hearts they set most by the pleasures of this world Why else is their Heart most towards them Why else do they choose them and refuse to Live a Holy life Why have they no delight in God and why have we so much ado with them to bring them to a heavenly mind and life and all in vain What! will not men be perswaded to choose that which they know is best for them Object Temptations are strong and men are weak and so men go against their knowledge Answ 1. What do Temptations prevail with you to do Is it not to think well of sinful pleasures and to think more hardly of the wayes of God Is it not to like a worldly fleshly life better then a Holy life If not how can you follow those temptations And if it be so then they draw you for that time to think that fleshly pleasures are the better part 2. But if indeed it be as you say you are the most unexcuseable miscreants in the world What! do you know that God is best for you and yet will you fly from him Do you know that heaven is the only happiness and yet will you seek this world before it Do you know what is Best for you and will not hâ—â—â— it and what is worst and yet will keep it Will you go to 〈…〉 and know whither you are going And will you run from â—…ven and damn your selves and know that you do so Yea 〈◊〉 that while we day by day entreate you to the contrary If this be the case of any one of you the God of Justice shall teach you to know what you are doing by his everlasting vengeance Heaven and earth shall be witness against you your own Consciences and such Confessions of your own shall bear witness against you that you justly perish and are damned because you would be damned and are shut out of Heaven because you would not be perswaded to come thither Object But we hope we may have Both Pleasure here and Heaven hereafter and that we may be saved by the mercy of God and the blood of Christ without the sanctification of the spirit and though we do not live a Holy life Answ And who gave you these hopes Is it God on whom you pretend to trust or the Devil that doth deceive you Certainly not God For he hath told you over and over that he will save none but the sanctified Acts 26. 18. and that except a man be born again even of the Spirit as well as of water he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. 3 5. and that without holiness none shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. And is it God that perswadeth you that his Word is false Doubtless it is the Devil When God had told Adam and Eve That in the day that they did eat the forbidden fruit they should die the death was it not the Serpent that gave them hopes of living and told them that they should not die If you be at that pass that you will take on you to trust in God and yet will not believe him but your trust is but trusting that God is a lyar you are as sottish in your presumption as Heathens are in their Infidelity For who is worse he that believeth that there is no God as Atheists do or he that believeth that God is a Lyar which is to be no God and worse If therefore you do believe indeed that Heaven is Best you must needs believe that Holiness is Necessary yea and Best too when Heaven consisteth so much in perfected holiness And therefore you must choose and seek with greatest diligence that Happiness which you confess is Best or never hope that it will be yours O did you at the heart believe it to be Best and that for you you would love it and seek it and be a holy people without delay You cannot so turn away from that which you heartily judge to to be Best for you indeed But the most that I have to deal with are they that cannot be perswaded at the heart but that feasting and drinking and lust and wealth and worldly honour are Better for them then a Holy life with such promises of Heaven as God hath left us For all or most ungodly men have this perswasion next their hearts whether they observe it and know of it or not Now with such deluded unbelieving souls I am next to plead this weighty cause If thou that Readest this be one of them that takest a worldly felicity with Gods threatnings to be Better and rather to be chosen then Holiness with his Promise of future happiness I will now debate the case with thee and undertake by the light of Christ to open the horrible folly of thy mistake And if I do not give thee such sound and weighty undenyable evidence that no man of Reason should resist to prove the choice of Holy persons to be the wisest and their part the best I will give thee leave to call me a Lyar and a deceiver for ever CHAP. II. What in Reason he must do that would be certainly resolved which is the best part and way And who shall be Judge BUt before we come to the debate I have two Questions to pâ—â— to thee that in Reason must be first resolved The first is Whether thou art willing to know the Truth and resolved to choose the best part when thou knowest it It is in vain for me or any man to Reason with thee if thou wouldst not kâ—â—â— and to shew thee the Truth if thou hate it and wilt not acknowledge it when thou seest it and to bring thee in the clearest light if thou be before hand resolved to shut thy eyes And if thou wilt not choose that which thy conscience shall be convinced thou shouldst choose as being absolutely best to what purpose then should it be revealed to thee Wouldst thou be a happy man or noâ— Wouldst thou have Joy or Sorrow Good or Evil stop here and before thou goest any further make me this Promisâ—… before the Lord That thou wilt not wilfully resist the lighâ—… that thou wilt choose and presently and resolvedly choose that 〈…〉 that thy conscience shall tell thee upon certain evidence is the 〈…〉 Promise but this which no man of Reason 〈…〉 and then we may make something of our debate My second Question is Who it is that shall be Judge between us in this debate or whose witness it is that you will take for currant I am willing to stand to the Judgement of any that understand the case and are impartial I hope you will consent that we shall take the most competent witnesses and Judge And if so 1. You know that the Devil is no competent Judge It is he that perswadeth you that present delights are the better part and rather to be chosen then a Holy life But he is Gods enemy and therefore no wonder if he speak against him He is your deadly enemy
say unto you Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you Luke 6. 12. He went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God Daniel would not give over praying three times a day in his house for thirty dayes space at the Kings command no not to save his life from devouring Lions David saith Psalm 119. 164. Seven times a day do I praise thee Lam. 2. 19. Arise cry out in the night in the beginning of the watches pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord Psalm 14. 4. it is part of the wicked Atheists description that They call not upon the Lord. Jer. 10. 25. Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not and the families that call not on thy name Psalm 145. 18. The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth When Paul was converted the Lord lets Ananias know it by this token Acts 9. 11. For behold he prayeth Acts 1. 14. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication Acts 2. 42. The three thousand Converts continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers Col 4. 2 Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving withall praying also for us that God would open to us a door of utterance to speak the mysterie of Christ Rom. 12. 12. Continuing instant in prayer Jam. 5. 16. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much 1 Tim. 4. 5. For every creature is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer 1 Tim. 5. 5. She that is a widdow indeed and desolate trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day Jude 20. Praying in the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 3. 10. Night and day praying exceedingly Ephes 6 18. Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints and for me c. 2 Chron. 6. 29. What prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man or of all thy people Israel when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief and shall spread forth his hands in this house then hear thou from Heaven c. I hope by this time if you have eyes you see that more frequent and fervent prayers then any of us use and that without Book were used by the antient servants of the Lord and were not thought too much ado nor more ado then God requireth of us 4. Is it constant diligent teaching instructing and catechizing your families and labouring that your selves and they may understand and practise the Law of God Hear also what the Spirit saith of this and then judge whether it be too much preciseness Prov. 2. 1 2 3 4 5. My son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my Commandements with thee so that thou encline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thy heart to understanding yea if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hidden treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God Deut. 6. 5 6 7. 11. 18 19 20. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates Gen. 18 19. For I know Abraham that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. Josh 24. 15. But as for me and my houshold we will serve the Lord. Prov. 22. 6. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Eph. 6. 4. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. These and many such passages shew you that the most diligent instructing of your families is not more ado then God requireth but a most weighty needful part of godliness 5. Is it the meeting of divers neighbours together distinct from Church-meetings that you question Why if it be Schismatical in opposition to the publick meetings or to do any unlawful work we are against it as well as you But if it be but for the redeeming of their time for their spiritual advantage and orderly peaceably and soberly observed by some that have more time or care of their souls then the rest of their neighbours sure you will not for shame imagine that neighbours may lawfully meet to make merry and feast and sport and conferr about their worldly business and yet may not meet to pray and praise God and repeat what instructions they have received of their Teachers and prepare for and improve the publick Ordinances Hear what the Spirit saith also in this In the text here you find just such a meeting where Christ was teaching and Mary and his Disciples hearing and Martha cumbred with providing for the company and blamed for neglecting the advantage for her soul Acts 12. 12. Peter came out of prison to the house of Mary where many were gathered together praying Acts 10. 24. Cornelius called together his kinsmen and near friends to hear Peter who there preached to them converted and baptized them I need to instance in no more because this was the ordinary practice of Christ and the Apostles If you say Those were times of persecution I answer True But 1. yet such times in which publick Assemblies were ordinarily held and publick preaching used 2. And as the good of mens souls required it in times of persecution so when the good of souls requires it in times of liberty it is from the same general reason a duty but never forbidden by Christ in any times of greatest prosperity and peace 6. Is it the holy observation of the Lords day that is the preciseness that you cannot away with Of all men it beseems not them to quarrel at this that own our Homilies and with the Common-prayer use after the fourth Commandment to say Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law When they have heard Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day thou thy Son thy daughter thy man-servant thy maid-servant thy cattle and the stranger that is within thy gates You see all the foresaid duties must be performed and publick Assemblies for Gods worship and our instruction continued And therefore there must be some known
world grew to no more experience and Arts and Sciences were ripened no more when now they have ripened in a shorter time How is it that Printing and Writing were not found out and that all Sciences and Arts are of so late invention and as it were but in their youth Certainly Knowledge is the daughter of Experience and Experience the daughter of Time and therefore if the world had been from eternity it must needs have been many a hundred thousand years ago at â— far higher state of Knowledge then is yet attained in the world For every age receiveth the experiences and writings of the former and hath opportunity still to make improvement of them At least the world could not have been ignorant so long of Printing Writing and a hundred things that are certainly of late invention It is therefore an incredible thing that an Eternal world should lose all the memorials and monuments of its Antiquity before the Scripture-time of the Creation And therefore doubtless it began but then Qu. 2. And if God were not the Author of the Scripture how come so many clear and notable Prophesies of it to be fulfilled How punctually doth David and Isaiah 53 describe the sufferings of Christ and Daniel foretell the very year and so of many others Qu. 3. And how comes it all to contain but one entire frame conspiring to reveal the same doctrine of grace and life at first more darkly and in types and promises and afterwards more clearly in performance when the writers lived at hundreds and thousands years distance from each other Qu. 4. And if thou hadst not a blinded prejudiced mind thou wouldst perceive an unimitable Majesty and spirituality in the Scripture and wouldst savour the spirit of God in it as its author and wouldst know by the image and superscription that it is the Word of God It beareth unimitably the Image of his Power and Wisdom and Goodness so that the blessed Author may to a faithful soul be known by the work Qu. 5. If the Scripture came not from the Spirit it could not give or cause the spirit and if it bore not Gods Image it self how could it print his Image upon the souls of so many thousands as it doth The Image of God is first engraven on the seal of his holy Doctrine and thereby imprinted on the heart There is no part of that holy change on man but what that holy Doctrine wrought If therefore the change be of God the Doctrine that wrought it is of God For both of them are the same Image answering each other as that on the seal and on the wax But it is most certain that the Holy change on the soul is of God The nature of it sheweth this For it consisteth in the destruction of our sin and the denyal of our selves and the raising the heart above this world and the total Devoting of our selves and all that we have to God and conforming our selves to his will and resting in it and seeking and serving him with all our power against all temptations and living in the fervent Love of God and of our Brethren and desires after everlasting life and a taking Christ for our Lord and Saviour to reconcile us to God and do all this in us by his Spirit And surely such a work as this must needs be of God If it be Good it must needs be Originally from him that is most Good this is undenyable And he that will say this is Evil is so much of the Devils nature and mind that it is no wonder if he follow him and be Brutified And you cannot say that the Work is good and the Doctrine bad For the Work is nothing but the Impress of the Doctrine And God doth not use to appoint or use a frame of falshoods and deceits as his ordinary means to renew mens souls and work them to his Will Perhaps you will say that you see no such change made by the Word nor any such spirit given by it unto men but only the effects of their own Imaginations But 1. The Question is Whether they are True or false Imaginations Gods truth causeth that Impress on the mind of man which you call his Imaginations For where should Truth be received but in the mind and how should it work but by cogitation They are cogitations above and contrary to those of flesh and blood that are wrought by this holy Doctrine It is nevertheless os the spirit because it moveth man by consideration 2. And if you see not a work on the hearts of the regenerate appearing in their lives which raiseth them to a far better state then others it can be no better then strangeness or malice that can so far blind you 3. But if it be so with you give leave yet to the persons that know this holy change in themselves to believe the more confidently the Word that wrought it We know that we are renewed and passed from our former spiritual death to life and therefore that it was the Truth of God that did the Work of God upon us Nothing but Truth can sanctifie But the Word doth sanctifie therefore the Word is Truth Indeed the Holy Church of Christ throughout all ages of the world hath been his living Image and so a living Witness of his Word as shewing by their lives the transcript of it in their hearts It is easie for any that know them except the maliciously blind to perceive that the true servants of Christ are a more purified refined honest conscionable holy heavenly people then the rest of the world For my part I am fully convinced of it I see it there is no comparison for all their imperfections which they and I lament I am fully satisfied that there is much more of God on them then on others And therefore there is much more of God in the Doctrine that renewed them then in any other The Church is the living Scripture the pillar and ground of the truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. the Law is written in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. better then it was in the Tables of stone 2 Cor. 3. 3. And by their holy Love and Works the world may know that Jesus Christ was sent of the Father and may be brought to believe in him by their Unity John 17. 21 22 23. Matth. 5. 16. God would not concurr so apparently and powerfully with a false doctrine to make so great a change in man nor so far own it as to use it for the doing of the most excellent work in all this world even the gathering him such a Church and sanctifying to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. If you say that some of the Heathens have been as good I answer 1. The Goodness found in them is but in temperance fidelity and such like and not a holy spirituality or heavenliness no nor a through-conscienciousness in what they knew 2. That good was rare in comparison of that
then if they had never heard the Gospel It is you and such as you that despise the mercies of the Lord that make it a bad world and then you impudently complain of it and charge it on them that will not be as bad as your selves and take away the candle and shut the windows that the light may not trouble you 2. Well! but say you the world was better when there was less preaching and less ado about the serving of God and our salvation I do not believe you and I will tell you why yea Why I am certain that your words are false 1. Because you contradict the Lord. God saith those times are best when there is most of the Light of the Gospel and most helps for our salvation and when the people are most Holy The increase of Light and Holiness is a principal part of the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ and of the Promises to the Gospel Church as you may see Isa 9. 2. 36. 26. 42. 6. 60. 3. Mat. 4. 16. Luk. 2. 32. Joh. 3. 19 20. The word of God is the greatest blessing under heaven together with a heart to obey and practise it Luk. 11. 28. Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it Psal 106. 3. 119. 1 2. 1. 1 2. God himself pronounceth them blessed that meditate day and night in his Law and that make it their whole delight and because of the increase of Light and Holiness extolleth the times of the Gospel far above those of the Law affirming the least in this Kingdom of God to be greater as to the honour and priviledge of his station then the Prophets or John Baptist Matth. 11. 11 12. And would you wish me to believe such ignorant men as you before the God of Heaven that contradicteth you 2. I will not believe you because your objection is nothing but a Blasphemous accusation of the Living God If it were true that Preaching is bad it is Christ then that is bad that doth command it But I am sure that Christ is not bad and that such as Blaspheme him do it to their cost It is he that hath laid a Necessity on us and woe be unto us if we preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 16. and that chargeth us to feed the flock of God 1 Pet. 5. 2. Yea the spirit chargeth us before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom that we preach the word and be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine If any one be to be blamed for all this preaching and stir for heaven it is Christ that chargeth it so strictly upon us And if thou dare lay the blame upon the Lord speak out and stand to it at judgement 3. I know it is false that you say that the world is the worse for all this preachig and Godliness because it is against the very office of Christ and of the Holy Ghost Christ was a diligent preacher himself and dare you accuse him for it He came into the world to bring us the Light of heavenly Truth and dare you say that it were better be without it It is the work of the Holy Ghost to illuminate and sanctifie men and do you think that he doth us hurt Christ dyed to wash and purifie by the word and Spirit the Church which is his Body that he might present it spotless to the Father Eph. 5. 26. 27. And darest thou say that Christ came to do us harm By this thy despising of his benefits thou shewest that thou hast yet no part in him or in his saving benefits but art in the gall of bitterness and bond of thy iniquities and thy heart is not right in the sight of God 4. Moreover you are not to be belived because you speak against the experience of all the Prophets and Apostles of Christ David had rather be a door keeper in the house of God then dwell in the tents of wickedness and judged a day in his Courts to be better then a thousand Psal 84. 10. and accounted them the blessed men that might even dwell in the house of God and be daily taken up in holy praise and worship Psal 65. 4. 92. 13. 23. 6. When he was forced from the house and publick worship of God it was his daily lamentation and he fainteth and panteth and longeth after the house and worship of God again Psal 42. 84. 2 3 4 5. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of hosts My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord My bea rt aad my flesh cryeth out for the living God Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praising thee Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are the ways of them The Prophet Isaiah saith In the way of thy judgements O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee with my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early This was the mind of all the Prophets and Apostles and God hath told us that it is the practice of all blessed men to Meditate in Gods word day night Psal 1. 2. And yet will you say that it was a better world when there was less of this O self-condemning Hypocrites Why do you so much profess to honour the Prophets Apostles and Martyrs of Christ if you think that they were the troublers of the world and that their doctrine and practice makes us worse Why do you honour them with the name of Saints and yet despise both their doctrine and practice in those that do but endeavour seriously to imitate them Why keep you Holy days in remembrance of the dead Saints and say that the world in the worse for the living Saints O horrible hypocrisie to honour their names and hate their doctrine and course of life and say that the world was never good since it was troubled with such as they Do we trouble you with our Preaching and praying and our stir for heaven How would Christ and his Apostles have troubled you that went so far beyond us in all these and made a greater stir then we and turned the world as their enemies charged them up side down Act. 17. 6. so busie wâ—s Christ in preaching and doing the work of God that he neglected to eat his meat for it Joh. 4. 34. and his fleshly kindred would have laid hands on him as if he had been beside himself Mark 3. 21. It seems if you had then lived you would have been among the wicked enemies of Christ and of his Disciples and have said It was never a good world since these busie fellows made so much a doe with their Religion 5. Moreover you speak against the inward feeling and
