our refuge Psal 91. 1 2 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shaddow of the Almighty I will say of the Lord He is my refuge and my fortress my God in him will I trust This is the confidence and joy and glory of the Saints Psal 59. 16 17. I will sing of thy Power yea I will sing aloud of thy mercies in the morning for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble Unto thee O my strength will I sing for my God is my defence and the God of my mercie Psal 89. 26. Thou art my Father my God and the Rock of my Salvation See Psal 27. 5. 61. 2. 62. 2 6 7. 94 22. Prov. 18. 10. The Name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous run into it and are safe Prov. 21. 31. safety is of the Lord Psal 4. 8. Quietly may we repose our selves to rest for it is the Lord only that maketh us dwell in safety But is it thus with the ungodly man O no when they say Peace and safety to themselves suddenly destruction cometh upon them as travel upon a woman with child and they shall not escape 1 Thes 5. 3. For their Rock is not like our Rock even our enemies themselves being judges Deut. 32. 31. Why else do they desire in times of danger that they were in the case of the Servants of the Lord If they thought themselves as safe as the Regenerate why do they wish at the hour of death that they might but die the death of the Righteous and their later end might be as his Numb 23. 10. 5. Moreover he is certainly more safe that is an heir of the promises and hath the word of God engaged for his safety then he that hath no promise from God at all nor any such security to shew But all the faithful have interest in the promises in which the ungodly have no share Surely he is safe to whom the Lord hath promised safety O what a precious treasure might I here open to shew you the safety of true believers I will cull out but a few of the Promises for a tast Prov. 1. 32 33. The turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of foâ—â—s shall destroy them But who so hearkenneth unto me shall awell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil Prov. 29. 25. Who so putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe Prov. 3. 21 22 23. My Son let them not depart from thine eyes keep sound wisdom and discretion so shall they be life unto thy soul and grace unto thy neck then shalt thou walk in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble When thou lyest down thou shalt not be afraid yea thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet Be not afraid of sudden fear neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh For the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken Deut. 33. 12. The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him the Lord shall cover him all the day long and he shall dwell between his shoulders Psalm 55. 22. Cast thy burden on the Lord and he shall sustain thee he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved Psalm 14. 5. God is in the generation of the righteous Psalm 34. 15 17 19 20. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their cry The righteous cry and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their trouble Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of all He keepeth all his bones Evil shall slay the wicked and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate Psal 37. 28. For the Lord loveth judgement and forsaketh not his Saints they are preserved for ever but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off Ver. 37 39 40. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace But the transgressors shall be destroyed together the End of the wicked shall be cut off But the salvation of the Righteous is of the Lord he is their strength in the time of trouble And the Lord shall help them and deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him Psalm 73. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Isa 49. 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her womb Yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee He hath said I will not fail thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. Matth. 6. 25. Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink c. Matth. 10. 28 30 31. Fear not them which kill the Body and are not able to kill the soul The very hairs of your head are all numbred Isa 41. 10. Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee Yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness See ver 13 14. Isa 43. 1 2. Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name thou art mine When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt c. The Lord preserveth the way of his Saints Prov. 2. 8. Psalm 31. 23. O Love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithfull Psal 97. 10. he preserveth the souls of his Saints he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked Psalm 145. 18 19 20. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth He will fulfill the desires of them that fear him he also will hear their cry and will save them The Lord preserveth all them that Love him but all the wicked will he destroy Prov. 20. 22. Say not I will recompence evil but wait on the Lord and he will save thee Heb. 10. 23. He is faithfull that hath promised I hope the believer will not be weary to read over all these precious promises which are his security from God for soul and body I summ up all in that one 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness is profitable to all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Judge whether Godliness be the safest state Can a man of so many promises be unsafe But instead of these the ungodly are threatned with everlasting vengeance 6. He is safer that hath continually a guard of Angels as certainly all the faithful have then he that hath none but is a prisoner of the devil as the ungodly are Hear the Scriptures Psalm 34. 7. The Angel of the Lord
the world and sin no longer and is put off with the leavings of the flesh and hath no more of their hearts their tongues their time their wealth then it can spare They ask their flesh how far they shall be Religious and will go no further then will stand with their prosperity in the world With the first and best they serve the flesh and with the cheapest and the refuse they serve the Lord When they go highest in their out-side carnal Religiousness they go not beyond this hypocritical reserved state and usually as Cain they hate Abel for offering a more acceptable sacrifice God must take up with this from them or â—â— without They alway serve him with this reserve though it 〈…〉 not alwayes explicite and discerned by them Provided that â—â— may go well with me in the world and I may have some competent proportion of honour profit or pleasure and Religion may not â—â—ose me to be undone If God will not take them on these 〈…〉 as most certainly he never will he must go look him â—â—â—er servants and so he will and make them know at last 〈…〉 their sorrow that he needed not their service but it was 〈…〉 that needed him and the benefits of his service I thought meet though I have done it oft before to give â—â—â— this difference between the Hypocrite and the sincere And â—â—w it is my earnest request unto you all that you will presently â—â— your souls to an account and know which of these two â—â—rses you have taken and which of these two is your own â—â—ondition If nature had made you such strangers to your selves as that 〈…〉 were unable to answer such a question I would never trouble 〈…〉 with it but I suppose by faithful enquiry you may know 〈…〉 much of your selves if you are but willing You know where it is that you have dwelt and what it is that you have been â—â—â—ng in the world and you can review the actions of your lives though they have been of smaller consequence Why then may 〈…〉 not quickly know if you will so great a thing as What hath â—â— the very End and Business for which you have lived in the â—â—rld till now Have you been running so long and know not â—â— what is the prize that you have run for Have you forgot the â—â— and that you have been so long going on Have you been â—â—sie all your daies till now and know not about what or why â—ertainly this is a thing that may be known if you are willing and â—igent to know it It is for one of these two that you have â—â—ed for the world or for God To please your flesh or to â—ease God and be saved Either to make provision for Earth or â—raven Which of these is it Deal plainly with your selves â—or your salvation is deeply concerned in the account Perhaps you will say that It was for both for as you have a soul and a body so you must look to both Yea but so as one â—â—at knoweth that One thing is Needful As your body is but â—â—e prison the case the servant of your souls so it must be proâ—â—ded for and used but as a servant and maintained only in a fitâ—ess for its work But the question is Which of them hath had the preheminence Which hath had the life of your affections and endeavours Which of them was your end and about which hath been the chief business that you have most carefully and diligently carryed on This is the great question You cannot have two masters though you may have many instruments and fellow-servants You cannot acceptably serve God if you serve Mammon Every wicked man may do somthing in Religion and every good man may do something that is contrary to Religion A carnal man may do something for God and for his soul and a spiritual man ought to do something subordinately for his body and too often alas doth something for it inordinately But which bears the sway and which is first sought and which comes behind and hath but the leavings of the other Be not deceived God is not mocked Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap If you sow to the flesh of the flesh you shall reap corruption but if you sow to the spirit of the spirit you shall reap everlasting life Gal. 6. 7 8. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world for themselves for if any man love the world with his chiefest Love the Love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2. 15. Is it not a wonder that any reasonable man can be such a stranger to himself as not to know what he lives for and what hath had his heart and what hath been the principal business of his life Some by-matters you may easily forget or over-look but can you do so by your end which hath been your chiefest care and business If indeed you no more know your own minds nor what you have all this while been doing in the world ask those that you have conversed with and judge by the effects and signs Others can tell what you have most seriously talked of They may conjecture by their observation what you have most carefully sought and resolutely adhered to Whether it be God or the flesh this world or Heaven The One thing Needful or the many troubling trifles in your way It is like that wise and godly observers can help you to discern it though sensualists will but deceive you A mans Love at least his chiefest Love cannot be hid but will appear in his behaviour If you Love God above the world you will seek him and his Glory before the world and if you do so it may partly be discerned if you have conversed with discerning men Heaven and earth are not so like nor the way to each of them so like but it may partly be discerned which way men are going and what they drive at in their daily course But I will urge you no further to the tryal I will take it for granted that your Consciences are telling many of you that you have been troubled about many things while the One thing Needful hath been neglected And if indeed this be your case suffer me to tell the guilty plainly what it is that they have done 1. Whatever you have been doing in the world you have lost your Time if you have not been seeking the One thing necessary If you have been gathering riches or growing up in honour as the rush groweth in the mire Job 8. 11. or filling your purses or your barnes or pleasing your fantasies and flesh you have but fooled away your time and done just nothing and much worse Nothing is done if the One thing Necessary be undone Believe it Time is a precious thing and ought not to have been thus cast away When you come to the end of it the worst and proudest of you shall confess it is precious Then O for one year more
more terrible executions And yet wilt thou say that its long of God or Scripture or Religion that the world is naught If thou stay a little longer impenitently in thy blasphemy till death have but given thee the mortal stroak and it s hard at hand thou shalt then be answered in another manner and God will easily justifie himself and stop all such vile and arrogant months and confute thee with an everlasting Vengeance Remember that thou wast forewarned 9. Yea furthermore you are confuted and shamed by your own complaints What is it that you quarrel with the Law of God for is it not because it is so strict and forbiddeth sin and threatneth damnation for it Is it not because it requireth so much goodness and telleth you that none of the unconverted ungodly shall be saved And what is it that you quarrel with the godly for Is it not for serving God and because they will not be as bad as others And yet the same tongues dare blaspheme the Laws of God and say the world is the worse for them And the same tongue dares revile the godly as the cause that the world is so bad What should one say to such unreasonable men that will at the same time murmur at the Holy word and wayes of God because they contradict the wickedness of the world and threaten them with Hell fire because they repent not and yet say it is long of this very word and the preaching and obeying of it in a holy life that the world grows worse O impudent mouths that at once revile the servants of Christ because they will not be as bad as others and yet say that its they that make the world so bad God will very shortly stop such unreasonable mouths 10. And if your words were true then it would follow that all Gods greatest Mercies are worth nothing yea that they are a hurt to us and curses rather then blessings What is the Gospel worth if the reading and preaching and practising of it do make the world worse and only trouble men What are all Gods Ordinances worth if this be the fruit of them And why hath he appointed Pastors and Teachers for his Church if this be all the good they do Nay what is Christ himself worth to the world if those are the worst men that most obey him and study his word and diligently seek him O unworthy souls is this all your thanks to God for a Christ when you are lost by sin and for the Gospel that offereth you everlasting life and for the Ministry of your Pastors that would teach you the way of life May we not take up the Prophets exclamation Isa 1. 2. Hear O heavens and give ear O earth I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me The Ox knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Masters crib but this people doth not know the Lord nor Consider Your beast doth not take his provender to be naught for him and rather choose to be without it And you are worse then beasts in your dealing with the Lord and when he hath provided you a Christ a Gospel Teachers and holy Ordinances even the preciousest things in the world you unthankfully refuse them yea and reproach them and take them to be naught for you and say that it is long of them that the world is so bad O horrid ingratitude when miserable souls are in the captivity of sin and Satan and within a few steps of everlasting fire the God of Mercy sends his Son his Word and Ministers to help them out and set them free and save them from Hell before it be too late and what entertainment have they They are reviled by these wretches as if they came to make them worse and do them a mischief and not to save them Righteous is the Lord that condemneth such as would not be saved and as took salvation for an injury And just were God if he should take away the Gospel and his Ministers and his people from so unthankful and unworthy a generation as this that are weary of them and say they are the troublers of the world and think that they do them more hurt then Good and as the Gadarens by Christ desire him to depart out of their coasts Matth. 8. 34. Be content a while unworthy souls You shall not long be troubled with a Christ or with the Gospel or with Preaching or with Praying or with the company of these precise people that you so much dislike Sleep on but a few nights more and pass on but a few dayes further and you shall come to a place before you look for it where you shall never have their company more and where you shall be out of the reach of Preaching and Praying and Holiness and of Hope And in the mean time were it not for the sakes of those whom God will convert and save this troublesome Gospel and Holy people should be taken from you and given to a people that will be more thankful and more fruitful because you put it from you and have judged your selves unworthy of everlasting life Acts 13. 46. Matth. 21. 41. No thanks to you that England is not like the Indians and as miserable as you would have it 11. And why should we believe you when we see that you judge clean contrarily for your bodies then you do for your souls I have never heard any of you say It was never good world since our land was fruitfull and since so much corn came to the the market It was a better world when men had nothing but roots to feed on And yet would you be believed when you say that it was better when men had not so much of the Scripture and of Christ and holiness the food the life the health of souls 12. And I the less believe you because I find that this hath been the common speech of others in all former ages They that lived in the dayes of your fathers said so of the former times It was formerly a better world then now And if you had lived in those dayes of your fathers fore-fathers you would have heard them say the same It s common with men to feel the evil that 's present and to praise the days that are past whose evil they felt not or have forgotten But hear what God saith Eccles 7. 10. Say not thou What is the Cause that the former dayes were better then these for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this Eccles 1. 9. The thing that hath been it is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done and there is no new thing under the Sun 13. And little cause have we to believe you when we have present experience that your words are false We see that those are the best that are most Godly He is blind that seeth not an exceeding difference betwixt them and such as you that speak against them Do not we
encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them Psalm 91. 11 12. He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone Matth. 18 10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in heaven their Angels do alwayes behold the face of my Father which is in heaven Heb. 1. 14. Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation And have the wicked any such attendance for their security No but a fearful captivity to the Devil 7 Lastly that is the safest state where a man is safe from the Greatest Evil. Everlasting misery is the great evil which the Godly are initially saved from They are lyable to afflictions as well as others but not to Damnation and therefore they are safe They must be sick and die as well as others but they shall escape Eternal death Yea they are already passed from death to life 1 John 3. 14. and have Eternal life begun within them John 17. 3. He that hath the Son hath life 1 John 5. 12. John 5. 22. Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life ver 28 29. Marvail not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of damnation Psalm 1. 4 5 6. The ungodly are not so but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the Judgement nor sinners in the Congregation of the righteous For the Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish If yet you are unresolved whether Godliness be the only way of safety I dare say it is because you believe not the holy Scriptures For there the doubt is as fully decided as any one in all the world O how blessed is the state of the poorest most afflicted Saint that may alway say My soul is safe If my health or wealth or friends be gone yet am I safe from everlasting misery Other things I shall have as God seeth best for his honour and my spiritual good but salvation I may be sure of if I abide in Christ What needs he fear that hath escaped Hell But O the dreadful case of the ungodly that are passing to damnation when they never think of it Their Bodies may be strong their riches great and they may fare sumptuously every day Luke 16. 19. But O what a case are their poor souls in and where will they be when this mirth is ended Luke 16. 25. They are not safe from Hell one hour CHAP. VII Holiness is the only Honest Way WEE have tryed whether the way of Godliness or Ungodliness be the safest Let us next try which is the Honestest of which one would think we should never meet with a man so shameless as to make a question But experience telleth us that such there are yea and that they are very common Even in their reproaching of a Holy life they will joyn the boastings of their own Honesty and say Though we swear or are drunk now and then and make not such a stir about Gods service and our salvation yet we are as Honest as these preciser people that make more ado and censure us as ungodly As truly and wisely as if a common whore should say I am as Honest as these precise people that will not play the harlots as I do And as wisely as if a Thief should say Though I steal for need I am as honest as these precise people that will not steal But yet we have this advantage by these shameless boasts that still the Name of Honesty is in credit and the worst men honour it by pretending to it while they dishonour themselves by their renouncing the Thing it self and by the impudency of their pretences Honesty is nothing but true Virtue or the Moral Goodness of the Mind or Action An Honest man and a Good man is indeed all one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Greeks one that is both inwardly virtuous and manifests it in the cleaness and integrity of his life in the sight of men All men for ought I can perceive would be accounted Honest This reputation Honesty hath among its vilest enemies that they approve the Name and would not appear to be its enemies till they have put some other Name upon it While they hate Honesty and persecute it they would be called Honest men themselves And therefore by the consent of all the world friends and foes that is the Best way which is the Honestest O that you would all but stand to this in the choosing of your course and in your daily practice Will you all agree upon a Holy life if I prove it past all doubt to be the Honestest O that you would Yea if I prove that there is no man truly Honest in the world that is not truly Godly If you would stand to this you would soon be changed Indeed it is nothing but but Dishonesty that we would have you changed from And if you will not stand to this but will refuse Honesty when you know it for shame lay by the Name of Honesty and wish not men to call you Honest any more Either be what you would be called or give men leave to call you as you are Let us come then to the tryal and see who is indeed the Honest man the Godly or the ungodly 1. I have already told you that God who is the most infallible Judge hath given his sentence on his peoples side If you will think your selves that it is not those that Thieves and Harlots call Honest that are so likely to be Honest as those that wise men and vertuous men call so We have then far greater Reason to conclude that it is not those that you call Honest that are so fit to be judged such as those that God calls so How say you will you not freely give us leave to take Gods judgements or Word before yours If not we will take leave And God calls all the ungodly by the name of Evil and Wicked men and the godly are they that he calleth Upright Good and Honest The whole Scripture you know if you know any thing of it speaketh in this language Luke 8. 15. It is they that hear the Word and keep it and bring forth fruit with patience that receive it into honest and good hearts This is the life that is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour which is in all Godliness and Honesty These are inseparable Godliness
necessary things doth Grace acquaint the Christian with He knoweth him that is the cause of all things else having himself no cause He knoweth him that is knowledge it self and that knoweth all things He knoweth him that is Eternal that never began and shall never end That is Greater then the whole world that is more glorious then the Sun that can do all things because he is Almighty and yet can do no evil because he is most Good and Holy He knoweth him that made the world and all things and holdeth them in the hand of his Omnipotency and Ruleth them by his wisdom and doth all things according to the good pleasure of his will He knoweth him that is mans felicity to know whom is eternal life He knoweth the Redeemer and the Riches of his Grace and Promises He knoweth the diseases of his own soul and their danger and cure He knoweth what end he hath to aim at and the work that he was made and Redeemed for to do the Temptations which he must resist the enemies which he must conquer the duties which he must perform He knoweth his Redeemers Laws and Covenants What he commandeth promiseth and threatneth and to whom He knoweth what will be hereafter and where he shall live when this life is ended and what he shall do ten thousand years hence yea unto all eternity He knoweth what will become of all the Godly and ungodly that die such in the world and where they shall be for evermore In a word he knoweth whence he came whithet he is going and which way he must go He knoweth God as his Maker Governour and End He knoweth that God that he must Please and how to Please him and how to be saved and to live with God for ever This is the honourable Knowledge of the Sanctified which no men have but they alone The cunning Polititians of the world have none of it as such The Speculators of nature the great Mathematicians the Learned Doctors famous for their skill in Languages Philosophy and the Theorie of Divinity are oâ—t without it They have more of the words and notions and forms and methods then unlearned Saints have but they want the Thing that these are made for They have the signs and the Godly have the thing signified They have the Body of Theologie and the Godly Christian hath the Soul The ungodly Doctors have better skill to break the shell but the Godly Christian only knows how to eat the kernel The Learned may be better at the office of a Cook to dress the meat but only the Godly do feed on it and digest it Knowledge is to be valued as all creatures are according to its usefulness As it is more Honourable to know how to Govern a Kingdom Command an Army or Navy or save mens lives then to make a fiddle or an hobby horse so is it ten thousand-fold more Honourable to know how to Order our hearts and lives and to walk with God and obtain the everlasting Glory then to know how to get the riches and pleasures and vain-glory of the present world 3. The sanctified are made Alive to God when other men are Dead in sin Rom. 6. 11 13. Eph. 2. 1 2. And the poorest man alive is more Honourable then the carkase of an Emperour Eccl. 9. 4. A living dog is better then a dead Lyon 4. The sanctified are cleansed from the filthyness of their sins which are the most odious defilements in the world and they are purified by the blood and spirit of Christ 1 John 1. 7 9. Ephes 5. 26. 2 Cor. 7. 1. The word of Christ hath made them clean John 15. 3. Their hearts are purified by faith Acts 15. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 22. 1 John 3. 3. And therefore the most odious part of their dishonour is removed sin is a reproach to any people Prov. 14. 34. Whatever it may seem before ungodly men it is sin that is your shame before the Lord And this reproach the godly are now cleansed from Though it be a dishonour to them that they were ungodly once it is their honour that now they are not such and that they are cloathed with the righteousness of Christ 5. The Holy nature of the Saints disposeth their hearts and â—nclineth their wills to the highest and most Honourable things As in their Knowledge so in their Inclinations they are above the baseness of the world The nature of man is not to feed as beasts and horses and dogs do he is above their food and above their converse and kind of life that will not content him that contenteth them And the new nature of a sanctified man is above the delights and contents of the ungodly His heart cannot endure to take up with their kind of life To mind nothing but this world and to have no pleasure but to the flesh and live as an utter stranger to God and not to feed on the Heavenly delights and riches of the Gospel but live as if there were no such things this sensual life is below his Inclination â—s feeding on dross or conversing only with swine or cattle is below the nature of a man The noble soul is that which is inclined to the noblest objects even to God and Holiness and everlasting life and cannot endure the poor and low and sordid life of men that have their portion here Psalm 17. 14. Nothing that is corporeal or transitory yea nothing below God can satisfie a holy soul It is this Holy Disposition that fits men for holy Duties and that is their fitness for eternal Happiness If Angels were not Holyer then Devils and godly men then the ungodly Heaven could not hold them nor could they any more see or enjoy the Lord then they that are cast into outer darkness And therefore if you dare say that the Holy are no more Honourable then the unholy you must say that the Holy Angels are no more Honourable then the devils which sure you will scarce be so desperate as to speâ—â— 6. Holiness in the godly is the Image of God in which we were created and according to which we are renewed by the Holy Ghost Eph. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. Gen. 1. 27. And what can be spoken more Honourable of a creature then that he hath his Makers Image unless as to the Degree that some have more of it then others It is the honourable Title of the Son himself that he is the Brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his person This is above the honour of any or of all the Saints But to have the Image of God in Wisdom and Holiness as all have that are sanctified is a wonderful dignity to be given to a creature and so low and unworthy creatures as we are His commands tell us what are the qualifications of his people As he which hath called you is Holy so be ye Holy in all manner of conversation For it is written Be ye Holy for I am Holy
that are but honest-hearted may certainly understand them Which quiets and pleaseth and satisfies the mind 3. And yet there is an exciting Difficulty in many things that are offered to our Knowledge which doth but make our holy studies the more delightful If the Word of God were so plain and obvious to all that it might be all understood at the first reading the plainness would bring our Sacred Knowledge into contempt as being an easie common thing Things common and easily got are little set by But when the plainness is such as may prevent our despair and dissatisfaction and yet the Difficulty such that it may hold us in study and prevent our contempt it makes the most delightful Knowledge It is Pleasant to find some daily addition to our Light and to be on the gaining and thriving hand and this upon our diligent search Successes are as pleasant as a present fulness of supplies The daily blessing of God upon our studies and humble learning addeth to our delight So that all this set together may shew you how pleasant a thing it is to have the Knowledge of a Saint Especially if you add that he hath an Exporimental and so a sweeter Knowledge then the most learned men have that are ungodly He hath tasted that the Lord is gracious and he hath tasted the sweetness of his Love and of all the Riches of his Grace in Christ and of his full and precious promises and of the inward powerful workings of his spirit His experimental Knowledge is the most Delightful Knowledge The Pleasure of Natural Knowledge is great but the Pleasure of saving Knowledge is much greater I do not believe that ever any of the Ambitious troublers of the world that let go Heaven that they may Rule on Earth have half the Pleasure in their Greatness and usurped Dignities as an honest Student hath in his Books and studious exercises and successes But if you compare the Pleasures of their Greatness and Commands with the Pleasure of a true Believing soul in his life of Faith and sweet fore-thoughts of his Heavenly Inheritance I must plainly tell you that we disdain the comparison Again I say that if you will compare the Drunkards the Fornicators or the Ambitious or Covetous mans delight with the solace that I find in my retired studies even about natural common things I disdain the comparison But if you compare their Pleasure with that little alas too little pleasure that I find in the believing thoughts of Life Eternall I do not only disdain your comparison but detest it Were I minded to be long I would shew you from these twelve particular Instances the abundant Pleasure of Holy Knowledge 1. What a Pleasant thing is it to know the Lord the Eternal God in his blessed Attributes The dimmest glimmering Knowledge of God is better then the clearest Knowledge of all the mysteries of nature 2. How Pleasant is it to know the works of his Creation How and why and when he made the world and all that is therein 3. How Pleasant is it to know the blessed Son of God and to behold the face of his Fathers Love that is revealed in him as his fullest Image 4. How Pleasant is it to know the Law and Gospel the Matter and the Method the litteral and spiritual sense to see there the mind and will of God and to see our Charter for the Heavenly Inheritance and read the Precepts and the Promises and the Examples of the faith and patience of the Saints 5. How Pleasant is it to know the Heavenly operations of the Holy Ghost and the nature and action of his several Graces and the uses of every one of them to our souls and especially to find them in our selves and to be skilled in using them 6. How Pleasant is it to know the nature and frame of the Church of Christ which is his Body and to know the difference and use of the several members To understand the office of the Ministry and why Christ hath set them in the Church and how much love he hath manifested therein that they should preach to us and offer us Reconciliation in his name and stead 2 Cor. 5. 19. and marry us unto Christ in Baptism receiving us in his name into the Church and holy Covenant and that in his name and stead they should deliver us his body and blood and absolve the penitent sinner from his sins and deliver him a sealed pardon and receive the returning humbled soul into the Church of Christ and Communion of the Saints 7. How Pleasant is it to know the nature and use of all Christs Ordinances The excellencies of his Holy Word the use of Baptism and the refreshing strengthening use of the Supper of the Lord the use and benefit of Holy prayer and praises and thanksgiving and Church-order and all parts of the Communion of the Saints 8. Yea there is a holy Pleasure in knowing our very sin and folly When God bringeth a sinner to himself though his sin be odious to him yet to know the sin is Pleasant and therefore he prayeth that God would shew him the bottom of his heart and the most secret or odious of his sins 9. And it is Pleasant to a Christian to know his Duty It very much quieteth and delighteth his mind when he can but know what is the will of God When the way of Duty is plain before him how chearfully can he go on whatever meet him and how easie doth it make his labour and his suffering 10. Yea it is Pleasant to a Believer to understand his very danger Though the Danger it self be dreadful to him yet to know it that he may avoid it is his desire and his delight 11. And how Pleasant is it to understand all the Helps Encouragements and Comforts that God hath provided for us in our way and how many more are for us then against us 12. But above all how Pleasant is it to know by faith the life that we must live with God for ever and what he will do for us to all eternity in the performance of his holy Covenant I do but briefly name these Instances of Delightful Knowledge which are sweeter to the holy soul then all the Pleasures of sin to the ungodly Do you think that any of you hath such solid Pleasure in your sins as David had in the Law of God when he meditated in it with such delight and saith How sweet is it to my mouth even sweeter then the honey and the hony-comb Surely you dare not compare with him in Pleasures 2. Another part of Holiness that is Pleasant in the Nature of it is that which is subjected in the heart or affections And here is the chiefest of its sweetness and delights 1. The very compliance of the Will with the Will of God and its Conformity to his Law doth carry a quieting Pleasure in it That soul is happyest that is nearest God and likest to him and that
eyes He discerneth not the Lords body He only quieteth and deludeth his conscience with the outward form He hath not faith to feed on Christ But to a lively faith what sweetâ— ness doth such a Feast afford We have here Communion with the blessed Trinity in thâ—… three parts of this Eucharistical Sacrament As the Father 〈…〉 both our Creator and the offended Majesty and yet he hath 〈…〉 his Son to be our Redeemer so in the first part which 〈…〉 the CONSECRATION we present to our Creator the creatures of Bread and Wine acknowledging that from him we receive them and all and we desire that upon our Dedication by his Acceptance they may be made Sacramentally and Representatively the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ In the second part of the Eucharist which is the COMMEMORATION of the sacrifice offered on the Cross we break the bread and pour forth the wine to Represent the breaking of Christs Body and shedding of his Blood for the sin of man and we beseech the Father to be Reconciled to us on his Sons account and to accept us in his Beloved and to accept all our sacrifices through him So that as Christ now in Heaven is Representing his sacrifice to the Father which he once offered on the Cross for sin so must the Minister of Christ Represent and plead to the Father the same sacrifice by way of Commemoration and such Intercession as belongeth to his Office The third part of the Eucharist is the OFFER and PARTICIPATION in which the Minister Representing Christ doth by Commission deliver his Bedy and Blood to the penitent hungry believing soul and with Christ is delivered a sealed â—â—â—don of all sin and a sealed gift of life Eternal All which are received by the true Believer An unbeliever knoweth not what transactions there are between the Lord and a holy soul in this Ordinance where the appearances are so small A bit of bread and a sup of wine are indeed small matters But so is not this Communion with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost What a comfort is it that the offended Majesty will accept a sacrifice at our hands and enter a treaty of Peace with the offendours Yea that he will provide the sacrifice himself and the preciousest in the whole world that he will signifie this his acceptance of the sacrifice and how he is pleased in his well-beloved Son and that he accepteth his Sons Intercession in the Heavens and his Ministers intercession and his Churches prayers on earth through Christ Seeing Christ 〈…〉 be glorified with his Father and not continue visible among 〈…〉 what could we desire more from him then the three fold Reâ—â—â—sentative which he hath left behind him to supply the room â—â— his Bodily presence Even the Representation of himself by 〈…〉 by his Ministers and by the Holy Ghost which is 〈…〉 substitute within for the efficacy of all O what unspeakable mysteries and treasures of mercy are here-presented to us in a Sacrament Here we have Communion with a Reconciled God and are brought into his presence by the great Reconciler Here we have Communion with our blessed Redeemer as Crucified and Glorified and offered to us as our quickning preserving strengthening Head Here we have Communion with the Holy Ghost applying to our souls the benefits of Redemption drawing us to the Son and communicating light and life and strength from him unto us increasing and actuating his graces in us Here we have Communion with the Body of Christ his sanctified people the heris of life When the Minister of Christ by his Commission Representeth a Crucified Christ to our eyes by the Bread and Wine appointed to this use we see Christ Crucified as it were before us and our Faith layeth hold on him and we perceive the Truth of the Remedy and build our souls upon this Rock When the same Minister by Christs Commission doth offer us his Body and Blood and Benefits it is as firm and valid to us as if the mouth of Christ himself had offered them And when our souls Receive him by that Faith which the Holy Ghost exciteth in us the participation is as true as that of our bodies receiving the Bread and Wine which represent him O do but ask a drooping soul that mourns under the fears of Gods displeasure how he would value a voice from Heaven to tell him that all his sins are pardoned and that he is dear to God and judge by his answer what is contained and offered in a Sacrament Ask him how he would take it if Christ should speak those words himself to him which he hath given his Minister Commission in his name to speak Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you It is the same Christ the same pardon and salvation that is offered us by the Messengers of Christ and which he personally offered himself to his Disciples When you must all appear at the Barr of God O what would you not give for a sealed pardon which in a Sacrament is given freely now to the believing soul Judge now by this whether it be a Joyous Ordinance When the poorest Christian this day receiveth that which the greatest Prince that is ungodly would then give all the world for it he had it For want of that pardon Christian which thou must now receive many thousands will tremble at the barâ— of God and be overwhelmed with his wrath for ever Ask a soul that groaneth under the languishings of his grace and the burden of any strong corruption how he would value the mortifying and quickning grace of the Holy Ghost that would break his bonds and give him light and life and strength and by his answer judge of the value of a Sacrament We have here the greatest mercies in the world brought down to us in sensible Representations that they might be very neer us and the means might be suited to the frailty and infirmity of our present state If the sealed message of Gods Reconciliation with us and a sealed pardon of all our sins and a sealed grant of Everlasting life be not more pleasant and desirable to your thoughts then all that earth and flesh can yield you it is because your are alive to sin and dead to God and want that spiritual sence and appetite by which you might be competent judges If God if Christ if grace if the foretasts of glory can afford no pleasure to the soul then Heaven it self would not be pleasant But if these are sweet the Sacrament is sweet that doth convey them Well poor stubborn carnal sinners you have been invited to this feast as well as others we are sent to call you and even compel you to come in though upon the terms and in the way of Christ but you have no great list but somewhat else doth please you better And will it prove better indeed to you at the end Well take your own choice If an Alehouse be better then the Table of the
prosperity do you Glory in the Lord When they boast themselves in their riches or reputation do you imitate holy David who professeth Psal 34. 1 2 3. I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in thy mouth My soul shall make her boast in the Lord the humble shall hear thereof and be glad O magnifie the Lord with me and let â—…lt his name together And Psal 44. 8. In God will we boast 〈…〉 the day long and praise thy Name for ever By such spiritual joyfulness your lives would be a continued Sermon and you might thus preach home more souls to Christ then the most excellent preacher by bare perswasions Poor sinners would begin to pitty themselves that live so far below the Saints and they would think with themselves It is not for nothing that these men rejoyce and are comfortable even in the loss of all those things that we take all our comfort in For the honour of your dearest Lord and for your own felicity and for the sake of the miserable souls about you I beseech you Christians do your best to reach this sweet and joyfullest life and to avoid those inordinate troubles and despondencies which are like to cross these blessed ends And pray for me and the rest of his servants that the Lord will forgive us our dishonouring of his name our wronging our own souls and our discouraging the world from living unto God by our living so far below his mercies and so unanswerable to the unspeakable treasures of his Saints and that for the time to come we may lay this duty more to heart and by the comforting spirit may be elevated to the performance of it But I suppose some will say Tâ—â— tell me how I should live for the encouragement of others is but to draw me to an hypocritical affectation and counterfeiting of joy and courage as long as I am unable inwardly to rejoyce and can see no sufficient cause of my rejoycing in my self Answ 1. I shall by and by shew you that you have sufficient yea unspeakable cause of joy 2. And now I shall only say that you are not to suspend and forbear your comfort till you have full assurance of your own sincerity your probabilities and weakest faith and hope will warrant a more comfortable life then you can live And it is not hypocrisie but a necessary duty to do the outward actions that are here commanded us though we cannot reach to that degree of inward comfort that we desire For we do not hereby affirm our selves to have the joy which we have not I am not perswading any man to lye but only we express as fully as we are able that little which we have And a little indeed a very little of such a high and heavenly nature grounded on the smallest hopes of everlasting life will allow you in the expression of it to transcend the greatest delights of the ungodly And also we do perform the external part both as a commanded duty and as a means to further the inward rejoycing of the soul So outward solemnity and feasting in dayes of Thanksgiving are as well to further inward Joy as to express it Even as mean attire and fasting and humblest proâ—trations before the Lord on dayes of Humiliation are as much to further inward Humiliation as to express it The behaviour of the body hath an operative reflexion on the mind and therefore should be used not only for the discovery but for the cure of the soul If you cannot restrain your anger as you desire it is no hypocrisie but your duty to hide it and to refrain from the sinful effects And if you can but use your selves some time to behave your selves in your anger as if you had no anger in meekness of speech and quietness of deportment anger it self will be the quicklyer subdued and in time will be the easier kept out If you cannot restrain your inordinate eppetite to meat or drink for quality or quantity it is yet no hypocrisie but your duty to hold your hands and shut your mouthes and refrain the things to which you have an appetite And if you will but use your selves a convenient time to forbear the thing you will subdue the appetite If the drunkard will forbear the drink and the glutton his too much desired dish and the sportful gamesters their needless and sinful recreations they will find that the fire of sensuality will go out for want of fuell As the too wanton Poet saith concerning wanton Love Intrat amor mentes usu dediscitur usu Qui poterit sanum fingere sanus erit Use kindleth it and use quencheth it He that can but live as a sound man shall at last become a sound man If you cannot overcome your inward Pride as you desire you must not therefore speak big and look high and swagger it out in bravery and accompany with gallants to avoid Hypocrisie But you must speak humbly and be cloathed soberly and accompany with the humble And 1. this is the performance of one part of your duty 2. and it is the expression of your Desires to be more humble and consequently of some humility contained in these desires 3. and it is the way to work your hearts to that humility which you want or the way in which you must wait on God for the receiving of it So if you cannot overcome the Love of the world as you desire do not therefore forbear giving to the poor for fear of Hypocrisie But give the more that you may perform so much of your duty as you can and may the sooner overcome your worldly love Some trees will be killed with often cropping But if they will not it is better that a poysonous plant should live only in the root then sprout forth and be fruitful Even so if you cannot overcome your inward doubts and fears and sorrows as you desire yet let them not be fruitful nor cause you to walk so dejectedly before the world as to dishonour God and your holy profession And if you have not the inward comfort you desire express your desires and the hopes and smallest comforts that you have to the best advantage for your Masters honour And you will find that a holy chearfulness of countenance expression and deportment will at last much overcome your inordinate disquietments and much promote the joyes which you desire But yet that you may see cause for the cheerfulness to which I now exhort you I next adde 3. If thou have but one spark of saving grace it is not possible for thee now to conceive or express the happiness of thy state and the cause thou hast to live a thankful jeyous life If thou have no grace thou art not the person that I am now speaking to If thou have no grace whence is it that thou so much desirest it What is it that causeth thee to lament the want of it and walk so heavily but because thou art
A SAINT OR A BRUTE The Certain Necessity and Excellency of Holiness c. So plainly proved and urgently applyed as by the blessing of God may convince and save the miserable impenitent ungodly Sensualists if they will not let the Devil hinder them from a sober and serious reading and considering To be Communicated by the Charitable that desire the Conversion and Salvation of souls while the Patience of God and the day of Grace and Hope continue By Richard Baxter The First Part Shewing the Necessity of Holiness LONDON Printed by R. W. for Francis Tyton at the three daggers in Fleet-street and Nevil Simmons Bookseller at Kederminster Anno Dom. 1662. To my dearly beloved Friends the Inhabitants of Kederminster in Worcestershire and my late Auditors in the City of London Confirming Grace with Patience Love and Peace be multiplyed Dear Friends ONce more through the great mercy of God I have liberty to send you a Preacher for your private families which may speak to you truly and plainly though not elegantly when I cannot and when I lie silent in the dust I take it for no small mercy that I have been so much employed about the Great and Necessary things in despight of all the malice of Satan who would have entangled me and taken up my time in personal vindications and barren controversies As I never knew that I had one enemy in the world that ever was acquainted with me so those that know me disswading me from Apologies against the accusations of those that know me not have spared my time for better work Though there is about fifty writings in whole or part against me published by Infidels Seekers Familists Enthusiasts Quakers Papists Antinomians Levellers Covenant-breakers State-subverters Church-dividers besides impatient dissenting Brethren and Dependants that took it for the rising way I yet find no cause as to the present age and those that know me to be at any great care or pains for a defence while malicious lyes do but make men wonder that wrinkled Envy should be so mad as to come so naked on the Stage and shew her ugly deformities to the world and could not stay at least till Wit had helpt her to a Cloak I was also when I first intended Writing under another temptation being of their mind that thought that nothing should be made publike but what a man had first laid out his choicest art upon I thought to have acquainted the world with nothing but what was the work of Time and Diligence But my conscience soon told me that there was too much of Pride and Selfishness in this and that Humility and Self-denyal required me to lay by the affectation of that stile and spare that industrie which tended but to advance my name with men when it hindred the main work and crost my end And Providence drawing forth some popular unpolished Discourses and giving them success beyond my expectation did thereby rebuke my selfish thoughts and satisfie me that the Truths of God do perform their work more by their Divine Authority and proper Evidence and material Excellency than by any ornaments of fleshly wisdom and as Seneca saith though I will not despise an elegant Physicion yet will I not think my self much the happyer for his adding eloquence to his healing art Being encouraged then by Reason and Experience I venture these popular Sermons into the world and especially for the use of you my late Auditors that heard them I bless God that when more worthy Labourers are fain to weep over their obstinate unprofitable unthankful people and some are driven away by their injuries and put to shake off the dust of their feet against them I am rather forced to weep over my own unthankful heart that did not sufficiently value the mercy of a faithful flock who parted with me rather as the Ephesians with Paul Acts 20. and who have lived according to this Plain and Necessary doctrine which they have received Among whom Papists that perswade men that our doctrine tendeth to divisions can find no divisions or sects Who have constantly disowned both the Ambitious usurpations which have shaken the Kingdom and the Factions Censoriousness and cruel violence in the Church which Pride hath generated and nourished in this trying Age. Among whom I have enjoyed so very large a proportion of mercy in the liberty of so long an exercise of my Ministry with so unusual advantage and success that I must be disingenuously unthankfull if I should murmure and repine at the present restraining hand of God But I must say with David 2 Sam. 15. 25. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me the Ark and habitation There or elswhere use me in his service But if he say I have no delight in thee behold here I am let him do to me as it seemeth good unto him And now with this Treatise let me leave you these few seasonable requests 1. Be faithful to your faithful Pastors Think not that you can live in order and safety without their Ministry When you can attend their publike Ministry Refuse not their more private help Read well my two sheets for the Ministry Where the lawful Pastor is there the Church is Be not either impiously indifferent in your worshipping of God or peevishly quarrelsom with what is commanded or practised by others nor disobedient to Authority in lawful things 2. Maintain still your antient Love and Unity and Peace among yourselves and improve your company and converse to the advantage of your souls Be daily interlocutory preachers to one another Speak as the Oracles of God and Preach by a holy patient harmless charitable and heavenly life This kind of Preaching none can silence but your own corruptions 3. Improve the profitable books which are among you 1. Read them frequently and reverently and seriously to your families when you have called them together and prayed for Gods blessing 2. Carry them abroad with you and when you fall into company where you cannot better spend your time read to them some seasonable passages of such writings 3. Give or Lend them to those that need and want either Purses or Hearts to provide them and get them to promise you to read them and enquire after the success By such improvement Books may become such Seconds or Substiâ—utes to publike preaching as that they may not be the least support of Religion and means to mens edification and salvation 4. Make special and diligent provision to satisfie your selves and others against Popery which is like to be none of the least of your temptations To this end I pray you read well the single sheet against Popery which I published and give of them abroad to others where there is need Read also my other books against it My Safe Religion and Key for Catholicks and Dispute with Mr. Johnson and Dr. Challoners Credo Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam And when their sophistry puzzleth you 1.
