relish and remembrance of good things past makes the succession of evil most pungent and intolerable Nay which is more the very fears and expectation of this vicissitude makes the sense of the greatest present flat and insignificant IT would questionless be a great relief to the Souls in Hell and a remission of their torments if they could conceive any hopes of emerging at last out of that condition and it would be a great abatement of the joys of Heaven if any suspicion should enter there that possibly that felicity might one time or other expire But this is the very Hell of Hell that there is not the least crany through which to spy light beyond those dark regions no hopes but they that come thither are for ever abandoned by God and made the triumphs of his vengeance And it is the glory of coelestial glory the crown of the Heavenly Kingdom that it is eternal that the river of life is inexhaustible that the glorious enjoyments of that blessed state never fail and that men shall ever live to enjoy them O Eternal eternal that word speaks Seas of comfort and a boundless glory it fills us with wonder and astonishment it is that which we cannot comprehend and therefore fit to be the supream happiness Eternal life is all the world and more then ten thousand worlds in one word It is higher then the Heavens greater then the Universe it is all things It is the flower of joy the quintessence of comfort the pinnacle of glory the crown of blessedness the very soul and spirit of Heaven It is all miracle all ecstasy all that we can wish all that we can receive all that God can give nay all that he himself can enjoy BUT the wonder rises higher yet if we consider who it is that is made the subject of this blessed eternity If it had been some glorious Angelical Being who was by nature removed from all matter out of the reach of bodily contagion or infirmity a pure bright shining intellect or if it had been man that had never faln from Paradise that had contracted no sickliness and infirmity no disorder of passions nor violence of humours nor other presage of mortality or especially if it had been a man that never had voluntarily sinned against his Maker but such an one as by prudent management and subjugation of his Body under all the difficulties he is thereby exposed to had merited some extraordinary favour at God's hand if I say any of these had been the case eternal life had been less admirable BUT that man cloathed with a Body clogged with flesh that faln and degenerate man nay sickly infirm man a meer bundle of a thousand diseases the triumph of death and the prisoner of the grave that he should become the subject of eternity and be placed in a condition out of the reach of fate beyond the sphere of chance and contingency above mortality where no time shall wear him away no violence shall touch him no strife of principles shall gradually work his destruction WHEN the everlasting Springs are dried up that he should have life in himself when the Mountains shall be removed the Earth abolished and the Heavens pass away as a smoak that he should survive all this and be fresh and vigorous to a thousand Ages and feel a perpetual motion a constant circulation of the principles of life and joy in himself this is the wonder of all wonders and here we may cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the height and depth and breadth of the power and goodness of God NOTWITHSTANDING all these multitudes of wonders this shall be done for besides that the Divine Majesty made the Soul of an immortal nature from the beginning that it cannot perish but by an act of his Omnipotency he will be so far from destroying it violently that he will everlastingly irradiate it by his own vital Spirit and thereby perpetually improve that energy he first gave it and then for the Body that shall be sublimed to such a purity and perfection that it shall admit of no corruptive fermentation nothing shall weaken weary or disorder it but it shall be plainly indissoluble as the Soul it self This is the third step of Heavens glory but there is a fourth yet behind which must not be forgotten And that is 4. THE consideration of the incomparably sweet and blessed society there to be enjoyed When God had first made man and placed him in the terrestrial Paradise where to the perfection of his nature he had furnished him also with all things of necessary use or delightfull entertainment he considered yet that it was not good for man to be alone and therefore provided a companion for him for in the midst of all affluence of other things solitude is most uncomfortable to humane nature insomuch that it is not to be doubted but that any man in his right wits would rather chuse very mean and hard circumstances in society then the most plentifull and commodious with seclusion from the conversation of men like himself For society not only relieves men's impotency and secures them against danger but fortifies the spirits and raises the parts of men as we see by daily experience and above all it eases the burdens and multiplies the joys of humane life and touching this last as the Earth is not so much warmed and inriched by the direct as by the reflected beams of the Sun so we find by experience that there is no happy accident or success equally refreshes us in its direct contingency as when we perceive it in the rebound or sally and find other men especially our Friends take notice of it and reflect it upon us And for this reason it is that though the world be full enough of men yet men not content with that common alliance enter besides into more strict confederations which we call Friendships which are therefore not unfitly called by some body sal societatis infirmitatis praesidium vitae humanae portus as if life was not only an unsafe but an insipid and flat thing without Friendship AND this is not only so amongst men but something of it is discoverable even amongst those higher and more noble Beings the Angels themselves touching whom though some have been too phantastical and boldly intruded into things they understand not peremptorily defining their distinct Orders and Colledges yet it 's plain enough that God placed not them in solitude but made several Orders and Societies of them and accordingly they find delight in one another not only in the mutual assistance they give each other in the discharge of their Ministeries here below but in joyning together in blessed Quires above to admire and praise their ever glorious Creatour And perhaps it is not impertinent to add this also that even the Divine Majesty it self who by reason of his infinite perfections is seipso contentus and can have no need of any thing without or besides himself
Convert is also the most charitable and favourable Judge of others and the furthest from censoriousness There is nothing more unbecoming that modesty which should be in all men then to be Critical and curious in espying the failings of others and nothing can be more arrogantly done towards God then to take the judgment out of his hand and place our selves in the Tribunal nay there is nothing more infests the peace of the world then this pragmatical humour of censoriousness but saith the Convert Let those that are without sin cast the first stone at others for my part I have enough to do at home and see more evil in my self then in all the world besides I have learnt of the Apostle to Speak evil of no man considering that I my self was sometime foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3. 3. Thus he composes himself to be an example to the world of that temper then which nothing is more conducent to better the estate of mankind he will not rake in men's wounds nor rip up their old sores but forgives as he hopes to be forgiven he will not give ear to malicious whispers which like the arrow of the pestilence flies in the dark and kills without noise he will entertain no uncharitable surmises but hopes the best nor aggravate men's follies but makes the most benign and candid interpretation that that the case can bear and thus not judging others he shall not be condemned of the Lord. Nay further the Convert is so far from all the aforesaid instances of uncharitableness that he is the most compassionate man in the world both towards those that are yet in a state of sin and those also who have stumbled and faln in their race of vertue and the most ready and officious to bring the former to an apprehension of his danger and to restore the latter in the spirit of meekness he knows the wretchedness of a sinfull condition he hath felt the pangs of a guilty Conscience his heart trembles at the thoughts of Hell and therefore his Soul is troubled for those that are insensible of their own case his Bowels yern his Eyes weep in secret and his Heart bleeds for them he counsels persuades forewarns them prays for them and as the Prophet towards the Widows Son he as it were stretches himself upon their dead Souls and by the application of a lively example indeavours to bring spiritual warmth and life into them And now it cannot be imagined that such affection to Souls should be unrewarded by the great lover of Souls our Lord Jesus BESIDES it is not to be doubted but the Convert who hath this compassion to the Souls of others will be infinitely cautious of indangering his own he knows the Devil continually goes about as a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour he understands how many artifices and strategems he hath to deceive Souls and is sensible how full the world is of charms and allurements he is well aware of the pit which he hath but lately escaped and therefore is always watchful and sollicitous of himself careful to resist beginnings and cautious of all appearance of evil and in all these things his care and circumspection surpasses that of those happy men who never foully miscarried No saith he let those be secure that never knew what danger was but in contemplation only 't is not for me to live at ease it was too much to hazard a Soul once God forbid I should do it again O my heart akes at the very danger it hath escaped methinks I am not yet safe till I am in Heaven stand upon thy guard O my Soul keep God in thy eye trust not thy self a moment but in his and thy own keeping LASTLY to add no more such a person hath constantly in his bosom a burning zeal of God's glory which the consideration of God's wonderfull mercy to him hath kindled in him He therefore loves much because much was forgiven him others that have not incurred such dangers nor been sensible of such deliverances cannot have such raised affections as he hath They do not hunger and thirst after righteousness as he doth find not that