ He that follows not the Light and Guidance of his Natural Reason for the main when Sense and Passion do oppose and make head against it though he hath the distinctive Faculty of a Man yet is not a Man in Use and Exercise but a Brute And he that 's no Man be sure is no Christian But he that prefers his Body before his Soul in the main Course of his Conversation lives not so as the Light of Nature can direct him The clearest Reason doth suggest that the better part is to be principally looked after And that a Man hath a Soul as well as a Body we need not go to Scripture for an Argument as if there were no Light elsewhere to inform us There be other Topicks common to us with Infidels and Heathen Now the World is but the Accommodation of the Sensual Part And he that cannot slight and contemn this when it thwarts the Interest of his Better Part He is so far from learning that which is supernatural in the Doctrin of Christ and Salvation that he hath not learned that which is but Natural and the Object of a lower Faculty He is so far from the higher Acts of Faith that he wants the lower Acts of Reason and hath not the presupposed Matter that 's required to the Christian Faith Eleventhly The Contempt of Earth and Earthly Things lays an excellent Foundation for a cleer and piercing Understanding For nothing doth so much dull and sot the Intellect as Earthly Pleasure and Sensual Delight which makes the Flesh insolent the Passions masterless and untractable the Mind listless and unfit to search after wisdom And whilst the Soul is daily offended with the streams of a Body drunk with Earthly Pleasures the vigor and sprightfulness of it is quite extinguished And the understanding is quite perverted and knows not how to discern and judge aright when it is upon any search For nothing will enter such a perverted Mind or seem Credible that doth any ways thwart this Carnal
Brutish Pleasure It 's difficult if not impossible to see clearly in the Dust of Riches and Smoke of Honours Besides Earthly Love betrays to Ease Softness and Intemperance which are very inconsistent with an acute understanding But the Contempt of such sensual Pleasures inspires the Mind with true Accuracy and gives it a piercing Eye For having now no hankering thoughts or desires after these things it 's always fit to consider and fix seriously upon any proposed Object and to see things in their proper Evidence because there is nothing to bribe the Understanding and so it becomes impartial in its search and examination Twelfthly This forementioned disdain of the World and its Pleasures makes a most ready way to inward Peace and Quietness For these Sensual Baits are the Inciters of our Passions and when they are up there is no Rest nor Quiet That Man is like to be sedate calm and undisturbed that doth not much care for any of these changeable Comforts There will be a pleasant silence in the heart when it is not provoked by the insolencies of the Flesh which then will domineer whilst it hath there sensual Accommodations but grows tame and tractable when it is pretty well weaned and weakened through the want of them if other Necessaries do concur Why art thou so patient O my Soul under the Rage and domineering Power of the Flesh and its head-strong Lusts Why doest thou so frequently Consent to the Love and Pursuit of such poor short and uncertain Felicity that fills thee with so must disturbance and alienates thee from God and doth so much destroy all thy future Hopes Lastly It may help forward this Contempt of the World to consider seriously the vanity of Man who is the Noblest Part of it Verily every Man saith David at his best Estate is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All manner of Vanity as it is in the Original Psalm 39.6 A Helpless Friend and a Toothless Enemy And therefore he that trusteth Man maketh a broken Reed his Confidence And he that hath an inordinate Fear of Man feareth a shadow * Isa 51.12 and v. 7 8. Isa 2.22 Who art thou saith the Prophet that art a fraid of a Man that shall die and of the Son of Man that shall be made as Grass There 's no sadder Spectacle in the World than Man if this were his best condition and he had all he were to look for in this life A Toad or the most hated Creature no nor those that are continually hunted and pursued and live always in danger of the Snare or some cruel Device to take away their Lives are not half so sad a Spectacle as Man is I mean without the Grace of God These Brutish Creatures neither apprehend nor fear the Snare till they are caught in it nor foresee a Michief till it is at hand nor vex themselves with the Memory of what is past But Reason which is Man's proper Vtensil makes him but the more capable Subject of Misery and Torment and helps him to suffer a Mischief before it comes and to feel it a long while after This is such a Faculty as teacheth him to improve his Sufferings and Calamities which no other Creature that wants it can do and to chew upon an Evil when it 's swallowed down and past Should a Believer fear the Frowns of such a silly Creature or regard his Favour when he would threaten or tice him from his Duty I conclude therefore It 's better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in man yea it is much better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes Psal 118.8 9. Consider then O my Soul what a meer Juggle and Delusion is the Pleasure of this World with which thou hast so often suffered thy self to be couzened and deceived What Luggage is the Riches And what a Blast is the Honour thereof Yea what a Dream and meer imagination is all that here Men dote upon Is it for this that Men swear and deceive couzen and lye sweat and run about with foolish heat and diligence Is this the Reward of all the busle and stir they make Is this all the Recompence of their bold Adventures against God and their own Souls Have they no more for all their restless Nights and Days for all the Cares and Fears with which they have so often pierced themselves Have they no more for Their Salvation for A Life of Immortality for God and for Their Souls which they have thrown away for a little slippery uncertain pleasure which stings even whilst it 's tasted and wounds so deep afterwards Wonderful that ever Men that have an Eye of Reason to discern thus much should yet suffer themselves to be so besooled And should prefer the pleasure of Delirancy and madness before that of Sobriety That ever Reasonable Creatures should suffer themselves to be entangled in Vanities which are more brittle than Glass more light than Smoak and more swift than the Wind That they should feed so greedily and fat themselves with these poisonous destroying Pleasures and go with the foolish Ox to the slaughter and with the Fool to the Correction of the Stocks Till a Dart strike through their Liver not considering that it is for their Life O what madness to nourish this Carrion and Dung-hill of thy Body and to neglect forget and despise thy Soul Is it possible that thou shouldst so Adore a Prison or Fetters as to balance them with the Love of thy dearest Saviour Who can shed Tears enough or Weep sufficiently for such a Sin as this viz. The forsaking of God and the chusing of Lyes instead of him O what horrid Phantasms will appear one Day and present themselves to their sight that proceed on and dye in such a sin as this When the Pleasures which they have chosen shall stand in Array before them and upbraid them into the deepest shame and silence And the objects with which they have committed Folly so often shall stand forth and say I am the Pleasure which thou hast loved more than God I am the Ambition to which thou wast a slave I am the Wealth that was the Aim of all thy Actions I am the Dung and Dross to which thou didst espouse and wed thine Affections Behold the Sins thou hast begotten on me Behold thy deformed loathsome Iniquities which thou didst not only love but prefer before the Life which thy Saviour did both live and teach With such dreadful Complaints able to rend Rocks and Marbles shall they that have loved any thing here on Earth more than God and their Souls lament over their sins that will come upon them like an Armed Man and fight them with its gastly Looks If thou Love any thing then O my Soul see that thou love it for God and for the reference that it hath to the Life Eternal The Joys of Heaven are without their Parallel and Example And as they are here above our Experience so
Nature a shameful Spectacle to God Angels and Men Better he judgeth it a thousand times that God had made him a Beast rather than that he should have made himself a Beast If you judge not Sin to be the greatest evil to you and a greater disparagement than Poverty and Raggs and all the reproach and scorn of Men barely considered in themselves without sin you cannot have that sorrow for sin which is sincere For it 's absolutely necessary that sorrow for sin committed against God be greater than all other sorrow for worldly Calamities whatsoever as to the rational part of it which is in the Intellect and Will though perchance not as to that part of sorrow which is in the sensitive part and is it may be expressed in Tears or those sensible Perturbations of the Body which we usually call by the Name of Passions And how is it possible that there should bean intellectual sorrow greater than all other sorrow unless it be first truly judged to be the greatest disgrace and shame to us of any thing that can befal us and doth necessarily draw after it more evil and mischief to Body and Soul than the World can inflict on us It 's possible for a Man to have great inward Peace and Content and an excellent Spirit that is the object of the World's contempt and scorn Our Saviour had no Form nor Comeliness in him saith the Prophet Isaiah ch 53.2 And yet he was speciosus prae Filiis hominum Fairer than the Children of Men 1. for internal but not external Endowments saith the Prophet David Psal 45.2 And as the sinner that 's wounded with hearty sorrow for his sin doth thus judge of himself and doth say He is a Worm and no Man a Reproach of Men and worthily despised by the People Psalm 22.6 So he doth adjudge himself to the greatest sufferings and counts it an unspeakable Favour to be admitted to Repentance and that he may be received into Favour with God again upon any Terms This is Another Act that Godly Sorrow doth contain and is made up of Eighthly The Soul that 's truly penitent is deeply displeased with himself and wisheth heartily he had never been guilty of such Folly And if it were to do again would venture upon any suffering or shame rather than give his Consent thereto He is fallen out with himself so far as he is tainted with Corruption and upbraids himself with all his Rebellion and Ingratitude against God and his unrighteous and unbrotherly Practices towards Men and ill Government of himself He is heartily willing to grieve for his Sin and to express that grief by all significant signs that either Nature or Scripture doth suggest to him and to use all Means whereby this Grief may be procured as by Fasting and hard Usage of his Body when it may be a probable Means to promote this Repentance of his Heart Whatever is like to make his Heart more Tender and Sensible of his Sin he is willing to submit to He is willing to take a frequent view of his loathsom sin that he might more deeply abhor himself He is willing that God should afflict him in that measure that his Wisdom sees most fit if he will but kill his Corruptions thereby And that Men think of him as he hath deserved And when he cannot weep in reality he weepeth in desire Ninthly And as the Understanding and Will do thus far conquer to produce this Repentance and Sorrow so there will be some degree and measure of the Passions properly so called stirring in such a true Penitent There will be Grief and Shame for the Offence and Fear of him whom thou hast offended and longing desire to be reconciled And then Tenthly He that hath a truly penitent Heart and the Sorrow of the right stamp will express it by all outward Signs for the Honour of God and the Good of others He will accuse and speak evil of himself and humble himself by Confession before God his shameful Iniquities Neither will he spare to lay open the shame of his particular sins so far as he knoweth them Nay his pride is so far taken down that he will not stick to make Confession of them before Men if it be such sins whereby they have wronged their Souls and hardned them in any sinful course They will endeavour to undo what they have done by their penitent Confessions and remove the scandal as much as lyeth in their power though it cost them shame It 's a good sign that their sorrow for sin is sincere when it puts them upon such outward Acts as have a strong tendency to condemn and disgrace their former sinful Courses And they may well suspect themselves and their Repentance that stick at such disgraceful Acts as Confession is And are content that God should want the Honour that 's given to him by an humble acknowledgment of our vileness and particular sins And that Men should want such an Argument against the like sinful Courses for the time to come than that themselves should undergo a little disgrace and shame I say not that sins of a fouler nature that would tend to the disparagement of the Gospel that were committed in secret should be publickly made known at all It may suffice that such are confessed before God and the Persons that are already privy to them And that we do protest to them our unfeigned Grief for such foul Transgressions and our readiness to give them all satisfaction for any Wrong or Injury done them But the wrong that we have done to our Associates and Companions by prophanation of the Sabbath Oaths Ribbaldry or any other infectious Courses we are to beg pardon for of them whom we have thus wronged by our Miscarriages And to confess the sinfulness of such Courses to the Glory of God and to the preventing of such Evil for the future And as the penitent humble Person will not stick at Confession both to God and Men when need requireth so he will with patience and silence submit himself to any Afflictions that the righteous God whom he hath provoked doth think meet to inflict upon him He doth not mutter in his Heart as knowing that he hath deserved the most calamitous afflicted Life in this World and the unsupportable Miseries of the other Life Should a Malefactour that hath forfeited his Life murmur at the Judge that punisheth him with a few stripes and so remits the other part of his punishment I will patiently bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him saith the Church Micah 7.9 A truly penitent Heart will not complain for the punishment of his sin Lam. 3.39 What do I say he will not complain Nay he will justifie God in all that he brings upon him And as he doth express his Sorrow by humble Confession of his Sins and Justification of his Judge so he will do it by penitential Tears if the Temper and Constitution of his Body will
Reason can easily stir or command is a great Enemy to this Duty He therefore that would be always fit for this Duty must with all his Might resist the true and principal Cause of Sadness I mean Sin and when he cannot prevent it he must speedily repent of it and turn from it and renew his Faith in Christ and then his Soul will not refuse to be comforted but will chear up and at length attain such a good measure of Alacrity as will become Christianity and constantly dispose him to this Duty provided his Body be not oppressed with melancholy Fumes and Vapours For in such Case the Art of the Physician must be joyned with the fore-mentioned Prescriptions And such Temperance and Exercise of the Body must be used as may reduce it again and make it fit to subserve a chearful Mind There 's no greater pull-back nor obstruction to this becoming generous heavenly Work than a sower dejected and contracted Spirit The Jews had a Proverb amongst them that Spiritus sanctus non descendit super Animum maestum which though taken without limitation is not true because the Spirit of God works Godly Sorrow and dwells in the contrite Heart that 's broken for sin to revive comfort and bind it up again yet with some restriction it contains a very great Truth viz. That the Divine Spirit in it more Noble and Excellent Operations of Love Joy and Delight and those other Affections that have a very near confederacy with these and chearful Obedience which results from these doth not descend upon those that are of a sad and heavy Heart whilst such But they are first exhilerated and cheared by the Heavenly Comforter before they can get up to these higher Duties And though Godly Sorrow for sin be consistent enough with some Spiritual Joy and Concomitant Affections before mentioned whilst it keeps its just degree and measure yet when it proceeds to Heighth and Excess and goes beyond its just Bounds it greatly indisposeth to Works of that Elevation But the Sorrow of the World worketh Death and is therefore very inconsistent with Works that require the greatest Life yea the sorrow and dejectedness that arise from the Temper and Complexion of a Melancholick Body do very much hinder the Soul in these more sublime and raised Operations And the more voluntary it is through the wilful neglect of Means either Medicinal or Moral whereby it may be shaken off still the greater Enemy it is to the joyful Heavenly Work When therefore we prepare for this Work every weight must be cast away and the sin that presseth down and all indisposing dulness must be shaken off as much as may be And therefore Elisha to make way for the Holy Spirit in these noble Operations of it calls for a Musical Instrument 2 Kings 3.15 the better to compose and exhilerate his Mind And it came to pass whilst the Minstrel played that the Hand that is the Spirit of the Lord came upon him 2. He must be of a competent Candour and Ingenuity towards Men One that will readily do good and as easily acknowledge it when it is done by others That affects not to conceal his own Infirmities nor the Worth of others but can quickly spy out both That judgeth not according to outward Appearance but judgeth righteous Judgment And is prone to take every thing by the right handle and to pass the fairest construction upon every thing He that 's disingenuous and base towards Men will be so towards God For it is in other Affections as it is in Love Now he that loveth his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Is the Argument of the beloved Apostle 1 John 4.20 3. He must be very well contented with his Condition None more Averse to the Duty in hand than he that 's displeased with his Estate How can that Man be thankful unto God for any thing he hath that liketh nothing Male-Content filleth a Man with rage and bitterness against every thing almost as supposing it to contribute something to his uneasie Condition It puts him frequently upon sinful study and contrivance to better himself And it is so far from disposing any to the sweet Temper I am now speaking of that it prompts him to be angry with every one Such a one tasts no sweetness in any good he hath be it never so great and therefore forgets all but his discontents He pores wholly upon his Misery and nothing else seems worthy his observation And that Man that hath no eye to observe any Comfort that he hath will never think himself obliged to him from whom they come and such a one is most unfit for a Thankful Acknowledgment 4. He must have made some good progress in the work of Mortification and be pretty well weaned from all Sublunary Good and Pleasure That hath no strong propension to Sensual Comforts and Carnal Delights but hath got a considerable Conquest over the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts And hath a Love that 's rational and doth propend most to that which most deserves it For how can he perform the highest Acts of Spiritual Life that is not first dead to those things that do stifle and utterly quench the Spiritual Life Or how can he thank God aright for any thing that is not in a capacity to make a true judgment of what God doth bestow which is the Case of every one that hath his Affections inordinately wedded to these Earthly Contentments Such a one cannot take a worldly Cross or Reproach and Shame and Sickness and other Afflictions to be such Mercies as they sometimes are nor thank God sometimes for them more heartily than for any outward prosperity 5. He must have a deep Sense and Perswasion of the Certainty and Excellency of Eternal Things The Immortality of the Soul The worth of God's Favour The unspeakable Misery of the damned And the Felicity of those that must live for ever with God otherwise the Pleasures of this World are but a Dream and the Happiness of this Life but a shadow and all the Comforts that are tyed to this state so fickle and unsatisfactory that a wise and considerate Man will not much regard them unless as they be Pledges and Fore-runners of a better Felicity and so cannot rise to any high pitch of Joy and Thankfulness whilst it hath no better Materials to erect such a Frame nor better Motives to this Duty Thus much for the Matter or what is prerequisite to make way for these High and Heavenly Acts of Gratitude and Praise which are always accompanied with some degree of joy and delight in God which formally and principally imply First A due observation and worthy estimation of the Amiable Perfections of God and of his Grace and Favours towards us If we overlook these and our Eyes be in the ends of the Earth when they should be intent upon the infinite Majesty and his Mercies towards us every
Hour and his Right in us and over us we shall be either tempted to deny them or at least to deny that Homage which they call for If we can overlook him that is all in all and the Spring that moves all second Causes and sets them on work to do us that good which they do for us at any time No wonder if we commit Sacriledge and rob God of his deserved Praises yea or if we undervalue them and mistake the Mercies that are more worth than Heaven and Earth to be but petty and inconsiderable we shall be as slight in our grateful Acknowledgment These two or three Things therefore are comprized in the due Reverence and Estimation of God and his Favours 1st A clear and solid Apprehension of our own great Unworthiness of any the least of his Favours and our infinite distance from his Person not only by Nature but much more through Guilt and Sin we must be pretty well acquainted with our own Poverty and Baseness and that we have nothing but from him That All is forfeited again and again That the Miseries of this Life and that which is to come are our Desert That God can expect no Advantage from us when he bestows his Mercies but the pleasure of doing good Nor when we are most cordial and diligent in his Service but the pleasure of our receiving Good and seeing his Grace prosper in us And that in all his Threats and Punishments he is still designing our Good and mortifying our Corruption which will otherwise be sure to ruine and undo us if it be not forsaken And this would teach us to prize and thank God and our Redeemer for every piece of Bread that we eat and the House that covers us and the Cloaths that warm us the Sun that shineth on us the Rod that corrects us when we come to know and consider how much we need them and how little we deserve them 2ly It would help us to prize all the Mercies of God if we did but consider and understand the Misery of those that want them We could not want the Bread we eat nor the Air we breath nor the Limbs we use nor the Senses that we have without Misery enough But what Man could want the Grace of the Gospel the Merits and Intercession of Christ that knows that he is everlastingly undone without them 3ly It will help us to estimate them rightly if we consider what they cost and the price that paid for them Our sins and the sins of our Parents whose Flesh and Blood we are did cry out aloud for vengeance in the utter destruction of our Persons And God who is the just and righteous Governour of the World could not without disparagement to his Wisdom and Justice stop his Ears to the Cry of our Sins unless his Son had suffered for our Sins and satisfied the Demands of his Justice and purchased all our forfeited Mercies back again by his Blood So that all the Temporal and Spiritual Mercies that now we have were Redeemed not with Silver and Gold but by the precious Blood of our most endeared Saviour And this Consideration if it be not customary but serious will make every Mercy full weight and enforce better Apprehensions of them and Thankfulness for them 4ly and lastly It will conduce very much to the worthy Estimation of all God's Mercies if we consider the End God hath in All to which he doth design every Mercy that he doth bestow in this present Life And that is our highest Perfection and everlasting Felicity in a blessed Communion with God for ever Every Hour he giveth us Every Favour whether Common or Special is valued infinitely below its worth if this Reference and Subordination be overlooked He can never thank God as he ought for his Health or Food or Friends or any Temporal Mercy or Affliction but will rather be tempted to murmur and repine sometimes that considers not well what it is intended for and what it may and should contribute to his endless Content and Rest These Particulars must concur to make up a due Estimation of all God's Mercies Secondly Gratitude and Praise with the concomitant Affections of Joy and Delight in God do essentially imply 1st A Love that 's suited to and bears some proportion with the Mercies we receive and God doth bestow on us Temporal and Transitory Mercies must be loved with a lower and subordinate degree of our Love Spiritual and Eternal Mercies must be loved with a higher and more absolute degree of our Love And the highest Mercy of all which is himself with the most superlative and transcendent Love 2ly And they do imply a greater Love to his Person 1. That hath purchased them 2. That doth confer them He that hath no Complacency in the Things which he doth receive and that according to the greater or lesser Tendency they have to lead him to the highest Mercy even the Fruition of God the Giver will have none worth the naming in the person that doth bestow them And he that wants that can never praise God as he ought nor do any such Act with acceptance Thirdly There must be some sensible Expressions of this Estimation of the Mind and Complacency of the Will in God and his Mercies In the Affections and Sensible Passions of Love Joy Admiration Reverence Humility which help and assist the Will and cannot lye still when the Soul is well elevated in Praises and Thanksgiving when the Soul is exercised with any seriousness and vigour in these noble Operations of Praise and Thanks and Complacency in God how can it chuse but work upon the Blood and Spirits and cause those forementioned Passions in some sensible degree Fourthly And as Thankfulness and Holy Praise if they be right will become sensible by the Affections to the very Body to which the Soul is linked more or less according as the Grace that causeth them is more or less vigorous so they will become visible to others by our more ready observance of his Will and Pleasure a greater Zeal for his Interest and Glory in the World and a more chearful obedience to him whom we thus praise and admire And as in the Law of Moses there were three kinds of Sacrifice Immolations Libations and Victimes Immolations were made of the Fruits of the Earth Libations of Liquors as Oyls and Wines Victimes of living Creatures So the Soul that is truly Grateful will not only offer up himself to God for a Victime and his Affections as it were for Liquors but his Actions also for Fruits Thanks among Men signifie nothing that evaporate and melt away into meer Words and Air and do not proceed to substantial Acts and Deeds These are the Complements and Perfection of every true Moral Act And if they come not up to Life and Practice where there is opportunity they are but meer Mockery and Deceit Having somewhat explicated the Nature of These Affections which are to be exercised I proceed
