God and from a holy life when you run but into sin and Hell § 60. Tempt 30. Another great Temptation is in making them believe that their sins are but such Tempt 30. common infirmities as the best have They cannot deny but they have their faults but are not all men sinners They hope that they are not reigning unpardoned sins § 61. Direct 30. But O how great a difference is between a converted and an unconverted sinner Direct 30. between the failings of a Child and the contempt of a Rebel between a sinner that hath no gross or mortal sin and hateth bewaileth and striveth against his infirmities and a sinner that loveth his sin and is loth to leave it and maketh light of it and loveth not a holy life God will one day shew you a difference between these two when you see that there are siners that are justified and saved and sinners that are condemned § 62. BUt here are many subordinate Temptations by which Satan perswades them that their sins Tempt Temp. 1. are but infirmities One is because their sin is but in the heart and appeareth not in outward deeds And they take restraint for sanctification § 63. Direct 1. Alas man the Life and Reign of sin is in the Heart That is it's Garrison and Direct 1. Throne The life of sin lyeth in the prevalence of your lusts within against the Power of Reason and Will All outward sins are but acts of obedience to the reigning sin within and a gathering Tribute for this which is the King For this it is that they make provision Rom. 13. 14. On this all is consumed Iames 4. 3. Original sin may be reigning sin as a King may be born a King Sin certainly reigneth till the soul be converted and born again § 64. Tempt 2. The Devil tells them it is but an infirmity because it is no open gross disgraceful Tempt 2. sin It 's hard to believe that they are in danger of Hell for sins which are accounted small § 65. Direct 2. But do you think it is no mortal heinous sin to be void of the Love of God and Direct 2. holiness to Love the flesh and the world above him to set more by Earth than Heaven and do more for it However they shew themselves these are the great and mortal sins Sin is not less dangerous for lying secret in the heart The root and heart are usually unseen Some Kings as in China Persia c. keep out of sight for the honour of their Majesty Kings are the spring of Government but actions of State are executed by Officers When you see a man go or work you know that it is something within which is the Cause of all If sin appeared without as it is within it would lose much of its Power and Majesty Then Ministers and friends and every good man would cast a stone at it but its secresie is its peace The Devil himself prevaileth by keeping out of sight If he were seen he would be less obeyed So is it with the Reigning sins of the heart Pride and Covetousness may be Reigning sins though they appear not in any notorious disgraceful course of life David's hiding his sin or Rachel her Idol made them not the better It is a mercy to some men See Jer. 4. 14. Hos. 7. 6 7. that God permitteth them to fall into some open scandalous sin which may tend to humble them who would not have been humbled nor convinced by heart-heart-sins alone An Oven is hottest when it is stopped § 66. Tempt 3. Satan tells them they are not unpardoned reigning sins because they are common Tempt 3. in the world If all that are as bad as I must be condemned say they God help a great number § 67. Direct 3. But know you not that Reigning sin is much more common than saving holiness Direct 3. and that the gate is wide and the way is broad that leadeth to destruction and many go in at it Salvation is as rare as holiness and damnation as common as Reigning sin where it is not cured This sign therefore makes against you § 69. Tempt 4. But saith the Tempter they are such sins as you see good men commit You play Tempt 4. at the same games as they you do but what you see them do and they are pardoned § 68. Direct 4. You must judge the man by his works and not the works by the man And there Direct 4. is more to be lookt at than the bare matter of an act A good man and a bad may play at the same game but not with the same end nor with the same love to sport nor so frequently and long to the loss of time Many drops may wear a stone Many stripes with small twigs may draw blood Many mean men in a Senate have been as great Kings You may have many of these little sins set all together which plainly make up a carnal life The power of a sin is more considerable than the outward shew A poor man if he be in the place of a Magistrate may be a Ruler And a sin materially small and such as better men commit may be a sin in Power and Rule with you and concur with others which are greater § 70. Tempt 5. But saith the Tempter they are but sins of Omission and such are not reigning Tempt 5. sins § 71. Direct 5. Sins of Omission are alwayes accompanied with some positive sensual affection Direct 5. to the creature which diverteth the soul and causeth the omission And so Omission is no small part of the Reigning sin The not using of Reason and the Will for God and for the mastering of sensuality is much of the state of ungodliness in man Denying God the heart and life is no small sin God made you to do good and not only to do no harm Else a Stone or Corpse were as good a Christian as you for they do less harm than you If sin have a Negative Voice in your Religion whether God shall be worshipped and obeyed or not it is your King It may shew its power as well by commanding you not to pray and not to consider and not to read as in commanding you to be drunk or swear The wicked are described by omissions such as will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts Psal. 10. 4. Such as know not God and call not on his name Jer. 10. 25. That have no truth or mercy or knowledge of God Hos. 4. 1. That feed not cloath not visit not Christ in his members Matth. 25. that hide their Talents Matth. 25. Indeed if God have not your hearts the creature hath it and so it is omission and commission that go together in your reigning sin § 72. Tempt 6. But saith the Tempter they are but sins of ignorance and therefore they are not reigning Tempt 6. sins At least you are not certain that