necessary things doth Grace acquaint the Christian with He knoweth him that is the cause of all things else having himself no cause He knoweth him that is knowledge it self and that knoweth all things He knoweth him that is Eternal that never began and shall never end That is Greater then the whole world that is more glorious then the Sun that can do all things because he is Almighty and yet can do no evil because he is most Good and Holy He knoweth him that made the world and all things and holdeth them in the hand of his Omnipotency and Ruleth them by his wisdom and doth all things according to the good pleasure of his will He knoweth him that is mans felicity to know whom is eternal life He knoweth the Redeemer and the Riches of his Grace and Promises He knoweth the diseases of his own soul and their danger and cure He knoweth what end he hath to aim at and the work that he was made and Redeemed for to do the Temptations which he must resist the enemies which he must conquer the duties which he must perform He knoweth his Redeemers Laws and Covenants What he commandeth promiseth and threatneth and to whom He knoweth what will be hereafter and where he shall live when this life is ended and what he shall do ten thousand years hence yea unto all eternity He knoweth what will become of all the Godly and ungodly that die such in the world and where they shall be for evermore In a word he knoweth whence he came whithet he is going and which way he must go He knoweth God as his Maker Governour and End He knoweth that God that he must Please and how to Please him and how to be saved and to live with God for ever This is the honourable Knowledge of the Sanctified which no men have but they alone The cunning Polititians of the world have none of it as such The Speculators of nature the great Mathematicians the Learned Doctors famous for their skill in Languages Philosophy and the Theorie of Divinity are oâ—t without it They have more of the words and notions and forms and methods then unlearned Saints have but they want the Thing that these are made for They have the signs and the Godly have the thing signified They have the Body of Theologie and the Godly Christian hath the Soul The ungodly Doctors have better skill to break the shell but the Godly Christian only knows how to eat the kernel The Learned may be better at the office of a Cook to dress the meat but only the Godly do feed on it and digest it Knowledge is to be valued as all creatures are according to its usefulness As it is more Honourable to know how to Govern a Kingdom Command an Army or Navy or save mens lives then to make a fiddle or an hobby horse so is it ten thousand-fold more Honourable to know how to Order our hearts and lives and to walk with God and obtain the everlasting Glory then to know how to get the riches and pleasures and vain-glory of the present world 3. The sanctified are made Alive to God when other men are Dead in sin Rom. 6. 11 13. Eph. 2. 1 2. And the poorest man alive is more Honourable then the carkase of an Emperour Eccl. 9. 4. A living dog is better then a dead Lyon 4. The sanctified are cleansed from the filthyness of their sins which are the most odious defilements in the world and they are purified by the blood and spirit of Christ 1 John 1. 7 9. Ephes 5. 26. 2 Cor. 7. 1. The word of Christ hath made them clean John 15. 3. Their hearts are purified by faith Acts 15. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 22. 1 John 3. 3. And therefore the most odious part of their dishonour is removed sin is a reproach to any people Prov. 14. 34. Whatever it may seem before ungodly men it is sin that is your shame before the Lord And this reproach the godly are now cleansed from Though it be a dishonour to them that they were ungodly once it is their honour that now they are not such and that they are cloathed with the righteousness of Christ 5. The Holy nature of the Saints disposeth their hearts and â—nclineth their wills to the highest and most Honourable things As in their Knowledge so in their Inclinations they are above the baseness of the world The nature of man is not to feed as beasts and horses and dogs do he is above their food and above their converse and kind of life that will not content him that contenteth them And the new nature of a sanctified man is above the delights and contents of the ungodly His heart cannot endure to take up with their kind of life To mind nothing but this world and to have no pleasure but to the flesh and live as an utter stranger to God and not to feed on the Heavenly delights and riches of the Gospel but live as if there were no such things this sensual life is below his Inclination â—s feeding on dross or conversing only with swine or cattle is below the nature of a man The noble soul is that which is inclined to the noblest objects even to God and Holiness and everlasting life and cannot endure the poor and low and sordid life of men that have their portion here Psalm 17. 14. Nothing that is corporeal or transitory yea nothing below God can satisfie a holy soul It is this Holy Disposition that fits men for holy Duties and that is their fitness for eternal Happiness If Angels were not Holyer then Devils and godly men then the ungodly Heaven could not hold them nor could they any more see or enjoy the Lord then they that are cast into outer darkness And therefore if you dare say that the Holy are no more Honourable then the unholy you must say that the Holy Angels are no more Honourable then the devils which sure you will scarce be so desperate as to speâ—â— 6. Holiness in the godly is the Image of God in which we were created and according to which we are renewed by the Holy Ghost Eph. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. Gen. 1. 27. And what can be spoken more Honourable of a creature then that he hath his Makers Image unless as to the Degree that some have more of it then others It is the honourable Title of the Son himself that he is the Brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his person This is above the honour of any or of all the Saints But to have the Image of God in Wisdom and Holiness as all have that are sanctified is a wonderful dignity to be given to a creature and so low and unworthy creatures as we are His commands tell us what are the qualifications of his people As he which hath called you is Holy so be ye Holy in all manner of conversation For it is written Be ye Holy for I am Holy
the renewed state that grace hath brought them into For the Kingdom of God consisteth as in Righteousness so in Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Believers receive not the spirit of bondage again to fear that is they are not under the bondage of the Law nor have the spirit or state of mind which is suited to those Legal impositions and terrible comminations but they have received the spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba father that is As they are brought under a more gracious dispensation and a better Covenant and promises and God is revealed to them in the Gospel as a Reconciled Father through his son so doth he treat them more gently as reconciled children and the spirit which answereth this gracious Covenant and is given us thereupon doth qualifie us with a child-like disposition and cause us with boldness Love and confidence to call God Father and fly to him for succour and supply in all ouâ— dangers and necessities And how Pleasant it must be to a believing soul to have this spirit of Adoption this childlike Love and confidence and freedom with the Lord methinks you might conjecture though its sensibly known by them only that enjoy it Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is Love Joy Peace c. when the word is first received by Believers though it may be in much affliction through the persecutions and cross that attend the Gospel yet is it ordinarily in the Joy of the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1. 6. The Holy Ghost is the Comforter of true Believers And if he have taken it upon him as his work he will surely do it in the degree and season fittest for them And if Joy it self be part of the state of Grace and Holiness you may see that it is the most delightful Pleasant course 7. Yea that we may have a Pleasant and comfortable life the Lord hath forbidden our distracting cares and fears and doubts and our inordinate sorrows and commanded us to cast our care on him and promised to care for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. and he hath bid us be careful for nothing but in all things make our wants known to him Phil. 4. 6. And can there be a course of life more Pleasant then that which dost consist in faith and Love and hope and Joy that 's built on God and animated by him and that excludeth inordinate cares and sorrows as health doth sickness where it is unlawful to be miserable and to grieve our selves and no sorrow is allowed us but that which tendeth to our joy where it is made our work to Rejoyce in the Lord yea always to Rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. A servant or tradesman will judge of the pleasure of his life by his work If his work be a drudgery his life is tedious and filled with grief If his work be Pleasant his life is Pleasant Judge then by this of a Holy life Is it care and fear and anguish of mind that God commandeth you no it is these that he forbiddeth Care not Fear not are his injunctions Isa 35. 4. 41. 10. Do you fear Reproach Why you do it contrary to the will of God who biddeth you Fear not the reproach of men Isa 51. 7. Do you fear the power and rage of enemies Why it is contrary to your Religion so to do God biddeth you Fear them not Isa 43. 5 13 14. 44. 2 8. Do you fear persecution or death from the hands of cruel violence why it is contrary to the will of God that you do so Matth. 10. 26 28 31. Fear not them which kill the body c. O blessed life where all that is against us is forbidden and all that is truly Joyous and delightful and necessary to make us happy is commanded us and made our duty which is contrary to misery as life to death and as light to darkness Come hither poor deluded sinners that fly from care and fear and sorrow If you will but give up your selves to Christ you shall be exempted from all these except such as is necessary to your joy You may do any thing if you will be the servants of the Lord except that which tendeth to your own and other mens calamity Come hither all you that call for pleasure and love no life but a life of mirth Let God be your master and Holiness your work and Pleasure then shall be your business and holy Mirth shall be your employment While you serve the flesh your pleasure is small and your trouble great vexation is your work and unspeakable vexation is your wages But if you will be the hearty servants of the Lord Rejoycing shall be your work and wages If you understand not this peruse your lesson Psal 33. 1. Rejoyce in the Lord O ye Righteous for Praise is comely for the upright Psal 97. 11 12. Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye Righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Phil. 3. 1. Psal 5. 11. Let all those that trust in thee rejoyce let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them let them also that Love thy name be joyful in thee Psal 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Psal 132. 9. 16. Let thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousness and let thy Saints shout for joy 16. I will also cloath her Priests with salvation and his Saints shall shout aloud for joy such precepts and promises abound in Scripture which tell you if you will be Saints indeed that Joy and gladness must be your life and work I know objections will be stirring in your minds But forbear them but a while and I shall fully answer them anon 2. I have told you wherein the Inward part of Holiness is Delightful I shall briefly shew you that the Outward part also is very Pleasant and fit to feed these inward joys And 1. let us view the Duties that are more directly to be performed unto God and 2. The works of charity and righteousness unto men 1. How sweet is it to be exercised in the word of God In hearing or reading it with serious meditation For the man that hath been revived by it renewed sanctified saved by it to hear that powerful heavenly truth by which his soul was thus made new For the soul that is in Love with God to hear or see his blessed name on every leaf to read his will and find the expressions of his Love his great eternal wonderous love how sweet this is experience tells the Saints that feel it If you that feel no sweetness in it believe not them that say they feel it at leaâ—â— believe the word of God and the professions of his ancient Saints Psal 119. 97. O how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day v. 103. How sweet are thy words unto my tast yea sweeter then
little longer in such impudent calumniations against me and other Ministers of Christ But know that thy day is coming and that for all these things thou shalt come to judgement and if thou justifie the ungodly yet remember that It is not good to have respect of persons in judgement and he that saith to the wicked Thou art Righteous the people shall curse him Nations shall abhorr him Prov. 24. 23 24. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are abomination to the Lord. Prov. 17. 15. Wo unto them that call Evil Good and Good Evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter which justifie the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff so their root shall be rottenness and their blossom shall go up as the dust because they have cast away the Law of the Lord of Hosts and despised the word of the holy one of Israel Isa 5. 20 23 24. Let the malicious serpent accuse Job before God in the end it shall turn to his own confusion And if any of the Princes of the earth will by Doegs be provoked to destroy the Priests or by jealousie kindled by malicious whisperers be incited to do by the servants of Christ as they did by the Waldenses Bohemians Protestants in many places c. we will remember the memorable words of David 1 Sam. 26. 18 19. and let the sufferers imitate him in the submissive part Wherefore doth my Lord pursue after his servant for what have I done or what evil is in my hand Now therefore I pray thee let my Lord the King hear the words of his servant If the Lord have stirred thee up against me let him accept an offering but if it be the children of men cursed be they before the Lord for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying Go serve other Gods By going where they are served HAving fully shewed you What Godliness is I now beseech thee Reader to enquire Whether this described case be thine Art thou Devoted to God without reserve as being not thine own but his And hast thou devoted all thou hast to him with thy self to be used according to his Will Art thou mere subjected to his Authority and observant of his Laws and Government then of mans and can his word do more with thee tâ—en the word of any mortal man or then the violence of thy lusts and passions Art thou heartily engaged to him as thy felicity and dost thou give up thy self to him in filial Love dependance and observance as to thy dearest friend and Father Dost thou highlyest esteem him and resolvedly choose him and sincerely seek him preferring nothing in thy Estimation Choice Resolution or Endeavour before him Try by these and the other particulars in the Description whether you are Godly or ungodly and do it faithfully for the day is at hand when the ungodly shall not stand in judgement nor sinners in the Assembly of the just Psal 1. 5. And besides the marks expressed in the description let me offer you some from the plain words of the Textâ— that you may see what God accounteth Godliness and consequently â—…w to judge your selves 1. In John 3. 3 5 6. it is written Verily except a â—…an be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of â—…od That which is born of the flesh is flesh and â—…at which is born of the Spirit is Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 17. 〈…〉 any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things â—…e passed away behold all things are become new â—…om 8. 9. If any man have not the spirit of Christ the â—…me is none of his From these Texts you see that a heart and life made new â—…y the Spirit of Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary to true Godliness 2. Psalm 119. 5. O that my wayes were directed to keep thy Statutes Rom. 7. 18. To will is present with â—…e Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee â—nd there is none on earth c. Isa 26. 8. The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of â—…hee From these and such like texts it is evident that The principal desires of a godly man and the choice of his will is to be what God would have him be 3. Psalm 1. 2. His delight is in the Law of the Lord and therein doth he meditate day and night 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Luke 10. 42. From these and such like Texts it is manifest That all the Godly do Love the Word of God as the food of their souls and the director of their lives 4. Matth. 6. 20 21 33. Lay up for your selves a treasure in heaven c. For where your treasure is there will your hearts be also Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Matth. 7. 13. Luke 24. Enter in at the strait gate strive to enter in for many shall seek and shall not be able 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure Rom. 12. 11. From these and such texts you may discern that Godliness consisteth in such diligence for salvation as to seek it before any earthly thing and not to think the labour of a holy life too much for it 5. Rom. 8. 1 5 6 7 8 13. Gal. 5. 18 19. Read them and you will see that Godliness consisteth in living after the spirit and not after the flesh and in mortifying the deeds of the body by the spirit living not by sensuality but by Faith 6. John 3. 19 20. And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather then light because their deeds were evil For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doth truth cometh to the light c. 1 King 21. 7 8 And the King of Israel said to Jehoshaphat there is yet one man Micaiah by whom we may enquire of the Lord but I hate him for he doth not prophesie good concerning me but evil And Jehoshaphat said Let not the King say so From these and such like Texts you see that The Godly love the discovering light and the most searching faithful preacher but the ungodly cannot endure the light which sheweth them their sins nor love the Preachers that tell them of their sin and misery 7. 1 Cor. 13. John 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if you love one another 1 John 3. 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren Psal 15. 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that
fear the Lord. From these and such like texts it is evident that All that are truly Godly have a special Love to those that are Godly they love and honour Christ in his Image on his Saints 8. Acts 2. 42. 4. 32. You may see that The Godly love the Communion of Saints to joyn with them in holy doctrine fellowship and prayers 9. 1 Thes 5. 17. Pray continually Luke 18. 1. Christ spake a Parable to them to this end that men ought alwayes to pray and not to wax faint Acts 9. 11. Behold he prayeth Zech. 12. 10. I will pour out the spirit of prayer and supplication Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought c. From all these and such like it is evident that Prayer is the breath of a Godly man he is a man of Prayer When he wanteth words he hath desires with tears or groans 10. Matth. 15. 8 9. This people draweth near me with their lips but their hearts are far from me John 4. 23 24. God is Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth From such texts it is evident that Every Godly man doth make the inward exercise of his soul the principal part of his worship unto God and doth not stick in bodily exercise or lip service 11. Josh 24. 15. As for me and my houshold we wil serve the Lord. So Deut. 6. 11. 1 Pet. 2. 17 18. 3. 10. Eph. 5. 6. From many such Texts it is evident that Godly men desire the sanctification of others and make conscience of the duties of their relations and would have their housholds or friends to serve the Lord as well as they 12. Luk. 14. 26 33. 18. 22. Matth. 10. 37. Rom. 8. 17 18. From these and other texts it is evident that all things are below Christ and heaven in the practical esteem of a Godly man and that he will forsake them all rather then he will forsake him All these are Scripture Marks of Godliness HAving hastily run over these things to help you in the Tryal I will add some Directions to help you in the practice and therein yet fullyer to acquaint you Wherein true Godliness doth consist Briefly to lay before you first the meer enumeration of the chief points wherein sound Godliness doth consist to help your memories while you see them close together 1. Sound Godliness consisteth in a solid understanding of the substantial points of Religion 2. In a sound belief of the Truth of Gods word and the reality of the unseen things 3. In an adhearing to the holy Scriptures as the Divine Rule of faith and life 4. In the Love of God in Jesus Christ excited by the belief of his Love revealed by Jesus Christ 5. In true humility and low thoughts of our selves and low expectation from others 6. In a heavenly mind that most regardeth the things above and seeketh them as our only felicity at home 7. In self denyal and mortification and temperance and victory over the desires of the flesh When we can deny our own conceits and interests and wills for God and are dead to the world and are not servants to our fleshly appetites or senses or to the things below 8. In thankfulness for received Mercies and Praising the Glorious name of God 9 In the willing and diligent use of the means that God hath appointed us for salvation 10. In charity or Love to all men even our enemies and a special love to true Believers 11. In a love to the holy communion of Saints especially in publike worship 12. In a tender desire of the unity of the Saints and their concord and increase of Charity and a trouble at their discord and divisions 13. In dealing Justly in our places with all men and carefully avoiding all that may be injurious to any 14. In studying to do all the good we can and doing it to our power especially to the houshold of faith 15. In a conscionable discharge of the duties of our relations as Rulers Teachers Parents Masters subjects and inferious 16. In watchfulness against Temptations and avoiding occasions of sin 17. In serious preparations for sufferings and death and patient bearing them when they come These are the things that Godliness doth consist in And now out of all I will draw up ten practical directions which in a special manner I would intreat you to Practice if you would be solidly Godly and not be deceived with names or counterfeits Direct 1. Be sure to live upon the substantials of Religion and let them receive no detriment by a pretence of zeal for lesser points Lay not your Religion in uneffectual opinions and let lower truths and duties keep their places and not be set above the higher Dir. 2. See that your Religion be principally seated in the Heart Understand it as well as you can lest it be taken from you but never think it is savingly your own while it is but in the brain so much you believe indeed as you Love and as hath imprinted the Image of God upon your hearts Ever see that your wills be Resolved for God and holiness and that you be able truly to say I would be perfect and I would fain be better then I am Direct 3. Be sure you take up with God alone as your whole felicity and think not that there is a necessity of the approbation of men or of liberty plenty life or any thing besides God Do not only think that there is a God and a life of Glory for you but Live upon them and be moved and actuated by them Trust to them and take them for your part Live by faith and not by sight Direct 4. Live daily upon Christ as the only Mediator without whom we have no access to God acceptance with him or receivings from him Look for all that you have from God to come by him Live on him for Reconc liation for Teaching for Preservation for Communication for Consolation and for Salvation Let Christ make your thoughts of God more familiar as now Reconciled and Condescending to us Direct 5. Obey the sanctifying motions of the spirit and if you have disobeyed Repent not despairing but returning to obedience but see that you live not in any known sin which a sanctified will can enable you to avoid Resist sins of passion but most carefully take heed of sins of interest deliberately chosen and kept up as necessary or good Direct 6. Make it the principal work of your Religion and your Lives to inflame your hearts with the Love of God as he is presented amiable in his wonderful Grace in Jesus Christ Strive no further to effect your hearts with Fears or Griefs or other troubling passions then as tendeth to the work of Love or is a just expression of it Go daily to promises and mercies and Christ and Heaven of purpose for fewel to kindle Love Be