seeing that have eyes or from seeing the Heavens that can see the smallest dust or atome But my admiration is abated when I consider that the wit that serveth to move a poppet is not enough to Rule a Kingdom and that sleeping Reason is as none and that it is the very art and business of the Devil to charm sinners to sleep and wake at once Dormire Deo at mundo vigilare to be asleep to God and awake to the world And that present things engage the senses and call off Reason from its work And that the seeming distance of the life to come occasioneth the neglect of stupid half-believing souls till they find it is indeed at hand even as Death though certain affecteth few in youth and health as it doth when they perceive that they must presently be gone And withall that a man is not a man in act till he be considerate and that it is as good be without eyes as still to wink We know what detained our selves so long in sleep and folly and we know what makes us yet so slow and therefore we may know what it is that thus unmanneth others Reader if thou be one of these unhappy souls Whether thy brain be so sick as really to think that there is no life to come for man or that there needs no such care and diligence to prepare for it or whether thy heart be so corrupt and bad as to be against the things which thou confessest to be Good and Necessary or whether thy Reason be cast so fast asleep as never soberly to consider of the only thing of everlasting consequence and concernment to thy self or whether thy Heart be grown so dead and stupid as to be past feeling and never moved and affected with the things which thou hearest and knowest and considerest to be so great and necessary which ever of these be thy sad condition I have now this one request to thee as a friend that truly desireth thy salvation and I tender it to thee with as earnest a desire as if thou sawest me upon my knees intreating thee for the Lords sake and for thy souls sake and as ever thou hopest for the comfort of a dying man and as ever thou carest what becomes of thy soul for ever and as ever thou wilt answer it to Christ and thy own conscience with peace at last that thou neither deny me nor put me off with a careless reading nor with contempt or disregard My request to thee is but this reasonable thing That thou wilt so long make a stand in thy way and grant me so much of thy time as once to read throughout this Treatise and Sâ—â—IOUSLY to CONSIDER of what thou Readest and heartily to beg of God upon thy knees to teach thee and lead thee into the truth and then to be true to God and to thy Conscience and Resolvedly to do that which thou art convinced is Right and Best and Necessary This is all my request to thee at the present Put me not off with a denyall or neglect as thou wilt answer it to God and as thâ—â— wilt not be a wilful self-condemner Hast thou spent so many hours and dayes in vain and cannot I beg a few hours of thee to Read and Think of thy Everlasting state If thou darest not Read and Think of what can be said about such things as these it is a sign thy case is indeed so bad that thou hast more need then others to Read and Think of them I know the Devil dare not give thee leave to do it if he can binder thee for fear lest thy eyes should be opened to see and thy heart awakened to feel the things which he so laboureth to keep away from thy sight and feeling till it be too late And wilt thou grant him his desire to thy damnation or Christ and his servants their desire to thy salvation Think of it well before thou answer it by word or deed Being in hope that thou hast granted my request to Read Consider Pray for help and faithfully do what God shall teach thee I shall now begin to open thee the way to the matter of this Treatise The summe of my business is to teach thee 1 Tim. 4. 8. that bodily exercise in Religion profiteth little but Godliness is profitable to all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come I think it meet therefore to tell thee here in the beginning What Godliness is which the Apostle distinguisheth from bodily exercise in matters of Religion and which I have proved so Necessary and Excellent in this Treatise And this I must do 1. lest thou deceive thy soul by taking something else for Godliness 2. and lest thou lose thy labour in the Reading of this Book and hearing what Scripture and Preachers say for Godliness and 3. lest thou wrong me and thy self according to the custom of this malicious age by imagining that by Godliness I mean either Superstition or Hypocrisie or Schism or that I am perswading thee to sedition humor or needless singularity under the name of Godliness and Religion I shall therefore tell you distinctly here What Godliness is indeed and What it is not In General GODLINESS is our DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD. And all these things following are Essential to it and of ind spensible Necessity to salvation 1. That materially it contain these three things 1. The true internal Principle Soul and Life of Godliness which is the Spirit of God Rom. 8. 9. The Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. The new and soft and single heart Jer. 32. 39. Ezek. 11. 19. The seed of God abiding in us 1 John 3. 9. 2. The Intention of the true ends of Godliness which is the Reward in Heaven Matth. 5. 11 12. Luke 18. 22. Matth. 6. 20 21. Rom. 8. 17 18. The Pleasing of God and the Beatifical Vision and fruition of him with Christ and his triumphant Church in the New Jerusalem for ever 3. The Reception and Observation of the true Rule of Godliness which is the Will of God revealed partly in Nature and fully in the Holy Scriptures This must be in our very hearts Psalm 37. 31. Jer. 31 33. and with delight we must meditate in it day and night Psalm 1. 2. To cast away and despise the Law of God is the brand of the rebellious Isa 5. 24. 2. It is Essential to Godliness that it formally contain these three Relations 1. It is a Devotedness of our selves as HIS OWN to GOD as our OWNER or Proprietary or Lord quitting all pretence to any co-ordinate title to our selves and resigning our selves absolutely and all that we have to him that by the right of Creation and Redemption is our Lord Psal 100. 3. 119. 94. Joh. 17. 6. 2. Godliness containeth a Devotedness of our selves as subjects to God as our Supream and Absolute Governor to Rule us by his Laws his Officers and his Spirit To give up
little longer in such impudent calumniations against me and other Ministers of Christ But know that thy day is coming and that for all these things thou shalt come to judgement and if thou justifie the ungodly yet remember that It is not good to have respect of persons in judgement and he that saith to the wicked Thou art Righteous the people shall curse him Nations shall abhorr him Prov. 24. 23 24. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are abomination to the Lord. Prov. 17. 15. Wo unto them that call Evil Good and Good Evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter which justifie the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff so their root shall be rottenness and their blossom shall go up as the dust because they have cast away the Law of the Lord of Hosts and despised the word of the holy one of Israel Isa 5. 20 23 24. Let the malicious serpent accuse Job before God in the end it shall turn to his own confusion And if any of the Princes of the earth will by Doegs be provoked to destroy the Priests or by jealousie kindled by malicious whisperers be incited to do by the servants of Christ as they did by the Waldenses Bohemians Protestants in many places c. we will remember the memorable words of David 1 Sam. 26. 18 19. and let the sufferers imitate him in the submissive part Wherefore doth my Lord pursue after his servant for what have I done or what evil is in my hand Now therefore I pray thee let my Lord the King hear the words of his servant If the Lord have stirred thee up against me let him accept an offering but if it be the children of men cursed be they before the Lord for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying Go serve other Gods By going where they are served HAving fully shewed you What Godliness is I now beseech thee Reader to enquire Whether this described case be thine Art thou Devoted to God without reserve as being not thine own but his And hast thou devoted all thou hast to him with thy self to be used according to his Will Art thou mere subjected to his Authority and observant of his Laws and Government then of mans and can his word do more with thee tâ—en the word of any mortal man or then the violence of thy lusts and passions Art thou heartily engaged to him as thy felicity and dost thou give up thy self to him in filial Love dependance and observance as to thy dearest friend and Father Dost thou highlyest esteem him and resolvedly choose him and sincerely seek him preferring nothing in thy Estimation Choice Resolution or Endeavour before him Try by these and the other particulars in the Description whether you are Godly or ungodly and do it faithfully for the day is at hand when the ungodly shall not stand in judgement nor sinners in the Assembly of the just Psal 1. 5. And besides the marks expressed in the description let me offer you some from the plain words of the Textâ— that you may see what God accounteth Godliness and consequently â—…w to judge your selves 1. In John 3. 3 5 6. it is written Verily except a â—…an be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of â—…od That which is born of the flesh is flesh and â—…at which is born of the Spirit is Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 17. 〈…〉 any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things â—…e passed away behold all things are become new â—…om 8. 9. If any man have not the spirit of Christ the â—…me is none of his From these Texts you see that a heart and life made new â—…y the Spirit of Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary to true Godliness 2. Psalm 119. 5. O that my wayes were directed to keep thy Statutes Rom. 7. 18. To will is present with â—…e Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee â—nd there is none on earth c. Isa 26. 8. The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of â—…hee From these and such like texts it is evident that The principal desires of a godly man and the choice of his will is to be what God would have him be 3. Psalm 1. 2. His delight is in the Law of the Lord and therein doth he meditate day and night 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Luke 10. 42. From these and such like Texts it is manifest That all the Godly do Love the Word of God as the food of their souls and the director of their lives 4. Matth. 6. 20 21 33. Lay up for your selves a treasure in heaven c. For where your treasure is there will your hearts be also Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Matth. 7. 13. Luke 24. Enter in at the strait gate strive to enter in for many shall seek and shall not be able 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure Rom. 12. 11. From these and such texts you may discern that Godliness consisteth in such diligence for salvation as to seek it before any earthly thing and not to think the labour of a holy life too much for it 5. Rom. 8. 1 5 6 7 8 13. Gal. 5. 18 19. Read them and you will see that Godliness consisteth in living after the spirit and not after the flesh and in mortifying the deeds of the body by the spirit living not by sensuality but by Faith 6. John 3. 19 20. And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather then light because their deeds were evil For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doth truth cometh to the light c. 1 King 21. 7 8 And the King of Israel said to Jehoshaphat there is yet one man Micaiah by whom we may enquire of the Lord but I hate him for he doth not prophesie good concerning me but evil And Jehoshaphat said Let not the King say so From these and such like Texts you see that The Godly love the discovering light and the most searching faithful preacher but the ungodly cannot endure the light which sheweth them their sins nor love the Preachers that tell them of their sin and misery 7. 1 Cor. 13. John 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if you love one another 1 John 3. 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren Psal 15. 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that
here too blame in preferring a lesser duty before a greater and doing that unseasonably which in due time was to be done and in neglecting an opportunity for the hearing of Christs word which Mary took It was not only blameless but a duty in it self to make provision for Christ and his attendants but â—he should have been hearing first while he was preaching and taken that opportunity for the benefit of her soul It was no ordinary Preacher that was come under her roof His stay was not like to be long his doctrine concerned her salvation She knew not whether ever she should have the like opportunity again And therefore she should have rather stayed for his own direction when to go make provision for their bodies then to have omitted the hearing of his word But you 'l ask perhaps When a Sermon and other worldly business fall out at once are we alwayes bound to hear the Sermon I answer No not alwayes For else in great Cities that have frequent preaching you should do nothing â—lse but hear We have a Body as well as a Soul and must have meet imployment for both and must make due provision for both and must be serviceable to the bodily welfare of others and to the common good Our bodily labour and temporal employment must be conscionably followed as well as our spiritual For God hath determined that in the sweat of our faces we shall eat our bread Gen. 3. 19. and even in innocency Adam was put into the garden to dress or till and keep it Gen. 2. 15. with quietness we must labour and eat our own bread and if any will not work neither should he eat 2 Thess 3. 12. 10. See Pauls example v. 8. Neither did we eat any mans bread for nought but wrought with labour and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you We must labour working with our hands that we may have to give to him that needeth Eph. 4. 28. And if our bodies have not competent employment they will grow such rusty unfit instruments for the soul to work by that when Melancholy or other diseases have disabled them the soul it self will have the loss and he that will do nothing but hear and pray and meditate is likely shortly to be scarce able to pray and meditate at all unless it be one of a very strong and healthfull constitution No one therefore from this determination of Christ to Martha is to be driven from their lawfull Calling into a contrary extream But this was not the case between Mary and Martha It was a special opportunity which then was to be taken We must first seek Gods kingdom and its righteousness and prudently take such opportunities for our souls as we can without omitting greater duties and as our case requireth not taking as much food as we can ingest but as much as we can digest It is possible to eat too much but not to digest too well A Christian must have prudence when two duties come together to know which at that present time is the greatest and to be preferred which dependeth much on the necessity and the ends the good that will follow the doing of them and the hurt that will follow the omission And without this prudential discerning of time and duty we shall never order our conversations aright but shall live in a continual sin when we are doing that which in its own nature and season is our duty A poor man may not Read and Hear so frequently as a Rich ordinarily nor a Servant as the Master because there would greater evils follow the omission of their common labour at that time Thus much being said for the Explication of the Text there is no more necessary but what will fall in most conveniently with the Matter The sense is as if Christ should have said 〈…〉 Martha Martha I know thou dost all this in love to me and â—…anest well in it and it is no more then what 's thy duty in its â—…per season But O what is the food that perisheth in compariâ—… of that which endureth to everlasting life It is my meat â—…d drink to do the will of him that sent me in feeding and in â—…ing souls Thou hadst now an opportunity to hear my word 〈…〉 word of the Son of God thy Saviour and thereby to have â—…moted thy Everlasting happiness as Mary doth and this should have been preferred even before this provision for our bodies and 〈…〉 for this thou hadst now omitted thy care and labour about eat and drink I would not at all have been offended with thee thou hadst thy choice and Mary had her choice Thou hast chosen â—…e and trouble about many things and made thy self a great â—…al ado but Mary hath chosen that one thing that was necessary which is the better part and therefore it shall not be taken from â—…er but she shall possess the benefit of her choice Where note for the fuller understanding of it the true oppoâ—ition between the case of Mary and Martha 1. As to the Matter Martha had many things in hand multifarious care and trouble but Mary had but One. 2. As to the Manner and effects of their employments Martha was full of care and troubles distracted or disturbed by the â—…mberance of her businesses but Mary was quietly hearing and learning how to be free from care and trouble and how to â—…ttain Everlasting rest 3. As to the quality of their business Martha's was of less necessity or concernment though good and honest in its place but Mary's was about the thing of absolute necessity Also Martha's was Good in its season but a lesser good but Mary's was that Good part which containeth all other good or referreth to it and therefore was to be preferred 4. And therefore as to the continuance Mary's being a more eligible imployment and about an everlasting treasure shall not be taken from her when the fruit of Martha's imployment will quickly have an end Yet in these different cases each one had her choice Had Martha chosen better she had had better And the choice much proceeded from the judgement and disposition Had she judged better and been inclined better Martha would have chosâ—â— better Before we come to the principal Doctrines we may profitably note these Observations by the way 1. Note here that the neerest Natural Relations as Brothers and Sisters yea Parents and Children are not alwayes of one mind or way in the matters of their salvation Greater difference may be between them then this between Martha and Mary in the Text. They may rise up against each other and seek each others lives as Christ foretold Mark 13. 12. And therefore Father Mother Brother Sister and all are to be denyed for Christ that I say not hated as Christ saith Luke 14. 26. when they stand in opposition to him The same parentage and education made not Esau and Jacob of a disposition or of one mind or
beholdeth them and his Affections relish them as united all in God 1. As their spring from whom they flow 2. And as the Life by whom they are all animated and as the matter and sense which they signifie and import 3. And as their end to which they tend and in which they all terminate and agree Many branches are but One Tree and have One Stock and many members are One body because they are animated with One soul Many letters syllables and words may make One sentence and many leaves may make One Book and treat but of One subject Many actions of a Plow-man are called Plowing and of a Weaver Weaving c. as being all united in One end I know these similies have their dissimilitude but this is the summe that It is God that the Believer seeth and seeketh and loveth and converseth with and intendeth in all the Ordinances of grace in all his duties and in all the creatures and in God they are united and One thing to him He hath nothing to do at Church or at home in private or publike but live to God and seek after the everlasting enjoyment of him If weakness and temptation put any other business into his hands he is so far stept out of the Christian way In his very common labours and mercies so far as he is Holy God is to him the spring the life the sweetness the beauty the strength the meaning and the end of all and therefore All in All. But the creatures in the hands and use of the ungodly or of the godly so far as they use them sinfully have no such Unity Though in themselves they so depend on God that none can make a separation nor can they at all exist without him yet in the sense estimation ends and use of the ungodly the creatures are separated from God and are as branches cut off from the tree and departing from God these men are gone from Unity and are lost distracted and confounded in the multitude of the creatures and will never have Unity till they return 〈…〉 God III. In the next place let us consider What is the Necessity â—…t is here spoken of and How far this One thing is Necessary 〈…〉 And 1. One thing is Necessary Morally for it self which â—…ur ultimate end When other things are Necessary but for â—…t 2. Comprehensively of the Means we may say that One thing â—…t is Sanctification is Necessary to the Pleasing of God which â—…o be regarded 1. As the end of Obedience and 2. As the end 〈…〉 Love by the obedient soul in way of duty and by the loving â—…l devoted to God as its Delight The world hath many contrary Masters and therefore hath â—…ny things to do to please them and when they have done â—…ir best they cannot please them all but may leave more disâ—…ased then they please For those that they must please expect 〈…〉 possibilities and many a single person perhaps may look for 〈…〉 much as you can give to all And they have such contrary â—…rests which you must serve if you will please them and conâ—…y minds which you must humour that the same things that 〈…〉 expects to please him will vehemently displease another and â—…rhaps the more displease the other because it is pleasing to â—…t one And our selves have our contrarieties in our selves and are as â—…rd to be pleased by others or our selves We have our sensual â—…sires which are unreasonable and inordinate unseasonable and â—…portunate and will take no Nay A sensual covetous ambiâ—…ous fantasie is a bottomless vessel Your pouring in doth no â—…hit fill it It is a devouring gulf a consuming that I say â—…ot an unquenchable fire Like the horse-leech it cryeth â—…ive Give and the more you give the more it craveth and is â—…ever less satisfied then when it hath glutted it self with that â—…rom which it seeketh satisfaction But God is One and with this One thing is he pleased even with a Holy heart and life He hath no contradictory interests or assertions and therefore hath no contradictory commands â—hat which must please him must be suitable to his blessed nature He is infinite in Wisdom and therefore hath no pleasure in fools that bring him sacrifice and refuse obedience and know not that they do evil Eccles 5. 1. and have not the wit to know what they do and whom they speak to and to know that which only is worth the knowing How often do we read him rejecting the sacrifice of the wicked and casting their costliest offerings in their faces as things that he abhorreth when they come to him without that humble loving and obedient heart which he requireth Psalm 50. 8 c. Isa 1. 11 12. to ver 20. Their oblations are vâ—in the multitude of their sacrifie is to no purpose and incense is an abomination to him their Feasts and Sabbothâ— his soul hateth they are a trouble to him he cannot bear them if they come without the One thing necessary Without this he careth not for their fastings or formalities Isa 58. 5. It is not thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oyle nor the fruit of their body if they would give it for the sin of their soul that he will accept But he hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God Mic. 6. 7 8. The conclusion of the whole matter is this Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man Eccles 12. 13. You are never the better beloved of God for being Rich or honourable in the world nor yet because you are poor or in a mean condition nor because you are sick or well weak or strong comely or uncomely but because you Love him through his Son and Believe in him whom the Father hath sent John 16. 27. Without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. The new man must be put on which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him where there is neither Greek â—â—r few Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all Col. 3. 10 11. For in Christ Jesus circumcision availâ—th nothing nor uncircumcision but a New Creature and Faith that works by Love and the keeping of the commands of God Gal. 5. 6. 6. 15. 1 Cor. 7. 19. This One thing even Godllness which is profitable to all things is necessary in us supposing the necessaries in Christ to render us acceptable to the Holy God and without this all the accomplishments imaginable will make us but as sounding brass or as a tinkling Cymbal 1 Cor. 13. 1. 3. One thing is needfull to the saving of our souls without which all things else are vain There are many wayes to Hell but to Heaven there is but One There are a thousand wayes to delude and blind a soul but only one for its true and saving illumination
not be desired simply and ultimately for it self As you must pray but for your daily bread and be content with food and rayment so you must see that these be but for better things even in order to the doing of the Will of God the promoting of his Kingdom and the Hallowing of his Name which must be first and most desired The order of your duty is to seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and then other things are promised with it Matth. 6. 33. and therefore for it must be desired and sought And if your very food and life must be desired but for this everlasting End then it is still but one thing that is necessary and finally to be desired For the Means is willed but with an imperfect willing because not for it self and that only hath our full and perfect Love which is Loved for it self Even in the act of Love unto the Means it is more properly the End that is Loved then the Means and the Means is chosen for that End So that you see that for all the necessity of creatures and of diligence in our Callings the truth is still clear that it is only One thing that is truly Necessary Use THE understandidg is the subservient faculty to let in that light which may by direction and excitation guide the will Having shewed you the Truth I am next to shew you how you may improve it and so to apply it as may best help you to apply it to your selves And if I should here fall upon things impertinent or make it my work to claw your ears or exalt my self in your esteem by an unseasonable ostentation of learning or eloquence or carry on any such corrupt design while I should faithfully do the work of God my Text it self would openly condemn me If One thing be needful it is that One that I must do my self while I am exhorting you to do it And woe be to me if I should lay by that to do any other unnecessary work even to fish for the applause of Carnal wits while my very subject is the Reproofs of Christ against a much more tolerable error And as to the manner of my admonition if One thing be needful I hope you will allow me to be as plain and serious as I can about this One And my first address to you shall be for tryall And I shall make it now my earnest request to you that you â—ill bethink you how much you are concerned to compare your â—arts and lives with this passage and judge your selves by the Word of God that is now before you And for your own sakes â—â— it seriously and faithfully as passengers that are hasting to the â—â—eat Assize What say your Consciences Sirs to this Question Have you indeed lived in the world as men that believe that One thing is necessary Hath this One had your chiefest care and labour and have you chosen rather to neglect all other things then â—is Look behind you and judge of the course that you have taken by the light of this one text I do not ask you Whether you have heard that One thing is Necessary nor whether you have talked of it and confessed it to be true nor whether you have been called Christians by your selves and others and have come to Church and forborn those sins that would have most â—â—emished your honour in the world This is nothing to the question Thus many thousands do that were never acquainted with the One thing Necessary Nor do I ask you Whether you have used to allow God half an hours lip-service or formal â—rowsie prayer at night when you have served the world and â—â—esh all day Nor whether you have been Religious on the by and given God some lean devotion which cost you little and which your flesh can spare without any great diminution or deâ—iment in its ease and honour and profit and sensual delights Nor whether you run to some kinde of duties of Religion to make all whole when you come from wilful reigning sin and so make Religion a fortress to your lusts to quiet your Consciences while you serve the flesh I confess such a kind of Religioussess as this the world is acquained with But this is unanswerable to the Rule before us But the question is Whether this One thing hath been the Treasure and Jewel of your estimation the darling of your affections the prize of your most diligent endeavours and the only felicity of your souls Sirs as lightly as you hear this question now you will One day find that your lives yea your salvation lyeth upon your answer to it Can you say truly as before the searcher of hearts that it is he that hath had your hearts That this One thing hath been more esteemed by you than all the world besides That other things have all stooped unto this One and served under it And that this hath had the stream of your heartiest affections and the drift of your endeavours and hath been the matter that you have had first to do and the thing for which you have lived in the world If this be not so never talk of your Christianity for shame Your Religion is vain if this be not your Religion Alas I know that we have all of us yet too much of the flesh and are too cold in our affections and too slow and uneven in our endeavours for our end But yet for all that I must still tell you as I have often done because it is necessary that here lyeth the difference between the truly sanctified soul and all the hypocrites and half-Christians in the world Every true Christian is devoted unto God and hath made an hearty and absolute resignation of himself and all that he hath unto him and therefore loveth him with his superlative most appretiative love and serveth him with the best he hath and thinks nothing too good or too dear for God and for the attainment of his everlasting Rest Christ hath the chiefest room in his heart and the bent and drift of his life is for him He studyeth how he may best serve and please him with his time his interest and all that he hath and if he fall as it is contrary to the habitual resolution of his soul and contrary to the scope and current of his heart and life so he riseth again by repentance with sorrow for his sin and loathing of himself and sincerely endeavours to amend and goeth on resolvedly in his holy course This is the state of every one that is in a state of life But for all hypocrites and half-Christians their case is otherwise The world and flesh is dearest to them and highest in their practical estimation though not in their speculative and it hath their highest affections of Love and Delight and the very bent and stream of heart and life while God is served heartlesly on the by for fear lest they be damned when they can enjoy
wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 13. 42 50. You are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgement of God who will give to every man according to his works Rom. 2. 5 6. You are sowing in pleasure to the flesh in eating and drinking and mirth and honour but you shall reap in corruption lamentation and woe Gal. 6. 7 8. For woe to you that now laugh for you shall mourn and weep Woe to you that are rich and have no better but want the everlasting riches for you have received your conselation Woe to you that are full and yet are empty of Christ and grace for you shall hunger Luke 6. 24 25. These are the words of Christ himself and therefore true if Christ be true Yea more then this let me have leave to tell you for why should I not tell you of your greatest folly and that which is necessary for you to know As long as you neglect the One thing necessary you are acting the part of the most deadly enemies against your selves No enemy that you have in all the world could do that against you as you do against your selves You abhorr the Devil and I blame you not for his malice and enmity deserveth it But you do much worse against your selves then the Devil himself could ever do To tempt you to sin is not so much as to Consent to it and commit it He can but entice you and not constrain you It is you that are the neglecters of your Maker and Redeemer and the wilful rejecters of your own felicity Satan doth bad enough against you by temptation but you do worse by yielding and sinning much worse then all the Devils in hell could do against you For God hath not given all of them so much power over you as he hath given you over your selves Lord what a distracted case is the ungodly world in They hate any man else that they do but imagine is their enemy Though he do but diminish their worldly wealth or honour they cannot forgive him If a man give one of them a box on the ear he cannot bear it And as for the Devil who is the common enemy they spit at his name and think they bless themselves from him And yet these same men do spend all their care and time and labour in doing more against themselves then all their enemies could do in earth or hell and are worse then Devils to themselves and yet they never fall out with themselves for it but can forgive themselves as easily as if they did themselves no harm This is true too true Sirs as harsh as it seemeth to your ears And if it displease you to hear of it bethink your selves what it is to do it and how God and all wise men must judge of you that have no more mercy on your selves Certainly it is much worse to do it then to tell you what you do God tells men of their sin and God doth nothing but what is good but it is themselves only that commit it I beseech you do but understand what you are doing as long as the One thing necessary is neglected by you 4. Consider also that whatsoever else you have been doing in the world if you have not done the One thing needful you have unman'd your selves and lived below your Reason and in plain English you have lived as be sides your wits I give you no harder language then God himself hath frequently given you in his Word and then you will shortly give your selves if you repent not yea and sooner if you do repent If you have in this the use of your Reason you must needs know what you have your Reason for And I beseech you tell me for what you have it if not to serve and please your Maker and prepare for your everlasting state Is it only that you may know how to plow and sow and follow your trades and pleasure in the world and satisfie your flesh a little while and then die as the beasts that perish None of you I suppose will say so that calls himself a Christian If God had made you for no higher things then beasts he would have given you no higher faculties and endowments As they be not made to enjoy God so they have no knowledge of him he sendeth not his Word to them and calleth them not to learn the knowledge of his will But you know or may know that there is a God and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him and are capable of Loving him intending him and serving him and therefore of enjoying him Beasts are not ruled by the hopes and fears of a life after this For their nature and end do not require it But men must be thus ruled or else there can be no sufficient ruling of them in an ordinary way Which shews that the Nature of man is capable of the things which are the matter of their hopes and fears Verily Sirs I think as to any good that cometh by it there is very little difference between having Reason and having none if we had nothing to do with it but cunningly to lay up our food and make provision for this corruptible flesh and had not another life to mind It were no such great difference in my opinion as it commonly goes for whether we were men or dogs if it were only for the matters of this transitory life For though I may not deny but yet man were the nobler creature yet alas the difference would be but graduall and small as an Ape or Dog excells a Swine And as to his Happiness it is doubtful whether Man would not have the worst of it For as brutes have not mans knowledge so they have not his toil and trouble of mind his care and fear and griefs and disappointments Nor have they so terrible fore-thoughts of death through all their lives as man must have much less such fears of what would follow after death And therefore I may boldly say that you have thrown away your wits and laid by your Reason as to the principal use of it if you have forgot or have not chiefly sought the One thing necessary Where were your wits when a lump of flesh was preferred before immortal souls and when the trouble and dung of a transitory world was more esteemed then God and endless Glory Where were your wits when you might have had Christ and Life in him and his pardoning healing sanctifying grace and you had no mind of him and were not sensible of your necessity and past him by with as much neglect as if you could have been saved without him When you might long ago have made sure of Heaven and now you are even ready to drop into Hell and stay but for a Feaver or Consumption or some other disease to cut the thred and turn the key unless a speedy sound conversion shall yet prevent it What have you done in
and an hundred times over would you go on to give it them because they cry for it O Sirs that you could but use your Reason in the matters for which it was given you by your Maker Either time and mercy is worth something or nothing If it be worth nothing never beg for it and never be sad when it is taken from you Why make you such a stir for that which is nothing worth I mean your corporal mercies for spiritual mercies you can be too well content to be without But if they be worth any thing why do you cast them away and make no better use of them What good do you with them or what good do they do you Believe it sinners God doth not despise his mercies as you do He will not alway give you meat and drink and health and strength and life to play with and do nothing with He will teach you better to value them before he hath done with you Not that he thinks them too good for you but he would have them be better to you then you will let them be He would have every bit you eat to be used to strengthen you in your walk to heaven and every hour of your time to help you towards eternal happiness and every present mercy to further your everlasting mercy that so by the improvement their value may be advanced and they may be mercies indeed to you Be ruled by God and you shall receive more in one mercy then you do now in a thousand But if you will do nothing with them blame him not if he take them from you and leave you destitute of what you knew not how to use Nay your sin is greater then meerly to cast away your mercies You do not only lose them but turn them all into a curse and undo your souls with that which is given for the sustentation of your bodies While you know no better use of mercies then to please your senses and accommodate the flesh and forget the One thing needful which is the End of all you turn them all into sin and fight against God by them and strengthen his enemy and your own and block up your way to Heaven by them and treasure up wrath for the dreadful day when your wealth shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire Jam. 5. 1 2 3. Rom. 2. 5. You contemptuously cast that bread to dogs which he giveth you to supply your own necessities You treacherously carry over his provision to the enemy Consider this you that say you hope to be saved because God is merciful You have found indeed that God is merciful by large experience But if you do not learn and quickly learn to make a better use of his mercies abused mercy will prove your everlasting misery O what a reckoning will you have What a load to press you down to Hell Unless you would have used them better it had been easier for you if these temporal mercies had been denyed you Can that man look to be saved by mercy that would not be intreated to consent that mercy should save him in the day of salvation in the accepted time but served the Devil with those very mercies that would have saved him God sendeth you his mercies to kill your sins and sanctifie you and engage you to himself and if you will feed your sins with them and make them your idols and forsake God for them and be false to him to your Covenant and your duty and neglect that One thing for which he gave them to you you do not only lose them but turn them to a curse And alas poor sinners what will you have to fly to to trust in or to comfort you when mercy abused hath not only forsaken you but falls upon you as a mountain and feedeth your aggravated endless misery 6. Moreover whilest you neglect the One thing necessary you neglect Christ himself and reject the saving benefit of his bloodshed and refuse the healing work of his Spirit and the precious benefits which he hath offered you in the Gospel And how can you escape if you neglect so great salvation Heb. 2. 3. How will you be saved when you refuse the only Saviour There is indeed enough in Christ to heal and save the humbled soul that thirsteth for his righteousness and salvation and valueth and seeketh him as a Saviour and if you would thus come to him you might have life John 5. 40. But whiles you give your selves to please the flesh and follow the world and look so little after Christ or after the ends and benefits of his sufferings and grace Christ is as no Christ to you and Grace is as no Grace to you and the Gospel is as no Gospel to you and you will be never the more saved then if there had no Saviour ever come into the world or there had never Grace been given to the world or there had never been promise made or Gospel preached to the world For Christ will not save them that continue to neglect him and set light by all the mercy that he offereth and the salvation which he hath purchased and do not esteem and use him as a Saviour and cannot find enough in God and Glory to take off their hearts from the pleasures and idols of the flesh If Christ would have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and you would not Matth. 23. 37. you will be as far from being saved by him as if you had never heard of his name And yet that is not all If you prevent it not by true Conversion you will wish a thousand and a thousand times that this were all But there is worse then this For Christ will not leave a man of you as he finds you If you are so far in love with worldly wealth and fleshly pleasure that you can taste no sweetness in his Grace and see no desirable glory in his Kingdom he will make you taste the bitterness of his wrath and feel the weight of his severest justice The most compassionate Saviour is the most dreadful Judge to those that will not be saved by his grace It will be easier for Sodome and Gomorrah in the day of Judgement then for those that were the obstinate refusers of his Gospel Matth. 6. 11 12. He that despised Moses Law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sure punishment shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden under foot the son of God Heb. 10. 28 29. See therefore that ye refuse not him that speaketh For if they escaped not that refused him that spake on earth how much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven Heb. 12. 23. 7. As long as you neglect the One thing Needful whatever good conceits of your selves you have entertained and whatever hopes or peace or comfort you have built upon those conceits they are all