savour and relish in the means of grace that he feels perceives not those obligations upon themselves to redeem their time and repair their former omissions by a double diligence in God's service IN consideration of all these things together to which severall others might have been added of like nature the Jews have a saying in their Talmud That the most just and perfect men cannot be able to stand in judgment with the Penitents and a Rabbine of theirs Commenting upon that saying adds further That no Creature no not the very Angels themselves that never sinned are able to compare with them But most assuredly without Hyperbole they are by all the qualifications forementioned prepared for vessels of honour fit objects of the divine favour and shall be received with the joy and triumph of Angels and all the celestial Host into those glorious mansions whither Christ Jesus the friend of Penitent Sinners and the Authour of eternall salvation is gone before To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory and adoration world without end Amen THE END ERRATA PAge 16. In the Contents of § 2. for his reade our Saviour's P. 27. l. 2. after the word maker add to which the Almighty replies P. 40. l. 2. for duely r. daily ibid. l. 22. r. follows P. 50. l. 12. after rule adde as if P. 56. l. 22. for not r. or ibid. after evil adde but not having such imperative power as to enforce the execution of its own dictates P. 93. l. 10. instead of worshipfull r. worship P. 135. l. 34. dele it P. 136. in Marg. for quum r. quam P. 184. l. 13. dele or ibid. l. 19. dele when P. 245. l. 19. for he r. the. P. 257. l. 1. for he r. see A Catalogue of some Books Re-printed and of other New Books Printed since the Fire and sold by R. Royston viz. Books written by H. Hammond D. D. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament in Folio Fourth Edition The Works of the said Reverend and Learned Authour containing a Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical with many Additions and Corrections from the Author 's own hand together with the Life of the Authour enlarged by the Reverend Dr. Fell Dean of Christ Church in Oxford I large Fol. Books written by Jer. Taylor D. D. and late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor Ductor Dubitantium or The Rule of Conscience in Five Books in Fol. The Great Exemplar or the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus in Fol. with Figures suitable to every story ingrav'd in Copper Whereunto is added the Lives and Martyrdoms of the Apostles By Will. Cave D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or A Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the enemies of the Church of England both
Allegorical way of the Old Testament p. 8 9. Of the Figures and Parables of our Saviour p. 10 11 12. Of the danger and mischief of Allegorical interpretations p. 13. And the caution of the Author in this particular p. 15. CHAP. II. The self-contradiction amongst the Adversaries of Christianity both Jews and Gentiles some accusing it as too difficult an institution others as a doctrine of looseness p. 17 18. A famous but feigned Story of Constantine M. to that purpose p. 19. The special occasion of the Jew's mistake of our Saviour's designs p. 20. Three ranks of the Jewish Religionists a mistake of theirs built upon that distinction p. 23. Their misunderstanding the design of God in the covenant made with them on Mount Sinai and consequently of the meaning of the Prophets p. 25. Vpon account of both which it is no wonder that they mistake our Saviour who therefore vindicates himself by this Parable p. 27. A literal Paraphrase of this Parable p. 28. Particularly who is meant by the Elder and who by the Younger Son p. 35. The division and parts of the Parable p. 43. CHAP. III. The three sorts of Laws mankind is under viz. Natural Divine and Humane and that all sin is a violation of some of these the mischief of mistake herein p. 45. Sin is a violation of a known Law and that God hath some way or other sufficiently promulged his Laws p. 51. The danger of mistake herein p. 54. All sin is voluntary Cautions in that point p. 56. A remarkable passage in S. James paraphrased p. 61. The difference between sins of infirmity and presumption p. 65. Instances of sins of infirmity p. 66. Instances of presumptuous sins p. 68. S. John 1 Ep. 3. Chap. 4. Vers opened p. 69. About reluctancy of Conscience and whether that abates of the guilt of sin p. 71. Of the several stations of Vertue and divers ranks of Sinners p. 74. CHAP. IV. The Sinner's Progress Pride is ordinarily the first beginning of a sinfull course As appears in the Apostasy of Angels the Fall of Man the Temptations of our Saviour and the Method of the Gospel p. 83. Neglect of God's Worship c. the second step towards a wicked life the dependence between Piety and Morality p. 92. Riot and Intemperance the third step towards Hell an account of the Talents God ordinarily vouchsafes men and how vice imbezils them p. 96. When men have abused their faculties and mis-spent their talents they become slaves to Sathan p. 106. The drudgery he puts them to p. 109. The desolate condition of an habitual sinner when the pleasures of sin fail him p. 116. CHAP. V. The import of the phrase when he came to himself That sin is a kind of madness p. 121. Proved by the description of madness and the usual symptoms of it p. 123. An objection against this assertion answered p. 129. The application and conclusion of the First Part. p. 130. PART II. Of Repentance CHAP. I. THE general importance of Repentance and why notwithstanding little notice is taken of it in the Law of Moses p. 135. Three parts of Repentance 1. Consideration What is meant thereby and the great necessity thereof p. 140. It is usually affliction which brings vicious men to consideration prosperity rendring them light and vain p. 149. The special considerations and thoughts of a Penitent p. 153. CHAP. II. Of Resolution the second step towards Repentance What is meant thereby and the force and efficacy thereof against the Devil Sense Custom Example and Reason it self p. 162. The properties of a penitent resolution p. 167. First It is serious and deliberate not rash and sudden Secondly It is peremptory p. 171. Thirdly It must be present not dilatory p. 173. Lastly It is uniform and universal p. 176. The principal motives that bring the Sinner when he considers to a resolution of Repentance 1. That it will be acceptable to God even yet p. 179. 2. Not impossible to reform p. 187. 3. That it is easy p. 191. 4. Absolutely necessary p. 194. CHAP. III. Of Confession and Contrition The nature and instances of hearty contrition p. 199. The efficacy and availableness thereof as doing right to the Divine Sovereignty to his Wisedom Justice and Goodness to his Omniscience to the holiness and pity of his Nature p. 205. It gives security against relapses into sin p. 208. CHAP. IV. Of Actual Reformation It consists in 1. A singular care of God's Worship in all the parts thereof p. 212. 2. Conscientious obedience to his commands p. 216. 3. Submission to his providence p. 221. CHAP. V. A recital of several opinions which debauch men's minds in this great affair of Repentance p. 226. Several arguments demonstrating the absurdity of all those opinions jointly and the necessity of such reformation as is before described p. 229. Exceptions removed p. 238. PART III. CHAP. I. Of Reconciliation THE passionate Story of Jacob and Joseph parallel to this of the Prodigal Son p. 242. The notice God takes of the beginnings of goodness and the use of that consideration p. 247. God's Spirit assists all beginnings of good p. 250. A memorable Story out of Eusebius and reflections thereupon p. 254. God fully and freely pardons all sin upon Repentance p. 257. 1. Great and many sins p. 259. 2. Relapsed sinners p. 261. The Novatian Doctrine 3. Without Reservation p. 263. Applications of the former Doctrine 1. The comfortableness of a state of pardon p. 265. 2. The great obligation to love God p. 267. 3. That we imitate the Divine Goodness in our dealing with our Brethren p. 268. 4. It should lead us to repentance p. 269. CHAP. II. Of Sanctification What is meant by the Best Robe p. 273. In what sense Sanctification goes before Justification and in what sense it follows after it p. 275. Three remarkable differences in the measures of Sanctification in a beginner and in a grown Christian p. 277. By what means those fuller measures of Sanctification are attained p. 284. CHAP. III. Of the gift of the Holy Ghost and that by the Ring this is intimated p. 290. The difference between the motions of God's Spirit and the gift or residence of it p. 291. The great advantages of the residence of the Holy Spirit in several respects p. 293. A passage of the Revel 2. 17. opened p. 297. Whence it comes to pass that some good men have no experience of the residence of the Holy Spirit p. 300. How to distinguish the motions of God's Spirit from our own fancies or the illusions of Sathan p. 303. CHAP. IV. The great trust God reposes in those he pardons and their obligations to faithfullness and activity in his service p. 306. Several ways wherein a pious man may be serviceable to the Souls of men without invading the Ministerial Office p. 312. The peculiar fitness of those that have been converted from an evil course for this purpose in many respects p. 314. A brief description of