Erroneous Sectaries are blinded in some particular points by the seducing words of men And ungodly sensualists are blinded in the main and damnably err from the necessary practical doctrines of salvation being deceived by the inclination of their own concupiscence Errors are multifarious and abound even in many that inveigh most fiercely against the erroneous But Truth is simple We have One Teacher to instruct us One Spirit to enlighten us One Word of God to be our Rule One Light to guide us through all the darkness and mazes of the world and recover our deluded darkened minds Thousands are ready to draw us away from God Temptations lye thick on every hand Within us and without us before us and on each side Which way can you look or go but you will meet with baits and snares And if Eve be once deceived Adam is the easilier overcome When the appetite and senses are ensnared by their objects and the imagination corrupted the understanding is in danger of deceit You may go into an Hospital and see variety of diseases but Health is one and the same One hath the pestilence and another hath the leprosie and another a palsie and another is distracted but among a thousand people in Health you see no such difference Health only is formally the cure of all What abundance of miserable sinners be in the world that are almost at Hell already But only one sort of men even the regenerate are rescued by grace and shall be saved from it Many inventions have men found out for their destruction but there is no way but by Christ through faith and holiness to their salvation Set as light by Christ and Holiness as you will and deride it as foolishly and perversly as you please you will find at last that this way or none must bring you to Heaven Either ignorance or pride or covetousness or malice or gluttony or drunkenness or voluptuousness or lust or any one sin of an hundred may be your ruine But there is only One salve to heal these sores and only one cordiall or antidote that can expell these several sorts of poison from your hearts Godliness is profitable to all things 1 Tim. 4. 8. Drudge for the world as long as you will and gape after honour and applause from men and try a thousand wayes for your content but when you have all done you must return by sound Repentance into the way of holiness or you are lost for ever When you have slighted grace you must give up your selves to the power of that grace When you have set light by a life of holy Love to God and the fruition of him in Glory you must make it your treasure and delight and your hearts must be upon it or you are undone Matth. 6. 21. When you have made a jeast of a Holy life you must come about and take your selves that course that you jeasted at though you be as much jeasted at by others yea and make it the principal business of your lives or perish in hell under the vengeance of the Almighty whose justice you provoked and whose mercy you neglected Choose you whether but one of them will be your part Even as Saul that was exceeding mad against Believers and persecuted them even to strange Cities Acts 26. 10 11. was glad to become one of them himself though he suffered as much as he had caused them to suffer and accounted it the greatest mercy of his life that God vouchafed him such a change what ever it cost him IV. Quest But is nothing necessary but this One Are not other things also Needfull in their places Answ I told you that other things are not other so far as they stand in due subordination to this one or are the parts of it He that saith to a sick man You would do well if you had such a skilfull man for your Physicion doth not by these words intend to exclude his Apothecary or his medicines or the taking of them or the instruments and means by which they are applyed but rather includeth and implyeth all these in the One thing mentioned to which they do subserve So all Gods graces and all the means of grace and Christian duties are contained or implyed in the One thing Necessary or supposed to it Because it is One thing that is necessary as the End therefore many means are necessary to the obtaining of it Though there be also a kind of unity as hath been shewed among those means Quest But are not outward things also necessary Must we not have food and rayment and must we not labour and provide it and take care for our families and follow our callings Must we not by lawfull means avoid reproach and poverty in the world Answ In the way of Duty it is as necessary that we labour in our callings and provide things honest and subserve Gods providence for the maintenance of our selves and others And the things of this life and Needful so far as Life is needful that we may have Time and strength to do our works and be supported while we seek the One thing needful But that which is not Necessary for it self but for another thing is not simply or principally Necessary So far as Heaven may be obtained and the work of Christianity done without the accommodations of the flesh so far these worldly things are needless There is no Necessity that you be Rich or Honourable or that you live in Health or Wealth or that you escape the hatred and reproach and trouble of a malicious world There is no Necessity that you should save your lives when Christ requireth them For he that so saveth his life shall lose it Matth. 16. 25. And that Usefulness which you may in a lower sense call Necessity that any of these things are of is but in their respect to the One thing Necessary as they are sanctified means to the service of God and our salvation If your daily bread be to be called Necessary it is not for it self or for your flâ—shly pleasure nor ultimately for your life it self but to sustain your life while you are seeking after life eternal and serving him that is the Lord of life Your Credit or Honour or Pleasure in the world are no further Necessary or Usefull to you then they promote this great End for your selves or others Nothing but God is simply Necessary for himself and Nothing else is any way truly Necessary but for him And therefore as by Necessity of precept you must labour in your Callings and seek provision for your selves and families you must most carefully watch your Hearts that your desires and labours be not carnal as tending only to carnal ends â—ut that you sincerely subject the things desired to the One thing necessary for which you must desire them and therefore that you desire but such measures and proportions as are most suitable to that End which is only for it self desireable Even life it self must
When your corpses are laid in the grave men can say Now he hath done his satisfying the flesh and following the world but never man can truly say Now he hath done suffering for it Your life of sin is passing as a dream and your honours as a shadow and all your business as a talc that is told but the life of Glory which you rejected for this would have endured for evermore Suppose as many thousand years as there are sands on the Sea or piles of grass on the whole earth or hairs on the heads of all men in the world yet when these many are past the Joy of Saints and the Torments of the wicked are as far from an end as ever they were The eternal God doth give them a duration and make them eternal When our joyes are at the sweetest this thought must needs be part of that sweetness that their sweetness shall never have an end If our short fore-taste be Joy unspeakable and full of glory what shall we call that Joy which flows from the most perfect fruition and perpetuation 1 Pet. 1. 7 8. We have Joy here but alas how seldom Alas how small in comparison of what we may there expect Some Joy we have but how oft do Melancholy or crosses or losses in the world or temptations or sins or desertions interrupt it Our sun is here most commonly under a cloud and too often in an Ecclipse and we have the night as often as the day Yea our state is usually a Winter Our dayes are cold and short and our nights are long But when the flourishing state of glory comes we shall have no Interscissioâ—s nor Ecclipses Tâ—â— path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. And the perfect day is a perpetual day that knows no interruption by the darkness of the night For there shall be no night there nor need of candle or Sun for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever Rev. 22. 5. This is the life that fears no death and this is the feast that fears no want or future famine the pleasure that knows nor fears no pain the health that knows nor fears no sickness this is the treasure that fears no moth or rust or thief the building that fears no storm nor decay the Kingdom that fears no changes by Rebellion the friendship that fears no falling out the Love that fears no hatred or frustration the Glory that fears no envious eye the possessed Inheritance that fears no ejection by fraud or force or any failings the Joy that feels or fears no sorrow while God who is Life it self is our life and while God who is Love is the fountain and object of our Love we can never want either Life or Love And whiles he feeds our Love our Joyful praises will never be run dry nor ever go out for want of fewel This is the true perpetual motion the câ—rculation of the holy blood and spirit from God to man and from man to God Being prepared and brought near him we have the blessed Vision of his face by seeing him and by the blessed emanation of his love we are drawn out perpetually and unweariedly to Love him and Rejoyce in him and from hence uncessantly to praise and honour him In all which as his blessed Image and the shining reflections of his revealed glory he taketh complacency which is the highest end of God and man and the very term of all his works and wayes I Thought here to have ended this First Part of my Discourse but yet compassion calls me back I fear lest with the most I have not yet prevailed and lest I shall leave them behind me in the bonds of their iniquity I daily hear the voice of men possessed by a spirit of uncleanness speaking against this Necessity of a holy life which Christ himself so peremptorly asserteth I hear that voice which foretelleth a more dreadful voice if in time they be not prevailed with to prevent it One saith What need all this ado This strictness is more ado then needs Another saith You would make men mad by poring so much on matters that are above them Another saith Cannot you keep your Religion to your selfe and be Godly with moderation as your neighbours be Another saith I hope God is more merciful then to damn 〈…〉 that â—â— not so precise Another saith I shall never endure so strict a life and therefore I will venture as well as others The summe of allis They are so far in love with the world and sin and so much against a holy life that they will not be perswaded to it and therefore to quiet their consciences in their misery they make themselves believe that they may be saved without it and that it is a thing of no Necessity but their coming to Church and living like good neighbours may serve the turn without it for their salvation And thus doth the malicious Serpent in the hearts of those that he possesseth rise up against the words of Christ Christ saith that this is The One thing needful And the Serpent saith It is more ado then needs and What needs all this ado Though I have fully answered this ungodly objection already in my Treatise of Conversion sect 36. pag. 284. c. and more fully in my Treatise of Rest Part 3. Chap. 6. yet I shall once more fall upon it For death is coming while poor deluded souls are loytering and if Satan by such sensless reasonings as these can keep them unready in their sin till the â—atal stroak hath cut them down and cast them into endless easeless fire alas how great will be their fall and how unspeakably dreadful will be their misery Whoever thou be whether hâ—gh or low learned or unlearned that hast disliked opposed or reproached serious godly Christians as Puritanes and too precise and that thinkest the most diligent labour for salvation to be but more ado then needs and hast not thy self yet resolvedly set upon a holy life I require at thy hands so much impartiality and faithfulness to thy own immortal soul as seriously to peruse these following Questions and to go no further in thy careless negligent ungodly course till thou art able to give such a rational answer to them as thou darest stand to now at the Barr of thine own Conscience and hereafter at the Barr of Christ Quest 1. Canst thou possibly give God more then is his due Or love him more then he deserveth Or serve him more faithfully then thâ—â— art bound and he is worthy of Art thou not his creature made of nothing and hast thou not all that thou art and hast from him and if thou give him all dost thou give him any more then what is his own If thou give him all the affections of thy soul and all the most serious thoughts of thy heart and every hour of thy time and
say that this One thing is needless for which thou hast all things Thou mayest then say that God made the world in vain and preserveth and governeth it in vain For all this is but for his service which thou callest vain Quest 11. Doth not Reason tell thee that the place in which thou must live for ever should be more diligently minded and prepared for then this in which thou must continue but for a while Alas it is so short a time that we must be here that it makes all the matters of this world as such to be inconsiderable things as dreams and shadows What great matter is it for so short a time whether we be rich or poor well or sick in credit or in contempt whether we laugh or weep When our part will be so quickly acted and we must go naked out of the world as we came into it For so short a time a poor habitation may serve the turn as well as the most splendid Palace A painful obscure afflicted life may do as well as the most plentiful provisions and the greatest ease and worldly honours The purple and fine linnen the silks and bravery will be soon forgotten and the soul in Hell will be no more the better for them then the rotten carkase in the grave The taste of the delicious meats and drinks will quickly be forgotten and sportful youth will be turned into cold and languid age and the most confirmed health into dolorous sickness and mirth and laughter into mournful groans And is such a transitory life as this more worthy of your care and greatest diligence then life eternal O one would think that the world that you must be ever ever in should never never be forgotten There is the company that you must live with for ever There is the state that you shall never change There is the Joy or Torment that shall have no end and while you forget it you are posting to it and are almost there And can you be too careful for eternity Quest 12. Consider also but the infinite Joyes of Heaven and tell me Whether thou dost think they are not worthy the greatest cost or pains that thou canst be at to get them Dost thou think that Heaven is not worthy of the labour that is bestowed for it by the holyest Saints on earth Will it not requite them to the full Will any that comes thither repent that they obtained it at so dear a rate If now thou couldst speak with one of those Believers mentioned in Heb. 11. that lived as strangers and pilgrims on earth as seeking a better even a heavenly Countrey that preferred the reproach of Christ before the treasure of the world and chose affliction with the people of God before the pleasures of sin for a season that were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might receive a better resurrection that had tryal of cruel mâ—â—kings and scourgings and of bonds and imprisonments and were sâ—oned sawn asunder tempted slain with the sword wandred about in sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented though men of whom the world was not worthy Would any one of these now tell you that they did or suffered too much for Heaven Or that it was not worth ten thousand times more If thy tongue dare say that Heaven is not worth the cost or trouble of a holy life or if thy life say so though thy tongue dare not thou judgest thy self unworthy of it and sentencest thy self unto damnation Quest 13. And are the torments of Hell so small and tolerable that thou thinkest a holy life too dear a means for to prevent them Dost thou believe the threatnings of the Lord that he will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1. 8 9. and yet canst thou say What needs all this ado to scape such endless misery Thou wilt take any medicine to cure but the gowt or stone if once thou have felt them Thou wilt draw out a tooth to prevent the pain of it And is Holiness so hateful or grievous a thing to thee that thou wilt venture on Hell it self to avoid it If so much of Hell be in thy heart already blame none but thy self if thou have thy choice Quest 14. Why wast thou baptized into the Covenant of holiness to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost if thou think it nâ—â—dless to perform thy Covenant A holy life is no more then in Baptism thou wast solemnly engaged too There didst thou renounce the flesh the world and the Devil and tookest God for thy portion and absolute Lord and gavest up thy self to be ruled by him and saved by Christ and sanctified by the holy Spirit and dost thou now say What needs all this ado Are we all by our Baptismal Vow engaged to a needless thing I tell thee there is not the holyest man on earth that doth any more then what he is bound to by the Covenant-Relations which he undertook in Baptism Quest 15. Moreover What an Hypocrite art thou to profess thy self a member of the Holy Catholick Church if Holiness which is the life of the Church seem needless to thee Why dost thou profess to believe and desire the Communion of Saints if the life of Saints seem needless to thee and thou wilt not have Communion with them in their sanctity Dost thou not plainly renounce thy Covenant and faith and duty when thou renouncest a holy life as a thing unnecessary Quest 16. Dost thou think or darest thou say that the bloody death and holy life of Jesus Christ were more then needs in order to thy salvation Unless thou be a prosessed Infidel I know thou darest not say so And if thy soul were worth the sufferings of the Lord of Life is it not worth all the cost and labour of thy duty Christ lived a life of perfect holiness he never sinned he fulfilled all righteousness he prayed all night and with greatest fervency preaching and doing good was his employment Though he hated Pharisaical superstition and the teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men and serving God according to mens traditions yet was there never so holy and pure and precise and strict and heavenly a life as Jesus Christ's And this was for our redemption and our example And darest thou say that this was needless Should we not endeavour to imitate our pattern Are they better that are likest Christ or they that are most unlike him And which dost thou think is liker Christ the holy or the unholy Sure we that fall so short of the example that Christ hath given us are far from being more diligent then needs when Christ went not too far nor was too strict that went so very far beyond us Quest 17. Look upon all the institutions of
obeyed and his Will preferred before their own But when it comes to the particulars they Love him not above all they take his name in vain they keep not holy his day they disobey superiours that would reform them they are envious malicious covetous lustful and break all the Commandements in particular which in general they profess to keep As if your servant should promise to do your work and when you set him to it one thing is too hard and another he is not used to and so he hath his exceptions against the greatest part which he undertook As if one should wound one of you in the head and stab you to the heart and cut off an arm or a leg and say I wish the man no harm It is not the man that I hate or hurt but only the head the heart the arm c. Even so it is not holiness that these men hate and speak against but it is so much praying and meditating and reading the Scriptures and making such astir about Religion when less ado way serve the turn But wretched soul if thou have not the wit to see the contradictions of thy deceitful tongue and the venome of the malignant heart dost thou think that such sottish shifts as theâ— will blind the eyes of heavenly Justice and save thee from the vengeance of a Holy God which he hath denounced against rebellious hypocrites But come on let us try whether the several parts of godliness which thou questionest or callest Puritanism or preciseness are not most expresly and peremptorily commanded in the Word of God 1. Is it so much preaching and hearing Sermons that thou quarrellest with Hear then how Christ and his Apostles preached and how they required men to hear Mark 1. 35 37 38 39. And in the morning rising up a great while before day he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed And Simon and they that were with him followed after him and when they had found him they said unto him All men seek for thee And he said Let us go unto the next Towns that I may preach there also for therefore came I forth and he preached in their Synagogues throughout all Galilee Mark 2. 2. And straight-way many were gathered together insomuch that there was no room to receive them no not so much as about the door and he preached the Word unto them Mark 3. 19 20 21. And they went into an house and the multitude cometh together again so that they could not so much as eat bread and when his friends heard of it they went out to lay hold on him for they said He is beside himself Acts 5. 42. And daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ Acts 4. 4. They that were scattered went everywhere preaching the Word Acts 20. 20 28 31. I kept back nothing that was profitable to you but have shewed you and have taught you publickly and from house to house Take heed therefore to your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy-Ghost hath made you Over-seers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears Rom. 10. 14 15. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher Phil. 1. 18. Every way whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached and I do therein rejoyce yea and will rejoyce 1 Cor. 1. 21. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe Col. 1. 28 29. Whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus c. 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine 1 Cor. 9. 16. Necessity is laid upon me yea woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel What say you now do we not fall much short of those that we should imitate rather then do too much in preaching But what need we more then the text it self where for hearing Mary is so commended and her sister blamed for neglecting it though it was to make provision for Christ himself and those that were with him Acts 20. 7. And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached to them being to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight Jam. 1. 19. Let every one be swift to hear Rev. 2. 7. c. He that hath ear let him hear Luke 8. 21. Jesus said My mother and my brethren are those which hear the Word of God and do it I hope you see this duty is past question 2. Is it the reading of the Scripture that is the Puritanism or too much ado that you blame Or is it the frequent meditating on such high and holy things Hear what the Spirit saith of this Psalm 1. 1 2. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night The ungodly are not so Psalm 119. 97. O how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day 99. Thy testimonies are my meditation v. 148. Mine eyes prevented the night watches that I might meditate en thy Word Job 23. 12. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more then my necessary food Psalm 119. 72. The Law of thy mouth is better unto me then thousands of gold and silver Mark 12. 10. Have ye not read the Scriptures John 5. 39. Search the Scriptures Acts 8. 28. The Euuuch sitting in his Chariot read Esaias the Prophet 1 Tim. 4. 13. Give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine I hope you see also that this part of godliness is past question 3. Is it much and fervent prayer that is the preciseness or too much ado that you make question of Hear then what the Holy Ghost doth say of that Phil. 4. 6. In every thing by Prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God 1 Thes 5. 17 18. Pray without ceasing In every thing give thanks for this is the will of God concerning you Luke 18. 1. And he spake a parable to them to this end that men ought alwayes to pray and not to wax faint c. Luke 11. 8 9. I say unto you though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth And I