but meer delusions and irrational like the laughter of a mad man that is no comfort to the standers by who know that it is but the fruit of his distemper and maketh him an object of more compassion What wisdom is it to look high and carry it gallantly in the world when you know not but vengeance may overtake you the next hour Alas man thou hast to do with God Though thou see him not it is he that upholds thee and observeth thee and looketh for Love and Duty from thee and will be Glorified by thee or thou shalt dearly answer it God will not be neglected and abused at so cheap a rate as sottish Infidels imagine He despiseth thee if thou despise him 1 Sam. 2. 30. and thou despisest him if thou despise his Messengers and Word and Wayes Luke 10. 16. 1 Thes 4. 8. And if God despise thee what honour is it to thee to be stout-hearted and high in thy own conceit and to live applauded by thy self and others Think of your selves as well as you will God counteth you worse then the basest brutes as long as you make your selves so by neglecting the One thing for which you have your reason When you swagger it out in the world you do but gingle your fetters and glory in your shame Phil. 3. 18 19. While fools admire you God abhorreth you he langheth you to scorn and hath you in derision as he expresseth himself after the manner of men Prov. 1. 26. 27 28. Psalm 2. 4. When you are proud of your riches or honour with such as your selves you are but proud of the bonds of your captivity 2 Tim. 2. 26. Though you live as carelesly and merrily and laugh as heartily and sport your selves as fearlesly as if all were safe and nothing ailed you yet your mirth is but your madness Eccles 7. 4 6. and 2. 2. and God seeth that your day a woful day is coming Psalm 37. 13. and you know not but you may the next hour be tormented in hell that this hour are so pleasant and confident on earth And is this a desirable or rational kind of mirth Did you but now foresee the end did you see what you must see or feel a little of what you must feel you would presently be far from mirth or laughter it would spoil your sport and turn your tune to doleful lamentations O short unsatisfactory pleasure O endless easeless woe how quickly wilt thou surprize them that little dream of such a change You say Religion is a Melancholy thing but verily your condition is so much worse then melancholy that it may make a man melancholy to think of men in so sad a case If any thing in the world will make a man melancholy methinks it should be to stand in your unhappy state and thence to look into eternity and to think of your enmity to heaven and that you have no part in Christ no title to his Kingdom and to think what haste you are making to your infernal home and how fast the wheels of night and day do hurry your unprepared souls to Judgement and that your judgement lingreth not and your damnation slumbreth not as the Holy Ghost speaketh 2 Pet. 2. 3. Whether you sleep or wake be sure it sleepeth not In a word to neglect the One thing needful is to neglect Heaven it self and your salvation to neglect Heaven is to lose it and lose Heaven and lose all And what comfort can the fore-thoughts of life everlasting afford a soul in a state of sin that is passing to everlasting misery And what comfort can any thing in this transitory life afford that man that hath no matter of comfort in the life to come yea that must there live in endless sorrows O let me not taste of that frantick and unreasonable mirth that tendeth to such heaviness and driveth away those wise recovering thoughts that are necessary to prevent it For the Lords sake and for your souls sake all you that neglect the One thing needful will you but search the Scripture and soberly consider whether all this be not certain truth and if it be how it should affect you and what a change in reason it should make upon you I have done with this Use If you have taken a survey of your own hearts and lives will you next for the exercising of your compassion look a little further Use 2. IF One thing be Needful and the neglect of this be so unreasonable so unmanly and so dangerous as we have seen it proved then what an object of compassion and lamentation is the distracted world Look upon this text of Scripture and look also upon the course of the earth and consider of the disagreement and whether it be not still as before the flood that all the imaginations of mans heart are evil continually Gen. 6 5. were it but possible for a man to see the affections and motions of all the world at once as God seeth them what a pâ—â—tisul sight would it be What a stir do they make alas poor souls for they know not what while they forget or slight or hate the One thing necessary What a heap of gadding ants should we see that do nothing but gather sticks and straw Look among persons of every rank in Citie and Countrey and look into the families about you and see what trade it is that they are most busily driving on whether it be for Heaven or earth and whether you can discern by their care and labours that they understand what is the One thing necessary They are as busie as bees but not for honey but in spinning such a spiders web as the beesome of death will presently sweep down Job 8. 14 They labour hard but for what for the food that perisheth and not for that which will endure to everlasting life John 6. 27. They are diligent seekers but for what Not â—â—st for God his Kingdom and Righteousness but for that which they might have had as an addition to their blessedness Matth. 6. 33. They are still doing but what are they doing even undoing themselves by running away from God to hunt after the perishing pleasures of the world Instead of providing for the life to come they are making provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts Rom. 13. 14. Some of them hear the Word of God but they choak it presently by the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this life Luke 8. 14. They are careful and troubled about many things but the One thing that should be all to them is cast by as if it were nothing Providing for the flesh and minding the world is the employment of their lives They trouble themselves with it and trouble their families and nearest relations and oft-times trouble the whole Towns or places where they live so that unless we will let them have their bone to themselves and give them our cloak when they have taken our coat and say as â—…sheth
Let him take all there is no living quietly by 〈…〉 A dog at his carrion or a swine in his trough is not more greedy then many of these sensualists that labour of the Caninus appâ—titus to their trash But to Holiness they have no appetite and are worse then indifferent to the things that are inâ—…sirable They have no covetousuess for the things which 〈…〉 commanded earnestly to covet 1 Cor. 12 31. They have â—…tle hunger and thirst after righteousness that a very little or none will satisfie them Here they are pleading alwayes for â—â—deration and against too much and too earnest and too long And all is too much with them that is above stark naught or dead hypocrisie and all is too earnest and too long that would make Religion seem a business or would engage them to seem serious in their own profession or put them past jeast in the worship of God and the matters of their salvation Let but their servants or children neglect their worldly business which I confess they should not do and they shall hear of it with both ears But if they sin against God or neglect his Word or Worship they shall meet with more patience then Eli's sons did A cold reproof is usually the best and it is well if they be not encouraged in their sin and if a child or servant that begins to be serious for salvation be not rebuked derided and hindred by them If on their dayes of labour they over-sleep themselves they shall be sure to be called up to work and good reason but when do they call them up to prayer When do they urge them to read or consider or conferr of the things that concern their everlasting life The Lords own day which is appointed to be set apart for matters of this nature is wasted in idleness or worldly talk Come at any time into their company and you may have talk enough and too much of news or of other mens matters of their worldly business sports and pleasures But about God and their salvation they have so little to say and that so heartlesly and on the by as if they were things that belonged not to their care and duty and no whit concerned them Talk with them about the renovation of the soul and the nature of holiness and the life to come and you shall find them almost as dumb as a fish or as dry as a chip or as erroneous or insensible as those that speak but words by rote to shew you how little they savour or mind the things of the Spirit The most understand not matters of this nature nor much desire or care to understand them If one would teach 〈…〉 personally they are too old to be catechized or to learn though not too old to be ignorant of the matters which they were made for and are preserved for in the world They are too wise to learn to be wise and too good to be taught how to be good â—…ough not too wise to follow the seducements of the Devil â—…he world nor too good to be the slaves of Satan and the deâ—…rs and enemies of goodness If they do any thing which theâ—… a serving of God it is some cold and heartless use of wordâ—…ake themselves believe that for all their sins they shall be saved so that God will call that a serving of their sins and abomination which they call a serving of God Some of them will confess that Holiness is good but they hope God will be merciful to them without it And some do so hate it that it is a displeasing irksom thing to them to hear any serious discourse of holiness and they detest and deride those as fanatick troublesome Precisians that diligently seek the One thing necessary So that if the Belief of the most may be judged by their practices we may confidently say that they do not practically believe that ever they shall be brought to Judgement or that there is any Heaven or Hell to be expected and that their confession of the truth of the holy Scriptures and their profession of the Articles of the Christian Faith are no proofs that they heartily take them to be true Who can be such a stranger to the world as not to see that this as the case of the greatest part of men And which is worst of all they go on in this course against all that can be said to them and will give no impartial considerate hearing to the truth which would recover them to their wits but live as if it would be a felicity to them in Hell to think that they came thither by wilful resolution and in despight of the remedy And is it not a sad prospect to a man that believeth the Word of God and the life to come to look upon such a distracted world O Sirs if Jesus Christ be wise that condemneth their course and them then certainly all these men are fools And if Christ knew what he said we must needs think that they know not what they do O what is the matter that reasonable men should have no more use of their reason in things of such importance then thus to neglect their everlasting state for a thing of naught Did God make them unreasonable or give them understandings uncapable of things of such high concernment Or rather have 〈…〉 not drowned their reason in sensuality and wilfully poisoâ—…th malicious aversness to God and Holiness What is â—…ter that the One thing needful is no more regarded Hath God made them believe that they shall dwell here for ever and never die No surely this is so gross a lye that the Devil himself cannot make them believe it They know that they musâ—… sure as they are alive And yet they prepare not but wâ—…eir dayes in scraping in this dunghill world as if they werâ—…o no further Did God never warn them by a Sermon or 〈…〉 to prepare for the life which they must live for ever Yes â—…y a time but they would take no warning Did God never â—â—ll them that after this life there is another where they must live in endless joy or torment Yes and they professed that they did believe it They heard it an hundred times over till they were weary of hearing it Did God make them believe that they shall die like beasts that have no further to go nor any other life to live No if they do believe this it is the Devil and not God that maketh them believe it What then is the matter that the One thing needful is no more regarded Hath God shut up their souls in desperation so that it is in vain to seek or trouble themselves for that of which there is no hope Oh no! his compassion hath provided them a full remedy by the death of his Son Redemption is procured and he hath made them a deed of gift of Christ and pardon and eternal life and tendred it to them that upon theâ—â— acceptance it may be
if they were but rich The Tradesman followeth his trade and the Husbandman his hard labour all the year and What reason will they give you if you ask them why they do it but this We cannot live else We must do it to maintain cur selves and families And is not the reason thousand times stronger for our souls May we not better say We must please God and set our hearts on the life to come and mind and seek the One thing needful whatever becomes of other things for me cannot live else we cannot be saved else Necessity makes the Traveller trudge from morning till night and the Carryer to follow his horses through fair and foul from year to year it makes some dig into the bowells of the earth in mines and cole-pits and some to hale Barges and some to cut through the terrible Ocean and venture their lives among the raging waves and storms and some even to beg their bread in rags from door to door And O what will not Necessity do that can be done And yet how many thousands trisle or do nothing for their souls as if there were no Necessity of being saved or no Necessity of being Holy that we may be saved When alas all the Necessity in the world is no necessity at all in comparison of this You must beg or starve or famish if you do not work But you must burn in Hell if with fear and diligence you work not out your own salvation Phil. 2. 12. for all that it is God that worketh in you You must lie in prison if your debts be not paid But you will be cast into outer darkness if by the pardon of your sins you be not discharged from your debt to God You may become beggars if you be idle in your Callings But you will be the prisoners of Hell and shut out of all the Happiness of the Saints if you labour not for the food that doth not perish and strive not to enter in at the strait gate and give not diligence to make your Calling and Election sure John 6. 27. Matth. 7. 13. Luke 13. 24. 2 Pet. 1. 10. You must suffer hunger and nakedness if you have not food and rayment But you must suffer everlastingly the wrath of God if you have not the One thing necessary You will be the scorn and laughing-stock of men if you fall under their contempt and lose your honour But you will be the enemies of God and hated by him if you continue to contemn his grace O had you but seen the Life to come you would say There is a Necessity of attaining it Had you been one hour in Hell you wou'd think that there is a Necessity of escaping it and that there is no Necessity to this What say you to all this Is it not of Truth and Weight Can you deny it Or should you make light of it None but an Infidel can deny it and none but a dead-hearted sinner can make light of it Believe the Word of God and the Truth of it will be past question with you Consider but that you are men that have immortal souls and the weight of it will appear inestimable to you above contempt above neglect Believe it Sirs you may as well see without light and breath without air and be supported without earth or live without food as be saved without Holixess or happy without the One thing necessary Heb. 12. 14. John 3. 3 5. Matth. 18. 3. And when this is resolved of by God and stablished as his standing Law and he hath told it you so oft and plainly for any man now to say I will yet hope for better I hope to be saved on easier terms without all this ado is no better then to let his face against the God of heaven and instead of believing God to believe the contradiction of his own uâ—godly heart and to hope to be saved whether God will or not and to give the lie to his Creator under the pretence of trust and hope It is indeed to hope for impossibilities To be saved without Holiness is to see without eyes and to live without life And who is so foolish as to hope for this Few of you are so unreasonable as to hope for a crop at harvest without plowing or sowing or for a house without building or for strength without eating and drinking or to sleep and play when you have nothing to maintain your families and say You hope that God will maintain both you and them And yet this were a far wiser kind of hope then to hope to be saved without the One thing necessary to salvation and without a heart that is set upon it and a life that is imployed for it It is the Holy Ghost that calleth you to answer the question Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation If you know how then enter the lists with God and dispute the case with him How will you escape if you be neglecters of the Only way that he hath provided for your escape Is there any device or shift of wit that can procure your escape Is there any power or interest of men or Angels that can procure your escape How can that be done that God hath resolved shall not be I beseech you now beloved Hearers to remember this urgent motive of Necessity and use it when you are tempted to delay or trifle about the business of your salvation as if it were some indifferent needless thing Without worldly Riches you may be rich in faith Without worldly honours you may have the honour of being the sons of God and without worldly pleasures or health or life you may have the favour of God and Life eternal But without the One thing needful you have nothing that is durably or satisfactorily good but are undone for ever Without the things of the world you will live in want for a little while and then you will be equal to the greatest Princes But without this One thing you must live in endless woe and misery and be far worse then the basest prisoner in the Dungeon or than the toades and vermine that lie in the uncleanest holes or sinks of the earth And yet dare you delay another day before you make so Necessary a change You have hearts of stone if your Own Necessity thus urged upon your Consideration will not awake you If your hearts were not dead within you while you hear these things one would think suth a Necessity should make you feel and resolve upon a speedy change and make you stir in the diligent performance Can you go on in security in negligence and worldliness when you hear of your Necessity that you must change or you are lost for ever O stupid souls that will not be moved with Necessity of everlasting consequence O what hath God or Christ or heaven or holiness done against these men that will rather lie in Hell for ever then they will live
in the love and service of this God and in the practice of holiness and in the hopes of Heaven How meet are they for Hell that will venture upon it deliberately and upon choice to scape the trouble of living in the holy Love delight and service of the ever blessed God that is to scape the trouble of Heaven Is it so great a sin to shut up the bowels of compassion against our brother in his need 1 John 3. 17. And is it not more unnatural to deny compassion to your selves in your own necessity and in the greatest necessity O poor sinners remember your Necessities Your own your great your absolute Necessities When you hear men that gather alms cry Remember the poor doth it make thee think What a poor necessitous soul have I to remember As Paul saith of Preaching to others I may say much mote to you of minding and practising this great work of your salvation Necessity is laid upon you and woe to you if you do it not 1 Cor. 9. 16. Woe to you that ever you were born and that ever you were reasonable creatures or rather that ever you so abused your Reason if you neglect and miss of the One thing necessary I know you have other wants to be supplyed and other matters to look after in the world But alas how small are they God will supply all your other wants if you will first and saithfully look after this Phil. 4. 19. Matth. 6. 33. 1 Pet. 5. 7. Or if life and all go you will find all in heaven But if you miss of this One thing nothing in the world can make supply or do you good And though now your feeling tell you not these things alas how quickly will God make you feel and teach you by that sensible way that you would needs be taught by Awake then you sluggish careless souls Your house over your heads is on a flame The hand of God is lifted up If you love your selves prevent the stroke Vengeance is at your backs The wrath of God pursueth your sin and woe to you if he find it upon you when he overtaketh you Away with it speedily Up and be gone return to God make Christ and mercy your friend in time if you love your lives The Judge is coming for all that you have heard of it so long till you believe it not You shall shortly see the Majesty of his appearance and the dreadful glory or his â—aâ—â— and yet do you not begin to look about you and to maâ—e ready for such a day Yea before that day your separated souls shall begin to reap as you have sowed here Though now the partition that stands between you and the world to come do keep unbelievers strange to the things that most concern them yet Death will quickly find a Portal to let you in and then sinners you will find such doings there as you little thought of or at least did sensibly regard on earth Before your Corpse can be wrapt up in your Winding-sheets you will see and feel that which will tell you to the quick that One thing was necessary If you do die without this One thing Necessary before your friends can have finished your funerals your souls will have taken up their places among the Devils in endless torment and despair and all the wealth and honour and pleasure that the world afforded you will not ease you This is sad but it is true Sirs for God hath spoken it Up therefore and bestir you for the life of your souls Necessity will awake the sluggard Necessity we say will break stone walls The proudest will stoop when they perceive Necessity The most sloathful will bestir them when they feel Necessity The most careless will look about them and be industrious in Necessity Necessity is called the Tyrant of the world that can make men do any thing that is possible to be done And yet cannot Necessity make you cast away your sins and take up a Holy and Heavenly life Necessity will make men fare hard and work hard and travel hard and go bare and suffer much yea it will even cut off a leg or an arm to save their lives And yet can it not prevail with reasonable creatures to cast away the poison of a fruitless filthy deceitful sin and to be up and doing for their salvation O poor souls Is there think you a greater Necessity of your sin then of your salvation and of pleasing your flesh for a little time then of pleasing the Lord and scaping everlasting misery I beseech you consider your own Necessities 2. COnsider also that It is but One thing which God hath made Necessary for you And I shewed you before how that the means themselves though they are many have a certain unity in their harmony and connexion and as they center in the ultimate end which is One. If God had sent you upon such a multitude of errands as the flesh and the world doth and set you on such disagreeing contrary works then you had been excusable if you had neglected some of them But he hath sent you but upon One errand even to seek and make sure of everlasting life and therefore if you neglect this One you are unexcuseable If the world be divided into a thousand opinions or go a thousand several wayes they may thank themselves who are the Authors of this confusion but God is no cause of it or friend to it He hath made them but One work and set them but One way to heaven and given them One Master Jesus Christ to teach that way and written but One Law even his holy Scripture to be their sure and constant guide And if men would stick to this One Master and not make flesh and blood their master or the multitude their master or the Rulers of the world or the custum of their fore fathers the master of their fatih and if they would stick to this One Word of God and not run after the Traditions of men they would not be in such a maze nor of so many minds as now they are But they do in their doctrines as they do in their practice God hath marked them out but One way in the holy Scripture which is the good and the sure way the way that Peter and Paul and the rest of the Apostles went to heaven in and this way will not serve mens turns but they will run an hundred waies instead of this One and they must make new wayes which the Apostles of Christ were never acquainted with If God had loaded your memories with many things you might possibly have said we cannot remember them all but he hath set you finally but one thing to remember even to lay hold on everlasting life and press on to the Crown that is set before you and he hath an ill memory that cannot remember One thing and such a thing as this is too It may be you are Ignorant and cannot learn
every word of thy mouth and every penny of thy wealth in the way that he requireth it is it any more then is his due Should not he have all that is Lord of all Quest 2. Is it not the first and great Commandment Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and might And do not heathens confess this by the light of nature And hath not thy tongue confest it many a time And doth not thy conscience yet bear witness that it is thy duty And is it possible thou shouldst thus Love him with all thy heart and soul and might and yet not seek and serve him with all thy heart and soul and might Or can the most sanctified person do any more if he were perfect Quest 3. Dost thou not confess that we are all sinners And that the best is still too bad And that he that loveth and serveth God most doth yet come exceeding short of his duty And yet wouldst thou have such men come shorter and darest thou perswade them to do less Must not the best confess their daily failings and beg pardon of them from the Lord and be beholden to the blood of Christ and lament their imperfections And yet wouldst thou have them be such odious hypocrites as to think they serve God too much already while they confess that they come so short Shall they confess their failings and reproach those that endeavour to avoid the like Shall the same tongue say Lord be merciful to me a sinner and Lord I am good enough already What need there so much ado to please and serve thee any better What would you think of such a man Quest 4. Is it not an unquestionable duty to grow in grace and to press towards perfection as men that have not yet attained it 2 Pet. 3. 18. Phil. 3. 12 13 14. And must Paul and Peter and the holyest on earth still seek to grow and labour to be more holy and shall such a one as thou say What need I be any more holy that art utterly unsanctified Quest 5. Is it not one of the two grand Principles of faith and all Religion without which no man can please God Heb. 11. 6. Whoever cometh to God must believe first that God is that there is a God most powerful wise and good secondly that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him yea this is one of natures principles It is the Diligent seekers of God that he will reward And yet dare a fleshly negligent sinner reproach the diligent seeking of God and take it for a needless thing and say What needs all this ado Are not these the Atheists seconds even next to them that deny that there is any God or that blasphemâ— him And indeed if he be not worthy of all the Love and service that thou canst give him he is not the true God! Consider therefore the tendency of thy words and tremble Quest 6. Doth not that wretch set up the flesh and the world aboâ—â— the Lord that thinks not most of his thoughts and cares and words and time and labour for the world to be too much ado and yet thinks less for God and heaven to be too much And dost thou think in thy conscience that the flesh is better worthy of thy Love and care and labour then the Lord or that earth will prove a better reward to thee then Heaven Who thinkest thou will have the better bargain in the end The fool that laid up riches for himself and was not rich to God and shall lose all at once that he so much valued and so carefully sought Luke 12. 20 21. or he that laid up his treasure in Heaven and there set his heart and sought for the never fading Crown Matth. 6. 20 21 33. and counted all as loss and dung for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 8. Do you think that there is any thing more worth your care and time and labour or can you more profitably lay it out Quest 7. Have you not immortal souls to save or lose And are not your bodies for their service and to be used and ruled by them And should not your souls then have more of your care and diligence then corruptible flesh that must turn to dirt Quest 8. Dare any one of you say that you are wiser then the All-knowing God Is not thy wisdom less to his then a glow-worms light is to the Sun And hath not God most plainly and frequently in his Word commanded thee a holy life Yea every part and parcell of it is nothing else but the obeying of that Word For if it be not prescribed by the Lord it is not Holiness nor that which I am pleading for And when the living God hath told the world his mind and will shall a sinful man stand up and say I am wiser then my Maker I know a better way then this What need there all this stir for Heaven What dost thou less then thus blaspheme and set up thy folly above the wisdom of the Lord when thou condemnest or reproachest the holiness which he commandeth Quest 9. Dare you say that God is not only so unwise but so unrighteous and tyranical as to give the world unnecessary Laws and set them upon a needless work What King so tyranical as would require his subjects on pain of death to go pick straws against the wind What Master or Parent so foolishly cruel as to command their servants or children to weary themselves with hunting butter-flies and following their own shadows And darest thou impute such foolish tyrannie to the God of heaven as if he had made a world and set them upon a needless work and commanded them to tire themselves in vain Quest 10. Can a man be too diligent about that work which he was made for and is daily preserved and maintained for and for which he hath all the mercies of his life Thou hadst never come into the world but on this business even to serve and please God and prepare for everlasting happiness And are you afraid of doing this too diligently Why is it thinkest thou that God sustaineth thee Why dyedst thou not many years ago but only that thou mightest have time to seek and serve him Was it only that thou mightest eat and drink and sleep and go up and down and fill up a room among the living Why beasts and fools and mad-men do all this as well as thou Why hast thou thy Reason and understanding but to know and serve the Lord Is it only to know how to shift a little for the commodities of the world Or is it not to know the way to life eternal Look round about thee on all the creatures and on all the mercies which thou dost possess every deliverance and priviledge and accommodation every bit of bread thou eatest and every hour of thy precious time are all given thee for this One thing needful And yet wilt thou
say that this One thing is needless for which thou hast all things Thou mayest then say that God made the world in vain and preserveth and governeth it in vain For all this is but for his service which thou callest vain Quest 11. Doth not Reason tell thee that the place in which thou must live for ever should be more diligently minded and prepared for then this in which thou must continue but for a while Alas it is so short a time that we must be here that it makes all the matters of this world as such to be inconsiderable things as dreams and shadows What great matter is it for so short a time whether we be rich or poor well or sick in credit or in contempt whether we laugh or weep When our part will be so quickly acted and we must go naked out of the world as we came into it For so short a time a poor habitation may serve the turn as well as the most splendid Palace A painful obscure afflicted life may do as well as the most plentiful provisions and the greatest ease and worldly honours The purple and fine linnen the silks and bravery will be soon forgotten and the soul in Hell will be no more the better for them then the rotten carkase in the grave The taste of the delicious meats and drinks will quickly be forgotten and sportful youth will be turned into cold and languid age and the most confirmed health into dolorous sickness and mirth and laughter into mournful groans And is such a transitory life as this more worthy of your care and greatest diligence then life eternal O one would think that the world that you must be ever ever in should never never be forgotten There is the company that you must live with for ever There is the state that you shall never change There is the Joy or Torment that shall have no end and while you forget it you are posting to it and are almost there And can you be too careful for eternity Quest 12. Consider also but the infinite Joyes of Heaven and tell me Whether thou dost think they are not worthy the greatest cost or pains that thou canst be at to get them Dost thou think that Heaven is not worthy of the labour that is bestowed for it by the holyest Saints on earth Will it not requite them to the full Will any that comes thither repent that they obtained it at so dear a rate If now thou couldst speak with one of those Believers mentioned in Heb. 11. that lived as strangers and pilgrims on earth as seeking a better even a heavenly Countrey that preferred the reproach of Christ before the treasure of the world and chose affliction with the people of God before the pleasures of sin for a season that were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might receive a better resurrection that had tryal of cruel mâ—â—kings and scourgings and of bonds and imprisonments and were sâ—oned sawn asunder tempted slain with the sword wandred about in sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented though men of whom the world was not worthy Would any one of these now tell you that they did or suffered too much for Heaven Or that it was not worth ten thousand times more If thy tongue dare say that Heaven is not worth the cost or trouble of a holy life or if thy life say so though thy tongue dare not thou judgest thy self unworthy of it and sentencest thy self unto damnation Quest 13. And are the torments of Hell so small and tolerable that thou thinkest a holy life too dear a means for to prevent them Dost thou believe the threatnings of the Lord that he will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1. 8 9. and yet canst thou say What needs all this ado to scape such endless misery Thou wilt take any medicine to cure but the gowt or stone if once thou have felt them Thou wilt draw out a tooth to prevent the pain of it And is Holiness so hateful or grievous a thing to thee that thou wilt venture on Hell it self to avoid it If so much of Hell be in thy heart already blame none but thy self if thou have thy choice Quest 14. Why wast thou baptized into the Covenant of holiness to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost if thou think it nâ—â—dless to perform thy Covenant A holy life is no more then in Baptism thou wast solemnly engaged too There didst thou renounce the flesh the world and the Devil and tookest God for thy portion and absolute Lord and gavest up thy self to be ruled by him and saved by Christ and sanctified by the holy Spirit and dost thou now say What needs all this ado Are we all by our Baptismal Vow engaged to a needless thing I tell thee there is not the holyest man on earth that doth any more then what he is bound to by the Covenant-Relations which he undertook in Baptism Quest 15. Moreover What an Hypocrite art thou to profess thy self a member of the Holy Catholick Church if Holiness which is the life of the Church seem needless to thee Why dost thou profess to believe and desire the Communion of Saints if the life of Saints seem needless to thee and thou wilt not have Communion with them in their sanctity Dost thou not plainly renounce thy Covenant and faith and duty when thou renouncest a holy life as a thing unnecessary Quest 16. Dost thou think or darest thou say that the bloody death and holy life of Jesus Christ were more then needs in order to thy salvation Unless thou be a prosessed Infidel I know thou darest not say so And if thy soul were worth the sufferings of the Lord of Life is it not worth all the cost and labour of thy duty Christ lived a life of perfect holiness he never sinned he fulfilled all righteousness he prayed all night and with greatest fervency preaching and doing good was his employment Though he hated Pharisaical superstition and the teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men and serving God according to mens traditions yet was there never so holy and pure and precise and strict and heavenly a life as Jesus Christ's And this was for our redemption and our example And darest thou say that this was needless Should we not endeavour to imitate our pattern Are they better that are likest Christ or they that are most unlike him And which dost thou think is liker Christ the holy or the unholy Sure we that fall so short of the example that Christ hath given us are far from being more diligent then needs when Christ went not too far nor was too strict that went so very far beyond us Quest 17. Look upon all the institutions of
the Lord On Magistracy and Ministry and the great works of their office On prayer and preaching and Sacraments and Discipline and all other Ordinances of God and also on all the frame of the holy Scripture and also on all the workings and graces of the Holy-Ghost and tell me whether thou darest say that all or any of these are in vain and whether that Holiness which all these are appointed for can be a vain and needless thing Quest 18. Darest thou say that Christ doth more then needs in his Intercession for us with the Father now in Heaven It is he that sendeth the spirit to sanctifie us It is he that prayeth that we may be sanctified by the truth We have no grace and holiness but what we have from him And darest thou say he doth too much It is he that sends his Ministers to call men to a holy life Look into his Word and see whether the doctrine which they preach be not there prescribed to them and the duties of holiness there commended If therefore it were erroneous or excessive it would be long of Christ and not of his Messengers or Disciples that speak and do no more for holiness then he bids them but fall exceeding short Quest 19. Art thou wiser in this and more to be believed then all the antient Prophets and Apostles and servants of God in former ages and then all that are now alive on earth that ever tryed a holy life The Scripture will tell thee that Abraham Isaac Jacob David and all the rest of the Saints that were then most dear to God were so far from thinking that a holy life was more then needs that they thought they could never be holy enough and blamed their defects when they excelled such as now thou blamest as too precise And if thou wilt preferr the words and example of a worldling or of a sottish sensual man before the judgement and example of these Saints the company that thou choosest and the deceivers whom thou followest shall be also thy companions in calamity where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see the Saints from East and West from North and South sit down with Abraham Isaac Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you and such as you thrust out Even when the last in time whom you here despised shall be equal to the first and antient Saints Luke 13. 27 28 29 30. Why do you hypocritically honour the names and memorials of the Prophets Apostles and other former Saints and keep Holy-dayes for them and yet reproach their holy course and preferr the judgement of a drunkard or a malignant enemy of godliness before theirs For so you do when you argue against a holy life Quest 20. Dost thou think that there is now one soul in Heaven or Hell that is of thy prophane opinion and would say that a diligent holy life is more ado then needs for mens salvation Certainly those in Heaven have more knowledge and experience and love to God and man and goodness then to be of so impious a mind or once to entertain such beastly thoughts And those in Hell though still â—â— holy have learned to their cost to know the great Necessity of â—…ss And would tell you if they could speak with you that the most strict and heavenly life for millions of ages were not too dear for the escaping of the everlasting misery Why else do we find one of them in Luke 16. described as so desirous that oâ—… the dead might be sent to his Brethren to warn them that they come not to that place of torment And what is it that he would have had them warned of but that they should live a holy self-denying life and with all their diligence lay up a treasure in the life to come instead of liying so sensual and voluptuous and ungodly a life as he had lived The scope of the story tells us that this would have been his message if he might have sent Quest 21. Dost thou think in thy Conscience that at the hour â—â— thy death or at least at Judgement thou shalt think thy self that Holiness was unnecessary Doth not thy heart tell thee that then thou shalt be of another mind and wish with the deepest desires of thy soul that thou hadst lived as strictly and prepared for everlasting life as seriously and served God as diligently as ever did any Saint on earth But alas those wishes will be then too late Now is thy day and now thou takest thy work to be needless And to see the Necessity when time is gone will be thy torment but not thy remedy Not one in this Congregation or Town or Countrey not one in England or in all the world but shall be forced at last whether he will or no to justifie the wisdom of the godly and the worst of you shall then with ten thousand fruitless groans desire that you had imitated the holyest persons that you knew Not a tongue then shall say What needs all this ado for heaven Not a man there dare call his neighbour Puritane nor take up a contemptuous jear against the diligent servants of the Lord. Quest 22. Is not that man at the heart against the Lord that reproacheth his serious diligent servants and counts his work a needless thing Men are more willing to please those that they love and more ready to do the works they love If your son or servant speak against your service but as you do against Gods what would you think of their affections Doubtless it is no better then a secret hatred to the holiness of God and a Serpentine eâ—â—ity to his holy wayes that causeth all these sensless cavils and impious speeches against the life that he hath commanded us to live Quest 23. Is it not most unreasonable impiety for that man â—â— speak against too strict exact obedience and against serving God â—â— much that hath served the world the flesh and the Devil in â—â— vigour and flower of his dayes and this with pleasure and never said It is too much When thou wast drinking and sporting thou wast not aweary When it comes to a matter of riches or honour or ease or pleasure to gratifie thy worldliness pride laziness and voluptuousness then thou never saist It is too much And is all too little for sin and the Devil and all too much for thy soul and God Let Conscience tell thee whether this be just Quest 24. Is it not a foolish wickedness for that man to cry out against making haste to heaven and going so fast in the wayes of God that hath loytered already till the evening of his dayes and lost so much time as thou hast done If thou hadst begun as soon as thou hadst the use of reason and remembred thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth and never lost an hour of thy time since then till now thou hadst done no more then what thy God thy soul
