sure thou dost so Tell him thou wilt leave thy Heart thy Soul and Affections with him at present never again to be withdrawn at least thou desirest with all thy heart they never may be withdrawn Beseech him that he will keep them to himself and accept of thee that he will vouchsafe to become thy Happiness and make thee know he is so Try him thus and see if he will refuse thee If he should he must do that he never did yet nay he must do what he has said he never will do John 6. 37. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Christ at least has said it and Christ and his Father are one Secondly having once solemnly made this Choice accustom thy self in thy daily Devotions to go to God to look on him and claim him as thy Portion The Saints in Scripture often did so David when in the Cave forlorn and seemingly cast off did so Psal 142. 5. I cried unto thee O Lord I said thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living Asaph did so Psal 73. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever And whosoever was the Author of Psal 119. at ver 57. did so Thou art my portion O Lord I have said that I would keep thy words And Jeremy did so Lam. 3. 24. The Lord is my portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him Nay God himself seems to have delighted to be so called Jer 10. 16. The portion of Jacob is not like them that is Jehovah the alone true God is not like the gods of the Nations And again chap. 50. 19. to the same Effect In both places this seems to be put as a Name no less peculiar to God than his incommunicable Name Jehovah Nay it is more than this if more can be Deut. 32. 9. The Lord's portion is his people Jacob is the lot of his inheritance O infinite Condescention God is his Peoples Portion and they are his Wherefore if thou canst make it out to thy self that is if thy Heart bear thee witness that thou hast given thy self up to God to be his and hast thus made Choice of God to be thy Happiness doubt not to call him thine thy portion thy exceeding great reward thy God and make thy humble and frequent Claim to him as such This will surther ratify thy Choice and as I may say more endear thee to thy heavenly Father and him to thee This will fill thee by degrees with Joy and Peace in believing This will give thee some tast of Heaven and the Enjoyment of God before-hand § 5. Especially if thou be diligent in what is the next Direction an Endeavour to be full of good Works for by these we lay up Treasure in Heaven By these we not only secure our right to Glory but through the infinite Grace of God according to his Method and Promise of rewarding we add to that exceeding great and eternal weight of Glory reserved in Heaven for us In the Gospel the Servant who by one pound committed to Luke 19. 12. c. his management had gained five pounds was made ruler over five Cities and he who had gained ten pounds over ten Cities There will be a Proportion between every Man's Reward and his Work not indeed of commutative Justice as if our good Works could properly merit or bring God in Debt to us but of Grace and liberal distributive Justice God of his abundant Goodness approportioning the Recompence of Reward to the Degrees of Mens Labours Pains and Cost whether in doing good or suffering ill and hardship for his sake both which kinds of Acts may in some Sence be called good Works But it will be here necessary that we look a little more closely into the Nature of good Works Good Works then may be so called either in a general or special Sence 1. In a general one As every Act especially every outward Action may be called a Work so every good Action may be called a good Work Accordingly as 1 John 3. 4 8. Every one who committeth sin that is who transgresseth the Law doth the works of the Devil So he that Acts any thing in obedience to and Congruity with the Law of God does a good work or the work of God § 6. But Use has obtained that we call those chiefly or eminently good works which are good and profitable to Men that is to other Men and the Publick Of which Nature is giving of Alms building and endowing Alms-Houses Hospitals Schools c. But of these latter it is to be observed that there is too great a Difference very often betwixt the Action and Ames de Conscientiâ Lib. the Work So that though the Work be good the Action may be stark naught or but very indifferent As for Instance the Pharisee gives Alms but Matth. 6. he sounds a Trumpet in pretence perhaps to call together the Poor but in reality to proclaim his Liberality The relieving the Poor with his Alms is a good Work but thus giving Alms is vain Glory and hypocritical Pride Again a man going out of the World leaves Money to build and endow an Alms-House or for some such publick Good but while he was alive he sat hatching over all he had and would not part with a Penny to any good Use nor would he now haply if he could keep it any longer no nor give it to this Use if he had Children of his own or any whom he loved well enough to leave it to Now suppose such Bequests or Foundations to be or to have been some other Mens Acts at present deceased I would neither my self censure nor teach others to câ—nsure any deceased Person 's Charity or bounty in his Will But supposing it likely to be the Case of my self or of any man living I should think such Bequest scarce so much as indifferently or tolerably a good Work for it would seem to me an Act of Necessity more than of Charity But better late than never as they say wherefore let such Actions pass as they shall Notwithstanding it is to be said and must be acknowledged touching all good works of this latter kind these are good works which only rich men can do and so this is a Method wherein only one and that far the smallest part of Christians can lay up Treasure in Heaven § 7. But in the former sense the poorest and meanest as well as Richest sort even all Christians of what degree soever may be rich and ought to abound in good works And that we may particularly see how we will take one instance in each kind of Duties 1. In Duties towards God Prayers and such kind of Devotions in time of Leisure Strength and Vigor sent up to Heaven against a time of need and especially against a dying hour are Good Works Even poor Widows maintained by the Church both may and
ravishing sight Besides we shall be fitted for the Conversation of pure Intelligences that is of Holy Angels and for enjoying the familiarity of all the Blessed Saints We shall be with Saints and Angels taken up in the admiration love and praises of God and Christ We shall then know too what the Holy Ghost is and be full thereof We shall understand plainly what we at present see only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through a perspective Glass and in a Riddle how those three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost are one All the desires both of the Mind and of the Will that is all our desires after truth good and any agreeables shall be at once infinitely satisfied and yet with satisfaction Eternally flowing forth to that incomprehensible Fountain of all Truth and Good the Eternal Infinite God No Memory or Sense of any thing past or of any thing here below remaining with us any otherwise than as such reflections may heighten our present transport or ravishment And all this happiness is to be Everlasting without End without Intermission without Allay This is for the main such an account as here may suffice to be given of the Heavenly Happiness But we must remember it is infinitely short of the full real Truth For 1 Cor. 11. 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him â—3 Now Secondly as vast and infinite as this Happiness is that it is no presumption in a faithful Soul and such certainly are all who have so as directed made their peace with God I say that it is no presumption in such a Soul to desire pray for aim at and pursue this Happiness is evident because God has offered it in the Gospel The proposal of this and of its means together with the opening our way to it was the Great Errand and business on which Christ Jesus came into the World God sent his Son into the World not to condemn the World to keep them under that Sentence of Condemnation and Death which by Sin had taken place upon them but that the World through him might be saved For God John 3. 16. so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And accordingly our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished Death 2 Tim. 1. 10. and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel The Gospel publishes the conditions ways or means by which it is to be had which we have seen in part and shall further see as we proceed and requires us thus to seek it under pain of everlasting misery if we do not And that Men of all sorts and tempers might be invited thereunto and prevailed with our Lord Jesus has taken care it should be proposed under such various Notions and Characters as may comply with all Mens tempers To draw in Ambitious Men it is proposed as Honour and Glory as a Crown a Throne a Kingdom c. To gain Men of pleasure it is represented as a Banquet a Supper a Marriage Feast fullness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore c. To allure Men that love Wealth it is called a Treasure a Treasure which neither Moth nor Rust can corrupt nor Thieves break through and steal the true Riches an Inheritance incorruptible c. And to be brief to take with some others it is perhaps called by other names But in a word to take with all forasmuch as all Men love Life and most people Long Life it is called what it is most truly Everlasting Life Upon the whole God is so desirous that none should neglect it that it is propounded to all I say in a way to suit each Mans Temper Humour and Inclination The commands to pursue it are so many that it is neither needful nor indeed easie to reckon them all up The Encouragements so great that it is not possible to add to them witness that one Command and Superlative Encouragement Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Matth. 6. 