consists not in puncto but is estimated according to men's diligence or neglect of improving those means and advantages which have been afforded them For as there is the same proportion between 1. and 2. as between 5. and 10. so he that having but half suppose of the advantages which another man enjoyed proves to be as good as that other is really much better Whereas he that having double the advantages is not better then he whom he this way so much excells is not good at all nor will be acceptable to God when he shall be weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary Because whosoever had been furnished with true internal probity of mind and was of an obedient temper and had a sincere love of godnesse would most certainly have advanced in the measures of vertue proportionably to the opportunities he had of so doing i. e. in the words of our Saviour He that was faithfull in little would have been so in much And on the contrary he that under great advantages hath not been proportionable in the improvements of his temper and life it may truely be said of such a man God hath been very good to him but he for his part is not good at all Which consideration will be of use both to make us more wary in pronouncing concerning the final estate of other men and also enable us to passe a better judgment of our own actions and state forasmuch as it hereby appears that it is not the bare conformity or inconformity of our actions to a Law or Rule from whence their value or their guilt arises but respect is had to the knowledge or knowablenesse of that Rule And so we have the second ingredient of sin § III. 3. LASTLY to render sin compleat and perfectly criminal it is neither enough that for the matter of it it be against some Law nor that such Law be known but the act or omission must be voluntary that is not what a man was overborn into by some fatal necessity or compelled to by the force of some violent impression not what he could neither help nor hinder but what was so far subject to his own free choice that he willingly did what he did and could have done otherwise or omitted doing if he had been so pleased For whatsoever is not of this nature is not properly an humane act and therefore cannot involve him in the guilt of sin no more then the effects and productions of natural causes can be esteemed vicious And though men have understanding which those other causes are destitute of yet that being onely the Criterion or Test of truth and falshood not of moral good and evil therefore vertue and vice are not imputable to the understanding but to the will which being the Helm of the soul determines all its motions and accordingly is accountable for them For the more clear understanding of which and of whatsoever I may have occasion to say hereafter touching this matter I think it usefull to precaution these three things 1. THAT it is not to be doubted but that notwithstanding the liberty which the will of man hath to chuse evil yet it is not so uncontrollable in its elections but that it is subject to the power of God's grace to be checked and controlled by him at his pleasure for the divine wisedom may well be supposed to have a thousand ways of diverting man from his course without offering any direct violence to his faculties some of which might easily be instanced if it were needfull nay there is no reason to question but divine omnipotence may if it so please irresistibly incline move and determine it to that which is good of which some instances also may be assigned though these last must be expected to be very rare partly because that ordinarily to invert the nature of things and put his creation out of course makes not so much for his wisedom as it may seem to doe for the demonstration of his power and partly also because thus taking away the natural and evident reason of rewards and punishments would obscure that justice which he designs to glorifie But this is all that is asserted at present that whatsoever God may please to doe either for the hindring of evil or the effecting of good he doth not necessarily determine or over-rule the wills of men to that which is evil but therein they are left to themselves 2. AS some excellently good men may arrive at such a perfection such a new nature and such habits of goodnesse as that it shall be morally impossible they should chuse evil of which I shall treat more at large hereafter so on the other side it is neither impossible nor unusual for evil men to forfeit the freedom of their wills so far as to bring not onely a biass upon their spirits but a kind of fatal propension to evil and render it in a manner necessary that they sin Namely by long custome and inveterate habits of sin they lose the aequilibrium and balance of their souls and thenceforth wholly incline to evil But forasmuch as this wherever it comes to passe is onely the effect of their own choice it contradicts not what we are asserting for whereas the habits were voluntarily contracted the effects are interpretably so too And therefore as we noted before under the former Head that the reason why ignorance of the Law did not excuse a default was because the Law being once sufficiently promulged such ignorance must needs be supine and affected that is voluntary for the same reason such men as we now speak of cannot excuse their miscarriages by laying the blame upon their present necessity or impotency because having first crippled themselves voluntarily their actual halting afterwards is so too in as much as it was free in its causes though not in the special instances 3. BUT that which is principally to be considered is that there is a vast difference betwixt the power or capacity of doing good or of avoiding evil or willing so to doe on the one side and of doing or willing that which is evil on the other For to the former of these there is a necessity of the concurrence of divine grace and assistance which no man can deny without falling in with the Pelagians and therefore when a man is said to have it in his power to doe good that which is true is no more but this that such grace and assistance which is necessary is always ready and at hand which jointly concludes for God's goodness and man's liberty making the actions of man punishable when he doth evil because grace was ready to have assissed him otherwise if he had not refused it and rewardable when he doth well because when he might have refused God's help he did not and in short gives God the glory of what-ever is good because it could not be done without him and leaves no man without incouragement of his diligence and industry because God will
gratification the little time of pleasure and the long hours of shame and repentance the dull relish of the bodily Senses to the quick and pungent sense of the Mind and Conscience we shall be put out of doubt and assured of the unreasonableness of such a course But if we consider withall the severe denunciations of the Almighty the inconsistency of such a course with any interest in the joys of another life the no compare between a fools paradise of sesuality and the felicities of the Kingdom of Heaven we cannot pronounce of such a man as notwitstanding all these considerations shall give himself up to these bruitish passions otherwise then that he hath forfeited his reason forgoing his greatest interests for the veriest trifle and selling his birthright for a mess of pottage THE like may be said of Drunkenness To see a man tunn up himself like a barrel and fill his head with froth which his tongue discharges again to see a mans face deformed his eyes staring his feet faultering his motions antick his thoughts open and undecent his speech much and reason little And herewith to observe his estate poured down a common sewer and his credit and reputation utterly ruined but above all his Soul indangered to come into everlasting burnings and all this for the love of drink who can chuse but in his thoughts score up such a man as fit for Bethlehem LET us take only one instance more and that shall be in that passion which hath gotten the name from all the rest I mean Anger Every man knoweth that health is best preserved by calmness and evenness of mind that mens interest is best secured by gentleness and an obliging temper their safety by cession and placableness that reason is highest when rage is down that business is best carried on by the most sedate prosecution insomuch that no men count him wise whom they observe to be violent nor do they think those to be valiant that they see huff and swagger Besides passion disguises a man's very countenance dries up his body brings wrinkles upon his face gray hairs upon his head hollowness of eyes withers and destroys him It puts him upon the most foolish shamefull and dangerous adventures which at the same time it usually renders him impotent to effect or if he effect them he only makes matter for his own repentance as long as he lives or it may be work for the Executioner to shorten his unhappy days Above all it is contrary to the nature of God who is a God of peace to the temper of the blessed Jesus who was an example of meeknesse and patience it utterly unfits a man for the peacefull and amicable society of Saints and Angels in the Kingdom of Heaven and disposes him for the horrid fellowship of fell and desperate Fiends in the regions below All which things considered when we see a man boil with choler foam with rage pale with envy and indulging himself in this humour what can we say or think of this man but that he hath lost the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very principles of manhood BUT perhaps it may be said that all this while we have but maintained a Stoical Paradox and for all this that hath been said vicious men cannot be reputed mad because upon other occasions we see many of them give proof of wit and parts To which I answer that neither do I in all this intend to intimate that they are in all respects mad though it were well for many of them that it were strictly true But when men shall betray the most egregious folly and act the most extravagantly in the matters of greatest moment I may leave it to themselves in their sober moods to judge what name they ought to be called by whatever ingenie they may discover in lesser occasions Besides neither is it the condition of all those that are acknowledged mad to do nothing soberly or ingeniously all or most have their Lucid intervals and there are some in whom the humour betrays it self in some peculiar instances onely Melancholici quoad hoc as they say Talk with them in the general and they are like other men but touch upon some peculiar point and they rave presently So it is with these men we speak of As to common conversation and the affairs of the world they may be ingenious and perhaps in some repartee or other trifle by reason of the heat of their Spirits aforesaid beyond other men but as to the businesse of their Souls and Eternity they have no manly sense at all And indeed there is nothing can be more pat to verify what I have been saying then this very circumstances for when men that otherwise have sense and understanding in lesser matters shall be so extreamly absurd in that which especially requires the most manly proceedings it is the very Symptom that we have been all this while describing WHICH being so the consequence is that in the first place it is an absurdity next to theirs to follow the counsell or example of such men The Psalmist makes it the first step to felicity not to stand in the counsel of the ungodly Will any man think it reasonable to imitate the mad freaks of a Bedlam because he sees him jolly and brisk when he plays them no more let any man incourage himself in wickednesse because he sees the high rants of sinners rather let him say in the words of our Saviour Father forgive them they know not what they doe Fools they are with a witnesse that make a mock of sin little do they think how ill this jollity becomes them and lesse do they forethink what will be the end of such courses NOR let the authority of the number or quality of such persons bear us down for folly is folly let who will be the Patron of it Can precedent change the nature of things is there any prescription against reason will publick vogue justify Conscience or multitude of voices carry it against God Unlesse wicked men could not only efface the principles of their own minds and Consciences but also remove the Pillars of the world change the course of nature and by a Gigantick enterprize wage war against and conquer Heaven i. e. force the Almighty to alter his opinion repeal his laws and revoke his threatnings sin will everlastingly be folly and perseverance therein madnesse in spight of multitude fashion custome and example Shall I therefore follow their examples that thwart God that contradict their own Consciences whom all men at least tacitly condemn even those that bruitishly and sillily are lead by them Shall I make those my guide who have so little foresight as not to see beyond the short stage of life Shall I make them my Counsellors that make so foolish a bargain as to give eternal life in exchange for momentany pleasure that have so bad memories as to forget they have immortal Souls or so little reason as to think there is no