and all right reason required of thee For surely he that made thee hath in wisdom proportioned thy time to thy work and hath not given thee an hour too much A long life is short enough to prepare for everlasting And shall a loytering Rebell that hath wasted so much of his little time cry out What needs so much ado Quest 25. Is it not the graceless miserable sort of men that cry out What needs all this ado Certainly it is For Scripture and Reason and Experience tell us that all that are godly are of another mind The more grace they have the more they would have The more they love God the more they would love him The more good they do the more they would do Do you not see how they labour after more grace and hear how they complain that they are no better O how it would glad them to be more Holy and more Heavenly It is therefore the strangers and despisers of grace that never knew by experience the nature and power and sweetness of it than say It is more ado then needs And is it not a most unreasonable thing for a man that hath no saving grace and holiness at all to cry out against excess of holiness And for a man that is in the captivity of the Devil and ready suddenly to drop into Hell if death do but strike the fatal blow before he be regenerate to talk against doing too much for heaven And for a man that never did God one hours pleasing service Heb. 11. 6. to prate against serving God too much O poor wretch were thy eyes but opened thou wouldst see that of any man in the Town or Countrey this language ill beseemeth thee When God hath been so long offended and thy soul is almost lost already and death and hell is hard at hand and may swallow thee up in endless desperation for ought thou knowest before thou hast read this Book to the end or before thou see another year or moneth or day is it time for such a one as thee to say What needs so much ado One would think if there be any life in thee thou shouldst stir as for thy life and if thou have a voice to cry thou shouldst cry out to God hoth day and night in the fervour of thy soul even now while mercy may be had lest time should over-slip thee and thou be shut up in the place of torment If Hell-fire will not make thee stir What will Should a weak Christian that is cast behind hand by his negligence but once speak against a diligent life he were exceedingly too blame But for thee that art yet in the gall of bitterness and the misery of an unregenerate state to speak against holy diligence for salvation when thou art in such great and deep distress and like a man that is drowning or a house on fire that must presently have help or perish this is a madness that hath no name sufficient to express it by which its a wonder that a rational soul should be guilty of Quest 26. Art thou not afraid of some sudden vengeance from the Lord for thus making thy self his open enemy and contradicting him to his face Mark his language and then mark thine Christ saith Enter in at the strait gate For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go iâ— thereat because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Matth. 7. 13 14. Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13. 24. See then that ye walk circumspectly or exactly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time Ephes 5. 15 16. For I say unto you thâ—â— except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribâ—s and Pharises ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of heaven Matth. 5. 20. Wherefore brethren give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. Workout your salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. Seeing then all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting to the coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3. 11 12. And if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear 1 Pet. 4. 18. Lay not up for your selves a treasure on earth c. but lay up for your selves a treasure in heaven c. For where your treasure it there will your hearts be also Matth. 6. 19 20 21. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Matth. 6. 33. Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life John 6. 27. The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Matth. 11. 12. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize So run that ye may obtain And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things Now they do it to obtain a corruptible Crown but we an incorruptible I therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the air but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away 1 Cor. 9. 24 25 26 27. Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Hearken diligently unto me eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness encline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you Isa 55. 1 2 3. Be servent in spirit serving the Lord. Rom. 12. 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and sanctifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 11 12 13 14. Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully Jer. 48. 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might For there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whether thougoest Eccles 9. 10. These and such like are the sayings of God by which thou mayst easily understand his mind concerning the necessity of a serious diligent holy life And shall a blind and wretched worm come after and dare to contradict him and unsay all this and say What needs so much ado What! darest thou thus openly resist God to his face What art thou and
what is thy word that we should regard it before the Word of God Quest 27. Dost thou not know that by thy speaking against a diligent holy life thou gratifyest the Devil and openly servest him and saist the very things that he would have thee say What can more please him and advance his Kingdom and suit his malicious ends then to stop and cool men in the service of the Lord and make them believe that holiness is but a needless thing If the Devil might have leave to walk visibly among men and speak to them in their language he would speak to them as thou dost and say the same things which he 〈…〉 into thy mouth and would do all that he could to keep men from a holy life And darest thou thus openly play his part Quest 28. Canst thou think when eternal life is at the stake that a man so weak in the midst of so many hindrances and enemies hath cause to count his diligence unnecessary When Satan like a roaring Lyon is seeking day and night to devour thee 1 Pet. 5. 8. when his malice subtilty and diligence is so great and so unwearied when his instruments are so many so subtile and so powerful when the world aboundeth round about thee with such dangerous enticing snares and baits when thy trayterous flesh so near thee is thy most perilous enemy uncessantly drawing thee from God unto the creature and when thou art so impotent to resist all these assaults art thou then in a condition fit to cry out against the greatest diligence for thy soul Should a man going up the sleepest hill when it is for his life be afraid of going too fast When thou hast done all thou canst it is well for thee that ever thou wast born if it suffice If weaknesses and enemies cause such a difficulty that the righteous themselves are scarcely saved that is with much ado is it then time for thee to ask What needs so much ado Quest 29. Dâ—st thou not deal exceeding unthankfully and unequally with God When he thinks not the Sun and Moon and all the creatures too good to serve thee nor all his mercies too great for thee no not the blood of his beloved Son nor his Spirit nor Heaven it self if thou wilt accept them in his way wilt thou think thy best too good for him and thy most diligent service to be too much When thy All is next to Nothing and thy Best doth not profit the Almighty but thy self and the gain will be thy own If a man should think it too much to put off his hat and thank thee when thou hast given him a thousand pound or to go a mile for thee when thou hast saved his life thou wouldst say he were not a man but a monster of ingratitude But thy unthankfulness is ten thousand-fold worse to God who would deliver thee from everlasting torments and give thee everlasting glory and save thee from Satan and all thy sins if thou wilt but take his safe remedies and thou churlishly refusest as if all were not worth so much ado Quest 30. Dost thou know what a life it is that thou accountesâ— an unnecessary toil It is a life of the greatest Safety Commodity Honour and Delight besides the justice and honesty of it of any in the world and indeed thou canst not choose any other but at thy peril and to thy greatest loss and ruine and to thy present and everlasting shame and sorrow It is the sweetest and most pleasant life on earth that thou ignorantly accountest such a tedious toyl The manifestation of this shall be my work in the second Part of this Discourse And now I dare affirm that when the dreadful God shall shortly judge thee who hast read or heard these words it will be found indelibly written upon thy Conscience that thou hadst here such Reasons laid before thee to prove the Necessity of a serious diligent holy life as all the wit in earth or Hell is not able solidly to confute and that an ungodly sensual life is most unreasonable and that if after this thou continue in an unsanctified fleshly state thou shall justly perish as one that wilfully refused salvation as in despight of God his mercies and his messengers and of the plainest undenyable Truth and Reason And that in refusing to be a SAINT thou madest thy self in the greatest matters no better then a BRUTE wilfully subjecting thy Reason to thy sensuality and judging thy self unmeet for everlasting Happiness BUt here I know the self-deceiving Hypocrite will object That all this that I am proving so diligently is confest and nothing to the point in question Which is not Whether One thing be needful and Holiness be of Necessity to salvation For who denyeth this But the question is Whether it be this Puritanical precise way of serving God which only deserves the name of Holiness and Whether they be net as truly godly and sanctified that say their prayers morning and night and go to Church on Sundayes and follow their businesses the rest of the week without any more ado Answ Either it is the substance of holy duties or but the circumstances which you quarrel at as Puritanical and precise If it be only the circumstances as Whether we should receive the Lords Supper standing or kneeling or sitting Whether we should pray publickly without Book or on the Book and Whether a Scripture-form or another be better and Whether a continued speech or versicles anthems and oft-repeated words and sentences be better What form of Church Government is best â— by Diocesane Bishops or by all the Pastors and the like It is not of such things as these that I am pleading with thee Though some of them are matters of considerable moment for the helping or hindring men in godliness yet it is greater matters then these that I am now contending for Agree with us practically in the substance in Faith Repentance Love Obedience Mortification Heavenliness Humility Patience and serious diligence and zeal in all and then I am none of those that will condemn or censure you but one that will rejoyce in you as those that I hope to rejoyce with for ever But if it be the substantial duties of godliness that you resist while you own but the Name of godliness in the general I must tell you that it is not Names and Generals that will save you nor prove that you have your selves one spark of Grace Nothing more eafie and common then for the most ungodly to say they are all for a godly life and God forbid that any should be against it when yet they hate and reject it indeed when it comes to the practice of those particular duties in which it doth consist It is not godliness that they hate and reproach but it is fervent prayer holy conference meditation self-denyal mortification of the desires of the flesh heavenly mindedness c. In general they will say that Gods Law must be
Are you yet resolved to seek this One thing with the chiefest of your desires and care and labour or are you not Dare any one of you say that you have not heard that which should resolve a sober considerate man I think you dare not But if you dare I am sure you shall never be able to make it good and justifie your words to God or to your Consciences at last or to any wise impartial person Now take your choice whether you will now be SAINTS and for ever like ANGELS or now be like BRUTES and for ever like DEVILS For one of these must be your case as sure as you have heard these words FINIS A SAINT OR A BRUTE The Second Part. Clearly Proving by Reason as well as Scripture 1. In general that Holiness is Best and Necessary to our felicity 2. Particularly that it is Best 1. For Societies 2. For individual persons And more distinctly 1. That it is the only way of Safety 2. Of Honesty 3. The most Gainful way 4. The most Honourable 5. The most Pleasant And therefore to be chosen by all that will obey true Reason and be Happy LONDON Printed Anne Dom. 1662. A Saint or a Brute The Second Part. CHAP. 1. Holiness and its fruits are the Best part Wherein the Happiness of Saints confisteth Luke 10. 42. But One thing is Needful and Mary hath chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her THough I have before taken up this latter part of the Text by way of Motive in the Conclusion of the former Part of this Treatise I am very loth that a subject of so great importance should be so lightly passed over And therefore by Gods assistance I shall attempt a fuller handling of it The Necessity of Holiness I have spoken of already It is the Goodness of it that I am next to speak of And before I enter upon it let me intreat thee Reader whoever thou art that openest this Book to remember that I am writing and thou art reading of the greatest and highest matters in the world and therefore come not to it with common affections and read not this as thou wouldst do a History or a Rheroricall Oration to find delight for a curious mind but confessing thy self a Scholar to Christ with reverence take thy Lâ—… from him as that which thou camest into the world to Lâ—… which all thy comforts thy hopes thy safety and thy evâ—… happiness depend upon And here in the entrance I will freely tell you what more me to fall upon this subject and be so earnest with you in thâ—â— point One thing is the observation of the carelesness and wilfulness of the most that live in the neglect of Holiness and Everlasting Life for all that can be said to perswade them to a wiser course While they all profess themselves to be Christians and to take the Scripture for the Word of God and confess this Word in particular to be true that it is Heaven and Holiness that are the most Necessary and most to be desired and sought after yet will they not be moved to Live according to this Profession nor to Love that Most which they confess to be the Best nor to seek that first which they confess to be most Needful They have the case here decided by the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ himself and as plainly and fully and peremptorily decided â—â— they could wish If they were Infidels and understood but the Law of Nature even Reason might tell them that there is no doubt of it but that Eternal Life is more to be sought after then transitory things And yet they live as if the case had never been decided by Christ or by reason or as if they had never heard of any Life but this Look into most Towns and see whether there be not more at Martha's work and worse then at Mary's Look into most families and see whether they be not 〈…〉 Martha troubling themselves with many things when the 〈…〉 part is almost cast aside Even in the Families of Lords Kâ—… and Gentlemen that are doubly obliged to God and prâ—… be wiser then the ignorant Vulgar the matters of their 〈…〉 are turned out of doors or thrust into a corner and the 〈◊〉 of their bodies do take up the day How many Martha's â—â— one Mary shall we find among both Rich and Poor Yea that is not the worst but they that are so blind and wicked as to choose the worser part themselves would have all about them do so too And as Martha grudged at Mary's practice and conplaineth to Christ against her so these repine at the choice of the Godly and think them but melancholy crack-brâ—ind people that make more ado for their salvation then they need And thâ—â— are not content to keep such ungodly thoughts in their breaâ—… to their Own damnation but they must be the Devils mouth to spit reproach in the face of Holiness and consequently in the face of Christ as if they bid defiance to the Lord and would make it their employment to jeere and scorn mens souls from Heaven If one in a family do with Mary choose the better part though without any neglect of their calling in the world the rest make a wonder of them and some deride them and some hate and vilifie and threaten them and few will imitate them and who more forward to distaste and despise them then the Masters of the Families that are bound to teach and lead them in that way so that a poor soul even in a Land and Age that countenanceth Holiness more then almost any other in the world can scarcely sit at the feet of Christ and Learn his word and seek his Kingdom and Righteousness first but they are gazed at and censured and derided as if they did some very foolish needless yea or wicked thing As if it were the only folly for a man to follow Jesus Christ and obey his God and save his soul and do that work with greatest diligence for which he is a man for which he hath his Life and Time and Mercies and which if he neglect he is lost for ever The Lord have Mercy upon the poor deluded world whence comes this general dampe and dottage upon the understandings and the hearts of men of Great men of Learned men of men that are accounted wise in the world It is Good and Evil that constituteth all that wonderful difference that is between the Reasonable creatures both here and hereafter The Good of Holiness and the evil of sin do make the difference between the Godly and the wicked the Good of Everlasting Happiness and the Evil of Everlasting Misery doth make the difference between the Glorified and the Damned Goodness in General is so naturally the object of mans will that Evil as Evil cannot be desired and Good as Good cannot be hated What then is the matter that few attain the greatest good and few will scape the
greatest misery It is because they would not Choose that Good and refuse the way and cause of Misery But how cometh it to pass that men will make no wiser a choice Is the case so doubtful that they cannot be resolved in it every man would have that which he thinks is Best for him Why do men follow after wealth or pleasure or credit in the world but because they take it to be Best for them Why do they set so light by Holiness and Christ and Heaven bâ—… cause they apprehend them not to be Best for them Wâ—… men refuse and obstinately against all perswasions refuse a Holy life if they took it practically to be Best for them what will they contrive their own destruction do they long to do themselves a Mischief and the greatest Mischief in the world No that 's not the case But the matter is this Their senses draw them another way Their eye their ear their taste their feeling every sense hath a Pleasure of its Own and this sense or flesh is violent and unreasonable and would fain be satisfied and Reason that was given us to Rule it is bribed and blinded and perverted by it and so is ready as a servant to obey it and to take its part and the fleshly mind discerneth not the things of God for they are spiritually discerned the Will also and the Affections are by the byas of a fleshly inclination corrupted and habitually lean to the fleshly part And that which men Love they will easily think well of and are glad of any thing like Reason to defend it and that which is against the Inclination of the Will will hardly be thought well of and any thing like Reason will serve against it This depravation of the mind and will of man enslaved and ruled by the Flesh or sensuality is the very cause that most men will not choose the Better part and so the cause of their perpetual misery And till the Holy Ghost send in a heavenly light of Wisdom into the mind to shew them the true difference between the Good and the Evil and a new Inclination into the Will that shall turn their hearts from the Evil to the Good they will still go on and the matters of God will seem foolishness to them and they will take those men for the veryest fools that follow the Wisdom of the Lord and provide most carefully for eternal life and they will take those for the wisest men that are most contrary to the God of Wisdom and that dare leap most fearlesly into Hell Or if this be not their Opinion but conviction force them to a wiser kind of language yet will it be their Practical estimation and their Hearts as their Choice and Lives will easily declare For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3. 6. The fleshly man will have a fleshly mind and will and openly or secretly will Live after the flesh and such are the heirs of death Rom. 8. 5 7 13. Fleshly generation cannot make a spiritual mind or heart in any but it must be by spiritual Regeneration and therefore except a man be born again of the spirit as well as of water he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3. 3 5. This inward difference of Inclinations is the true cause of the difference of the judgements and the courses of men about the matters of God and their salvation This is it that makes so many to think none wise but those that are more dangerously mad then men in Bedlam and that makes so many others stand in doubt as men unresolved what to choose and what course to follow As if it were really a difficult point for a man to be resolved in Whether it be best and wisest to follow the teachings of God or of the flesh and to seek first the Kingdom and Righteousness of God or to make a pudder for nothing in the world and to claw this itching flesh a while though they must smart for it for ever or to master the flesh and live to God! In a word the world are half unresolved whether it be better to be Holy with Gods promise of Eternal Glory or to take the Pleasures of sin for a season and neglect this Holiness though this course be threatned by the Living God with Everlasting torments This is the true state of the Question which I say one part of the world doth seem to be unresolved in and another part are resolved on the worser side against their souls and a Holy life and only those that the illuminating sanctifying spirit hath resolved do choose the needful better part The reason of this distracted judgement of the most is within themselves It is not because that there is any such difficulty in the case as should put a wise man to a stand Nor it is not because they have not sufficient evidence in the word or that God denyed them Teachers Books or any Necessary Means for their information The Light is among them but they Love it not because their hearts and deeds are evil and their darkness doth not comprehend it and this is their delusion and their condemnation Joh. 1. 6 7 8. 3. 19. When I am preaching to a congregation of many hundred or thousand souls if the salvation of all that people did lie upon any other question no harder then this that we have in hand so it were such as fleshly interest and corrupted minds and wills had no quarrel against how easily how surely should I save the souls of all that heard me Reader let me have thy judgement If the Question were Whether Light or Darkness be the Better Whether a dead corps be better then a Living man Whether a cottage for a day or a Rich habitation for term of life be better Whether as much drink as will make thee drunk or a nights lodging with a whâ—re be better then Lands and Lordships for thy life time or for a thousand years Whether one sweet cup with shame and beggery all thy life after or one bitter draught with perpetual prosperity should be rather chosen Whether a sick man were better take an unpleasing medicine that would cure him or a pleasant poyson that would kill him Whether he were better pay a little to the Physicion or dye to save his money Whether that Prince be wise that will sell his Kingdom for a cup of wine or for childrens rackets Or whether that child â—e vertuous that cannot abide his Fathers sight or house or commands but loveth better to do that which he knows displeaseth him or to tumble in the dirt with swine I say if any of these were the Question to be Resolved and the salvation of all that heard me lay upon the true Resolution I leave it to your own judgements Whether I were not like to save the souls of all that heard me And yet in a case as
clear in it self and much more clear how few do we prevail with Is not the Question Whether God or the Creature Holiness or Sin Earth or Heaven Short or Everlasting pleasures should be preferred as plain to a wise man as any of those that I mentioned before Is it not as plain a case to a man of judgement Whether Holiness with Everlasting joys be better then fleshly pleasures with damnation as whether a Kingdom be better then a Jayle or Gold then dirt or health then sickness Yet do your salvations lie upon this Question this easie Question I must again repeat it All your salvations lie upon the practical resolution of this easie Question Be but Resolved once that God is Best for you and Heaven is Best for you and accordingly make your Resolute Choice and faithfully Prosecute it and God will be Yours Heaven will be yours as sure as the Promise of God is true But if you will not Choose God and Glory as your Best but will Choose the world and simple pleasures as Better for you you shall have no better then you chose and shall suffer a double condemnation for neglecting and refusing so great salvation You hear now by mens talk and you see by their lives that the world is divided upon this Question What it is that is Best for a man and which is his Best and Wisest course One part and the greater think in their hearts that present prosperity is best because they think that the promised happiness of the life to come is a thing uncertain or iâ— there be such a thing they may have it after the pleasures of sin These are the Infidels Another part have a superficial dead Opinion that Heaven and Holiness are Best but the Love of the flesh and the world lyeth deeper at their hearts and beareth the greater sway in their lives and these are the Hypocrites that is Christians in Opinion and Profession and so much of their Practice as will stand with their fleshly interest but Infidels in their Practical estimation and at the Heart and in the reserves and secret bent of their lives Another part being illuminated and sanctified from above Believe the Certainty and Excellency of Glory and see the vanity and vexation of this life and taste the sweetness of the Love of God and perceive the Necessity and sweetness of that Holiness which others so abhor and hereupon give up themselves to God and set themselves to seek for the Immortal treasure and make it the principal care of their hearts and business of their lives to escape damnation and live with Christ in endless Glory All the world consisteth of these three sorts of men Infidels Hypocrites and true Believers Now the Question is Which of these three are in the right Both the other do condemn the Hypocrite that halteth between two opinions and One thinks that Baal is God that the World is Best and therefore he gives up himself to it and the other thinks that The Lord is God and Heaven is best and therefore he gives up himself to it And if it would do any thing with those that doubt towards the turning of the scales to tell you which side Christ is on it s told you here in my Text as plain as the tongue of man can speak One thing is Needful Mary hath chosen that Good part which shall not be taken away from her THe Doctrine which I am now to handle to you from the plain words of the Text is this Doct. That those that prefer the Learning of the word of Christ to guide them by Holiness to Everlasting Happiness before all the lower matters of this world are they that choose the Better part even that which shall never be taken from them If now the word of Christ alone would serve your turn I had done my work I needed not to go any further You would be now resolved that Heaven and Holiness is best and would set your hearts and lives to seek it and so it would be your own for ever But this Text hath long stood in the Gospel and men have heard and read it often and yet the most are not perswaded and therefore I must try to open it a little farther to you and plead it with you and work the Reason of it upon your minds Reader our business is but to enquire What it is that is Best for Man to set his heart on and seek after in his Life and Enjoy for ever I say it is the Everlasting Enjoyment of God in Heaven For Christ saith so If thou think otherwise let us debate the case If thou believe as I do Live as thou professest to believe If men did but deeply and soundly know what it is that is best for them it would set right their hearts and lives and make them happy But not knowing this is it that keepeth them from God and Holiness and everlastingly undoes them Though I have often opened this heretofore on other occasions yet my present subject now requireth 1. That I tell you What that is that here is called The Good part 2. What it is that is set against it and by fleshly minds preferred before it And having briefly opened these two things I shall come to the Comparison and shew you which is the better part 1. That which Christ calls here that good part is 1. Principally the end of man or our everlasting Happiness with God in Heaven 2. Subordinately the Means by which it is attained 3. That Happiness which is the end comprehendeth in it these particulars which if you distinctly apprehend you will much the better understand the nature and excellency of it 1. The true Believer hath the small beginnings and earnests and foretastes of the Everlasting Blessedness in this Life in his approaches to God and living upon him by Faith and Love and â—â— his believing apprehensions of the Favour of God the Grace â—â— Christ and the Happiness which in Heaven he shall enjoy for ever 2. At death the souls of true Believers do go to Christ and enter upon a state of Happiness 3. At the last day the body shall be raised and united to the soul and the Lord Jesus Christ will come in glory to judge the world where he will openly absolve and justifie the Righteous when he condemneth the ungodly and will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe and the Saints shall also judge the world and be themselves adjudged to everlasting Glory 4. Their everlasting habitation shall be in the Heavens even near unto God and in the presence of his Glory 5. Their company will be only Blessed Spirits even the holy Angels and glorified Saints with whom we shall be One Body and constitute the New Jerusalem and be perfectly one in God for ever 6. Their Bodies shall be perfected and made immortal spiritual incorruptible and glorious bodies shining as the Stars in the Celestial Firmament No more subject
to hunger and thirst or cold or weariness or shame or pain nor any of the frailties that now adhere unto them but be made like the glorified body of Christ 7. The Souls of the Saints united to these Bodies shall also be Perfected having far larger capacity to know God and enjoy him then now we have being freed from all ignorance errour unbelief pride hard-heartedness and whatsoever sin doth now accompany us and perfected in every part of the Image of God upon us 8. The eyes of the Glorified Body shall in Heaven have a Glory to behold that is suitable to their Bodily capacity Heaven being not a place where the Essence of God is confined but where a prepared glory will be manifested to make Happy the Angels and Saints with Christ And whatever other senses the Glorified Bodies shall then have whether formally or eminently we cannot now conceive what they will be they will all be satisfied with suitable Delights from God 9. The Blessed person of our Redeemer in our Nature Glorified will there be the Everlasting object of our delightful iâ—â—uition and fruition An object suitable to the eye of the Glorified Body it self We shall for ever live in the sight of his face and in the sense of his unspeakable Love 10. The Glorified Soul whether mediately or immediately shall behold the Infinite most Blessed God and by knowing him be perfected in knowledge As we shall see the person of Jesus Christ and the glory of God with open face and not as in a glass as now we do so we shall know so much of the Essence of the Deity as we are capable of to our felicity 11. With the Knowledge of God and the Beatifical Vision will be joyned a perfect Love unto him and closure with his blessed will So that to Love him will be the everlasting employment of the soul 12. This Love will be drawn forth into everlasting praise and it will be our work before the Throne of his Glory to magnifie the Lord for ever 13. In all this Love and Praise and Glory and in the full fruition of the Eternal God we shall Rejoyce with full and perfect Joy and we shall have full content delight and rest 14. In all this Blessedness and Glory of the Saints the Glory of God himself will shine and Angels shall admire it and the condemned spirits with anguish shall discern it that God may be Glorified in our Glory 15. In all this Happiness of Believers and his own Glory the Lord will be well pleased and that Blessed Will which is the Beginning and the End of all will be accomplished and will have an Eternal complacency as the Saints shall have an endless complacency in God This is the Glory promised to the Saints This is that Good part which they choose I cite not the Texts of Scripture that prove all this because the things are all so plainly and frequently expressed in the premises And I shall have occasion to do somewhat of this anon And so in brief I have told you what the Good part is 2. We are next to enquire What it is that is put by worldly carnal men into the other end of the scales and is set up in comparison with all this Everlasting Glory Yea what it is that is preferred by ungodly men before it What is it that fin and the world will do for men What do they find that lose the Lord What do they get that miss of Heaven What do they choose tâ—â—â— refuse the Needful Better part And here I am even amazed at that which I must give you an account of O wonderful astonishing thing that ever such base unworthy trifles should by Reasonable men be put into any comparison with God! Wonderful that so much madness and wickedness can enter into the mind and heart of man as to let go all this Glory for a toy And yet more wonderful that this should be the case of the greatest part of men on earth And yet more wonderful that so mâ—â—y make so mad a choice even when the case is opened to them and plainly opened and frequently opened and when they are earnestly entreated to be wiser and importuned to make a better choice In a word All that is set against the Lord and All that is preferred before this Everlasting Life and All the Portion of ungodly men is no more then this The Pleasure of sin for a season The satisfying of the flesh A little ease and pelf and fair words from men as miserable as themselves and all this but for a little a very little time when Temperance is as sweet at least a little that is excessive or forbidden in wealth or meat or drink or cloathes or lust or other fleshly pleasures is the Joy and the Heaven and the God of the ungodly The fleshly pleasures which are common to the beasts and a little vain-glory among men and this for a short uncertain time and then to paâ—â— to everlasting punishment this is the chosen portion of the wicked This is All for which they refuse the Lord and for which â—â—â—y refuse a Holy life This is All 〈◊〉 which they part with 〈◊〉 and part with their Everlasting Peace This is All that they have for Heaven and their salvation and All for which they seâ—â— their souls To the everlasting shame of sin and sinners it shall be known that this was All To the abasing of our own soulâ— that sometime were guilty of this madness I shall tell you again that this is All To the humbling of the best to the conâ—ounding of the wicked and the amazement of us all I must say â—â—â—â— this is All This dirt this dream this cheat i◠〈…〉 wicked have for God and Glory This Nothing â—◠〈…〉 obstinately preferr and choose before him that 〈…〉 O wonderful madness stupidity and deceitâ— so 〈…〉 wilful and so uncureable till tender 〈…〉 cure it in them that shall be saved Well the ballance is now set before yoâ—… in the One end and in the other You see the 〈…〉 choose and the part that is chosen by the rest of the world And are you not yet resolved which is Best and which to choose TWo sorts I look to meet with here to whom I shall apply my self distinctly before I come to the comparative work First some will tell me that all these are needless words and that there is no man so senseless as to think that Temporal things are better then Eternal or the world then God or sin then Holiness Answ O that this were true how happy then were all the world I grant that many are superficially convinced that are not converted and that many have a slight opinion that Heaven and Holiness is best that yet have no Love to it and will not seek it above All. But their practical judgement doth not go along with their Opinions Thy relish the world as sweetest unto them In the prevailing deepest thoughts of their
judgement more regardable then a hundred yea many hundred 2. Nay it is no One at all Those that you say turn off arâ— only such as tryed an Opinionative Religiousness and some of the Outward duties of Christianity but they never tryed the power of a living rooted faith nor the predominant Love of God in the soul nor a Living Hope of the Heavenly Glory nor the sweetness of a Heavenly life nor the mortification of the fleshly inteâ—â—â—â— and true self-denyal These are the vital parts of Christianâ—â—â— which these few Apostates never tryed though some of them have had some acquired counterfeits of them and some good gifts of common grace and think that none had more then they had Sinner I beseech thee for the Lords sake deal faithfully with thy poor soul when all lies at the stake Wilt thou take the judgement of a swaggering Gallant or a scoffing worldly or ungodly Sot that none of them ever truly tried a state of Holiness And wilt thou refuse the judgement of God and of all his servants that have tryed it Go to any Godly man and ask him which of these wayes he hath found by experience to be best and hear what he will say to thee He will be ashamed to hear thee make a Question of it He will tell thee Alas friend I was once deceived by sin and deceived with the pleasures of my flesh and the glittering glory and riches of this world as you are now I once was a stranger to the life of faith and the Hopes of Heaven and the Holiness of the Saints But it was by the meer delusion of the Devil and it was the fruit of the blindness and deadness of my heart I knew not what I did nor where I stood nor what I chose nor what I set light by I never well considered of the matter but carelesly followed the sway of my fleshly inclination and desires But now I seee I was the Devils slave and my Pleasures were my fetters and my own corrupt affections were my bondage and I now find that I did but delude my soul I got nothing by all that the world did for me but provision for my after-sorrows I had been now in Torments if I had but dyed in that condition I would not be again in the case that I was in for all this world or a thousand such worlds That life that once I thought the best hath cost me dear even the breaking of my heart and a thousand thousand fold dearer would have cost me if the dearest blood and recovering Grace of my dearest Lord had had not prevented it O had I not been unspeakably beholden to the Mercy of the Lord even to that Mercy which I then made light of I had been undone for ever I had been laid under Everlasting desperation before this Now I find that there is no life so sweet as that which I then was so loth to choose Now it is my only grief that I was holy no sooner and can be no more Holy then I am O that I had more of that quickning comforting saving Grace O that I were further from my former sinful fleshly state O that I could get nearer God though I parted with all the prosperity of this world I now find what I lost by my continuing in sin so long but then I knew it not O friend as you love your soul take warning by me and make use of my experience and give up your self to God betimes This or to this purpose would the answer of an experienced person be if you should ask him Which is the better way But if you say that thus we would be our selves the Judges and bring the matter into our own hands I answer you 1. It is true we would be our selves your Helpers and do the best we could for your salvation And if you will neither help your selves nor give us leave to help you take what you get by it we have done our part But 2. I will not yet so part with you I will further make you this reasonable offer I demand of thee whoever thou art that Readest these words Whether thou know of any man on earth that thou thinkest to be a wiser man then thy self If not thou art so like the Devil in Pride that no wonder if thou be near him in malignity and misery If thou do know of any wiser then thy self go with me or with some faithful Minister to that man and ask him Whether a diligent holy life be not much Better then any other life on earth and if he do not say as I say here and as Christ saith in my Text that the godly choose the better part or else if I prove him not a very sot before thy face I will give thee leave to brand my understanding in thy esteem with the notes of inâ—amy and contempt Yea more then so I will allow thee to go to one that differeth from me in the way of his Religion Ask an Anabaptist if thou think him more impartial whether A Holy and Heavenly heart and life be not the best and try whether he will not say as I do Ask those that you call Episcopal or Presbyterian or Independents or Separatists Ask an Arminian or one of the contrary mind Yea ask a Papist and see whether he will not say as I do It is true they are every one of them of minds somewhat different about some points in the order and manner of their seeking God But all of them that are but sober men will confess as with One mouth that God should be loved above all and sought and served above all and that all should live a Holy Diligent Heavenly life 2. But yet if all this will not satisfie you I will come yet lower Who is it that you would have to be Judge or Witness in thâ—… case Is it thy malignant or worldly or drunken and ungodly friend I am contented that the case be referred even to him and to as many of them as thou wilt upon condition that he will but first Try the way that he is to judge of Let him but make an unfeigned tryal of a life of Holy Faith and Love and Obedience and Self-denyal as long as I have done and we will receive his Testimony Nay more let him thus try a life of Holiness inwardly and outwardly but one year yea or but one moneth or day or hour and we will take his Testimony But to be judged by a man in a matter of salvation that speaks of what he never knew nor tryed one hour but speaks against he knows not what this is a motion too bad to be made to a very Bedlam 6. If yet you are not resolved which is the Better part and way to whom do you desire to referr it Shall Heathens Jews and Infidels be Judges Why if they be they will give the cause against you Jews and most of the Heathen world do profess to believe a