33. What can be added to all things Yet the Kingdom of God and all things that is all things good for them shall they receive who seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Thus then we see in some measure both what this Happiness is and that it is in Strictness our Duty to seek after it or endeavour to secure it § 4. It is now high time to enquire thirdly how or by what means we may secure it How shall we convey Treasure thither Or how is it possible there to lay up our Treasure In answer hereto the Directions shall be few and easy of which the first is Whoever would have a Happiness in Heaven must By Resolution and Prayer chuse God for his Happiness for it is the Enjoyment of him that makes both Heaven and Happiness without Him is neither possible And the Almighty God all that he is Infinite as he is is content to be the Happiness of such poor Worms as are we mortal Men. He of old said unto Abraham and in him the Father of the Faithful to every even the meanest faithful Soul Fear not I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Gen. 15. 1. And he says the same at present to every disposed person who reads or hears this Take God then at his Word And first resolve with thy self and say inwardly in Spirit God shall be the portion of my Soul Let others please themselves in other Goods in the Encrease of Corn and Wine and Oyl in joyning House to House and Field to Field in loading themselves with thick Clay or laying up Treasure upon Earth for many years for my part I will take up with none of these the Almighty God shall be my portion Our Lord Jesus himself for of him prophetically is that Psalm to be interpreted did while in the Flesh so resolve Psal 16. 5. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my Cup thou maintainest my lot Fear not then thou for whom Christ died to the end thou mightest come to the Father by a new and living Way through his bloud Fear not I say neither forbear thus to come thus to resolve And having thus inwardly resolved with thy self Take with thee words and apply thy self faithfully and humbly by Prayer to God telling him that thou art resolved to make the same Choice as thy Saviour not only by his Doctrine but by his Practice and Example taught thee Tell him whatever Portion of things below he has given thee or shall give thee thou art resolv'd not to be put off with any with all these nothing below himself shall satisfy thee for indeed nothing below him can And to insure the Choice that he may give himself to thee tell him thou givest thy self to him but be
person search into and when he has got any degree of satisfaction carefully treasure up in his Mind or Memory what gave him that satisfaction that he may be able to have recourse thereto at any time to re-inforce Assent and by virtue of what he believes to satisfie and assure himself of other Truths the perswasion of which he yet wants And thus understanding and being perswaded of the several Particulars of Religion it remains such Person go on conscientiously to practise what he knows and believes Having learn'd and being convinc'd that there is a God who made upholds and governs the World he will soon believe that this God as other Governors has given to his Subjects a Law and that what we call the Decalogue o◠Ten Commandments especially as expounded and improved by our Saviour is that Law and that thereby as our same Lord has taught us all Men shall be judged Upon this supposing such cordial Belief of all has been directed unto it will follow through the Grace of God that the man will live in the fear of God withstand Temptations break himself of evil Customs c. as one who shall be judged by this most Spiritual Law And that he may so do as taught he will daily and earnestly with all his heart pray to God he will seriously with real devotion and care use all other Means attend Sacraments wait on the Ministry of the Word conscientiously apply all he learns for his advance in Grace and daily watching over himself endeavour to grow better and wiser Summarily and in plain terms this is I say being in good earnest and serious in Religion for People to give their hearts to the understanding believing and practising the Christian Doctrine and Precepts and to perseverance and growth in such Practice Or more briesly as said to study constantly to be every day wiser and better God-wards And those who really will not set themselves thus to do must never think of being provided for another World Nothing will sit a man for that without such general Religious Care § 9. Now to bring men thus to give their minds in good earnest to Religion I can think of no other at least no shorter or properer way than to desire and conjure all sorts of People to accustom themselves to retire within themselves and think that they have Souls or an unseen part It is most certain the greatest number of Mankind perish for want of consideration and not exercising of those Faculties they have above Brutes By our Bodies we are Flesh and Blood equal in a sort to the Beasts that perish by our Souls we are a part of the unseen and indeed of the invisible World we are Minds or Understanding reasoning Beings nearly equalled to Angels either good or bad ones Now the Bane of most People is that the Brute or Beast-part alone lives acts and governs but the Angel-part as it were sleeps is oppress'd drown'd or buried And in the degree that this befalls men they are more or less defective in Religion Some men who altogether follow their fleshly Desires have no Religion at all others who govern them according to Rules of Civility have perhaps the outward Mode or Fashion of their Country-Religion So that to bring men I say to be in good earnest and serious in Religion I know nothing more likely to be effectual than perswading them to think to converse more with themselves and by using their Minds to bring themselves to feel that they have them that there are in them Souls or a spiritual unseen active Part. This if they were well sensible of they would conclude that as they have an unseen part so there may be an unseen world according as they are told there is and that as this their unseen part is truly the Man and the most excellent part of them so the unseen world is the most real and of greatest worth and moment That therefore these Souls of theirs should be look'd after and some provision made for them against they come to be stripp'd of their Bodies and to pass naked into the World of Spirits Further by this means they would find that it is their Bodies that eat and drink and sleep and are pleased and satisfied therewith and that when they have no Bodies they shall do none of these That therefore there must be otherguise satisfaction look'd after for their Souls In a word I can hardly believe that a thinking person can fail in the End to arrive at being serious in Religion especially if he set out with any sober and certain Principles one Thought will lead on another till by the Grace of God some divine Truth or other pierce or fix in his Heart and make way for the final Victory of Faith § 10. We will take a further and more distinct instance of the Case in a particular Train of Thoughts Suppose we then a man by himself and either upon the importunity of Ministers frequently rating People into seriousness or upon the instigations of his own Conscience some way awakened by God's secret Grace which one time or other is wanting to none under the Gospel suppose we I say such a person beginning to consider whether there be any real necessity for him to trouble himself any further with Religion than to be in the general fashion of the Country and having cast away many things that have been urged upon him either as false or as uncertain or of little moment at length to bethink himself 1. Though all the other Particulars usually inculcated to persuade me to seriousness in Religion should be false and meerly little Arts and Inventions to awe me yet this is certain die I must sooner or later Not one escapes this perpetual Law Those who have thought themselves most exempted from the common Fate of all have notwithstanding at length whether they would believe it or no felt it and yielded thereto Perhaps there may have been some whom we have known or heard of in the World so fond as to say such an one died meerly for want such a one by fraud such a one by the neglect or mistake of his Physician such a one by his own ignorance or wilfulness But I have Wealth enough that I cannot want what is necessary to preserve me Knowledge enough timely to discover any decay in me and to prevent its prevalence or growing too much upon me Temper enough to secure or deliver my self from many incurable Evils which others run into and Caution enough to keep my self out of Violence or Harm's way and therefore I shall not die And yet this very person perhaps we know now to lie in his Grave We may have observed others to fansie to themselves a kind of Immortality by piece-meal This day they think they shall not die tomorrow and when tomorrow comes they cannot believe they shall die the next day and when that is come they are still persuaded they shall see another Sun yet have we
seen even these Men's Sun set and their last day come It is true then that as those mistaken fond self-flatterers have died so must I most certainly most unavoidably die 2. And I find Secondly by Observation of Multitudes whom I have seen or heard of dying that it is also a great Truth which I have been told that Men's Thoughts when dying touching things of Life namely touching Wealth Pleasures Mirth c. nay generally touching all the Actions and States of Men prove much different from what they are in the gaiety and jollity of their days Therein indeed they laugh at and reproach sober devout and mortified Men but upon their Death-beds they wish themselves in their Condition Perhaps while in the way of Gain and Business Men admire the splendor and value of Gold and think a Bag of it one of the most Sovereign Goods in the World They would venture Credit and Conscience and even Life to come by it But give Gold to any of those when dying and he 'll cry out Why do you torment me Alas that has been my Ruine Oh! that I could have but some ease of Conscience Oh! that I had but reason to hope God would have mercy upon me Oh! that I had minded Godliness as much as I have done Gain my Condition now had been otherwise Thus have we known it with people far in humane Esteem from being irreligious Yea take the lewdest and most debauch'd persons whom in their health nothing but Revelling and Lust and Hectoring and Profaneness would down with who would curse you for the least good Advice you gave them or even for beseeching God to have Mercy upon them Come to these Men when by God and a Disease or by the Magistrate and Proceedings at Law under the Sentence of Death and have they the same sense of their Bottles and Frolicks and Minions and mad Company Will they brave it as