FORGETFULNESS OF GOD THE GREAT PLAGUE OF MAN'S HEART AND Consideration One of the Principal Means to Cure it By W. D. Master of Arts and once Fellow of King's Colledge Cambridge Contra salutem propriam cogites nihil minus dixi Contra Praeter dixisse debueram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Periand dict Meditation is all London Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Princes Arms in Ludgate-street 1683. To the Worthy JOHN LUPTON Esq Head of the Family of LUPTON Eternal Happiness THough my Personal Obligations to you are very many and considerable and may very well screw me up to a very high strain of gratitude and methinks I find my self very ready in this particular to do you right and to acknowledge my self very much bound to you and your Family yet I must say I honour you more for the Latitude you take in doing good to all and promoting every good Design that comes within your reach without the least Hesitancy Orphans and Minors and such as are destitute of help to whom you have begrudg'd neither pains nor cost will plead for you I hope better than my Tongue or Pen can There are none that know you but must confess how close a Friend you are to Religion and Learning and at what rates you would promote them Surely it had been a Crime in me having so good occasion to have conceal'd your Worth and Merits towards me whom you have intrusted with your best Treasure and given me all encouragement and help to their good Education not regarding the Slanders of some that would make themselves seem wiser in such Affairs wherein they have been little vers'd than others of far greater experience I know you need not such an Orator as I whose Virtues will more commend you than the best Pen and Ink can do However I will ease my self a little of the burthen under which I lye and make some publick acknowledgment of my Obligations to you wishing this Practical Treatise may come so near your heart as that it may do you everlasting good and that God would continue to bless your Family as he hath hitherto done that your Posterity may not degenerate from the exemplary practices of their Ancestors So prayeth Sir Your most obliged thankful Servant W. D. To the Practical Reader for whom this Treatise is intended 'T Is a knowing Age in which we live or at least pretends very much to Knowledge or it could not be so wicked yea the Atheist himself that 's drown'd in the depth of Ignorance and is so blind a Fool that he saith there is no God when his own Being and Tongue wherewith he speaks will give him the Lye yet will pretend to Knowledge and think he hath a greater share than others because he can talk at a more desperate rate and is priviledg'd by his wickedness to laugh at that at which a sober man would tremble One would wonder to think how Knowledge at least such as is real and not pretended only should be so mischievous and produce such woful effects as it hath done abroad in the world when it is in part the Excellency of Man and the Wise Man tells us without it the Soul cannot be good Prov. 19.2 And God complains by the Prophet that his People are destroyed for want of knowledge Hos 4.6 But the Solution is easie It is either an impertinent or crude and indigested knowledge that brings forth such Monstrous Births The Lord Bacon tells us that a superficial knowledge of Nature makes an Atheist but a deep search into things produceth a sound assent to the Being and Providence of God It is indeed a slight and overly Knowledge of God and other things related to him that is the Disease of this Age and hath brought forth such pernicious effects and the proper cure of this Distemper would be frequent sober impartial Consideration than which nothing tends more to ripen and concoct our Knowledge and to diffuse its happy Influence to the Heart and Life I have therefore chosen this Subject that I might shew how easie it is for Knowing Men to sink into Forgetfulness of God and so run loose to all wickedness in the same degree that they forget God And that they can never prevent this mischief nor recover out of it but by frequent retirement and impartial Meditation Never any man was wise that was not Considerate whatever frisking Wit he might have much less was ever any man soundly Religious and understood the Worth and Excellency of Religion and how much it doth befriend his truest satisfaction in this world that did not get out of the noise of worldly affairs and business and think of God his Word and Works his Son and Spirit and his own Immortal Soul and greatest Concerns with true and frequent seriousness Fickleness and volability of confused thoughts is the shame and disgrace of Humane Nature since it is become degenerate and a carnal mind which every one is born with into the world takes it for its greatest pleasure to turn about like a Weather-Cock to all variety of thoughts and can endure to stay upon nothing nor be confin'd though to the best Objects It 's the greatest part of the misery of a Man yet estranged from God that he cannot endure to be stak'd to any serious thoughts though for a small portion of time whereby it becomes impossible for him in the ordinary course of Providence to return to his right mind You must think and think again of the sad and woful consequences of a Flesh-pleasing life before ever you will escape the tempting Baits of sensuality and worldly pleasures The Reason of Man is so much captivated to his Senses whilst he is in the present condition and a Sojourner in the world that till serious thoughts recover him he is like to die and perish in this miserable Bondage Frequent Meditation and fervent Prayer would retrieve his Liberty and save him from the Precipice of Vice and Sin on which an inconsiderate Man will adventure to stand without fear till he feel himself tumbling down and little or no power to stop till he comes to the bottom of it Men will make a shift to decline the most cutting Truths and such as have the sharpest point and find out an Evasion for the omission of the plainest Duties by some witty Repartees they can return to these matters till serious deep and impartial Recognition of them charge them home and make them prick to the Heart Till then what wonder if the inconsiderate Man go with the Oxe to the Slaughter and with the Fool to the Correction of the Stocks Till this Dart of Meditation strike thorough his Liver he will hasten as a Bird to the Snare not knowing that it is for life Prov. 7.22 23. Reader if thou wouldst not hazard the Favour of God nor lose Eternal Happiness and ruine thine Immortal Soul nor run desperately upon Everlasting Misery think on these things often and impartially bind them continually
judgment may be passed upon other Nations if this great Relation every Soul stands in to God were well thought upon and all things that have a power to inchant the mind and controll the mighty power of this truth upon the soul were in a good measure disgraced and turned out of the heart It could not be that heart and mouth and life should be so intollerably backward to any serious service of God as they are in the most 2. Secondly They forget God that overlook his Sovereignty and forget that he is the holy just and righteous Governour of Mankind 1. That he is the absolute and universal Sovereign that hath the most unquestionable authority to command and govern the Creatures he hath made 2. The greatest wisdom to contrive the most perfect Laws for the good of all his Subjects 3. And the most irresistible power to see them executed 4. And the highest justice to see that neither Law nor Subject shall receive any detriment or damage And if this were believed and considered would men either desire or dare to cast off such a Yoke and transgress such a Law and provoke such impartial justice What a monstrous pride must it needs be that makes a man unwilling to submit to such a Government And what a presumptuous befooled lying heart must that be that can promise it self indemnity and think to speed well in a state of disobedience Let the deceived heart that hath turned thee aside from such an honourable gainful service tell thee whom thou canst serve to better purpose and under whose command thine own welfare would be better promoted I know thou wouldst abhor the thought of being his servant who is the first-born of all pride insolence and cruelty and yet there is no possible way of escape if the Yoke of thy rightful Sovereign be too heavy for thee May be thou mayst be so void of understanding as to think if thou hadst none to controll thine actions but wert thine own Lord and accountable to none other but thy self and that thou mightst let out thy heart with a full Rein to all that it desireth it were a condition to be desired above any other but hast thou wit enough to manage all thy affairs strength enough to protect thy self soresight enough to keep out of a thousand evils that thy own blindness and nakedness would expose thee to Thy Lusts and thy Passions would make worse work with thee than all thy other enemies when they were under no restraint and thou couldst not long keep out of the fore-mentioned Tyrants hands the mention of whose dominion over thee made thee so much to start before But it may be thou meanest that this State were the most desirable if thou hadst wisdom enough to direct thee and power enough to protect thy self and fulness enough to supply all thine own wants and art thou not now ashamed of such a prodigious pride as would sit down in the Throne of God and aspire to the divine perfections Thou seest whither this inclination leadeth and what a symtom of destruction it must needs be and yet be thy case never so bad and desperate they that will habitually overlook that divine right and sovereignty and their necesssity of subjection and both from the wisdom and justice of the Laws and power of the Law-giver and that there is no wisdom nor happiness like theirs that chearfully obey must needs entangle themselves in these woful consequences fall into the absurdest sins that will but humour and gratifie this proud inclination 3. They forget God that are not prevailingly under the power of this thought that God is their happiness and that if all the world were theirs and God should deny the light and beatifical presence of himself they could never find rest or satisfaction Let the honour and Majesty of a King and the Glory of a Kingdom be given unto David and let him have all the assistance that such a power can afford to compass the pleasures that the heart of man can wish for yet this will not do In the midst of this fulness and sufficiency he is in streights Job 20.22 If God withdraw When thou hidest thy face I am troubled Psal 30.7 And when this was wanting his moisture was turned into the draught of Summer and his bones were broken hence he prayeth to God to restore the joy of his salvation and uphold him with his free spirit and to make him to hear of joy and gladness that the bones that he had broken might rejoyce Psal 51.8 12. Who that hath any experience in the world can be fool enough to believe that his soul will be quieted with such a Weathercock and Rattle as the world is and popt off with noise instead of substance and listen with full contentment to the Sounding Brass and Tinkling Cymbal Alas The Bias of a Mans Soul is after something that the world hath not something like it self and cannot be truly satisfied with these things because they have no proportion with it self They are flesh and that is spirit nor thoroughly comforted with these shews because the time is at hand when it shall be truly said as Rachel said of her Children they are not Give the Child that cryes for the Breast what you will and it gives not over because this is the only thing it wants The Soul will never be still nor give over its muttering and complaints till it hath the very thing that fully supplies its want and that only is God and they that live not under the power of this perswasion will run after every shadow and be ticed into mortal sin and yet at last lose their labour and hope and all this because they forget that God is their Rest and that their Happiness is bound up in him Jog thy self a little and consider what it is to be God but to have All-sufficiency and to have all Satisfying Ravishing Excellency in the greatest Transcendency without any Bounds or Ends what it is to be God but to have all imaginable Perfection And therefore to think we remember God when we forget those Perfections which are his very Being is a lie with a witness and will prove one with a vengeance if thou dost not pray to God and prevail with him to have thy Memory restored and to heal this defect thereof 4. They forget God that live not under a daily sense of his Omniscience and forget that his Eye pierceth the thickest darkness and that nothing is hid from his distinct Observation For he that denieth this denieth God and he that forgetteth this forgets that without which God cannot be God Tell me thou that abhorest Atheism with thy Tongue why art thou so notoriously guilty of it in thy practice Why dost thou with-draw from the Eyes of Men when thou hast some filthiness to commit which thou art ashamed they should see or know Why dost thou shut thy self up in thy Closet that there thou mayest hide thy Vanity
Sabbath-breaking careless performance of his Service and Worship Selfishness Inordinate love of and Adulterous Affections to any Creature and hiding Pride from Man and turning our Eyes from a fond Admiration of Creatures and laying them in the dust They will not endure it but fret and murmur in their hearts and are ready to say as the Rebellious Followers of Korah did to Moses Wilt thou put out these Eyes of ours We will not come down we will not deny our selves nor be crossed in our wills nor leave our shame When God is putting the Bridle into their Mouths and laying a Curb and Restraint upon their Intemperance Pride and Luxury and bringing into contempt their Gallantry and swaggering Bravery they will not endure the Curb but rage and foam and grow mad and bite the Bridle that holds them in and reply as the remnant Jews did after the Captivity when they sent Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord for their Direction and liked not the Answer that he brought Jer. 44.16 17. We will not hearken to thee but will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth of our own Mouth we will let our Hearts with a full rein to any thing they desire for when we have done thus we were well and saw no evil when we leave off to shew favour and courtesie to our selves who shall befriend us when we begin to cry shame on our selves all men will cry shame on us and if once we come down and lie in the dust all men will trample upon us Those are some of the shifts that carnal Wisdom and Reason alledgeth whereby it would frustrate the Invitations of Mercy When God is calling for the Plumb Line and meting out a Nation for Destruction Amos 7.7 when he is drawing the lines of confusion in a place 1 Sam. 2.8 and marking it for Judgment they cry as the Inhabitants of Ephraim once did The Bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen Stones the Sycamores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars Esay 9.10 And though we may not be gotten up to such a degree of wickedness as this is it will concern us to make search and inquiry whether there be no seed of this wicked nature in us I am too much out of doubt that there is much of crossness and contradiction to the will of God in the best heart and too loth are the best to veil and stoop to the will of God when it crosseth ours but it will be fitter to help on this search in the Application 4. Lastly They overlook both his Attributes Word and Works all at once that put him off with shadows instead of substance that give him a few flattering words and shews for the inward worship and purity of their hearts This is the very instance of the Psalm a part of which we have now before us What an affront is this to remember him with the Mouth that he may be cast out of the Heart where he will have more to do than all the World or else abhor that person and his service whose heart it is To wash the outside with the paint of an external profession and to have a Heart full of Pride and unmortified Lusts full of putrid noisom Filth is not to play the Christian but the Pharisee To profess God at Home and at Church in our Houses and his House and to joyn with his Servants in the Externals of his Worship to read his Word and sing his Praises with our Lips and in Heart and Life to subvert the Christian Faith is not to be a Disciple but a Judas To give God the most glorious Attributes and Titles and call him thy Creator Lord and Governour and to acknowledge thou hast all from his Bounty and yet to deny him the Service and Obedience due to his Laws this is not to remember but to forget him If I be a Father where is mine Honour If I be a Master where is my fear saith God Mal. 1.6 Is not the Lord a Spirit and will he be put off with a meer bodily service only I know he will have the service of the body also he will have the Tongue and the Knee and an External Reverence that may be of good Example to others But thou art guilty of Hypocrisie and Folly both if this be all that thou canst spare if thou go not further thou mayst be a very devil in thy heart when thou haâ—st Oyl and Butter in thy Mouth and when thou speakest the smoothest words to God thou mayst have war and enmity to him in thy heart thou mayst fetch a sigh or a groan for sin at a pretty easie rate but God will not take this instead of Self-denial and mortification of thy Lusts but will abhor their shews and complements that cover hatred with lying Lips When God calls to the proud Person to come down and sit in the dust and humble himself will it be an acceptable service if he would offer him something else or will he take the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul Mich. 6.7 I mean a shew of humility in going softly speaking faintly looking sadly instead of true lowliness and poverty of Spirit I speak not against the outward signs they are good when accompanied with the thing signified but when we deceive our selves with these and think to deceive God also True humility consists in a universal submission to the Will of God and ready obedience to all his Laws when they cross our interest in the world as when they do promote it And he that hath not this in a prevailing measure and degree God will look upon him afar off let him come as near as he will with his Tongue or Knee Psal 138.6 and he will plentifully reward as a proud doer Psal 40.4.31.23 When God calleth to search our hearts and try our ways and remember our doings It will not serve turn to remember the doings of others and to seâ—â—ch and censure them to lay heavy burdens upon the City or Countrey and not to touch them with one of our Fingers not but we may and must confess the sins of the whole Nation when Gods hand is upon a whole Nation and calls it to repentance but if we remember not our own sins with a weeping heavy heart also and do not loath our selves for all our own abominations Ezek. 36.31 and feellingly confess with shame and detestation the sins that lie nearest our hearts and take it for a mercy to have the scourge of a just and smarting rod as well as the charge of a holy convincing word that we have not only threatning which we have made a shift to slight so often but some execution to make sin odious to us and to recover us to a due sense and apprehension of it If we have brought our selves to such a death in sin that we cannot understand what it is until we feel it it 's a mercy to feel that we may understand But let
know the best have too much of this sin and forget their endeared Lord too much not only in the works of their civil and common Employment but also in their acts of Worship and immediate Service of him and have not adoring prising thoughts of his Greatness and Goodness as they should have and this is some degree of forgetfulness and therefore they will be ready to condemn themselves and take some share in this Reproof but the sharpest part of the Reproof belongs most to them that are least disposed to take it and most ready to quarrel with and fight against it And this is the most doleful aggravation of their misery O what a misery is it to need a bitter Cup a smarting Rod sharp and cutting reproof and yet not to endure the remedy and the proper means of their recovery to be desperately sick and not to abide the Physician This is the condition of those that have most of Guilt and therefore the sorer they are the less they care to be search'd and dress'd If it be any dangerous Distemper in the Body it 's sad when the case is thus but if the Wound be Spiritual and the Soul be the subject to be handled and will not abide it the condition of that Man or Woman is much more to be lamented O how sad is their case that need Humiliation and Repentance and the sense of their sins and misery that make them so forgetful of God and yet are impatient of the means that the Wisdom of God hath appointed and that they must use to bring this to pass O what a fearful state is it and deeply to be lamented to have the greatest necessities on them accompanied with the greatest stupidity and insensibility To have need to cry aloud for mercy mercy and a heart fit to receive it and yet to have no mind to lift up an earnest Prayer unto God and to stir up the remembrance of him nor to be awakened thereto by any way that 's like to speed How dreadful is the condition of a senseless hard hearted sinner that must die Eternally without Repentance and be broken by the vengeance of God for ever if his heart do not break now and yet doth eonsent yea and set this Seal to his own Destruction and yet doth reject all the humbling softning means that Christ the greatest friend that ever he had or shall have in the World hath taught him and beseeched him to use say not that a man may forget God and yet need no such reproof nor be in any such danger I have told you what forgetfulness of God implies and who they are that are chargeable therewith and who can easily speak worse of any unless it be those that have more of this sin and are guilty of it in a higher degree Those that the Text speaks to are such as God threatens to tear in pieces unless they be recovered by consideration And the Scripture doth not use to speak with so much heat and indignation where the sin is not so provoking I come therefore now to shew you 1. The guiltiness this sin 2. The danger of this sin And what a madness as well as wickedness it is to forget God that if it be possible this double sight of the sin and danger may the better prepare them for the means that must recover them and bring them to speedy use of them And this will appear 1. From the hainous nature of this sin 2. From the fearful effects thereof The odious nature of this sin is manifest in that this forgetfulness of God is a sin against the highest Obligations 1. On Gods part 2. On Our part 1. On Gods part 1. First In that he hath given us our Faculties on purpose to remember him and hath fitted them for this very use and service And what a sin must it needs be to frustrate so great a design of God in the very Make and Fabrick of the best of his Creatures here on Earth This end and use is legible enough in his uppermost Faculties which the rest were made to serve and obey For if all were made to minister unto one and that on purposelâ—y to do Homage unto God then all are made ultimatly for God but that he had his noblest Perfections for this very end it 's easie to see with half an Eye What should he do with an Immortal Soul indued with the powers of Reason and free Choice But that by the one he might discern the greatest Good and by the other make it his Choice There are certain Relations that intercede between all Creatures amongst which those of Cause and Effect Means and End are the most principal which the understanding of Man was given him intentionally to argue and find out that by these he might step up to the highest Cause and the supream and last end and do the highest acts of Homage and Reverence to them that his understanding and will are able to give in appretiation and love which are their two most essential Acts. Not a Creature but would lead the Reason of Man to the Creator of all things if he will use his Reason and follow this Guide The most contemptible thing had a Father that begot it that I may use Job's expression Job 38.28 c. Hath the Rain a Father or who begot the drops of the Dew Every thing hath a cause that brought it into being and that was produced by a former and that by something that was before that till you come to the foremost and highest cause And so for the other Relation of Means and End there 's nothing but is subservient to some end and that to a higher till you come to the highest e.g. The Showres moisten and supple the Earth and make it bring forth Grass This Grass is to serve a higher end viz. to feed and noâ—rish the Beasts that they might be fit for the use and service of Man his Food and other imployments either serious or recreative And can we think that here 's a full stop and man was made for no higher end but to domineer over the other Creatures and take aâ—ay their lives when it pleaseth him for his uses Certainly there was a further and higher end that God intended Man for and that is to have him in perpetual Remembrance It 's certain there 's no Creature here on Earth but Man hath any capacity to know God or to bear his Image in Holiness or to worship him which two last imply the first 1. A knowledge of him 1. What he is in himself in some measure 2. What he is to them Their Creator Preserver and bountiful Provider Neither hath any of them a Faculty to express and utter thus much to another Creature being all deprived of Speech and Eloquution which is mans Glory only Obj. And if you object the 19 Psalm 1. The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament c. and therefore not man only Ans The