Knowledge If I referr my health to thee as my Physicion thou must not refuse to try my pulse and see my urine and use the means to find out the disease Wouldst thou be my Lawyer and refuse to read my Evidences and study my case And wilt thou needs be judge thy self of the matters of thine own felicity or misery and yet refuse to read and hear and pray and meditate and use the necessary means of understanding Wilt thou lie in bed and work out thy salvation Wilt thou make use of no ones eyes but thy own and yet wilt thou wink or draw the Curtains or shut the windows and cast away thy spectacles and neither come into the sunshine nor use a candle This is but to say I will willfully condemn my soul and none shall hinder me 2. But yet another condition I must propose If thou wilt but as I said before of others a while make Tryal of a holy life and try in thy self what Faith and Hope and Charity are and try what selfdenyal is I will then referr the matter to thy self Go back from God if thou find any Reason for it and turn from Christ and Heaven and Holiness if thou do not like them But if thou wilt needs be the judge and wilt not be perswaded to try the thing thou art a partial self-deceiving judge 3. But it this much cannot be obtained at least be Considerate in thy judging If thou wilt but take thy self aside from the noise of wordly vanities and deceits and commune seriously with thy heart and bethink thee as before the Lord and as one that knows he must shortly dye Whether Heaven or Earth should be sought most carefully and Whether God or thy flesh should be served most resolvedly and diligently and if thou wilt but dwell so long upon these manlike thoughts till they are digested and Truth have time to shew its face I dare then leave the question to thy self The next time that the Sermon or any affliction comes near thee and awakeneth thy Conscience do but withdraw thy self into secret and soberly bethink thee of the matter what hopes thou hast from the world and what thou 〈◊〉 have from God what Time is and what Eternity is and give â—â—â— Conscience leave to speak and then I will venture the issue upon thy Conscience For thee I mean though I must stick to a better judge my self Doth not Conscience sometime tell thee that the Holyest persons are the wisest and that thy labour is liker at last to be lost and repented of than theirs Doth not Conscience sometime make thee wish that thou wert but in as safe a case as they and that thou mightest but die the death of the Righteous and that thy last end might be as theirs 4. But if all this will not serve the turn thou shalt be Judge thy self but it shall be when thou art more capable of judging If God by Grace shall Change thy heart I will stand to thy Judgement If he do not when thy graceless guilty soul shall pass out of thy pampered dirty flesh and appear before the dreadful God I will then leave the case to thy Conscience to judge of To all Eternity it shall be partly left to the judgement of thy Conscience whether sin or Holiness be better and whether Saints or careless sinners were the wiser and whether it had not been be ter sor thee to have spent that life in preparing for thy Endless life which thou spentst in slighting it and caring for the world and flesh Then thou shalt be Judge thy self of these matters but under a more severe and righteous judge And so as shall make thy tearing heart to wish with many a thousand groans that thou hadst judged wiselier in time But because that Judgement will be to desperation and too late for hope or any help let Conscience speak when thou lyest sick and seest that thou art a dying man Then judge thy self whether a Holy or a worldly life be better and whether it had not been thy wiser course to have sowed to the spirit that so thou maist reap everlasting life then to have sowed to the flesh from which thou now lookst to reap no better then corruption Be not deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Gal. 6. 6 7. But because it will be very late to stay till thy own Death draw so neer thee go but to thy neighbours that lie in sickness looking for the stroak of death Yea to thy companions in sin and folly and ask them then which way is better Ask them then which is the better part Whether now they had rather be the Holyest Saints or such as they have been Whether now they had not rather they had spent their time in the most careful seeking for Everlasting life then in doing as they have done Say to thy old companion now Brother I see you are near your end the mortal stroak of death is coming you are now leaving all the pleasures of this world I pray you tell me now your Judgement whether mirth and sport and feasting and drinking and wealth and honour be more to be sought then life eternal and whether Hearing and Reading the word of God and Praying and meditating and flying from sin be as bad or as needless a thing as we have formerly taken it to be Had you rather appear before the Lord in the case of those that we derided as Puritans and too precise for making such a doe about salvation or in the case that you and I have lived in Ask but this Question to thy old companions and try whether the Consciences of almost all that approach their end do not bear witness against ungodliness and do not justifie the holy diligence of the Saints It is but two days since a poor drunkard of a neighbour Parish being ready to pass out of this world did send hither and to other Parishes in the terrours of his soul to desire our Congregations to take warning by him and to strive with God if possible for some mercy for his soul that was passing in terrours into another world because of the guilt of his odious sin Well sirs I have gone along with you to all the creatures in this world that have any fitness to judge in this case and if all these will not serve we must go to another world for Judgement or stay till you come there 11. And really do you think if we could speak with Angels or departed Souls that they would not consent with God and all Believers in their Testimony O how they would rebuke their madness that make any doubt of so great so plain so sure a truth as this of the necessity and the excellency of a Holy life None are so fully resolved of this question as they that have tasted the End of both and past the righteous judgement of the Lord. They that are feeling the anguish of their
Or if there were no Fear of that yet Man hath Reason to think before-hand of his Death and to think of his abode in Darkness which Beasts have not To think of being turned to â—â—tinking carrion and to a clod and so continuing for ever without any Hope of a Resurrection would be matter for continual horrour to a confidering man which Brutes are not molested with And wise men that can fore-see would be tormented more then fools All this is incredible that God should make his nobler creature to be Naturally most miserable and give him Knowledge and Affections and set a Certain Death and Possible Torment continually before his eyes to Torment him without any Remedy And besides the Hoped Life hereafter there is none Quer. 12. Do you think that the Belief of another life is needful or useful to the well governing of this world or not If you say no 1. Why then do Infidels and Brutists say that Religion is but the device of men for the Governing of the world and that without it subjects would not be Ruled You confess by this your frivilous objection that the world cannot be Ruled well without the Belief of a life to come 2. And it is most manifest from the very nature of man and from the common experience of the world 1. If man be well-governed it must be either by Laws containtng Rewards and penalties or without Not without For 1. All the world doth find it by experience that it cannot be and therefore every Common-wealth on earth is Governed by Laws either Written Customary or Verbal 2. If the Love of Vertue for it self should prevail with one of a thousand that would be nothing to the Government of the world 3. Nor could any man be effectually induced to love Vertue for it self according to the doctrine of the Brutists For Vertue it self is made no Vertue by them but a deformity of the mind while they overthrow the End and Object and Law that it is measured and informed by as I shall more fully open to you anon It is therefore most certain that no Nation is or can be Governed as beseemeth man without Proposed punishments and Rewards And if so then these must be either temporal punishments and benefits or such as are to be had in the Life to come That Temporal punishments and benefits cannot be Motives sufficient for any tolerable much less perfect or sufficient Government is a most evident Truth For 1. de facto we see by experience that no people live like men that be not Governed by the Belief of another life The Nations that believe it not are Savages almost all living naked and bestially and knowing nothing of vertue or vice but as they feel the commodity or discommodity to their flesh They eat the flesh of men for the most part and live as brutishly as they believe And if you say that in China it is not so I answer one part of them there believe the Immortality oâ— the soul and most of them take it as probable and so the Nation hath the Government which it hath from everlasting Motives And if you say that the antient Romans had a sufficient Government I answer 1. The most of them believed a life to come and it was but a few that denyed the Immortality of the soul and therefore it was this that Governed the Nations For those that believed another life had the Government of the few that did not believe it or else the Government it self had been more corrupt 2. And yet the faultiness of their belief appeared in the faultiness of their Government Every Tyrant took away mens lives at pleasure Every Citizen that had slaves which was common at pleasure killed them and cast them into the fish-ponds The servants secretly poysoned their masters and that in so great numbers that Seneca saith Epist 4. ad Lucul that the Number of those that were killed by their servants through treachery deceit or force was as great as of them that were killed by Kings which was not a few 2. It is apparent that the world would be a Wilderness and men like wild and ravenous beasts if they were not Governed by Motives from the Life to come 1. Because the Nature of man is so corrupt and vicious that we see how prone they are to evil that everlasting Motives themselves are too much uneffectual with the most 2. Every man naturally is selfish and therefore would measure all Good and Evil with referrence to themselves as it was commodious and incommodious to them And so vertue and vice would not be known much less regarded 3. By this means there would be as many Ends and Laws or Rules as Men and so the world would be all in a Confusion 4. If Necessity forced any to combine it would be but as Robbers and strength would be their Law and Justice and he that could get hold of another mans estate would have the best Title 5. All those that had but strength to do mischief would be under no Law nor have any sufficient Motive to Restrain them What should restrain the Tyrants of the world that rule over many Nations of the earth if they believe no Punishment after death but that their Laws and Practises should be as impious and bestial as their lusts can tempt them to desire What should restrain Armies from Rapes and Cruelty that may do it unpunished Or popular tumults that are secured by the multitude 6. And there would be no restraint of any villany that could but be secretly committed And a wicked wit can easily hide the greatest mischiefs Poysoning stabbing burning houses defaming adultery and abundance the like are easily kept secret by a man of wit unless a special Providence reveal them as usually it doth 7. At least the probability of secrecy would be so great and also the probability of sinful advantage that most would venture 8. And all those sins would be committed without scruple which the Law of man did appoint no punishment for as Lying and many odious vices 9. If one man or two or ten should be deterred from poysoning you or burning your houses or killing your cattle c. by humane Laws a thousand more would be let loose and venture 10. All the sins of the heart would have full Liberty and a defiled soul have neither cure nor restraint For the Laws and judgments of men extend not to the heart All the world then might live in the Hatred of God and of their neighbours and in daily Murder Theft Adultery Blasphemy of the heart Wit his they might be as bad as Devils and fear no punishment for man can take no cognizance of it And it is the heart that is the Mâ—n You see then what persons the Infidels and Brutists would have us all be What hearts and lives mankind should have according to their Laws Be Devils within and murder and deceive and commit adultery as much as you will so you have
Christ told us that the Devil is thus like a strong man armed that while he keepeth his Palace his goods are in Peace but when a stronger then he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted and divideth the spoils Luke 11. 21 22. The hearts and the Nations that are not conquered by Christ are the Devils Garrisons and possessions Do you think that it is best that he possess them still in Peace Or that the Preachers of Christ that plant his Ordinance against them and batter them till they are forced to yield are therefore busie troublesom fellows What is it for but for your deliverance that are Satans captives at his will 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. 3. And might you not on this ground also account Christ himself the troubler of the world as much and a thousand times more then us For be doth more to disturb men in their sins then any of we and be doth more for Holiness then all the world besides And in this sense he confesseth and fore-tells us that he came not to send Peace but division into the world into Towns and Countries and Families Luke 12. 51 52 53. If we can have no Peace with you unless we will disobey our Lord and serve the Devil and the flesh and damn our own souls and suffer you to do the like then keep your Peace among your selves we will none of that Peace we have no mind to buy your friendship and good words at such a rate If your peace will stand with our peace with God and peace of Conscience we will gladly accept of it If it will not we can be without it Your souls are like sores that may not be searched or a broken bone that must not be set for fear of hurting you You are like men that must have that which would kill them or like children that will cry if they be but taken out of their dung or kept from fire or from knives If we do but cross you in the way to Hell we trouble you and we break the peace Yea and if we will not cast away our souls everlastingly for company And is this the case Is this the breaking of your Peace The Lord will shortly be a Righteous Judge between you and us and tell you who it was that was the Troubler of the Towns and Countries and of the world You find Ahab and Elijah at this contest Ahab takes him for the Troubler of Israel when a heavy famine was among them Elijah saith No but it was Ahab and his Fathers house that had troubled Israelâ— by their wickedness 1 Kings 18. 17 18. And which think you was in the right the Prophet or the King Why Sirs What is it that Godliness doth that it should be taken for the Troubler of the world when ungodliness is taken for your peace Is it our perswading or hindring you from sin that troubleth you And will not the everlasting fruit of it trouble you more Then even say that washing you or sweeping your houses or curing your sores or sickness or perswading you not to kill your selves is a troubling of you Or is it as the Lord hath told us it will be Matth. 5. 10 11. John 15. 18 19. 1 Pet. 4. 4 5. because we are not such as you and will not do as you do and be of your opinion and forsake our Lord to keep you company Is it not with good reason When we know you cannot save us harmless and will not answer for us before the Lord We know that every man must answer for himself and therefore we durst not trust you if you would promise us to bring us off It is best for you to study better how to answer for your selves But if you are resolved on it that ungodly you will be and that you will venture on Hell to scape a holy life why should not you give us leave to pitty you and to forbear your folly and to save our selves Will it do you any harm that others should be saved Or that others should be Godly Your own sanctification indeed cannot stand with your lusts and fleshly pleasures but another mans may It will take none of your vain-glory or wealth or sensual delights from you that another man is sanctified or devoted unto God And therefore be not angry with us if we obey the Holy Ghost that calleth to us Acts 2. 40. Save your selves from this untoward generation Object O but saith the ungodly crew it was never a good world since there was so much Religion and preaching and preciseness and so much ado about serving God! It was a better world when we had but a short Service read on Sundaies and played and merrily talkt together the rest of the day There was more Love and good neighbourhood then amongst men then there is now There was not then so much deceit and consening and oppressing and covetousness in the world There was more peace and plenty and a better world it was then now Matters of peace and plenty change often in the same age And certainly you have as little hinderance now from being as good as you have a mind to be as ever your fore-fathers had Two things I have to say to your Objection 1. If this be true that the world is so bad which part is it of the world that you mean Is it all or some Not all sure that were too horrible censoriousness to say Then God would presently destroy the world Sodome had one Lot and his family in it Well it is but some then that are so bad And which part is it Is it the Godly or the Ungodly If Godliness be naught then Heaven is naught where there is nothing else And then take it not ill to be shut out If it be the Ungodly that are naught that 's it that I am saying It is time then to leave it and to turn to God Is it not you your selves that make the complaint that are the men that make the world so bad Is is not you that are so Covetous and worldly that you have nothing for the poor and no time to spare for the work that you were made for nor scarce any room to think or speak of the life to come Is it not you that have so little Charity that you even hate men for Loving and serving God and seeking diligently to save their souls It s true that there was never greater wickedness in the world then since there hath been so much Preaching But What is that wickedness and in whom It is the despising and disobeying the calls of God and the hating and neglecting of a holy life Those that are saved by the Gospel may say that it was a happy messageunto them but those that slight it and willfully sin in the openest light may well say that it is a bad world with them and worse it is and will be for ever if they be not converted
certain experience of all true Christians in the world They all have tasted and found that excellencie in the holy ways and Ordinances of the Lord that they value them above all the world With David they esteem them above Gold and Silver Psal 119. 72. With Solomon they say that all the things that we can desire are not to be compared to them Prov. 3. 15. 8. 11. And with Job they value the word of God above their necessary food Job 23. 12. And with Paul they count all things Loss aud dung in comparison of the excellent knowledge of Christ Phil. 3. 7 8. They know that it is a thousand times better with them since God converted them to a holy life then it was before as well as you know that you are better in your health then you were in sickness Try whether you can make men that ever were among those where plague and war and famine raigned to believe that it was never a good world since this plague and war and famine ceased You may as soon make wise men believe this as make experienced godly men to believe that it is worse with them for their turning to the Lord and living holy heavenly lives You can never by all your doating and self-conceited prating make those believe whom God hath sanctified that they were in a better case before when they were the slaves of Satan and served sin were under the wrath and curse of God They feel that within them that will never suffer them to believe you The health of their recovered souls their experience of the Goodness of the ways of God the comforts they have had in the pardon of sin and the hopes of Glory do make them know that you talke distractedly when you tell them that they were better before or that the world is the worse for the grace of God 6. And we cannot believe you when you speak evil of a holy course because your words are against all Religion and common reason and much more destructive of the Christian faith If God be not to be Loved with all our hearts and served with our greatest care then he is not God or then there is no such thing as Religion to be regarded A God that is worse then the Creature is no God If we must not seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof Matth. 6. 33. as Christ hath commanded then it is in vain to seek it at all If there be no Heaven or Hell let us lay by all Religion But if there be that man that thinks it not worth his greatest care and diligence to be saved doth forseit the reputation of his reason with his soul Will you believe that man that saith he believeth that there is an Everlasting Glory to be sought and made sure of in this life of our pilgrimage and warfare and yet thinks it not worth our seeking for above all and worthy all our cost and labour He speaks a gross and blockish contradiction A Heaven no better then Earth is no Heaven A Heaven that is not worthy the labour of a holy life is no Heaven And a God that is not worthy of all that we can do is no God Either plainly say that you are Pagans and worse and believe not any life but this Or else live as Christians if you will be called Christians say not that you believe there is a Hell if you think a Holy life too dear to scape it 7. Yea this is not all but your words do tend to Brutishness it self Pagans did believe for the most part a life after this And Julian that Apostate Infidel himself doth prescribe to all his Idols Priests a very strict and Religious life according to the Religion which he owned and professeth that all care and temperance and piety should be used to please God and obtain the happiness to come And shall men called Christians take the very Infidels for Puritanes and be worse then Heathens If we have not another life to look after then what are we but beasts that perish If you think that you die like beasts call your selves beasts and never more own the name of men If you are not beasts but men that have you souls to save or lose to be happy or miserable for ever And is it not worth all our care labour to look after them 8. Another reason why I will never believe you that the world was better when there was less preaching and Religion is because you speak against the very end and nature of preaching and Religion For the word of God is written and preached to this very end to make men better And is that the way to undoe the world to perswade them to amend O Impudent malignant tongues What doth the word of God speak against but sin Doth it anywhere speak against any thing that is Good or doth it anywhere command you any thing that is bad Let the bitterest enemy of God upon earth say so and prove it if he can I here in defiance of the Devil and all his instruments and servants challenge them in their bitterest malice to say the worst they can of the Gospel or of true Religion and prove that ever it encouraged men to sin or that ever any was a loser by it O wonderful Must the God of heaven indite such Laws against all evil condemning it and threatning damnation for it and yet will these wretches have the faces to say that it is long of the Scripture or of Religion that the world is Evil What! Will preaching against your wickedness make you wicked If it do be it known to the faces of you that it is you and not preaching that shall be one day found to be the cause and be condemned for it Must Princes and Parliaments make Laws to hang thieves and murderers and when they have done will you say it is long of them and their Laws that men are robbed and murdered Why this is not yet so impudently unjust as you deal with God For they threaten but hanging and he threatneth everlasting damnation against sin and executeth it on all the unconverted as sure as he threatneth it And would you have him yet do more to testifie his dislike of sin Tell me thou that blasphemest the holy commands of thy Creator Wouldst thou have him do more then everlastingly to damn unconverted sinners to prove that he is no friend or cause of sin what should he do more Is there a greater plague then Hell to threaten Or wouldst thou have him do more to shew how much he loveth Goodness then to command it and perswade men daily to it and to promise Everlasting Glory for their Reward Is there any greater Reward to be promised I tell thee blasphemer to the Justifying of my Lord that all the world hath never done the thousandth part against mens faults as God hath done Never were there stricter Laws against them then his Laws And never
you revile and that in highest fervour and perfection They Rest not day or night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Rev. 4. 8. Dost thou know the man on earth that is most precise and holy and diligent for God Why the lowest of the Saints in Heaven go quite beyond him And in good sadness dost thou take Heaven to be the worst place and think that so much Holiness will make it troublesom Bear witness then against thy self Out of thy own mouth art thou condemned How canst thou expect to be admitted into Heaven that takest it for so bad a place Thou teachest God to thrust thee back and say to thee Be gone here is nothing but Holiness which you could not alive You shall go to a place where Religion and Holiness shall not trouble you Well Sirs Consider now as men of Reason of all these twenty Reasons which I have given you and then tell me whether that be not the better world and the better soul where there is most Faith and Holiness CHAP. VI. Holiness is the only way of Safety I Have proved to you that Holiness is best for Common wealths and given you many General undenyable evidences to prove that it is Best for all men in particular I shall now come to the particular evidences and shew you wherein it is that it is Best for all men There are three sorts of Good that men have to look after The first is the security of their Life and Being the second is their moral well-being and the third is their Natural well-being This last also is divided into three branches and consisteth in our Profit our Honour and our Pleasure So that here are five several sorts of Goodness to be considered of and you will find that Holiness is Best beyond all comparison in each respect 1. In respect of Safety 2. In point of Honesty 3. In point of Gain 4. In point of Honour And 5. In point of Pleasure or Delight If I prove not every one of these then tell me I promised more then I could perform But if I do prove them I look that you that Read it should promise presently to come in to God and a Holy life and faithfully perform it 1. And that HOLINESS IS THE SAFEST WAY I prove thus 1. That man is in a safer state that is delivered from the power of Satan then he that is in his bondage and taken captive by him at his will But all the unsanctified are in this captivity and all the sanctified are delivered out of it as the Scripture most expresly tells us Ephes 2. 1 2. 3 And you hath be quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the Power of the air the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience among whom we also bad our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind c. So 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God eradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will And Acts 26. 17 18. I send thee to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God And Col. 1. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son Satan is the Ruler and the Jaylor of the ungodly that leadeth them to sin and so to destruction and keepeth them for torments at the day of wrath And is he safe that is in the Devils power If he should appear to thee and lay hold of thee thou wouldst not think that thou were safe But his possession of thy soul is far more dangerous Thou dost not believe that thou art in his power But thy blindness sheweth it and thy enmity to the way of Holiness sheweth it and thy ungodly life doth fully shew it and the Scripture affirmeth it of all such and what need there any further proof But the sanctified are all dilivered from this slavery and though the Devil may rage against them he shall not prevail 2. Moreover those that are United to Jesus Christ and are become the living Members of his Body are certainly safer then those that are yet strangers to him and have no special interest in him But all that are sanctified are thus united to Christ and made his members and all the unsanctified have no part in him He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 John 5. 12. John 15. 6 7 9 10. If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue in my love If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love Yee are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you v. 14. Eph. 5. 25 26 27 29 30. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and â—â—â—aâ—â—â— it with the washing of water by the word that be might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish No man ever hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cheri â—ath it even as the Lord the Church For we are Members of his Body of his flesh and of his bones Judge by these passages whether the sanctified are not safe If the Love of Christ and his Merits and his Power cannot keep them safe then nothing can If the Saviour cannot save them none can Is not the very flesh of Christ safe are not the members of his Body safe are not his friends his spouse and beloved safe If Christ can save us we are safe For who can conquer him Or who can take us out of his hands John 10. 28. If he be for us who shall be against us and if he justifie us who shall condemn us Rom. 8. 33 34 35. But is it so with the ungodly No they have no part nor lâ—t in this matter but are in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity because their heart is not right in the sight of God Act. 8. 21 23. 3. Moreover he that hath escaped the Curse of the Law and hath his sins forgiven him and is justified from all things that could by the Law be charged on him is safer then he that is under the Curse and hath all his sins yet lying on his soul But the first of
these is certainly the case of the sanctified and the other of the unsanctified Gal. 3. 10 13. As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Rom. 3. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God And Mark 4. 12. shews that the unconverted have not their sins forgiven them Joh. 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already And Act. 26. 18. To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me Rom. 8. 1. There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Abundance more such passages of holy Scripture do assure us that all the unsanctified are unpardoned and all the sanctified are Justified and delivered from the Curse And which of these are in the safer state Did one of you owe ten thousand pounds more then he were worth or had you committed twenty known selonies or murders would you think your selves safe without a pardon Would you not be looking behind you and afraid of allmost every man you see lest he came to apprehend you O what a case is that man in that hath so many thousands sins to answer for and hath such a load of guilt upon his soul and so many terrible threatnings of the Law in force against him Do you not fear every hour lest death arrest you and bring you to the prison of the bottomless pit But the sanctified is delivered from this danger A thousand sins indeed were against us but we have a pardon of them all to shew In Christ we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins Col. 1. 14. The law hath nothing now against us and therefore we are safe 4. Those are safer that are dearly beloved of the Lord and reconciled to him and taken for his Children then those that are his Enemies and hated by him and under his displeasure But most Certainly the former is the state of all the sanctified and the later is the state of the ungodly You shall see both in the words of God Psal 5. 4 5. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity Psal 7. 10 11. My Defence is of God which saveth the upright in heart God judgeth the Righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day Psal 45. 7. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness Luk. 19. 27. Those mine enemies that would not I should raign over them bring them hither and stay them before me Ephes 2. 3. We were by nature the children of wrath A hundred more such places shew you the state of the unsanctified But how different is the case of the renewed upright soul 2 Cor. 6. 16 17 18. Yee are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Job 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God Rom. 8. 16 17. The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God And if Children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ Mal. 3. 17. And they shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Heb. 8. 12. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Col. 1. 21 22. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight Psal 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Zech. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Judge now by these plain expressions form the Lord who it is that is in the safer state the godly or the ungodly Is he the safer that is hated by the God of heaven or he that is most dearly loved by him He that is under his displeasure or he that is his delight Why man if God be against thee thou art no where safe not in the strongest Castle not in the greatest Army not in the highest dignity not in the merryest company Thou knowest not but a Commission is gone out for death to strike thee in thy next recreation or fit of mirth How knowest thou but death is ready to strike while thou art eating or drinking or talking or sleeping Thou hast no security from an angry God Till he be reconciled thou art nowhere safe This may be thy fatal day or night for ought thou knowest And if once the mortal blow be struck and thy soul be taken from thy body unrenewed O man where then wilt thou appear O wonderful stupidity that thou dost not eat thy bread in fear and do thy work in fear and sleep in fear and live in fear till thou be sanctified But to the soul that hath God for his security what can be dangerous or what condition while he keeps close to God can be unsafe The Father that gave us unto Christ is greater then all and no man can take us out of his hands Joh. 10. 28 29. Conquer Heaven and conquer the Saints There is their City their garrison their conversation Phil. 1. 20. Heb. 11. 10 16. what enemy what policie what power can endanger him that God will save and hath undertaken for We were never safe one day or hour till we were friends with God Deut. 33. 27. The Eternel God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms Psal 46. 1 2 5 7. God is our refuge and strength a very present helâ— in trouble therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carryed into the midst of the sea God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved God shall help her and that right early The Lord of hosts is with us the God of Jacob is
this they have learnt of God and therefore they are no deceivers 9. Moreover do you think that he is an Honest man that is an enemy to the publike Good or rather he that is a common benefactor The best of the Heathens thought it one of the highest parts of virtue to be serviceable to many and devote our selves to the common good But wicked men are the very plagues of a land For their sakes it is that judgements come upon us It is they that would let in the plague of sin which would undoe us He that sets fire to the thatch doth do no worse against your towns then wicked men that would kindle the fire of the wrath of God by their crying sins Read the Scriptures and see who it was that caused Israel to perish in the wilderness but unbelieving sinners Who troubled Israel and made them fly before their enemies but one Achan Josh 7. And what but sin was the cause of their captivity and present desolation was it Lot or the Sodomites that brought down from heaven the fire of vengeance Was it Noah or the world of the ungodly that brought down the flood Are these Honest men that provoke God to forsake the Land and are the vermine and destroyers of our peace and happiness But you know that God hath promised his blessing to the Godly and to the places where they live ofttimes for their sakes as Josephs case and others tell us 10. That man can be no Honest man that wanteth the very principle of Honesty and that intendeth not the End that 's necessary to make any action truly Honest But such are all ungodly men 1. The Principle of true Honesty is the high esteem of God and everlasting life in our undestandings and the belief of Gods revelations necessary to the attaining of that life and the prevailing Love of God in the heart and the Love of man for his sake Without these Principles of Honesty no man can be Honest How can he be an Honest man that Believeth not his maker He that taketh God for a lyer hath no reason to be taken for any better himself For would he be thought better then he takes God himself to be nor can he in reason be expected to believe any man else For none can be better then God And is that an honest man that professeth himself a Lyer and taketh all men to be so too And how can that be an Honest man that Loveth not Goâ—… well as his fleshly lusts and pleasures And this is the case of all the wicked If they did not Love their Riches and honour and sensual pleasures more then God they would not keep them against his command nor lose his favour rather then lose them nor seek them more carefully then they seek him and his Kingdom and think of them and speak of them with more delight And certainly he that Loveth his Riches or Honours or filthy sins better then God and Heaven it self must needs be thought to preferr them before his neerest Friends or the common good And is that an Honest man that would rather cast off Father or Mother then cast off his filthy sins and that would rather forsake his chiefest friend then forsake his vices and would sell his friend or the Commonwealth for a little gain or pleasure even for a whore or for drunkenness or such like things I think you would none of you say that this were an Honest man that would not leave so small a matter for the life of his friend or for the preservation of the Common wealth And can you expect that he should prefer any friend before God and his Salvation If he will sin against God and sell his salvation for his sin can you think he should more regard any man how dear soever There is no true Honesty in that man where the Love of God doth not command 2. Moreover if the Honouring and Pleasing of our Lord and the saving of our souls be not the End and principal motive of our actions there can be no true Honesty It is essential to Honesty that God be our End If you would know what a man is first know what he Intendeth and maketh the End and marke of his life And so you must do if you would judge of his actions The End is the principal ingredient that makes them Good or Bad. If a Thief Love God because he prospereth him in stealing or because he giveth him strength and opportunity this is a wicked Love of God If a drunkard Love God for giving him his drink and a Whoremonger Love God for strenthening him in his lust will you call this Honesty Every wicked man doth make his sensual present pleasure his principal End through all his life If he love his neighbour it is but carnally as a dog loveth him that seedeth and stroaketh him If he seem to be a good Commonwealths man it is but for vain-glory or carnal accommodatiâ—… and he fighteth for his King or Countrey but as a dog doth â—â—â— his bone If he give to the poor it is but that which he can spare from his Belly and it is either in a common pitty or for vain applause or he thinks by it to stop the mouth of Justice that God may let him alone in his sins or save him after all his wickedness This is no more an Honest man then he that makes a trade of stealing and will pay Tythes of all that he steals or give some part to the Church or Poor that God may pardon him and save him when he hath done All the Religion and all the charity of wicked men is but for themselves and that which hath no higher End then Carnal self is truly no Religiâ—… Charity It is only the sanctified man that is Honest for it 〈…〉 he that is devoted to God and doth the works of his life to 〈…〉 and glorifie his maker There is more Honesty in the very 〈…〉 ing and drinking of the sanctified then in the prayer and sacrifices and alms deed of the ungodly Or else God would never have said as he hath done that Unto the Pure all things are pure but to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and Conscience is defiled Tit. 1. 15. And that every creature is sanctified by the word of God and by Prayer 1 Tim. 4. 4 5. And that the prayer and the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord and he abhoreth and loatheth them when the prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. 21. 27. Isa 1. 13. Prov. 28. 9. 8. 7. 11. 20. For the sanctified in their very eating and drinking do make it their end to Glorifie God and to be fitted for his service 1 Cor. 10. 31. But the ungodly do all even in their duties that seem most Holy but for a selfish carnal End So that it is plain that he that wanteth the necessary Principles and