formerly Ask them which of the two you shall call to them a pack of merry Boys and Hectors or a Minister and which will they chuse Will Oaths and Damme's and Confound me Body and Soul or even their lewd Songs or but merry Stories be Musick now in their ears Far enough from it Now nothing but the Prayers of all good people is called for but too late for the most part God knows Thus much generally all Men are able to observe And it is a certain Truth if Men have their Senses and are of sound memory and reason Conscience is more awake and speaks louder and more impartially when they are in sight of death than ever They that choak'd and oppress'd it before hear and feel it then whether they will or no. And this I cannot but acknowledge to be a constant at least a general Truth 3. Nay further Thirdly Even at present do I not find within my own Breast and in my calm hours and true sense of things a great difference as well between good and evil Actions as the Effects and Products thereof Is Money unjustly gotten by Cozenage or Lying or Dissembling not to say worse so comfortably laid up as that which is the reward of my honest Pains and Industry Or would I be as content to leave my Son an Estate which I forced as out of the Fire by Oppression grinding the face of the Poor Falseness Subornations c. as one which my Ancestors fairly lest me or my own Frugality and honest Diligence acquired And so in a thousand other Cases Is not the like difference apparent Is Riot and Roaring and beastly prostituting my own and others Honour so amiable and yielding as much ease to the mind as Sobriety Gravity and Purity Nay even in others Is it as comfortable to me to hear Men lie and then swear to prove their Lies to hear them curse and damn or perhaps but even rail and rant at one another as to be entertained with grave or wise Discourse or over-hear devout people assembled at their Prayers in the Fear of God and with a decent Concord Further besides the inward Advantage of being vertuous and religious do I not see daily that Men by Vertue and Religion preserve themselves from a thousand Inconveniencies which others run into They keep and encrease perhaps their Estates their Credit their Ease their Quiet their Health the Love of their Neighbours and a good Interest in their Countrey with many more Felicities whereas others by contrary practices forfeit all So that a Man cannot but be sensible supposing him thus to go on thinking and considering with himself that Vertue and Religion give Men great advantage of others not only when going out of the World but even in the strength and vigor of their age and that as well in regard of inward Peace liking and approving or being at ease with themselves as in many worldly respects 4. Now will an outward Demureness and Hypocrisie a pretending that Religion or Vertue which Men have not do all this And truly Professors of Religion who are not religious in good Earnest are no better than demure Hypocrites Will I say deceiving the World and perhaps themselves too with a pretence to that Integrity that they have not administer Comfort to Men when dying or Content and Peace while in Life at a distance from Death Let me seriously consider of this and there will nothing appear more plain to me nor shall I be more sensible of any thing in the World than that such Temper as described would be a dying Torment to me a Hell before-hand and that it is really a reproach to me in my own sense of things at present if I am such I say if I be guilty of it my heart even now reproaches me for it 5. And after all these Thoughts thus in a train and dependance upon one another run through after such a thread of Reason spun by my Soul can I believe this Soul of mine is equal to that whereby Beasts live Is it no nobler of no longer duration than the Spirit of a Dog or of a Swine or of such vile Creatures Am I able to conceive think and put together all these things to no purpose And have I the sense and prospect of a Life to come an earnest desire too of Immortality and all this in vain Let me see Is it so as to my other Faculties Has God given me Eyes to see and yet is there neither Light nor Colours Has he given me Ears to hear and are there no sounds Has he given me a Mouth and Palate and provided a Stomach for reception of Meat and put an Appetite into it and parts and powers for digesting my Meat yet are there no kinds of Food Nothing fit to be tasted eaten digested Has he given me a Tongue to speak and an Understanding to frame Thoughts and direct that Tongue to utter them and are there no people in the World for me to converse with It is plain to me that none of my other Faculties are in
vain Therefore Neither was I endued with the Apprehension Sense and Appetite after another Life in vain but another Life after this there is My Conceptions and Desires of Immortality were no more put into me in vain than my Senses or natural Appetites That is there is an Immortal State that is my Soul is Immortal or capable of Immortality We see now whither we are come meerly by a little thinking § II. Let us then put all this together and see what will be the Result Whether it be tolerable or no to be as vain and formal and as meer Actors in Religion as the World of Professors of it are Or whether we are not most highly concerned to be herein more than in any other practices in the World or in any other part of Life most sincere serious and in good Earnest The Summ is I must die Though I choak and oppress Conscience and put tricks upon my self to gloss over foul Actions at present I shall not be able to do so long at least not at Death Nay even now at present I have much ado to make many things palatable which yet in practice I swallow so that I must account that at my Death if I am then in my Senses they 'll sting me with a witness and in all probability not only in my departing but eternally in that Immortal State For I cannot persuade my self but there is a Life after this I have so many Evidences of it within my self And it is not an outside Demureness or shadow of Religion which will bear me out or stand me in stead at Death and Judgment Then the Vizor will fall off Therefore it is my Concernment above all things to be early serious in Religion For I am sensible none die comfortably but vertuous Men None else when dying have either ease as to what is past or a comfortable prospect of what is to come So that the Conclusion of all is If I will follow what in my own sense of things and herein all good and wise Men all that are not beside themselves mad or vicious agree with me I must set my self to be serious in and most intent upon Religion And this is the first step of Preparation for Death and Judgment in our Stage The Second will be That we immediately go upon the reconciling our selves to God and endeavour to make our Peace with him of which in the next Chapter Matter and a Method for Devotions suitable to the Second Chapter BEing retired seriously First Examine Conscience How thou hast stood affected and concerned hitherto in Matter of Religion 1. Hast thou concerned thy self any more in it or about it than in other Customs and Vsages of thy Countrey 2. In case thou hast with more outward Concernment than the generality of people espoused the Profession of Religion yet as to the Vertue it self Religion in the Soul 1. Is thy heart furnished with sound Knowledge Hast thou reasonable Conceptions of the Doctrine and Precepts of Christianity And 2. Art thou seriously in thy heart persuaded that Christian Religion is true and the alone sure way to Happiness Or else on the contrary Art thou a meer formal external Professor pretending to be zealous in this or that way but designing by such pretence only other ends than those of thy Soul in an unseen World Consider the Matter seriously For a multitude of meer worldly Bigots of zealous outward Professors are there in our World who both with themselves and others pass for religious Men. Or 3. Though thou hast been through the Grace of God enlightened and art in some measure knowing and perswaded in thy Conscience of the Truth of Religion yet is it not thy Case as it is many other religious people's that thou art as to Religion really lukewarm in love with the World and things that are seen So that thou hast been very negligent in an holy heavenly conscientious Practice and by reason of this Indifferency can'st scarce say thou hast been yet religious in good earnest Deal honestly with thy self in sifting out the Truth as near as able It will be thine own another day Secondly After this Search if thou findest thy Condition to be any of these three pause a while and consider particularly the guilt and sinfulness of it whichsoever of the three it prove As to the First supposing that to be thy Case Thou hast taken up thy Religion just as thou hast done thy cloths All civilized people wear some Cloths English people this particular Fashion and so thou wearest Cloths of this Fashion rather than of that of the Turks and Persians c. because thou art amongst the English and an English Man In like sort all Nations have some Religion Thy Countrey or thy Friends this and therefore thou art of it Thou hast been bred to it as they say Good God! what a monstrous profane thing is this That one who has the use of Reason should make no more matter of Religion than of the fashion of a Suit of Cloths And perhaps not so much as some vain wretches do who are more concerned about their garb than the state of their Souls O dreadful As to the Second To pretend Zeal for God and Heaven meerly for the driving on a poor worldly or carnal Interest when really I neither believe God or Heaven or care for either what abominable Hypocrisie is this What incarnate Devils white Devils as the people speak are such Men As to the Third To be persuaded that there is no true Happiness but in God that this World is but a Dream in comparison of that to come at the utmost that this Life is a state of Trial according to my behaviour wherein I am to be everlastingly happy or miserable and yet to be indifferent and cool in my Affections and pursuit of heavenly Goods to be intent on and ever busied about the things that are seen all which perhaps I may part with tomorrow and to be negligent of my Life and Actions according to which I shall one day be justified or condemned Matth. 12. 37. and so eternally happy or miserable What an inconsistent and an unreasonable thing is it Am I not while thus guilty condemn'd and unexcuseable even in the sense of my own mind Thirdly According to thy Condition now betake thy self to God by Prayer 1. Lifting up thine heart to him and conceiving of him as a God that searcheth and knows thee that possesseth thy Reins and discerneth the thoughts and intents of the heart who therefore most intimately sees whether thou dissemblest or no That will be sanctified of all who draw near unto him and has accursed all Hypocrites and double-hearted Men who therefore will be content with nothing less than all thy heart and mind and soul In the beginning of thy Prayers set God before thee as such 2. Confessing to him according as thou hast found the Summ of thy Guilt Either Thy regardlessness of him and of thy Soul