they are sins § 73. Direct 6. And indeed do you not know that it is a sin to love the world better than God Direct 6. and fleshly pleasure better than Gods service and Riches better than grace and holiness and to do more for the body than for the soul and for earth than for Heaven Are you uncertain whether these are sins And do you not feel that they are your sins You cannot pretend ignorance for these But what causeth your Ignorance Is it because you would fain know and cannot Do you read and hear and study and enquire and pray for knowledge and yet cannot know Or is it not because you would not know or think it not worth the pains to get it or because you love your sin And will such wilful ignorance as this excuse you No it doth make your sin the greater It sheweth the greater dominion of sin when it can use thee as the Philistines did Sampson put out thy eyes and make a â—rudge of thee and conquer thy Reason and make thee believe that evil is good and good is evil Now it hath mastered the principal fortress of thy soul when thy understanding is mastered by it He is reconciled indeed to his enemy who taketh him to be a friend Do you not know that God should have your heart and Heaven should have your chiefest care and diligence and that you should make the Word of God your Rule and your delight and meditation day and night If you know not these things it is because you would not know them And it is a miserable case to be given up to a blinded mind Take heed lest at last you commit the horridst sins and do not know them to be sins For such there are that mock at Godliness and persecute Christians and Ministers of Christ and know not that they do ill but think they do God service John 16. 2. If a man will make himself drunk and then kill and steal and abuse his neighbours and say I knew not that I did ill it shall not excuse him This is your case You are drunken with the love of fleshly pleasure and worldly things and these carry you so away that you have neither heart nor time to study the Scriptures and hear and think what God saith to you and then say that you did not know § 74. Tempt 7. But saith the Tempter it cannot be a mortal reigning sin because it is not committed Tempt 7. with the whole heart nor without some strugling and resistance Dost thou not feel the Spirit striving against the flesh And so it is with the Regenerate Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 7. 20 21 22 23. The good which thou dost not do thou wouldst do and the evil which thou dost thou wouldst not do so then it is no more thou that dost it but sin that dwelleth in thee In a sensual unregenerate person there is but one party there is nothing but flesh but thou feelest the combat between the Flesh and the Spirit within thee § 75. Direct 7. This is a snare so subtile and dangerous that you have need of eyes in your head Direct 7. to scape it Understand therefore 1. That as to the two Texts of Scripture much abused by the Tempter they speak not at all of mortal reigning sin but of the unwilling infirmities of such as had subdued all such sin and walked not after the flesh but after the Spirit and whose wills were habitually bent to good and fain would have been perfect and not have been guilty of an idle thought or word or of any imperfection in their holiest service but lived up to all that the Law requireth but this they could not do because the flesh did cast many stops before the will in the performance But this is nothing to the case of one that liveth in gross sin and an ungodly life and hath strivings and convictions and uneffectual wishes to be better and to turn but never doth it This is but sinning against Conscience and resisting the Spirit that would convert you and it maketh you worthy of many stripes as being rebellious against the importunities of Grace Sin may be resisted where it is never conquered It may Reign nevertheless for some contradiction Every one that resisteth the King doth not depose him from his Throne It 's a dangerous deceit to think that every good desire that contradicteth sin doth conquer it and is a sign of saving grace It must be a desire after a state of godliness and an effectual desire too There are degrees of Power some may have a less and limited power and yet be Rulers As the evil Spirits that possessed mens bodies were a Legion in one and What Resistance of sin may be in the ungodly but one in others yet both were possessed So is it here Grace is not without resistance in a holy Soul there is some remnants of corruption in the will it self resisting the good and yet it followeth not that Grace doth not Rule So is it in the sin of the unregenerate No man in this life is so good as he will be in Heaven or so bad as he will be in Hell Therefore none is void of all moral good And the least good will resist evil in its degree as Light doth darkness As in these cases § 76. 1. There is in the unregenerate a remnant of natural knowledge and conscience some discoveries of God and his will there are in his works God hath not left himself without witness See Acts 14. 17. 17. 27. Rom. 1. 19 20. 2. 7 8 9. This Light and Law of Nature governed the Heathens And this in its measure resisteth sin and assisteth conscience § 77. 2. When supernatural extrinsick Revelation in the Scripture is added to the Light and Law of Nature and the ungodly have all the same Law as the best it may do more § 78. 3. Moreover an ungodly man may live under a most powerful Preacher that will never let him alone in his sins and may stir up much fear in him and many good purposes and almost perswade him to be a true Christian and not only to have some uneffectual wishings and strivings against sin but to do many things after the Preacher as Herod did after Iohn and to escape the common pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2. 20. § 79. 4. Some sharp affliction added to the rest may make him seem to others a true penitent when he is stopt in his course of sin as Balaam was by the Angel with a drawn Sword and feeth that he cannot go on but in danger of his life and that God is still meeting him with some cross and hedging up his way with thorns for such mercy he sheweth to some of the ungodly this may not only breed resistance of sin but some reformation When the Babylonians were planted in Samaria they feared not God and he sent Lyons among them and then they feared him and