Power Wisdom and Goodness engaged to us for our Good and to be ours according to our necessity and capacity This O ye worldlings is the Riches of the Saints This is the Wealth that we will boldly boast of Boast you of your houses and lands and money and we will boast of our God Have you Houses and Towns and Countreys at command Be it so but the Saints have the God of the world to be their God Have you Kingdoms and Dominions We have the God of all the earth the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Set all your Riches in the ballance against him and try what they will prove Set all the world and the Kingdoms and Glory and Wealth of it in the ballance and try whether they are any more to God then one dust or feather to all the world yea they are nothing and less then nothing vanity and lighter then vanity it self Isa. 40. 16 17. This one Jewel containeth all our Treasure He is ours that hath all things What then can we need Psal 23. 1. He is ours that knoweth all things Who then can overreach us or undo us by deceit He is ours that can do all things What then should we fear and what power shall prevail against us He is ours that is Goodness and Love it self How then can we be miserable or what imperfection can there be in our Felicity They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches none of them can by any means redeem his brother nor himself that he should live for ever and not see corruption Psalm 49. 6 7 9. But God will redeem us from the power of the grave for he shall receive us Ver. 15. Let the workers of iniquity boast themselves a while Psalm 94. 4. Let the wicked 〈…〉 desire and bless the coveâ—â—â—â— whom the Lord abhorreth Psalm 10. 3. It is the Lord that is King for ever and ever that heareth the desires of the hamble that prepareth our hearts and prepareth his ear to hear Ver. 16 17. Our souls shall make their boast in God Psalm 34. 2. O tast and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him But you cannot say truly Blessed is the man that hath Lands and Lorships Blessed is the man that hath Crowns and Kingdoms Yea truly may you say Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and withdraweth his heart from the Lord. Jer. 17. 5. Fear the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him Psalm 34. 8 9 10. But when you have all the world you cannot say that you have no want Confounded then be the covetous Idolaters that boast themselves of their Idols Psalm 97. 7. But in God will we boast all the day long and praise his name for evermore Psalm 44. 8. What have you but the gleanings of our harvest and the crums that fall from the childrens table Our God is he that giveth you your prosperity He droppeth you these leavings from the redundancy of his Goodness when he hath given himself his Son and all things to his own All that we want and all that our souls desire is in God We have none in heaven but him nor any in earth that we desire besides him Psalm 73. 25. His loving kindness is better to us then life Psalm 63. 3. Our flesh and our heart faileth us and all the creatures fail us but God is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever Psalm 73. 26. Verily the Riches of all the Princes of the earth is less in comparison of him that is the Treasure and Portion of the Saints then a straw is to all the earth or a little dung to the shining Sun 2. Would you yet hear more of the Riches of Believers though more then God there cannot be The Lord Jesus Christ is their Head and Husband their Saviour and Intercessour at Gods right hand They are Married to him His Merits are thâ—irs for all those uses to which they need them It is he that Justifieth Who then shall condemn them He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall be not with â—iâ— also freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32 34. Christ is the Pearl of infinite valuâ— for whom we have willingly sold all Matth. 13. 45 46. And what are all your Treasures to this Treasure Ask â—â—â—l and he will tell you that had tryed both Phil. 3. 7 8. His 〈…〉 â—e counteth Loss for Christ yea all things he accounted but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ It is Love incomprehensible surpassing knowledge that is revealed to us in Christ Eph. 3. 18 19. The Riches of Christ are unsearchable Riches Eph. 3. 8. It is Christ that bindeth up our broken hearts that is the Peace-maker and Reconciler of our souls to God What he hath done for us and what he will do I shall tell you anon But the ungodly have no part in him nor have they any such treasure that will do for them what Christ will do for us Their Treasure is the wrath of God which they are heaping up against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God Rom. 2. 5. All the Treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Christ Col. 2. 3. And he hath them for us according to our measure as being our Treasurie our Head and made of God to us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. They are exceeding Riches of Grace that are shewed in the kindness of God through Jesus Christ to all that are sanctified by that grace Ephes 2. 6 7 8. Yea that you may see there is no comparison even that which you abhorr in a Christians case and account his misery and the worst of Christ is better then the best of your condition and then that for which you lose your souls For the very Reproach of Christ is greater riches then the Treasures of the world Heb. 11. 26. And it is the reproach that we undergo for Christ that you most abhorr and the treasures of the world that you highlyest esteem It is greater Riches to be one of them that are scorned and derided for the sake of Christ then to be one of them that hath the wealth of the world at his dispose And if the Reproach of Christ be greater Riches then all yours What then is his Life and Love and Benefits his Grace and Glory 3. Would you have the Riches of the Saints yet further opened to you Why the Holy-Ghost is in Covenant with them as their Sanctifier and Comforter And he is not only theirs himself by Covenant and Relation but he also dwelleth in them by his graâ—â—s and restoreth the image of God upon them They are the â—…ples of the Holy-Ghost which is in them 1 Cor. 6. 19. And by the Spirit and by Faith Christ dwelleth
in their hearts Ephes 3. 17. Rom. 8. 11. 1 Cor. 3. 16. God himself doth dwell in them and converse with them and write his Law in their hearts and teach them himself by this his Spirit 2 Cor. 6. 16. Heb. 8. 10. â—â— 1â— Hereby we know that he dwelleth in us by the Spirit which â—e 〈…〉 given us 1 John 3. 24. Yea he that is joyned to the Lord is One spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. For the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. We are an habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes. 2. 22. Because we are sons God hath sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. By this Spirit the Saints have access unto the Father Ephes 2. 18. and by this it is that they are quickened to prayer and holy worship and their infirmities are helpt Ephes 6 18. Rom. 8. 11 26. By this they fight against the flesh and overcome it Gal. 5. 17 18. Rom. 8. 13. In this they live and walk and work Rom. 8. 1 5. Gal. 5. 16 25. This Spirit is the Testimony of their Adoption Rom. 8. 16. and the seal and earnest of their heavenly inheritance 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Ephes 4. 30. By this they are new born John 3. 5 6. And put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and being renewed in the spirit of their minds do put on the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes 4. 22 23 24. By the illumination of this spirit they have a new understanding and are brought out of darkness into the marvellous Light of Christ 1 Pet. 2. 9. that they may know what is the hope of the Christian Vocation and what is the Riches of the glory of Christs inheritance in the Saints Eph. 1. 18. In a word by this Spirit their sins are mortified their souls renewed and made like to God and they become a holy Priest-hood a peculiar people unto Christ and in this Spirit have Communion with him Rom. 8. 13. Tit. 3. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Tit. 2. 14. 2 Cor. 13. 14. And what is all the Riches of this world to this Heavenly Treasure the Spirit of the Lord They that have this Spirit are taught by it to set light by all your Riches and to esteem one dayes Communion with Christ above all the Gold and Glory of this world And that which sets the soul of man so far above Riches is better then those Riches As your Lands and honours do set you above the pins and points that children take for their treasure and set as much by as you do by yours so the Spirit of Christ and the Life of Faith doth set the souls of true Believers a thousandâ—old more above your Riches then you are above your childrens â—oyes If yet you see not the Riches of Saints consider but the wonderful expression â— Pet. 1. 4. that they have exceeding great 〈…〉 precious promises given them that by these they may be partakers of the Divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust And can there be more on earth bestowed on man then to be made partakers of the Divine nature As it would be a greater gift to a bruit to be made a man and have manly Riches then to have store of Provender suited to his brutishness so is it greater Riches to the ungodly to be sanctified and made partakers of that nature that is called Divine by God himself then to have provision for unmortified lusts and to have all the contentments of a fleshly mind It were a greater gift to an Ideot to be made a wise and learned man then to be furnished with feathers or sticks to play with So is it here 4. Every truly sanctified man is restored from the misery that he was brought into by sin He hath all his sins forgiven him and is freed from the curse of the Law by the merits of Christ and the promise of the Gospel For in him we have Redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins Col. 1. 14. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 39. When we were dead in our sins we were quickened with Christ and had all our trespasses forgiven us Col. 2. 13. Ask a wounded Conscience that groaneth under the weight of sin and under the sense of Gods indignation Whether forgiveness of sin be a Treasure or not I am sure they that now are past forgiveness and feel what sin is in the bitter fruits would give ten thousand worlds if they had them for the pardon of their sins and would account forgiveness a greater mercy then all the Riches and Kingdoms of the world What a heavy curse did the Spirit of God pass upon Simon Magus for thinking that money was a valuable thing to purchase the Holy Ghost with Acts 8. 20 21. Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased by money Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God repent therefore of this thy wickedness c. The name of Simon Magus is odious to us all and yet I doubt that most among us exceed him in the sin for which he is thus cursed For he thought the gift of the holy-Ghost to be better then his money or else he would not have offered his money for it But most men take their money to be better then the gift of the Holy-Ghost If he that would have purchased the Holy-Ghost yea a lower and less necessary gift of the spirit was pronounced wicked and cursed with such a heavy curse What are they that set more by their money then by the special gift of the Holy-Ghost yea that hate and deride it and plead against its Sanctifying work The time is near when your Riches will fail you and your prosperity die and your sins will live and then there is none of you all but will say that Pardon and Grace are greater Riches then all the world 5. Moreover the godly have Angels to attend them and be their guard as I have proved to you before And are horses and kine and oxen think you greater Riches then the Guard and Ministration of the Angels of God Heb. 1. 14. Psalm 91. 11 12. 6. And surely the very Communion of Saints and Ordinances of God which in the Church we here enjoy are greater Riches then all the world We are now no more strangers and forreigners but fellow-Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God Ephes 2. 19. We are members of that well-tempered body where all the members are obliged and disposed to have the same care one for another that if one suffer all suffer and if one be
dwell for ever O Labour not for the meat that perisheth in comparison of that which endureth to everlasting life which Christ will give you if you will follow him Job 6. 27. Make you friends of this wealth that the world abuseth to unrighteousness that when all fails below you may be received into the everlasting habitations Luk. 16. 9. Make not your selves a Treasure of corruptible riches and set not your heart on Gold and Silver lest the rust of it be a witness against you and eate your flesh as it were fire and lest yee heap up another kind of treasure then you dream of against the last days How many of you have cause to weep and howl for your approaching miseries even then when you are glorying in your prosperity Jam. 5. 1 2 3 4 5. Are you for Commodity Refuse not then the best Commodity Be not enemies to them or to those holy motions that make for your everlasting Profit Take but the Gainfullest 〈…〉 selves and we are pleased If you know 〈…〉 then God and Glory and any riches that will endure any longer then Eternity why do you not shew it us that we may joyn with you But if you do not why will you not hearken to the servants of the Lord and joyâ— with them Wherefore saith the Lord do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Hearken diligently unto me and eate ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness Encline your care come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you Isa 55. 2 3. If there be not more to be Gotten by Christ and by prayer and by the promises and a holy life then there is by sin or then there is by all your friends or lands or trades or care or labour here then take your course and turn your back on God and spare not But if you are ashamed to say so be ashamed to think so or to live so Verily sirs if the Gospel be true you must be every man of you Saints or Miserable Holiness is the only thriving way Yea the only Saving way If you forsake this way you are 〈…〉 while you are Gaining and Losing by your Gains You 〈…〉 making Achans bargain that by his Gold did purchase a â—corm of stones that dasht out his brains Josh 7. You are running after Gehezie's gains that thought he had got Riches and it proved a Leprosie You are trading with the Devil though you see him not and will not believe it even as certainly as the miserable witches that sell him their souls for a few fair promises and when they have done have the miserablest life of any You are laying up but Judas's treasures which quickly grew too hot to hold and too heavy for his conscience to bear and he would fain rid his hands of it if he knew how and because he cannot he hangs himself and rids himself out of the ashes into the flames O covet not such undoing gains which you all know as sure as you breath that you must let go Believe but your Redeemer and you shall know that there are greater and better things before you Gather not stones when you may be gathering pearls Hear me poor sinner If God and Heaven if Grace and Glory seem not better Riches then 〈…〉 world thou judgest thy self to have no part in them CHAP. IX Holiness is the most Honourable Way WE are resolved if Scripture and Reason can resolve us that Godliness is the Safest the Honestest and the Gainfullest course I shall next shew you that it is the Most Honourable course I know the world thinks otherwise of it In most places it is a matter of reproach to be but serious and diligent in Gods service And though in this place and at this time through the great mercy of God it is not so with us unless it be with here and there a sottish drunkard yet there are too few places that are so much freed from this plague And it is not yet I fear forgotten of God since the very practice of a Godly life was a matter of greater scorn and derision then to have been the prophanest swearer or drunkard If a man would not have gone to the Ale house with them nor sworn or spoke prophanely as 〈…〉 did and if he made any serious mention of the Scripture â—â—â—â— life to come if he reproved any gross offendor if he prayed and instructed his family and spent the Lords Day in holy exercises this was enough to brand him with the name of Puritan or Precisian and make him the common by-word of the town and let him be never so conformable to Bishops and Ceremonies if once he went under the name of a Puritan he was looks upon as Lot in Sodom by the open enemies of Piety who insulted over them and lived securely in open wickedness This is the chiefest sin that God hath been scourging this nation for if I am able to understand his judgements I know men are apt to interpret providences according to their own interests and conceits But I take the help of the Scripture and the experience of former ages for my interpretation and I am verily perswaded not excluding other sins that the great sin for which God hath plagued England by a sharp and bloody war was the common scorn that was cast upon his service it being made the derision of too many in the land I never came into any place where meâ—er serious diligence for salvation was not branded with the name of Puritanism and too much Preciseness and those that abstained from iniquity were as Owles among their neighbours even the very wonder and the reproach of those about them When this is made a Principle that all must hold that ever hope to be accepted with the Lord in Heb. 11 6. that he is a Rewarder of them that Diligently seek him This is the next point in our faith to the Believing that there is a God And yet among us that called our selves Christians the Diligent seeking of the Lord was so far from being thus esteemed of that it was the surest way to make a man contemptible and odious unto many The jealous God did long endure this horrible indignity but would not still endure it from us Must he make a Holy Law for the Government of the world and shall the obeying of it be derided Is he our Soveraign Lord having by Creation and Redemption the right of Ruling us and shall we scorn them that will be Ruled by him Those that will not have Christ rule over them will surely be destroyed Luk. 19. 27. and shall those escape that scorn his service Holiness is the Image of God and unholiness the Devils image And when the Image of God is made a scorn and the Devils image had in honour and that by them that call themselves Christians was it not time
doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Jam. 2. 23. Abraham was called the friend of God 2. And they are called the Lords Jewels Mal. â— 17. 3. They are called his Beloved and dearly Beloved Deut. 33. 12. Psalm 60. 5. 127. 2. Cant. 2. 16. 6. 3. 7. 10. Holy and Beloved are inseparable Rom. 4. 7. Beloved of God called to be Saints Col. 3. 12. the elect of God Holy and Beloved They are the dearly beloved of his soul Jer. 12. 7. For they are accepted in the Beloved Eph. 1. 6. Even in the Beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased Matth. 3. 17. 17. 5. 4. They are called children or adopted sons Gal. 4 6. John 1. 12. And he disdaineth not to be called their Father Heb. 12. 9. Matth. 23. 9. 2 Cor. 6. 18. I will be a Father to you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Mal. 3. 17. He will spare them as a man spareth his son that serveth him 5. They are called also the Heirs of Heaven Rom. 8. 17. A more Honourable heritage then earth affords 6. They are called a peculiar people to the Lord Tit. 2. 14. and his peculiar treasure Exod. 19. 5. Psal 135. 4. 7. They are called Kings and Priests to God Rev. 1. 6. They are a chosen generation a Royal Priest-hood a Holy Nation a peculiar people 1 Pet. 2. 9. 8. The sanct fied are called the Spouse of Christ Cant. 4. 8. to 13. Because of the similitude of the holy Covenant which they make with Christ to a marriage Covenant and because of the dearness of his love to them and the nearness and sweetness of his Communion with them Mat. 21. 2 4 9. The Lord is said to be married to them Jer. 3. 14. And their Maker calls himself their Husband Isa 54. 5. 9. Yea more they are called the Members of Christ 1 Cor. 6. 15. 12. 12. They are the Body of Christ and members in particular vers 27. We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bone loved and cherished by him as a man doth his own flesh Ephes 5. 25 28 29 30 32. They are kept by the Lord as the apple of his eye Deut. 32. 10. And he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye Zech. 2. 8. What nearness what dearness do those terms express 10. Yea they are said to be one with Christ 1 Cor. 6. 17. â—â— that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit John 17. 21 22 23. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be One in â—â— that the world may believe 〈…〉 â—â—oâ— hast sent me that they may be One even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one Not that they are One in God-head or personality or office with Christ but most nearly conjoyned as subjects to their Prince that make One Body Politick and as a wise to a husband and nearer then these can express in that they have the communications of his Spirit Judge now by all these wonderful Titles whether any but an Atheist or Infidel can deny that the Godly are the most Honourable people in the world If it be not a contemptible thing to be the son of a King much less to be the sons of the eternal King Deny the Honour of those that are so nearly related to him and you deny the Honour of God himself and consequently deny him to be God Atheism is the beginning and end of all 3. Moreover the servants of the Lord have the most Honourable Natures or Dispositions in the world And the Honour that ariseth from a mans intrinsecal Disposition is far greater then that which accrueth to him from his parentage or wealth or worldly greatness or any such extrinsick accidents Many a proud and worthless person doth boast of the Nobility of their Ancestors and tell you what blood doth run in their veins when they have debased souls and nothing advanced them of their Ancestors but their Riches or the pleasure of some Prince and they know that the beggars at their doors did come from Noah as well as they The Surgeon findeth no purer blood in their veins then in the beggars nor are their carkasses any more sweet or lovely and therefore if their manners are worse they are more base then honest beggars It is the mind that beareth the true stamp of Nobility They are the Noblest that have the Noblest souls All the Silks and Velvers in the world will not make an Ape as Honourable as a Man nor an Ideot as a wise man Solomon in all his Royalty was not cloathed like some of the flowers in the field Mat. 6. 28. 29. and yet he was more Honourable then they A Corpse may be most sumâ—tuously adorned A Crown may be set on the head of an image Such as the mind is such is the man And that the souls of the sanctified are more Nobly qualified then of other men is easily demonstrated For 1. Christ dwelleth in them by faith and by his Spirit Ephes â— 17. 2. 22. We are the Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. The new nature of the Saints hath no meaner an Author then the Lord himself It is the Divine Power that giveth us all things that pertain to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1. 3. As it is the Honourable work of God the Father to be our Creator and of God the Son to be our Redeemer so is it the Honourable work of God the Holy-Ghost to be our Sanctifier And therefore as it is a Blaspheming of the Creator to vilifie the Creation and a Blaspheming of the Redeemer to vilifie the Redemption so is it a Blaspheming of the Sanctifier to vilifie Sanctification Though â— I say not that it is the unpardonable Blasphemy yet a fearful Blasphemy it is O that those wretches knew their crime that mock at the special work of the Holy-Ghost 2. The new creature is illuminated with a Heavenly light and cured of its former mortal blindness and is brought out of darkness into marvellous light Eph. 1. 18. Acts 26. 18. Col. 1. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 9. and is taught of God John 6. 45. 1 Thes 4. 9. 1 Joh. 2. 27. And it is more Honourable to see then to be blind and to live in the open Light then in a dungeon And it is the highest matters in the world that the gracious soul is savingly acquainted with It is more Honourable to have the Knowledge of profoundest Sciences then of some low and poor employment And it is more Honourable to have the saving Knowledge of God and of the life to come which the poorest sanctified person hath then to have the most admired fleshly wisdom or all the common learning in the world What high and excellent and
be grievous to them 6. The very Bodily informities of Believers are a constant help to keep them humble They have all this treasure but is earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4. 7. Their souls are here so poorly lodged in corruptible Tabernacles of earth and so meanly cloathed with frail diseased mortal flesh that it is madness to be proud 7. And the many and great afflictions of the godly are medicines that are purposely given them by their Physicion to cure Pride and keep them humble Why else must their sufferings be so many and why must they daily bear the Cross but that they may be conformed to the image of Christ 8. And to the same end it is that God doth let loose upon them so many enemies All Satans temptations and the worlds allurements and vexations and all their disappointments here and all the scorns and mocks of the ungodly and the censures and slanders of wicked tongues and often bitter persescutions what are they but the bitter medicines of God permitted and ordered by him though cansed by the Devil and wicked men to save the servants of the Lord from the sin and danger of being lifted up Do you say that their Honour will make them proud Why you that thus oppose them and despise them are â—uring them of their pride and do not know it as Scullions scoure the rust off the vessels for their Masters use and as Leeches draw out the blood that causeth the disease and as the Jews by their sin promoted the Redemption of the world by the death of Christ When God seeth his servants in danger of being lifted up above measure he oft sendeth a messenger of Satan who may be an Executioner of Gods chastisements to buffet them 2 Cor. 12. 7. Sometimes by slanders sometime by reproaches sometime by imprisonments or greater sufferings and sometimes by horrid troublesom temptations 9. The very foresight of death it self is a humbling means and the last enemy Death is yet unconquered and our Bodies must corrupt in dust and darkness and be kept in the grave as common earth till the Resurrection that the soul may not grow proud that hath such a body 11. And the Day of Judgement is so described to us in the Scripture as tends to keep the soul in awe and in Humility To think of such a day and such a reckoning before such a God me 〈…〉 should humble us 11. And our Absolution and Glorification at that day is promised us now but conditionally though God will see that the condition be performed by all that he will save And therefore the poor soul is oft so far to seek about the certain sincerity of his own Faith and Repentance that most of the godly are kept in fears and doubtings to the death Yea and Humility and Self-denyal are part of this Condition And all their Honour and Glory with Christ is promised to the Humble only Humility is commanded them in the Precept Humility is it that they are exhorted to by the Ministers And Pride is threatened with everlasting wrath and described as the Devils image So that Holiness hath all the advantages against Pride that can be here expected 12. To conclude the Godly know that as they have nothing but from God so they have nothing but for God so that their own Honour is for him more then for themselves and it is essential to their Holiness to make God their end and set him highest and referr all to his Pleasure and Glory So that you see now that we may Honour them that fear the Lord Psalm 15. 4. without being guilty of making them proud and that we must not deny them the Honour that God hath given them as their due for fear of their being proud of it Though this as all things else must be prudently managed to particular persons according to their various states And therefore let me here warn all you that profess the fear of God Take heed lest you be proud of any thing that God hath Honoured you with For if you be you see what an Army of Reasons and Means you sin against and consequently how great your sin will be And your consciences and the world shall be forced to justifie God and his Holy wayes and to prove against you that it was not long of them that you were proud and that none in the world was more against it then God and Holiness and that it was not because you were so Religious but because you were no more Religious And if Pride of Knowledge Gifts or whatsoever be unmortified in you it will certainly prove that you are none of the sanctified when your profession of Sanctity will never prove that Sanctity was a cause or confederate in your sin AND now I have shewed you the Honour of Godliness let us briefly and but briefly consider of your Honour that reject it and see then whether the godly or ungodly are more Honourable 1. Ungodly men have the Basest Master in the world Would you know who Let Christ be Judge John 8. 44. Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father you will do 2 Tim. 2. 26. They are taken captive by the Devil at his will that is to do his will It is he that stirreth you up to filthy talking to speak against Godliness to curse and swear and you do his will His will is that you should neglect a holy life and you do his will His will is that you live not after the spirit but after the flesh and you do his will O poor souls Do you think it is only Witches that expresly Covenant with him that are his miserable servants Alas it is you also if you do his will For if you will believe either God or common reason to whom you yield your selves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness Rom. 6. 16. The godly themselves were the servants of sin till they obeyed from the heart the doctrine of the Lord v. 17. And are you not come to fair preferment to be the Devils drudges Though he should cloath your Bodies with Purple and fine linnen and feed you sumptuously every day yet indeed you are no better as the case of that miserable man may tell you Luke 16. It is the greatest Baseness to have so Base a Master 2. And it is but an ignoble Base de sign that the ungodly carry on in the world What is it but to provide for and please their flesh It aimeth at nothing beyond this life And a beast can eat and drink and sleep and play and satisfie his lust as much as they A swine can carry a mouth full of straw to his lodging and a bird can build a nest for her young ones And what do ungodly men more in the world whether Gentlemen or Beggars the flattered Gallants or the poor day-labourers if they be not such as first seek Heaven
them to be for their good or in it self more excellent then their good That is Pleasant to one man that is loathsom to another As the food and converse is delightful to a beast that is loathsom and as â—ad as death to man So one mans Pleasure is anothers Pain Even about the common matters of this life variety of complexions educations customs dispositions doth cause a variety of affections the difference between the sanctified and unsanctified the spiritual and the carnal mind doth cause a greater contrariety If therefore the errour of wicked minds or the distemper of your souls do make the Best things seem the worst and the sweetest things to seem most Bitter this is no confutation of my Argument that proves the way of Godliness most Pleasant If I would prove that wine is pleasanter then Vinegar or Bread then dirt or ashes I mean not to appeal to the appetites of the sick It is the sound and healthful that must be judges If a man will suffer his mind to be possessed with prejudice and base thoughts of God himself no wonder if he cannot love him nor take any delight in him And if men have a malignant enmity to Godliness no reason will perswade them that it is most pleasant but what perswades them from that enmity No Reason will perswade a sloathful person that Labour is better then sleep and idleness no Reason will perswade a drunkard glutton or voluptuous wretch that abstinence and continence are the sweetest life Could we change their Hearts we should change their Pleasures Such as men are such are their delights But the thing that I undertake is to manifest to any competent discerner that Holiness is the most Pleasant course and that all the Pleasures of the Earth are Nothing to the Pleasures which the Godly find in God and in a Holy life and if any be not of this mind it is because his souls diseases have made him an incompetent judge And that Godliness is the Pleasant State of life will appear to you 1. From the Nature of the thing it self 2. From the encouragements and helps with which it is attended 3. From the effects and fruits I. The Nature of Holiness is to be found 1. In the Understanding 2. In the will and affections and 3. In the Practice of mens lives And in all these I shall shew you that it is the most Delightful course 1. Knowledge in it self is a pleasant thing to humane nature Ignorance is the blindness of the soul It is not so pleasant for the eye to behold the sun as for the mind of man to discern the truth To Know Good and Evil had never been the matter of so strong a Temptation to Adam if Knowledge had not been very desirable to innocent nature How hard do many even ungodly persons study to know the mysteries of Nature And nothing hath more strongly tempted some wretches to witchcraft or contracts with the Devil then a desire of knowing unrevealed things which by his means they have hoped to attain A studious man hath far more natural valuable Delight in his reading and succesful studies then a voluptuous Epicure hath in his sensual Delights But it is a special kind of Knowledge that Holiness doth initially consist in which transcendeth in true Pleasure all the common wisdom of the worid For 1. How Pleasant a thing must it needs be to know things of so high a Nature To know the Almighty Living God to behold his wisdom goodness and power in his glorious works to be led to him by all the Creatures and hear of him by every Providence and find his Holy Blessed Name in every leaf of his sacred word how sweet and pleasant a thing is this To know the Divine Nature Persons Attributes and Will to know the mystery of the Incarnation of the person natures undertaking performance of the blessed Mediator Jesus Christ to know his birth his life temptations conquests his righteousness his holy doctrine and example the Law and promise the Law of Nature and the Covenant of Grace the sufferings Resurrection ascension glorification and intercession of our Lord to know his Kingdom Laws and Government and his Judgement with his Rewards and punishments to know the sanctifying works of the Holy Ghost by which we are prepared for everlasting life and to know that life though but by faith for which we are here prepared how high and pleasant a thing is this If it be pleasant to know the course of nature in those higher parts that are above the vulgar reach what is it to know the God of Nature and the true use and End of Nature What high things doth the poorest Christian know He knoweth the things that are invisible Think not that faith is so void of Evidence as not to deserve the name of Knowledge We Know the things which we do believe Nicodemus could say from the Evidence of Miracles Joh. 3. 2. We know that thou arâ— a Teacher come from God for no man could do these miracles that thou dost except God be with him Joh. 9. 29. We know that God spake to Moses say the Jews We know that the Scripture testimony is true Joh. 21. 24. 2 Cor. 5. 1. We know even by believing that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 1 Joh. 3. 2. We know that when we shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Joh. 14. 20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you We know that no whoremonger 〈…〉 such like shall inherit eternal life Eph. 5. 5. We know that â—â—â— Labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. Many such passages of Scripture tell us that Faith is a certain Knowledge and that Invisible things revealed by God are certainly known We know what Saints and Angels are now doing in the highest heavens for God hath told us We know the most high and glorious things revealed by God which we never saw And is not the Pleasure of such knowledge greater then the Pleasure of all the wealth the honour and sensual enjoyments in this world I durst almost refer the case to one of you that are most befooled by your own sensuality If you could go tomorrow and meet with a soul from Heaven or with an Angel that could tell you what becomes of souls and what is done in another world Would you not rather goe to such a conference then go as far to a drinking or a bowling or some such recreation I think you would if it were but to satisfie your curiosity and desire of Knowing Why then should not the servants of Christ more Delight in the reading and hearing the words of Christ that came from the bosome of the Father that hath seen God and is with God and is God himself that telleth them
more certainly of the Invisible things then any Saints or Angels can tell them Why should not this I say be sweeter to them then all the fleshly pleasures in the world O that I could know more of God and more of the mystery of Redemption even of an obedient crucified glorified Christ and more of the invisible world and of the blessed state of souls on condition I left all the Pleasures of this world to sensual men O that I had more clear and firm apprehensions of these transcendent glorious things How easily could I spare the Pleasures of the flesh and leave those husks to swine to feed on O could my Soul get nearer God and be more irradiated with his heavenly beams my mind would need no other recreation and I should as little relish carnal Pleasures as carnal minds do relish the heavenly delights As earthly things are poor and low so is the knowledge of them As things spiritual and heavenly are High and Glorious mysterious and profound the knowledge of them is accordingly Delighful And without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. Faith is the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. It is far pleasanter by faith to see the Lord thâ—… to see any Creature by the eye of flesh and sweeter â—y faith to see Heaven opened and there behold our Glorified Lord then to see a horse-race or stage-play or any of the folleries of the world 2. The knowledge of things to Come is specially desired and Godliness containeth that Faith which knoweth things to come How glad would men be to be told what shall besall them to the last hour of their lives The woman of Samaria Joh. 4. called out her neighbours with admiration to see Christ as one that had told her all that shee had done But if he had told her all that ever she would do for the time to come and all that ever should befall her it might have astonished her much more Believers know what hath been even before the world was made and how it was made and what hath been since then and they know what will be to all eternity A true Believer knows from Scripture whither mens Souls go after death and how their Bodies shall be raised again and how Christ will come to Judge the world and who shall then be justified and who shall be condemned and what shall be the case of the godly and the ungodly to all eternity And is it not more pleasant to know these things then to possess all the vain delights of the earth Can the flesh afford you any thing so delightful 3. Especially it is desireable and Pleasant to Know those things that most concern us Needless speculations and curiosities we can spare There is a Knowledge that brings more pain then pleasure Yea there is a Knowledge that will torment But to know our own affairs our greatest and most necessary affairs to know our threatened misery to prevent it and to know our offered Happiness to obtain it to know our Portion our Honour our God what can be more Pleasant to the mind of man Other mens matters we can pass by But to Know such things concerning our own souls as what we must be and do for ever and what course we must take to be everlastingly happy must needs be a feast to the mind of a wise man Ask but a soul that is haunted with temptations to unbelif whether any thing would be more welcome to him then the clear and satisfying apprehensions of a lively faith Ask one that lyeth in tears or groans through the feeling of their sin and the fears of the wrath of God and doubtings of his love whether the satisfying Knowledge of pardon and reconciliation and divine acceptance would not be more pleasant to them then any of your merriments can be to you Ask that poor soul that hath lost the apprehension of his Evidences of grace and walks in darkness and hath no light that seeks and cryes and perceives no hearing whether the discovery of his Evidences the assurance that his Prayers are accepted and the light of Gods countenance shining on him would not be Better to him then any Recreation or any Pleasure the earth affords Ask any man at the hour of death that is not a block Whether now the Knowledge of his salvation would not be Better and more Pleasnt to him then all the lust or sport or honours of the world 4. The Knowledge of the Best and Joyfullest matters must be the Best and Pleasantest Knowledge And nothing can be Better then God and Glory Nothing can be sweeter then salvation and therefore this must be the sweetest Knowledge I had rather have the pleasure of one hours clear and lively Knowledge of my salvation and of the special Love of God then to be exalted above the greatest Prince and to have all the Pleasures that my senses can desire The Delights of the flesh are base and brutish and nothing to the spiritual Heavenly Delights of the renewed mind 5. The manner of our Holy Knowledge maketh it more Delightful 1 It is a Certain and Infallible Knowledge It is not a may be or bare possibility It is not It is possible there may be a Heaven and Happiness hereafter But it is as true as the Word of God is true We have his own hand and seal and earnest for it Even his precious promises and oath confirmed by miracles and fulfilled-prophecy and bearing his own image and superscription and shining to us by its own light We have in our hearts the spirit which is Gods earnest by which we are sealed up to the day of our final full redemption And if the soul yet stagger at the promise of God through the remnants of unbelief that shall not make the promise of God of none effect but his foundation shall still stand sure His word shall not pass till all be fulfilled though heaven and earth shall pass away A message by one that were sent to us from the dead were not more credible then the Word of God And this Certainty of Holy Faith and Knowledge is a very great contentment to the soul When the Glory of the Saints is a thing as sure as if we saw it with our eyes and as sure as these things which we daily see it is a great pleasure to the soul when it can but apprehend this joyful Certainty 2. And that there is a certain easiness and plainness in the great and necessary points of faith as to the manner of Revelation doth add much to Faith's Satisfaction and Delight The points that life and death lie on are not left so obscure as might perplex us lest we did not know the meaning of them But they are so plain that he that runs may read them and the simple