a new Life or a Change of Manners for the better it is a sorrow consisting not so much in grief or transient Affection though there is many times that too in it as of setled Dissent and Dislike and so of real Action it is setting the Heart against Sin and because it is impossible for us to undo the Ill we have done a taking care we sin no more whether by doing what we ought not or the neglecting what we ought to do and as it is an Habit or State it is a changed Heart and Life For by frequent and constant endeavour of a new Life the very frame and temper of our Hearts will be changed and that changed Frame and Temper will have a constant influence upon our Actions and so our Life will be changed Thus as to the nature of Repentance Now as to Faith The most general Act of Christian Duty so called is the Soul 's agreeing or yielding that the Gospel or the way to Heaven which Christ Jesus and his Apostles taught is true It presupposes therefore the understanding of that Doctrine or Way Now the particular Acts of it are as various as the Parts of the Gospel And though with many People Use hath obtained that a Belief of the Promises and indeed of one part of them of the promised Blessing without the respect due to the other part the Condition of that Blessing and so a trust in God through Christ is esteemed the great Act of Faith yet is the assenting or agreeing to whatsoever is affirmed in the Gospel as that Christ died rose again now sits in Heaven shall come to judge the World c. as much or more properly an Act of true Christian Faith as such Trust or Affiance which in strictness is a distinct Christian Vertue grounded in Faith In like manner also is the receiving this dreadful Threat He that believeth and so repenteth not shall be damned a true Act of Faith yet not of Trust And to conclude the Belief of all the Commands in the Gospel not only that they came from God are reasonable and fit for us to observe but that they are an effectual and certain way to everlasting happiness so that whosoever yields the obedience of Faith shall be saved is as much an Act a necessary Act of Christian Faith as any of the rest And the Habit of Faith is nothing else but a rooted perswasion of all these the several parts of the Gospel by which the Soul is ready as occasion offers to exert any of these Acts Thus as to the Nature of Repentance and Faith when they signifie or are taken for Christian Vertues or Graces And yet even when thus taken in Scripture though they are not always even in Scripture it self taken for Christian Vertues yet I say when thus taken they are each of them used in a very different extent § 4. Sometimes in a very ample and large sence Synecdochically as we speak are they put not only for themselves but what accompanies them And thus the Scripture seems to make one while Repentance one while Faith the whole Condition of the Covenant of Grace or to put one of them for all that we on our part are by that Covenant bound to do in order to our acceptance with God or to the pardon of our Sin and Salvation Thus not only when St. John the Baptist and the Apostles but when Christ himself first went out to preach the Kingdom of Heaven or teach people the way thither the Sum of their Doctrine is recorded to have been Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 3. 2. and 4. 17. Mark 6. 12. No doubt both our Lord and his Apostles preached Faith as well as Repentance all along and St. Mark in the beginning of his Gospel expresly brings in our Lord so preaching ch 1. 14 15. Jesus came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the Gospel Yet in the other places Repentance is put alone but with an intent no question that people should understand therewith its necessary Concomitant and Companion Faith And thus when our Lord instructs the Apostles in what they were to preach he tells them It behooved that he should suffer and rise again and that Repentance and Remission of Sin should be preached in his name among all Nations Luke ult 47. And as pursuant hereto St. Peter when he preaches to those who were pricked in their heart by the sense of their guilt in crucifying the Lord of Life who therefore had as much need of Faith in the blood of Jesus for Remission as any could have When he preaches I say to them what they should do to obtain Pardon he requires in express terms only Repent and be Baptized Acts 2. 38. and chap. 3. 10. to others of the same Nation and under the same guilt Repent ye and be converted In this last place indeed Repentance is more explained than before but yet no mention made of Faith in any of these places where yet the Design was to set down the Condition on which Sin might be pardoned which as will be soon evident is Faith as well as Repentance Again in other places me meet with mention of Faith or believing alone without any mention of Repentance Thus in the promise annex'd to the Apostle's Commission for preaching the Gospel Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned And when St. Paul teacheth the poor humble Jailor what he should do to be saved all he gives in Instruction is only Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thine House Acts 16. 31. Here we see believing or Faith alone without any mention of Repentance has Salvation promised to it as if a Man were to do nothing to be saved but believe the Gospel Nay St. Paul in his Epistles seems to go beyond what is asserted in any of these places concluding from due Premises Rom. 3. 28. Therefore a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law That is without a Jewish Mosaical Righteousness And the same he says in other places The Reason hereof undoubtedly is for that sincere believing the Gospel or Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ doth most certainly involve or carry with it Repentance He that receives from his heart that Doctrine or believes that way to Heaven which our Lord Christ taught will seek Heaven by Repentance or breaking off his Sin Else it is plain he believes not what Christ preached at the very first Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand And if he truly and Christianly repent it is plain he believes in Christ for he takes that very way to Salvation to which Faith in Christ directs him § 5. Yet at another time when the Holy Ghost speaks more at large distinctly and expresly both Repentance and Faith are
Compunction They were says the Text pricked at their hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compunged point by point pricked and wounded The like whereto is also recorded of David 2 Sam. 24. 10. David's heart smote him after he had numbred the People But the Name Conviction of Sin is taken out of St. John chap. 16. 8. Where we read it to be a promised Work of the Holy Ghost's that when he should come into the World he should reprove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Margin of our Bibles convince the World of Sin wherefore there is no fault at all to be found with that Term provided it be allowed that that conviction of Sin which leads to Contrition and Repentance must consist in the Sinner's sight and sense first of his own particular Guilt secondly of the real Evil of his Sin 1. Of a sight of Sin that is of our own particular Guilt We must not only see in general that we are Sinners Transgressors of the Laws of God at random but as to this or that kind and in these or these instances that we have offended against particular Commands Namely we have been or are either Covetous or Drunkards or Revilers or Extortioners or Unjust or Swearers or Blasphemers or Lustful and Unclean or Proud or Sinners in some of these or like kinds by divers particular Acts notorious in such or such part or parts of our Lives Thus St. Paul of himself who was saith he a Blasphemer and a Persecuter and Injurious 1 Tim. 1. 13. And in the aforementioned place the Original of this Phrase Conviction of Sin 't is said The Holy Ghost should convince the world of Sin on that peculiar account because they believed not on Christ Jesus Now this part of the Conviction of Sin is nothing but a particular accusation of Conscience which sometimes God in a great measure prevents us with without any endeavours of our own under the Ministry of his Word as in the Case of those Converts before spoken of Acts 2. Sometimes by the Holy Spirit 's secret and more immediate quickning or awakening Conscience as in the Case of David already also mentioned Or otherwise by some surprizing Affliction or cross Providence as in the Case of Joseph's Brethren when they had been apprehended and kept three days in durance for being as was pretended Spies We are say they verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Gen. 42. 