of no other Argument though I could produce several if he died for such as deny him and crucifie him to themselves afresh and finally perish then he died no question for the rest but that he tasted Death for such is plain Heb. 10.29 Having in the verse before shewed the miserable end of those that despised Moses's Law he infers by way of interrogation Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy of that hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight to the Spirit of Grace and yet plainer 2 Pet. 2.1 There shall be false Teachers as the Apostle gives them warning that shall bring in damnable Heresie denying the Lord that bought them So that hence it is evident that Christ laid down his Blood as a price to redeem them that ungratefully deny him And if Christ had not died for all it could not be the duty of every man to believe in him But there is nothing more unquestionable than that every one is bound to believe and such as refuse are threatned with a more fearful destruction because they wickedly frustrate as much as in them lies such a wonderful Grace of God and withstand the highest motive to Repentance and a new life 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie him in your Body and in your Spirit which are his The Apostle speaketh to the Corinthians in general among whom there were many unbelievers And what 's the Argument he useth to perswade them to Faith and newness of Life but because Christ hath shewed such love to them as to die for them Since he hath offered up his Body upon the Cross for you do you offer up your Souls and Bodies unto him to be instruments of Righteousness to do him service is the force of the Apostles Argument We see then that the Death of Christ and the Gift of the Spirit are obligations upon all that hear the Gospel at least to a thankful Commemoration of the love of God and a Remembrance of him There are none that live under the sound and influence of the Gospel but have the love of Christ expressed in his Incarnation Life and Death for them to move them externally by way of Argument and the powerful Spirit inwardly to check their Corruptions and prompt them to obedience in some degree and measure and if they will not think upon the one nor submit to the other but slightly regard the one and stubbornly resist the other and stiffle every good motion which they feel and keep off from any serious thoughts of the death of Christ and will not be perswaded to consider the Blood that was shed for them nor suffer his love to be shed abroad into their hearts by the Holy Spirit Let such know that their forgetfulness of God is the more heynous because it hath so fast an obligation as this to the most necessary duty of remembrance the Word also as well as the Spirit What are all the passages of Scripture but such as prepare for or directly stir up to such a Remembrance You may observe some parts of Scripture more remotely conduce to this grand duty of remembring God other parts do more immediately serve to produce it where it is wanting others to reduce and recover it when 't is lost So that one of these three ways either by conducing to it or producing or reducing of it all the parts of Gods Word conspire io this principal duty The main division of the Scripture is into the Old and New Testament But what is the design and drift of both these but to rescue or preserve a Memory of God in the World Our Saviour sums up the Old Testament in these two heads the Law and the Prophets Now what doth the Law serve for if not to mind us of the great Law-giver and to beget an awe of his Soveraignty upon the World And the main end of the Prophets and their Prophesies was to reproduce this Remembrance of God when the ungrateful People had forgot him And what can be the end of that Light that hath shined to us in the Gospel but to teach us to deny all ungodliness 〈◊〉 Forgetfulness of God and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present evil World which we can never do without frequent and effectual Remembrance of God and our Lord Jesus Christ I might more particularly insist here and shew how all the Precepts Promises and Threatnings which are the three essential parts of Gods Word are intended to this end and will leave the Soul inexcusable that forgets him or how the several Books of the Old and New Testament which are the integral parts of God's Word oblige to this Remembrance But I think the case is so plain and clear that none of these ways of demonstration is needful to convince us That the whole Word of God is no little impulsive but presseth earnestly to this Remembrance and is therefore another great Aggravation of the sin of Forgetfulness I shall only chuse to set some of those Texts of Scripture before you that are fullest of Affection and most Pathetical and that shew how unwilling God is to forget poor sinners or that they should perish as they must needs do in their Forgetfulness of him Esay 48.18 19. With what passion doth the Lord mourn over the poor forgetful Israelites that had even now brought utter ruine upon themselves O that thou hadst hearkened to my Commandments then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea Thy Seed also had been as the Sand and the off-spring of thy Bowels as the Gravel thereof and Hos 11.8 When the ten Tribes were got to such a degree of wickedness that God was not remembred by them any longer but they had divorced him from them by their Idolatries and could bear no longer without disparagement to the Truth and Justice of God with what unwillingness doth he throw them off How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim My Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together What heart that is not desperately sick of stupidity can hear this sound and not return and recover the remembrance of him whom before he had forgot O that my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my Hand against their Adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever He should have fed them also with the finest of the Wheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied thee Ps 81.13 14 15. Thus you see how these and such like Scriptures Numbers of which might be gathered together and as the parts of
bring God to thy Remembrance and such a light both in Nature and in Scripture to discover it and such Assistance to fetch it in by Meditation into thine Understanding and Affections and such opportunities to learn what is thus suggested and when there is such sweetness in the very act of Learning and the benefits that directly flow from thence are so incomparable the final reward so unspeakable refuse not to apply thy Heart to the highest Wisdom All other thoughts that are not subordinate to this Remembrance have a greater or lesser tendency to discontent and vexation but these are the only comforting and reviving Meditations If thou dost not forget thy self thou wilt remember him If thou dost not forget thy later end thou wilt remember him If thou wilt but remember the days of Anguish and Trouble that are coming on thee thou wilt remember him Thou wilt then say be not far from me when trouble is near and there is none to help O let him not be far from thee now keep him in the midst of thy Heart renew thy thoughts of him as thou sittest in thy House as thou walkest by the way as thou liest down and as thou risest up Deut. 6.8 Imagine thou seest him in his Word Suppose that thou beholdest him in his Works think thou hast a taste of him whilst thou art feeding thy self and refreshing thy Body with its daily Food and Sustenance For thou livest not by Bread alone nor by such dead things as these but by the Word and Blessing of God that only can give thee life Deut. 8.3 Matth. 4.3 Oh how much doth man undervalue himself whilst he remembers not whose Coin he is and whose Stamp he bears He turns the fairest Gold into a Counter and uncoins himself and can never understand his own worth if he leave God out of his thoughts If thou wouldst think of thy own reasonable nature and put that question to thy self which was maliciously put to our Saviour by the Phariseâ—s and some of Herod's Disciples Mark 12.16 Whose is this Image and Superscription And this would bring God to thy Remembrance that hath fearfully made thee Psal 139.14 Thou art Brass indeed if thou canst impute such a stamp as this to any other cause and give away this Divine Royalty as thou dost if thou forget the Mint out of which thou camest and where thou wast stamped if thou remembrest any thing or hast any kindness or respect for thy own Soul acquaint thy self with God remember him and be at peace Job 22 21. To provoke to this Duty besides what hath been already hinted I shall only suggest thus much further by way of Interrogation First Doth God remember thee every hour and canst thou make shift for all that not to remember him If thou didst not need the Heavens that hang over thy Head nor the Earth that hangeth under thy Feet nor any of those Creatures that stand round about thee If thou wouldst spare the light and influence of the Sun and want the Air that 's turned in and out at thy Nostrils and keep in the little spark of Life without the Meat and Drink that feedeth it every Day and the hot Embers that cover it every Night I mean the warm Bed and Sleep wherewith it is cherished and refreshed or if thou couldst bid all Creatures to go and come at thy pleasure then it were a more excusable sin not to remember God but when it is so great a certainty that these are all the means and instruments that he hath made and doth use to conveigh his Blessings to us and that we cannot live a moment without one or other of them thou art an Atheist in Judgment or Practice if thou forget him Thou mayst as well stand without a Foundation or see without Eyes or hear without the hearing Faculty as live without one or other of his Mercies every moment If thou hadst nothing else to endear the thoughts of God to thee and to make the Remembrance sweet even the mercies of a meer private nature have a mighty force to one that doth but consider them If we do but acknowledge what we have deserved it 's no contemptible mercy nor to be slighted to be freed from those evils which are so many ways incident to us and which we have so well deserved not to be stricken with Blindness or Deafness not to be smitten with Distraction or Madness not forsaken of Health and Friends all outward Comforts not driven to pinching necessities of Hunger Thirst Cold and Nakedness as many are These privative mercies should amplifie the goodness of our Redeemer to us and make the thoughts of God more welcome Not to want any Member of thy Body nor Faculty of thy Soul nor a very good portion of Food Health and Friends especially if they be Friends indeed nor other Provision for a comfortable Life and yet to want an Eye to look to the Fountain nor to remember the Giver that deals with us so contrary to our deservings is a fearful case and condition The Church in her Captivity when she was in the hands of cruel Tyrants and Oppressors yet even in that condition could find out a Not that did not a little affect his Heart with thankfulness It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed Lam. 3.22 As if she had said we are in distress but we might have been in Hell we are cast down but we might have been utterly cast off A Soul truly convinced of his sin and humbled knows the value of such mercies as these Not tormented with those acute Diseases that gives us no rest day nor night not afflicted with the Stone or Gout or Iliack Passion not seized on with a hand of Judgment from Heaven not visited with the Plague or any other dreadful Sickness What an Indictment made up of such Mercies might be drawn up against one that blots God out of his Remembrance And if mercies of this kind are such an obligation to this duty what are the positive mercies of a whole life yea of a year month or but a day It 's hard to reckon up the kinds and sorts unless we should insist upon meer generals that comprehend numbers under them Such as are Temporal Spiritual Personal or Relative it 's not very easie to reckon them up The comforts of Life Health to those that have it Estate Name mercies of Food and Rayment Friends House Recreation Protection but the particulars under these who can recite Our relative mercies how various Never a one relation but would puzzle our thoughts to muster up the mercies thereof and give in the particulars the good we do them the good we receive of them every sight of them every enjoyment of their company discourse love to us our love to them In a word All our comforts are theirs and theirs reciprocally ours and so each have the mercies twice over See now whether we have brought the matter and in what a
the Question lest I should be too tedious The Common Directions which I shall propose are By way of 1 Consideration 2. Exercise Consider therefore 1. What a fearful and dangerous sin it is to forget God 2 What a shame it is to be unmindful of him 3. What are the benefits of preferinging God in our Remembrance before all other things For the First I have already shewed what a heinous and dangerous sin it is to forget God from whence it may be fetch'd for our Consideration I shall give a brief Recapitulation Consider then what Obligations thou sin'st against if thou shut God out of thy Remembrance 1. On God's part 1. He gave thee thy Faculties to this very end 2. And hath purposely set Heaven and Earth before thee to exercise these Faculties and to put thee in Remembrance of him 3. He hath sent his Son to put thee in mind of him 4. He hath given thee his Spirit Word and all his Ordinances to awake thee to remember him Think then what Gilt the breach of all these Obligations on Gods part will bring upon thee if yet thou shalt forget him Consider what Obligations also thou sinnest against 2. On thy own part Thou sinnest against 1. Thy solomn Vow 2. Covenant 3. Oath 4. Profession If these particulars be taken into thy consideration thou wilt not sure count it a venial sin to forget God and consequently it will be a means to bring thee to the Remembrance I am directing to Consider also the danger as well as the guiltiness of this sin 1. It may betray thee to all other sin and absurdity 2. It will provoke God to forget thee in a way of mercy 3. It will cause him to Remember thee in a way of Judgment If thon art one that dost believe and wilt consider thus much it will prepare thee for the duty we are now upon and be a help to a worthy Remembrance of him For every thing that hath the nature of a motive to a practical Duty hath the nature of a means or help to the performance of the Duty The Reason is because cause it is a necessary means to any Duty to bring the Will to a thorough Resolution Now all motives are the most proper means ro bring the Will to such a Determination So much for the first thing that we are to consider Secondly Consider also what a shame it is to forget God and to be unmindful of him Hast thou no ingenuity 1. Canst thou forget him that remembreth thee every hour 2. Canst thou forget him in prosperity whom thou wilt remember in thy necessity 3. Dost thou not blush to prefer empty unsatisfactory and transitory things in thy Remembrance before God But these things I have already insisted on and therefore do but now name them as matter of our consideration as a second sort of motives and therefore fit means to help on this Remembrance Thirdly If thou wouldst be in the number of those that exalt God above all things in their Remembrance then consider what advantage will accrue to thee by such a Remembrance I know these may be also called motives as all means by way of consideration are But yet they are all distinct and different kinds of motives and have their effect upon three several passions 1. The first sort taken from the consideration of the greatness and danger of the sin of not Remembring God are rather to fright us from the sin of forgetfulness than to draw us to the duty of Remembrance 2. The second sort are intended to work upon Ingenuity where there is any and to excite shame in those that neglect such a becoming duty 3. And the third sort taken from the benefits and advantage of this Remembrance are directly to excite Love and Desire and hereby to attract the Heart to the performance of a work so beneficial I come now therefore to propose the Benefits that will follow such a worthy Remembrance of God as a means to this duty First Consider If thou art one that Remembrest God with the most prizing valuing thoughts thou art translated from Death to Life If St. John make the predominant love of the Brethren to be so sure an evidence of this Translation 1 John 3.14 We know that we are passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren Then much more doth the sincere love of God give us full security that we are thus advanced But the predominant love of God is implied in this Remembrance as the essential part of it according to the known Rule words of Sense and Understanding in Morallity essentially involve Affections and Actions If they go alone all moral Acts are incompleat unless they be both in the understanding and will in the Mind and Heart If therefore thou art one that thus remembrest God thou hast this grand priviledge whose name is Legion and contains such a number under it Death is a name of terror and sounds dreadful to all whose Ears it hath not stop'd and is the sum and abridgment of all that 's either hateful or fearful And therefore all the penalty that God threatneth for the breach of such a perfect Righteous Law as he gave to Man was comprized in the word Death And if it be not enough to vindicate the Law from contempt of such as do but hear it yet it will teach them at least not to despise it that feel it And as Death is a Name pregnant with Dread and Horror so Life is the most comfortable Sound and carries all that 's desirable in the Bowels of it And it is put in Scripture to signifie 1. All Happiness 2. Perpetuity And therefore it was the only Sanction that God added to his Law by way of Remuneration Do this and Live Where Life is opposed to the Death that is threatned to the Transgressors As Death therefore is comprehensive of all Misery so Life is a complication of all Happiness And as it is put for all Felicity so for Perpetuity Psal 56.7 In his favour is Life 1. Perpetuity as appears by the opposeâ—â—â— in the former part of the verse His Anger endures but a moment that is it 's short but in his Favour is Life 1. It 's lasting and perpetual Now Death is of three sorts opposed to a three fold Life 1. Natural 2. Moral 3. Metaphorical Natural Death is the privation of all sense Death Moral is the privation of all Love in the Will to Vertue and propension to Goodness for want of which Love it is dead to all vertuous Life and Action and feels no sweetness in them because the principle of that Life is wanting For Love is the Principium Vitae in morallibus Love is the principle of Life in the Moral Spiritual or gracious Life And as Natural Death doth not only deprive the Body of all Sense and Motion but renders it unfit for the Soul to dwell in and be united to and so dissolves the union between these two So Morally
Death doth not deprive the Soul of all gracious and vertuous Sense and Motion but renders it unfit for the Spirit of true Vertue Grace and Holiness to dwell in and so there must needs follow a Devorce and Separation between them And as in the Natural Life there is a Union between the Soul and Body so in the Moral there is a Union between the Soul and God Death Metaphorical is the privation of all the comfortable effects of Life whether it be Natural or Moral whilst bear Life doth still remain and the presence of all those evils that may afflict or imbitter it And all these are either 1. Temporal 2. Eternal From what hath been spoken for the explication of these two terms Life and Death you may perceive what a priviledge and unspeakable favour it is to be translated from Death to Life 1. If thou Remembrest God The sting of a Natural Death is pulled out and though thou art not 〈◊〉 from the part of the penalty of sin whereby the Body is deprived of all sense and separated from the Soul yet thou art delivered from that which is most terrible in Death 〈◊〉 the misery or Death that will follow after and it is a comfortable passage for them that Remember God to endless Joy and Happiness and sometimes a welcome Messenger to them They may truly say as Agag 1 Sam. 15.32 The bitterness of Death is past 2. They are translated from the Death of Sin to the Life of Grace and Holiness and are united unto God and are disposed by Faith and Love to that Holiness which is the Divine Perfection and the way to the highest Happiness and Honour that the Heart of Man can wish or desire Though this Life will be imperfect whilst we stay here And if there be such pleasure in the Union between the Soul and Body then there is much more in the Union between the Soul and God 3. As Death is put for Misery and the bitter and uncomfortable effects of the endless Life to come so they are passed from Death to Life The Sentence of Death that God hath passed against sin is so far revers'd And as for the Miseries and Evils of this Life though materially they may have more than other Men yet as to the formal and most essential part of them they feel them not so much as other Men because they are allay'd and sweetned 1. By the inward Peace and Comfort that God gives to those that Remember him 2. By the benefit and advantage they get by those outward Sufferings For as their outward Man is afflicted so their inward man is renewed strengthened and confirmed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 For their light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory even in the beginnings of it here ver 17.3 It lessens their short and momentary sufferings that by them they escape so much Temptation and all the â—aiâ—s of sin are become the less taking If thou art one in whose Remembrance God is advanced above all other things thou shalt not die but live and declare the works of the Lord Psal 118.17 And though the Lord may chasten and correct thee yet he will not give thee over unto Death ver 18. For God is the Fountain of Life and in his Light thou shalt see Life Psal 36.9 O what a Mercy is it to be delivered from the power of Death and Darkness and to be translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son where thou shalt grow up from one degree of Life to another till thou come to everlasting Life Col. 1.13 At thy first entrance into this Kingdom Death is sentenced and some execution is done upon every sort of Death which will be perfected as this remembrance of God grows up to perfection in thee O Death I will be thy Plague O Grave I will be thy Destruction Hos 13.14 Which as it was verified of Christ personally understood so it is of Christ mystically understood 1. As Christ overcame Death in his Person so every true Believer such are all and only they that have God in their Remembrance hath gotten some conquest over Death which shall grow up to a full Victory and therefore Paul in the Name of the whole Church doth acknowledge this mercy Thanks be to God that giveth us the victory thorough our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15 5 7. Whilst the wicked forgetters of God are dead in trespasses and sins and dead to all soul and solid Joy and Comfort and designed to an eternal death Thou that thinkest upon God and remembrest his Love in Christ art entred into a state of Life and hast such a Promise that contains more in it than all the rich Indian Mines Because â—e hath set his Love upon me With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my Salvation Psal 91.16 If thou didst but know what a treasure is hid in thâ—â— Remembrance thou wouldst throw out every thing of thy Memory and Heart that hinders this Remembrance of God This one priviledge of being translated from Death to Life is big with a number more 1. It implies that thou art reconciled to God and he is at peace with thee and thou needest no more to fear him as thine Enemy All his Attributes of Power Justice Holiness Vengeance Majesty that sound so terrible to the forgetters of God do but the better secure thee of thine Happiness 2. It implies also thy present Justification in title of Law God hath acquitted thee by the law of Grace and Act of the Gospel from the guilt of sin and dissolved the Obligation to condemnation Who can lay any thing to thy charge if God absolve thee Who can do thee any hurt when Christ is become thy Advocate Rom. 8.33 3. With this mercy doth concur the mercy of Adoption and Sonship It 's no small Honour to be one of his menial Servants but to be a Son yea a Heir is a priviledge not easily valued and understood 4. The gift of the Spirit to dwell within thee is here also implied to mortifie all sin and to work all gracious habits that may fit thee for a state of Glory In a word 5. All real and relative Grace so far as is necessary to Salvation is thine either in Title Possession 1. The Righteousness of Imputation is thine whereby thou art made fit for Pardon and the Righteousness of Implantation is thine whereby thou art made fit for his Love and Complacency and sweetest Communion with him Secondly If thou art one that Remembrest God all things shall co-operate and conspire for thy good Every Age every state and condition of Life every Place and Company every Change and Alteration in the World Prosperity and Adversity Friends and Enemies Health and Sickness Honour and Dishonour every Relation thou art plac'd in shall help forward thy Joy and Felicity and some Foundation God is laying in every one of these whereupon to
superstruct this Happiness and build that Joy upon it that shall never end O how great are the Priviledges of one that Remembereth God whom he doth visit and continually comfort and rejoyce with refreshig Consolations To whom he openeth when they come to him with desire and doth embrace when they cast themselves on him whom he is teaching and shewing the pleasure that strangers intermeddle not with But were this all they would be miserable in comparison of what they now are How sweet are his very Delays Frowns and the Chastisements of his Rod His Estrangements Threatnings and the signs of his Displeasure dreadful to the Wicked but sweet to them that have his special Grace to make their advantage of them are in the mean while supported under them I know they are sad to them and cause great thoughts of Heart but having the root of the matter in them Job 19.28 And being forewarned by the Word of God that thus it will sometime be with his dearest Children and directed what to do in such times of Mourning and knowing that they shall not be tempted above their strength These considerations recommend Sufferings and Afflictions to them and make them far more desirable to them than the most splendid Pomp and Prosperity of those that forget God As all the Mirth and Pleasures of wicked men are preparing them for Misery and would be dreadful to their thoughts if they did but see what they all contribute to their eternal shame So all is contrary in an honest and pure hearted Believer not only the smiles but the angry looks of God are sweet to his Apprehensions not as they are signs of his displeasure but as they help him forward in the hatred of sin and mortifie his Affections to the Pleasures here below I know the Anger of God is not directly desirable to any Person but the sanctified fruits of it are desirable And some little of it when sin that would otherwise undo us makes it necessary and it is mingled with a greater proportion of Love and the Soul is disposed by Grace to tremble under it and to be rid of it upon any terms Consider therefore thou that Remembrest God Is it not an unvaluable comfort to fore-know that all thy Trouble and Sorrows shall befriend thee and that the leanest pasture thou canst be put in shall feed thee up to everlasting Joys when on the other side those that forget God though they fare deliciously every day and are gotten into the richest pastures and have the desire of their carnal hearts yet they are but fatting themselves for the slaughter and who would envy a fat Sheep or Hog that fares a little better and is preparing for the Shambles Nay who would envy a Lobworm in a fat Dunghil They seed on wicked men 〈◊〉 makes them so fat and merry it is but Dung and Filth in comparison of that which a Soul mindful of Good feeds upon Methinks that place should sound dreadful to one that prospereth in the World and doth not remember God Psal 92.7 The two verses that go before it ushers it in and that follows after in fearful pomp and state O Lord how great are thy Works and thy Thoughts very deep A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this When the wicked spring as the Grass and all the workers of Iniquity do flonrish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever And we may say as well on the other side that God is as wonderful in his thoughts toward such as are mindful of him though a Fool understand not That when the humble Believer in whose thoughts God in Christ dwelleth uppermost withers as the Grass and fades like the green Herb it is that he may flourish for ever If thou art trod upon thou shalt grow the better Thy necessities shall cause thee to make more haste and get nearer to the Fountain that is opened to the eternal praise of Gods Mercy for such needy ones All thy miseries shall but the more illustrate the Glory of his Compassion toward thee when refuge faileth thee and none careth for thy Soul Many a one had liv'd and died in perpetual obsourlty whose names are a rich persume in the Church of God thorough their Sufferings and Afflictions which have made them the more famous and embalm'd their Memory When the ways of a Man please the Lord he can and will in one sense or other make his very Enemies to be his Friends 1. Their hatred shall be turned into love or if it do continue still God shall turn their very hatred and enmity to the greater advantage of those that are mindful of him This made Paul to boast in his Infirmities Necessities and Tribulation 2 Cor. 11.30 What if thou art poor and necessitous if the Lord remember thee What if thou hast no Friends on Earth if thou hast one in Heaven What if thou art destitute of Health it self the greatest Earthly Blessing if thou art one that remembrest God it shall turn to thine advantage If thou hast God in thy Remembrance thou hast all for he will make every state and condition serve thy turn What if thou art a Servant if God be thy Master If thou hast nothing to recommend thee unto Men if thou hast this Grace I am pressing to to recommend thee unto God thou shalt be more a gainer than if thou hadst had Dominion in the World and all the Paint and Varnish that would set thee off to the Eye of Men. Thy Temptations Reproach Sufferings of every kind and thy very Prosperity and Wordly Happiness which for the most part is such a preparative to Destruction shall be like the Dew and Sun-shine to thee and make thee more fruitful and ripen thy Graces if thou art one that hast God always in thy Remembrance Thirdly If thou art one that remembrest God as I have expressed thou hast the Key to unlock all the Mercies of God and to open the rich and most rarest Treasures of Divine Grace and to get the very desire of thy Heart I mean thou mayst come with Faith and Confidence to the Throne of Mercy and open thy very Heart to him who hath an Ear for all thy Requests The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Psal 25.14 and Psal 37.4 Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart and Jam. 5. later clause 16. v. The effectual fervent Prayer of a Righteous Man availeth much Now to fear the Lord to remember him to delight in him are but several Descriptions of a Righteous Man and Believer Thou canst not have God in thy Mind and Heart but thou wilt fear him love him delight in him in some degree think on him trust in him in the way that he hath directed and then thou art a Believer and a Righteous Person in the Gospel sense though not in the sense of the Law that requires