soul may well be fullest of Delight that is most Happy And that soul is nearest and likest unto God whose Will is most conformed to his Will The trouble of the Heart is its unsettledness when it is not bottomed on the Will of God When we feel that Gods Will doth Rule and satisfie us and that we would fain be what he would have us be and rest in his Disposing Will as well as obey his Commanding Will this gives abundant Pleasure and quietness to the soul 2. The holy workings of Charity in the soul are exceeding Pleasant All the acts of Love to God and man are very sweet This is the holy work that is its own wages 1. The â—â—â—â— of God is so sweet an exercise that verily my soul had rather be employed in it with sense and vigour then to be Lord of all the earth O could I but be taken up with the Love of God how easily could I spare the Pleasure of the flesh Might I but see the Loveliness of my dear Creator with a clearer view and see his glory in his noble works Might I but see and feel that saving Love which he hath manifested in the Redeemer till my soul were ravished and filled with his Love how little should I care who had the Pleasures of this deceitful world Had I more of that blessed spirit of Adoption and more of those filial affections to my heavenly Father which his unutterable Love bespeaks and were I more sensible of his abundant mercy and did my soul but breath and long after him more earnestly I would pitty the miserable Tyrants of the world that are worse then Beggars while they domineer and tast not of that Kingdom of Love and Pleasure that dwelleth in my breast All the Pleasures of the world are the laughing of a mad man or the sports of a child or the dreams of a sick man in comparison of the Pleasures of the Love of God 2. And the Love of Holiness the Image of God hath its degree of Pleasure And so hath the Love of the Holy servants of the Lord. There is a sweetness in the soul in its goings out after any Holy object in spiritual Love Yea more our very common Love of men and our Love of Enemies hath its proportion of pleasure far better then the sensual Pleasure of the ungodly To feel so much of the operations of grace and to answer our holy pattern in Loving them that hate us doth give much ease and pleasure to the mind The exercises of Love to God and man and that for his sake are the exceeding Pleasure of a gracious soul And here by the way you may take notice of one reason why Hypocrites and ungodly men find no such sweetness in the exercises of Religion Because they let alone the inward Pleasant work of Love which is the soul and life of Outward duty This inward work is the Pleasant work while they are strangers unto this their outward duties will be but a toll 〈…〉 seem a drudgery or a wearysome employment There is a Pleasure even in Holy Desires When a Christian feeleth his heart enlarged in longing after the wellfare of the Church and the good of others Though the absence of the thing desired be aâ—…e yet the exercise of holy desire which is an act of Love is pleasant to us If the Lustfu have a pleasure in their vile Desires and the Ambitious and the Covetous have a pleasure in their vain and delusory desires the wise well-guided desires of a true believer must needs be pleasant 4. Especially when Desire is accompanied with Hope All the Pleasures of this world are far short of affording that Rest and quiet to the soul as the Hope of Glory doth to the believer O happy soul that is acquainted by experience with the lively Hopes of the everlasting Happiness It is not the Hope of corruptible Riches nor of a fading inheritance but of the Crown that sadeth not and of the precious certain durable treasure It is not a Hope in the promise of a deceitful man but in the word of the everliving God! The soul that hath this Anchor needs not be tossed with those fears and cares and anxieties of mind that worldly men are subject to This Hope will never make them ashamed If a man were in a consumption or sentenced to Death would not the Hopes of Life upon certain Grounds be pleasanter to him then sport or mirth or lustful objects or any such present sensitive delights Much more if with the hopes of Life he had the hopes of all the felicities of Life and of the perpetuity of all these O may I but be enabled by faith to lift up the eye of my soul to God and view the everlasting mansions and by hope to take possession of them and say All this is mine in Title even upon the Promise of the faithful God! what greater Pleasure can my soul possess till it enter on the full Possession of those eternal Pleasures O poor deluded worldly men What is the Pleasure of your wealth to this O brutish sinners what is the Pleasure of your mirth and jollity your meat and drink your pride and bravery your lust and filthiness in comparison of this O poor Ambitious dreaming men that make such a stir for the Honour and Greatness of this world What is the Pleasure of your Idol-honour and short vainglory in comparison of this while you have it you have no Hope of Keeping it you are troubled with the thought of leaving it Had we no higher Hopes then yours how miserable should we be 5. The Trust and repose of the soul on God which is another part of the life of grace is exceeding Pleasant and quieting to the soul To find that we stand upon a Rock and that under us are the everlasting arms and that we have so full security for our salvation as the promise and Oath of the immutable God what a stay what a Pleasure is this to the Believer The troubles of the godly are most from the remnants of their unbelief The more they believe the more they are comforted and established The life of faith is a Pleasant life Faith could not conquer so many enemies and carry us through so much suffering and distress as you find in that cloud of testimonies Heb. 11. if it were not a very comfortable work Even we that see not the salvation ready to be revealed may yet greatly rejoyce for all the manifold temptations that for a season make us subject to some heavyness 1 Pet. 1. 5 6. And we that see not Jesus Christ yet Believing can love him and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory v. 8. The God of Hope doth sometimes fill his servants with all Joy and peace in believing and makes them even abound in Hope through the Power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. 6. Yea Joy is it self a part of the Holy qualification of the Saints and of
for ever and when the force of Love doth open our lips that our mouthes may shew forth his praise it is pleasant both to God and us The Lord himself doth put on joy as delighting in his peoples praise and when they joyn obedience with holy worship they are pleasant in his eyes Jer. 9. 24. Isa 62. 4. 42. 1. Zeph. 3. 17. He meeteth him that Rejoyceth and worketh righteousness and that remembers him in his wayes Isa 64. 5. Would you taste of the sweetest life on earth Learn then to Delight your selves in God Do you want recreation Be acquainted with his Praise Is there not a better cure for Melancholy here among the servants of the Lord then in an Ale-house or in the company of transgressors Their carnal pleasures are unwholsom for you like luscious fruits that will make you sick But the delights of Faith are safe and healthful Fleshly pleasure is windy and deceitful and weakeneth and befools the soul But the Joy of the Lord is our strength Neb. 8. 10. A little may be too much of fleshly pleasures and it is of very hard digestion and leaves that behind that spoils the sport But the further you go in the Delights of Faith the better they are and the sweeter you will find them You may quickly catch a dangerous surfet of your fleshly pleasures but of spiritual Delights the more the better For they are curing reviving and much confirm and exalt the soul Our spiritual pleasures are so heavenly and have so much of God and Glory in them that they must needs prepare the soul for heaven and be excellent helps to our salvation O therefore if you would live a Pleasant life draw near to God and by Faith behold him and by Love adhere to him and take a view of his infinite Goodness and all his perfections and behold him in his wonderous works and then break forth into his chearful praises and you shall taste such pleasures as the earth affordeth not Lanch forth into the boundless Ocean of Eternity and let your hearts and tongues expatiate in the Praise of the Heavenly Majesty and use this work and ply it close and be not too seldom or customary or careless in it and you shall find the difference between the Pleasures of Faith and of the flesh of a Holy and of a sensual life Psalm 135. 2 3. Ye that stand in the House of the Lord in the Courts of the House of our God Praise the Lord for the Lord is Good sing praises to his Name for it is pleasant Psal 71. 8. Let my mouth be filled with thy Praise and with thy honour all the day Psal 96. 2. 6. Sing unto the Lord bless his name shew forth his salvation from day to day Honour and Majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his Sanctuary O that the Lord will but shine upon my soul with the Light of his countenance and open my heart to the entertainment of his Love and hold a gracious Communion with my soul by his holy Spirit and keep open these doors to me and continue this liberty of his House and Ordinances which we enjoy this day that I may joyn with a faithful humble people in holy Communion and in his Praise and Worship and that with a heart that is suitable to these works I shall then say with David Psal 16. 6. The lines â—â—faln to me in pleasant places I have a goodly heritage I will â—â— for no greater pleasures or honours or advancement in this world Let who will surfet on the pleasures of the flesh Here doth my soul delight to dwell Psalm 27. 4 5 6. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the daies of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his holy Temple For in the time of trouble he will hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me he shall set me up upon a Rock And then shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me therefore will I offer in his Tabernatle sacrifices of Joy I will sing yea I will sing Praises to the Lord. Till I come to the promised Everâ—… Pleasures I shall ask of God no greater Pleasures These would be as much as my soul in the prison of flesh can bear Till 〈…〉 to the Land of Promise may I but have these clusters of 〈…〉 in my present Wilderness I shall not repine My heart 〈…〉 shall be glad and my glory shall rejoyce and at death my flesh 〈…〉 in hope For as the Lord now sheweth me the path of 〈…〉 so in his presence is 〈…〉 of Joy and at his right hand are 〈…〉 for 〈…〉 Pâ—… 4. Another Pleasant Holy Duty is Our holy Communion with Christ and his Church in the Lords Supper This is a holy Feast that is purposely provided by the King of Saints for the entertainment of his family for the refreshing of the weary and the making glad the mournful soul The night before his bitter Death he instituted this Sacramental Feast He caused his Disciples to sit down with him and when they had partaked of the Passover the Sacrament of Promise and had their taste of the old wine he giveth them the New even the Sacrament of the better Covenant and of the fuller Gospel-Grace He teacheth them that his Death is Life to them and that which is his bitterest suffering is their Feast and his Sorrows are their Joyes as our sinful pleasures were his sorrows The slain Lamb of God our Passover that was sacrificed for us that taketh away the sins of the world was the pleasant food which Sacramentally he himself then delivered to them and substantially the next day offered for them The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world John 6. 33. He is the Living Bread which came down from Heaven If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the bread that he giveth is his flesh which he hath given for the life of the world ver 50 51. Except we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood we have no life in us Whoso eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath Eternal life and he will raise him up at the last day For his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed He that eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him As the Living Father hath sent the Son and he liveth by the Father so he that eateth him shall live by him This is that bread that came down from Heaven not as the Fathers did eat Maâ—â—â— and are dead he that eateth this bread shall live for ever I know that to an unbelieving carnal wretch the Sacrament is but a common thing For Christ himself and his Gospel is â—o better in his
Lord if your merry companions do please you better then the Communion of the Saints or if you cannot submit to the order and discipline of the family of Christ that you may partake of his provision you may follow your own corrupt desires and see whither they will lead you But here it is that I shall choose my pleasures till I reach the everlasting pleasures And though in this low communion of imperfect Saints we see but in a glass and have but some small imperfect Sasts of the glorious things which Hope expecteth yet this is more then all that earth and flesh can yield and it is most perfect Pleasure that by these is revealed sealed and Represented Sacraments can assure us of perfect joys though they give us but little joy in hand Obj. But if Sacraments be so pleasant why then saith a disconsolate soul have I found no more pleasure or comfort in them Answ Even in the soul that 's made alive by Grace diseases may much corrupt the appetite and make the sweetest thing seem bitter Are not Sacraments sweet to you and do you not delight in the communion of God and of his Saints I will not say much to you lest it seem degrestive but briefly ask you these few Questions 1. Are the thoughts of God of Christ of Heaven sweet to you If they be me thinks the Ordinances should be sweet If they be not it s no wonder that you sét light by Sacraments if you can set light by Christ and heaven it self Quest 2. Is not sin grown sweet to you If it be the ordinances will not be sweet no nor unless your sins grow bitter Quest 3. Doth not the world grow sweet to you and your condition or expectations and your thriving state more plesant to you then heretofore If so no wonder if Sacraments and all spiritual things do lose their sweetness Quest 4. Have you been faithful in your preparation by free confession true humiliation strong resolution hungring and thristing after Christ and all this furthered by diligent self-examination An unprepared soul must blame it self if it find not the sweetness of the Ordinance The holy appetite and relish that is necessary to your Delight must be stirred up much in your Preparations Quest 5. Are you careful and conscionable humble and holy in your lives If you neglect God in your ordinary conversations and walk not with him on other daies you are unlike to meet him comfortably here And if you are slight and careless in your ordinary duties you will find here that God took notice of it Quest 6. Do you faithfully endeavour to exercise Faith Repentance Love and all Sacramental Graces in the use of the ordinances You come not to a meer receiving but to a Work Have your souls been adorned with the wedding garment and do you come hither for a meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ Do you see him by faith and take all that is here Represented to you as if you had seen the things themselves Do you remember that your Lord is coming and do you lift up your heads in the expectation of your Redemption and do this in remembrance of him till he come An idle loytering in Gods work is not the way to find the sweetness of it Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. l. 1. init gives it as a Reason why every one took his own part of the Bread of the Sacrament in those times because man being a free agent must be the chooser or refuser of his own happiness The Papists on the contrary do but gape and the Priest doth pop the bread into their mouths having first perswaded them that it is not bread Do you not expect to receive the spiritual benefits just as the Papists do receive the Bread as if you had nothing to do but gape As if your presence here were as much as is to be expected from you for your edification How can you tast the sweetness that is offered when you do not exercise your spiritual senses Quest 7. Do you exercise faith as well as feeling in judging of the benefit of Sacraments Pardon and Justification and Title to Salvation are benefits which in themselves you cannot feel It is by Believing the promise that you must know them If God have promised a blessing on his Ordinance it is sure to the faithful soul as if we felt it though perhaps we may seem long without it Heaven it self which is the principal end of Ordinances will not be attained in this life and yet the Ordinace is not in vain Quest 8. Have you the true understanding of the use of Sacraments of the abundant Love that is here set forth and the freeness and fulness of the Promise here sealed If not no wonder if you taste not the sweetness when you know not how to break the shell that you may feed on the kernel of the Ordinances Quest 9. Have you not troubled your own souls and muddyed your comforts by causeless doubts and ignorant scruples about the gestures or manner or persons that you joyned with or some such circumstances as these If so no marvel if you lose the comfort Quest 10. Or at least have you not been negligent in the review and after improving of the Ordinances and have you not thought that all was done when you had received Any one of these miscarriages may make this pleasant duty bitter or at least deprive you of the most of the delight But if your hearts be suted to the work and you deprive not your selves of the offered consolation you shall find that God deals bountifully with you and will feast you even with Angels food 5. The publike worship being all thus sweet how sweet are the Lords days these holy seasons that are wholly consecrated to this work How light is the Christian that hath this day cast off his worldly cares and business and cogitations and hath set himself apart for God as if there were to world to mind On the week days he doth walk with Goa But so that his necessary worldly business doth frequently divert and distract his mind But what a sweet and happy day is this when he may strip himself of these distractions as he doth of his work-day courser cloaths and may wholly apply himself to God As the Bee goes from flower to flower labouring at all but with a Pleasant labour to gather Honey and prepare for winter so doth the Christian especially on the Lords day employ himself in labour and delight and the more he laboureth the more is his delight From Prayer he goeth to Reading and to the instructing his family if he be a superiour or learning if he be an inferiour and have helps From private worship to publike and from publike to private again and gathering Honey food and sweetness to his soul from all Tell me you childish brutish wantons Do you think in your heart that you have as much solid joy and pleasure in a play day or in
Believer knows that as his life and soul so his worldly riches are nowhere sure but in the hand of God And therefore if they can procure his security and get him to receive it and return it them in Heaven with the promised advantage they have then secured it indeed All is lost that God hath not in one way or other and all is secured that he hath and for which we have his promise This is laying it up in heaven Matth. 6. 21. While we keep it we cannot secure it from thieves When we have disposed of it according to the Will of God upon the warrant of his promise it is then in his Custody and then it is safe Neither rust or moath can then corrupt it nor the strongest thieves break through and steal To be Good and do Good is to be likest unto God and therefore must needs be the sweetest life 2. Works of Justice also have their pleasure For they demonstrate the Justice of God himself from whom they do proceed That which is most Pleasant to God should be most Pleasant unto us And as he hath bid us not forget to do good and to communicate because with such sacrifice he is well pleased Heb. 13. 16. so he hath told us that he delighteth in the exercise of loving-kindness judgement and righteousness in the earth Jer. 9. 24. He hath shewed us what is good and what doth he require of us but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with our God Mich. 6. 8. And therefore he commandeth Israel Hos 12. 6. Turn thou to thy God Keep Mercy and Judgement and wait on thy God continually Private justice between man and man and family-justice between parents and children masters and servants and Political justice between the Magistrates and the people do all maintain the order of the world and procure both publike and private peace It is selfishness and injustice tyrannie oppression disobedience and rebellion that procure the miseries of the world But Righteousness is safe and sweet 2. You have heard of the Pleasure of Holy Actions both Internal and External The truth is evident also from the Objects of these Acts and the matter from which a believer may derive his Pleasures And O what an Ocean of delight is here before us Were our powers capacities and acts but answerable to the Objects we should presently have the Joyes of heaven 1. A Believer hath the ever blessed God himself to derive his comforts from He hath his Nature and Attributes to be his comfort He hath his near Relations to afford him comfort and this is more then to have all the world It is a God of Infinite Power and Wosdom and Goodness that we believe in that we Love and Worship and Obey It is also a Father Reconciled to us that hath taken us in Covenant to him as his people through Jesus Christ And where shall we find comfort if not in God It is in vain to look for that from any creature that is not to be found in him Poor worldlings you have nothing that is worth the having but the crumms that fall from the childrens table God is our Portion and the world is yours and yet you have less even in this world then we You have the shadow and we have the substance You have the shell and we the kernell You have the straw and chaff and true believers have the corn Your comforts are shaken with every storm and tost up and down by the Justice of God or the Pride of man But God that is our Portion is unchangeable Yesterday to day and the same for ever We have a Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. Persecutors cannot take our God from us nor can any thing separate us from his Love Rom. 8. 36. They may separate us from our houses from our Countries from our friends from our riches our liberties our lives from our Books our company and Ordinances but not from God who is our great Delight In poverty in persecution in sickness and at death we have still our interest in God A Christian is never in so low a state but he hath a God to whom he may go for comfort who is more to him then your sweetest pleasures Is it not a pleasure to have such a God as can cure all diseases supply all wants overcome all enemies deliver in all dangers and hath promised that he will do it so far as is for our good If he want water that hath the Sea or he want land that hath all the earth or he want light that hath the Sun yet doth he not need to want delight that hath the Lord to be his God if â—e do but keep in the pathes of grace And are you yet unresolved whether Godliness be the most Pleasant Life Take all your pleasures and make your best of them may I but have the Lord to be my God and I hope I shall never desire to change with you 2. A Holy life is therefore Pleasant because we have a full sufficient Saviour from whom we may daily fetch delight The Eâ—ernal Son of God is become the Healer of our wounds our Peace-maker with the Father the Conquerour of our enemies the Ransom for our sins the Captain of our salvation the Head of his Church and the Treasure of all our Hopes and Joyes Sin and misery are the works of Satan which Christ came into the world to destroy If Hypocrites can steal a little Peace to their Consciences from a false conceit that they have a part in Christ what comfort may it be to the true Believer that hath a sure and real interest in him That is the sad and miserable life when you are out of Christ and strangers to his Covenant and cannot say his benefits are yours but you are yet in your sins without his righteousness But when we have a special interest in him the foundation of our everlasting joy is laid and the heart of sin and misery is broken What fear or sorrow can you name that I may not fetch a sufficient remedy against from Christ What can the Prince of darkness say to our discomfort which we may not answer by Arguments from Christ By this judge of the Comfort of a Holy life If the Godly over-look the Grounds of Joy that are laid in Christ and live in a mistaken sorrow that is not for want of Reasons and warrant to rejoyce but for want of a right discerning of those Reasons But what have you that are ungodly to answer against all the terrours of the Law or to answer against all the accusations of your consciences or to comfort you against the remembrance of your approaching misery While you have no part in Christ you have no right to comfort One thought of Christ to a believing soul may afford more Delight then ever you will find in a sinful life 3. Moreover we have the Holy spirit of Christ that is purposely given us to be
our Comforter And if that be not a pleasant life that is managed by such a Guide and that be not likest to be a joyful soul that is possest by the Spirit of joy it self there is no joy then on earth to be expected Hath God promised his Spirit to comfort you that are wicked in your sin No it is the malicious deceiving spirit that is your Comforter that by his comforts he might keep you from solid spiritual everlasting comforts But the Repenting Believing soul that is united unto Christ and hath already had the spirit for his conversion it is he that hath the promise of the spirit for his consolation And if that be not the most comfortable life where the God of Heaven becomes the comforter we cannot then know the effect by the cause If Life it self will quicken if light it self will illuminate the comforting spirit will certainly comfort in the degree and season as God seeth meet and the soul is fitted to receive it 4. Moreover we have the whole treasurie of the Gospel to go to for our Delight And little doth the sensual unbelieving soul know what sweetness what supporting pleasures may be from thence derived I had rather have the holy word of God to go to for contents then the treasures of the rich or the pleasures of the sensual or the flatteries and vain glory of the ambitious man All that the world doth make such a pudder about which they ride and run for which they so much glory in will never afford them so much Content as one Scripture promise will do to a truly faithful soul I must profess before Angels and men that I had rather have one Promise of the Love of God and the life to come which is contained in the holy Scriptures then to have all the riches pleasures and honours of this world My God this was my Covenant with thee and to this I stand O blessed be the Lord that hath provided us such a Magazine of Delight as is this heavenly sacred Book The Precepts appoint us a pleasant work The strictest prohibitions do but restrain us from our own calamities and keep out of our hands the knife by which we would cut our fingers The severest threatnings do but deterre us from running into the consuming fire and hedge about the devouring gulf lest we should foolishly cast our selves therein And these are the bitterest parts of that holy word But when we read the promises of a Saviour and the wonderful history of his Incarnation and of his holy self-denying life his conquests miracles death resurrection ascension intercession and his promise to return when we read of the foundation which he hath laid and the building which he intends to finish of his rich abundant promises to his chosen what provision do we find for our abundant joys No strait can be so great no pressure so grievous no enemies so strong but we have full consolation offered us in the promises against them all We have promises of the pardon of all our sins and promises of heaven it self and what can we have more we have promises suited to every state both prosperity and adversity What do we need which we have not a promise of And the word of God is no deceit What but a promise can comfort them that are short of the possession May I not have more joy in sickness with a promise then the ungodly without a promise in their health A promise in prison sets a man as at liberty A promise in Poverty is more then riches A promise at death is better then life What I have a promise of I may be sure of but what you possess without a promise you may lose and your souls and hopes with it this night There is no condition on earth so hard to a man that hath interest in the promises in which he may not have plentiful relief We live by faith and not by sense And we reckon more on that as ours which we hope for then which we do possess We are sure that there is no true felicity on earth It then we have a promise of Heaven when Infidels lie down in the dust with desperation have we not a more comfortable life then they 5. Moreover we have Heaven it self to fetch our comfort from Not Heaven in sight or in Possession but Heaven in Promise and seen by faith And if Heaven will not afford us pleasure whence shall we expect it Even sensual men can rejoyce as well in what they see not if they are assured it is theirs as in what they see And why then may not Believers do so much more A worldling when he seeth not his money in his chest or at use or his lands and cattel that are far from him can yet rejoyce in them as if he saw them And should not we rejoyce in the certain Hopes of Heaven though yet we see it not when I am pained in sickness and role in restless weariness of my flesh if then I can say I shall be in Heaven may it not be the inward rejoycing of my soul You know where you are but you know not where you shall be The Believer knoweth where he shall be as truly as he knoweth where he is unless it be one that by his frailty hath not reacht unto assurance who yet hath reached unto Hope What great matter is it if I lay in greatest pain if I can say I shall have everlasting ease in Heaven Or if I lay in prison or in sordid poverty and can say I shall shortly be with Christ Or if I had lost the love of all men and could say that I shall everlastingly enjoy the Love of God Most of your comforts do come in by the way of your thoughts And what Thoughts should so rejoyce the soul as the thoughts of our abode with Christ for ever If a day in the Courts of God be so delightful what is ten thousand millions of ages in the Court of Glory and all then as fresh as at the first day There it is that our sin will be put off Our carnal enmity laid by our temptations will be over our enemies will all have done our fears and sorrows will be at an end Our desires will be accomplished Our differences be reconciled Our charity perfected and our expectations fully satisfied and Hope turned into full fruition O may I but be able with stronger faith and fuller confidence to say that Heaven is mine and when this tabernacle is dissolved I shall be with Christ my life and my death will be delightful and I need not complain for want of pleasure Let who will take the pleasures of the flesh may I but have this In prayer in meditation in holy conference in every duty it is the expectation of approaching blessedness that drops in sweetness into all No wonder if it can sweeten a course of duty when it can make light the greatest sufferings and turn pain into pleasure
give 3. Holiness removeth fears and troubles and therefore must needs be a Pleasant state It removeth the fears of the wrath of God and of damnation and the fears of all destructive evils It tends to heal the wounded soul and pacific the clamorous conscience and abate all worldly and groundless sorrows for which the wicked have no true cure 4. Holiness is the destruction of sin and sin is the cause of all calamities and therefore Holiness must needs be Pleasant 5. Holiness doth consist in rejoycing Graces that are exceeding pleasant in the exercise as Faith Hope Love Patience c. yea it consisteth in Joy it self Rom. 14. 17. 6. It fits the soul for Communion with God who is the fountain of Delights and it brings us near him and acquaints us with him as a God of Love and therefore must needs be a Pleasant state 7. You see by experience that when once men have tryed a Holy life they think they can never have enough of it The more Holy they are the more Holy they would be He that hath most would fain have more And the weakest desireth no less then to be perfect And do you think men that have tryed it would so long after more and more if it were not pleasant Judge also by the labour and diligence of the godly who seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and make it the principal business of their lives Would they make all this ado for nothing Or for that which is a matter of no delight Judge also by the delights which they voluntarily forsake when they let go all their sinful pleasures and renounce all the glory of the world would they make this exchange if they had not found a more pleasant course and that which tends to everlasting pleasure 8. You see also that the truly Godly when once they have tryed a holy life will never go back again to their former pleasures but loath the very remembrance of them It is not all the honours and riches and pleasures in the world that can hire them to forsake a holy life Sure therefore they find it the most pleasant course if not in sensible delights yet at least in easing their consciences and securing their minds from the terrours that sinful pleasures would produce If they found that Godliness answered not their expectation they have leisure enough and temptations too many to turn back into the state from whence they came But how would they abhorr such a motion as this 9. If Holiness were not a Pleasant thing it could not help us to bear up under all afflictions nor make us rejoyce in tribulation as it doth That which can sweeten gall and wormwood must needs be very sweet it self That which can make reproach and scorn and poverty and imprisonment either sweet or tolerable is sure it self a pleasant thing 10. Lastly if Holiness were not pleasant it could not make Death it self so easie nor take off its terrours nor cause the Martyrs to suffer so joyfully for Christ Death is the King of terrours and so bitter a cup that it must needs be a pleasant thing indeed that can sweeten it BEsides all this that hath been said let me briefly have some general aggravations of the Delights of Holiness And compare it as we go with the Delights of the ungodly 1. The Delights of Holiness are the most Great and Glorious and Sublime delights They are fetcht from the most Great and Glorious things It is God and his Grace and everlasting glory that feed our pleasures Whereas the Delights of sensual men are fed with trifles What do they rejoyce in but the fooleries of sin and the filthyness of their own transgressions What is it that contenteth them but a dream of honour or the good will and word of mortal men or a brutish sportfulnesse or the pleasing of the itch of lust or the provision that they have laid up for the flesh The treasures of a Kingdom excell not the treasure of a childs pin-box the thousandth part so much as Heaven excells the treasure of the ungodly Judge therefore by the matter that feeds their pleasure which of the two is the more pleasant life to sport in their own shame and laugh at the brink of misery with the ungodly or to delight our selves in the Love of God and rejoyce in the assured hope of Glory with the true believer 2. The Delights of Holiness are the most rational well-grounded sure delights They are not delusory nor grounded on mistakes or fancies They are warranted by the truth and All-sufficiency of God and the certainty of his promise and the immutability of his counsels and the sure Reward prepared for his Saints None but a lying malicious Devil or his instruments that participate of his nature or a blind corrupted partial flesh will ever go about to question the foundations of our faith and comforts The hopes and comforts that are built upon this Rock will never fall nor make us ashamed But the ungodly rejoyce in their own delusions It is ignorance and errour that they are beholden to for their mirth They laugh in their sleep or as mad men in their distraction Did they know that Satan rejoyceth in their joyes and that an offended God is alwayes present and how poor a matter it is that they rejoyce in it would marr their mirth If they saw the Hell that they are near or well-considered where they stand and what a case their souls are in they would have little list to play or laugh If they knew aright the shortness of their pleasures and the length of their sorrows and in what a doleful case their wealth and fleshly delights will leave them it would turn their laughter into mourning and lamentation So that they rejoyce but as a sick man in a phrensie or as a fool upon some good news to him that is false upon meer mistake 3. The Delights of Holiness are the most pure Delights and most entire and compleat There is no Evil in it mixed with the Good and therfore nothing to interrupt the joy Our joyes indeed are too much interrupted but that is not from any hurt that is in a holy life but by the contrary sin which Holiness must work out If men take poyson let them not blame nature that strives against it if they are sick but let them blame themselves and the poyson that puts nature to expell it In Holiness it self there is nothing but Good and therefore nothing that should grieve us But it is far otherwise with sensual delights As they are sinful they are wholly evil As they are natural feeding upon the creature alone they are as it is a mixture of Vanity and Vexation Every creature hath its unsuitableness and imperfection by which it disturbeth even where it pleaseth and troubleth where it comforteth and frustrateth and disappointeth more then it satisfieth The more we Love it usually the more we suffer by it That
lament it Can you expect that an ingenuous man should see his sin and look back on so many years transgressions and not be grieved To see that he hath so long abused God and lost his time and neglected his salvation and that he hath lain so long in so miserable a state must needs cause remorse in the conscience that hath any feeling And will you say that Godliness is unpleasant because it makes a man sorrow for his ungodliness If a man that hath killed his dearest friend or his own Father be grieved for the fact when he cometh to repentance will you blame his Repentance or his Murder for his grief Will you say What a hurtful thing is this Repentance or rather What an odious crime was it that must be so repented of Would you wish a man that hath lived so long in sin and misery to have no sorrow for it at his return Especially when it is but a healing sorrow preparing for remission and not a sorrow joyned with despair as theirs will be that die impenitently Observe the complaints of penitent souls whether it be their present Godliness or their former ungodliness which they lament Will you hear a man lament his former sinful careless life and yet will you lay the blame on the contrary course of duty which now he hath undertaken You may as wisely accuse a man for landing in a safe harbour because he there lamenteth his loss by shipwrack while he was at Sea Or as wisely may you blame a man for rising that complaineth how he hurt himself by his fall And as honestly may you accuse the chastity of your wife because she lamenteth her former adultery or the fidelity of your friend or servant because he lamenteth his former unfaithfulness But though the pangs of the New birth be somewhat grievous and we come not into the world of Grace without some lamentation yet this is not the state of the Holy life into which we enter nor are those pangs to continue all our daies 2. You must distinguish between the weaker and the stronger sort of Christians and consider that children are apt to cry but it is not therefore better to be unborn Sickness is querulous and the weak are froward but it is not therefore better to be dead The godly are not perfectly godly They are sinners while they are Saints They have Holiness but they have corruption with it Their sin is conquered but yet not totally rooted out The relicks do remain though it do not raign And it is the remnant of their unholiness that they lament and not their holiness They grieve not that they are godly but that they are no more godly It troubleth them not that they are come home to Christ but that they have brought so much of their corruption with them Hearken whether they complain of their Humility or their Pride of their Faith or their unbelief their confidence or their distrust their repentance or their hardness of heart It is not their heavenly mindedness that troubleth them but their earthly-mindedness Nor is it their spirituality but their carnality Nor is it the Dâ—ties but the weakness and faultiness of their souls in duty Not that they do it but that they do it no better It is more holiness that they beg for and lament the want of And will you say that Holiness is unpleasant because men would so fain have more of it You would reason with more wisdom in another case If a man that hath tasted meat or drink complain because he hath no more you would not blame his food for that nor gather from thence that it is unpleasant or that famine is more delightful 3. You must distinguish between those Christians that have saln since their conversion into any great and wounding sin or â—â—urisâ— some vexatious distempers and those that walk more uprightly with God and maintain their integrity and peace No wonder if David after his sin complain of the breaking of his bones and heart and if Peter go out and weep bitterly The servants of Christ do know so much of the evil of sin that they cannot make so light of it as the blind and obdurate world that are past feeling That sin which hath cost them formerly so dear and hath cost Christ so much dearer on their behalf must needs cause some smâ—rt in the penitent soul Sickness is felt because it supposeth the subject to be alive but the dead feel not that they are dead and rotten And it doth not follow that therefore death is more desireable then sickness It is because they are so like to the ungodly that the servants of Christ do grieve and complain But so far as they feel the healthfulness of their souls and are conscious of their sincerity and upright conversations they have greater comfort then the world can afford them 4. You must distinguish between those Christians that by misapprehensions are unacquainted with their own felicity and those that better understand their state If a man be never so holy and know it not but by temptations is brought to doubt whether he be not yet in his unsanctified state no wonder if this man be grieved with these fears But his grief is not because he is sanctified but because he is afraid lest he be unsanctified And this shews that Holiness is most lovely in his eyes or else why should he be so much troubled when he doth but doubt whether he be Holy or not If a Rich man by a false report should believe that he is rob'd of his goods and treasure or that his houses are burnt when it is not so he will mourn or be troubled till he know the truth And will any be so foolish as to conclude from thence that Riches are more uncomfortable then beggery Had you not rather be rich though for a time you know it not then to live in certain continual want If a man that is in health be perswaded by mistake that he is in a Consumption he will be troubled by his mistake But will you thence conclude that sickness is more comfortable then health Is it not better to have health with those mistaken fears then to live in sickness Methinks you should rather argue on the contrary side How sweet is Health when the fear of losing it is so troublesom and how bitter is sickness and death when the very fear of them is so grievous And so you should say How sweet is Holiness when it is so troublesome to those that have it so much as to fear lest they have it not and How miserable a life is it to be ungodly when it is so grievous to the servants of Christ even once to fear lest they are ungodly But go to those Christians that know themselves and are truly acquainted with their sincerity and their priviledges and see whether they walk so uncomfortably as those mistaken doubting souls You will find them in another case and hear other kind of