21. Or perhaps in some other Methods But as for a full and due sight of all the Particulars of ones Guilt I conceive no person can attain to it without a strict and long scrutiny search or examination of Conscience without very mature and considerate enquiry into his Heart Life and Actions Which therefore every one who would reconcile himself to God must upon the first pricking or smiting of his heart in whichsoever of the Methods before-mentioned he feel it immediately set upon For where there is one Sin undoubtedly there are more God having therefore graciously shewn us some we being awakened thereby should search after the rest Convictions of Conscience from God should put us upon stricter self-examination No corner of our Heart as I may so say that is no part or powers of our Soul should be left unsearch'd An Enquiry after Sin should be made through all our Desires Designs Counsels Business and Employments and if possible through all the Actions and Parts of our Life So as to have all our Sins after some sort in order before us bare-faced and open 2. The other part of Conviction of Sin is a sight and sense of the Evil of Sin that it is not only foul and odious disagreeable to the true Principles of our Nature to what in our hearts we approve and unworthy of the sence and understanding of a Man making us brutish loathsome in the eyes of God and of all good and wise men and even of our selves when we are truly our selves and judge of things as they really are but also most mischievous and destructive that it at first brought Death and all temporal Miseries into the World that it brings upon us at present the Wrath and Curse of God Curses in our Persons Estates and Names Curses in our Families Relations and all our Concerns Curses more than we can well comprehend yet are all these present Curses nothing in comparison of what it will bring upon us without Repentance a Portion with the Devil and his Angels The Wrath to come or the Vengeance of everlasting Fire And this part of the Conviction of Sin is nothing else but the Sentence or Doom of Conscience upon the former Convictions Now with this also sometimes does God prevent us either by the Ministry of the Word or by secret Terrors immediately sent into the Conscience flashing as it were Hell-fire in our faces or by more moderate Afflictions sealing instructions to our Ears The Degrees wherein Holy Men are exercised herewith as well have been as are and ever will be very different But it is surely the Duty as well as Interest of every one who would be penitent and holy either in Heart or Life to endeavour by a frequent consideration as well of the real shamefulness vileness and detestable Nature of Sin as of the Dangers thereby present and future to Body and Soul Person and all personal Concerns to possess their hearts with a deep sense of its Evil. 'T is as certain as God is true that Mischief will hunt the wicked man to overthrow him Psal 140. 11. And be sure your Sin will find you out Numb 32. 23. There is no possibility of flying from Guilt except a man could fly from himself nor of flying that is escaping from punishment except it were possible to fly from God These things he should frequently and seriously think upon whosoever would fix in his Heart a sight and sense of his Sin the honest endeavour whereof is the first step to true Repentance § 8. A Second is Contrition Brokenness of Heart so named from Psal 51. 17. or sorrowing after a godly sort as the Apostle calls it 2 Cor. 7. 11. when looking upon our Sin we really in heart are afflicted for it and mourn over it This ordinarily through the Grace of God follows naturally upon the other in the conversion of every Sinner but in case we find it either always to have been much wanting or at present decayed and lost to our sense in us there is no such way to beget or raise it again as to endeavour to heighten the sight and sense of our own Guilt and God's infinite Grace and Goodness To this purpose the several aggravations of our Sins are to be considered We it may be from our Cradle to our present Age have all along been in such Circumstances that all our Sins are exceeding sinful What Mercies has God continually heaped
upon us and even laden us with How early were we acquainted with his Will and made sensible of our Duty and Obligations to him What Aids have we received by Education What Warnings by Ministers by Parents by Friends Having even been hewed by the words of his Messengers or Agents of all sorts What quickning by his Spirit Has not his Word to allude to holy Jeremy's expression been in our heart as a burning fire shut up in our Bones Yet have we suppress'd or smothered all this warmth and quenched the holy Spirit Nor Conscience nor Grace has prevailed to restrain us from Sin we have trampled on both We have heard again and again of the Blood of Jesus shed for us and been press'd with our duty thereto yet in effect have we accounted it an unholy thing at least made it to us hitherto very ineffectual for Baseness or Trifles denying the Lord that bought us And all this how often how long Are not in a manner all our Sins become habitual to us A second Nature by our own very Act So that being accustomed Learn'd as the Original Word signifies namely by our own wicked practice to do evil we can now no more do good than the Aethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots Look look poor Soul that canst not mourn for Sin look upon thy sins what an infinite number or heap is there of them reaching up to Heaven And all of them Crimson sins too crying to God in heaven for vengeance upon thee Look I say as near as thou canst on their Number and Nature and look till thine Eyes affect thine Heart and thine Heart dissolve in Tears This is the readiest way to produce Contrition or Godly Sorrow the Endeavour of which is a second step to Repentance § 9. A third will be Confession of Sin and indeed without this especially to God Contrition will be very faint Our affections are not ordinarily moved without attent and continued thought and thought will not well be kept attent without words When therefore we say a sight and sense of Sin together with Contrition for it and Confession of it are a first second and third step to repent this is not to be so taken as if they were disjoyned separate and practised perfectly apart from one another or any of them without the other they who would be true penitents must seriously casting themselves before God in secret Examine Mourn and Confess as new matter offers it self and then Examine again for more matter and Confess and Mourn again All these run into one another and lead one to the other as I may say backward and forward And a Soul by honest endeavours of them before God in secret will even by its own experience and the duct or course of its own affections find the due method order and savory practice of them better than words can express or any Casuist advise Now by Confession of Sin we must not conceive to be meant a meer reciting of our Sins or rehearsing before God our several Acts of Sin which yet God knows to do perfectly is impossible for the best of us no nor giving account even of all the several kinds of our Sins though both these are to be done as far as we are able but a hearty affectionate charging and accusing our selves before God according to what we know to the very full heighth of our guilt acknowledging together that our Confessions and Self-accusations come far short of the just account or summ of our Sins whereof a vast multitude are unknown to us owning our selves therefore to have deserved eternally the Divine wrath and curse and at present to lie at God's mercy Thus at once not only accusing but condemning and as it were passing Sentence on our selves and giving thereby glory to God whatever becomes of us This kind of reflections will certainly by God's grace bring us to deep remorse and humiliation of Soul abhorrence of our selves and admiring the goodness of God who has born with us so long and has never all this time taken advantage against us while going on in the affronting his Justice abusing his Grace and by all ways provoking him to cut us off in the midst of our Days as well as midst of our Sins And from hence our Confessions will lead us insensibly into deprecating that wrath which we have owned our selves to have deserved to the begging mercy and pardon as earnestly as ever poor Malefactor when about to receive Sentence acknowledged what he had before endeavoured to hide and cast himself upon mercy Such affectionate work as this I say is that Confession of Sin before God which leads to and together ever accompanies Repentance § 10. Some indeed make Confession as it is a part of what they call Penance and in the name of Penance they would be content we should think they include all Repentance or rather mean thereby the whole Method of reconciling Men to God some I say would make Confession to be little if any thing else but an unbosoming our selves to a Priest discovering to him all our most secret sins which either are or we suspect to be mortal as they speak with their several Circumstances But this Usurpation upon Mens Consciences and Oppression of Souls without any Command in Scripture introduced only into the Church declined in Purity and serving meerly to maintain an extravagant power in every Father Confessor that is generally in every Priest our Church has most deservedly abrogated and though there be some particular Cases in which with the Holy Scriptures and Ancient Church we teach the confessing our Sins to Man to be expedient if not necessary also to our Peace with God yet out of these Cases is not confessing to man either requir'd or even always fit The Cases wherein it is necessary are but Three as far as I am able to comprehend The First That of Publick Scandal given to the Church by gross and open sin whereby any person has forfeited his Christianity or his Right and Title as well to Heaven or the Church above as to his Membership of the Church on Earth It is very necessary such person take publick shame to himself and openly declare his Sin to the end he may as openly declare and give proof of his Repentance and Christian People may be satisfied in communicating with him again And this if some will call a kind of satisfaction for sin they may have their pleasure provided they neither imagine nor bear the World in hand it avails to make atonement for the guilt of Sin before God in which behalf nothing was or ever will be meritorious but the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Cross 2. In case of having wronged any particular person by Word or Deed it is requisite the Person who has done wrong go to or send for meet or otherwise apply to the party wronged and confess the wrong he has done if able making also satisfaction if not