run upon the vengeance of Eternal Fire and take no care to get the Crown that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.14 They are inconsiderate and will not suffer their Hearts to muse on these things O if these things were considered to any purpose your worldly business which you now pretend so much against these things would seem light and trivial and meer Childs-play in comparison or that work which is of Ten thousand times higher concernment You would not on the one hâ—nd neglect the opportunities of your Souls and of getting Grace and Peace with God thorough our Lord Jesus Christ and making your felt for ever If these thoughts did but dwell in your Minds and if Consideration did but open your Eye and shew you the worth and excellency the force and necessity of these big and most concerning Truths Neither would you on the other hand attend the means of Grace with such sleepy inattentive wandring Hearts Is not that Man a sot indeed that can sleep upon a Scaffold when he is going to Execution Is not that Man a careless stupid wretch indeed that will give no attention or heed what the Judge says when he is passing Sentence either of Life or Death upon him And yet it is the case of many a sinner that 's careless and inconsiderate when he is dying and going into another World and therefore he makes none or but foolish preparation Consideration if it were followed would bring home these Truths and give them a power to pierce and become sensible and make the Man that doth consider them to live answerably to them Physick worketh not in the Prescription or Doctors Bill no nor in the Apothecaries Shop where it is prepared till it be taken and let down into the Stomach or some way taken into the Body for it nourisheth not in the Dish or on the Table no nor though it be taken into the Mouth if it be not transmitted into the Stomach and there concocted Neither will the greatest Truths cure the Distempers of a sinful and perverted Heart or nourish up the Soul to any Spiritual Life and vigour in the Book nor in the Mouth of the Teacher nor yet if they be taken into the Brain till Meditation bring them to the Heart and the Soul by Consideration look frequently upon the worth and weight of them and enforce Subjection and Obedience thereto For want of this Consideration of these few plain and important Truths it is that Men forget God and never attain to a due Remembrance of him and for want of this they relapse and lose their first Love and Memory of him And therefore Consideration is the best way to beget this Remembrance at first and to restore it afterwards Secondly Such Consideration is very soveraign and powerful to bring a Man at first to Remember God or to recover his Thoughts and Affections again after a decay and relapse because in both these cases the Word of God calls to Consideration and insists perpetually upon this Duty When the Prophets of God are sent to call Men to their first or after Repentance they usually deliver their Message in terms that express or imply Consideration After the return of the Jews from the Babilonish Captivity from the which the Lord had brought them by such a mighty hand they forgat the Lord and grew presently careless and negligent of his House and Worship and the Prophet Haggai is sent 1. To censure and reprove the sin and 2. To prescribe the Remedy and Means to cure their sin and bring them to Repentance Their sin is taxed pretty sharply and is charged on them by a cutting Interrogation Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you O ye to dwell in your cieled Houses and Gods House lie waste and consequently his Service neglected which was then so much confined to the Temple In the next verse he proposeth the Remedy ver 5. Now therefure thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider your ways Nay to shew the vertue and necessity of it he urgeth it the second time ver 7. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider your ways And the Prophet Isaiah implieth the excellency of this Remedy in that he doth lay the blame of Israels Rebellion and Ingratitude upon the want of this They were grown to a strange pass of monstrous Wickedness and Ingratitude which the Prophet knew not how to express and therefore calls upon Heaven and Earth to take notice that God had nourished and brought up Children and yet they rebelled against him Esa 1.2 and fetcheth his proof from the Brutes and irrational Creatures to convince them of their sin The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib 1. saith Vatablus the Master of his Crib But Israel doth not know and what 's the reason of such shameful miscarriage My People doth not consider And Moses intimateth that Death and Judgment which are the most powerful means to awaken Men to Repentance and the Remembrance of God will do no good without Consideration but if he could bring them to this Duty to consider of these things he did not doubt their Welfare and Happiness Deut. 32.29 O that my People were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end This act of Consideration applied to this Object is a most excellent means to bring Men to Wisdom and Understanding which are insolent with an Impenitency and Forgetfulness of God And without this leading act of the Soul there can be no beseeming Apprehensions of him nor Service rightly performed to him And where there is least of this there is most of Formality and slightness in his Worship and most of Irreligion and Athiesm in the Life And therefore Moses when he is Exhorting the Children of Israel to a due Remembrance of God and Veneration of him he gives them this Advice Know therefore this day and consider it in thine Heart that the Lord he is God in Heaven above and upon the Earth beneath and there is none else Deut. 4.39 When Men flee off from this and will not set themselves to consider and understand neither Correction nor Instruction nor Mercies will succeed but all will lose their designed end and leave a Man under Impenitency and Forgetfulness And therefore Moses adviseth Israel thus to consider Deut. 8.5 Thou shalt not consider it in thine Heart that as a Man chasteneth his Son so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee The same word in the Hebrew signifieth to Consider and Vnderstand because the one so much dependeth upon the other And as 1 Correction will not prosper without it so neither will 2. Instruction which is another means to to produce this worthy Remembrance of God Hence it is that the Apostle urgeth to consider what he had taught them or else the Instructions he had given them were like to be as Water spilt upon the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2.7
to the befriending of his Interest Now in both these sorts of Action as I have already hinted we have chiefly to do with God who is principally concerned and therefore both of them must be guided by the Law of God for the matters and manner of them that they may attain their end but do this if you can without Consideration The Heart is deceitful above all things and desparatly wicked who can know it Jer. 17.9 It will make you believe that your intentions are upright and that God's Honour is aimed at when there is nothing else If therefore you would not be deceived believe not your own Hearts much less the Tongues of others that would flatter you into a good opinion of your selves Judge not according to an outward sudden appearance of things but judge Righteous Judgments But this you can never do if you Consider not There are depths in the Heart of Man depths in all his Actions depths in the Word of God which is the rule of them The Devil hath a deep reach in his Temptations whereby he sets upon us and manageth his Work with the greatest Art and Cunning. The baits that he useth are not easily discerned Vice and Wickedness is specious oftentimes Truth and Honesty appears in a disguise and seem on a sudden like him that was the perfection of Beauty to have no Form nor Comeliness in them Esay 53.2 Without Consideration you can never search these Mysteries nor wade thorough these Depths The careless and inconsiderate Man will be taken and insnared he will catch at a shew instead of a Substance He will embrace an Appearance instead of Death and the way will seem right in his Eyes the end whereof is the way of Truth It 's a fearful charge which the Prophet Esay fastens upon the careless Jews Esay 59.8 There is no Judgment in their goings they discern not where is safety nor where is danger Such Persons he knew could not escape Destruction If you Consider not there can be no judgment in your goings you will be in danger every step you tread you will never find out your duty nor be able to perform it neither Faith nor Reason will bear any sway in the course of your Life for Consideration puts these into power and authority but Sense will rule you and you will live after the Flesh and so must take what follows The Apostle tells you what that is Rom. 8.13 If you live after the Flesh ye shall die and Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to his Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption 1. Perdition If then you would not bring such a shameful reproach upon Humane Nature and live like a Brute in the shape of a Man nor like an Infidel under the disguise of a Christian nor reap the fruit of a Sensual Fleshly Life use Consideration I say again live under the power of Consideration The Consideration which I commend to thee is two sold viz. Of the End Means It is the work and business of every Man both good and bad 1. To design an End and 2. To pursue that End and compass his designed intent by the surest means he can possible The End of a worldling is to thrive and grow rich and therefore it is his daily Study and Practice to compass his End his Thoughts Affections and Actions are all busied in contriving and endeavouring to grow rich The End of a Christian is to grow rich also but not in worldly Riches but in the Grace of God not to add House to House and Field to Field Esay 5.8 But to add to Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge 2 Pet. 1.5 And to grow up to the full assurance of Understanding Col. 2.2 What makes the one so Wise Provident and Judicious and the other so Weak and Shallow and so defective in his very Reason and Choice It 's this only that makes the difference the one hath weighed and considered these things and set the one against the other and tried them in an even ballance the other takes that comes first and prefers a present Pleasure that he tastes and feels though it be for a short and uncertain time before an everlasting Felicity that he hath no sight of but he must take upon the meer credit of God's Word Doth that Man that looks no higher than how to fare deliciously every day and to get a little better Wooll upon his Back than others and to rustle in Silk and gaudy Attire and to domineer over others and to have his Commands fulfilled though they be never so absurd and unreasonable Indeed Consider that his Life will not always last that his Dream will quickly end Doth he that is got into the Saddle and makes a greater bustle and stir than his poorer Brethren and tramples under his Feet that doth oppose him and that will not bow down that he may go over them or make a stirrop of them to climbe up into a higher degree of Pride and Ambition Doth such a one consider that he must come down at last If he had considered this he would never have made such a foolish Choice as this and neglected God and his Soul for such a flying Sensual Happiness as this is Doth that Man that wanders after the World and le ts out his Heart to any present Enjoyments and feeds upon Air and the Breath of a few lying deceived Men whilst he seeks not the Approbation of God by an Humble Holy and Heavenly Life know and consider what Dung and Dross he hath prefered before an Eternal Crown of Glory Let the event prove who was the wisest and most considering Man she that hath chosen Heaven or he that hath chosen Earth he that hath renounced God or he that hath renounced the World and who is the most weak and crack'd Brain'd Person he that studies to please God or he that studies to humour the Flesh and to satisfie the Lusts thereof I do not intend by what hath been spoken to disparage any of these lower Comforts that are used with Consideration Thankfulness and Sobriety and that do not lift up Mens Hearts with Pride and Insolency and make them the more Impious Oppressive and Intollerable the more they have of them nor negligent in their study to please God and care to promote that which is right in his sight But my design is to shew the Vertue of Consideration that makes such a vast difference between Man and Man and makes the one to dig so deep and lay his Foundation so sure that his Happiness shall last for ever and the other to chuse the Happiness that shall last but two or three score years at longest it may be not the tenth part so long And as Consideration makes so vast a difference in the Ends that Men design and intend and makes one chuse Heaven and an Eternal Life with God for his Portion and Treasure and to set his Heart upon it and to make it his ultimate End And another for want
force nor power with him to restrain his Corruption because he feels it not though he might as certainly foresee it as that which he now feels And he will do more to be rid of the Tooth-ach or some present Affliction than to prevent one that 's a thousand times greater Is he guided by Reason or Sense and doth he live like a Man that hath Understanding or like a Bruit that hath none that will take more care and pains and be at more cost to be freed from present Pain and Sickness and to get out of Poverty or Hardship when it pincheth him and to throw off any present Burthen that he feels himself oppressed with than to escape the Damnation of Hell though he must otherwise most certainly feel it ere long Judge impartially whether this be not to be like the Horse and Mule and other meer sensitive Creatures that have no Understanding Let them have what they have at present and feel no present Pain and you please them well enough though you feed them for the Slaughter You cannot Shoe an Ox unless you bind and cast him down and force him though it be to keep his Feet from hurt Your Horse is not pleased when you let him Blood though it save his Life because you hurt them for the present The Man that considers not will be too like these Brutish Creatures and run into Eternal Misery to avoid a little present Affliction Moreover 3. It 's an Argument of Pride not to Consider Psal 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his Countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts thy Judgments are far above out of his sight God hath set Heaven and Earth before him and set such variety of things on purpose to be Considered And the Inconsiderate Man shuts his Eyes and will not behold the Glory of the Lord nor give him the Honour due to his Name If it be foolish Pride to undervalue any Creature what Arrogancy is it to despise and overlook the most absolute and perfect Being things of the highest value and most worthy our Observation Fifthly It 's easie to Consider your Thoughts will run some way whether you will or not The Soul of Man is a busie active thing and will not be idle it will rather be impertinently employed than not at all and the bare work of thinking is no hard matter It 's rather a work of difficulty to restrain them especially from the things that we have the highest Love and Respect for If God and thy Soul were valued and loved by thee above all other things as they must be if thou art a Christian at the Heart thou couldst not but think and think again how to please the one and save the other If things that are more worth than the whole Frame of Heaven and Earth and all that 's visible to the Eyes are not worthy thy most prizing pleasing Thoughts they are worth nothing and if thou thinkest so thou art either an ignorant Sot or an Atheist It 's a cheap purchase to gain the highest Wisdom and the Love of God and to save thy Soul for ever at the expence of a few sober serious thoughts If you stick at Consideration which it must cost you if ever you be saved you judge your selves unworthy of Eternal Life It 's easie enough to you to turn your Thoughts to an Object of Gain or Pleasure and is there any greater Gain than to save your Souls What will it profit you to win the whole World and lose your Souls Mat. 16.26 It 's a rational question that the greedy Heart of Man shall never be able to answer without Self-condemnation if he run his Soul upon destruction though he should get to be the happiest man upon Earth O unhappy Soul that couldst consider and Judge no better Wast thou master of no more Brains and Wit than what could inform thee how to Feed and Trick up thy Carkass and commend it to the Eyes of a few dying men And to live in a little Credit whilst thou art above ground though thy Name stink for ever afterwards Was this the upshot of all thy Thoughts Couldst thou think to better for thy poor Soul that might be Eternally Happy if you would not fly consideration but turn your Thoughts to those things for which God gave to you your faculty to Think O remember that it 's easie and very natural to consider how you may save your Soul if you were not become unnatural and cruel to your selves And it will shame you unto the deepest silence when God shall ask you Why you did not Consider of those things when the matters were so great and the work so easie Sixthly You will consider when it is too late and wish that you had made more hast when it would have done you good It would not be such a perfect degree of madness in us not to consider how wonderfully God hath made us how deeply we stand Indebted to him for no less than all that we have or hope for and how wickedly we have departed from him and what our sin hath deserved and what our Saviour hath done save us from the woful consequents thereof it would not be so absurd to put these Thoughts out of our Minds now if we could always keep them out But in the latter end we shall consider Jer. 23.20 It would not be so great a sin to be inconsiderate now if we could be ever so But alas stupidity and insensibleness of such things as these is the disease only of this present Life and will last no longer than the day of Grace And woe to us a thousand times if it last so long But when the day of Mercy is past be stupid if thou canst and harden thy heart against such Thoughts if thou art able Consideration is now our duty and the fittest instrument to show us the evil of Sin and the worth of Grace but if it be here neglected it shall be our punishment hereafter and the most cruel instrument to torment us Believe it then we shall passionately wish that we had considered a little sooner and had let these things sink into our hearts O that we had pondered them whilst we had the day But now the fearful night is come upon us and we are Sentenced everlastingly to such dismal Thoughts If we had spent a few serious Thoughts what this misery is to which we are now condemned we had escaped these Torments If we had considered what it is to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power 2 Thes 1.9 and to be forsaken of all comfort for ever we had not been now pouring forth these bitter cryes and complaints But alas what are they now worth who regardeth them or is moved to any the least compassion towards Yea the righteous God will laugh at your calamity Prov. 1.26 and the Saints will praise him and say
Woe to the persons that use the Talents God hath given them to such a wicked purpose and serve the Devil so openly in the world and that are imployed as his Agents not only to destroy themselves but to pervert and destroy the Souls of others with whom they have any fellowship I would not be in the condition of those that go down to the Grave with the guilt of such a sin on them for all the World If as the Apostle tells us He that converteâ—h a sinner from the evil of his waâ— shall save his Soul from death and hide 〈◊〉 of sins James 5.23 What reward shall be given unto thee thou false tongue Psal 120.3 that studiest to convert a sinner to the errour of thy ways and to bring his soul to death what shall be done unto thee that dost in plain terms or else by cunning Fetches endeavour to discourage thy brother from prayer meditation in the word of God and consideration of the life to come If you have any belief of the life to come and compassion for your souls avoid the company of such persons as much as you can and stopt your ears to such discourses or rather openly declaim against them and rebuke the persons roundly that are such enemies to the salvation of mens souls and consequently to all the means that should promote and bring it to pass amongst which Consideration is none of the least Fourthly see that you carefully shun too much occupation in worldly affairs If your thoughts be much entangled with the matters of the world they will be very unfit for the consideration of such weighty serious things which you must think upon till you are affected with them more than all other matters that meerly concern this life or else wish that God had never given you a thinking faculty Be still and know that I am God so we render it Psal 46.10 But in the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Desist from and remit your other imployments and consider that I am God For the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hiph signifies Desistere Absistere Remittere 1. To desist to leave off or remit If worldly matters be too busie in your heads spiritual and eternal things cannot be considered nor thought upon as they ought You may as well walk upright with a Mountain on your backs as erect your thoughts Heaven-ward whilst they are incumbred with the world Though slight and trivial business may be transacted in a Croud yet when we have matters of weight and moment we then chuse silence and retâ—â—â—ment Let me tell you there 's nothing of such consequence as those things that are to fall under our consideration And do you think a mind distract with worldly cares is fit for such a work as this It is not easie to be affected with the eye of God that 's ever on us and to stand always in awe of him unless frequent serious consideration make way And who can do that that hath one worldly business or another perpetually in his mind And is even burthened and oppressed with such thoughts As the eye of the body is disturbed by the violent motion of the Wind or Air so the eye of the understanding is more perturbed by busie confused and tumultuous thoughts And although they that have their heads continually exercised and imployed in worldly business are very subject to such confusion and disorder yet even those also that have not their hands very much imployed may have their hearts in continual disturbance and agitation and may have as little vacancy and leisure for such consideration as those that are over head and ears in the World and are as busie all the day long as if they were labouring for a Crown or Kingdom It is an unvaluable mercy to have a free composed and undisturbed mind and to have vacancy and leisure to ask a mans self what he is doing and whether it will yield him comfort when he is passing out of the World Many have bitterly repented them that they have had so many Irons in the Fire and that with Martha they have been careful and solicitous for many things whilst they have neglected the one thing necessary Luke 10.41 Let their Repentance be a warning unto us that the oppressing cares of the world do not either prevent or else smother and choke better thoughts Fifthly Another grand obstruction to the work of necessary consideration is pride in all the kinds thereof As God deals with pride so pride deals with him He looks upon the proud and the proud look upon him afar off or rather he regardeth them not at all nor they him The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not consider and seek after God God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 His wayes are alwayes grievous to him They are far above out of his sight Vers 5. Though the proud man looketh too high yet not high enough you see to take God into his consideration who should be the principal object of it There is none that standeth at a greater distance from God both Actively and Passively by way of sin and punishment than the proud person Though the heart that 's lifted up with pride beareth it self so high yet not high enough for such a work as consideration is that is to be exercised in the highest matters It 's true both pride and consideration are of an aspiring nature and yet you can scarce name two things that are more inconsistent The one seeks the vanishing breath and applause of men The other is ambitious of God's approbation The one reacheth after the pomp and glory of the Earth and the other foares after the riches and glory of Heaven And as pride lifteth up the flesh so consideration doth enable and advance the Spirit Now he that is gotten up to the Top of wordly pride and greatness is far more indisposed to consider the high Attributes of God and his glorious perfections and the life to come and the joys of Heaven than he that is cast down and humbled by worldly poverty and shame he hath a better prospect into the Heavenly Kingdom and Glory and seeth more of the Majesty of God and the splendour and dignity of his Servants that is placed low in the world than he that is got upon a Pinnacle or stands upon the Mountain of worldly honour and felicity There is no man that is the least acquainted with the 〈◊〉 of God but will easily confess that an 〈…〉 lowly spirit hath more clear distinct affecting apprehensions of the highest things than the proudest and most 〈◊〉 spirit Men think to advance themselves to honour by such a spirit as this but it 's certainly true that nothing doth more debase them so true is it thâ—â— Solomon â—ffiâ—â—meth that the wicke worâ—â—â—th a deceifed work Râ—oâ—â— 11.18 As pride is an enâ—my to all grace whatsoever so it is a deadly enemy to consideration for there 's nothing