appointed time for these And do you know any other day that is fitter I think you will not pretend to that You would not have another day instead of this but you would have no day at all for such holy works but a day for ease and idleness and sports and vain discourse and pleasures with some little formal publick worship intermixt to cheat your souls It is not then the Day but the serious diligent holy employment and duty that you are against and that I have proved to be Gods will before Doubtless if you leave all men to serve God when they will without any stated time his worship will soon be brought to nothing and they that pretend to keep every day holy will keep none Look upon the places where the Lords day is kept holy and see whether godliness flourish not there incomparably above all other places And I think none can doubt but that more souls have been converted and brought home to God on that day then on any day of the week if not then all the rest beside And there is not the peevishest malignant soul of you that can with any shew of reason prove that the holy observation of the Lords day is unlawful if it were not necessary So that we are at least on the safest side of the hedge For we can say that we take a most happy opportunity for the good of our own souls and the worshipping of God and that we are sure we do that which is no sin our adversaries themselves do not charge us with doing that which is forbidden but that which they conceit unnecessary But if we should do as they and neglect this day we are not sure but it may be a great sin nay indeed we are sure it would be so But what saith the Holy-Ghost now to this question To pass by the fourth Commandement at this time the letter of it and the equity and reason of a seventh day the advantage of reason why there should be no less under the Gospel and such like I shall only now say these two things 1. It is plain in Scripture that de facto the Apostles and Churches used to meet for holy Communion in Gods worship on the Lords day And consequently that this was appointed by the Apostles or immediately by Christ himself there being then no other that pretended to any such authority and that Apostolical allowance no man questioneth The Apostles then having the extraordinary gift of the Spirit by which they were enabled infallibly to make known the will of God and being commissioned as well as enabled here unto as their writing of the holy Scriptures so their constitutions for the ordering of the Church being the effects of that Authority received from Christ and that Ability given them by the Spirit are Divine and principally the acts of Christ and the Holy Ghost whose agents the Apostles were Now that the first Churches did by their appointment observe the Lords day for holy actions is apparent As Christ first laid the ground-work by Râ—sing on that day so he began that very day to preach unto Mary the comfortable doctrine of his Ascension in words that deserve to be written in gold or rather in the deepest room of every true Believers heart John 20. 17. Go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God The first Sermon that ever was preached on a Lords day even on the first Lords day by Christ himself even to a beloved penitent woman whom he chose to be as it were his Apostle to his Apostles to deliver them this Message as from him On the same day the Disciples being Assembled he owned and blessed their Assembly and gave them the Holy Ghost and Apostolicall power When Thomas being absent from the Assembly the first Lords day did miss the sight of Christ and was unbelieving Christ left him a whole week in his unbelief and would not heal him till the next Lords day which he honoured with that cure Then the Disciples being met again Christ came among them and convinced Thomas On another Lords day they were all with one accord in one place and the Holy Ghost was in the extraordinary measure given them And Acts 20. 7. it is mentioned as the custom of the Disciples to come together on the first day of the week to break bread and Paul then preached to them even till midnight And 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. the Collections for the Saints were made every first day of the week in all the Churches of Galatia and at Corinth because they had then their holy Assemblies And therefore Rev. 1. 10. it is called peculiarly the Lords day 2. But to clear this past all rational doubting we find in all the writings of the antients and historie of the Church that all the Churches through the world unanimously observed the Lords day as instituted by Christ or the Holy Ghost in the Apostles none ever questioning or contradicting it that ever I read of He that hath read the writings of the Antients and denyeth this is unworthy to be disputed with The practice of the universal Church is a full exposition of the fore-cited Scriptures and though it be no Law to us it self yet is it a full discovery of the fact telling us what was the primitive practice and so a discovery of the Law And shall any private ignorant man come in alter one thousand six hundred and twenty six years and say the Apostles and all the Churches in the world have been deceived till this day and we must rectifie the mistake Shall these fellows come in at the end of the world and call the Apostles and all the Churches of all ages Puritanes for keeping holy the Lords day Or will any but a brain-sick person hearken to such shameless men as these Object But the antient Churches did not keep that day as a Sabbath but only as a day for publick worship Answ We will not stick with you for the name We urge you not to call it the Sabbath though the Antients sometimes did so See our Homilies of the Place and Time of Prayer if you will call it as Scripture and the Churches did by the name of the Lords day And it was then the custom of the Churches to spend almost all the day in publick Worship and Holy Communion and therefore they had but little time for any private duties that day And yet though the private practises of particular persons on that day be little mentioned in Church-history no man can prove that they used to spend any remaining hours of that day as common time in common business So that to quarrel against the holy observation of the Lords day is but to quarrel with the Holy Ghost and the Apostles and all the Churches of all ages since and with the happyest season for the worshipping of God and seeking our own and other mens edification 7. What
greatest misery It is because they would not Choose that Good and refuse the way and cause of Misery But how cometh it to pass that men will make no wiser a choice Is the case so doubtful that they cannot be resolved in it every man would have that which he thinks is Best for him Why do men follow after wealth or pleasure or credit in the world but because they take it to be Best for them Why do they set so light by Holiness and Christ and Heaven bâ—… cause they apprehend them not to be Best for them Wâ—… men refuse and obstinately against all perswasions refuse a Holy life if they took it practically to be Best for them what will they contrive their own destruction do they long to do themselves a Mischief and the greatest Mischief in the world No that 's not the case But the matter is this Their senses draw them another way Their eye their ear their taste their feeling every sense hath a Pleasure of its Own and this sense or flesh is violent and unreasonable and would fain be satisfied and Reason that was given us to Rule it is bribed and blinded and perverted by it and so is ready as a servant to obey it and to take its part and the fleshly mind discerneth not the things of God for they are spiritually discerned the Will also and the Affections are by the byas of a fleshly inclination corrupted and habitually lean to the fleshly part And that which men Love they will easily think well of and are glad of any thing like Reason to defend it and that which is against the Inclination of the Will will hardly be thought well of and any thing like Reason will serve against it This depravation of the mind and will of man enslaved and ruled by the Flesh or sensuality is the very cause that most men will not choose the Better part and so the cause of their perpetual misery And till the Holy Ghost send in a heavenly light of Wisdom into the mind to shew them the true difference between the Good and the Evil and a new Inclination into the Will that shall turn their hearts from the Evil to the Good they will still go on and the matters of God will seem foolishness to them and they will take those men for the veryest fools that follow the Wisdom of the Lord and provide most carefully for eternal life and they will take those for the wisest men that are most contrary to the God of Wisdom and that dare leap most fearlesly into Hell Or if this be not their Opinion but conviction force them to a wiser kind of language yet will it be their Practical estimation and their Hearts as their Choice and Lives will easily declare For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3. 6. The fleshly man will have a fleshly mind and will and openly or secretly will Live after the flesh and such are the heirs of death Rom. 8. 5 7 13. Fleshly generation cannot make a spiritual mind or heart in any but it must be by spiritual Regeneration and therefore except a man be born again of the spirit as well as of water he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3. 3 5. This inward difference of Inclinations is the true cause of the difference of the judgements and the courses of men about the matters of God and their salvation This is it that makes so many to think none wise but those that are more dangerously mad then men in Bedlam and that makes so many others stand in doubt as men unresolved what to choose and what course to follow As if it were really a difficult point for a man to be resolved in Whether it be best and wisest to follow the teachings of God or of the flesh and to seek first the Kingdom and Righteousness of God or to make a pudder for nothing in the world and to claw this itching flesh a while though they must smart for it for ever or to master the flesh and live to God! In a word the world are half unresolved whether it be better to be Holy with Gods promise of Eternal Glory or to take the Pleasures of sin for a season and neglect this Holiness though this course be threatned by the Living God with Everlasting torments This is the true state of the Question which I say one part of the world doth seem to be unresolved in and another part are resolved on the worser side against their souls and a Holy life and only those that the illuminating sanctifying spirit hath resolved do choose the needful better part The reason of this distracted judgement of the most is within themselves It is not because that there is any such difficulty in the case as should put a wise man to a stand Nor it is not because they have not sufficient evidence in the word or that God denyed them Teachers Books or any Necessary Means for their information The Light is among them but they Love it not because their hearts and deeds are evil and their darkness doth not comprehend it and this is their delusion and their condemnation Joh. 1. 6 7 8. 3. 19. When I am preaching to a congregation of many hundred or thousand souls if the salvation of all that people did lie upon any other question no harder then this that we have in hand so it were such as fleshly interest and corrupted minds and wills had no quarrel against how easily how surely should I save the souls of all that heard me Reader let me have thy judgement If the Question were Whether Light or Darkness be the Better Whether a dead corps be better then a Living man Whether a cottage for a day or a Rich habitation for term of life be better Whether as much drink as will make thee drunk or a nights lodging with a whâ—re be better then Lands and Lordships for thy life time or for a thousand years Whether one sweet cup with shame and beggery all thy life after or one bitter draught with perpetual prosperity should be rather chosen Whether a sick man were better take an unpleasing medicine that would cure him or a pleasant poyson that would kill him Whether he were better pay a little to the Physicion or dye to save his money Whether that Prince be wise that will sell his Kingdom for a cup of wine or for childrens rackets Or whether that child â—e vertuous that cannot abide his Fathers sight or house or commands but loveth better to do that which he knows displeaseth him or to tumble in the dirt with swine I say if any of these were the Question to be Resolved and the salvation of all that heard me lay upon the true Resolution I leave it to your own judgements Whether I were not like to save the souls of all that heard me And yet in a case as
Knowledge If I referr my health to thee as my Physicion thou must not refuse to try my pulse and see my urine and use the means to find out the disease Wouldst thou be my Lawyer and refuse to read my Evidences and study my case And wilt thou needs be judge thy self of the matters of thine own felicity or misery and yet refuse to read and hear and pray and meditate and use the necessary means of understanding Wilt thou lie in bed and work out thy salvation Wilt thou make use of no ones eyes but thy own and yet wilt thou wink or draw the Curtains or shut the windows and cast away thy spectacles and neither come into the sunshine nor use a candle This is but to say I will willfully condemn my soul and none shall hinder me 2. But yet another condition I must propose If thou wilt but as I said before of others a while make Tryal of a holy life and try in thy self what Faith and Hope and Charity are and try what selfdenyal is I will then referr the matter to thy self Go back from God if thou find any Reason for it and turn from Christ and Heaven and Holiness if thou do not like them But if thou wilt needs be the judge and wilt not be perswaded to try the thing thou art a partial self-deceiving judge 3. But it this much cannot be obtained at least be Considerate in thy judging If thou wilt but take thy self aside from the noise of wordly vanities and deceits and commune seriously with thy heart and bethink thee as before the Lord and as one that knows he must shortly dye Whether Heaven or Earth should be sought most carefully and Whether God or thy flesh should be served most resolvedly and diligently and if thou wilt but dwell so long upon these manlike thoughts till they are digested and Truth have time to shew its face I dare then leave the question to thy self The next time that the Sermon or any affliction comes near thee and awakeneth thy Conscience do but withdraw thy self into secret and soberly bethink thee of the matter what hopes thou hast from the world and what thou 〈◊〉 have from God what Time is and what Eternity is and give â—â—â— Conscience leave to speak and then I will venture the issue upon thy Conscience For thee I mean though I must stick to a better judge my self Doth not Conscience sometime tell thee that the Holyest persons are the wisest and that thy labour is liker at last to be lost and repented of than theirs Doth not Conscience sometime make thee wish that thou wert but in as safe a case as they and that thou mightest but die the death of the Righteous and that thy last end might be as theirs 4. But if all this will not serve the turn thou shalt be Judge thy self but it shall be when thou art more capable of judging If God by Grace shall Change thy heart I will stand to thy Judgement If he do not when thy graceless guilty soul shall pass out of thy pampered dirty flesh and appear before the dreadful God I will then leave the case to thy Conscience to judge of To all Eternity it shall be partly left to the judgement of thy Conscience whether sin or Holiness be better and whether Saints or careless sinners were the wiser and whether it had not been be ter sor thee to have spent that life in preparing for thy Endless life which thou spentst in slighting it and caring for the world and flesh Then thou shalt be Judge thy self of these matters but under a more severe and righteous judge And so as shall make thy tearing heart to wish with many a thousand groans that thou hadst judged wiselier in time But because that Judgement will be to desperation and too late for hope or any help let Conscience speak when thou lyest sick and seest that thou art a dying man Then judge thy self whether a Holy or a worldly life be better and whether it had not been thy wiser course to have sowed to the spirit that so thou maist reap everlasting life then to have sowed to the flesh from which thou now lookst to reap no better then corruption Be not deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Gal. 6. 6 7. But because it will be very late to stay till thy own Death draw so neer thee go but to thy neighbours that lie in sickness looking for the stroak of death Yea to thy companions in sin and folly and ask them then which way is better Ask them then which is the better part Whether now they had rather be the Holyest Saints or such as they have been Whether now they had not rather they had spent their time in the most careful seeking for Everlasting life then in doing as they have done Say to thy old companion now Brother I see you are near your end the mortal stroak of death is coming you are now leaving all the pleasures of this world I pray you tell me now your Judgement whether mirth and sport and feasting and drinking and wealth and honour be more to be sought then life eternal and whether Hearing and Reading the word of God and Praying and meditating and flying from sin be as bad or as needless a thing as we have formerly taken it to be Had you rather appear before the Lord in the case of those that we derided as Puritans and too precise for making such a doe about salvation or in the case that you and I have lived in Ask but this Question to thy old companions and try whether the Consciences of almost all that approach their end do not bear witness against ungodliness and do not justifie the holy diligence of the Saints It is but two days since a poor drunkard of a neighbour Parish being ready to pass out of this world did send hither and to other Parishes in the terrours of his soul to desire our Congregations to take warning by him and to strive with God if possible for some mercy for his soul that was passing in terrours into another world because of the guilt of his odious sin Well sirs I have gone along with you to all the creatures in this world that have any fitness to judge in this case and if all these will not serve we must go to another world for Judgement or stay till you come there 11. And really do you think if we could speak with Angels or departed Souls that they would not consent with God and all Believers in their Testimony O how they would rebuke their madness that make any doubt of so great so plain so sure a truth as this of the necessity and the excellency of a Holy life None are so fully resolved of this question as they that have tasted the End of both and past the righteous judgement of the Lord. They that are feeling the anguish of their
not what or for want of a little care in seeking it You say You know not whether there be a Hell for ungodly men or no But what if it prove true as certainly it will where are you then Will you venture your selves upon the Possibility of such an Endless Loss and Torment which now you might on reasonable terms escape You will confess that a Possibility of a Kingdom should be more regarded then a Certainty of a pin or a feather And a Possibility of some Tormenting disease but for twenty years should more carefully be avoided then the Certain stinging of a Nettle Quer. 2. You say You are not sure that there is a life to come But are you sure to continue the life you have Or is it any great matter that you are called to lose for the obtaining of 〈…〉 that you are not sure of You know the contrary or easily may do You are sure that you have not long to be here Nothing more sure then that you will shortly die And your are not sure but it may be to morrow And while you are here it is nothing worth the naming but what hath reference to another life that you do possess What have you to your flesh but meat and drink and sleep and lust and such kind of beastial delights Which it is better be without then have if we could also be without the need of them Can you call these by the name of Happiness without renouncing your Reason and Experience You say You know not what God will do for you hereafter But you know what sin and the world will do for you here Even Nothing but hold you in a transitory dream and then dismiss you into rottenness and dust If you were not certain of another life as long as you are most certain of the vanity of this doth not Reason tell you that a Possible Everlasting Glory should be preferred before a Certain vanity If you were not sure to get any thing by God and a Holy Life yet as long as you are sure even as sure as you live that you can lose nothing by it that is worth the talking of is not the case then resolved which way is the Better If you say you shall lose your fleshly pleasures I answer They are not worth the having The pleasure doth not countervail the trouble no more then the delight of scratching as I said before doth countervail the trouble of the itch Moderation and temperance is sweeter then excess If too much be better then enough and that which hurteth nature better then that which helpeth it then self-destroying and fighting against your bodily welfare would be best Is not a temperate meal more pleasant then a gluttonous surfet that is worse to the feeling of the glutton the next day Is not common food that costeth not much and kindleth no troublesom itch in a mans appetite more pleasant then enticing costly dainties Is not so much drink as nature requireth much better then that which makes the stomack sick the brain witless if not the purse pennyless and breedeth many noysom diseases to the flesh and hasteneth death that hasteth of it self By that time the gawdy apparel the dainty fare and drink is paid for and by that time the flesh hath suffered all that pain and sickness that are the ordinary followers of excess me thinks you should say that if there were no Hell your sin were a punishment it self and that in this life it brings more pain then pleasure and that such kind of pleasure is noâ— worth the keeping to the hazard of the least Possibility of 〈◊〉 Everlasting life Wouldst thou under thy hand and seal give away thy hopes and possibility of everlasting life and run the hazzard of an everlasting Torment for the Pleasures of sin or to avoid the trouble of a Holy life Why then thou maist as well even sell it all for pins or points or childrens rackets Then thou art as foolish as the worst of Witches that sell their souls to a lying spirit that whatever he doth promise them doth pay them with nothing but calamity and deceit When thou comest to know better what it is that the world can do for thee thou wilt then confess there was nothing in it that should not have been sleighted for the smalest hopes of an Everlasting life Doâ—t thou think the world will be much better to thee for the time to come than hitherto it hath proved Deceive not thy self it will prove the same yea and worst at last Look back now upon all the pleasures of thy life from thy infancy to this day and tell me what the better thou art for them If this were the hour of thy death would all the profits or pleasures of thy life be any comfort to thee or make thy death a whit the easier Have the dust or bones of the Carkasses of Voluptuous sinners any comfort or benefit now by all the pleasure of their former sin Surely I need not all these words to a man of common understanding to convinee him that if Heaven were as uncertain as the Infidel doth imagine a man of Reason should venture all that he hath upon the meer Possibility because his All indeed is Nothing and he is sure he can be no loser by the bargain it being not so much as the venture of a pin for the Possibility of a Crown Quer. 3. But that 's not all What if I shall prove to thee past all denyal that even in this life Holiness is far the most delightful gainful honourable life and that the ungodly live in a continual misery Will not this serve turn to convince thee that a Holy life should be undertaken for a meer Possibility of Heaven if we had no more Read but the Proofs of this anon and if I make it not good to thee call me a deceiver But if I prove that Holiness is the sweetest life on Earth and Heaven the sure Reward hereafter and that sin is a misery it self to the sinner and Hell the certain punishment hereafter then see that thou confess that God is a good Master and the Devil a bad one for at last thou shalt be forced to confess it Quer. 4. Well You say You are not sure that there is another life for man But have you used the Means to make it sâ—â— to you and to be well-resolved If you have then you have impartially searched and prayed and meditated on the Word of God and heard what can be said by Wiser men for that which you say you are not sure of but if you have trusted to your own understanding and neglected Meditation Prayer Enquiry and other needful means what wonder then if you be uncertain Even whether there be a Heaven or Hell It s no disgrace to Physick or Astronomy or Musick or Languages or Navigation but to you if you say that you are uncertain of all their conclusions when you never studied them or at least