driving faithful reproof and admonition almost out of the world because men are so proud that they will not bear it Hence it is that others hear oftner of mens faults than they do themselves and that backbiting is grown the common fashion because proud sinners drive away reprovers by their impatience and displeasure Husbands and Wives yea Servants with their Masters are so far out of love with just reproof that they can hardly bear it He must be exceeding skilful in smoothing and oyling every word and making it more like to a commendation or flattery than a reproof that will escape their indignation § 73. Sign 22. When a proud man is justly reproved he studieth presently to deny or extenuate Sign 22. his fault to shew you that he is more tender of his honour than of his honesty It is a hard thing to bring him to a free confession and to thank you for your love and faithfulness and to resolve upon more watchfulness for the time to come When the humble soul is readier to believe that he is faulty than that he is innocent and to say more against himself than you shall say if truly This one sign may tell you how commonly pride reigneth in the world How few are they among many that are heartily thankful for a just and necessary reproof Mark them whether the first word they speak in answer to you be not either a denyal or an excuse or an upbraiding you with something that they think you faulty in or else a passionate proud repulse bidding you meddle with your selves § 74. Sign 23. Pride maketh men talkative and more desirous to speak than to hear and to teach Sign 23. than to be taught because such think highly of their own understandings and think others have Inter Benedicti signa Humilitatis in regula est Ut pauca verba etiam rationalia loquatur non câ—amosa voce Taciturnitas usque ad interrogationâ—m sed haeâ— semper intelligenda sunt salvo amâ—re veritatis animarum more need of their instructions than they of other mens Not that Humility is any enemy to communicative Charity or to zealous endeavours for the converting and edifying of souls But a teaching talking disposition where there is no need and beyond the measure of your calling and abilities when you have more need to learn your selves is the fruit of Pride When you take less heed what another saith to you than you expect he should take of what you say to him when your talk is not so much by way of question as becomes a learner but in the discourses and dictates of a Teacher when you are so full of any thing that is your own and so contemptuous of what is said by others that you have not the patience to hear them silently till they come to the end but unmannerly interrupt them and set in your selves which is as much as to say Hold your tongue and let me speak that am more wise and worthy when you strive to have the most words and to be speaking as Horses in a race strive who shall go foremost This is because pride puffs you up and moves your tongues as a leaf is shaken by the wind it fills your sails and makes you like Bagpipes that are lowdest when they are full of wind and pressed Eccl. 10. 14. A fool is full of words Prov. 10. 19. In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin but he that refraineth his lips is wise § 75. Sign 24. Pride maketh men excessively loth to be beholden to others so that some will Sign 24. starve or perish before they will stoop so far as to seek or be obliged to thankfulness by any especicially if they be such as they have any quarrell with And this they take for manlike gallantry and a scorning to be base I confess that as Paul saith to servants if we can be free we should rather choose it and that no man should unnecessarily make himself a debtor to another by being beholding to him especially Ministers who should avoid all Temptations of dependance upon man and therefore should neither hang on Great ones lest they be tempted to unfaithful silence or flattery nor needlesly live on the peoples charity lest they be hindred from the free exercise of their Ministry Therefore Paul laboured with his hands where he thought it would hinder his work to be chargeable 2 Cor. 11 9. 1 Thess. 2. 9. 2 Thess 3. 8. to the Churches or give occasion to the envious to reproach him And he would rather dye than any should make this his glorying void 1 Cor. 9. 15. Innocency and Independency as Mr. Bolton was wont to say do steel the face and help a Minister to be bold and faithful As Camerarius said when he was invited to the Court Alterius ne sit qui suus esse potest But yet man is a sociable creature and we are made to be helpful to each other we are like the wheels of a Watch that can none of them do their work alone without the concurrence of the rest And therefore a proud man that would live wholly on himself and scorneth to be beholden would break himself off from the place that God hath set him in and separate himself from humane society and be either a world of himself or a God to others But God hath caused all the members purposely to stand in need of one another that none might be despised and that all might still exercise Love in communicating and Humility in accepting of each others help § 76. Sign 25. Pride maketh people desirous to equall their Superiours and exceed their equalâ— Sign 25. in Apparel or hansome dwellings and provisions and entertainments and all appearances that tend to 〈…〉 1. 〈◊〉 subdere se majori non praeferre se aequali 2. Abundans subdere se aequali nec praeferre se minori 3. Perfecta subdere se mâ—n 〈◊〉 Gloss. sup Matth. 3 Humâ—itatis 7. graâ—us secundùm Anselmum sunt 1. Opinione 1. Se contempâ—â—bilem cognoscere 2. Hoc nâ—n dâ—â—â—â—re 2. Manifestatione 1. Hoc confâ—â—eri 2. Hoc persuadeâ—e 3. Patienter sustinere haec dici 3. Voluntate 1. Pati contemptibiliter se tractaâ—i 2. Hoc idem amaâ—e Anselm lib. de similit set them out and make them seem considerable in the world For it excessively regards the eye of man A fit respect to Decency must be had so we place no greater a necessity in it than we ought But pride would sain go with the highest and have more curiosity than needs and maketh a greater matter of Decency than the thing requireth I am not of their humour that censure every man whose hair is not of their cut and whose garments are not of their fashion and who are bred in a way of more gentility and ceremony than my self But yet the affectation of imitating fashion-mongers and bearing a port above ones rank and rather