God In a word shall I take them for wise men that have so little of man in them as to live like beasts and to wish they might die so too Or which equals any of the former that can be so sottish as to imagine they can goe on in a course of rebellion against God and escape eternal destruction AGAIN Secondly upon the premises it is mighty reasonable that every man in this condition should in his Lucid intervals apply himself most effectually to the means of recovery 'T is not the custome of Physicians to administer remedies in a Paroxysm but such as may abate the symptoms only because nature is then perverted and out of order to comply with the help offered to it and it were madnesse little inferiour to that of these Spiritual Lunaticks we speak of to deal with them in the heat and rage of their passion as to reprove a man when he is drunk to preach meeknesse to a man in a fury c. all we can doe then is to pity and pray for them But when the fit is over and the patient in a sedate temper then is the time for application and it is the greatest uncharitablenesse in the world not to help them what we can or to forbear to admonish them as the Angel did Lot when he had drawn him out of Sodom Escape for thy life look not back c. But especially when the sinner is in his right mind apprehensive of his former folly sees the emptinesse of what he so eagerly pursued nauseates his own choice and either feels or foresees the consequence of it Then is the only time for him to call in his thoughts to deplore his unreasonablenesse to shame himself and feel remorse for his wickednesse to take a just measure of things to renew his vows to fortify his resolutions to beg God's grace and to lay all the obligations possible upon himself to withstand all the occasions of relapsing To which purpose let him consider with himself It was God's unspeakable patience and mercy to me that I was not snatcht away in the midst of my riot and debauch I that abused so much goodnesse broke so righteous a Law and affronted so great a Majesty it had been just with God to have cut off the thred of my life and let me drop into Hell Oh what absurd folly possessed me that I dust and ashes should oppose my Maker I that could not assure my self of one moments life should yet live so as I durst not die or if I did must expect to have been damned eternally Or what if God sparing my life had given me up to a reprobate mind to a profane spirit had never solicited me by his Spirit nor awakened my Conscience more but had said Let him that is unjust be unjust still and him that is filthy be filthy still c. and so I had gone blind-fold to destruction Blessed be his holy name and happy is it for my poor Soul that I have lived to see my shame feel my disease and bewail my folly O my Soul sin no more lest a worse thing happen to thee And this brings me to the Second Part of the Parable viz. The Prodigal's return And he would faine have filled his belly with the husks that y e swine did eat S t. LVKE XV. â—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Maxim Tyr. differ 31. THE PARABLE OF THE Prodigal Son PART II. The Penitent or the Prodigal returning S. Luke 15. Vers 17 18 19 20 21. And when he came to himself he said how many hired Servants of my Father's have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and goe to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee And am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired Servants And he arose and came to his Father But when he was yet a great way off his Father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him And the Son said to him Father I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy Son CHAP. I. Of Consideration THE CONTENTS § I. The general concern of Repentance The reason why notwithstanding there is little mention made of it in the Law of Moses The peculiar necessity of it to those who have been great sinners the parts thereof as they are alluded to in this Parable § II. Of the nature of Consideration and that it usually begins conversion § III. Affliction usually brings men to Consideration prosperity commonly rendring them either light and incogitant or confident and presumptuous § IV. The peculiar meditations of a returning sinner HITHERTO in the former part of the Parable in the person of a light incogitant young-man we have seen the deplorable effects of rashnesse and folly pride and curiosity insolence and disobedience how they work jointly and severally together and by turns till by degrees they have trained him on to his utter ruine His pride raises him so high that he must fall his licentiousnesse betrays him to slavery and his luxury to extream necessity And under this Type we have seen lively pourtrayed the beginnings the progresse the upshot the causes and the effects of a sinfull course IT was high time for the Prodigal to think of returning to his Father when he was perishing by his disobedience and had no other refuge but in his Father's clemency and sure it is time for the sinner to repent and return to God when if he be sensible of any thing he cannot but be apprehensive that in the course he is in the danger of his eternal ruine is as certainly impendent as it is more intolerable AND thus far we have sadly observed the steps of descent towards Hell we come now in this Second Part to descry the way of recovery to trace out a plain path towards Heaven that is to lay open the beginnings the motives the whole nature and processe of repentance And the divine wisedom of our Saviour hath so contrived this Parable that all the lines of this great work are as plainly discernible in the narrative of the Prodigal's return as we have already seen the progresse of sin delineated in his former extravagancy Wherefore as I cannot but hope that the genuine efficacy of plain truth especially invigorated by so curious a scheme as in the former part must needs have put every man into some concern who hath stained his Conscience with guilt but not quite extinguished it So I see lesse cause to doubt but that this Second Part will be very acceptable and usefull to all those upon whom the former made any impression For if he that could pretend to be able to direct those who have bankrupt their fortunes how they might certainly repair their losses and redintegrate their estates shall be sure to have a great many attentive Auditors and
work And who that either understands the frail contexture of his body or the many thousand accidents it is subject to can be warrantie for his own life one moment beyond the present or if that should be continued who shall secure us that a day of grace shall last as long as we live Who shall prescribe to the Almighty that he shall wait our leisure and accept us at last All which things considered he that only resolves to amend hereafter is certainly resolved not to amend now and therefore is in no state of repentance nor in the way of mercy WHEREFORE the true Penitent resolves presently to arise I have trifled too long already faith he It is no dallying any longer in a business of this nature I have been couzened by my own heart oft enough I will trust my self for day no longer I do not find my heart either more willing or more able to perform by all the time I have given it but quite contrary my ability is less and my debt greater my heart harder my affections more ingaged and lesse willing to come off I do not find that the longer I serve the Devil he is ever the likelier to manumit me nay I feel the longer I serve him the heavier chains he lays upon me If he can persuade me that it is yet too soon to return to God he will by the same Logick persuade me hereafter that it is too late And I find by experience that if my heart be bad to day it is likely to be worse to morrow I cannot think it reasonable to expect that God's Spirit will strive with me the more I resist him nor dare I trust that grace should abound the more my sin abounds A day neglected now for ought I know may be as much as my Soul is worth and may cost me eternity now by God's grace I find it in my heart to return and now I 'll put it in execution I will no more venture upon uncertainties nor forgo what is in my power for what is not I will not promise to pay hereafter what I am not willing now to perform No more therefore of the sluggard Yet a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep I will now arise and return to my Father and to my duty which is 4. The Fourth and last property of vertuous resolution namely it is a through and uniform resolution which takes in the whole business and compass of Religion The Historian observes of the Romans in the degenerate times of their Common-wealth that now all their disputes were not an servirent sed cui not for liberty but who should be their Lord and they fought not to assert or recover their freedom but meerly to have the choice of their yoke and so whoever conquered they were certainly slaves In like manner some men being under convictions of Conscience of the evil and danger of the way they are in resolve upon a change but it is not to change themselves but their sins one for another The Drunkard becomes covetous the loose and licentious person exchanges his levity for morosity and from a common scandal becomes a busy body a judge and very censorious And so the man is disguised rather then