these is certainly the case of the sanctified and the other of the unsanctified Gal. 3. 10 13. As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Rom. 3. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God And Mark 4. 12. shews that the unconverted have not their sins forgiven them Joh. 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already And Act. 26. 18. To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me Rom. 8. 1. There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Abundance more such passages of holy Scripture do assure us that all the unsanctified are unpardoned and all the sanctified are Justified and delivered from the Curse And which of these are in the safer state Did one of you owe ten thousand pounds more then he were worth or had you committed twenty known selonies or murders would you think your selves safe without a pardon Would you not be looking behind you and afraid of allmost every man you see lest he came to apprehend you O what a case is that man in that hath so many thousands sins to answer for and hath such a load of guilt upon his soul and so many terrible threatnings of the Law in force against him Do you not fear every hour lest death arrest you and bring you to the prison of the bottomless pit But the sanctified is delivered from this danger A thousand sins indeed were against us but we have a pardon of them all to shew In Christ we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins Col. 1. 14. The law hath nothing now against us and therefore we are safe 4. Those are safer that are dearly beloved of the Lord and reconciled to him and taken for his Children then those that are his Enemies and hated by him and under his displeasure But most Certainly the former is the state of all the sanctified and the later is the state of the ungodly You shall see both in the words of God Psal 5. 4 5. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity Psal 7. 10 11. My Defence is of God which saveth the upright in heart God judgeth the Righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day Psal 45. 7. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness Luk. 19. 27. Those mine enemies that would not I should raign over them bring them hither and stay them before me Ephes 2. 3. We were by nature the children of wrath A hundred more such places shew you the state of the unsanctified But how different is the case of the renewed upright soul 2 Cor. 6. 16 17 18. Yee are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Job 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God Rom. 8. 16 17. The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God And if Children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ Mal. 3. 17. And they shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Heb. 8. 12. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Col. 1. 21 22. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight Psal 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Zech. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Judge now by these plain expressions form the Lord who it is that is in the safer state the godly or the ungodly Is he the safer that is hated by the God of heaven or he that is most dearly loved by him He that is under his displeasure or he that is his delight Why man if God be against thee thou art no where safe not in the strongest Castle not in the greatest Army not in the highest dignity not in the merryest company Thou knowest not but a Commission is gone out for death to strike thee in thy next recreation or fit of mirth How knowest thou but death is ready to strike while thou art eating or drinking or talking or sleeping Thou hast no security from an angry God Till he be reconciled thou art nowhere safe This may be thy fatal day or night for ought thou knowest And if once the mortal blow be struck and thy soul be taken from thy body unrenewed O man where then wilt thou appear O wonderful stupidity that thou dost not eat thy bread in fear and do thy work in fear and sleep in fear and live in fear till thou be sanctified But to the soul that hath God for his security what can be dangerous or what condition while he keeps close to God can be unsafe The Father that gave us unto Christ is greater then all and no man can take us out of his hands Joh. 10. 28 29. Conquer Heaven and conquer the Saints There is their City their garrison their conversation Phil. 1. 20. Heb. 11. 10 16. what enemy what policie what power can endanger him that God will save and hath undertaken for We were never safe one day or hour till we were friends with God Deut. 33. 27. The Eternel God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms Psal 46. 1 2 5 7. God is our refuge and strength a very present helâ— in trouble therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carryed into the midst of the sea God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved God shall help her and that right early The Lord of hosts is with us the God of Jacob is
in their hearts Ephes 3. 17. Rom. 8. 11. 1 Cor. 3. 16. God himself doth dwell in them and converse with them and write his Law in their hearts and teach them himself by this his Spirit 2 Cor. 6. 16. Heb. 8. 10. â—â— 1â— Hereby we know that he dwelleth in us by the Spirit which â—e 〈…〉 given us 1 John 3. 24. Yea he that is joyned to the Lord is One spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. For the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. We are an habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes. 2. 22. Because we are sons God hath sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. By this Spirit the Saints have access unto the Father Ephes 2. 18. and by this it is that they are quickened to prayer and holy worship and their infirmities are helpt Ephes 6 18. Rom. 8. 11 26. By this they fight against the flesh and overcome it Gal. 5. 17 18. Rom. 8. 13. In this they live and walk and work Rom. 8. 1 5. Gal. 5. 16 25. This Spirit is the Testimony of their Adoption Rom. 8. 16. and the seal and earnest of their heavenly inheritance 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Ephes 4. 30. By this they are new born John 3. 5 6. And put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and being renewed in the spirit of their minds do put on the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes 4. 22 23 24. By the illumination of this spirit they have a new understanding and are brought out of darkness into the marvellous Light of Christ 1 Pet. 2. 9. that they may know what is the hope of the Christian Vocation and what is the Riches of the glory of Christs inheritance in the Saints Eph. 1. 18. In a word by this Spirit their sins are mortified their souls renewed and made like to God and they become a holy Priest-hood a peculiar people unto Christ and in this Spirit have Communion with him Rom. 8. 13. Tit. 3. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Tit. 2. 14. 2 Cor. 13. 14. And what is all the Riches of this world to this Heavenly Treasure the Spirit of the Lord They that have this Spirit are taught by it to set light by all your Riches and to esteem one dayes Communion with Christ above all the Gold and Glory of this world And that which sets the soul of man so far above Riches is better then those Riches As your Lands and honours do set you above the pins and points that children take for their treasure and set as much by as you do by yours so the Spirit of Christ and the Life of Faith doth set the souls of true Believers a thousandâ—old more above your Riches then you are above your childrens â—oyes If yet you see not the Riches of Saints consider but the wonderful expression â— Pet. 1. 4. that they have exceeding great 〈…〉 precious promises given them that by these they may be partakers of the Divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust And can there be more on earth bestowed on man then to be made partakers of the Divine nature As it would be a greater gift to a bruit to be made a man and have manly Riches then to have store of Provender suited to his brutishness so is it greater Riches to the ungodly to be sanctified and made partakers of that nature that is called Divine by God himself then to have provision for unmortified lusts and to have all the contentments of a fleshly mind It were a greater gift to an Ideot to be made a wise and learned man then to be furnished with feathers or sticks to play with So is it here 4. Every truly sanctified man is restored from the misery that he was brought into by sin He hath all his sins forgiven him and is freed from the curse of the Law by the merits of Christ and the promise of the Gospel For in him we have Redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins Col. 1. 14. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 39. When we were dead in our sins we were quickened with Christ and had all our trespasses forgiven us Col. 2. 13. Ask a wounded Conscience that groaneth under the weight of sin and under the sense of Gods indignation Whether forgiveness of sin be a Treasure or not I am sure they that now are past forgiveness and feel what sin is in the bitter fruits would give ten thousand worlds if they had them for the pardon of their sins and would account forgiveness a greater mercy then all the Riches and Kingdoms of the world What a heavy curse did the Spirit of God pass upon Simon Magus for thinking that money was a valuable thing to purchase the Holy Ghost with Acts 8. 20 21. Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased by money Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God repent therefore of this thy wickedness c. The name of Simon Magus is odious to us all and yet I doubt that most among us exceed him in the sin for which he is thus cursed For he thought the gift of the holy-Ghost to be better then his money or else he would not have offered his money for it But most men take their money to be better then the gift of the Holy-Ghost If he that would have purchased the Holy-Ghost yea a lower and less necessary gift of the spirit was pronounced wicked and cursed with such a heavy curse What are they that set more by their money then by the special gift of the Holy-Ghost yea that hate and deride it and plead against its Sanctifying work The time is near when your Riches will fail you and your prosperity die and your sins will live and then there is none of you all but will say that Pardon and Grace are greater Riches then all the world 5. Moreover the godly have Angels to attend them and be their guard as I have proved to you before And are horses and kine and oxen think you greater Riches then the Guard and Ministration of the Angels of God Heb. 1. 14. Psalm 91. 11 12. 6. And surely the very Communion of Saints and Ordinances of God which in the Church we here enjoy are greater Riches then all the world We are now no more strangers and forreigners but fellow-Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God Ephes 2. 19. We are members of that well-tempered body where all the members are obliged and disposed to have the same care one for another that if one suffer all suffer and if one be
this man will I look saith the Lord even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word Isa 66. 2. This is the Honourable entertainment of the Saints 7. And they are members of the most Honourable Society in the world The Church is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Luke 1. 33. Col. 1. 13. The Kingdom of God Luke 17. 21. 18. 17. The Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 3. 2. 13. 31 33 44. It is the School of Christ or his University in which Believers are his Schollars learning to know him and serve him and praise him for ever and trained up for everlasting life Acts 11. 26. Luke 6. 13. Mat. 5. 1 2 c. It is the family or houshold of God Eph. 2. 19. 1 Tim. 3. 15. Heb. 10. 21. 1 Pet. 4. 17. It is the Spouse yea the Body of Christ Eph. 5. 25. So loved by him that he gave himself for it becoming the price of our Redemption and thought not his life too dear a Ransom nor his blood too precious to cleanse and save us Eph. 5. 25 26. Tit. 2. 14. The Church which every godly man is a living member of is a Society chosen out of the world to be nearest unto God and dearest to him as the beloved of his soul to receive the choicest of his mercies and be adorned with the righteousness of Christ and to be employed in his special service 1 Pet. 2. 4 5 9. John 15. 19. Eph. 1. 4. Psalm 132. 13. 135. 4. Eph. 5. 1. The Lord that Redeemed them is their King and Head and dwelleth in the midst of them and walketh among them as the people of his special presence and delight Psalm 2. 6. 89. 18. 149. 2. 46. 5. Isa 12. 6. Jer. 14. 9. Zeph. 3. 5 15 17. Rev. 1. 13. 2. 1. Psalm 95. 2. The Church is a Heavenly Society though the militant part yet live on earth For the God of Heaven is the Soveraign and the Father of it The glorified Redeemer is their Head The Spirit of Christ doth guide and animate them His Laws revealed and confirmed from Heaven direct and govern them Heaven is their end and heavenly are their dispositions employments and conversations There is their portion and treasure Matth. 6. 20 21. and there is their very heart and hope They are risen with Christ and therefore seek the things that are above For their life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 2 3 4. Their Root is there and the noblest part of the Society is there For the glorified Saints and in some sort the Angels are of the same Society with us though they are in heaven and we on earth The whole family in Heaven and earth is named from one and the same Head Eph. 3. 15. Heb. 12. 22 23. 24. We are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling c. This is the Honourable Society of Saints the eye the pearl of the whole Creation 8. Moreover the Godly have the most Horourable Attendance The creatures are all theirs though not in point of Civil propriety yet as means appointed and managed by God their Father for their best advantage The Angels of God are ministring spirits for them not as our servants but as Gods servants for our good As Ministers in the Church are not the servants of men but the servants of God for men And so whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or to come all are ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. The Shepherds servant is not the servant of the sheep but for the sheep And so the Angels disdain not to serve God in the guarding of the weakest Saints As I formerly shewed from Heb. 1. 14. Psalm 91. 11 12. 34. 7. The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them For he giveth his Angels charge over us to keep us in all our wayes they shall bear us up in their hands left we dash our foot against a stone Sun and Moon and all the creatures are daily employed in our attendance O how wonderful is the Love of God to his unworthy servants in their advancement Remember it when thou art scorning at the servants of the Lord or speaking against them that those poor those weak despised Christians that thou art vilifying have their Angels beholding the face of God their Father in the Heavens Take heed therefore that you despise not the least of these It is the warning of Christ Matth. 18. 10. The same blessed spirits that attend the Lord and see his face in blissful Glory do attend and guard the meanest of the godly here on earth As the same servants use to wait upon the Father and the children in the same family or the bigger children to help the less 9. And it is the Honour of the Godly that they that are themselves most Honourable do Honour them To be magnified by a fool or wicked flatterer is small Honour but to be magnified by the best and wisest men this is true Honour We say that Honour is in him that giveth it and not in him that receiveth But it is God himself that Honoureth his Saints It is he that speaketh all these great and wonderous things of them which I have hitherto recited Search the Texts which I have alledged and try whether it be not he And surely to have the God of Heaven to applaud a man and put Honour upon him and so great Honour is more then if all the world had done it Yet we may add if any thing could be considerable that is added unto the approbation of God that all his servants the wisest and the best even his holy Angels are of the same mind and honour the godly in conformity to their Lord. And here Christian I require thee from the Lord to consider the greatness of thy sin and folly when thou art too desirous of the applause of men especially of the blind ungodly world and when thou makest a great matter of their contempt or scorn or of their slanderous censures What! is the approbation of the eternal God so small a matter in thy eyes that the scorn of a fool can weigh it down or move the ballance with thee If a feather were put into the scales against a mountain or the whole earth it should weigh as much as the esteem or dis-esteem of men their honouring thee or dishonouring thee should weigh against the esteem of God and the honour or dishonour that he puts upon thee as to any regard of the thing it self though as it reflecteth on God thou
maist regard it He is the wise man that God calls wise and he is the fool that God calls fool and that is every one that layeth up riches for himself and is not rich towards God Luke 12. 20 21. He is the Happy man that God calls Happy and he is a miserable man that God counts miserable and who those are you may see in Psalm 1. and many Scriptures before-cited Hear the words and you that are Believers lay up the blessed promise of Christ himself John 12. 26. If any man serve me him will my Father Honour And who cares then for the dishonours of all the wicked of the world Our tryed faith as preciouser then Gold will be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 7. See 2 Tim. 2. 21. We must learn therefore to imitate our Lord John 5. 41. and not to receive our Honour from men and not to imitate the wicked vers 44. that receive Honour one of another and seek not the Honour that cometh from God There is enough for us in Gods approbation And yet all his servants do imitate their Lord and his Judgement is their Judgement and whom he honoureth them do they honour Angels and Saints and all that enter into the Tabernacle of the Lord do contemn the vile and honour them that fear the Lord Psalm 15. 4. And though no mans Judgement or Praise be valuable in comparison of the Lords yet the Honour and Praise that is given by the wise and Godly is more then a thousand times as much from ignorant ungodly men If the Athenian Orator regarded the censure of Socrates more then of all the rest of his auditors we have cause to judge he Elogies of experienced holy men a greater honour then of thousands of the wicked greater then all their contempt or scorn is able to weigh down The applause of the wicked is oft-times a dishonour in wise mens eyes Was it not Balaams chiefest honour to hear from Balak I thought to promote thee to great Honours but the Lord hath kept thee back from Honour Numb 24. 11. The Honour that God keepeth a man from is no Honour but it is an Honour to be kept from such Honour by the Lord innocent poverty is incomparably more Honourable then Riches by iniquity which is the greatest shame 10. Lastly it is unspeakable everlasting Honour that holiness doth tend unto and which holy men shall enjoy with God The very Relation of a Godly man to his everlasting Glory is an Honour ten thousand times surpassing the Honour of all the Kingdoms of the world If you did but know that one of your poor neighbours should certainly be a King would you not presently honour him even in his rags You may know that the Saints shall raign with Christ as sure as if an Angel from heaven had told you so and more and therefore how should a Saint be honoured If God had but legibly marked out some among you for salvation and written in their fore-heads This man shall be saved would not all the Parish reverence that man Why a Heavenly mind and the Love of God and self-denyal and holy obedience are Heaven-marks infallible as true as the Gospel and written by the same hand as the Gospel was I mean by the Spirit of God himself If a voice from Heaven should speak now of any person in the Congregation and say This man shall raign in Heaven for ever would it not be an Honour above all your worldly Honours Why Holiness is Gods Image and the Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance and beareth witness with our spirits that we are the sons of God and we have the promise and seals and oath of God for our confirmed certainty yea and the Knowledge of God in Christ is the beginning of eternal life John 17. 3. and what would we have more The presence of Christ in a little of his Glory upon the Mount transported the three Disciples And the glympse of the Glory of God which Moses saw did make his face shine that the Israelites could not behold it The approaches of the Saints to God in holy Worship here on earth are exceeding Honourable because they participate of heaven and it is upward that they look 1 Chron. 16. 27. Glory and Honour are in his presence strength and gladness are in his place The soul that is beholding God by faith and conversing with the Heavenly inhabitants is quite above all earthly things and as Angels are more honourable then men and Heaven then Earth so are Believers that converse in Heaven with Angels yea with Christ himself by faith more honourable then terrestrial carnal men But the great Honour is behind yet near at hand when the promised Crown is set upon their heads O mark the Honour that is promised them by the Lord of truth The soul it self before the Resurrection of the body shall be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. Even present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 1. 8. John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be And at the Resurrection Christ that hath loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it will present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Eph. 5. 25 26. Will they not be Honourable even in the eyes of the ungodly world when they hear the sentence of their Lord Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Mat. 25. 34. and vers 23. Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord When Christ shall come to be Glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe 2 Thes 1. 10. Mark here that it is one end of the coming of Christ to be Glorified and admired in his Saints Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Jud. 14. 15. Our hearts shall be established unblameable in holiness before God even our father at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints 1 Thes 3. 12 13. we shall then praise him that hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and made us Kings and Priests to God Rev. 1. 5 6. He that overcometh shall be cloathed with white rayment and confessed by Christ before the Father and the Angels of heaven Rev. 3. 5. Yea he shall be a Pillar in the Temple of God and go out no more and Christ will write on him the Name of God and the name of the City of God New Hierusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from God and his own name vers