a continual suâ—vitv affording still fresh delights though thou meditate on him a thousand years or to all eternity Thou maist better say that the Ocean hath not water enough for thee to swim in or that the Earth hath not room enough for thee to tread upon than that there is not matter enough in God for thy longest Meditations and most delighting satisfying thoughts The blessed Angels and Saints in Heaven will find enough in God alone to employ their minds to all eternity O horrid darkness and atheism that yet remaineth on our hearts that we should want matter for our thoughts to keep them from feeding upon air or filth or want matter for our delight to keep our mindâ— from begging it at the creatures door or hungring for the husks that feed the Swine when we have the Infinite God Omnipotent Omniscient most good and bountiful our life and hope and happiness to think on with delight § 3. Direct 3. If you have but an eye of faith to see the things of the unseen world as revealed Direct 3. in the sacred Word you cannot want matter to employ your thoughts Scripture is the glass in which 3. The world to come you may see the other world There you may see the Antient of Dayes the Eternal Majesty shining in his Glory for the felicitating of holy glorified Spirits There you may see the humane nature advanced above Angels and enjoying the highest Glory next to the uncreated Majesty and Christ reigning as the King of all the world and all the Angels of God obeying honouring and worshipping him you may see him sending his Angels on his gracious messages to the lowest members of his body the little ones of his flock on earth you may see him interceding for all his Saints and procuring their peace and entertainment with the Father and preparing for their reception when they pass into those mansions and welcoming them one by one as they pass hence There you may see the glorious celestial society attending admiring extolling worshipping the Great Creator the Gracious Redeemer and the Eternal Spirit with uncessant glorious and harmonious Praise you may see them burning in the delicious flames of holy Love drawn out by the Vision of the face of God and by the streams of Love which he continually powreth out upon them you may see the magnetick attraction of the uncreated Love and the felicitating closure of the attracted Love of holy Spirits thus united unto God by Christ and feasting everlastingly upon him you may see the ravishments of joy and the unspeakable pleasures which all these blessed Spirits have in this transporting Sight and Love and Praise You may see the extasies of Ioy which possess the souls of those that are newly passed from the Body and escaped the sins and miseries of this world and find there such sudden ravishing entertainment unspeakably beyond their former expectations conceivings or belief You may see there with what wonder what pity what lothing and detestation those holy glorified souls look down upon earth on the negligence contempt sensuality and profaneness of the dreaming and distracted world You may see there what you shall be for ever if you be the holy ones of Christ and where you must dwell and what you must do and what you shall enjoy All this you may so know by sound believing as to be carried to it as sincerely as if your eyes had seen it Heb. 11. 1. 2 Cor. 5. 7. And yet can your thoughts be idle or carnal or worldly and sinful for want of work Are your meditations dry and barren for want of matter to employ them Doth the fire of Love or other holy affections go out for want of fuell to feed it Is not Heaven and Eternity spatious enough for your minds to expatiate in Is not such a world as that sufficient for you to study with fresh and delectable variety of discoveries from day to day or that which is more delightful than variety Would you have more matter or higher and more excellent matter or sweeter and more pleasant matter or matter which doth nearlier concern your selves Get that faith which all that shall be saved Live by which makes things absent as operative in some measure as if they were present and that which will be as if it now were and that which is unseen as if it were now open to your eyes and then your Thoughts will want neither matter to work upon nor altogether an actuating excitation If this were not enough I might tell you what Faith can see also in Hell which is not unworthy See in my Tract on Heb 11. 1. called The Life of Faith of your serious Thoughts What work is there what direful complaints and lamentations what self-tormentings and what sense of Gods displeasure and for what But I will wholly pass this by that you may see there is delightful work enough for your thoughts and that I set you no unpleasant task § 4. Direct 4. Get but the Love of God well kindled in your Heart and it will find employment Direct 4. even the most high and sweet employment for your Thoughts Your selves shall be the Judges whether 4. The work of Love your Love doth not for the most part rule your thoughts assigning them their work and directing them when and how long to think on it See but how a lustful lover is carried after a beloved silly piece of flesh Their thoughts will so easily and so constantly run after it that they need no spur Mark in what a stream it carrieth them how it feedeth and quickneth their invention and elevateth an ordinary fancy into a Poetical and passionate strain What abundance of matter can a Lover find in the narrow compass of a dirty Corpse for his thoughts to work on night and day And will not the Love of God then much more fill and feast your thoughts How easily can the Love of money find matter for the thoughts of the worldling from one year to another It s easie to think of any thing which you love O what a happy spring of Meditation is a rooted predominant Love of God Love him strongly and you cannot forget him You will then see him in every thing that meets you and hear him in every one that speaketh to you If you miss him or have offended him you will think on him with grief If you taste of his Love you will think of him with Delight If you have but hope you will think of him with Desire and your Minds will be taken up in seeking him and in understanding and using the Means by which you may come to enjoy him Love is ingenious and full and quick and active and resolute It is valiant and patient and exceeding industrious and delighteth to encounter difficulties and to appear in labours and to shew it self in advantageous sufferings and therefore it maketh the mind in which it reigneth exceeding busie and findeth the