amended and hath a new master but is nevertheless a slave Others perhaps there are who will go further and part with a sin without a succedaneum or entertaining any other in its room because it might happen that such a sin was grown less agreeable to their constitution too chargeable for their profit too dangerous to their reputation and peradventure also too uneasy for their Consciences but there are some other sins they can by no means think of forgoing Thus the Scripture observes of some Kings of Israel that were great reformers and expressed a mighty zeal against the Idolatry of Ahab and other corruptions who yet all their days stuck close to the sin of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat that kind of Idolatry was bound up with their interest and therefore must not be laid aside INDEED if we consider the matter well we shall find the power of an inlightned Conscience to be such as to prevail with any man to resolve either to forsake any one sin upon condition he might securely enjoy all the rest or at least not to stick at any one duty of Religion if thereby he might expiate his other commissions and omissions And the Jews had a corrupt Doctrine amongst them very agreeable to this humour namely that if a man observed some one remarkable precept of the Law it was enough to excuse him upon the whole and that notion of theirs seems to have given occasion to that question so often put to our Saviour Which is the great commandment of the Law For they disputed amongst themselves upon that supposition which was the one surest point to trust to whether to Sacrifice as some held or to Circumcision as others or to the observation of the Sabbath as a third c. I say their intent was to ask his opinion what branch of the Law God most insisted upon that in compliance therewith they might compendiously secure their own interest without the trouble of universal obedience but our Saviour being aware of the subtlety directs them in all the places forementioned to that Paragraph of the Law which was comprehensive of the whole viz. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul c. THE Devil is so wary and frugal a Trader that he will comply with the Market and is content as I noted before to barter one sin for another or rather to compound for half then to lose all and is also so good a Philosopher as to know malum oritur ex quolibet defectu bonum constat ex integris causis That the volùntary omission of any one part of our duty nulls our obedience and that one sin will damn a man as well as many For he that retains a love to any one sin cannot be said to have a resolution against sin or to hate sin for it self and God is resolved to have us intirely his or not at all For he that makes any exceptions or reservations that capitulates with God deals not with him as with a God He therefore that takes up a penitent resolution is uniform and universal therein fully decrees with himself to omit nothing that he knows to be his duty nor to dispense with himself in the practice of any thing how gratefull soever to him that he knows to be a sin I know saith he God by his sovereignty hath a just title to my whole life and to all my powers he hath obliged me beyond all that ever I can correspond with he is jealous of his honour and hates to be served deceitfully and by halves he will admit of no rival no sharer with him he sees all my wandrings and will be sure to revenge my
observable 1. His confession of Guilt I have sinned 2. Aggravation of the fact I have sinned against Heaven and before thee 3. The severe judgment he passes upon himself I am no more worthy to be called thy Son 4. Lastly His deprecation Yet make me as one of thy hired Servants All which deserve a little consideration the rather because we shall find them all exactly and literally exemplified in the true Penitent 1. Then the Son assumes to himself his own guilt and takes shame to himself I have sinned c. Non in aetatem non in malos consiliarios culpam rejicit sed nudam parat sine excusatione Confessionem saith the excellent H. Grotius He excuses not himself by the injudiciousness of his youth nor casts the blame upon his evil Counsellors neither accuses God nor man but himself by a plain and ingenuous acknowledgement IN like manner the true Penitent knows it is to no purpose to play the Hypocrite with God Because all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to doe He seeth not as men see beholding the outward appearance but he searches the hearts and tries the reins of the Children of men He remembers that he that hideth his sins shall not prosper but that he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy Therefore with blushing and confusion of face saith I have sinned and done very foolishly Thus the poor Publican is represented by our Saviour S. Luk. 18. 13. whenas the Pharisee stood upon his own justification and with a brazen impudence out-faces Heaven God I thank thee that I am not as other men are c. He standing afar off as not thinking himself worthy to approach so great a Majesty not daring to lift up his eyes to Heaven as dejected with the apprehension of his own demerits smites upon his breast with indignation against himself and brings out onely this contrite sigh God be mercifull to me a sinner And so the Psalmist David in that penitential Psalm of his Psal 51. vers 3. I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me Against thee thee onely have I sinned and done evil in thy sight Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me c. And this is the course of every Penitent for though it be too true that Confession may be without true and compleat Repentance yet it is impossible that Repentance should be true without Confession I enter not into a discourse of Confession to men because my Text leads me not to it further then as it concerns the person injured in which case it is often necessary for the satisfaction of our Consciences and where-ever there is any ingenuity in the offended person it must needs be very prevalent towards his forgiveness But as for the Divine Majesty who is always injured in every transgression and can never have any reparation otherwise then by it it must needs be always reasonable and necessary as we shall shew more fully by and by 2. BUT the Son contents not himself with a bare acknowledgment of his fault in general but goes on to aggravate it I have sinned against Heaven and before thee If we consider the letter of those words they import I have sinned both against God and thee my earthly Parent for so the Jews were wont to express themselves calling the Divine Majesty by the name of Heaven as we may observe S. Luke 20. 4. The Baptism of John was it from Heaven or of men i. e. Was it it of God's institution or man's invention So also 1 Macc. 3. 18. It is all one with Heaven to save with few or with many i. e. with the God of Heaven And we may easily take notice that in most of the Parables of our Saviour that which is sometimes called the Kingdom of God is otherwhile expressed by the name of the Kingdom of Heaven and by both nothing else is meant but the Gospel that divine institution of Religion but if we attend to the intent of this acknowledgement of the Prodigal Son the words import an aggravation of his disobedience q. d. There was no necessity lay upon me to transgress thy yoke was easy and reasonable and therefore in disobeying thee I disobeyed God too Or I must first have cast off all reverence of God before I could be undutifull towards thee It was not the harshness and severity of my Father that drove me away but my own levity and folly that betrayed me and my stubbornness that I forsook him And the same consideration affects the heart of the Penitent For saith he I have not only offended the Divine Majesty but rebelled both against a rightfull and a gracious Sovereign have broken wise and just and equitable Laws been ingratefull towards him that had obliged me by infinite favours have slighted the most glorious propositions and neglected the most gracious and condescending conditions of being happy There was no invincible temptation upon me it was not in the power of example to debauch me I was not opprest by fate but have chosen my own destruction It is not the Apostasy of Adam that can excuse me for it was my own act I cannot say the Fathers have eaten sour grapes and the Children's teeth are set on edge for I sinned against light and Conscience with full consent and against the motions of God's Spirit to the contrary AFTER this manner the Penitent is apt to lay load upon himself no body can think or speak worse of him then he thinks and confesses of himself so far is he from extenuating his crimes that no malice can paint them worse then grief and indignation at himself doth In short with St. Paul he esteems himself the chiefest and worst of sinners THIS is a quite contrary course to that which men use to take when they plead at humane Tribunals either they deny the fact or extenuate or justify it either they plead ignorance or pretend necessity or prescribe for it from the custome and prevailing example of the world but none of these ways are of use before God and therefore are not the pleas of the Penitent The Argument of the Psalmist though it may seem a very strange one is frequent with such men Psal 25. 10. O Lord pardon my sin for it is great q. d. I am only fit to magnify thy mercy for I have sinned beyond any mercy but thine my guilt is too great a burden for me to bear if thy unspeakable mercies relieve me not What shall I do unto thee O thou redeemer of men Such a Soul is not only ashamed but loaths and abhors himself his Spirit is broken his countenance dejected his confidence dismounted he feels pain and remorse he goes heavily he is pricked to the heart and cries out in the anguish of his Soul What shall I doe But 3. HE goes on not only to accuse but to condemn himself also I am not worthy to be