be grievous to them 6. The very Bodily informities of Believers are a constant help to keep them humble They have all this treasure but is earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4. 7. Their souls are here so poorly lodged in corruptible Tabernacles of earth and so meanly cloathed with frail diseased mortal flesh that it is madness to be proud 7. And the many and great afflictions of the godly are medicines that are purposely given them by their Physicion to cure Pride and keep them humble Why else must their sufferings be so many and why must they daily bear the Cross but that they may be conformed to the image of Christ 8. And to the same end it is that God doth let loose upon them so many enemies All Satans temptations and the worlds allurements and vexations and all their disappointments here and all the scorns and mocks of the ungodly and the censures and slanders of wicked tongues and often bitter persescutions what are they but the bitter medicines of God permitted and ordered by him though cansed by the Devil and wicked men to save the servants of the Lord from the sin and danger of being lifted up Do you say that their Honour will make them proud Why you that thus oppose them and despise them are â—uring them of their pride and do not know it as Scullions scoure the rust off the vessels for their Masters use and as Leeches draw out the blood that causeth the disease and as the Jews by their sin promoted the Redemption of the world by the death of Christ When God seeth his servants in danger of being lifted up above measure he oft sendeth a messenger of Satan who may be an Executioner of Gods chastisements to buffet them 2 Cor. 12. 7. Sometimes by slanders sometime by reproaches sometime by imprisonments or greater sufferings and sometimes by horrid troublesom temptations 9. The very foresight of death it self is a humbling means and the last enemy Death is yet unconquered and our Bodies must corrupt in dust and darkness and be kept in the grave as common earth till the Resurrection that the soul may not grow proud that hath such a body 11. And the Day of Judgement is so described to us in the Scripture as tends to keep the soul in awe and in Humility To think of such a day and such a reckoning before such a God me 〈…〉 should humble us 11. And our Absolution and Glorification at that day is promised us now but conditionally though God will see that the condition be performed by all that he will save And therefore the poor soul is oft so far to seek about the certain sincerity of his own Faith and Repentance that most of the godly are kept in fears and doubtings to the death Yea and Humility and Self-denyal are part of this Condition And all their Honour and Glory with Christ is promised to the Humble only Humility is commanded them in the Precept Humility is it that they are exhorted to by the Ministers And Pride is threatened with everlasting wrath and described as the Devils image So that Holiness hath all the advantages against Pride that can be here expected 12. To conclude the Godly know that as they have nothing but from God so they have nothing but for God so that their own Honour is for him more then for themselves and it is essential to their Holiness to make God their end and set him highest and referr all to his Pleasure and Glory So that you see now that we may Honour them that fear the Lord Psalm 15. 4. without being guilty of making them proud and that we must not deny them the Honour that God hath given them as their due for fear of their being proud of it Though this as all things else must be prudently managed to particular persons according to their various states And therefore let me here warn all you that profess the fear of God Take heed lest you be proud of any thing that God hath Honoured you with For if you be you see what an Army of Reasons and Means you sin against and consequently how great your sin will be And your consciences and the world shall be forced to justifie God and his Holy wayes and to prove against you that it was not long of them that you were proud and that none in the world was more against it then God and Holiness and that it was not because you were so Religious but because you were no more Religious And if Pride of Knowledge Gifts or whatsoever be unmortified in you it will certainly prove that you are none of the sanctified when your profession of Sanctity will never prove that Sanctity was a cause or confederate in your sin AND now I have shewed you the Honour of Godliness let us briefly and but briefly consider of your Honour that reject it and see then whether the godly or ungodly are more Honourable 1. Ungodly men have the Basest Master in the world Would you know who Let Christ be Judge John 8. 44. Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father you will do 2 Tim. 2. 26. They are taken captive by the Devil at his will that is to do his will It is he that stirreth you up to filthy talking to speak against Godliness to curse and swear and you do his will His will is that you should neglect a holy life and you do his will His will is that you live not after the spirit but after the flesh and you do his will O poor souls Do you think it is only Witches that expresly Covenant with him that are his miserable servants Alas it is you also if you do his will For if you will believe either God or common reason to whom you yield your selves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness Rom. 6. 16. The godly themselves were the servants of sin till they obeyed from the heart the doctrine of the Lord v. 17. And are you not come to fair preferment to be the Devils drudges Though he should cloath your Bodies with Purple and fine linnen and feed you sumptuously every day yet indeed you are no better as the case of that miserable man may tell you Luke 16. It is the greatest Baseness to have so Base a Master 2. And it is but an ignoble Base de sign that the ungodly carry on in the world What is it but to provide for and please their flesh It aimeth at nothing beyond this life And a beast can eat and drink and sleep and play and satisfie his lust as much as they A swine can carry a mouth full of straw to his lodging and a bird can build a nest for her young ones And what do ungodly men more in the world whether Gentlemen or Beggars the flattered Gallants or the poor day-labourers if they be not such as first seek Heaven
no relief 3. Another duty that Holiness consisteth in is Thanksgiving and Praise to the God of our salvation He that knows not that this work is Pleasant is unacquainted with it If there be any thing Pleasant in this world it is the praises of God that flow from a believing loving soul that is full of the sense of the mercies and goodness and excellencies of the Lord Especially the â—â—animous conjunction of such souls in the high praises of God in the holy Assemblies Is it not pleasant even to Name the Lord to mention his Attributes to remember his great and wonderous works to magnifie him that rideth on the Heavens that dwelleth in the light that cannot be approached that is cloathed with Majesty and Glory that infinitely surpasseth the Sun in its â—rightness that hath his Throne in the Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him and yet he delighteth in the humble soul and hath respect to the contrite yea dwells with them that tremble at his Word Is any thing so pleasant as the Praises of the Lord How sweet is it to see and praise him as the Creator in the various wonderful creatures which he hath made How pleasant to observe his works of providence to them that read them by the light of the Sanctuary and in Faith and Patience learn the interpretation from him that only can interpret them But O how unspeakably Pleasant is it to see the Father in the Son and the God-head in the man-hood of our Lord and the Riches of Grace in the glass of the holy Gospel and the manifold wisdom of God in the Church where the Angels themselves disdain not to behold it Ephes 3. 10 11. The praising of God for the incarnation of his Son was a work that a chore of Angels were employed in as the instructors of the Church Luke 2. 13 14. There is not a promise in the book of God nor one passage of the Life and Miracles of Christ and the rest of the History of the Gospel nor one of the holy works of the spirit upon the soul nor one of those thousand mercies to the Church or to our selves or friends that infinite Goodness doth bestow but contain such matter of Praise to God as might fill believing hearts with Pleasure and find them most delightful work Much more when all these are at once before us what a feast is there for a gracious Soul O you befooled fleshly minds that find no pleasure in the things of God but had rather be drinking or gaming or scraping in the world awaken your souls and see what you are doing With what eyes do you see with what hearts do you think of the Works and Word and Wayes of God and of the Holy employments that you are so much against For my own part I freely and truly here profess to you that I would not exchange the Pleasure that my soul enjoyeth in this one piece of the holy Work of God for all your mirth and sport and gain and whatever the world and sin affords you I would not change the delights which I enjoy in one of these holy dayes and duties in the mentioning of the eternal God and celebrating his praise and magnifying his Name and thinking and speaking of the riches of his Love and the glory of his Kingdom no not for all the pleasure of your lives O that your souls were cured of those dangerous diseases that make you loath the sweetest things You would then know what it is that you have set light by and would marvail at your selves that you could taste no sweetness in the sweetest things Can you think that your work or your play your profits or your sports are comparable for pleasure to the Praises of the Lord If Grace had made you competent Judges I am sure you would say There is no comparison Hear but the testimony of a holy soul yea of the Spirit of God by him Psal. 147. 1. Praise ye the Lord for it is good to sing Praises to our God for it is pleasant and praise is comely Psalm 149. 1 2. Praise ye the Lord sing unto the Lord a new song and his Praise in the Congregation of Saints Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him let the children of Zion be joyful in their King For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people he will beautifie the meek with salvation Let the Saints be joyful in Glory let them sing aloud upon their beds Let the high Praises of God be in their mouth c. Psal 95. 1 2 3. O come let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to him with Psalms For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all Gods Psalm 96. 1 2 3 4. O sing unto the Lord a new song Sing unto the Lord all the earth Sing unto the Lord bless his Name shew forth his salvation from day to day Declare his glory among the Heathen his wonders among all people For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised Honour and Majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his Sanctuary Did not this holy Prophet find it a Pleasant work to Praise the Lord Yea all that Love the Name of God should be Joyful in him Psalm 5. 11. Every one of his upright ones may say with the Prophet Isa 61. 10. I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord My soul shall be joyful in my God For he hath cloathed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robes of righteousness as a Bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels For as the earth springs forth her bud and as the Garden causeth the things sown in it to spring forth so the Lord will cause Righteousness and Praise to spring forth before all the Nations It is a promise of Joy that is made in Isa 56. 6 7 8. To the sons of the stranger that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the Name of the Lord to be his servants every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my Covenant Even them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my House of Prayer What a joyful thing is it to a gracious soul when he may see the reconciled face of God and feel his Fatherly reviving Love and among his Saints may speak his Praise and proclaim his great and blessed name even in his Temple where every man speaketh of his Glory Psalm 29. 9. If the Proud are delighted in their own praise how much more will the humble holy soul be delighted in the Praise of God! When the Love of God is shed abroad in the heart and Faith doth set us as before his Throne or at least doth somewhat withdraw the veil and shew us him that lives
for ever and when the force of Love doth open our lips that our mouthes may shew forth his praise it is pleasant both to God and us The Lord himself doth put on joy as delighting in his peoples praise and when they joyn obedience with holy worship they are pleasant in his eyes Jer. 9. 24. Isa 62. 4. 42. 1. Zeph. 3. 17. He meeteth him that Rejoyceth and worketh righteousness and that remembers him in his wayes Isa 64. 5. Would you taste of the sweetest life on earth Learn then to Delight your selves in God Do you want recreation Be acquainted with his Praise Is there not a better cure for Melancholy here among the servants of the Lord then in an Ale-house or in the company of transgressors Their carnal pleasures are unwholsom for you like luscious fruits that will make you sick But the delights of Faith are safe and healthful Fleshly pleasure is windy and deceitful and weakeneth and befools the soul But the Joy of the Lord is our strength Neb. 8. 10. A little may be too much of fleshly pleasures and it is of very hard digestion and leaves that behind that spoils the sport But the further you go in the Delights of Faith the better they are and the sweeter you will find them You may quickly catch a dangerous surfet of your fleshly pleasures but of spiritual Delights the more the better For they are curing reviving and much confirm and exalt the soul Our spiritual pleasures are so heavenly and have so much of God and Glory in them that they must needs prepare the soul for heaven and be excellent helps to our salvation O therefore if you would live a Pleasant life draw near to God and by Faith behold him and by Love adhere to him and take a view of his infinite Goodness and all his perfections and behold him in his wonderous works and then break forth into his chearful praises and you shall taste such pleasures as the earth affordeth not Lanch forth into the boundless Ocean of Eternity and let your hearts and tongues expatiate in the Praise of the Heavenly Majesty and use this work and ply it close and be not too seldom or customary or careless in it and you shall find the difference between the Pleasures of Faith and of the flesh of a Holy and of a sensual life Psalm 135. 2 3. Ye that stand in the House of the Lord in the Courts of the House of our God Praise the Lord for the Lord is Good sing praises to his Name for it is pleasant Psal 71. 8. Let my mouth be filled with thy Praise and with thy honour all the day Psal 96. 2. 6. Sing unto the Lord bless his name shew forth his salvation from day to day Honour and Majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his Sanctuary O that the Lord will but shine upon my soul with the Light of his countenance and open my heart to the entertainment of his Love and hold a gracious Communion with my soul by his holy Spirit and keep open these doors to me and continue this liberty of his House and Ordinances which we enjoy this day that I may joyn with a faithful humble people in holy Communion and in his Praise and Worship and that with a heart that is suitable to these works I shall then say with David Psal 16. 6. The lines â—â—faln to me in pleasant places I have a goodly heritage I will â—â— for no greater pleasures or honours or advancement in this world Let who will surfet on the pleasures of the flesh Here doth my soul delight to dwell Psalm 27. 4 5 6. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the daies of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his holy Temple For in the time of trouble he will hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me he shall set me up upon a Rock And then shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me therefore will I offer in his Tabernatle sacrifices of Joy I will sing yea I will sing Praises to the Lord. Till I come to the promised Everâ—… Pleasures I shall ask of God no greater Pleasures These would be as much as my soul in the prison of flesh can bear Till 〈…〉 to the Land of Promise may I but have these clusters of 〈…〉 in my present Wilderness I shall not repine My heart 〈…〉 shall be glad and my glory shall rejoyce and at death my flesh 〈…〉 in hope For as the Lord now sheweth me the path of 〈…〉 so in his presence is 〈…〉 of Joy and at his right hand are 〈…〉 for 〈…〉 Pâ—… 4. Another Pleasant Holy Duty is Our holy Communion with Christ and his Church in the Lords Supper This is a holy Feast that is purposely provided by the King of Saints for the entertainment of his family for the refreshing of the weary and the making glad the mournful soul The night before his bitter Death he instituted this Sacramental Feast He caused his Disciples to sit down with him and when they had partaked of the Passover the Sacrament of Promise and had their taste of the old wine he giveth them the New even the Sacrament of the better Covenant and of the fuller Gospel-Grace He teacheth them that his Death is Life to them and that which is his bitterest suffering is their Feast and his Sorrows are their Joyes as our sinful pleasures were his sorrows The slain Lamb of God our Passover that was sacrificed for us that taketh away the sins of the world was the pleasant food which Sacramentally he himself then delivered to them and substantially the next day offered for them The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world John 6. 33. He is the Living Bread which came down from Heaven If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the bread that he giveth is his flesh which he hath given for the life of the world ver 50 51. Except we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood we have no life in us Whoso eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath Eternal life and he will raise him up at the last day For his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed He that eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him As the Living Father hath sent the Son and he liveth by the Father so he that eateth him shall live by him This is that bread that came down from Heaven not as the Fathers did eat Maâ—â—â— and are dead he that eateth this bread shall live for ever I know that to an unbelieving carnal wretch the Sacrament is but a common thing For Christ himself and his Gospel is â—o better in his
Believer knows that as his life and soul so his worldly riches are nowhere sure but in the hand of God And therefore if they can procure his security and get him to receive it and return it them in Heaven with the promised advantage they have then secured it indeed All is lost that God hath not in one way or other and all is secured that he hath and for which we have his promise This is laying it up in heaven Matth. 6. 21. While we keep it we cannot secure it from thieves When we have disposed of it according to the Will of God upon the warrant of his promise it is then in his Custody and then it is safe Neither rust or moath can then corrupt it nor the strongest thieves break through and steal To be Good and do Good is to be likest unto God and therefore must needs be the sweetest life 2. Works of Justice also have their pleasure For they demonstrate the Justice of God himself from whom they do proceed That which is most Pleasant to God should be most Pleasant unto us And as he hath bid us not forget to do good and to communicate because with such sacrifice he is well pleased Heb. 13. 16. so he hath told us that he delighteth in the exercise of loving-kindness judgement and righteousness in the earth Jer. 9. 24. He hath shewed us what is good and what doth he require of us but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with our God Mich. 6. 8. And therefore he commandeth Israel Hos 12. 6. Turn thou to thy God Keep Mercy and Judgement and wait on thy God continually Private justice between man and man and family-justice between parents and children masters and servants and Political justice between the Magistrates and the people do all maintain the order of the world and procure both publike and private peace It is selfishness and injustice tyrannie oppression disobedience and rebellion that procure the miseries of the world But Righteousness is safe and sweet 2. You have heard of the Pleasure of Holy Actions both Internal and External The truth is evident also from the Objects of these Acts and the matter from which a believer may derive his Pleasures And O what an Ocean of delight is here before us Were our powers capacities and acts but answerable to the Objects we should presently have the Joyes of heaven 1. A Believer hath the ever blessed God himself to derive his comforts from He hath his Nature and Attributes to be his comfort He hath his near Relations to afford him comfort and this is more then to have all the world It is a God of Infinite Power and Wosdom and Goodness that we believe in that we Love and Worship and Obey It is also a Father Reconciled to us that hath taken us in Covenant to him as his people through Jesus Christ And where shall we find comfort if not in God It is in vain to look for that from any creature that is not to be found in him Poor worldlings you have nothing that is worth the having but the crumms that fall from the childrens table God is our Portion and the world is yours and yet you have less even in this world then we You have the shadow and we have the substance You have the shell and we the kernell You have the straw and chaff and true believers have the corn Your comforts are shaken with every storm and tost up and down by the Justice of God or the Pride of man But God that is our Portion is unchangeable Yesterday to day and the same for ever We have a Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. Persecutors cannot take our God from us nor can any thing separate us from his Love Rom. 8. 36. They may separate us from our houses from our Countries from our friends from our riches our liberties our lives from our Books our company and Ordinances but not from God who is our great Delight In poverty in persecution in sickness and at death we have still our interest in God A Christian is never in so low a state but he hath a God to whom he may go for comfort who is more to him then your sweetest pleasures Is it not a pleasure to have such a God as can cure all diseases supply all wants overcome all enemies deliver in all dangers and hath promised that he will do it so far as is for our good If he want water that hath the Sea or he want land that hath all the earth or he want light that hath the Sun yet doth he not need to want delight that hath the Lord to be his God if â—e do but keep in the pathes of grace And are you yet unresolved whether Godliness be the most Pleasant Life Take all your pleasures and make your best of them may I but have the Lord to be my God and I hope I shall never desire to change with you 2. A Holy life is therefore Pleasant because we have a full sufficient Saviour from whom we may daily fetch delight The Eâ—ernal Son of God is become the Healer of our wounds our Peace-maker with the Father the Conquerour of our enemies the Ransom for our sins the Captain of our salvation the Head of his Church and the Treasure of all our Hopes and Joyes Sin and misery are the works of Satan which Christ came into the world to destroy If Hypocrites can steal a little Peace to their Consciences from a false conceit that they have a part in Christ what comfort may it be to the true Believer that hath a sure and real interest in him That is the sad and miserable life when you are out of Christ and strangers to his Covenant and cannot say his benefits are yours but you are yet in your sins without his righteousness But when we have a special interest in him the foundation of our everlasting joy is laid and the heart of sin and misery is broken What fear or sorrow can you name that I may not fetch a sufficient remedy against from Christ What can the Prince of darkness say to our discomfort which we may not answer by Arguments from Christ By this judge of the Comfort of a Holy life If the Godly over-look the Grounds of Joy that are laid in Christ and live in a mistaken sorrow that is not for want of Reasons and warrant to rejoyce but for want of a right discerning of those Reasons But what have you that are ungodly to answer against all the terrours of the Law or to answer against all the accusations of your consciences or to comfort you against the remembrance of your approaching misery While you have no part in Christ you have no right to comfort One thought of Christ to a believing soul may afford more Delight then ever you will find in a sinful life 3. Moreover we have the Holy spirit of Christ that is purposely given us to be