or entring as it were into a consultation with our selves how we may effect the Reformation we have resolved on Herein we must exercise real Care Thought and Study and sometimes perhaps more care and thought than meerly our own For it is much easier generally to purpose than in special to perform amendment much easier indeed to resolve as we think upon a total reformation in all than to bring our idle and deceitful hearts to it in any one particular Case Here therefore I say more and longer consideration must be employed and many a Petition mean while put up to God for guidance Particularly the Soul entring deeply within its self by serious reflections must put such Questions as these to it self First What are the Sins which I have most lived in What is mine Iniquity Or the particular Sin or Sins that easily beset me Then what Remedies can I find against them For instance Suppose idle spending my time or Intemperance be a Sin of mine it soon appears evil Company is a common snare thereto A Remedy therefore of it is to avoid ill company to harden my face and my heart against many a gang of men that will thrust themselves upon me For 1 Pet. 4. 4. They will think it strange that I run not with them to the same excess of riot as formerly speaking evil of me And by the way this is to be noted in general that a constant and universal remedy against all or any Sin is avoiding the Temptations to them respectively Consider therefore what draws or betrays thee into such and such Sins and avoid that This in all Cases of Sin or more than this is most certainly our Duty For we are commanded 1 Thes 5. 22. to abstain from all appearance of evil Now if Sin has any appearance besides that of its actual being it certainly appears in the Temptations to it Again Suppose unjust dealing be my Sin what leads me to it Probably immoderate Love of this World 1 Tim. 6. 9. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition No obstacle difficulty or hardship no danger shame labour or pains will stand before that man in his way to sin who has set his heart on this World Here therefore I must strike at the Root and mortifie this inordinate love of Mammon I must consider Man's Life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth Luke 12. 15. And have I not enough to carry me tolerably through this World and to leave sufficiently also to my Family for their support provided they will be vertuous and industrious If I have so 't is a great question whether without sin I can seek after a greater Estate More would be only a load to me and in all probability a snare too both to Me and Mine A Load I say by new and unnecessary Cares which that More would bring And is it not a wrong to my self to draw more Cares on my self than are consistent with my own Happiness and God's Glory Again more than enough would be a snare to me for I should still thirst after more For in all Cases we see where men's thirst or desire is not satisfied with that which is enough that is which is convenient there it never will be satisfied And it will be a snare also to those of mine to whom I leave it For more than what will suffice them in a vertuous industrious Life does but tempt them to cast aside Vertue and Industry And to leave them wherewithal to support them in Vice and Idleness I never shall be able nor is it possible if I should leave them a Kingdom But yet if I could leave wherewith to support them in Vice or Idleness yet I ought not So that I say it is most probable men cannot propose to themselves vast and immoderate Estates Estates beyond their degree without Sin Wherefore having enough as before said I ought therein to acquiesce and satisfie my self to enjoy it and use it well and lay aside so much dealing in the World as perhaps I grasp at which if I will resolve upon I shall soon break my self of unjust dealing Secondly The Soul which would break it self particularly of its peculiar course of sinful Life should in secret seriousness put also this Set of Questions to it self What are the Duties I have most grosly neglected And what has drawn me to such Neglect And what Mean or Means will secure me against it or quicken me to the performance of my Duty Now whatsoever I find that or those Means to be I must resolve thereupon As suppose Prayer by my self or Prayer in my Family is one Duty I have grosly neglected and shamefacedness fear of being laughed at or reputed a Precisian or Fanatick has betrayed me to this neglect let me consider Who are they I am ashamed of it to Or whose Laughter is it I fear My Friend's My Family's These I can admonish check and turn shame justly on them Besides it is but speaking of it to them beforehand and this cures them of the Evil before it break out Is it my Neighbours reproach I fear As to them remember St. Paul Acts 24. 14. This I confess unto thee that after the way which they call Heresie worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets Did shame either hinder or drive these ancient Servants of God in any point from the due practice and open profession of their Christianity And may I then suffer my self to be thereby either hindred or driven from the same At the Resurrection of the Dead and the Day of Judgment shall I be ashamed either of having prayed in secret or of having prayed in publick Will then either the memory of the Act or the reward of it put me to the Blush And why should it here My Saviour was laugh'd at publickly scoffed and scorned for my sake reproached with the imputation of Falseness and Hypocrisie as if he had only counterfeited himself to be the Son of God and Saviour of the World And all this while he was actually employed in the severest part of the Work of my Salvation He was reproached of men and despised of the people All that saw him laughed him to scorn they shot out the lip they shook the head saying He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him Psal 22. 6 7 8. And Matth. 27. 39 40 41. They that passed by reviled him wagging their heads and saying Thou that destroyedst the Temple and buildedst it in three days save thy self if thou be the Son of God come down from the Cross Likewise also the Chief Priests mocking him with the Scribes and Elders said c. He was then too hanging and to hang upon the Cross for me making his Soul an Offering for my Sin
After this how can I think of neglecting him through any tenderness of face Especially when I am at present in so far better that is easier and more tolerable Circumstances than he was I perhaps am laugh'd at by some Fools or Mad-men for obeying him but I am otherwise at ease and to have Heaven for the reward of overcoming this petty private affront Shall then such inconsiderable Trifles make me wave or forgo my Duty Far be it from me In any other Case whatsoever by like Consultations or Considerations as in these Cases now set down shall we through God's Grace and Blessing upon our honest endeavour find out particular means and by such thought work our hearts to particular resolution for breaking our selves of any other or whatsoever Sins we have found more peculiarly prevalent in us And thus as to the second Step of this Head of Practice The Third will be A particular Resolution or as occasion serves Vow touching the use of those Means which we have found most proper to amend us and touching such instances of our Manners which upon enquiry we have found most to need Reformation All general Resolutions we know must be performed in particular instances of Life and Action and therefore a particular Resolution touching those Means which by consideration we have found proper to each Case will be no less necessary than the general Resolution first proposed as to the main Body of the Work As for example Suppose avoiding ill Company be one Means I have found out to keep me from Intemperance and Excess or from loss of Time c. I 'll immediately resolve not only against loose but against vain Companions I 'll keep home more abandon certain Familiars estrange my self from such and such I 'll set my self certain employment so much for such a time c. Suppose again contenting my self with sufficient Provisions and abandoning a too peremptory Resolution I had taken up to be rich to such a degree be the Means I have discovered proper for the remedying my unjust oppressive dealing I 'll resolve on that and immediately order my Affairs accordingly But in such Cases as these perhaps single resolution will not suffice to hold our unstable Souls sometimes therefore but with much caution and deliberation we may do well to add Vow David or whatever holy Man was the Author of that Psalm did so Psal 119. 51. I have said that is resolved with my self to keep thy Words and lest that should not do ver 106. I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments Thus as to the first Part of the Method for breaking our selves of Sin by such Acts as are to be done for the present Those which are to be continued are the prosecution of these Resolutions or Vows by a constant study of Mortification and by daily endeavours of proficiency in Holyness through the whole following part of our Life Now the treating hereof belongs not to this first Class of Advices but is to be set down in the second Part. In the mean while we are to proceed with what yet remains for our present making our peace with God § 14. And now after this Practice of Repentance Faith interposes again and that not meerly Faith towards God or a belief of the Being Nature and Providence of God as hitherto most insisted on but Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ or Faith as called by the Apostle Rom. 3. 25. Faith in his Blood For him as bleeding for us upon the Cross as sacrificed upon that Altar hath God set forth to be a propitiation and it is by the Blood of his Cross that he made peace Col. 1. 20. 'T is the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God that purges our Consciences from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. 'T is by that one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. This is that Fountain set open to the House of David and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for Sin and for Vncleanness Zechar. 13. 1. Hither therefore after all Confessions Contrition Tears Resolutions Vows and endeavours of Reformation the faithful Soul comes Here it exerts new Acts of Faith that is Trust Affiance and Dependance And as the Holy persons Matth. 28. 