to receive him till he soon perceived who it was but then seized with shame he makes from him with all the speed he could The Apostle forgetting his age and gravity follows him with all his might crying out My Son my Son dost thou fly thy Father thy aged unarmed Father Fear me not I come not armed to destroy thee but desirous to save thee I 'll pray for thee I 'll intercede with Christ Jesus on thy behalf I am ready to lay down my life to save thy Soul The revolted youth hearing this makes a stand and then with eyes cast down and weapons laid aside begins to tremble and at last weeping bitterly is in the words of the Historian Re-baptized in his own tears Then S. John embracing him prays for him fasts with him instructs him and leaves him not till he had not only restored him to the society of the Church but settled him in the publick Ministry thereof THE story is very admirable in all the parts of it as wherein amongst other things we may observe in the first place how quickly bad company insinuates its contagion and corrupts youthfull minds and that neither fine parts nor the best education are sufficient security for a vertuous course unless Apollos water as well as Paul plant and God also give the increase AGAIN it is worth observing how easy and sudden the transition is from a luxurious to a lawless life This young man began his risk in riot and ends it in robbery Although this be no strange thing for besides that intemperance makes men bold and rash and fit for any desperate enterprize they that are come to that that they care not what they spend are usually forced not to regard how they get it We note also from this story that great Wits and curious tempers are like razor mettle quickly turned and if they miscarry they become the most notorious Debauchees but if they be well set and hold right become most eminently usefull Moreover we may here also take notice how a sense of guilt and dis-ingenuity baffles a man's spirit dejects his courage disarms and subdues him whereas on the other side conscience of sincerity and good designs spirits and actuates a man above his age temper and common capacity But that which I principally remark in the story is the paternal affection in the aged Apostle toward this dissolute and lost young man how fresh the concern for him was in his thoughts when he came into those parts again where he left him with what strictness he requires the depositum of the Bishop how he forgets himself to recover him what charms there were in the countenance voice motion of the aged Father how strange a thing it was to be young Hector running away from an old Apostle an armed Captain not daring to stand before unarmed and infirm old age to observe the spirit the passion the flaming love of a good man to the Soul of a desperate sinner and in all this to see a lively resemblance of God's goodness to men For God doth not only as I have said before receive men upon their return but moves towards them invites nay draws them to himself He is so far from positively hardening sinners that he takes off their hardness he allures them by his promises prevents them by his grace way-lays them by his providence calls upon them by his word melts them by his kindness works upon them by his Spirit and this Spirit takes all advantageous seasons watches the mollia tempora fandi suggests thoughts to their minds holds their minds close and intent gives them a prospect of the other world and by several other ways without violence to their faculties helps forward their return to God § V. 4. LASTLY As the Earthly Father for joy of his Sons return forgets all his anger and the causes of it passes by his ingratitude and dissolution of manners and treats him with infinite demonstrations of kindness falling on his neck and kissing him So doth our Heavenly Father cast all the iniquities of the penitent ' behind his back blots them out of his book makes no severe reflections no bitter expostulations no upbraidings but passes an act of perfect amnesty and oblivion Justin Martyr in his Work against Trypho brings in our Saviour saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The words are no where to be found in the Gospel but the sense is That God takes men as they are and considers not how evil they have been so that now they become sincerely good This the Prophet Ezekiel frequently proclaims on the behalf of God Chap. 18. especially vers 22. All his sin that he hath committed shall not be once mentioned against him but in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live For as if men apostatize from hopefull and vertuous beginnings it shall not at all avail them that they set out well and began in the Spirit whenas they end in the Flesh upon which account it is a very vain thing for them to goe about to comfort themselves against their present looseness by remembring the time of their conversion and the great passion they have sometime had for Religion but which now they have apostatized from having lost their first love so on the contrary he that was a sinner but now is not i. e. is now sincerely returned from his licentiousness to his duty shall never have his former disobedience imputed to him by God THIS truth Philo represents handsomly in his Allegorical way when glossing upon what the Scripture saith of Enoch After his translation he was not found because God had translated him he paraphrases on this manner God saith he having changed him from an evil to a vertuous man the traces of his former wickedness were no more to be found then if no such thing had ever been committed BUT this gracious procedure of God with penitent sinners deserves to be more fully and particularly unfolded and if we diligently consider what the Scripture assures us of the greatness of God's pardoning mercy we shall observe these three remarkable circumstances all pregnant of unspeakable consolation 1. He pardons great and many sins not onely lighter provocations 2. He forgives repeated follies and relapsed sinners 3. His pardon is full and absolute 1. FIRST amongst men there are some sins that are scarcely if at all thought to be pardonable as where there is malice and treachery involved in the fact or where there is contumely added to the injury And sometimes the greatness of the person injured so inhances the offence as that it is not thought fit to pardon as for instance in Treason against the Supream Power But most certainly there are all these and many more aggravations in most voluntary sins committed against God and yet he pardons Exod. 34. 7. He pardons iniquity transgression and sin i. e. sin of all kinds and degrees whatsoever excepting only the sin against the Holy Ghost which our Saviour hath
the wiles of the Devil but he may be imposed upon he is not so flesht with victory but his heart may fail him in short grace is rather a disposition then an habit in him and vertue more an inclination then a nature and therefore he may fall away But there is a virile state of vertue attainable when duty is turned into nature and that which is best in it self is also most pleasant and delectable When a man is so long exercised in the ways of holiness that it is as much a road to him as the course of sin was either heretofore to him or is now to others and neither the length of the race is tedious to him nor the dispatch difficult when a man shall neither stagger in his choice nor be flat and formal in his prosecution he hath tasted the Grapes of Canaan and never more longs to return to Aegypt but disdains the Flesh-pots the Onion and the Garlick thereof as much as he formerly groaned under the servitude Such a man having put on the whole armour of God is strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and defies all the powers of darkness the Devil himself is ashamed to tempt him having been so often baffled by him and he stands immovable as a Rock stable as an Angel and all the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against him Now because this admirable condition is both desirable and possible and that which God designs to bring men to therefore he proceeds to super-adde to the Convert further measures of sanctification NOW for the way of effecting this besides those secret ways of working which we cannot penetrate into by which it pleases God to bring about this glorious design there are these three ways following which fall within our understanding § IV. FIRST there is nothing more plainly discernible in a Convert then that the first workings of the grace of God in his heart revive a true ingenuity of spirit in him which is the very ground-work and foundation of all improvements and then God being pleased graciously and freely to give him the pardon of all his sins lays so mighty an obligation upon that ingenuity as is of force to put all the powers of the Soul upon their utmost activity and thereby the temper of such a person is marvellously raised and improved For there is a vast difference betwixt the efficacy of a spirit of bondage and the spirit of adoption if the former may be able to restrain sin yet it can never inflame men to generous goodness or if that impresses a caution of offending out of apprehension of the wrath of God the latter rises higher and stirs up indeavour of returning love for love the one is apt to inquire after the minimum quod sic as they call it the lowest measure of grace that will but serve the turn to avoid Hell the other seeks aliquid eximium and thinks nothing enough by way of gratefull return and therefore courts occasions and rejoyces in difficulties as happy opportunities of demonstrating his ingenuous sense of his obligations WHEN Cyrus had vanquished Croesus and having it in his power to destroy him not only preserved him but imployed him and made him privy to his Counsels meer generosity provoked him to become not a true Prisoner but a faithfull Friend and usefull Counsellor But our Saviour gives us the most illustrious example of that I am saying Luk. 7. 37. in the instance of a certain Woman that had been a great sinner who finding out our Saviour where he was at Dinner in a Pharisee's House brings a box of very costly ointment and having washed his feet with penitent tears wiped them with her hair and kissed them she anoints them also with the precious balm she had brought for that purpose The Pharisees murmured at the familiar approach and access of such an ignominious person Judas grudged the cost and all the Disciples wondred at the novelty of the business but our Saviour applies himself to Simon and expounds the business to him by a Parable vers 41 c. There was a certain creditour had two debtors c. whereby he silences the murmurs of the one and removes the wonder of the other shewing the power of gratitude and the admirable efficacy of great obligation upon ingenuous minds SECONDLY when God receives the Penitent into his favour he gives him by faith a full persuasion of the great things in another world the real and serious apprehensions of which are able not only to place him above all the charms below and to make him disdain all the baits of the Devil but also to transport him with love and desire and to carry him with full fail in the prosecution of those incomparable glories thus discovered to him and thereby marvellously heightens and improves him in holiness So the Apostle Hebr. 11. 