their bones they must endure the pain of setting them again 2. And doth not Christ command his servants also to Rejoyce and again Rejoyce and always to rejoyce Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. 1 Thes 5. 16. Doth he not command them to live in the most delightful works of Love and Joy and thankful mention of his mercies I tell you if Christians did but live as God requireth them and by his plenteous mercies doth encourage them to live they would be the wonder of the world for their exceeding joy they would triumph as men that are entering into rest and make the miserable ungodly Princes and great ones of the world observe their low contemptible condition and see by the comforts of believers that there are far higher joys then theirs to be attained Did Christians live as God would have them according to their dignity and selicity they would make the world admire the spirit and hopes and comforts that do so transport them They would be so taken up in the Love and praise of their Redeemer that they would scarce have leisure to observe whether they be rich or poor or to regard the honours or dishonours of the world These little things would scarce find room in their affection they would be taken up so much with God If they were sore with scourging and their feet were in the stocks they would there sing forth the praise of him that hath assured them of deliverance and everlasting joy as Paul and Silas did Act. 16. They would rejoyce in poverty in disgrace in pain and nothing would be able to overcome their joy They would pitty the tyrants and sensual Epicures that have no sweeter pleasures then those that the flesh and this deceitful world affords O the joy that believers would have in their secret prayers in their heavenly meditations in their holy conference in their reading of the promises and much more in their publike praises and Communion if they did but follow more fully the conduct of that spirit that hath undertaken to be their Comforter What makes believers slight this world and take all your pleasures to be unworthy of their entertainment or regard but that they have had a taste of sweeter things and by faith are overgrown these childish vanities If God and his favour be better then such worms as we and the heavenly Glory be better then these transitory toyes you may well conceive that the believers joy that is fed by these must be greater at least in worth and weight then all the pleasures of this sublunary world If therefore you love a life of pleasure come over to Christ and live a holy heavenly life and believe one that hath made some tryal yea believe the Lord himself that Holiness is the only Pleasant life ANd now as we have seen it plainly proved that the life of Holiness is the most Pleasant life so from hence we may see two sorts reproved that in different measures are found to be trangressors The first is Those blind ungodly wretches that can find no pleasure in a holy life when they can find pleasure in their worldly drudgery and in their sensual uncleanness and their childish vanities They have the God of infinite Goodness to delight in but to their impious hearts he seemeth not delightful They have his Power and wisdom and holiness and truth to love and admire and trust upon and his excellent works to behold him in and his holy laws and gracious promises to meditate on but they have small delight in any such imployment They have leave as well as any others to open their hearts to God in secret and in prayer and praise to recreate their souls and to hold communion with the Saints of God and to be exercised both in publike and private in his worship and to order their families in his fear and to mannage their affairs according to his word but they find no pleasure in such a life as this but are as backward to it as if it were a toilesome and unprofitable business and are weary of that little outside worship which they do perform They have Heaven set before them to seek after and to make their portion and delight but they have small delight to think or speak of it Their hearts are unsutable to these high holy and spiritual things They are matters that they are strange to and have no firm and confident belief of but an uncertain wavering weak opinion and therefore they are too far off to be their delight They say to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy way What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him Job 21. 14 15. If they do come to the publike Assemblies and joyn there in the outward part of worship they find little life and pleasure in it because they are strangers to the reward and spiritual part which is the kernel They look more at the Preachers gifts and the manner of his doctrine and delivery then at the spiritual necessary matter that is delivered They have some pleasure in a neat composed speech that seemeth not to accuse them any more then others and grateth not on their tender ears with plain and necessary truth but suffers them to go home as quietly as they came thither But if the Preacher touch them to the quick and endeavoureth faithfully to acquaint them with themselves or if he have no eloquence or accurateness of speech to please them with but be guilty of any unhansomness of expression or mâ—dâ—â—â— imperfections they are weary of hearing him and think it long till the glass be run and perhaps instead of tasting the sweetness of wholsom truth they make it the matter of their dension and contempt But let them be at Cards or Dice at Hawking or Hunting at any idle sports and vanities and they can hold out longer with delight At drinking or feasting or idle talking they are not so weary Yea in the labours of their calling when their bodies are weary their minds are more unwearyed and in their fields and shops they have more delight then in the spiritual holy service of the Lord. They are never so merry as when there is least of God upon their hearts and in their wayes And it is one of the reasons that hindreth their Conversion lest it should deprive them of their mirth and cause them to spend the remainder of their dayes in uncomfortable heavyness If sin were not sweet to them conversion would be more easie The Pleasure which they find in creatures by their sin is the prison and fetters of their souls captivity If this be thy case that readest these lines I beseech thee lay to heart these following aggravations of thy sin 1. How blind and wicked is the heart that can find more pleasure in sin than holiness Is the creature pleasant to thee and God unpleasant What a shame is this to thy Understanding
and thy Will It proclaimeth thy pernicious Folly and Impiety If thou hadst no more wit then to be Pleased more with stones then gold with dung then meat with shameful nakedness then cloathing thou wouldst not be judged wise enough to be left to thy own dispose and government But the folly which thou dost manifest is unspeakably greater Darkness is not so much worse then Light and Death is not so much worse then Life as sin is worse than Holiness and the world than God And is the Worst more Pleasant to thee then the Best It is a fool indeed to whom it is a sport to do mischief Prov. 10. 23. and so great a mischief as sin is and yet hath no delight in understanding Prov. 18. 2. Delight is not seemly for such fools Prov. 19. 10. And how wicked is that Heart as well as Blind that is so averse to God and Holiness Doth not this shew thee 1. The absence of Gods holy image 2. And the presence of Satans image upon thy soul Nothing doth more certainly prove what a man is then the complacency and displacency of his Heart If you know what it is in your selves or others that pleaseth and displeaseth most you may certainly know whether you have the spirit and grace of Christ or not This is the durable infallible Evidence which Satan shall never be able to invalidate and which the weakest Christians can scarce tell how to deny in themselves Could they be more Holy it would please them better then to be more rich Could they believe more and Love God more and trust him more and obey him better it would please them more then if you gave them all the honours of the world They are never so well pleased with their own hearts as when they find them nearest Heaven and have most of the Knowledge of God and impress of his attributes and sense of his presence They are never so well pleased with their lives as when they are most holy and fruitful and may fullyest be called A walking with God They are never so much displeased with themselves as when they find least of God upon their hearts and are most dark and dull and undisposed to holy Communion with him They are never so much weary of themselves as when their lives are least fruitful holy and exact And this is a certain Evidence of their sincerty For it shews what they Love and what it is that hath their Hearts or Wills And it is the Heart or Will that is the man in Gods account God takes a man to be what he sincerely would be As he is so he Loveth and Willeth and as he Loveth and Willeth such he is His complacency or displacency are the immediate sure discoveries of his bent or inclination This certain Evidence poor doubting souls should have oft recourse to and improve And on the contrary it is as sure an Evidence of your misery when you savour not the things of the Spirit Rom. 8. 5 6 7. and when it pleaseth you more to be great then to be good to be rich then to be religious and righteous to serve your lusts then to serve the Lord When you set more by the applause of men then by the approbations of God and had rather be far from God then near him and be excused from a holy life then used to it and constant in it When you take the world and sin for your recreation or delight and a godly life for a melancholy wearisom and unpleasant course This certainly shews that you have yet the old corrupted nature and Serpentine enmity against the Spirit and Life of Christ and are yet in the flesh and therefore can no more please the Lord then his holy wayes are pleasing unto you Rom. 8. 6 7 8. and it proveth that you are yet in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of your iniquity and that your hearts are not right in the sight of God and that you are the slaves of Satan whose nature you partake of by which you are thus alienated from the Lord. Didst thou know God as Faith doth know him his Loving kindness would be better to thee then life it self Psalm 63. 3. If thou didst Love him as it is like thou wilt pretend thou dost it would be meat and drink to thee to enjoy his Love and do his Will And if thou know him not by Faith nor cleavest to him by unfeigned Love how canst thou pretend to have his Image How would you judge of that mans heart that were no better affected to his friend to his parents or children or other relations then you manifest your selves to be to God If he can take no pleasure in the company of his wife or children but is glad when he is far from them in the company of strangers or harlots or prodigals would you not say this man had a base unmanly disposition Express but such an inclination in plain words and try how honest sober men will judge of them Much more would it be odious to Christian ears if you should tell God plainly We can find no pleasure in thee or in thy holy wayes thy Word and Service are unsavoury and wearisom unto us We had rather be talking or busied about the matters of the world We have far more pleasure in recreations and sensual accommodations then in remembring thee and thy Kingdom and then we find in the life that is called holy Would not such words as these be called impious by every Christian that should hear them And is not that an impious heart then which speaketh thus or is thus affected and that an impious life that manifesteth it though dissembling lips are ashamed to profess it If God be not most to be loved and delighted in then any thing or all things else he is not God If Heaven and Holiness be not sweeter then all the pleasures of earth and sin let them have no more such honourable names Let sin and earth then be called Heaven but wo to them that have no better 2. What monstrous ingratitude is that man guilty of that when God hath provided and Christ hath purchased such high delights and freely tendred them to unworthy sinners will say I find no pleasure in them and take them for no delights at all When the Lord beheld thee wallowing in thy filth and laughing in thy misery and making a sport of thine own perdition he pittied thee and provided and offered to thee the most noble and excellent delights that thy nature is capable of enjoying And wilt thou cast them back unthankfully in his face and say They are unpleasant tedious things If your child did so by his meat or cloathes yea or a beggar at your door did so by his alms you would think it proved his great unworthyness If he throw away the best you can give him and say It is naught there is no sweetness in it would you not think it fit that want should help to
by the outward behaviour of our assemblies The shell is not sweet but serves to hide the sweeter part from those that will not storm those walls that they may possess it as their prize The kernel of Religion is covered with a shell so hard that flesh and blood cannot break it Hard sayings and hard providences to the Church and to particular believers are such as many cannot break through and therefore never taste the sweetness The most admired feature and beauty of any of your bodies which fools think to be the most excellent part of the body is indeed but the handsome well-adorned case that God by nature doth cover his more excellent inward works with Were you but able to see within that skin and 〈…〉 once to observe the wonderful motions of Heart and Braine and the course of the blood in the veins and arteries and the several fermentations and the causes and nature of chylifications and sanguifications and the spirits and senses and all their works and if you saw the reason of every part and vessel in this wonderous frame and the causes and nature of every disease much more if you saw the excellent nature and operations of that rational soul that is the glory of all you would then say that you had seen a more excellent sight then the smooth and beauteous skin that covers it The invisible soul is of greater excellencie then all the visible beauties in the world So also if you would know the excellencies of Religion you must not stand without the doors or judge of it by the skin and shell but you must come neer and look into the inward Reasons of it and think of the difference between the high imployments of a Saint and the poor and for did drungery of the ungodly between walking with God in desire and love and in the spiritual use of his Ordinances and creatures and conversing only with sinful men and transitory vanities between the life of faith and hope which is daily maintained by the foresight of Everlasting Glory and a life of meer nature and worldliness and sensuality and idle complement and pompe which are but the progenitors of sorrow and end in endless desperation Come neer and try the power of Gods Laws and of the workings of his spirit and think in good sadness of the place where you must live forever and the glory you shall see and the sweet enjoyment and employment you shall have in the presence of the eternal Majesty and think well of all the sweet contrivances and discoveries of his love in Christ and how freely all these are offered to you and how certainly they may be your own peruse the promises and sweet expressions of Love and Grace and exercise your souls in serious meditation prayer thanksgiving and praise and withall remember that none but these will be durable delights and then tell me whether a life of sport and pride and worldliness and flesh-pleasing or a life of faith and Holiness be the better the sweeter and more pleasant life Direct 3. If you would taste the Pleasures of a Holy life you must apply your self to Christ in the use of his appointed means for the renewing of your natures that his Spirit may give you a new understanding and a new heart to discern and rellish spiritual things For your old corrupted minds and hearts will never do it They are unsuitable to the things of God and therefore cannot Receive them nor savour them nor be subject to the holy laws 1 Cor. 2. 14 15. Rom. 8. 5 6 7 8. The appetite and rellish of every living creature is agreeable to its nature A fish hath small pleasure in the dry land nor a bird in the deeps of water grass and water is sweeter to an Ox then our most delicate meats and drinks Corruption and Custom have made you so vitious that your natures are not such as God made them at the first when he himself was mans desire and delight but they are now inclined to sensual things being captivated by the fleshly part and have contracted a strangeness and enmity to God And therefore those Hearts will never rellish the sweetnesses of a life of Faith and Holiness till Faith and Holiness be planted in them and they be born again by regenerating grace For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and but flesh and therefore doth reach no higher then a fleshly inclination can move it and that which is born of the spirit is spirit and therefore will rellish and love things Spiritual Direct 4. Lastly if you would taste the pleasures of a Holy life you must forbear those sinful fleshly pleasures which now you are so taken up with For these are they that infatuate your understandings and corrupt your appetites and make the sweetest things seem loathsom to you As the using of vain sports and filthy lust abroad doth make such persons a weary of their own relations and families and business at home so also the glutting of the mind with vanity and using your selves to sinful pleasures is it that turns your hearts from God and maketh his Word and Wayes unsavoury to you You must first with the Prodigal Luke 15. be brought into a famine of your former pleasures and be denyed the very husk and then you will remember that the meanest servant in your Fathers house is in a far better case then you having bread enough while you perish through hunger And hence it is that God doth so often promote the work of Conversion by Affliction and by the same means carryeth on the work of Grace in most that he will save Cannot you tell how to leave your sensual pleasures What will you do when sickness makes you weary of them Weary of your meat and drink and bed weary to hear talk of that which now doth seem so sweet and to say I have no pleasure in them Cannot you spare your friends your sports your bravery your wealth and other carnal accommodations What will you say of them when pain disgraceth them and convinceth you of their insufficiency to stand you in any stead These things that you are now so loth to leave may shortly become such a load to your souls as undigested meat to the stomack that is sick that you can have no ease till you have cast them off Away therefore with these luscious Vanities betime which vitiate your appetites and put them out of rellish with the things that are truly pleasant O what a shame it is to hear a man say I shall never endure so godly and spiritual and strict a life when he can endure and take pleasure in a life of sin You may wiselyer lie down in the dunghill or the ditch and say I shall never endure a cleaner place or feed on carrion and say I shall never endure a cleaner dyet or accompany only with enemies and wild beasts and say I shall never endure the company of my friends What! is God
nature be dissolved then God will violate his Covenant of Grace Jer. 33. 20 21. Thus saith the Lord If you can break my Covenant of the day and my Covenant of the night and that there should not be day and night in their season then may also my Covenant be broken c. Isa 54. 4. 5 c. Fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed c. For thy Maker is thy Husband the Lord of Hosts is his name and thy Redeemer the Holy one of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when when thou wast refused saith thy God For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer For this is as the waters of Noah unto me For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth So have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee And though yet we have our troublesom imperfections it belongeth to our God through the blood of the everlasting Covenant to make us perfect in every good work to do his will working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ that to him may be the glory for ever Heb. 13. 20 21. It is his work to comfort all that mourn to appoint to them that mourn in Zion and to give them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they mighâ— be called trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified They shall be named The Priests of the Lord men shall call them The ministers of our God Everlasting joy shall be unto them For the Lord will direct their work in truth and make an everlasting Covenant with them All that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed whom the Lord hath blessed Therefore should we greatly rejoyce in the Lord and our souls should be joyful in our God For he hath cloathed us with the garments of salvation he hath covered us with the robes of righteousness as a Bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels Isa 61. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put into you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them and I will save you from all your uncleanness c. Ezek. 36. 25 26 27 29. And they shall be my people and I will be their God And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and of their children after them and I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Yea I will rejoyce over them to do them good c. Jer. 32. 38 39 40 41. Happy are the people that are in such a case yea happy is that people whose God is the Lord Psal 144. 15. Nature doth not give you such security that the Sun shall shine and that the streams shall run that the earth shall be fruitful as the covenant of the Lord doth give you of all that is necessary to you Happiness Study therefore the mercies and riches of the Covenant Dir. 2. Understand and remember that it is your Covenant consent that it is the condition of your title to all the following blessings of the Covenant I add this as supposing you will say What are all these benefits to me unless I were sure that I were indeed in the Covenant It is not your merit but your consent that is required God offereth himself to be your Reconciled Father and Christ to be your saviour and the Holy Spirit to be your sanctifier Do you consent to this or not All the question is whether you are willing and whether your sin be not so sweet to you that you will rather venture your souls on the wrath of God then you will be saved from it If you heartily consent assuredly you are in the Covenant and the benefits are yours and therefore the Joy and comfort should be yours If you do not consent instead of despairing presently consent and refuse not your happiness while you lament your misery Object But it is not only Covenant-making but Covenant-keeping that must save us and I have broak my Covenant and therefore have no title to the benefits Answ What Covenant have you broken This Covenant in question that engageth you to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost If you have broken this you have withdrawn your Consent For while you heartily consent you break it not in any essential part As it is not every breach of the Laws that makes a man a traytor or rebel nor every fault or falling out between husband and wife that dissolveth their relation so is it not every sin nor any that is consistent with true consent to the terms of the Covenant that is a Covenant-breaking forfeiture of the benefits If you would not have God to be your Portion your Father your Saviour and your Sanctifier you are then Covenant-breakers And if you be so Consent yet and return to your fideliâ—y and the comforts of the Covenant may yet be yours for all your former violation Dir. 3. Moreover if you would find the Pleasure of a Holy life see that the flesh be fool you not into an over high estimation of any worldly thing that so your appetites may not be corrupted with such contrary unwholsome Pleasures nor your hearts be overwhelmed with worldly cares or griefs or troubles If you will glut your selves with other kind of pleasures you cannot expect that Holiness should be your pleasure You cannot find your delight in God when you turn from him to seek it in the creature If you â—ought for less in friends and health and prosperity in the world you might have more in God How should you find content in God when you set so light by him that the promise of beholding him in endless glory will not please you unless you may also have your fleshly desires or selfish inclinations pleased here This is it that perverteth your judgements and affections and causeth you to injure God and your selves You first