it is to escape without Repentance Who more likely to abhor himself to be humbled and broken in heart to confess his Sin with Shame and to resolve against it which are but the several parts of Repentance than he that considers how he hath affronted God perverted his Order seduced his Brethren and wronged his own Soul and disparaged the very Reason that God hath given him and laid the Foundation of Gods Eternal displeasure and his own everlasting ruine You see Consideration when it is of such particulars is the ready way to bring a Sinner to Repentance And on the other side who so like to find joy and pleasure in the Contemplation of Heaven and the joys thereof in the possession it self and the promise that gives Right and Title to it than he that hath some good hope through Grace that he shall enjoy it So that you see of what use Consideration is both before and after Conversion but yet as before Regeneration there may be in the heart of a Sinner that love which worketh by desire though not that which worketh by complacency to Heaven and heavenly things so before Conversion there may be that Consideration that is forced and constrained but after Conversion it 's like to be more sweet and pleasant and to bring in greater profit and advantage O could you but look upon God as your reconciled Father in Christ and one that is at peace with you how would this help up your thoughts Heavenward and sweeten your Meditations of the life and happiness to come you would not need then so much to force and spur up your mind to such comfortable thoughts at least sometimes it will be getting up of its own voluntary accord upon Mount Nebo to view the promised Land he that hopes to be one of the Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem will at least sometimes walk about Sion and go round her and tell the Towers thereof And mark well her Bulwarks and view and consider her stately Mansions and Palaces Psa 48.12 13. what an encouragement will you have to look up and behold the glory and perfection of the Divine Nature when you can say This is my Father and these Attributes I have an Interest in But yet I must needs confess that even after Conversion there will be oft-times much backwardness and reluctancy to this spiritual and heavenly Duty and you will need to quicken up your selves and chide your backward hearts that they should be so strange to the place where their Treasure is laid up But yet it will not be so hard to bring your heart to such Meditations as it was when you were without hope and without God in the world Fifthly It will further the work of consideration to lay Temporal things in the balance with Eternal things and to make advantage of every Object that 's presented to our Senses to make the consideration of the highest and greatest things more warm and piercing You may very well and rationaily conclude that if the glory of Earth be so great as to dazle the eyes of some beholders and strongly to enamour their affections that the glory of Heaven doth far out-shine it He hath reserved joy and gladness indeed for that place and state if there be so much to be found in this sinning imperfect state here on Earth for all Earthly things serve but to the example and shadow of Heavenly things Heb. 8.5 If the beauty of the body be so taking that men and women oftentimes dote upon it what is the beauty of the Soul do you think and if it were to be seen with bodily eyes how much would it ravish and amaze the beholders If the pleasure of the Senses be so sweet and delicious that men will buy them at the dearest rate how sweet must the pleasures of the Soul needs be when there is so vast a difference between the Soul and Body that are the subjects of these pleasures As there is an unspeakable disproportion between a Spirit and a Body so there must needs be as wide a disproportion between the delights of the one and the delights of the other For I suppose none can be so absurd as to think that the state to come shall be no better than this present state and that mens Bodies are as much worth as their Souls and the Heaven which is the place of his glorious Habitation and Palace is no more adorned than the Earth None can be so void of reason to think that God bestows as much upon his Rational Creatures whilst they are in a state of Tryal and Probation as when they are come to Perfection and are actually chosen to be Citizens of the Heavenly Corporation where they shall live for ever How can the joy of Seed-time be comparable to the joy of Harvest And how can this visible Sun rejoyce the Creatures that it shines upon so much as the Face of God will rejoyce those that behold it You may well therefore rise up in your Meditations from any perfection that you behold on Earth to admire those perfections that are unseen They are the greatest that lye not open to the bodily eye nor can be enjoyed by any Corporeal Faculty or Organ so that when you walk abroad and look upon the glory of the visible Heaven and Earth you may much more admire the splendour and excellency of the invisible Heavens and consequently of all those things that lead thither God that made all things made those visible things that they might be some advantage to the Understanding of things invisible and that they might lead up our apprehensions and affections to him that cannot be immediately seen without the help of such a Glass God is infinitely exalted above our understanding neither are we capable of having any direct and proper Conceptions of the state and life to come and therefore the glory of Heaven is set forth to us in the Word of God by such things as seem glorious to our Senses The Streets of the New Jerusalem or Heaven are said to be paved with Gold and the Gates to consist of Pearl and precious Stones and the pleasures of that state are set forth by a Feast because these are so pleasing to our Senses Now though we must not understand these things in a proper litteral sense yet we are hence instructed that the happiness is exceeding great and such as cannot be well understood by us but by such helps as these So that we may well argue from any pleasures or excellency here on Earth to the excellency and pleasure of that state and make this advantage of all sensible comforts to make our apprehensions of things spiritual more lively and affecting As therefore you may collect the unspeakable torment and misery of the Damned by the pressures and calamities that we feel here on Earth and Hell is usually set forth by Fire and Darkness and a Worm continually feeding upon the Conscience which are things obvious to our Senses so
likewise is the splendour and dignity of the Saints set forth by a Crown and Scepter and Kings things most glorious here on Earth And this use we should wisely make of these things to put life into our Meditations which otherwise would little affect us Sixthly Lastly you must diligently read and hear the Word of God peruse the labours of those that are most skilful in the exposition and application thereof If you ask me who they are I answer use your best endeavours to know and make the most impartial enquiry The frequent casting your eye upon and opening your ear to such matters is the way to get good furniture into your memory and heart which will ever and anon creep into your thoughts and even invite and constrain you to dwell with more intentness and affection on them But you when you are reading and hearing these things that must be the Subject of your Meditations and sowing the Seed of future consideration you must drive away the Birds of Prey that would devoure the Seed that you have sown I mean all disturbing worldly thoughts and keep your mind as much retired from all other things as you are able that it may be free and open to the impressions of the Word and Spirit those especially that are unfurnished for Meditation must take this course for it is most like to prosper since it hath not only Precept but Reason to enforce it They must never expect to have their Souls byassed to and fitted for this Duty that neglect these means which the Wisdom of God hath appointed and let their thoughts scamble about and imploy their eyes and ears about any petty matters rather than in the reading and hearing of Gods Word and such explications of it as are likeliest to bring it to the mind and heart especially read and hear those passages of truth that Life and Salvation most depends on most frequently and get them as fast into your mind as you are able and a right understanding of the very tenour and chief scope of the Gospel which is to bring men to the sight of their sins and by that to come to Christ as his tractable Disciples and by Faith in Christ to Salvation which design that it might bring to pass it sets the highest motives and encouragement before us and gives us the greatest helps But above all parts of Scripture the Psalms of David frequently read will promote you in the work of consideration and teach you hâ—â— to stir up such affections as you see Daviâ— expresseth almost in every Psalm There you may see how he sets upon God sometimes sometimes stirs up his own Soul confers with God communes with his own heart that he might kindle the Fire of Gods Love in his heart which is the principal design of consideration for whether he express sorrow and contrition for his sin it is but that he may stir up hatred in his Soul against it which is the great impediment to the Love of God Or if he express and utter his complaints of the vanity of the World and the miseries of this life all is to quicken up his desires after the true happiness of his Soul and you know love is intrinsecal and essential to desire if he enlarge as he doth frequently in the praises of the Lord and display his glory and muster up his perfections and call Heaven and Earth and Sea and all the Inhabitants of them and all the Islands and Continents of the World and bring in their testimony to him and to make his Name glorious if he summon every living thing that hath breath to praise the Lord it is that he may advance the esteem and encrease the love of God in his own heart and the hearts of others and therefore from this Book you may fetch matter enough and argument for consideration to make use of for the kindling of this and all other holy and devout affections yea the very out-side I mean the phrase and expression of the Psalms is such as hath a powerful Rhetorick with it to set the heart on fire with the love of God no contemplative and devout Christian but hath had very familiar acquaintance with this Book I have told you the flat necessity of consideration if ever a man be brought to his right mind yea and how necessary it is to preserve you in the love and fear of God after you have believed if therefore you are convinced that is your duty without which you can never get the cure of your deadly distempers then you will make Conscience of the means whereby you may be brought to consideration The heart is not easily brought to delight in God and love him above all and to use the world as if he us'd it not its consideration that must change it the heart is naturally dead to spiritual things it 's Consideration that must enliven it and make it stir the heart is prone to wander from God it 's Consideration that must bring it home the heart is full of blindness and obduracy it 's Consideration that must enlighten and soften it If therefore you would not perish in blindness and obduracy and wander from God without hopes of recovery and lose the Pearl of infinite price which who so is wise will sell all that he hath to buy and purchase then use the means that must bring you to Consideration Having given you some general Directions towards the promoting of the work and duty of Consideration I come in the next place to give you some more Particular Directions 1. As to the matter 2. As to the manner 3. As to the end How this Duty is to be performed Concerning the matter of your Contemplation First The first great Object of your Consideration should be God and the Relation you stand in to him and his glorious Perfections It 's worth thy while to consider daily that he made thee out of nothing and when there are four distinct Ranks of Creatures viz. Things that have meer being without life 2. Things that have being and life such as are all Vegetables Trees and Flowers 3. Such as have being life and sense such as are Brutes and other sensitive Creatures 4. Such as have being life sense and reason when there are these four Species and Orders of Creatures he hath placed thee in the highest form and hath made the other three Ranks for thy use and service and as he hath made thee such a Creature so thou hast thy supportation and maintenance wholly from him and he is training thee up in the world for his immediate presence and for those ravishing delights that are to be enjoyed in the Beatifical Vision Canst thou possibly consider the perfection of his Nature thy relation to him as his Creature from whom all that thou hast or doest expect must be fetched thine hourly dependance on him his Authority over thee his right and property in thee his bounty towards thee and not fall down before
him and lift up thy heart to him with reverence nor feel the fire kindle in thy heart and thy self willing to be offered up as a whole Burnt-offering in that fire To offer up Body and Soul with all their several faculties and actions as a living Sacrifice to him is but thy reasonable service Rom. 12.1 As it is his end why he made thee so it should be thy end to have his works continually in thine eye his Word ever in thine heart and his praises everlastingly in thy mouth This was the resolution of David and should be thine I will sing unto the Lord saith he as long as I live I will sing praises to my God whilst I have my being My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord Psal 104.33 34. Consider that he hath infinite wisdom and therefore is fit to rule thee and all the world he hath infinite power and therefore its stark madness for such a Worm to resist him one word of his mouth will undo the Body and Soul for ever one angry frown of his Countenance will make thee wither and turn that moving body of thine into a dead and lifeless Clod yea and send thy Soul into eternal misery Didst thou but consider the holiness of his Nature and how much he abhorreth all sin and wickedness wouldst thou dare to commit it with so much boldness Didst thou but consider what a piercing eye he hath to whom the darkness and the light are both alike Psal 139.12 wouldst thou think to cover and conceal thy Sins from him or use craft and subtilty to blind his eyes Thou dost not consider what he is whilst thou usest such silly shifts as these are they do but provoke a wise man that hath but a Beam of Gods infinite wisdom how much more are they like to provoke him There 's nothing like ingenuity and plain dealing and humble confessing of thy Sin when thou hast to do with him Consideration of the Divine Purity and Justice would be a very effectual defence against all unjust and unrighteous practices If thou dost but consider what antipathy there is in Sin to the Divine Nature and what an affront it is to the Majesty of Heaven and Earth it would not go down so easily nor be such a sweet morsel to thee When men begin to take off the eye of their Consideration from God then they begin to walk in darkness and know not at what they stumble What makes men so vain and wicked in their imaginations and practices but because God is not in all their thoughts by Consideration What makes the ungodly to prefer the pleasures of Sin which are but for a season but because they do not eye and consider the recompence of reward What makes men either to neglect to come to God by prayer or to put up faint and cold supplications to him but that they consider not that he is and that he is a rewarder of all them that diligently seek him Thou wouldst not murmur and repine at any of Gods Providences towards thee if thou didst but consider what Equity Wisdom and Mercy there is in all his dealings towards thee thou wouldst endure the Cross and despise the shame if thou didst but seriously consider the joys that are set before thee thou wouldst be stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord if thou didst but consider thy labour cannot be in vain in the Lord. I advise thee therefore to consider and think more frequently what an impartial righteous Judge thou hast to do with in thy actions and how dear thou shalt pay for thy Sin one of these days if thou wilt commit it and this would spur thee forward to thy duty when thou wouldst neglect it and keep thee backward from Sinful practice when thou wouldst commit it Let my counsel therefore be acceptable to thee have God more frequently in thy Meditations consider that he seeth and knoweth thy ways that he abhorreth all wickedness both of heart and life that he is the Governour of the World to whom all these things are as nothing that commandeth the Beings of Heaven and Earth that hath the Winds and the Sea and Men and Devils in the Chain of his Providence that was from all Eternity and is the same for ever and ever but thou art of yesterday and knowest nothing Job 8.9 Thou mayst resist the will of his Command and Precept because it is to try thee but thou canst not withstand the will of his purpose what he doth will peremptorily shall come to pass The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever the thoughts of his heart to all Generations Psa 33.11 If thou lovest thy own Soul let God be continually before thy eyes it is because thou knowest him not that thou art so unlike him it is because thou art not acquainted with him that thy heart is so void of love to him it is because thou understandest him not that thou dost so little fear and reverence him And why hast thou so little knowledge and understanding of him but because thou considerest him not Didst thou but well consider his Omnipotency thou wouldst fear him more than all the world beside Didst thou but consider his Veracity thou wouldst take his word for the greatest security and give more credit to it than if thou hadst the word and Oath of the most trusty and sufficient men thou wouldst certainly believe the threatnings thereof and foresee the accomplishment of the promises thereof as if they were already made good and steer thy life according to the most wise and excellent precepts thereof Consider but his faithfulness and thou wilt see no reason to distrust him They that know thy Name saith the Prophet David will trust in thee for thou Lord hast never forsaken those that trust in thee Psal 9.10 Thou wouldst venture thy life and all thy comforts upon his Word come what will thou wouldst trust in the Lord and do good Psal 37.3 And whilst thou art intent upon thy duty wouldst not fear though men and Devils should combine against thee and the more experience thou hast the more thou wouldst be confident and say It 's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man It 's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes Psal 118.8 9. Do but consider that he is a Spirit and thou wilt abhor a meer bodily service and tremble to let thy lips go when thy heart imagineth deceit and is not imployed in his worship and thou wouldest worship him in spirit and in truth John 4.23 24. Therefore men worship him they know not how nor care not in what manner because they worship they know not what Ver. 22. Men would not dare to offer up to him the Sacrifice of fools if they did but consider with whom they have to do Eccles 5.1 Neither would they come with dead hearts before the living God This is the
first thing that I recommend to your Consideration as being most worthy of it viz. The Nature and Attributes of God with application to your Affection and Practice Secondly The next thing that is worthy of your serious thoughts and daily consideration is wherefore you were born into the world Can any man that hath not laid his reasoning Faculty quite asleep think that he was made to live forty or threescore years in the world and then to die like a Brute and there 's an end of the Story He that will take the pains to consider and make use of the light that 's offered to him both in Nature and Scripture shall find that Man was made for something else and that he is worse than a Brute that looks no higher I take it for granted that no man can think that such a Noble Creature as Man is was made by chance by a happy conjuncture of a few fortuitous Atoms that jostled together and met at last into such an orderly shape as if all had been contrived with the greatest wisdom imaginable Nor do I think that any one that hath not quite lost his understanding can imagine that he grew out of the Earth as Grass or Trees much less will he say that there was no first Man but that there hath been a Succession of Reasonable Creatures from Eternal Ages If therefore he could not possibly come into the world any of these ways then he must be made by a Wisdom far higher than his own and that can be none but God These things being supposed can any man in his wits think that God made the highest and best of his Creatures here on Earth with such Faculties and endued him with understanding and put such desires into him that nothing in this world can satisfie to live a little while below and torment himself and to rule and domineer over the other Creatures and devour them and live as he list and then after he is dead to be had no more in remembrance Surely he might have plaid at such a Game as this without Reason he might have satisfied his lusts and took his ease and never have missed this Faculty that doth but chastise him for his brutishness and help to make him more miserable than those that want it It is most certain that God hath design'd him for a higher end even for the service of himself an Eternal life with him hereafter It 's most worthy of your serious consideration that you may be fully satisfied and know whether you have done this work If indeed you can think after you have well considered that it s no matter how a man lives so he can but enjoy a little mirth and laughter in the world then you may cast off all other care if you will and study how to live merrily and Crown your selves with Rose-buds before they be withered If any man can consider and reason impartially and think it is the wisest way to enjoy the pleasures of Meat and Drink and Lust and Ease he shall have my consent to take his course Who would envy a man that was made to live above the Stars and to out-shine the Sun in all its glory that will chuse rather to go to Grass and to feed with his Cattel All the difference is that he hath a little more Wit than a Cow or a Horse and therefore can do more mischief than one of them but his pleasure is but brutish and of no higher a stamp than theirs O consider that though you may stifle your Reason and smother the Light that teacheth you to live soberly righteously and godly in this present evil world you shall not always prevail against it if you will not let it speak now it will speak whether you will or no and cry out bitterly against you hereafter Consideration would roundly and quickly tell you that you were made to know love and obey God that made you for a while in this world and then be removed to the sight and enjoyment of himself other things sublunary were made for the service of Man but Man for Gods immediate service his very Constitution and the make and frame of all his faculties proclaim thus much What should he do with an Immortal Soul to walk up and down the world with if he were not to live in another world Why should he be put to School among the visible Creatures and be under the discipline and instructions of his Maker day and night which other Creatures are not partakers of if he were not training him up for a higher State Alas God delighteth not in cruelty nor in making this life a burden to us it is that he might prove us and try us and wean us from things temporary and awaken us to seek out for that happiness that indeed we were made for Job therefore takes it for a high favour to be thus severely educated What is Man that thou should'st magnifie him saith he or the Son of Man that thou should'st set thy heart upon him and that thou should'st visit him every morning and try him every moment If this were not in order to a future good why should he not complain rather that God hath made him in a worse condition than the Beasts they enjoy pleasure without any remorse and lay them down in their Dens and are secure but Man vexeth himself with a thousand cares and frighteth himself with as many fears and seeth evil before it comes and feeleth it after its past and gone which Brutes cannot do But as Earthly Parents if they are wise will train up their Children with more severity than they will their servants and others that they bear not such a respect to so the most wise and gracious God useth a more severe Discipline towards Man whom he intendeth to a greater honour than towards the rest of his Creatures he letteth them take their course whilst he tyes Fetters and Bands upon men and tyeth them by his Laws to Noble and Worthy actions and scourgeth them with his Rod when they deviate and wander from the way of life and happiness as if he would even constrain them to be happy O why do we no more pursue our own happiness when God doth even entreat us and spur us on by so many encouragements and hath made us for this very work and business Shall God be more solicitous for our welfare than we are for our own O poor deluded sinner thou mistakest thy work and business and where thy happiness lies when thou art pleasing thy flesh and greedily hunting after the pleasures thereof Thou thinkest that fleshly pleasure or worldly gain is godliness but it will prove quite contrary in the end and thou wilt then know when it is too late that godliness is the greatest pleasure and gain I know it 's natural to thee to thirst after happiness seek it then in the way that God hath prescribed or thou shalt never purchase thy desire though thou