1. pronounces of faith that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen that is it maks those things that seemed meer fables and Romances to other men to be the greatest realities in the world and those things that being looked upon at a distance seemed small and inconsiderable and had little effect upon men's minds now being made near and present are of mighty influence as he shews at large historically throughout that long and excellent Chapter FOR this reason it is that all the accomplishments of a Christian are ascribed to his faith Acts 15. 9. Having purified their hearts by faith as if that sublimed a man and drew him off from his Lees 2 Pet. 1. 4. There are given to us exceeding great and precious promises whereby you might be partakers of the divine nature as if the objects of faith duely operating upon us were able not only to raise us above the world but above our selves and to transfuse a divine temper into us For so he goes on vers 5 6 7. Adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. the word he uses is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. d. faith will lead the dance to all other vertues or do but set that on work and it will draw on the whole Encyclopaedy and circle of graces IT is matter of daily observation that not only men's industry is increased which is a great matter but their parts also are raised and inlarged proportionably to the incouragements set before them great hopes make great men and fit them for great undertakings insomuch that Quintilian inquiring the reason why the former Ages bred greater wits and more exquisite Orators then latter days resolves it into this that those times afforded the greatest honour and incouragement to them And it is an ordinary remark in Historians that those Princes and States have always the ablest Ministers whose fortunes have presented to them the most honourable employments and greatest rewards But it is more to our business to observe that
address of the Holy Spirit which we are considering of these are only the motions or visits which he vouchsafes to make pendente lite or whilst it is yet undetermined to whom men will ultimately belong That therefore which we are concerned about is the peculiar priviledge of very good men such as have cherished the motions entertained the visits and complied with the intimations of the Holy Spirit and when it is come to that from thenceforth he doth not visit them in transitu only or call upon them but resides and inhabits with them and becomes as it were a constant principle a Soul of their Souls in short they are the temples of the Holy Ghost THIS I take to be that which our Saviour means Jo. 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him and that also of St. John in the name of our Saviour Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock which phrase signifies the previous and more ordinary motions of his grace And if any man open to me i. e. if men attend to my admonitions and invitations and break off their custom of sin which barrs the door of their Souls against me then I will come in and sup with him c. i. e. then I will be a familiar guest or inhabitant with him and this is both interpreted and confirmed by St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you i. e. being sanctified and made fit for the residence of that heavenly Guest he hath taken possession of you as his house and temple and more expresly yet by St. John 1 Ep. 3 24. He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth with us by his Spirit which he hath given us § II. NOW this inhabitation or residence of the Holy Spirit is called a Seal and men are said to be sealed by the Holy Spirit because as seals use to denote propriety so God hereby marks out as it were such men for his own i. e. as those that he hath a peculiar concern about those that have an interest in him and he in them and this is of wonderfull comfort and advantage especially in these four respects 1. THE Spirit thus inhabiting men gives them a title not only to God's care and providence but to an inheritance of Sons to a participation of that unspeakable felicity wherewith himself is eternally happy and glorious So the Apostle concludes in the forementioned place Eph. 1. 13 14. After ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the time of the purchased possession q. d. We are hereby assured of Heaven and glory hereafter though we are not yet in possession of it or this is the pledge of our adoption upon which the inheritance is intailed Hence it is that the same Apostle Rom. 8. 11. makes this an assured argument of our resurrection But if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you q. d. You cannot lie under the power of death and the bonds of the grave but God will assert you to life and immortality because you have a principle of life the Holy Spirit in you which will as surely revive you as it raised Jesus from the dead for by his residence in you you are marked out as belonging to God and thereby he hath taken possession of you for himself WHEN God owned the Tabernacle amongst the Jews built by Moses and after that the Temple built by Solomon and solemnly dedicated to him for his House or Palace wherein to dwell amongst that people it pleased him as it were to take livery and seisin by the cloud which on the behalf of the Divine Majesty hovered over them and was therefore not improperly called by the Jews the Shekinah or dwelling presence and God was said to dwell between the Cherubims because there this symbol of the divine presence subsisted And as in the Christian Church all those miracles which the primitive Christians were inabled to perform were principally to assure their minds that God owned them and although they were destitute of humane help and persecuted both by Jews and Gentiles yet God was with them in which respect the Holy Ghost is called the Comforter so often by our Saviour I say in those miraculous effusions of the Holy Spirit the cloud as it were sate over the mercy-seat in the Christian Church which was now departed from the Temple of the Jews and denoted the collection of believers both of Jews and Gentiles united under Christ Jesus to be now God's peculiar houshold and family So also to all holy men in all Ages God is present by his Spirit by which they become Temples of the Holy Ghost upon which the Apostle pronounces peremptorily Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Which I understand in this sense q. d. He is not arrived at the excellent state of Christianity that hath not experience of the residence of God's Holy Spirit in him ONLY this is to be remembred that this residence of the Holy Spirit in good men which we speak of is not to be judged of by miraculous effects nor are such to be expected now because those were proper only for the first Ages when whilst the Church was under persecuting Emperors and in its infancy God thought fit by such prodigious displays of his power and presence to make all the world see his concern for it and that as I said before he had taken possession of it but ordinarily and especially in the case of private Christians the presence of the Spirit with them discovers it self by such effects as these following For 2. THE Spirit of God though he doth not work miracles now yet doth he not meerly take up his residence in the hearts of holy men but actuates them prompts them forward in all good actions helps and strengthens them in their duty and inflames their resolution and zeal in all brave and generous enterprizes in respect of which we are said to be lead by the Spirit to live and walk in the Spirit Which is not so to be understood as if what good was done the Spirit did it for men nor much less as if he hurried men on whensoever they did well and so for defect of such motion were liable to bear the blame of their irregularities when they did evil for as on the one side he never moves but to that which is certainly good and agreeable to the standing rules of Scripture and natural reason so neither on the other hand when he incites to any such thing doth he overpower
men but he raises and actuates their native powers removes impediments cures their sloth and in short concurring with them helps their infirmities with which agrees that forementioned observation of Cicero Nunquam vir magnus sine afflatu divino That there never was a brave Hero nor any admirable performance without divineinfluence 3. THE Holy Spirit residing in the Souls of good men is also a spirit of confirmation settling and establishing their Souls against revolt and apostasy and giving a kind of angelical stedfastness to them that ill examples shall not draw them aside nor temptation prevail upon them neither insinuations of false doctrine stagger them nor prosperity and the blandishments of the world debauch them nor afflictions and persecutions shake their constancy for they are now built upon a rock and though the rains descend and the waves rise and the winds blow they stand immovable or as St. John expresses it Rev. 3. 12. they having overcome and obtained the reward of being under the conduct of this Holy Spirit are now made pillars of the temple of God and shall goe no more out To which add that of St. Peter 1 Ep. 1. 