that you must there exercise II. What there is objectively presented before you in the Sacrament to exercise all these Graces III. At what seasons in the administration each of these inward works are to be done § 47. I. The Graces to be exercised are these besides that holy fear and reverence common to all Worship 1. A humble sense of the odiousness of sin and of our undone condition as in our selves and a displeasure against our selves and loathing of our selves and melting Repentance for the sins we have committed as against our Creator and as against the Love and Mercy of a Redeemer and against the holy Spirit of Grace 2. A hungring and thirsting desire after the Lord Jesus and his Grace and the favour of God and communion with him which are there represented and offered to the soul. 3. A lively faith in our Redeemer his death resurrection and intercession and a trusting our miserable souls upon him as our sufficient Saviour and help And a hearty Acceptance of him and his benefits upon his offered terms 4. A Ioy and gladness in the sense of that unspeakable mercy which is here offered us 5. A Thankful heart towards him from whom we do receive it 6. A fervent Love to him that by such Love doth seek our Love 7. A triumphant Hope of life eternal which is purchased for us and sealed to us 8. A willingness and resolution to deny our selves and all this world and suffer for him that hath suffered for our Redemption 9. A Love to our Brethren our neighbours and our enemies with a readiness to relieve them and to forgive them when they do us wrong 10. And a firm Resolution for future obedience to our Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier according to our Covenant § 48. II. In the naming of these Graces I have named their Objects which you should observe as distinctly as you can that they may be operative 1. To help your Humiliation and Repentance you bring thither a loaden miserable soul to receive a pardon and relief And you see before you the sacrificed Son of God who made his soul an offering for sin and became a Curse for us to save us who were accursed 2. To draw out your Desires you have the most excellent gifts and the most needful mercies presented to you that this world is capable of Even the Pardon of sin the Love of God the Spirit of Grace and the hopes of Glory and Christ himself with whom all this is given 3. To exercise your Faith you have Christ here first represented as crucified before your eyes and then with his benefits freely given you and offered to your Acceptance with a Command that you refuse him not 4. To exercise your Delight and Gladness you have this Saviour and this Salvation tendered to you and all that your souls can well desire set before you 5. To exercise your Thankfulness what could do more than so great a Gift so dearly purchased so surely sealed and so freely offered 6. To exercise your Love to God in Christ you have the fullest manifestation of his attractive Love even offered to your eyes and taste and heart that a soul on earth can reasonably expect in such wonderful condescension that the greatness and strangeness of it surpasseth a natural mans belief 7. To exercise your Hopes of Life Eternal you have the price of it here set before you you have the Gift of it here sealed to you and you have that Saviour represented to you in his suffering who is now there reigning that you may remember him as expectants of his Glorious Coming to judge the world and glorifie you with himself 8. To exercise your self-denyal and resolution for suffering and contempt of the world and fleshly pleasures you have before you both the greatest Example and Obligation that ever could be offered to the world when you see and receive a Crucified Christ that so strangely denyed himself for you and set so little by the world and flesh 9. To exercise your Love to Brethren yea and enemies you have his example before your eyes that Loved you to the death when you were enemies And you have his holy servants before your eyes who are amiable in him through the workings of his Spirit and on whom he will have you shew your Love to himself 10. And to excite your Resolution for future Obedience you see his double Title to the Government of you as Creator and as Redeemer and you feel the obligations of Mercy and Gratitude and you are to renew a Covenant with him to that end even openly where all the Church are witnesses So that you see here are powerful objects before you to draw out all these Graces and that they are all but such as the work requireth you then to exercise § 49. III. But that you may be the readier when it cometh to practice I shall as it were lead you by the hand through all the parts of the administration and tell you when and how to exercise every grace and those that are to be joyned together I shall take together that needless distinctness do not trouble you 1. When you are called up and going to the Table of the Lord exercise your Humility Desire and Thankfulness and say in your hearts What Lord dost thou call such a wretch as I What! me that have so oft despised thy mercy and wilfully offended thee and preferred the filth of this world and the pleasures of the flesh before thee Alas it is thy wrath in Hell that is my due But if Love will choose such an unworthy guest and Mercy will be honoured upon such sin and misery I come Lord at thy call I gladly come Let thy will be done and let that mercy which inviteth me make me acceptable and gratiously entertain me and let me not come without the wedding garment nor unreverently rush on holy things nor turn thy mercies to my bane § 50. 2. When the Minister is confessing sin prostrate your very souls in the sense of your unworthiness and let your particular sins be in your eye with their heinous aggravations The whole need not the Physicion but the sick But here I need not put words into your mouths or minds because the Minister goeth before you and your hearts must concurr with his Confessions and put in also the secret sins which he omitteth § 51. 3. When you look on the Bread and Wine which is provided and offered for this holy use remember that it is the Creator of all things on whom you live whose Laws you did offend and say in your hearts O Lord how great is my offence who have broken the Laws of him that made me and on whom the whole Creation doth depend I had my Being from thee and my daily bread and should I have requited thee with disobedience Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son § 52. 4. When the