and worldly friends cannot help you it will be worth a world to be numbred among the Saints and to have your portion with the Most-High consideration will help you to know all this and whether you are weary of your sin and have fled to Christ as your only Sanctuary and are heartily desirous that he should save you from the Power of it yea it would help you to all this and make you sensible if yet you are not and break your heart for all former unkindness to God and Cruelty to your own Soul and make Christ precious to you indeed The full Soul saith Solomon loatheth the Honey-Comb but to the Hungry Soul every bitter thing is Sweet The Nature of man prompteh him in every streight to cast about with himself how he may get out Did you feel to what unspeakable danger sin hath brought you I dare say you would not slight the remedy nor despise the Salvation that Christ offereth to you did you feel your soul in a sinking condition by reason of your sin you would lay hold on Christ as naturally as a drowning man catch at a stick or any thing that he thinks may save him Thus it would be if sin were a burthen to you And how could you chuse but feel it a burthen to you if you did but apprehend the evil and danger of it Now consideration would clear this to your apprehensions How could you consider in the midst of such helps and not discern that by your Sin you rebel against the highest Authority transgress the most righteous Law debauch and corrupt the best of his Creatures here on earth and make him utterly unserviceable to the uses for which God made him And trample Reason under your feet and pervert Gods Established order trouble the world and cruelly wound vex and disquiet your own soul And even dare and provoke God to bring upon you all the calamities and miseries both of this and the other life And would not these particulars alone discover to you the evil and odiousness of your Sin and even compel you to hate it And then when you are gotten thus far and discern Sin to be your greatest enemy you would not stick at any terms to be rid of it If you were once fully satisfied that Sin is the foulest disgrace and shame of a reasonable Creature and a certain preparative to it's Eternal reproach you would not live in peace with it not lye down and rise up quietly with such a noisom disease upon you that doth make God loath his own Creature and will make you abhor and loath your selves if ever you come to right and sober use of your Reason Ezek. 6.9 and Ezek. 20.43 and Ezek. 36.31 Make as light of it now as you please whilst reason is laid to sleep and Scripture is not regarded and Conscience is quite out faced it shall not be always so It is but the night time of this life at farthest that your dream will last and then Reason and Scripture and Conscience will all set against you Though you wink now and will not see yet then you shall see and be ashamed saith the Prophet Isa 26.11 you may certainly fore-see without the Spirit of Prophesy that thus it will be if you believe the word of God And as a truely penitent believer may say with David I shall be satisfied when I awake after thy likeness Psal 17.15 So the deluded Sinner that dreams so merrily now that Sin is but a matter of nothing whilst he is commiting of it shall be confounded when he awakes after the Divels likeness O if these things were soundly believed you would delay no longer but forsake your Sin and come to Christ as your only Saviour and if any thing under God would bring you to such a certain and undoubted belief Consideration would do the work Consider therefore whether it be thus with you that Sin is your only burthen and Christ is your only ease and if it be not so consider that it may be so Fifthly Another thing which you should set before your eye and frequently consider is the vanity of all these things which stand in competition with God for your affections Do you not see what hasty and unsatisfying Pleasures they are I call them Pleasures because Custom hath prevail'd the World calls them so and the Flesh calls them so whose Pleasures they are for the Soul of Man were it out of the Body would not relish them But though this be the stile of the World it 's pity that a man should call any thing Pleasure that doth not last for ever But call it what you will I am sure it 's a grand mistake to count that a Pleasure that doth not gratifie the better part of a man and a Sin to bestow the least measure of our love upon any thing that doth not promote the happiness of our Souls God hath put an aptitude into all things to further mans felicity and hath commanded him to take them by the right Handle make that use of them when they are used ultimately for the pleasure that 's in them and are not subordinate to a higher end even the better serving of God and saving of our Souls they are made our End which should be but Means and set up instead of God to supply his room and to be to us what he alone should be and then no wonder if they prove to us meer vanity that is if they lye to us and frustrate our expectations All Creatures tell us a meer lye when they make us any promise of happiness and full contentment in the enjoyment of them but the truth is there 's no Creature can be so impudent as to make us such a promise it is we that are too credulous and sinfully prone to take every Shadow for our happiness and to place our affections upon any thing here on Earth rather than God But where is the man that can boast that he hath found the desire of his heart in any pleasure here on Earth The very fear of doing it is disparagement enough to any worldly felicity And since it may be truly said of any thing that here we do possess except it be the peace of a good Conscience and the special grace of God in Christ it may be gone to morrow and leave us it is enough to set the heart of a considering man against all created comforts and make him seek after something that will never fail Where is the man or what is his name that hath found the Treasure of his Soul here on Earth If they could help thee in all thy streights and stick to thee for ever and never forsake thee then something might be plausibly pretended why thou should'st set thine affections on them But if thou wilt suffer thy self to consider thou wilt perceive Vanity to be written upon the back of every Creature that is as it is going from thee though thou may'st possibly think that
did intentionally lay down his life for all yet none shall reap the fruit and benefit of his sufferings and satisfaction but such as are broken in heart for their iniquities and come believingly unto him to bind them up again and heal them 5. What more certain than the vanity of all things here below and their utter insufficiency to satisfie the Soul of Man and make it happy Every one that is not wilfully blind may see how ridiculous the Competition is between God and them The greatest Epicures and those that dote most upon the world and admire its glory will confess thus much when they come to die and their eyes are then opened for the most part whose very Reason and Understanding as well as their affections were wholly captivated to its deluding pleasures all their life-long Ask them now which is better the Favour of God or the Pleasures of the World and they will not then stick to tell you there 's no comparison between them you shall have a free and a full confession from them But yet though the World be such an empty thing and not worthy to be laid in the balance with the Favour of God and an Interest in Christ yet it is a great question whether it is so indeed in thy Estimation and Affections Let thy practice and the course and tenour of thy life decide the case Which doest thou study and endeavour to serve and please most Which doest thou labour most after the Food that perisheth or the Food that endureth Which doest thou make the most careful provision for this life or the life to come It concerns thee as much as the Salvation of thy Soul comes to to put this as much out of doubt as it is past doubt that the World is altogether vanity 6. How sure is it that Death will shortly come and part thy Soul and Body and give thee thy mortal wound and turn thy flesh into corruption Not a man but must shortly make his Bed in the Grave and be forgotten as a dead man out of sight and leave his substance to those that come after This is a clear truth and hath a sound confession from all the world the experience of all our Forefathers is a clear proof But yet though this truth is so fully attested by the confession of all the living and the experience of all the Dead yet it is a very great doubt whether thou dost remember and consider thy latter end and improve thy life as that which will not always last Wo to thee if this be not as certain as the other 7. Nothing more sure than that there is a Publick Audit at which all men must give up their Accounts a general day of Oyer and Terminer where every one must undergo an impartial Tryal and Examination But it is uncertain whether thou dost sincerely believe such a day and dost make answerable preparations and whether thou dost live as in the sight of thy Judge it behoves thee to consider 8. It 's matter of greatest certainty that there is a State of unspeakable happiness for Believers and that there is a State of endless and unsufferable misery to which Unbelievers shall he condemned and when men are arrived thither their condition is unalterable there 's no possibility that they should lose the one or ever be released from the other These are all matters of the highest certainty all the doubt is whether thou hast lived under the power of these Truths by frequent Consideration and whether they had such influence on thee as things of such certainty weight and worth should have You see what is certain and what is doubtful and uncertain in all these particulars and in both respects they will deserve thy attentive heedful thoughts and thy most impartial Consideration The things that are certain will never make their due impression upon thy heart nor operate according to their worth nor put thee upon answerable practice till they be again and again considered The things that are uncertain will never be resolved till they be frequently considered Men regard not the Judgment to come because they will not be brought to consider the certainty of it and how much it doth concern them Men slight the Torments of Hell and Joys of Heaven because they will not consider the certainty of them Would any one fall in love with the world if he did but consider how certainly it will deceive him Would men live so improvidently and spend their strength and time so impertinently if they did but seriously consider that they must certainly die and speed Eternally as they have lived Would men set up their own will for a Law and live to themselves and put the fear of God out of their hearts if they did but consider that God is certainly their Maker and Soveraign and that they owe perfect subjection to his Person and obedience to his Laws Would men live so absurdly and forget their main Errand in the world and the principal business of their lives if they did but consider that God certainly sent them into the world for this very end and purpose to serve him and live in love and obedience to him In a word would men wipe their mouths after so much Rebellion and Disobedience to God as if they were Innocent and be so impenitent and unaffected with their sins if they did but consider how certain it is that without Repentance there 's no hope of pardon and that they must smart for their sin here by Repentance or else hereafter in Eternal misery and desperation and that Christ will be a Saviour to none but those that thus smart for their sin and feel its intolerable burthen and fly unto him by Faith as their only refuge O if we did enough consider the great certainty of these things they would have another effect and operation on us than usually they have upon the best of us much less would they suffer us to live in such Atheism and contempt of Christ and Salvation as the most of men live As sure as thou sinnest now thou shalt be judged for it and that to Everlasting Condemnation if thy serious Repentance step not in between as sure as thou livest now thou shalt shortly die and as sure as thou treadest upon the Earth so sure shalt thou lie down in it e're long and be trodden under foot Look up and behold the Heavens above thee that glister with so many Stars of light as sure as they now hang over thy head so certainly shall they be under thy feet e're a few years more be past If thou hast laid up thy Treasure in Heaven I mean if thy chief joy and delight be there if there be any trust in the Lord any truth and certainty in his Word these things which I have recommended to thy frequent Consideration are Truths of the highest certainty and importance the flattering World may deceive thee thy false dissembling heart may deceive thee
their Meditations to these heavenly Subjects that have some prevailing love to them which every Carnal man is deprived of I know the affections are not so easily compell'd as the thoughts It must be the clearness and importunity of the understanding that must excite and quicken the affections But yet serious Meditation on such weighty moving objects as these are on which your Meditations should be exercised will do much to stir the fire and make the heart feel what the mind doth so clearly understand It is the way that God hath prescribed for a man to prevail with his own heart to take it off from vanity and enamour it with those things that are Divine and Heavenly Objects and moving reasons kept much upon the mind by serious thoughts are the great Engine appointed both by Nature and by Grace to turn about the Soul of Man and they are to the Soul as Meat and Drink and taking in the Air to the Body Objects well considered do turn the Soul into their Nature saith a Reverend and a most skilful Divine when therefore your mind begins to be weary of these thoughts and to rove and wander fetch it in again and lay your charge and command upon it and if that will not do urge the Command Authority of God and be sure not to let it bafle thee Quicquid imperavit Animas obtinuit saith that Excellent Heathen Sen. de ira You are like to profit no further in the heavenly duty of Consideration at first than you force and compel your self Tantum proficies quantum tibi vim intuleris Claud Clem. Bib. But the success will make amends for all Think it not a tedious unpleasant task to attend the Affairs of your own Soul and to do a work so pleasing unto God What hast thou thy time and faculties for if not to imploy them in his service that gave thee both time and faculties Doest thou grudge to set them a work to thine own unspeakable advantage Had'st thou rather live like a Beast than like a Man in the best use and exercise of thy Reason Check thy self after this manner when thy Mind begins to be unruly and thy fleshly brutish part would call thee off from the most rational improvement of thy time in such wise and provident thoughts for thine Eternal happiness sometimes thy mind will loiter and then it will be thy duty to spur it up by the most perswasive quickning Arguments thou canst suggest to it and such thou shouldest have ready at hand to serve for that use sometimes it will divert and then thou should'st Rein it in with as much resolution as thou would'st an unruly Beast that would carry thee out of thy way and when thy heart is ready to frustrate all these helps intermix some short Ejaculations to God with thy Meditations and appeal to him for strength to Master thy own thoughts and affections If thou gainest the Victory thou hast done more than if thou hadst conquered a Kingdom Prov. 16.32 Thirdly Address thy self to this Duty with the confident expectations of a blessing Think there is more to be gained this way than by any other exercise of thy mind the stronger thy hopes are of a blessing that will answer all thy pains the more chearfully will the work go on If thou expectest nothing in this way of obedience to God and exercise of thy thoughts but art dragg'd to it meerly by the threats of thine own Conscience that telleth thee roundly it is thy duty it will be done with little pleasure and as little profit But if thou wouldest make a Vertue of Necessity and perform that willingly that must be done however then sweeten thy labour by the Harvest that will come in and take as much pains to gratifie thy Soul for ever and to sow in it the Seed of endless felicity as thou would'st to sow thy Land that thou mayest enjoy the Crop that it promiseth to bring thee forth Thou doest thy self wrong to leave out such thoughts as these when thou art setting about the work of Consideration they will infuse life into thy Meditations to think that they shall not be in vain in the Lord. The harder the Duty is that is enjoyned the greater is the gain after it is conscientiously perform'd It 's sinful despair and unbelief that weakneth our hands to Prayer and Meditation and cutteth the Nerves and Sinews of all Duty This bringeth a damp upon us and discourageth all our endeavours As ever therefore thou would'st perform this Duty with any life perform it in hope If thou hadst no other hope but to please God in the performance of a Duty so highly acceptable to him even this alone were well worth thy pains But when thou mayest be sure that this Duty of Consideration therefore pleaseth God because it is so fit a means to advance thy self in saving knowledge and vertue and to make the best improvement of thine intellectuals and affections and to lay the true and solid grounds of endless pleasure and felicity thou hast a Spur indeed to quicken thee But this is not all thou mayst also hope oft-times to find the sweetest content and pleasure in such exercise of thy thoughts So that whereas there are but three sorts of that which we call good or three Capitals to which all that is desirable may be referr'd viz. Bonum honestum utile jucundum For all that is good is either 1. Honest 2. Profitable 3. Pleasant Thou hast ground sure enough to hope that they will all concur in the Conscientious performance of this Duty To expect indeed to grow wise in any other way than God hath authorized and appointed would be a foolish confidence and presumption and such as would certainly end in disappointment and shame But to expect a blessing in such an unquestionable way of duty as Consideration is which both nature and Scripture do so plainly teach thee this is no rash but a well grounded hope Address your self to the duty of Consideration with such hopes as these and you shall find if other necessaries also do concur that the work will prosper in your hand and you also will prosper by it Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God Prov. 2.5 Yea thou shalt understand Righteousness and Judgment and Equity and every good Path vers 9. Try this course and throw out all disturbing hindring thoughts out of thy mind and do but consider some of these weighty Truths which I have recommended to thee and assault thine own affections with the moving power of them and see whether thy time be miss-spent or thy labour lost Assuredly Wisdom will enter into thine heart and Knowledge will be pleasant unto thy Soul Discretion shall preserve thee and Understanding shall keep thee and deliver thee from the way of the evil man from the man that speaketh thinketh froward things who leaveth the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness
him when their obedience is required so that the subjection of the Heart to Christ and a deliberate purpose to serve him sincerely and constantly all our days is the first Foundation of our Union with Christ and specâ—â— Relation to him from whence Justification doth immediately flow And what a Mercy and Priviledge that is none but such as reap the Fruit of Justification perfectly in the other life can throughly tell Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven and whose 〈◊〉 is covered yea again Blessed is the Man 〈◊〉 David unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no Guile Psal 32.1 2. But as the Man is miserable and wretched for the present that is not justified so wo to him if he die in an unjustified state And this if he want true Faith he will certainly do Justification is the Act of the Supreme Rector none hath Authority to do it but he only and none can effectually remit or renounce the Penalty but he only who alone is both the Kingdom and the Power And this we have the Testimony of his certain and infallible Word that he will not do but upon the Condition of Faith and an unfeigned subjection to his Son which alone is the effectual Means to bring them off from their Sins and to reduce them to their Obedience to God Never hope to be justified till from the sense of your vile Nature and corrupt Inclinations and proneness to rebel against God and obnoxiousness to his just displeasure you do thankfully fly to Christ as your only Remedy and take his Person for your Ruler and his Laws and Example for your Rule and his Spirit for your Sanctifier For these are the only Terms on which a Sinner is made a true Member of Christ's Church and consequently justified and pardoned 4. Fourthly There 's no way whereby we can bring more honour to our Redeemer than by Believing For hereby we give him the Glory 1. Of his Love and Mercy and all the ways whereby he hath demonstrated his Bowels and Compassions towards us in his wonderful Condescention to be made like to us in the Assumption of our Nature in subjecting himself to the Law yea and to the Miseries of his Life Poverty Reproach and Shame and that in such a degree as never any one of us endured or could endure in suffering the most pitiful Usage the most sarcastical Taunts the most bitter Agonies and the most ignominious cursed Death and all to bring us into a salveable condition if we will believe Now as there can be no greater Affront nor Provocation given to him than to slight and make void his Grace and Mercy so unspeakably great so we can do him no greater honour than to close with it and accept it and be saved by it and so stand as the Eternal Monument of his Love 2. We hereby give him also the Glory of his Sovereignty that by his own Merit and Conquests as well as the Free Donation of God is advanced to the right hand of God and hath the Supreme Sovereignty and Lordship over all things both in Heaven and Earth And therefore he tells us Matth. 28.18 All Power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth And Paul tells us that to this End Christ both died and rose again and revived that he might be Lord both of Dead and Living Rom. 14.9 And Phil. 2.8 9 10. Because Christ was obedient even to the Death of the Cross Therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name That at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth Matth. 11.27 All things are delivered to me of my Father and so Luke 10.22 Now to believe on him is practically to acknowledge his Sovereignty that he is Lord of all Acts 10.36 That he is gone into Heaven and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him 1 Pet. 3.22 When we subject our selves to him by Faith we own him whom God hath made a little lower than the Angels and crowned him with Glory and Honour and did set him over the Works of his hands and hath put all things in subjection under his feet 2 Heb. 7.8 9. Did we know what a Blessing and Priviledge it is to come under his Protection and live in subjection to him we should need no other Argument to perswade us to believe As we honour him so we ease our selves and rid our selves of those Fears that we are otherwise exposed to and therefore our Saviour that he might comfort his Disciples exhorts them John 14.1 Let not your Hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me When we believe we do in effect say He hath satisfied the Justice of God and he hath given Sinners into his hands and laid the Government upon his shoulders and that he can save to the utmost all that come unto God by and through him since he ever liveth as an immutable and everlasting Priest to make intercession for them Heb. 7.25 3. Hereby we give him also the Glory of his Skill when by Faith we bring our diseased Souls to him with confidence of a Cure For that is one of the Chief Ends of Faith that we may be purified from all our Corruptions and perfect Holiness in the Fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 As it was one of Christs great Ends in dying so it should be ours in believing that we might be saved from our sins Matth. 1.21 It must be a skilful Physitian indeed that knows how to free the Soul of Man from such a Mass of Corruption from such a Chronical and Inveterate Disease that 's made up of such a complication of Distempers It must be no less than a Divine Skill indeed that must raise such an Earthly Mind that must Cure a Heart so full of Contradiction to the Will of God and that must tame the Affections to God that are grown so carnal It must be one that knows all the windings and turnings of the Heart and is throughly acquainted with its Pulse and all its secret Motions that can Cure its Selsishness and take it off from its inordinate pursuit of Earthly Things and make it submissive to the Will of God that can dispel the darkness of Mans Mind and heal the Confusion of his Thoughts and awaken him to an impartial Consideration of Things and fortifie Reason against the Flesh and rectifie his Judgment both as to present and future things and recover him out of Delirancy and Madness O how much do holy Souls admire his skill whom he hath perfectly recovered and how much will they that are now languishing in Selfishness and Pride and the doting Love of this World and under all that Litter of Corruptions wherewith their Souls are daily disquieted when he shall have restored them to Integrity again and to their right Mind Come unto him