language from their mouths even the joyful praises of their Redeemer and the thankful acknowledgements of his abundant love How sweet unto their souls is the remembrance of kindness and how delightful a work is it from day to day to magnifie his name 5. You must also distinguish between those weak mistaken Christians that understand not the extent of the Covenant of grace and those that do understand it If a believer by mistake should think that the grace of the Gospel extendeth not to such as he because he is unworthy and his sins are great no wonder if he be troubled As you would be if you should conceive that your lease were not made to you but to another or as a malefactor would be if he thought his pardon belonged not to him but to another man But hence you should rather observe the riches and excellencies of the Gospel and the happiness of the heirs of promise then dream that its better be strangers to the holy Covenant still They are better that have a promise of life and understand it not then they that have none But those that know the freeness and fulness of the promise and study with all Saints to comprehend what is the bredth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 18 19. do use to walk more comfortably according to the riches of that grace wich they do possess 6. Consider also that most of these complaining Christians are glad that they are in any measure got out of their former state and therefore apprehend their cause to be better then it was before Or else they would turn back to the state that they were in which they would not do for all the world And therefore they take a godly life to be far more pleasant to them that do attain it 7. Moreover the sorrow of believers is such as may consist with Joy At the same time while they are grieved that they are no better they are gladder of that measure of grace which they have received then they would be to be made the rulers of the world While they are mourning for the remnant of their sins they are glad that it is but a remnant that they have to mourn for Yea while they are troubled because they doubt of their sincerity and salvation they are more sustained and comforted with that little discerning which they have of their evidences and with their hopes of the everlasting love of God then they could by all your sinful pleasures Try the most dejected mournful Christian whether he would change states and comforts with the best and greatest of the ungodly The soul of man is so active and comprehensive that it can at once both rejoyce and mourn While they mourn for sin and feel affliction believers can have some rejoycing taste of Everlasting Life 8. Yea the godly sorrow of a believer is the matter of his joy He is gladder when his heart will melt for sin then he would be to be your partner in your carnal pleasures He would not change the comfort that he findeth in his penitent tears for all your laughter 9. The Joy of a believer is intimate and solid as I said before according to the object of it and not like the fleering of a fool or the laughter of a child or the sensual mirth that Solomon called Madness And therefore it is not so discernable to others as carnal mirth is And therefore you think that the servants of Christ are void of pleasure when they have much more then you It is little ridiculous accidents and toys that make men laugh but great things give us an inward sweet content and joy which scorns to shew it self by laughter And what can be a fitter object of such great content then to be a member of Christ and an heir of heaven 10. Moreover this sorrow of the Godly is but medicinal and a preparative to their after-Joys It doth but work out the poison of sin which would marr their comforts and drive them to Christ and fit them to value him and tast the sweetness of his love and grace 11. And as it is not the state and life of a Christian but his fasting days or time of Physick so the comforts of the godly ordinarily do far exceed their sorrows at least in weight if not in passionate sense They have their hours of sweet access to God and of heavenly meditation and delightful remembrance of the experiences of his love and perusal of his promises and communion with his people and of the exercise of faith and hope and love And with those Christians that have attained stability and strength these comforting graces are predominant and their life is more in Love and Praise then in vexatious fears and sorrows And it should be so with all believers Love is the Heart of the new creature It is a life of Love and Joy and praise that Christ calls all his people to and forbids them all unnecessary doubts and sorrows and keepeth them up so strictly from sin that he may prevent their sorrows And if you will judge whether Holiness be a pleasant course you must goe to the prescript and consider the nature and use of Holiness and look at those that live according to the mercies of the Gospel and not look at the dejections and sorrows of those that grieve themselves by swerving from the way of Holiness as if you would judge that Health is unpleasant because you hear a sick man groan And yet even these weak and mournful Christians usually have more joy then you The very preservation of their souls from that despair which sin would cast them into if they had not a Christ to fly to and the little tasts of mercy which they have felt and the revivings that they find between their sorrows and the hopes they have of better days are enough to weigh down all your pleasures and all their own sorrows 12. Lastly consider that this is not the life of perfect Joy and therefore some sorrows will be intermixt Comfort will not be perfect till Holiness be perfect and till we arrive at the place of perfect joy What 's wanting now while we live in a troublesome malignant world shall shortly be made up in the Heavenly Jerusalem when we have admittance into our Masters joy And then all the world shall be easily convinced whether sin or duty a fleshly or or Holy life hath the greater Pleasures and contents Object But it is not only the weakness of professors but the very way that is prescribed them that must bear the blame For they are commanded to fast and weep and mourn Answ 1. That is but with a medicinal necessary sorrrw for preventing of a greater sorrow as bitter medicines and blood-letting and strict diet are for the prevention of death God first commandeth them to take heed of sin the cause of sorrow But if they will fall and break
their bones they must endure the pain of setting them again 2. And doth not Christ command his servants also to Rejoyce and again Rejoyce and always to rejoyce Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. 1 Thes 5. 16. Doth he not command them to live in the most delightful works of Love and Joy and thankful mention of his mercies I tell you if Christians did but live as God requireth them and by his plenteous mercies doth encourage them to live they would be the wonder of the world for their exceeding joy they would triumph as men that are entering into rest and make the miserable ungodly Princes and great ones of the world observe their low contemptible condition and see by the comforts of believers that there are far higher joys then theirs to be attained Did Christians live as God would have them according to their dignity and selicity they would make the world admire the spirit and hopes and comforts that do so transport them They would be so taken up in the Love and praise of their Redeemer that they would scarce have leisure to observe whether they be rich or poor or to regard the honours or dishonours of the world These little things would scarce find room in their affection they would be taken up so much with God If they were sore with scourging and their feet were in the stocks they would there sing forth the praise of him that hath assured them of deliverance and everlasting joy as Paul and Silas did Act. 16. They would rejoyce in poverty in disgrace in pain and nothing would be able to overcome their joy They would pitty the tyrants and sensual Epicures that have no sweeter pleasures then those that the flesh and this deceitful world affords O the joy that believers would have in their secret prayers in their heavenly meditations in their holy conference in their reading of the promises and much more in their publike praises and Communion if they did but follow more fully the conduct of that spirit that hath undertaken to be their Comforter What makes believers slight this world and take all your pleasures to be unworthy of their entertainment or regard but that they have had a taste of sweeter things and by faith are overgrown these childish vanities If God and his favour be better then such worms as we and the heavenly Glory be better then these transitory toyes you may well conceive that the believers joy that is fed by these must be greater at least in worth and weight then all the pleasures of this sublunary world If therefore you love a life of pleasure come over to Christ and live a holy heavenly life and believe one that hath made some tryal yea believe the Lord himself that Holiness is the only Pleasant life ANd now as we have seen it plainly proved that the life of Holiness is the most Pleasant life so from hence we may see two sorts reproved that in different measures are found to be trangressors The first is Those blind ungodly wretches that can find no pleasure in a holy life when they can find pleasure in their worldly drudgery and in their sensual uncleanness and their childish vanities They have the God of infinite Goodness to delight in but to their impious hearts he seemeth not delightful They have his Power and wisdom and holiness and truth to love and admire and trust upon and his excellent works to behold him in and his holy laws and gracious promises to meditate on but they have small delight in any such imployment They have leave as well as any others to open their hearts to God in secret and in prayer and praise to recreate their souls and to hold communion with the Saints of God and to be exercised both in publike and private in his worship and to order their families in his fear and to mannage their affairs according to his word but they find no pleasure in such a life as this but are as backward to it as if it were a toilesome and unprofitable business and are weary of that little outside worship which they do perform They have Heaven set before them to seek after and to make their portion and delight but they have small delight to think or speak of it Their hearts are unsutable to these high holy and spiritual things They are matters that they are strange to and have no firm and confident belief of but an uncertain wavering weak opinion and therefore they are too far off to be their delight They say to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy way What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him Job 21. 14 15. If they do come to the publike Assemblies and joyn there in the outward part of worship they find little life and pleasure in it because they are strangers to the reward and spiritual part which is the kernel They look more at the Preachers gifts and the manner of his doctrine and delivery then at the spiritual necessary matter that is delivered They have some pleasure in a neat composed speech that seemeth not to accuse them any more then others and grateth not on their tender ears with plain and necessary truth but suffers them to go home as quietly as they came thither But if the Preacher touch them to the quick and endeavoureth faithfully to acquaint them with themselves or if he have no eloquence or accurateness of speech to please them with but be guilty of any unhansomness of expression or mâ—dâ—â—â— imperfections they are weary of hearing him and think it long till the glass be run and perhaps instead of tasting the sweetness of wholsom truth they make it the matter of their dension and contempt But let them be at Cards or Dice at Hawking or Hunting at any idle sports and vanities and they can hold out longer with delight At drinking or feasting or idle talking they are not so weary Yea in the labours of their calling when their bodies are weary their minds are more unwearyed and in their fields and shops they have more delight then in the spiritual holy service of the Lord. They are never so merry as when there is least of God upon their hearts and in their wayes And it is one of the reasons that hindreth their Conversion lest it should deprive them of their mirth and cause them to spend the remainder of their dayes in uncomfortable heavyness If sin were not sweet to them conversion would be more easie The Pleasure which they find in creatures by their sin is the prison and fetters of their souls captivity If this be thy case that readest these lines I beseech thee lay to heart these following aggravations of thy sin 1. How blind and wicked is the heart that can find more pleasure in sin than holiness Is the creature pleasant to thee and God unpleasant What a shame is this to thy Understanding
mend his rellish and cure his ingratitude And will you do so your selves by Christ and Holiness and say as those Mal. 1. 13. What a weariness is it Take heed lest you provoke the Lord to cast you into a state in which you shall have more cause to be aweary If you are weary of reading and praying and hearing and other holy exercises and weary of heart-searching penitent meditations will you not be wearyer of Hell-fire and of the dolorous reviews of this your folly and of the endless easeless remediless sense of the wrath of God and gripes of your own self-tormenting consciences How just is it with God to give those men somewhat that they have cause to be aweary of that will be thus aweary of his sweetest service and reject the greatest mercies he can offer them as if they were some burdensom worthless things 3. Will you have any pleasure at all or will you have none If any in what then will you place it and whence will you expect it if not from God in a holy life If God be thy trouble what then is fit to be thy delight Darest thou say in thy heart or with thy tongue that sin and sensuality is better Darest thou say that a good bargain or other worldly gain or cards or dice or other sports or ease or good chear or an Ale-house or a Whore are pleasanter things then walking with thy God in faith and holiness and expectation of the everlasting joyes Heaven and earth shall bear witness against thee and common Reason shall bear witness against thee for this inhumane impious folly and ingratitude if ever thou appear at the barr of God with the guilt of such unreasonable sin What! is God no better in thine eyes then a filthy brutish sinful pleasure and is the Love of God no sweeter a work then the Love of sensual delights Saith blessed Augustine He that will sell or exchange his soul for transitory commodities doth censure Christ to be a foolish Merchant that knew no better what he aâ—â— when he gave his Life for those souls that you will not lose a sin for So I may say here Hath Christ bought for you Holy and Everlasting pleasures at the price of his own most bitter pains and precious blood and do you now think them no better then your fleshly beastial delights Is it Christ or you think you that is mistaken in the value of them Did he shed his blood to purchase you that which is not worth the parting with a cup of drink for or the parting with your pleasure or unjust commodity for Sure he that judgeth thus of Christ is far from believing in him with any true Christian saving Faith 4. If you can find no pleasure in God and in a holy life you may be sure that he will have no pleasure in you Wonder not if you find in your greatest need that you are abhorred and loathed by the Lord when you loathed the very thoughts and mention of him in the day of your visitation Marvail not if the most Holy God do take no pleasure in a leathsem sinner when the sinner is so ungodly that he takes more pleasure in the most sordid fading trifles then in God You may offer the sacrifice of your heartless hypocritical prayers and praises unto God and he will count them abomination and cast them back as dung into your faces and tell you that he hath no pleasure in the sacrifice of such fools Read it in his own words Prov 15. 8. 21. 27. Isa 1. 13. Eccles. 5. 4. As you are weary of serving him so he is â—â—â—ary of your services and it is a trouble to him 〈…〉 them and when you spread forth your hands he will hide his eyes from you yea when you make many prayers he will not hear Isa 1. 14 15. When the Jews offered their lame deceitful sacrifices and said Behold what a weariness is it God sends them word that he hath â—o pleasure in them nor would regard their persons nor accept a sacrifice at their hands Mal. 1. 8 9 10. and their solemn feasts he counteth dung And dung would be no acceptable present or seast to your selves if it were offered you instead of meat Mal. 2. 3. My soul saith the Lord loathed them and their soul abhorred me Zech 11. 8. As he that despiseth him shall be lightly esteemed by him 1 Sam. 2. 30. So he that loatheth him shall be loathed by him If any man draw back saith the Lord my soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10. 38. For he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with him the foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psalm 5. 4 5. And little do you now imagine what a horrour it will be to you in the day of your extremity for God to tell you that he hath no pleasure in you When you look before you into an eternity of woe which you have no hope to escape but by the mercy of the Lord and he shall dash that hope by telling you that he hath no pleasure in you it will give your souls the deadly wound that never shall be healed In vain then shall you wish that you had chosen in time the durable delights and not the pleasures of filthy sin for so short a season and to your torment you shall know whether God or the world was more worthy of your sweetest affections and delights and how deservedly they are all damned that obeyed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2. 12. Who knowing the judgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them Rom. 1. 32. If you will count it your pleasure to ryot in the day-time rather then to walk and work by the light you must look to receive the due reward of such unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2. 13. If it be your sport to sin and to do mischief Prov. 10. 23. you shall have small sport in suffering the punishment of your willful folly 5. If God and Holiness seem not pleasant to you then Heaven it self cannot seem pleasant to you if you consider it truly as it is For the Heavenly felicity consisteth in the perfection of our Holiness and the perfect fruition of God himself by Sight and Love and Joy for ever If the little Holiness be unpleasant and irksom to you which appeareth in the imperfect Saints on earth what pleasure could you take in that supereminent Holiness which is the state and work of the celestial inhabitants If the thoughts and mention of God be unpleasant to you and his holy praises do seem to you as matters of no delight What then would you do in heaven where this must be your everlasting work And if Heaven seem a place of toyle and trouble to you how just will it be that
you are everlastingly shut out How can you for shame beg of God to glorifie you when you take the Glory that he hath promised for a misery If you think that there is a Heaven of such sensual pleasures as you desire or that any shall be saved that only choose Heaven as a less and more tolerable misery then Hell you will shortly find your expectations deceived Lay all these five considerations together and you may perceive what miserable souls those are that can find pleasure in perishing trifles of the world and none in a Holy and Heavenly life Be assured of this whosoever thou art that if God and Heaven and a Holy life be not a thousand times sweeter and more delightful to thee then any thing that this world can afford to thy contentment it is not for want of matter of superabundant delight to be found in God and in his holy ways but it is for want of reason or faith or consideration or a sutable Heart in thee which may make thee fit to know and taste the pleasures which now thou art unacquainted with And is it not pitty that such infinite delights should be set before men and they should lose them all for want of a Heart and appetite to them and should perish by choosing the lowest vanities before them I do therefore earnestly beseech thee that readest these words if thou be one of these unhappy souls that canst find no pleasure in God and Holiness that thou wouldst speedily observe and lament that blindness and wickedness of thy heart that is the cause of this infatuation and corruption of thine apprehension and rational appetite and that thou wouldst presently apply thy self to Christ for the cure of it To which end I advise thee to these following means Direct 1. IF you would taste the pleasure of a holy life bethink you better of the necessity and excellency of it and cast away your prejudice and false conceits which have deceived you and turned your minds against it A child may be deluded to take his own Father for his enemy if he see him in an enemies garb or be perswaded by false suggestions that he hateth him A man may be perswaded to hate his meat if you can but make him believe that it is poyson or to hate his cloaths if you can make him believe they are infected with the plague If you will suffer your understandings to be deluded so far as to overlook the amiable nature of holiness and to think the image of God is but a fancie or that a heavenly life is nothing but hypocrisie and that it is but pride that maketh men seek to be holyer then others and that makes them they cannot goe quietly to Hell in despight of the commands and mercies of the Lord as others do I say if the Devil the great deceiver can possess you with such frantick thoughts as these what wonder if you hate the very name of Holiness How can you find pleasure in the greatest good while you take it for an evil If you will believe all that the Devil and his foolish malicious instruments say of God and of a holy life you shall never love God nor see any loveliness or taste any sweetness in his service Dir. 2. Come neer and search into the inwards of a holy life and try it a little while your selves if you would taste the pleasure of it and do not stand looking on it at a distance where you see nothing but the out side nor judge by bare hearsay which giveth you no taste or relish of it The sweetness of honey or wine oâ— meat is not known by looking on it but by tasting it Come neer and try what it is to live in the Love of God and in the belief and hope of life eternal and in universal obedience to the laws of Christ and then tell us how these things do relish with you You will never know the sweetness of them effectually as long as you are but lookers on It was the similitude which Peter Martyr used in a Sermon which converted the Noble Neopolitane Marquess of Uicum Galeacius Caracciolus who forsook wife and children and honours and lands and countrey and all for the liberty of the Reformed Religion at Geneva saith he If you see the motion of dancers a far off and hear not the Musick you will think they are frantick but when you come near and hear the musick and observe their harmonical orderly motion you will take delight in it and desire to joyn with them So men that judge at a distance of the truth and holy ways of God by the slanderous reports of malignant men will think of the godly as Festus of Paul that they are beside themselves But if they come among them and search more impartially into the reasons of their course and specially if they joyn with them in the inwards and vital actions of religion they will then be quickly of another mind and not go back for all the pleasures or profits of the world In the works of Nature and sometimes of Art the outside is so far from shewing you the excellencies that it is but a comely vaile to hide them Though you would have a handsome cover for your watch yet doth it but hide the well ordered frame and useful motions that are within You must open it and there observe the parts and motions if you would pass a right judgement of the work You would have a comely cover for your Books but it is but to hide the well composed letters from your sight in which the sense and use and excellency doth confist You must open it if you will read it and know the worth of it A common spectator when he seeth a Rose or other flower or fruit-tree thinketh he hath seen all or the chiefest part But it is the secret unsearcheable motions and operations of the vegetative life and juice within by which the beauteous flowers and sweet fruits are produced and wonderfully differenced from each other that are the excellent part and mysteries in these natural works of God Could you but see these secret inward causes and operations it would incomparably more content you He that passeth by and looketh on a Bee-hive and seeth but the Cover and the laborious creatures going in and out doth see nothing of the admirable operations within which God hath taught them Did you there see how they make their wax and honey and compose their combs and by what laws and in what order their Common-wealth is governed and their work carryed on you would know more then the out side of the â—ive can shew you So it is about the life of Godliness If you saw the inward motions of the quickening spirit upon the soul and the order and exercise of every grace and by what laws the thoughts and affections are governed and to whom they tend you would then see more of the beauty of Religion then you can see
by the outward behaviour of our assemblies The shell is not sweet but serves to hide the sweeter part from those that will not storm those walls that they may possess it as their prize The kernel of Religion is covered with a shell so hard that flesh and blood cannot break it Hard sayings and hard providences to the Church and to particular believers are such as many cannot break through and therefore never taste the sweetness The most admired feature and beauty of any of your bodies which fools think to be the most excellent part of the body is indeed but the handsome well-adorned case that God by nature doth cover his more excellent inward works with Were you but able to see within that skin and 〈…〉 once to observe the wonderful motions of Heart and Braine and the course of the blood in the veins and arteries and the several fermentations and the causes and nature of chylifications and sanguifications and the spirits and senses and all their works and if you saw the reason of every part and vessel in this wonderous frame and the causes and nature of every disease much more if you saw the excellent nature and operations of that rational soul that is the glory of all you would then say that you had seen a more excellent sight then the smooth and beauteous skin that covers it The invisible soul is of greater excellencie then all the visible beauties in the world So also if you would know the excellencies of Religion you must not stand without the doors or judge of it by the skin and shell but you must come neer and look into the inward Reasons of it and think of the difference between the high imployments of a Saint and the poor and for did drungery of the ungodly between walking with God in desire and love and in the spiritual use of his Ordinances and creatures and conversing only with sinful men and transitory vanities between the life of faith and hope which is daily maintained by the foresight of Everlasting Glory and a life of meer nature and worldliness and sensuality and idle complement and pompe which are but the progenitors of sorrow and end in endless desperation Come neer and try the power of Gods Laws and of the workings of his spirit and think in good sadness of the place where you must live forever and the glory you shall see and the sweet enjoyment and employment you shall have in the presence of the eternal Majesty and think well of all the sweet contrivances and discoveries of his love in Christ and how freely all these are offered to you and how certainly they may be your own peruse the promises and sweet expressions of Love and Grace and exercise your souls in serious meditation prayer thanksgiving and praise and withall remember that none but these will be durable delights and then tell me whether a life of sport and pride and worldliness and flesh-pleasing or a life of faith and Holiness be the better the sweeter and more pleasant life Direct 3. If you would taste the Pleasures of a Holy life you must apply your self to Christ in the use of his appointed means for the renewing of your natures that his Spirit may give you a new understanding and a new heart to discern and rellish spiritual things For your old corrupted minds and hearts will never do it They are unsuitable to the things of God and therefore cannot Receive them nor savour them nor be subject to the holy laws 1 Cor. 2. 14 15. Rom. 8. 5 6 7 8. The appetite and rellish of every living creature is agreeable to its nature A fish hath small pleasure in the dry land nor a bird in the deeps of water grass and water is sweeter to an Ox then our most delicate meats and drinks Corruption and Custom have made you so vitious that your natures are not such as God made them at the first when he himself was mans desire and delight but they are now inclined to sensual things being captivated by the fleshly part and have contracted a strangeness and enmity to God And therefore those Hearts will never rellish the sweetnesses of a life of Faith and Holiness till Faith and Holiness be planted in them and they be born again by regenerating grace For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and but flesh and therefore doth reach no higher then a fleshly inclination can move it and that which is born of the spirit is spirit and therefore will rellish and love things Spiritual Direct 4. Lastly if you would taste the pleasures of a Holy life you must forbear those sinful fleshly pleasures which now you are so taken up with For these are they that infatuate your understandings and corrupt your appetites and make the sweetest things seem loathsom to you As the using of vain sports and filthy lust abroad doth make such persons a weary of their own relations and families and business at home so also the glutting of the mind with vanity and using your selves to sinful pleasures is it that turns your hearts from God and maketh his Word and Wayes unsavoury to you You must first with the Prodigal Luke 15. be brought into a famine of your former pleasures and be denyed the very husk and then you will remember that the meanest servant in your Fathers house is in a far better case then you having bread enough while you perish through hunger And hence it is that God doth so often promote the work of Conversion by Affliction and by the same means carryeth on the work of Grace in most that he will save Cannot you tell how to leave your sensual pleasures What will you do when sickness makes you weary of them Weary of your meat and drink and bed weary to hear talk of that which now doth seem so sweet and to say I have no pleasure in them Cannot you spare your friends your sports your bravery your wealth and other carnal accommodations What will you say of them when pain disgraceth them and convinceth you of their insufficiency to stand you in any stead These things that you are now so loth to leave may shortly become such a load to your souls as undigested meat to the stomack that is sick that you can have no ease till you have cast them off Away therefore with these luscious Vanities betime which vitiate your appetites and put them out of rellish with the things that are truly pleasant O what a shame it is to hear a man say I shall never endure so godly and spiritual and strict a life when he can endure and take pleasure in a life of sin You may wiselyer lie down in the dunghill or the ditch and say I shall never endure a cleaner place or feed on carrion and say I shall never endure a cleaner dyet or accompany only with enemies and wild beasts and say I shall never endure the company of my friends What! is God
worse then the creature and Heaven then earth and so much worse as not to be endured in your thoughts and affections in comparison of them You will never know your friends till you forsake these deceivers Nor ever know the Pleasures of a Holy life till you will let go the poysonous pleasures of sin And then you may find that Sanctification destroyeth not but changeth and recovereth your Delights and giveth you safety for the greatest peril health for sickness friends for enemies gold for dross life for death and the fore-tasts of Rest for tiring vexation 2. THE second sort that are hence to be Reproved are Those weak and troubled servants of the Lord that live as sadly as if they found more grief then pleasure in the wayes of God Indeed it is to be lamented that few of the heirs of life do live according to the happiness and dignity of their Calling nor are the great things that God hath done for them so apparent in the cheerfulness and comforts of their lives as they should be But some that are addicted to dejectedness do in a greater measure wrong Christ and themselves being alwayes feeding upon secret griefs and torturing themselves with doubts and fears and acquainted with almost no other language but lamentations self-accusations and complaints These poor souls usually discover honest hearts that are weary of sin and low in their own eyes and long to be better and do not dis-regard the matters of their salvation as dead-hearted ungodly sinners do Their complaints shew what they would be and what they would be sincerely that they are in Gods account But yet they live so far below the sweet delights which they might partake of and so far below the provisions of their Fathers house and the riches of the Gospel that they have cause to lament their excessive lamentations and more cause to reform this sad distemper and no cause to indulge it as usually such do And though with the most of them some natural passions and weaknesses and some melancholy distempers are so much the cause as may much excuse them yet because it is an evil which must be disowned and Reason must be the means where people have the free use of Reason I shall lay down some of the great inconveniences of this sad distemper and beseech those that tender the honour of God and would do that which is most pleasing to him and love not their own calamity that they will soberly consider of what I say and labour to regulate their minds accordingly 1. I desire the dejected Christian to consider that by his heavy and uncomfortable life he seemeth to the world to accuse God and his service as if he openly called him a rigorous hard unacceptable master and his work a sad unpleasant thing I know this is not your thoughts I know it is your selves and not God and his service that offendeth you and that you walk not heavily because you are holy but because you fear you are not holy and because you are no more holy I know it is not of grace but for grace that you complain But do you not give too great occasion to ignorant spectators to judge otherwise If you see a servant alwayes sad that was wont to be merry while he served another master will you not think that he hath a master that displeaseth him If you see a woman live in continual heavyness ever since she was marryed that lived merrily before will you not think that she hath met with an unpleasing match You are born and new born for Gods honour and will you thus dishonour him before the world What do you in their eyes but dispraise him by your very countenance and carriage while you walk before him in so much heaviness The child that still cryes when you put on his shoes doth signifie that they pinch him and he dispraiseth his meat that makes a sower face at it And he dispraiseth his friend that is alway sad and troubled in his company He that should say of God Thou art bad or cruel and unmerciful should blaspheme And so would he that saith of Holiness It is a bad unpleasant hurtful state How then dare you do that which is so like to such blaspheming when you should abstain from all appearance of evil 1 Thes 5. 22. Canst thou find in thy heart thus to dishonour and wrong the God whom thou so much esteemest and the grace which thou so much desirest For a wicked man that is far from God to go heavily or roar in the horrour of his soul is a shame to his sin but no dishonour to God and Holiness But for you that are near him in relation engagement and attendance to walk so heavily reflects on him to whom you are Related and from whom you look for your Reward 2. Consider also What a lamentable hinderance you are hereby to the conversion and salvation of souls Your countenances and sad complainings do affright men from the service of the Lord and as it were call to them to keep off and fly from the way that you find so grievous You gratifie Satan the enemy of Christ and Holiness and souls and become his instruments though against your wills to affright men from the way of life As the Papists keep their deluded Proselytes abroad from Truth and Reformation by giving them odious descriptions of the Protestants as if they were Hereticks proud frantick mad and scarcely men and when they burn them they adorn them with pictures of the Devil even so doth Satan keep poor souls from entertaining Christ and Truth and entering the holy pathes by making them believe that the servants of Christ are a company of distempered melancholy souls and that Godliness is the way to make men mad and that he that will set his heart on Heaven must never look more for a merry comfortable life on earth Hence comes the proverb of the Malignant Formalists and Prophane that A Puritane is a Protestant frightened out of his wits And will you confirm this slander of the Devil and his instruments Will you entice men to believe him Will you make your selves such pictures of unhappiness and wear such a Vizor of calamity and misery as shall frighten all that look on you and observe you and discourage them from the way which they see accompanyed with so much sorrow As you hang up dead crows in your field to frighten the rest from the Corn and as murderers are hanged in irons to terrifie all that see them from that crime or as the heads of Traytors are set up to the same end as proclaiming to all passengers Thus must you be used if you will do as they Just so would Satan fill you with terrours and overwhelm you with grief and distract you with causeless doubts and fears that you may appear to the world a miserable sort of people and then all that look on you will be afraid of Godliness and think they see it
fancie that it is an excellent thing to be Rich and Renowned and to rule over others or to have plenty of all accommodations for your flesh and then because God satisfieth not these carnal fancies you think he neglecteth you oâ— deals hardly with you As if every person in the Town should murmur because they are not Bâ—yliffs or Justices when if they had the wit to know it they are but kept from a double encumberance and from a burden which perhaps would break their backs When the people are thus befooled by the flesh into brutish conceits of the nature of felicity and into an over-valuing of these worldly things they are then always eitheir tickled by deluding pleasures or troubled for the crossing of their carnal wills so that they grow out of relish and liking with the true and durable delights Take heed therefore of this carnality Dir. 4. Study the greatness of the mercy which you have received You abound with mercies and yet undervalue them and over look them and sweeten not your souls with the serious observation and remembrance of them you study principally your afflictions and your wants And thus when you live in a land that floweth with milke and honey you will not feed on the prepared feast but keep still the gall and wormwood in your mouths and how then should you be acquainted with the pleasures of a holy life Yea you must use to look more to the spiritual part of all your mercies and see the love of God that appeareth in them and taste the blood of Christ in them and lose not the kernel and take not up with the common carnal part which every wicked man can value and enjoy Consider in all your mercies what there is in them for the benefit of your souls much rather then how they accommodate your flesh Could you do thus you would find the benefit of afflictions and that the denyal of what you have accounted your necessary mercies is not the smallest of your mercies And thus judging truly by the spirit and not by the flesh there is no condition except that of sin in which you might not find cause of joy Dir. 5. Take heed of sinning Keep still upon your watch against temptation sin is the cause of all your sufferings when it promiseth you delight it is preparing for your sorrow when it flattereth you into presumption it is preparing for despair when it promiseth you secresie and security it prepareth for your shame and be sure your sin will find you out Numb 32. 23. If therefore you have offended delay not your Repentance and spare not the flesh in your return but unless the honour of God forbid it take shame to your selves by free confession and make the fullest reparation of the injury that you can to God and man If you would thus get out the thorn that vexeth you the ways of God would be more pleasant Dir. 6. Daily live in the exercise of faith upon the everlasting pleasures Dwell as at the gates of Heaven as men that are waiting every hour when they are called in and when death will draw aside the vaile and shew them the blessed face of God And take heed that the enmity of interposing Death prevail not against the Joys of faith But look to Christ that hath conquered it and will conquer it for you And if thus you could live as strangers here and as the Citizens of Heaven that are ready to step into the immortal pleasures you would then taste the Pleasures of a holy life in the first fruits and foretasts thereof It is your Treasure that must Delight you As your Heart must be there so your pleasure must be derived thence Strangers to Heaven will be strangers to the Believers Joys As the pleasure of the Carnal world consisteth in the sense of what they have in hand so the pleasure of Believers consisteth in the fore-apprehensions of what they shall enjoy with God for ever If therefore you exercise not those apprehensions if you look not frequently seriously and believingly into the world that you must live in for ever how can the comforts of that world illustrate and refresh you in this present world The Light and Heat which is the Beauty and Life of this lower world proceedeth not from any thing in this world but from the Sun which is so far above us and sends down hither its quickning influence and rays They are not the genuine comforts of Christianity which are not fetcht from the world above Dir. 7. If you would have the experience of the Pleasures of a life of Faith and Holiness neither desire nor cherish any fears or sorrows but such as as are subservient to Faith and Hope and Love and preparatory to Thankfulness and Joy Think not Religion consisteth in any other kind of sorrows Nay if any other should assault you be so far from taking them for your duty or religion as to resist them and lament them as your sin That is true and saving Humiliation 1. which makes you vile in your own eyes and loath your selves for sin 2. And maketh you more desirous to be delivered and cleansed from your sin than to live in it how sweet or gainful soever it may seem and 3. which maketh you set more by a Saviour to deliver you than by all the pleasures riches and honours of the world What ever want of Grief or tears you find if you have these signs your Repentance and humiliation is sincere Do not therefore refuse your Peace because you have not greater sorrows nor disturb your souls by strugling for excessive sorrow Take not part with them but do your best to cast them out if they are such as would destroy your Love and Joy and drive you from Christ and hinder your Thansgivings Know that the Life of your Religion consisteth in the Holy Love of God and of his Image and servants and holy ways Love is your duty and your felicity and reward Therefore let all tend to the exercise of Love and value most those means which most promote it and think your selves best when you abound most in Love and not when you are overwhelmed with those Fears and Griefs which hinder Love Study therefore above all the Love of God revealed in Christ which is the best attractive of your Love to him and hate all suggestions which would represent God unlovely and undesirable to you Dir. 8. Use cheerful company Not carnal but holy not such as waste their time in unprofitable frothy speeches or filthy or prophane or scornful jeastings But such as have most of the sense of Love and mercy on their hearts and are best acquainted with a Life of Faith and whose speeches and cheerful conversations do most lively manifest their sense of the Love of God and of the Grace of Christ and the eternal happiness of the Saints There is a delightful and encouraging virtue in the converse of joyful thankful heavenly believers Use