John 6. 39. that had never been on earth would have seemed a stranger to us and one that never was acquainted with our miseries nor had testified his Love at so dear a rate as might have convinced and encouraged and won our hearts And a Christ on earth that had not passed for us into Heaven would have seemed to us but an insufficient conquered friend and were unfit to provide us a Mansion with the Father and to receive our souls when they are separated from the flesh But now we have a great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens and was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin and therefore can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities And therefore we may come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4. 14 15 16. This is your time of need And here is a supply for all your needs As we may come boldly through our High Priest to the Throne of Grace so may we boldly pass by his conduct into the presence of God in glory For he is purposely gone before to prepare a place for us that where he is there we may be also John 14. 1 2 3. O what a joy is it to our departing souls that we have our Head and Saviour already in possession of the Kingdom which we are passing to What a support and joy is it to receive this message from our Ascending Head Say to my Brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God John 20. 17. What a joy is it to read his Promise John 12. 26. If any man serve me and let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be You have served him and are following him and now are going to be with him where he is There you shall be delivered from the darkness of this world How dimly did we see through the Lanthorn of the flesh How little did we know and how much were we ignorant of And what pains did our little knowledge cost us But there one sight of the face of God will put an end to this longsome night and will shew you that which all the reading and study of a thousand years could never satisfactorily have shewn you There you shall understand the works of God the frame of the Creation the the place and office and reason of all things which here you knew not The mysteries of the Gospel which Angels pry into will be there much more unfolded to you than the clearest Divines were able to explain them All Sciences there shall be one Pansophie and all things knowable Hâ— 8. 12. 22. Heb. 1. 14. Psal. 34. 7. Luke 15. 10. Luke 16 2â— Luke 20. 36. Phil. 3. 19 20 21. shall appear to you in their wondrous perfect harmony What welcome will those blessed Angels give you that here disdained not to minister for you and bear you up in all your wayes and interessed themselves in your concernments rejoycing before God at your Conversion How glad then will they be of your safe arrival at the promised harbour of felicity with themselves What Joy will it be to you to be presently entertained and welcomed into the acquaintance of those Blessed Spirits and of all the holy souls that are delivered from this flesh and world and to see their order and be numbred with their society and to be employed in their joyful work O how much better company is that than the best below There is no ignorance and therefore no error no want of love and no contention nor narrow private interests to contend for but all made happy in perfect love in him that is their universal end and happiness There is no dissention nor perverse disputes no ignorant zeal nor blinding passions no proud or covetous designs and therefore no hurtful means to prosecute them no seeming necessity to hurt our brethren to advance or enrich or save our selves No slanderers there condemn the souls whom Christ doth justifie nor take away the righteousness of Heb. 11. 35 36 37 38. Matth. 24. 6. Psal. 46. 9. James 4. 1 2. the righteous from him No cruel mockings imprisonments or banishments no wandring destitute afflicted or tormented no more suffering for the sake of righteousness but having suffered with Christ they are now reigning with him and those of whom the world was not worthy are taken to God from an unworthy world There are no troublesome mutations or confusions no wars nor rumors of wars because no lusts to war in their members But united souls in the harmony of love do without any discord praise the Lord. The Church is not there divided into Sects and Factions either through the pride or pievishness of its members None scrupleth communion with the rest None silence others from speaking the praises of their Redeemer nor drive away others from their brotherhood and communion There is neither unrighteous Law nor disobedient subject nor unpeaceable neighbour nor unfaithful friend nor hurtful or malitious enemy There is no afflicted friend to mourn for nor no disconsolate soul to grieve with No ignorant person to instruct nor obstinate heart to perswade or pray for No fearful doubting Christian to be comforted nor weak and wavering soul to be confirmed No imprudent scandalous actions of the godly to be lamented No remnants of Pride self-conceitedness or any delusion to keep out the light No blemishes in them for the enemies to reproach nor no malignant enemies to reproach them No misrepresentations of things or persons no raising or receiving false reports no sin of our own to grieve for or to strive against and no sin of others to trouble the society or be lamented There we shall have no suffering friend to suffer with None labouring of want while you have plenty nor any groaning in pain and sickness while you are well As no want or pain of your own will afflict you so no suffering Zeph. 3. 17 18. Ezek. 9. 4. 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. of your friends will interrupt your joy Your comforts shall not be turned into lamentations for the madness and obstinate wickedness of a Sodomitical generation about you nor your righteous soul be vexed with their filthy and sottish conversation You shall not dwell in a world where the most part is drowned in Heathenism and Infidelity nor in a Church defiled with Papal tyranny cruelty covetousness or prophaneness The whole Society will shine in Light and flame in Love and none through any weakness or corruption will be a clog or hinderance to another You shall above all this behold the person of your Glorified Redeemer You shall see that Body in its Glorious Change which once was humbled to the Virgins Womb and to a life of poverty and to the scorns of sinners to be spit upon and buffeted and crowned with thorns and first made a laughing stock and then hang'd up to dye