to draw and invite this Affection And have moreover disappointed thee too often of the Pleasure and Felicity that from them thou hast expected yea and which is far worse have entangled thee in many foolish and hurtful Lusts which have afterwards betrayed thee to sad and bitter complaints But here 's an Object worthy thy strongest love that will not debase and destroy but advance thy Soul to the highest Perfection The Love of him as it is sweet in the exercise so it will end at last in unspeakable sweetness and will not upbraid thee with Folly afterwards as all other Love will be sure to do Thou mayest love other things too much and here 's the Source and Spring of all Sin and Impiety and of all absurd and unreasonable Practices For as Divine Love is the sum of Duty and all worthy and becoming Actions so Carnal Love or the Love of Creatures is the Sum of all Wickedness and all incongruous and unseemly Practice But God can never be exalted too high in thine Estimation and Affections Here thou mayest safely vent and pour out all the store of thy Love with the greatest delight and security and expatiate thy Soul to the widest extent in the Ocean of his infinite and most lovely Perfections To him thou mayest safely offer up thy Soul in sacrifice as a whole-Burnt-Offering in the Fire of Love for ever Wilt thou permit thy Thoughts any more to fly abroad into Trifles and impertinent Matters when thou hast the immense Ocean of Divine Goodness to lanch forth into and mayest lose thy self with the greatest pleasure and advantage in the depths of his infinite Perfections Here to be even drowned and swallowed up is not Death but the sweetest and most ravishing Life Hast thou not pined long enough and melted away in the Cares and Love of the World the Martyrdom which corrupt Nature prompts thee fast enough to chuse Is it not now more than Time to be wiser and to bare an Honourable Testimony to him that hath redeemed thee And to subscribe that Witness to the Truth which thou hast borne too much hitherto to Lies and Falsehood Let them be taken by thee for Fools and Madmen that torture themselves with the Love and Care of this World and take Hell by that violence that the Kingdom of Heaven should be taken by But let the main stream and current of thine Affections be ever after him in whom are all the dimensions of Perfection Some little Twilight and Glimmerings of his Ravishing Beauty thou hast seen in his Words and Works But oh how short how exceeding short have they been through thy wilful Blindness and Inadvertency But these express not the thousandth part of his wonderful astonishing Splendour and Glory Something it may be thou hast tasted of his sweetest reviving Love But oh how little in respect of what thou might'st have had had it not been for thy own wilful neglect and refusal Hadst thou gazed as much upon his Glory as thou hast done upon the fading transitory Glory of the World and studied his Perfections according to the Opportunities and Advantages he hath given thee and not loved dismal affrighting Darkness rather than the quickning trransforming Light and neglected the best use of thine Understanding and Affections in holy Meditations on God Thou might'st confidently have expected the Blessing of God in a Work so well pleasing to him and found the Treasure that would have made thee contemn all other things in Comparison Then thou might'st have had joy in the darkest Night of Affliction and such an Allay to the bitterest Cup that would have made any Condition welcome to thee Then thou would'st have forgotten all the Miseries of thy life past and remembred them as Waters that pass away Job 11.16 Then thou might'st have lyen down with the sense of the pardon of former sins yea thou might'st have lyen down and thy sleep would have been sweet to thee Then the Remembrance of thy latter End would not have been such an unpleasant Theme to thy Meditations as now it is yea the Lord would have satisfied thy Soul in Drought and made thee like a watered Garden and like a Spring whose Waters fail not Isaiah 58.11 And then with what vivacity and chearfulness should'st thou have performed all Duty and borne all Sufferings when God had once answered thee in the joy of thy Heart Considerations to provoke to the Contempt of the World Psalm 119 96. I have seen an End of all Perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad 1 John 2.15 16. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world Vers 17. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever Isa 40.6 7. All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is like the flower of the field The grass withereth and the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it 1 Cor. 7.9 The fashion of this world passeth away Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death Eccles 1.2 and 2.11 Vanity of vanities all is vanity saith the Preacher Eccles 1.8 All things are full of labour man cannot utter it the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing Prov. 31.30 Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain AS the Object of all rational saving Love is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and all that standeth in subserviency to him so far as they conduce to this Noble End and Happiness of the Soul So the Object of all irrational sinful damning Love is the World and whatsoever serves to promote its interest in the Heart so far as it is Competitory with or Contradictory to the Interest of God and conduceth to the inordinate pleasing of the Flesh And thus much I intend here by the World that is any thing in the whole Creation that doth not refer to and is not subordinate unto God is to be the Object of this Contempt and Disdain First Because the World is unsatisfactory and cannot content the Mind of Man There is something still that the Soul misseth when it hath all here that it can desire It silently imagineth an Aliquid ultra when it hath gone its farthest in the Happiness and Prosperity here on Earth And it 's so far from Rest after all that it grows more hot and impatient in its desires And finding nothing to pursue after that can give content begins to fret and grow peevish when the ambitious Soul is gotten to the top of Honour he finds not the thing he expected he calls it by all the slight and contemptible Names he can invent or imagin you may as well satisfie the Appetite
yea a little Pet or Discontent will turn all into Gall and Bitterness and make him most angry with those that study to please him most Fifthly To shew yet further how worthy they are to be contemned Consider They are gotten with much difficulty Kept with much care and trouble Lost with much sorrow 1. It 's not one of many that gets the Riches of this World some indeed are born to them but how many are defeated of their hopes before they grow up And what doth their Birth-right serve for but to make them the more miserable This is all the Priviledge they have by being born of Rich and Noble Parents that perchance fall into Poverty or Disgrace before their Children are ripe And for the rest how many Difficulties do they pass before they get them into their Possession It may be Twenty or Thirty Years they are subject to the Will and Humour of those that give them And when they have done all it may be they are disinherited and put to hard shifts But of those that are not born to them they are more hardly gotten It costs them many a weary day and many a restless watchful Night much Sweat and Pain to get a poor little Portion And yet the greatest part of the Price by which they are usually purchased is yet behind Whilst they are venturing after Riches they too frequently lose God and their Souls if not by a plain and open yet by a secret and virtual renouncing of them though not by gross and manifest wickedness yet by a sinful and dangerous neglect of God and their Souls And yet of those that thus labour for them the greatest part do not succeed 2. But yet after they are once gotten Are they not too often wrecked with Cares and Thoughts how to preserve and keep them They are fain to bear the Blows of them that are above them Eccles 5.12 And the Envy and Discontents of those that are under them and the Cheats and Circumvention of those that have more Wit And 3. Which is the most ponderous Aggravation of their Vanity As Men are sick for them so are they sick of them and yet they count it death to part with them First they are sick of desire before they get them and then they are by and by sick of Fruition But it cuts them to the heart to have the morbifick matter removed And yet whether they consent or not when all is done and the utmost diligence is used to defend them they must part at last and the owner must leave them or they will leave the owner Sixthly They are the great Snares and Temptations of Mens Souls What is it that draws any Man to sin against God and destroy his own Soul but the sweet Bit of worldly Pleasure or Profit No Man would swear or lye or deal deceitfully or live idly or drink and whore but for the pleasure and advantage that he expects in so doing Who would covet and care for the World and labour so painfully to get it into his Possession if he did not dream of Happiness from it And yet it is but a Dream And every Promise that the World makes of true Content and Felicity is but a Lye And he that 's over credulous in such a Case as this is worse than mad True it is the World hath something in it that 's fitted to the pleasure and delight of Flesh and Blood in an ordinary Course of Providence And we being so prone to please yea and over-please this Part we are in great and contirual danger from the World And wilt thou so much esteem and seek after that that will destroy thee if thou learn not to slight and contemn it Hast thou sped so well already O my Soul that thou should'st be still tampering with it Hast thou so well quit thy self already and escaped the Thrusts it hath made at thee Hath it made no breach in the Conscience No Wounds in thy Heart Hath it begot no strangeness nor Jealousie between God and thy Soul Hath it not sadly wounded thee in thine Intellectuals and much perverted thine Understanding Hath it done no Mischief to thy Will and Affections but helped them Heavenwards to the only Place of their Rest I would it had thus dealt with thee But such a Friend it never was nor will be whilst it 's loved for its self Seventhly The World is God's great if not only Competitor and therefore in so much deserves to be contemned Though the Devil and the Flesh fight against God both of them and use the World as their chief Weapon yet by way of object to Man's Soul there 's nothing but God and the World openly pretend to be Man's Happiness The Devil doth but set this Bait before us when he tempts us unto sin He dare not appear himself to draw any by his own proper and innate beauty who is almost known of all to be so monstrous and deformed and whom every one that is not himself become a Monster hath a natural instinct to hate and abhor Indeed there be some few such that he hath gotten so wholly into his power through the just and fearful permission of God for their wicked Rejection and Contempt of him that they take him for their Ruler and Guide to Happiness for want of a better and swear Fealty to him But I believe it is with some secret Reluctancy and Regret But however I here understand World in so large a sense as to involve all Creatures in its Latitude And what doth it not seem a ridiculous thing and odious Competition for the World or Devil to stand against God and compare their Worth and Excellency with his Let them shew their own if they will vye with him Or let them bring something that 's lasting and satisfactory Let them shew something that will answer all the hopes and expectations of Man Something that will help him in every streight and necessity Nay that will free him from all such streights and necessities if they would have the honour of rational love and esteem What shall Dung and Dross lye in the Scales with an Eternal weight of Glory Shall it put any one but a Fool to debate which he shall chuse when there is such an unspeakable difference Art thou so void of Understanding and so much forsaken of common Reason that any thing shall seem desirable to thee that 's laid in the Ballance with the Fountain of all Goodness O let thine Heart abhor its former Guiltiness in this kind and henceforth boyl up with Hatred and Contempt against such an Usurper that would be preferred before God Resolve and that fixedly never to hearken to such an impious and absurd Motion Eighthly The Love of the World is but meer Flattery and Deceit It is not to be trusted when it makes the most fair and faithful Promises and gives the strongest security to Performance Job Haman Manasseh Zedekiah and Jehoiakim are proof enough of this to
the Letters of which every Word we read is composed or as it is to give restorative Food to a distempered Body before the peccant Matter be purg'd out that is the cause of the Distemper But then though it be the first step in Religion and the first acceptable Service we can perfornâ—â—â— God It is not there that we must rest we are not there to sit down and advance no further as if we were gotten to Hercules Pillaâ—s and there were no higher Perfection to be attained in Religion And to mistake the subordinate and subservient part of God's Service for that which is more perfect and principal for hereby Sin and the Devil will get these Two great Advantages 1. God will be misrepresented both to our selves and others and he that is so full of Compassion and Mercy and all amicable and lovely Perfections will be thought by the Religion which he preserâ—bes to be cruel and unmerciful and to delight in the Torment and Affliction of his Creatures For Men will be drawing his Image by such a false Pencil And then 2. They that make it their whole endeavour to weep and mourn and afflict themselves for their sins will thereby disable both Body and Soul for any Service of God at all and both destroy their Bodily Health and overthrow their Reason And so whilst they are bewailing their Sin and as they think are conquering of it they do but entangle themselves the more and utterly waste that strength that should mortifie and subdue it And the reason why God doth speak so much in his Word in approbation of the sorrowful broken and contrite Heart which I doubt is the Reason of these Mens mistake is because such Persons have need of such Encouragement and might otherwise faint under the Anguish and Burthen of their Spirits and therefore because he would not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax till he hath brought forth Judgment unto Victory He gives these Cordials to such as are under the Pangs of the New Birth But he had much rather that Men would leave the Principles of the Doctrin of Christ and not stick always at the Foundation of Repentance from Dead Works and of Faith towards God Not that we are to shake hands with Repentance and sorrow for Sin after we are once heartily converted unless we could be sure to commit no more sin But then sin will need a more short and transient sorrow when we presently bewail it so soon as ever it is committed But our first Repentance and Sorrow will cost us hotter Water and put us to â—â—â—e trouble If a Man that hath a long Journey to go should set out a quite contrary way to the place whither he is to go and so travel on till he hath spent half or more of the time that is allotted for his Journey you must needs think that will cost him more vexation and trouble to get into his right way than after he is gotten in if he should chance to step out a Mile or two A small Errour is more speedily corrected than a great one of long continuance But yet it is always true That it 's better to prevent sin and keep out of it at the first than to get out of it by Repentance Though by Accident and through the Mercy of God it may sometimes prove better to the sinner that he did fall into sin if he doth afterwards heartily rerepent of it But absolutely and in it self it is not better And he that should presume to let loose the Reigns to Sin upon that account I believe would find it much worse But before I produce those Considerations which through the Blessing of God may stir up and strengthen this Affection which must prepare the way for Faith in Christ which lays the Foundation for all Joy and Peace I will first shew what this Godly Sorrow doth imply or what Acts are included in it if it be such as will work Repentance never to be repented of And here let me Note That Repentance is sometimes taken by a Synechdoche for the whole Work of Conversion and then it includes Faith in it so it 's taken Luke 15.7 There shall be joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance So Luke 13.3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish where Faith also is implied So Acts 11.18 Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life where Repentance is named as the only condition of Life which without Faith also in Christ cannot be had and therefore it is included Sometime Repentance is taken only for Contrition and then usually Faith is joyned with it So Acts 20.21 Testifying to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ And in this latter sense I here take the word Repentance when I make use of it And so Repentance or Godly Sorrow is a deliberate Act of the Soul performed upon the Motions or by the Assistance of the good Spirit of God whereby a Man being touched with unfeigned Sorrow and Remorse for all that he hath sinned whither in his Parents or in himself either inwardly and in secret or else openly and in the sight of Men is now resolved to close with Christ as his only Remedy against the Guilt and Power of it So that you may perceive by this Description that sincere Repentance and Sorrow for Sin must imply these following Acts or otherwise it can never be an advised and deliberate Act nor conclude in a firm resolution and purpose to take Christ as his only sufficient Saviour First It implys a deep Conviction of the Holiness of God and his sin-hating Nature And that you may as soon reconcile Light and Darkness as God and the least Sin whether you take it in its Material or Formal Consideration In its Material Consideration it 's nothing but Deformity and Absurdity and Contradiction to all Right and Reason And in its Formal Respect it 's a thwarting God's Will that 's supreme and governed with infinite wisdom and a breach of his righteous Law And in both these Respects it must needs be the Object of Divine Hatred and Abhorrence surely he must needs abhor to see a Creature cross his own Will and oppose his own Government and when he hath endued him with reason to see him act so absurdly Hence the Psalmist tells us That such as are foolish cannot stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psalm 5.5 And if an imperfect Saint such a one as David hath such an aversation to such Works and the doers of them that he can say depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity much more doth he that is of spotless purity hate all Filthiness and Pollution which every sinner hath some degree of If the Lord were not an utter Enemy to all Iniquity he had never turned so many Angels
yield them I do not say that Tears are always an inseparable Concomitant of Repentance But unfeigned sorrow for sin if it be in that degree that our sin requireth will for the most part produce Tears What a Flood did St. Austin pour forth at his first Conversion The story is very remarkable you may find it in his Confessions After he had strugled with himself a good while and had met with stiff opposition from the World and the Flesh with the Lusts thereof that he was given to which were still tugging and drawing to keep their hold of him But the good Man knowing that they would prove his utter destruction if they were not forsaken prayed earnestly to God to deliver him from their Bondage And hearing by Pontition a Christian Courtier of the virtuous Life of St. Anthony a Man of little Learning but of strict and exemplary Piety began to be more enflamed with a desire after Conversion And walking in a Garden with his Friend Alipius he crys out to him Quid hoc est Quid patimur Sargunt indocti c. 1. What 's the Matter What unhappy Men are we Poor simple illiterate Men Rise up and get the Kingdom of Heaven by force and we with all our Learning wallow in the Mire of Lust and Corruption Afterwards going forth into an Orchard all his former pleasures mustered up and seemed to present themselves before his Eyes and thus to set upon him Dimittesne nos a momento isto c. What wilt thou leave us quite And must we never after this time see thee any more What filth saith he and shameful pleasures did they lay before mine Eyes which he entreated God to pardon At length after a tedious difficult Conflict a marvellous Tempest of Tears came upon him and Rivers of Water ran down his Eyes as he lay under a Figg-tree and there he poured forth his Soul to God and prevailed and threw off his beloved Lusts and Corruptions and never returned to them any more All these Acts must concur where there is true sorrow for sin such as the Gospel doth require as a condition without which there can be no forgiveness though perchance every one of these distinct Acts may not be taken notice of by him that is sincerely penitent yet he feeleth the force and power of them in his afflicted broken Heart But yet some of the forgoing Acts that are in the understanding it may be stick closer than the others and prevail more to bring on the after Acts that are in the Will and Affections and are expressed in the outward Actions But though some degrees of this forementioned Sorrow may and do always go before Faith in Christ yet your Repentance is never compleated and perfected till Christ be heartily closed with and received with loving subjection of the Soul for then the Soul is enabled by the Spirit that he bestoweth to bring forth that Repentance which it had brought but to the Birth before There must be some sense of the evil of sin and fear of God's displeasure and the miseries that it already hath and will moreover bring upon us and some loathing of a Man's self before ever Christ will be welcome to you and before you will consent that he shall be your Soveraign Lord and Saviour and take his Yoke on you You must feel the intolerableness of the other Yoke of Sin and Satan before you will change it for Christ's and come to him for ease and Relief So that you see some Acts of Repentance are preparatory to Faith viz. Such as Self-love and the Fear of Hell and Damnation can produce But it is the Love of God in Christ that must kindly melt the Heart for sin and antidote it against the poyson thereof for the future and settle the Resolution to forsake it and follow after holiness whereby the soul is made like to God So much for the Nature of Repentance or what Acts it is made up of I come next to the Considerations that should provoke and stir up this Holy Affection First then Consider the flat necessity of Repentance without which there is no Pardon nor Peace with God to be expected whatever he dispense withal this he will not dispense with He hath indeed dispensed with the Law of Works that required perfect sinless Obedience or threatned Damnation And hath promised thee that thou shalt not dye nor the threatning be executed on thee if thou wilt submit to the Gospel or the New Law of Christ thy Redeemer That is in other words if thou wilt from thy Heart acknowledge thy sins and repent of them and come to Christ for strength and resolution to forsake them But he will never dispense with thee here in case thou wilt not submit to this gracious offer Thy sins must be felt and that more than all worldly sufferings otherwise Christ will be no Physician to thee nor shalt thou ever feel the admirable power of his Blood Thy sin must be felt either here by Repentance or else hereafter in eternal Desparation Now the stain and filthiness of thy most hainous sins may be washed out by the Blood of Christ if thou comest with a penitent Heart to that sovereign healing Fountain But then the stain can never be got out nor thy reproach be ever wiped away though thou shouldst pour forth Rivers of Tears Behold I have foretold thee Let not thy Heart deceive thee nor think that after thou hast displeased God so often by thy sin that thou mayest scape and find Mercy though thou art never heartily displeased with thy self for thy foolish shameful ways Never any person found favour with God nor obtained Mercy that did not drink of this bitter Potion of Repentance and was not more afflicted in Heart and Soul for Disobedience to God than for any worldly Misery that ever befel him It is an unpleasant work to a Man yet in his sins and a narrow passage unto life but he that will enter into the Heavenly Kingdom must pass through this streight Gate The bitterness of this Repentance will quickly be over but the unspeakable comfort thereof if it be sound and enable thee to forsake thy sins will abide with thee for ever Who would not submit to hard Terms to save his Estate though it were never so little or his Life though it were unhealthy and uncomfortable But who would not consent to harder Terms to procure a more plentiful Estate and a more healthful comfortable Life And is there any thing more necessary or doth half so much concern thee as to have God thy reconciled Friend and to save thy Soul from Eternal Death anâ— thy self from utter destruction of Body and Soul for ever and ever And to get the possession of Eternal Life and Joy Consider I beseech O my Soul And do not reject the offer of Repentance lest the refusal cost thee a Repentance a thousand times more sharp and bitter The pangs of the New Birth will
quickly end and then thou wilt begin to rejoyce that a Soul is born into the Spiritual World And then thou wilt forget all thy former Sighs and Groans and Fears and the bitter Agonies of thy Soul becaufe God hath now answered thee in the joy of thy Heart And taken thee into his special care and pardoned all thy sin Eccles 5.20 Or if thou beest one that hath pass'd the New Birth already thy speedy repentance after sin committed will be like a Shower in Summer after the Ground is parched with heat and drought The Winter-Rain though the Ground be well soaked therewith may indeed prepare the Earth to bring forth its Encrease which Men expect from it in Summer and Harvest But if there fall not some Showers now and then especially after violent hot Seasons all the hopes of a good Harvest may come to nought So it is in the Case of sin your first Repentance and Tears are like the Winter-Rain that is of long continuance and doth throughly soak into the Heart and make it soft and fertile But your after-Repentance is like the Summer-Showers and the more the heat is parched with sin and hardned through the Sun-shine of Prosperity the more it must be watered with fresh Showers of Holy Repentance and Sorrow or else you will lose your hopes of Future Joy and Happiness Seeing then the Necessity of a first and after Repentance refuse not the Mercy that 's offered to thee upon such fair Terms For shame disown that Faculty of Sorrow and Weeping if it will not serve thee and stand thee in stead in this greatest Necessity Shall thine Eyes trickle and run down with Tears if thou hast but lost a dear Friend and Acquaintance Yea if thou hast but parted with him for a time and hast not quite lost him or her And shall not thy Heart melt and thine Eyes pour down when God is departed from thee though it should be but for a certain time Alas thou wantest him every Moment more than thou canst do the most useful helpful Friend that ever thou hadst in the World And if thou knowest not thus much the greater is thy need of repentance and sorrow for such a wicked deadly ignorance as this will prove if the Tears of Repentance do not clear thine Eyes and cause thee better to see and understand what need thou hast of the Divine Grace and Comfort every hour And then thou wilt be as ready to say as David I am poor and needy make hast unto me O God Thou art my help and my deliverer make no long tarrying O my God Psalm 70.5 And when thou hast well considered and had a little more experience thou wilt say as he did Vnless the Lord had been my help my soul had long since dwelt in silence 1 death Psalm 94.17 It 's easie to see if thou regardest either Scripture or Experience That in the multitude of thy troublesome thoughts within he only can comfort and rejoyce thy soul Psalm 94.19 If thou canst not therefore weep in the want and absence of him better thou hadst had no Eyes nor a Faculty to sigh or weep Yea the very Children of the Bride-chamber though they have no need to weep whilst the Bride-groom is with them that is whilst they seel the effects of God's gracious Presence and Favour yet when the Bride-groom is gone from them and driven away by some sinful unkind usage in these days they must mourn or the Comforter will not return again How much more must they weep that are none of the Children of the Bride-chamber that never yet repented in all their life Well there is no Remedy Except you repent you will certainly perish Luke 13.3 5. This is the First Consideration to provoke Repentance and to stir up this Affection Secondly Consider how foolishly thou hast done and then refrain thy deepest Sorrow and Tears if thou art able This Consideration stirr'd up David's repentance after that carnal confidence and distrust of God he had been guilty of in numbring the People 2 Sam. 24.10 And David 's heart smote him after he had numbred the People And David said unto the Lord I have sinned greatly in that I have done And now I beseech thee O Lord take away the iniquity of thy servant for I have done very foolishly Is it not a ridiculous foolish Act to set our strength and wit against him that made us For the Stubble to quarrel with the Fire And the Dust to fight against the Wind that scattereth it on the Face of the Earth 'T is just such a piece of wisdom to provoke God wilfully And when he calls to give him no answer And when he hath given us a Law to direct us how to live Never seriously to enquire what it is nor to trouble our selves with such Thoughts If an Earthly Master should command his Servant to do any thing that were just and reasonable and he should peremptorily refuse to do it you would call that plain Rebellion and say that Servant deserves to be used accordingly And is it much better do you think if he should send him Instructions written in black and white what he would have him do And he should let them lye by and never read them Wilful ignorance of what we may and are bound to know lives at next door to direct and open Contradiction and Rebellion Now judge whether that Man be not void of understanding or stark mad That dare stand up and contradict and say he will not obey when God commands him I know there 's not a Man believes there is a God and knows what he is that dares say plainly as Pharaoh did Who is the Lord that I should obey him Exod. 5.2 But are there not many thousands that will go their ways and never consider or regard what God commands them I would it were not a very common Case And Mens ordinary course in the World And what 's the reason that Men are so exceeding bold and adventurous The plain reason is becaufe they are foolish Children and have no knowledge they are sottish and have no understanding Jer. 4.22 And yet it follows They are wise enough to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge What canst thou say for thy self that art yet an impenitent wretch If thou art one that doest believe thou hast a Soul to save and a God to serve and that the Day is coming when thou must account for these things and yet regardest them not will not thy Tongue be forced to say thou hast done very foolishly Is he not a Fool that neglects his greatest Concernments and spendeth all his Time without any Thoughts of them Suppose a Merchant should send a Factour into a far Countrey to negotiate his Affairs and transact his Business there and to carry on his Trade with the Inhabitants of that Countrey and there should live gallantly upon the Cost and Expences of his Master that sent him and when he should