9. did corporally to our Saviour after his Resurection so must true Penitents as it were catching the Crucified Jesus by the Feet hold him fast after a spiritual sort as their only hope and refuge that only name given under Heaven that Dear Jesus which redeemed us from the Wrath to come and with Christ thus not in their Arms but Heart look up to the Eternal Father for pardon and peace through the Son of his Loves This distinct trust in Christ as sacrificed for our Sins in this Order or thus in conjunction with such practice of Repentance as set down exerted or exercised I conceive of most essential and singular Force to the perfecting our Peace both with God and in our own Consciences § 15. And now I see not any thing which remains speaking as to a certain course of transient Acts ordinarily to compleat a Man's Reconciliation with God except we should say it is requisite to Cloath all these Acts with serious and suitable Prayer Prayer is that Christian Duty which as I may say alone as it were gives a body to all the Acts of Grace in the Soul or as one well observes It is indeed that single Duty wherein Dr. Owen of the Spirit of Prayer every Geace is acted every Sin opposed every good thing obtained or impetrated of God Without it Contrition and Faith and Resolution are after a sort airy and volatil This fixes them and makes them substantial mature and permanent Nay it raises and strengthens or heightens them Prayer is such an Office as not only actuates or draws out into Exercise all Christian Graces but makes the Soul more earnest and zealous in the Actings of them Having therefore proceeded as above directed towards making thy Peace with God cast thy self in secret at the Throne of Grace in earnest and humble supplication confessing and bewailing thy Sin with the Exercise of all the Contrition thou canst excite passing Sentence on thy self acknowledging what thou hast deserved but withall pleading the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ the atonement made by the Blood of his Cross and casting thy self upon God's mercy through that great and alone true Propitiation bringing indeed the heartiest Purposes and making the firmest Resolutions thou can'st endeavouring to the utmost of thy Power to perform all that concerns thee on thy part by the Covenant of Grace but after all acknowledging thy self an unprofitable servant Luke 17. 10. disclaiming therefore any righteousness of thine own and beseeching Pardon for thy very Repentance begging to be sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus and to be found in him For he is the Lord our
retired or gone alone and considered the particular grievousness of thy sins the vast multitudes of them the Mercy Love and Goodness thou hast sinn'd against c. Answ Lord I have not And so in others This is most easie and even this will be very profitable and soon bring Christian people of all sorts in secret freely to pour out their Souls before God Nor 2. Can any such person after this practice be well at a loss for Petition The Soul seeing in particular what it wants cannot be presumed ignorant what to ask or unable to ask it At least it is but looking over the Particulars again and turning them into Petitions Nay even while confessing our Guilt and our Wants we can hardly forbear at least we may both naturally and profitably proceed at the end of each Particular conâ—essed to add Petitions for pardon of Sin and for supply of the Grace we need As suppose in my examination of my self I find I want a sight of my Sins and have confessed so much to God how can I forbear to add by way of Petition Lord shew them to me in which case no one that reads Holy Scripture can be so barren as not many times to recollect sundry Petitions of Holy Men to like effect which will be marvellously helpful and quickning As particularly that Psal 19. 12. Who can understand his Errors Cleanse thou me from secret faults To which a Soul in the condition we suppose will naturally add And that I may be cleansed shew them me O Lord so as I may mourn over them duly and throughly repent The like I cannot but presume a little Practice will soon naturalize any to in other points and therefore forbear adding more in this Case Lastly As to Resolution Though the Particulars requisite here may be very different according as People have been more or less guilty in resisting Grace neglecting Repentance and hardning their hearts yet thus much may be of general behoof to resolve upon 1. To set apart for a while daily or weekly some time for the particular survey of our whole Life from our first memory of our selves and for the viewing as near as able all the Sins of each part of our Age. 2. Daily to particularize in our Confessions and ever to go mourning over such sins wherein we have more grievously or more frequently fallen 3. To be impartial in the practice of every particular Branch of Duty in the whole forementioned Method or Course of making our Peace with God And whatever else God shall move thy heart to For these are only Instances of some material Points by way of Direction to make pious Souls understand that practice which a little Vse and God's Grace will soon familiarize to them CHAP. IV. The Third Duty advised to Laying up our Treasure in Heaven § 1. THree Points necessary to be spoken to under this head § 2. A short account what the Heavenly happiness is which we are to endeavour to secure § 3. It is no presumption in a faithful Soul to aim at or seek after this happiness but in strictness a duty § 4. Directions to secure it Of chusing God for our happiness § 5. Of being full of Good Works § 6. Of Good Works in a more special sence § 7. How Christians of all sorts may be rich in Good Works § 8. Works of Liberality and Mercy or of bodily charity peculiarly accounted laying up a Treasure in Heaven § 9. Charity to Men's Souls no less so § 1. HE who has been careful and conscientious in his endeavors to reconcile himself to God as before directed may through our Lord Christ who is our Peace come with an humble boldness to the Father He may in his name ask of the Father whatsoever he can need or finds himself at a loss for and he shall receive it He may in special ask of him everlasting life and happiness in Heaven Nay he ought now to think of no happiness below Heaven but there to place his heart there to settle his affections and in a word as our Lord enjoyns to lay up his Treasure in Heaven the doing which is the next advice or third step in this our first Stage But for sinful Dust and Ashes to aim so high may perhaps at first seem to many poor dejected Souls as much a presumption as to secure a happiness in Heaven seems to carnal Men impossible Nay 't is not improbable many may be much at a loss what conceptions to frame of any happiness there at all We have been here so accustomed to live meerly by sense that we can conceive of little or nothing which falls not under our senses What the pleasures of Eating and Drinking are what sleep and carnal joys we know too well But what happiness there can be in a World where 't is said there 's none of these we cannot easily apprehend It will therefore be necessary here First to shew what that Happiness is which we are to propose to our selves in Heaven Secondly to prove in a few words that for persons who have made their peace with God 't is not presumption but their Duty as well as Interest to lay up their Treasure or place their happiness in Heaven and indeed in God himself And Lastly to assign such means whereby we may secure to our selves the heavenly Happiness or Treasure § 2. And First to give some account what that happiness in Heaven is which we are to propose to our selves Not at present so largely and distinctly as in a fitter place will be expedient to be given but at least generally and in the gross so as may inflame our desires after it and excite our diligence to fecure it The happiness above then is a State of fuller and more absolute blessedness and joy than here we are able to conceive of A State wherein all our reasonable powers shall be made perfect and perfectly imployed on such things which will be most intirely suitable and satisfactory to them And not only the Soul thus raised but even the Body it self shall be exalted to such a degree of Purity and Eternal Ease as to have nothing in it or about it which argues any imperfection in its kind nothing which can hinder the mind in its noblest Actions nothing which can affect the Man with any inconvenience We shall see God as he is face to face See him I say with the eyes of our mind not these poor weak bodily ones That is we shall know him even as we our selves are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. not indirectly or by a long compass about as we now do but intuitively by immediate Revelation as it were looking straight upon him The mind shall be so raised as to be able to conceive truly and properly of the Being Nature and Perfections of God Our bodily Eyes indeed shall behold the Lord Jesus for he has a body visibly to be beheld and even this certainly will be a glorious and most
himself Thirdly Pause now a while for Meditation and due thought that thy Resolutions in the end may be the riper more considerate and durable And especially think with thy self Is there not more solid joy and comfort in a few moments of such Address to God as this thou hast now made and in such converse with him in well grounded hopes and a reasonable prospect that thou shalt hereafter have the perfect sight and eternal enjoyment of the glorious God than in all the Contentments and pleasures thou ever yet tastedst in the World Wherefore resolve 1. To quit all other Happiness but the Almighty God and to take God alone for thy Portion thy Shield and thy great Reward Worldly Goods indeed thou maist use in thy journey but thou maist not make them thine End nor solace thy self without looking up to God in them Psal 73. 25 26 24 28. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Thou Lord shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory It is good for me to draw near to God I have put my trust in the Lord GOD that I may declare all his works in Heaven everlastingly before him Having thus resolved in thy heart proceed and resolve further 2. By all means possible to endeavour the securing God as thy Portion for ever 1. By good works in the general sense of the term that is by Vniversal and Impartial Obedience 2. By good works in a more particular sence answerable to thy condition as set down By Liberality to the poor By other works of Bodily mercy By Charity to Men's Souls or the like 3. By faith with Humility daily to make and maintain claim to God as thy portion And whatsoever else God shall direct thee And may God direct thee and be thy portion for ever So prays the Author for thee whoever readest this and so do thou pray for him while he lives CHAP. V. Of a Composed Estate both of Affairs and Mind § 1. DIsentangling our selves from this World a necessary Christian Duty § 2. The means thereto chiefly Two putting our Affairs in Order and Composing our Minds § 3. Particular Directions hereto Setting bounds to our desires and designs of getting § 4. Putting and keeping our Estates or Accounts in such order as to be just to all § 5. Of Restitution § 6. Of Settling Children and Relations § 7. Care in making and keeping a Will § 8. Reconciliation to Mankind § 9. Advice to Relations Secrets c. § 10. Resigning them all to God and laying aside Solicitude § 11. The Conclusion of this Part. § 1 THose who have practised the former Advices or Prescriptions may be presumed to have secured to themselves a Happiness in the other World wherefore being that it is most sure they must shortly and they know not how soon depart hence it now is both just and seasonable to move them to Disentangle themselves from this World For the proving this to be all Christian Peoples both Duty and Interest let it but be granted what is above set forth and has been proved that it is our Duty and Interest to be always ready and this inavoidably follows that it is our Duty to be disentangled For is a Man ready for a Journey who has Fetters and Bolts on or who is loaden with Chains and Irons which it is not possible in a short time to knock off or rid him from No more is the Man who is involved in the cares and business but especially in the Love of this World fit or ready for his passage into that heavenly Country a Country or State wherein we are to live at another rate than we do here and for the Purity and Liberty whereof we must be somewhat prepared by a holy and abstract Life before we can be capable of being blessed therein Nor does it seem needful to inlarge in shewing how sinful as well as how unreasonable it is for a Man to incumber himself or to remain incumbred more than by his Duty necessitated in worldly Affairs There is nothing more commonly known than our Lord's reprimand or check to that busy good Woman Luke 10. 41. Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things The original terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aptly express the Course and Nature of many of our Lives They are nothing but a State of distraction and tumult Nor can any thing be more plain than that the cares of this Life and love of this World and busy ploding about it do put the Mind and Affections at as great a distance from God as do most of those Sins which are reputed the most scandalous St. John affirms thus much commanding 1 John 2. 15. that we Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him And we have above had occasion to consider the sad truth of the Apostle St. Paul's observation touching Men that are resolved to be rich 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts which drown Men in Destruction and Perdition For the love of Money is the Root of all Evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the Faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows In a word no wise Man will no Christian Man can look upon the best Condition or most plentiful and firm settlement in this World any otherwise than as a Good Inn to a Traveller If we can get but convenient Refreshments and Necessaries to pass on with comfort it is as much as we should look after The way-faring Man who turneth in to stay for a Night would be esteemed a Mad Man if he should spend the time wherein he should eat rest and sleep in furnishing his Room and laying in Stores of Provisions and Superfluities as if he were to abide there for term of Life And just so wise a Course is it for us who have here no abiding place but are only to pass on towards Heaven to spend those Days and Years which God has allotted us for Life and furnishing our Souls with Knowledge Grace and Vertue to qualify us for Heaven meerly in Earthly Cares and Labours and in endless Perplexities about compassing Wealth which we must leave behind us for ought we know before to morrow morning to him that comes next and which will be our loss rather than advantage when we come unto our true Home and Country Good Works may follow us but Money or Great Estates cannot except it be to appear in Judgment against us for coming unjustly by them or setting our hearts too much upon them and so enslaving our selves to them and making meer Earth-worms of our Souls § 2. But it is much more
I were now dying and breathing out my last with that last breath would I give thee this counsel make this request impose upon thee this command or otherwise c. Take it therefore now lest thou and I should not have then opportunity for it and remember it as the Counsel Admonition or Command c. of thy dying Father Friend c. Then give thy Counsel signifie thy desire c. Counsel thus once given and as occasion may offer thus at convenient times ingeminated or repeated may have the same weight make the same impression and will every whit as much serve to the discharging of our Conscience and so for the composing our minds for death as if it were given upon the Death-bed The same may I say as to any secrets which we have to impart and which it is expedient our Friends or Relations should know convenient time in state of health and leisure may be taken and needful Prefaces used so as to impart them even at a distance from our death Or if the secrets be of such nature as it is not expedient our Friends should know them when we are in health or till we are going or gone out of the world a Letter may be writ and put up sealed with our Will to such person to whom the secret does belong Or in case we are not able to write some faithful friend with whom we can or do intrust the secrets of our Estate may be intrusted herewith to impart it to our Friends at or after our death By these or like means which common discretion will suggest may a man before hand discharge his Conscience to his Friends so as to have his mind even in reference to them composed and easie and himself at a distance as ready for death as if it were at hand § 10. Lastly whether of the main or subordinate Directions it matters not having done thy best as has been before prescribed with good Conscience to settle thy affairs and thy mind though thou presumest thy self never at so great a distance from death yet as fully and intirely as if thou wert now to die and together comfortably and quietly resign up thy self and all thine to God Let him now from henceforth work his will and dispose of thee and thine as he pleases Do thou quietly await his good pleasure Thine own person soul and body and the persons of all thy dear Relations or Friends by Faith and Prayer commit to him as into the hands of a faithful Creator and do this daily as long as thou livest Thy Estate and Goods give up according to his good pleasure he being the most wise Disposer as well as the alone true Proprietor and Lord of all Thou hast as his Instrument endeavoured to dispose of all as wisely and conscionably as thou canst but when thou art gone which way in a short time all will go whether to thine or to strangers whether to a wise man or to a fool thou Eccles 2. 19. neither canst nor shalt know nor does it truly concern thee to presage or forebode Much less shouldest thou disturb thy quiet about it thy duty 's done Thy children may Job 14. 21. come to Honour and thou know it not and they may be brought low but thou perceive it not of them Trouble not therefore thy self now as to what comes after thee If thou considerately survivest these Preparations thou maist alter things as in Christian prudence thou at leisure shalt see occasion If not thy Province is discharged God is at peace with thee thou hast a happiness Him for thy happiness to go to Happy man set thy heart at rest abandon Sollicitude address to what comes with a Christian temper and make the most Heavenly and Spiritual use thou canst of all that comes bidding still all welcome as from God § 11. This is plainly a most easeful and blessed temper able in a great measure to felicitate any person Whosoever has thus practised and continues in this state and practice is plainly prepared for death For the three aforementioned intentions beyond which in this period we could see nothing necessary are attained He has a Happiness to go to the infinite God is his Portion He has provided against all he can fear sin and the wrath due to it Sin he has forsaken and endeavoured to extirpate and the guilt of it that is obligation to the wrath due is done away for he has made his peace with God in Christ and he has disintangled himself from the world He may therefore take up good old Simeon's Hymn Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace And add thereto St. John's Response to the Churches Invitatory Come Lord Jesus come quickly Only if his Lord delayeth his coming it will concern him to watch To have his light burning and to keep oyl in his vessel with his lamp that is to maintain this blessed temper and to strengthen those things which are weak to fill up what is defective to take care his heart and his works be perfect before God that is sincere to hold fast and be faithful to the end that no man take his Crown Of which Duties we are next to consider In the mean time Blessed is that servant whom his Lord at his coming shall find so doing Matter and a Method for Devotions suitable to Chapter the Fifth IN point of Examination or Inquiry into our condition here will be Matter of a new nature and different from what as yet came before us For hitherto in our Devotional engagements the enquiries we have still made were touching disorders of heart or our particular guilt Sins Habitual or Actual But now being engaged as well to settle our worldly affairs as to purge our Souls and quiet our minds and the purging disentangling and quieting our selves depending so much on our outward circumstances After such endeavours of a serious thoughtful temper and short Prayer as usual at our entring into our privacy we must look without and set our selves to consider in plain terms What estate or worldly substance we have and how it lyes What Relations also and Dependants Or what Dependencies we our selves have upon others What Dealings and Contracts we are engaged in What our Debts and Credits These questions we must seriously put to our selves and endeavour true answers and accompts in the fear of God as really making matter of Conscience of such Inquest For without this kind of practice a person that has had any thing to do in the world or has lived any considerable time therein cannot be just to the world when he goes out of it And for directing to such work as this in quality of a matter of Conscience and a work of secret or Closet-Devotion I have great reason in as much as good conscience and our peace both with God and our selves is so intimately concerned in it For 't is most certain a man cannot die a good Christian or with just hopes