Lords Supper which without a Minister may not be celebrated because Christs part cannot be otherwise performed than by some one in his name and by his warrant to deliver his sealed Covenant to the receivers and to invest them visibly in the benefits of it and receive them that offer themselves in Covenant to him 7. It is also a Ministerial duty to instruct the people personally and watch over them at other times Acts 20. 20 28. And to be examples of the flock 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3. To have the Rule over the people and labour among them and admonish them 1 Thess. 5. 12. Heb. 13. 7 17. 1 Tim. 5. 17. To exercise holy discipline among them Titus 3. 10. Matth. 18. 17 18. 1 Cor. 5. To visit the sick and pray over them Iames 5. 14. Yea to take care of the poor See Dr. Hammond on 1 Cor. 12. 28. And all this cannot possibly be well done by uncertain transient Ministers but only by a resident stated Pastor no more than transient strangers can rule all our families or all the Christian Kingdoms of the world 8. And as this cannot be done but by stated Pastors so neither on transient persons ordinarily For who can teach them that are here to day and gone to morrow When the Pastor should proceed from day to day in adding one instruction to another the hearers will be gone and new ones in their place And how can vigilancy and discipline be exercised upon such transient persons whose faults and cases will be unknown Or how can they mutually help each other And seeing most in the world have fixed habitations if they have not also fixed Church-relations they must leave their habitations and wander or else have no Church Communion at all 9. And as this Necessity of fixed Pastors and flocks is confessed so that such de facto were ordinarily setled by the Apostles is before proved if any Scriptures may pass for proof The Institution and setlement then of particular worshipping Churches is out of doubt And so that two Forms of Church Government are Iure Divino the Universal Church Form and the particular 4. Besides this in the Apostles dayes there were under Christ in the Church Universal many General Officers that had the care of gathering and overseeing Churches up and down and were fixed by stated relation unto none Such were the Apostles Evangelists and many of their helpers in their dayes And most Christian Churches think that though the Apostolical extraordinary Gifts priviledges and Offices cease yet Government being an Ordinary part of their work the same form of Government which Christ and the Holy Ghost did settle in the first age were setled for all following ages though not with the same extraordinary Gifts and Adjuncts Because 1. We read of the setling of that form Reasons for a larger Episcopacy viz. General Officers as well as particular but we never read of any abolition discharge or cessation of the institution 2. Because if we affirm a cessation without proof we seem to accuse God of mutability as setling one form of Government for one age only and no longer 3. And we leave room for audacious Wits accordingly to question other Gospel Institutions as Pastors Sacraments c. and to say that they were but for an age 4. It was General Officers that Christ promised to be with to the end of the world Matth. 28. 20. Now either this will hold true or not If not then this General Ministry is to be numbered with the humane additions to be next treated of If it do then here is another part of the form of Government proved to be of Divine Institution I say not another Church For I find nothing called a Church in the New Testament but the Universal Church and the particular But another part of the Government of both Churches Universal and particular Because such General Officers are so in the Universal as to have a General Oversight of the particular As an Army is Headed only by the General himself and a Regiment by the Colonel and a Troop by the Captain But the General Officers of the Army the Lieutenants General the Majors General c. are under the Lord General in and over the Army and have a General oversight of the particular bodies Regiments and Troops Now if this be the Instituted form of Christs Church Government that he himself Rule absolutely as General and that he have some General Officers under him not any one having a charge of the whole but in the whole unfixedly or as they voluntarily part their Provinces and that each particular Church have its own proper Pastor one or more then who can say that No form of Church Government is of Divine Appointment or Command Object But the question is only Whether any sole form be of Gods commanding And whether another may not have as much said for it as this Answ. Either you mean Another instead of this as a Competitor or Another part conjunct with these parts 1. If the first be your sense then you have two works to do 1. To prove that these before mentioned were Mutable Institutions or that they were setled but disjunctively with some other and that the choice was left indifferent to men 2. To prove the Institution of your other form which you suppose left with this to mens free choice But I have already proved that both the General and particular Church form are setled for continuance as unchangeable Ordinances of God I suppose you doubt not of the continuance of Christs Supremacy and â—o of the Universal form And if you will prove that Church Assemblies with their Pastors may cease and some other way supply the room you must be strange and singular undertakers Disput. of Church-Gov Dâ—sâ— 3. The other two parts of the Government by General Officers and by Consociation of Churches are more disputed But it is the Circumstances of the last only that is controverted and not the thing And for the other I shall now add nothing to what I have said elsewhere 2. But if you only mean that Another part of the form may be jure divino as well as this that will but prove still that some form is jure divino But 3. If you mean that God having instituted the forms now proved hath left man at liberty to add more of his own I shall now come to examine that Case also Quest. 57. Whether any Forms of Churches and Church Government or any new Church Officers may lawfully be invented and made by man Answ. TO remove ambiguities 1. By the word Forms may be meant either that Relative form of such aggregate bodies which is their essence and denominateth them essentially or only some Accidental mode which denominateth them but accidentally 2. By Churches is meant either holy societies related by the foundation of a Divine Institution or else societies related by accident or by humane contract only 3. By Church Government is