return home should bring in his Accounts So much spent in Meat and Drink so much in Apparel so much in Entertainments and other Recreations and when he came to the main point in hand the Business on which he was purposely sent could give none or but a slight and careless Account thereof would you not account him a foolish Factour and that Merchant a worse Fool that should imploy such a one again without any Signs of Repentance and hopes of his Amendment Shall I liken their Folly to this yea it is incomparably greater that come hither into the World on purpose to serve their Maker and live in obedience to his Laws and yet do nothing less Should God call thee now to an account Is it not the plain truth that thy Thoughts have been upon this Vanity and that Vanity And thine Affections have run after every Shadow And thy time hath been spent in the drudgery of the Flesh in providing for thy Carcass And the main Design upon which thou art sent into the World shamefully neglected I know it is duty to think upon and labour after Temporal things and in the sweat of thy face to eat thy bread Gen. 3.19 But is it not damnable Folly to labour after the Food that perisheth more than that which endureth To spend thy days in sinful foolish Merriment and then to go down to the place of Eternal Misery Can that Man go for any other than a Fool in thine account that will not be perswaded to consider that for his good now which he must unavoidably consider to his hurt and mischief hereafter It 's one known difference between a Wiseman and a Fool that the one provideth for a Mischief while time serveth and the other would do it when it is too late And it is another undoubted Character of a Fool to prefer the chacing of a Feather before the lading of himself with the richest Treasure such a Fool is every sinner that wilfully displeaseth God to satisfie a vain and inordinate desire And therefore what more common in the Scripture than to find Folly put for Sin and the Sinner for a Fool It 's needless to cite places in a Case so known and obvious Now consider how oft hast thou thus play'd the Fool And is it not time to return to thy Wits again How much hath sin befooled their understandings that refuse a little pains and self-denial to get the Everlasting Crown and Kingdom Much more that take so much pains to get into the place of Torment and Misery as some will undergo Will not the Toyl that some Worldlings will dispense with to get a little Worldly Treasure convince the one of Folly And the shifts that Men will use to escape a Temporal Misery rise up and condemn the other of stark Madness We see Men rip up the Bowels of the Earth and dig into the Entrails of craggy Rocks and take incredible pains to get a little Silver and Gold They will break their sweetest sleep to accomplish an ambitious desire They will spend their Patrimony their Credit their Bodies and their very Souls for a drop of Swinish Pleasure and Carnal Delight What 's the matter that we cannot be content to spend a few earnest Thoughts to use a little serious Diligence for the purchase of so great a Glory as Christ doth promise to his Servants for the Riches of Heaven For the Promises of this Life and that which is to come for a Dignity not inferiour to Angels for a Sea of Delights and Pleasures that ravish the Heart of God himself Alas we are surely ignorant of the Pleasures which our Lord calleth us to or else we are Fools indeed to stop our Ears Our carnal besotted Hearts imagine that there is nothing better than to eat and to drink and to satiate the Body with that which tickleth the Senses Certainly if Men did believe that the Joyes of Heaven are as far beyond all the Happiness of this Life as Heaven is beyond Earth they could not they would not forsake the Service of Christ for some little discouragements as sometimes they must meet with Let such faint-hearted Cowards as these remember what Sufferings Christ himself underwent and Contradiction of Sinners he endured that they may not be weary and faint in their minds Heb. 12.3 And let me say to such as Christ said of himself in another Case to his yet ignorant Disciples O Fools and slow of Heart to understand and believe ought not you chearfully to suffer these things and to enter into glory Luke 24.24 25. And for the other sort that take so much pains to undo themselves Let me but appeal to their own Judgments and ask them whether it is not palpable Folly to refuse to do that for to make themselves everlastingly happy which they will not refuse to do to make themselves eternally miserable Ob. But they will say They intend it not They think to make themselves happy by such Toil and Pains An. You much mend the matter by this Objection and wipe off the Aspersion For if thou art not a Fool the one way thou art another Canst thou imagine unless thou wert guilty of this Accusation that to rise up early and sit up late and eat the Bread of Carefulness to get a little more of the World and the Pleasures of the Flesh when God's Service is neglected is the way to make thy self happy Thou couldst not think thus if thou wert not ignorant and wholly bereft of thine understanding Consider therefore before it be too late what Folly thou hast been guilty of in forsaking God and following the ways of thine own Heart And humble thy self at last and pour forth thy Tears before God in the sence of thy foolish sinful disobedience And lift up thy broken Heart to him for Pardon in the Name of thy Redeemer And this is the way to recover thy Wits again and to come to thy self as the Prodigal did when he returned to his Father and confessed his sin Thirdly Consider There is no spark of true Ingenuity left in that Heart that refuseth to lay to Heart the Transgressions he hath committed against God Doth not thy Heart smite thee and â—ell thee how shamefully thou hast done in provoking him to whom thou art so wonderfully endebted Doth not thy Heart bleed at all for the Wounds and Dishonour thou hast done to his Name Nor is it a burthen to thy Soul that thou hast wearied him with thy rebellions and made him to serve with thy sins Isaiah 43.24 Doth it seem a small matter to thee that thou hast slighted his Word neglected his Service prophaned his Sabbaths despised the offers of his Grace taken part with his Enemies and preferred every foolish Delight before his Love and and Favour Be it known to thee thou art of a base and sordid disposition and utterly forsaken of all Reason and Ingenuity God deals not with Men in a way of Violence and Constraint He could
easily force thee to an Acknowledgment of thy Pride and Worldliness and filthy Lusts which thou doest so carefully conceal and the hainous dishonour thou hast done to his Name He could make thine own Conscience fall upon thee and condemn thee in despight of thee and thy Tongue to fall upon thy self But he loves to deal with every Creature according to the Nature he hath given them He leaves thee to thine own choice having given thee Reason to discern what is fittest to be done and his infallible Word to guide thee He useth Arguments to perswade rather than Power to compel and draws thee with Cords of a Man as the Prophet expresseth it Hosea 11.4 That if Love and Ingenuity will not prevail with thee to do thy Duty to him Shame and Ingenuity might perswade thee to repent thee of the Folly There is some ingenuity in a free and open confession of thy sin and a proportionable sorrow for it and endeavour to vindicate the Name of God which thou hast dishonoured after thou hast been so disingenious to dishonour him by thy Transgressions He that can harden himself against his dearest Friend and blot his precious Name with any foul Aspersions and then justifie and defend what he hath done or at least manifest himself to be altogether insensible of such behaviour deserves to be thrust out of the Society of Men And all Men would take him for a Monster and degenerate piece of Humanity But it 's a thousand times worse to play such Tricks with God who will lay them to Heart and not let them go unpunished And when he sees thou art past all Ingenuity and hast out grown the Heart of a Man and there is nothing to be done with thee without stripes and blows he will deal with thee as Masters use to deal with a Scholar that will no longer be moved by any other Arguments make them the common whipping-Blocks of the School that by their just punishment the other that have some ingenuity still left may take warning or else turn such untractable Disciples quite out of their Tuition O my Brethren your Case would be sad indeed if it should once come to any of these The Heathen could say Q. Curt. Illum ego perisse dico â—â—i periit pudor He that hath lost all shame is utterly lost And he that hath lost all ingenuity is quite shameless I beseech you look into your Hearts and search Can you find no Motions to Sorrow and Complaints and bitterness of Spirit for all those Hours you have foolishly spent in the Service of the Flesh or the World and the Devil which are the professed Enemies of him who is your greatest Friend Surely you cannot reflect upon those rebellious sinful Courses you have taken and not be moved with indignation against your corrupt Inclinations that have so much seduced you Surely you can never be vile enough in your own Eyes that have so much villified and despised the just Commands of him that holdeth your Soul in life and keepeth you every moment If you are past all sorrow for sin you are past all hope and are become like a broken Vessel that can never be made up again Peter indeed was so disingenious to deny his dearest Master the effect of whose sweetest Love he had so often tasted But it was when he was in a fright and passion He no sooner thought upon his odious disingenuity but the poor Man melts into Tears and weeps bitterly There 's no sin but is curable but this of Final Impenitance and Unbelief It 's possible that though seven Devils have got possession of thee they may be cast out It was Mary Magdalen's case and she yet found mercy with the Lord but then remember how she wept and wiped the very Feet of Christ with the Hair of her Head Luke 7.44 But if thou want Tears for thy sin and a penitent bleeding Heart for thine iniquities thy case is a thousand times worse than if thou hadst the greatest sins and yet couldst bewail them and humble thy self for them For this would shew that there is some ingenuity left in thee which the Lord loveth where ever he sees it And will not let the person perish that confesseth from his heart that he hath deserved to perish and is afflicted for what he hath done Fourthly Consider there 's no Evil or Misery whatsoever calls for Grief and Sorrow so much as Sin doth And yet we can weep our Eyes out almost for some petty Evils and Miseries that sometimes do afflict us What an absurd and preposterous sorrow is it to cry for the death of a Friend to howl for the loss of a Child and to be overwhelmed with grief when an intimate dear Acquaintance is snatch'd away from thee And yet to be heart-whole when God is provoked to depart from thee and thou art in danger to lose thy Soul We take the Person for a Child or a Fool that whines and makes a stir for a Trifle and makes sad Complaints for a Scratch or a Flea-bite and is little or no whit moved for the loss of his Credit or good Name or something that 's far better This as well as all other Passions in Man should be governed by Reason otherwise they are no more regardable than the howling of a Dog And how is that Passion guided by Reason that makes a great Noise and is moved with much Violence for a Matter of nothing and is very quiet when it hath much more cause to be moved Is that a rational sorrow or doth become a Creature that hath understanding that brings a Man down even to death's door for the departure of some worldly comfort and leaves him without Tears and Sighs when he is losing that which is a thousand times more desirable Understand thy self aright and thou wilt be ashamed of such a ridiculous sorrow as this Sin is the cause of all other Evil that comes upon thee and therefore must needs be far worse it self and much more to be lamented It takes away thy Friend from thy side thy Child from thy bosom It bereaves thee of thy Health deprives thee of thy Credit and Estate It parts between thy Soul and Body and makes the most lamentable divorce of all between God and thy Soul As I live saith the Lord though the Son of Jehoiakim King of Judah were the Signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck him thence Jerem. 22.24 And why is this but because he had provoked God by his sin It is sin that is our greatest Enemy It 's our Comfort against all other Enemies that they can pursue us no further than the Grave and there the weary be at rest Job 3.17 There we shall feel our worldly troubles no longer But this Enemy begins then to rage most when all other Cruelties cease Then it comes upon us like a Tempest It follows us beyond the Grave and will never leave us till it hath compleated our Misery and
Earth move about and the Heavens to stand still which if it be supposed yet must be the effect of an infinite Power It 's the description that 's usually given of a wise Man That he is one that wonders at nothing because they suppose Ignorance to be the Cause of wonder And therefore the more we know and understand any thing the less we wonder at it But yet for all this I may take the boldness to say That he is a wise Man indeed that wonders not at every thing Especially if he be one that hath Wit enough to see the impregnable Difficulties that stand in the way and hinder a distinct and perfect understanding of any the least of God's Works And this is another Confideration that will do good service in provoking us to the Praises of the Lord if it be weighed with an undisturbed silence and attention 2. As it will advance a Heart in Praises and Thanksgiving to God and help on this noblest part of God's Worship to behold these Three great Attributes of his Wisdom Goodness and Power as they shine forth in the Works of Creation and Providence about the unreasonable Creatures So 2. It will elevate a Soul yet higher and make it more fit for the work of Thankfulness and Praise to ponder these Attributes as they are made glorious in and about the reasonable and intelligent Creatures And here I shall pass over the Angels the most noble Creatures which God hath made And because this is an Argument most likely to move us with the greatest force Let us more particularly insist upon his Goodness towards us 1. In giving us a Nobler Being than he hath done to any other visible Creature He hath stamped his Image upon Man more lively than he hath done upon any Creature if you look on him barely in his Natural Capacity as consisting of a Body and Soul The one Corruptible The other Incorruptible The first he hath in Common with other Creatures but the other is a peculiar Glory that God hath put upon no other Creature here below besides himself And yet in his very Body he far surpasseth all his Fellow-Creatures If you consider well the Comeliness and Propoâ—ition of Parts the well mixing of the Humours that give the Colour and the pure lively Spirit that gives Air and Motion to the several Parts his erect stature and the symmetry of the whole To say nothing of Speech that 's peculiar to Man alone all other Creatures must submit and bow before him But as to his Moral Capacity There 's no other Creature here below that hath any Lineament of his Maker's Image but Man only He alone was intended to represent his Maker in Righteousness and true Holiness and had a Capacity first to be honoured in his Service and to be made happy in his Eternal Enjoyment The rest of the Creatures as they have their Face downward so they have no disposition to look so high as to their Maker nor any tendency of love or desire towards him For God having made them uncapable of any such Acts or Habits expects no such Service at their Hands But God made Man for his own immediate Service and therefore gave him a Nature suited to that imployment He did not only bestow on him the Faculties of Understanding and Will but endued them with the knowledge and love of God that by the exercise of these Acts he might find out the Rest and Happiness that he doth so indefatigably seek after 2. He gave him Seigniory and Dominion over this lower World Psalm 8. As all things were made for his use and service so they were given into his hand to dispose of And they had no power to cross his Command or disobey till he had rebelled against his Maker They were all ready at his service to go and come at his beck and to execute his pleasure to their utmost strength and capacity Gen. 1.28 And God blessed them that is Adam and Eve and said to them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and subdue it and have dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowl of the Air and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth See also Gen. 2.19 20. And Man wanted not the Faculty to discern the Nature and Vertue of every Creature and for what uses they might serve Yea the Inferiour Heavens were made to accommodate him and every way God dealt with him as a Bountiful Lord and most Liberal Benefactour The Sun was made to enlighten him and the Heavens to chear him and make the Earth fruitful with their Influences which was to bring him forth it s various Productions for his several uses and occasions And who that hath the Heart of a Man and not of a Beast can think of such Munificence and Bounty which God hath exercised towards him and not abhor ingratitude And even feel himself delighted in the Praises of his so great Benefactour 3. When he had undone himself and had involved his Soul and Body in Misery unspeakable the Lord did not utterly forsake him as he deserved but he set his Wisdom a work to contrive a way how to salve the honour of his Justice and yet save the miserable Rebels from destruction When we were all fallen short of the Glory of God he found out a Method to recover us into Happiness again And when no Creature in Heaven or Earth could do such a Favour for us the Son of God became Man and dyed for us that he might satisfie offended Justice and vindicate the honour both of the Law and Law-giver and procure Terms of Peace and Favour for us O what a Remarkable Sentence is that which should be engraven upon the Heart of every sinner When we were without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly Rom. 5.6 This is a faithful saying indeed and worthy of all acceptation 1. highest and most thankful entertainment that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 4.9 10. We had been now bound hand and foot and shut up in outward darkness and had been Fuel to the Wrath of God and the Flames of Hell which are kindled thereby and had been tormenting our Souls with the bitter remembrance of our sin who are or may be comforted with the blessed Tydings of the Gospel What a comfortable Thought should it be to us when we lye down and when we rise up to remember that Christ is risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15.20 To understand which Text of Scripture it 's necessary that we be informed that sin having brought a Curse upon Man and upon the Earth for his sake and all the Fruit it brought forth the Sacrifice of the First-Fruits among the Jews to which the Apostle here alludes was appointed by God as a Means whereby the whole Harvest might be sanctified and secured and the Curse removed Which First-Fruits were a Type of Christ by
pine away thy self from day to day with earnest desires and endeavours after it Thou wert made for God and thy Soul will be restless till it return to him Consideration would convince thee that thus it is think then more frequently what is that work thou wert made for Thirdly The next thing worth your most serious Consideration is how well you have answered the end of your Creation You see what a wise just holy and impartial God you have to do with and that you are his Creatures and wherefore he hath made you and endued you with such Faculties and given you such various helps and encouragements Now consider how well you have used them how you have improved your several Talents and served your Maker and kept the Statutes and Judgments he hath given you Have you had your heart in Heaven or in Earth ever since you came hither Have you lived to God or without God in the world Have you lived in the love and praises of your Maker and in perfect obedience to his Laws or have you not rather extinguished all love of God in your hearts and violated all his righteous Laws and preferred the wisdom of the Flesh before the wisdom of the Spirit and set your selves to oppose his Government Though it may be you have not sinned against him on set purpose and directly opposed him yet have you not neglected to consult his will and when you have known your duty in many particulars have you not refused to obey Let your own Consciences be the Judge Have you kept the fear of God always before your eyes Hath no corrupt communication proceeded out of your mouth Have no idle blasphemous wicked thoughts crept into your hearts Have you been just and righteous in all your dealings towards God and Men Have you stood up for the honour of God against all his Enemies and faithfully reproved Sin and done all your works with respect to Gods glory or have you not overlooked that and minded your own worldly interest and cherished revengeful proud ambitious thoughts in your own hearts and countenanced Sin in others at least have you not been silent when Gods Name hath been lightly used in every trivial matter and his Sabbaths profan'd and his Word derided There 's none of us but must confess we have neglected this great work too much at the best how much more at the worst Our Hereditary Corruption was enough to make us odious in the pure Eyes of God for ever what then shall we plead for our Actual Sins which are multiplied to such a number that we cannot reckon them up So that there is no man that is not liable to the Wrath of God and the Condemning Sentence of his Law Consider whether you have not been treasuring up Wrath all your days and destroying your selves and preferring Dung and Dross before him Did he make thee to affront and dishonour him and prefer a trifle before him Did he make thee to scrape after the world to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Bethink thy self and consider whether thou hast discharged thy Duty and answered the Ends of thy Creation and done all to the glory of God and you will see Cause enough to abhor your self Fourthly Being thus obnoxious to Gods displeasure and liable to Death and Condemnation consider in the fourth place whether you are sensible of your Sin and Misery and whether you have accepted the grace which the Gospel offers to you There 's no remedy but you must perish for ever and have the Judgment of Everlasting Condemnation if Consideration do not bring you to Repentance and wound your hearts with the bitter sense and feeling of your Sin O consider that it was the mere mercy of God that any such terms were offered to you he might have left you as he did the fallen Angels and therefore if now you shall slight a pardon and refuse to lay your sin to heart and to be humbled and broken for it and to come to Christ with a loving and thankful heart that he would cleanse and purifie you by his Word and Spirit your case condition will be the more doleful your Judgment at the Great Day will be more Intolerable I know you have verbally Renounced the World the Devil and the Flesh in your Baptismal promise but have you Really and Unfeignedly Renounced them in heart and life Are you Convinced that nothing can wash away the stain of any the least of your Sins but the Blood of Christ much less wipe away the Sins of your whole Life Have you throughly considered the necessity of his Blood to procure your Pardon the necessity of his Spirit to Sanctifie you And that there is no Name under Heaven by which you can be saved but his but if you be such that loath your selves for all former Sins and are weary of a corrupt and sinful Nature and Christ be the chiefest among ten Thousand to your Soul then though you have so much crossed the end of your Creation and committed so much Sin it shall not be charged on you the Blood of Christ will certainly cleanse you from all your Sin If this faith be not yet wrought in you consideration must open and soften your Heart and make way for it If you did but frequently consider what priviledges they are forthwith admitted to that do believe and what a fearful looking for of Judgment there remaineth for unbelievers you would hasten to make your escape from the Stormy Wind and Tempest Suppose that some Mortal distemper had seized on you and this will certainly be your case ere long do but a little consider what the priviledges of a believer will be worth to you then how sweet the promise of forgiveness by Christ will be to your tast Yea sweeter than the Honey to your throat Psal 119.103 Do but let your thoughts run upon this Subject and tell you How happy you would count your self if you were united to Christ and a true member of his body reconciled to God and pardoned adopted into his family and received into his especial protection what would you give then to be acquitted from all your former sins to have the sting of Death pull'd out to land safe at your desired Harbour to dye in the Lord and to have a Convoy of blessed Angels to carry your soul to endless Joy say what you would give then to be secured from the sensible sears of Hell and Death and to lie down in the Grave in Peace and Safety and to have nothing then to make you afraid Why if you are a Penitent Believer and belong to Christ there will be comfort for you in the Hour when all the World shall signifie nothing to you Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil Prov. 1.33 When natural strength will be sure to fail you and your Soul is going out from your Body where it hath so long dwelt