Eagles shall eat it To be without natural affections is the brand of highest wickedness Rom. 1. 31. and 2 Tim. 3. 3. And do you not know that it is worse to be without holy affections to the God that made you and the Christ that bought you and to despise forsake or abuse the Lord Thou hadst thy Being more from him then from thy Parents They knew not how thy parts were formed It was he that gave thee thy immortal soul It is by him that thou hast lived until now much more then on the food thou eatest or the air thou breathest in And art thou so unnatural as to be ungodly and deny him thy love and care and service that hath made thee and to call a holy heavenly life a needless toyl Deut. 32. 6. Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is he not thy Father that hath bought thee hath he not made thee and established thee If an unholy man be an honest man that is so unnatural as to cross the end of his Creation and deny his service to the Lord that made him then he is honest that spits in his Fathers face and despiseth his Mother that brought him forth 4. Do you think that he is an honest man that is unthankful It is agreed on by all the world that unthankfulness is a principal point of dishonesty He is no honest man that will abuse or despise those by whom he liveth or that have engaged him by kindness If you were so used your selves by one whose lives or estates you had preserved would you not say What an unworthy wretch is this have I deserved this usage at his hand Why all the unthankfulness against men in the world is not to be compared to thy unthankfulness against God What are the Benefits which man hath given thee in comparison of his Did ever man do any thing for thee that is comparable to thy Creation and Redemption and offering thee salvation from everlasting misery and a room with Angels in everlasting glory besides every hourâ— mercy that ever thou hadst here in this world And is that an honest man that will requite this God with prophaneness and ungodliness and return him sin for all his mercies and refuse to live a holy life Doth thy flesh deserve all thy care and labour and is this God unworthy of it and dost thou call his service a needless work If ingratitude can make a man dishonest thou art then a dishonest man But it is the business of the godly to give up themselves to him that made them and to exercise their thankfulness in their capacities for these greatest mercies 5. Do you think that a cruel unmerciful man or a loving and merciful man is the more honest Surely I shall here have all your voices He that hateth those that hurt him not and would kill them and set their houses on fire and carryeth malice in his face and speeches will be called an honest man but by few And he that is Loving and studyeth to do Good to all about him will be counted Honest Why try the ungodly and the Saints by this No more malicious men in the world then the ungodly They have an enmity even to the God that made them Col. 1. 21. and to the Christ that bought them Luke 19. 27. and to the Word of God that offereth them salvation and would lead them to eternal life and hate the Knowledge of the way of life Prov. 1. 22. They are enemies to the servants of the Lord and hate the upright that desire their salvation and would but draw them from their sins Prov. 29. 10. 9. 8. They curse those that bless them and persecute those that pray for them Matth. 5. 44. The first wicked man that was born into the world did kill his brother because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous 1 John 3. 12. But this is not their greatest cruelty They are enemies to their own salvation They will run into Hell in despight of Christ and all the Preachers in the world For there is but one way thither the way of ungodliness and that way they will go Yea that is not all but bloody wretches they would have all the Countrey do as they do and be damned with them They are angry with a man if he will not live an ungodly life and tipple and swear and do as they They revile him if he will not give over his diligent serving of the Lord which is all one as to fall out with men because they will not forseit heaven and run from God and damn their souls and all for nothing When they might more mercifully scorn us because we will not give over eating or that we will not cut our own throats And are these cruel persons honest men Is that merciless wretch an honest man that is not content to cast away his own everlasting happiness for nothing upon his fond conceits but must needs have others do so too That is not content to wrong the Lord but would have others wrong him also The Devil is Honest if these be Honest But for the Godly it is their desire their care their work to save themselves and further the salvation of all others O how they long to hear of the Conversion of Towns and Countries and how glad are they when they hear it Not for any worldly commodity to themselves but because they rejoyce at the good of others And what would they not do to promote it which they could do 6. Do you think that a perfidious unfaithful man or a faithful man that will not be hired to break his word is the honester man Sure this is no hard question neither A Knight of the Post that will say and unsay swear and forswear and will betray his dearest friend for a groat is taken by few for an honest man in comparison of him that will rather die then lye or be unfaithful Why nothing is more plain then that all you that are ungodly are treacherous to the Lord himself You are perfidious Covenant-breakers You owe him your selves wholly on the grounds that I before expressed and yet you are unfaithful to him You have all from him and you serve his enemy with it You call him your God and will not Love nor honour nor serve him as your God Mal. 1. 6. You bound your selves to him in your Baptism and many a time since by a solemn Vow or Covenant but you live in the treacherous breach of it continually You Covenanted to take the Lord for your God and yet you will not seek him nor be Ruled by him You Covenanted to take Jesus for your saviour and yet will not be saved by him from your sins Matth. 1. 21. You Covenanted to take the Holy-Ghost for your Sanctifier to purifie your hearts and lives and yet you resist his holy motions and hate his sanctifying word and work and some of you will mock at Sanctification
and the Spirit And can the soul of man be guilty of greater unfaithfulness or treachery You Covenanted to forsake the flesh the world and the Devil and now you serve them more then Christ and think your time is better bestowed for them then in the service of the Lord And is this your Covenant-keeping No Traytors no perjured wretches in the world are dishonest men if these be not dishonest But now it is the care of godly men to keep the Covenants they have made with God All that which you reproach them for as too much preciseness is but the performance of their Baptismal Vow And if you be against the keeping our Covenants with God should you not be against the making them Are you not ashamed to be so forward to engage your children to God in Baptism and when you have done would have them he ungodly and break the Vow they make Will you by your Profession of Christianity and coming to the Lords Table renew your Covenants with Christ your selves and yet make no conscience to break them and plead against the keeping of them We promise Holiness and the serving of God and forsaking the world at every Sacrament and whenever we promise but to be Christians And are you for the making of these promises and yet for the breaking of them and revilers of those that endeavour but to keep them O fearful impudency Is this your Honesty and would you have us all as faithless and dishonest even with God This was the perfidiousness of the Jews Ecek 16. 8. I sware unto thee and entredinto a Covenant with thee and thou beâ—â—â—est mine We are married in Baptism to Christ and is Adâ—â—tery with the world and forsaking our Husband no dishonesty Why then what is 7. Moreover do you think that a Murderer is an honest men I know you will say No. Why nothing more sure then that ungodly men are murderers of themselves and as I said would undo others They hate their own souls saith God Prov 29. 24. They destroy themselves Hos 13. â— There is but one way to Hell and that they will take and that when they are plainly told of it Not a man in Hell but brought himself thither And O how many do their mocks and perswasions and evil examples keep out of Heaven and bring to the same misery And are these Honest 8. Do you take them to be Honest men that are common cheaters or deceivers and that in matters of greatest value I think you do not Why such are the ungodly They deceive and are deceived 2 Tit. 3. 13. They deceive themselves Gal. 6. 3. by thinking themselves something when they are nothing They make themselves believe that they have Honesty and saving grace when they have none and that they are in a state of safety and in the favour of God when they are near to everlasting misery and in Gods displeasure And thus they will think though their souls are at the stake and the mistake be the greatest hinderance of their conversion and though God have plainly told them in his word whom he will save and whom he will not Yet against all the plain discoveries in the Scripture and all the Marks of death upon themselves and the open ungodliness of their lives and all the warnings of their teachers they will needs believe that their state is safe and that they may be saved without conversion what wilfull self deceivers are these Their hearts are deceitful above all things and they know them not Jer. 17. 9. And thus they are hardened by the deceitfulness of their own sin Heb. 3. 13. sin first deceiveth them and so killeth them Rom. 7. 11. If they were not foolish and deceived they would not serve their lusts and pleasures Tit. 3. 3. These miserable men did never yet learn that lesson 1 Cor. 3. 18. which one would think they should willingly learn Let no man deceive himself They will needs think that they are Christians and have so much Religion as will save them when God expresly telleth the curser swearer railer scorner and all that live in wilfull sin Jam. 1. 26. that If any man seem to be Religious and bridle not his tongue and so for other wilful sine but deceiveth his own heart that mans Religion is in vain And as they Deceive themselves so they are the common cheaters of the world They tell them as smooth a tale as if all were fair and right when they are pleading against God and reasoning men out of their faith and reason When Eve had sinned she tempted Adam The drunkard will tempt others to be his companions and so will the fornicators and voluptuous senfualists The ungodly will perswade those about him to be ungodly and when he hath not a word of solid reason to speak against the holy diligence of the Saints a jeer or scorn shall serve to deceive instead of Reason And if he dare not stand to what he saith to the face of a minister or any but the ignorant that cannot gainsay him he will take his time and speak when none are present that can contradict him O how many thousand are now in misery that were cheated thither by the scornâ— and cavils of ungodly men And how many thousands have lost all hopes of Heaven by their deceits Could you but ask many thousands that are now in misery How came you to choose so unhappy a way they would tell you We were deceived by the words of wicked men The cavils and scorns of ignorant sinners have cheated us of our Salvation The very calling a diligent servant of Christ by the name of a Puritan or Precisian hath kept many a thousand even in England from the fear and diligent serving of the Lord. And surely this is a silly argument And are these Honest men that are the factors of Satan the great deceiver in cheating themselves and others into Hell But the Godly deal plainly with themselves and others They are willing to know the truth of their condition and not to make themselves believe that which God never made them believe They promise not salvation to themselves on any lower terms then God hath promised it They have no hope of being saved without Holiness They set not Gods mercy against his Truth nor the Merits of Christ against his Covenant They know that God is better acquainted with the ways and effects of his own mercies then we are And therefore though they hope to be saved by Gods mercy it is by his sanctifying mercy and not to be saved without sanctification that is without salvation it self and the necessary means They know that it is abundant mercy to be saved in a way of Holiness and desire no other saving Mercy Yea they know that sanctification and glorification both are greater mercy then Glorification alone if it were possible to be alone This is the doctrine that the Godly do believe and this they practise and this they teach others and
Righteousness are not a more Honourable employment then the sordid drudgery of the world must say also that the life of a worldling is more Honourable then the life of the holy Angels and the heavenly host They are obeying and praising God and living in the sense of his dearest love while you are sinning and scraping in this Earth And can you believe that your life is more Honourable then theirs If not you must confess that the Godly that come nearest the work of Angels do live a more Honourable life then you When Christ called Peter to leave his fishing and follow him and be his servant he tells him that he will make him a fisher of men as intimating that it was a more honourable work to catch souls by the Gospel and win them to God and to salvaâ—ion then to catch fishes To please God and save our souls and further others in obeying him to their salvation is the Highest work that the sons of men are capable of while they live in flesh As the Priests were sanctified to draw nearer unto God then the common people and to be employed in his most Holy service so are the godly separated by grace from the ungodly world and brought nearer God and used by him in the noblest works In a great house there are not only vessels of Gold and of Silver but also of wood and of earth and some to honour and some to dishonour 1 Tim. 2. 20. If a man therefore purge himself from sin he shall be a vessel unto honour sanctified and meet for the masters use and prepared unto every good work Ver. 21. The Vessel that Swine are fed in is not so Honourable as that which is used at a Princes table If you would know what use the Godly are employed in read 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. As lively stones they are built up a spiritual house they are a holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God which shall be acceptable by Jesus Christ They are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people that they should shew forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light The holy Scriptures tell you the work of Saints Compare them with the work of the drunkard the glutton the gamester the fornicator or the covetous or ambitious worldling and let your reason tell you which is the more Honourable Psalm 34. 9. O fear the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him Psal 31. 23. O Love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful Psal 89. 5 7. The heavens shall praise thy wonders O Lord thy faithfulness also in the Congregation of the Saints God is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of the Saints and to he had in reverence of all them that are about him These are the employments of the Saints 6. Moreover the Godly have the most Honourable entertainment by the God of all the world They are bid welcome when others are rejected The door is opened to them that is shut against the wicked They are familiar with Jesus Christ as the children of the family when others are strangers whom he will not know Cant. 5. 1. Matth. 25. 10. Matth. 7. 23. I will profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity Psalm 1. 6. For the Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish The faithful are feasted by him when the rest are examined with a Friend how comest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness Matth. 22. 12 13. They are called the children that have the bread and the rest are called the dogs of which some are without and those within do feed but on the crums that fall from the childrens table Matth. 15. 26 27. Revel 22. 15. Hear the Lords invitation and his promise Isa 55. 2 3. Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness Encline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you Who is it that is admitted into the Tabernacle of the Lord and who shall dwell in his holy hill He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord Psalm 15. 1 2 4. The upright shall dwell in the presence of the Lord. Psalm 140. 13. God will save Sion and the seed of his servants shall inherit it and they that love his name shall dwell therein Psal 69. 35 36. And Blessed is the man whom thou choosest O Lord and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts he shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy House even of thy holy Temple Psal 65. 4. Saith David Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the Land that they may dwell with me he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me Yea Christ entertaineth faithful souls with a spiritual feast of his own flesh and blood His flesh to them is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed John 6. 55. and he that eateth and drinketh these shall live for ever Verse 54 56. The returning Prodigal is met with joy and quickly embraced in his Fathers arms the fatted Calf is killed for him a ring and new apparell is provided him and musick must express the Joy for his recovery Luke 15. O how welcome are converted sinners to the God of mercy And as they are welcome at their first return so are they in all their attendance on him and addresses to him and service of him while they continue in his family They have boldness now to enter into the Heliest by the new and living way that is consecrated and are invited to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith Heb. 10. 19 22. In Christ we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him Ephes 3. 12. And God hath made us accepted in the beloved to the praise of the glory of his grace Ephes 1. 6. We are living sacrifices acceptable unto God Rom. 12. 1. And our services though weak are sacrifices acceptable and well-pleasing to him Phil. 4. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 3. 5. 4. when the prayers of the wicked are abhorred of the Lord his people serve him acceptably in reverence and godly fear Heb. 12. 28. He answereth their prayers and often speaketh peace unto them and signifieth his acceptance of them If they could bring him a house full of Gold and Silver they would not be so welcome to him as they are in bringing him their hearts their humbled hearts their broken tender melted hearts that burn in Love to him and flame up towards him in desires and in holy praise To
soul may well be fullest of Delight that is most Happy And that soul is nearest and likest unto God whose Will is most conformed to his Will The trouble of the Heart is its unsettledness when it is not bottomed on the Will of God When we feel that Gods Will doth Rule and satisfie us and that we would fain be what he would have us be and rest in his Disposing Will as well as obey his Commanding Will this gives abundant Pleasure and quietness to the soul 2. The holy workings of Charity in the soul are exceeding Pleasant All the acts of Love to God and man are very sweet This is the holy work that is its own wages 1. The â—â—â—â— of God is so sweet an exercise that verily my soul had rather be employed in it with sense and vigour then to be Lord of all the earth O could I but be taken up with the Love of God how easily could I spare the Pleasure of the flesh Might I but see the Loveliness of my dear Creator with a clearer view and see his glory in his noble works Might I but see and feel that saving Love which he hath manifested in the Redeemer till my soul were ravished and filled with his Love how little should I care who had the Pleasures of this deceitful world Had I more of that blessed spirit of Adoption and more of those filial affections to my heavenly Father which his unutterable Love bespeaks and were I more sensible of his abundant mercy and did my soul but breath and long after him more earnestly I would pitty the miserable Tyrants of the world that are worse then Beggars while they domineer and tast not of that Kingdom of Love and Pleasure that dwelleth in my breast All the Pleasures of the world are the laughing of a mad man or the sports of a child or the dreams of a sick man in comparison of the Pleasures of the Love of God 2. And the Love of Holiness the Image of God hath its degree of Pleasure And so hath the Love of the Holy servants of the Lord. There is a sweetness in the soul in its goings out after any Holy object in spiritual Love Yea more our very common Love of men and our Love of Enemies hath its proportion of pleasure far better then the sensual Pleasure of the ungodly To feel so much of the operations of grace and to answer our holy pattern in Loving them that hate us doth give much ease and pleasure to the mind The exercises of Love to God and man and that for his sake are the exceeding Pleasure of a gracious soul And here by the way you may take notice of one reason why Hypocrites and ungodly men find no such sweetness in the exercises of Religion Because they let alone the inward Pleasant work of Love which is the soul and life of Outward duty This inward work is the Pleasant work while they are strangers unto this their outward duties will be but a toll 〈…〉 seem a drudgery or a wearysome employment There is a Pleasure even in Holy Desires When a Christian feeleth his heart enlarged in longing after the wellfare of the Church and the good of others Though the absence of the thing desired be aâ—…e yet the exercise of holy desire which is an act of Love is pleasant to us If the Lustfu have a pleasure in their vile Desires and the Ambitious and the Covetous have a pleasure in their vain and delusory desires the wise well-guided desires of a true believer must needs be pleasant 4. Especially when Desire is accompanied with Hope All the Pleasures of this world are far short of affording that Rest and quiet to the soul as the Hope of Glory doth to the believer O happy soul that is acquainted by experience with the lively Hopes of the everlasting Happiness It is not the Hope of corruptible Riches nor of a fading inheritance but of the Crown that sadeth not and of the precious certain durable treasure It is not a Hope in the promise of a deceitful man but in the word of the everliving God! The soul that hath this Anchor needs not be tossed with those fears and cares and anxieties of mind that worldly men are subject to This Hope will never make them ashamed If a man were in a consumption or sentenced to Death would not the Hopes of Life upon certain Grounds be pleasanter to him then sport or mirth or lustful objects or any such present sensitive delights Much more if with the hopes of Life he had the hopes of all the felicities of Life and of the perpetuity of all these O may I but be enabled by faith to lift up the eye of my soul to God and view the everlasting mansions and by hope to take possession of them and say All this is mine in Title even upon the Promise of the faithful God! what greater Pleasure can my soul possess till it enter on the full Possession of those eternal Pleasures O poor deluded worldly men What is the Pleasure of your wealth to this O brutish sinners what is the Pleasure of your mirth and jollity your meat and drink your pride and bravery your lust and filthiness in comparison of this O poor Ambitious dreaming men that make such a stir for the Honour and Greatness of this world What is the Pleasure of your Idol-honour and short vainglory in comparison of this while you have it you have no Hope of Keeping it you are troubled with the thought of leaving it Had we no higher Hopes then yours how miserable should we be 5. The Trust and repose of the soul on God which is another part of the life of grace is exceeding Pleasant and quieting to the soul To find that we stand upon a Rock and that under us are the everlasting arms and that we have so full security for our salvation as the promise and Oath of the immutable God what a stay what a Pleasure is this to the Believer The troubles of the godly are most from the remnants of their unbelief The more they believe the more they are comforted and established The life of faith is a Pleasant life Faith could not conquer so many enemies and carry us through so much suffering and distress as you find in that cloud of testimonies Heb. 11. if it were not a very comfortable work Even we that see not the salvation ready to be revealed may yet greatly rejoyce for all the manifold temptations that for a season make us subject to some heavyness 1 Pet. 1. 5 6. And we that see not Jesus Christ yet Believing can love him and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory v. 8. The God of Hope doth sometimes fill his servants with all Joy and peace in believing and makes them even abound in Hope through the Power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. 6. Yea Joy is it self a part of the Holy qualification of the Saints and of