5. They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kept in Garison by the power of God through faith unto salvation 4. BESIDES all which in the last place it is usual with the Holy Spirit to fill the hearts of those holy men he inhabits with inexpressible joy giving them the foretasts of the blessedness which they expect to enjoy hereafter insomuch that they do not altogether live by faith which is their usual viaticum but in some measure by sense also having a present glimpse of their future happiness by means whereof they rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory they exult triumph and applaud themselves in their interest in God and their glorious portion with him THE Holy Spirit carries men as God did Moses up to Mount Pisgah to take a view of the good Land of promise and affords them the prelibations of Heaven the very relish of which blessedness upon their spirits puts them into a kind of ecstasy that they fell not the troubles and vexations which may assault them from below they triumph over mortality it self and wish and long to die when like St. Stephen they see Heaven opened and Jesus sitting at the right hand of God their face like his shines like that of Angels and a glory incircles them they seem to hear the blessed Quire of Angels and are ready to join in the Allelujah in short their Soul raises it self and would fain take wing and fly thither presently THIS I think is that which is figuratively but excellently set forth by our Saviour in his Epistle to the Church of Pergamos Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna Manna was called Angels food and as the Jews observe it applied it self to every man's palate and had that relish which every man desired which admirably expresses the joys of Heaven which are for the present the entertainment of Angels and when men come to enjoy them shall fill all their powers and leave no desire unsatisfied And it is called hidden manna because as saith the Apostle it doth not yet appear what we shall be however it seems some taste and anticipations of this shall those have in the mean time who overcome But that which I principally intend is the next words And I will give him a white stone with a new name written upon it which no man knows but he that receiveth it This passage some take to be an allusion to the custom at Athens and some other Greek Common-wealths where in capitall causes especially the Citizens gave their Suffrages by White and Black Stones and when the number of White Stones was greatest the person at the Bar was absolved or acquitted And thus the white stone in the Text should in the mystical sense import justification and pardon of sin But this comes not up to the design of the place and there is another custome which fits it better and most probably was here alluded to by our Saviour viz. it was in use that those which conquered at the Olympick Games had a token or ticket given them expressing their names and specifying the reward they were to have for their atchievements In conformity to which our Saviour here seems to promise to those who acquit themselves manfully and bravely in the conflict or race of Christianity that they shall receive an inward and invisible pledge and assurance of the glorious rewards in the other world which can be nothing else but this which we are speaking of namely the comforts of the Holy Ghost THIS is now the second Boon which our Heavenly Father bestows upon the Son he receives and is a very great and glorious one This is the admirable effect of our Saviour's ascension into Heaven the accomplishment of his promise and the supply of his own presence to his servants till he take them up to himself This is the glory of Christian Religion that whensoever it is vigorously pursued it yields this present advantage besides whatever is in reversion And this is the mightiest incouragement to men to be generously good AND although things of this nature partly because they are meerly divine favours not naturally due to men and so cannot be proved by reason partly also being in their own nature invisible and transacted in secret cannot be understood by the generality of men who have no part nor lot in this matter but are apt to be looked upon as dreams and phansies if not vain-glorious pretences and forgeries yet that this we have been speaking of is a great reality there can be no doubt unless we will reject both the testimony of God and the experience of the best of men so that it may justly seem either unnecessary or fruitless to add any thing to what hath been already said on this point NOTWITHSTANDING because I observe that there are two things which prejudice the minds of a great many men in this business I will indeavour briefly to remove them and then pass on THE first is grounded upon an observation that several good men have experience of no such matter i. e. they are neither sensible of such a residence of the Holy Ghost in them nor of any such ravishing comforts as are pretended to accompany such a glorious Guest and therefore they are apt to suspect either all is phansy or at best that it is only some great rarity not the common portion of God's Children AGAIN they observe that not only many good men are without pretences to the Spirit but many evil men lay claim to it and therewith frequently cheat themselves and besides countenance their evil designs by it and under that pretence do a great deal the more mischief in the world Therefore though they do not doubt but that God might think fit at the first planting of the Gospel to give
his Holy Spirit as aforesaid because upon many accounts there was then extraordinary necessity for it and also the Spirit then given was so plainly miraculous and gave such proof of it self that there could be no suspicion of cheat in the case yet forasmuch as both these things fail now viz. both the occasion and the discrimination they think it safer to reject all such pretensions then admitting them to lay open a way for so much cheating and imposture as may be reasonably expected when there is no certain way of detecting it NOW therefore if in the first place I can give a plain account how it may come to pass that such men as are supposed in the first objection may be destitute of such advantages of the Holy Spirit as we have asserted to be the tokens of his residence and then secondly if I shew also how to prevent all imposture by distinguishing the operations of the Spirit from fancy and other allusions then both the objections will be answered and the Reader will not be offended with the digression § III. AND to dispatch all briefly I begin with the first to which I say That as it is not usual with God to precipitate or prevent the course of natural causes but to blesse and succeed them in their due and proper order so neither in his especial providence or in the acts of his grace doth he delight to work per saltum but gradually according to the condition of the subject and its fitness to receive his impressions accordingly though he be always ready to bestow his Spirit with all the comforts and advantages thereof yet he expects and requires all due qualifications and preparations before he confer it Now there are these three especial qualifications for the reception of the Holy Ghost in the sense we speak of 1. AS I have intimated already That a man be not only purged from grosser pollutions and begin to have a love of holiness but that he be singularly pure so as at least not to admit of any voluntary transgression and especially be above all sensuality of what kind soever It is observable in that sad miscarriage of David which we have often had occasion to refer to that it made him justly fear and therefore earnestly pray Psal 51. that God would not thereupon take his Holy Spirit from him and the Apostle when he is earnestly persuading the Ephesians Not to grieve the Holy Spirit whereby they were seald to the day of redemption solemnly warns them in the verse before That no corrupt or obscene and filthy communication proceed out of their mouths as that which would assuredly argue their hearts to be no temple for the Holy Ghost and again in the verse after the aforesaid exhortation he with the same earnestness gives them caution against all bitterness and wrath and clamour c. as intimating that those also defiled the Soul and made it incapable of receiving the blessed Spirit To which purpose the Jews have a common saying Super animum turbidum non requiescit Spiritus Sanctus That the Spirit of God requires a sedate even temper as his quiet habitation 2. THE Spirit of God requires a lovely sweet and benign frame of Spirit and abhors that Hypochondriack sourness and austerity which yet some place a great deal of Religion in when men will be always sighing and complaining and peevishly refuse consolation Jonah confidently told God he did well to be angry and so these men seem to think they please God by grieving his Spirit frowardly or at least phantastically resisting his consolations But it is a mighty mistake to think the Spirit of God will comfort men whether they will or no he requires a persuadeable counsellable temper and such a disposition as will work with him for to make a black melancholist comfortable immediately is not to be done but by a phrenzy or a miracle and for this last we are not to expect it now at God's hands nay even the Prophet Elisha when he desired to call up the Spirit of Prophecy called for an Harp that he might put his mind in tune and dispose himself to become the instrument of the Spirit of God and so it is here an harmonious Soul added to the former qualification invites down the Spirit of God Especially if 3. IN the third place there be servent prayer joined herewith for since God expects we should make our acknowledgments of him and demonstrate he value we have of the mercy we seek by the importunity of our addresses to him even then when we address our selves to him for common favours with much less reason can we expect that he should bestow this great boon upon us unless it be sought by ardent and instant prayer so our Saviour hath told us Luk. 11. 13. that though he have a fatherly affection to give all good things to us yet it is upon condition that we ask him And St. James hath further explained to us the manner of asking Chap. 1. 6 7. that it must be in faith without wavering i. e. neither as doubtfull of God's goodness nor as if we were indifferent whether he granted our request or not for saith he Let not such a man think that he shall receive any thing at the hand of the Lord. NOW forasmuch as the comfortable portion of the Holy Spirit is not intailed upon all the Children which God receives to grace and pardon but that all these qualifications are pre-required since it is also evident that some who perhaps may passionately desire it yet have an unhappy temper that unfits them for the entertainment of this heavenly Guest and many others that have some good measure of sincerity which God will mercifully accept in order to eternal life are not yet raised to such a measure of holiness as to be capable of this favour at the present It cannot seem strange that such should remain strangers to this most happy priviledge nor can it yet be reasonable that their want of experience of it should be any argument that there is no such thing to be expected § IV. BUT then for the other difficultie viz. how to distinguish the moti on of God's Spirit from either the impressions of Sathan or the results of a man 's own temper and constitution I answer there are these properties of the Holy Spirit which if they be attended to and laid together will infallibly distinguish it from any other motion and secure us from all illusion 1. THE Spirit of God never moves any man but in an action or course warrantable by the word of God for since the Holy Scripture is given for a rule of our actions and as such confirmed in the most ample manner by the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit should notoriously contradict it self if it should contradict that INDEED in former Ages whilst the mind of God was not intierly delivered and consigned in holy Writ there were frequent intimations of his pleasure by the