thoughts a world of work If God be not in all the thoughts of the ungodly Psal. 10. 4. it is because he is not in his heart He may be nigh their mouths but is far from their reins Jer. 12. 2. Do those men believe themselves or would they be believed by any one that is wise who say they Love God above all and yet neither think of him nor love to think of him but are unwearied in thinking of their wealth and honours and the pleasures of their flesh Consider this ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Psal. 50. 22. § 5. Direct 5. Soundly understand the wonderful mysterie of mans Redemption and know Iesus Direct 5. Christ and you need not want employment for your thoughts For in him are hid all the Treasures of 5. Jesus Christ and all the work of Redemption wisdom and knowledge Col. 2. 3. He is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. If the study of Aristotle Plato Plotinus and their numerous followers and Commentators can find work for the thoughts of men that would know the works of God or would be accounted good Philosophers even for many years together or a great part of their lives what work then may a Christian find for his thoughts in Jesus Christ who of God is made to us wisdom and righteousness and sanâ—â—â—â—fication and redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. 1. 19. And therefore in him there is fulness of matter for our meditations As Paul determined to know nothing or make ostentation of no other knowledge but Christ crucified 1 Cor. 2. 2. So if your thoughts had nothing to work upon many years together but Christ crucified they need not stand still a moment for want of most suitable and delightful matter The mysterie of the Incarnation alone may find you work to search and admire many ages But if thence you proceed to that world of wonderful matter which you may find in his Doctrine Miracles example sufferings temptations victories resurrection ascension and in his Kingly Prophetical and Priestly Offices and in all the benefits which he hath purchased for his stock O what full and pleasant work is here for the daily thoughts of a believer The soul may dwell here with continual delight till it say with Paul Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Therefore daily bow your knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ of whâ—m the whole family in Heaven and earth is named that he will grant you according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that being rooted and grounded in Love you may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes. 3. 14. to 20. § 6. Direct 6. Search the holy Scriptures and acquaint your selves well with the Oracles of God Direct 6. which are able to make you wise unto salvation and you will find abundant matter for your thoughts If you cannot find work enough for your minds among all those heights and depths those excellencies and difficulties it is because you never understood them or never set your hearts to search them What mysterious Doctrines how sublime and heavenly are there for you to meditate on as long as you live What a perfect Law a system of precepts most spiritual and pure What terrible threatnings against offenders are there to be matter of your meditations What wonderful histories of Love and Mercy What holy examples What a treasury of precious promises on which lyeth our hope of life eternal What full and free expressions of grace What a joyful act of pardon and oblivion to penitent believing sinners In a word the character of our inheritance and the Law which we must be governed and judged by is there before us for our daily Meditation David that had much less of it than we saith O how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day Psal. 119. 97. And God said to Ioshua 1. 8. This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou maist observe to do according to all that is written therein And Moses commanded the Israelites that these words should be in their hearts and that they teach them diligently to their children and talk of them when they sate in their houses and when they walked by the way and when they lay down and when they rose up and to write them on the posts of their houses and on their gates c. that they might be sure to remember them Deut. 6. 7. § 7. Direct 7. Know thy self well as thou art the work of God and in thy self thou wilt find Direct 7. abundant matter for thy meditations There thou hast the natural Image of God to mediate on and 7. Our 〈…〉 as we are Gods wâ—â—k admire even the noble faculties of thy understanding and free will and executive power And thou hâ—st his Moral or Spiritual Image to meditate on if thou be not unregenerate even thy holy Wisdom Will and Power or thy holy Light and Love and Power with promptitude for holy practice and all in the Unity of holy Life And there thou hast his Relative Image to meditate See my Book of the 〈…〉 on even thy being 1. The Lord or Owner 2. The Ruler 3. The Benefactor to the inferiour creatures and their End O the world of mysteries which thou carriest continually about thee in that little room What abundance of wonders are in thy body which is fearfully and wonderfully made And the greater wonders in thy soul Thou art thy self the clearest glass that God is to be seen in under Heaven as thou art a man and a Saint And therefore the worthiest matter for thy own Meditations except that holy Word which is thy Rule and the Holy Church which is but a coalition of many such What a shame is it that almost all men do Live and dye such strangers to themselves as to be utterly unacquainted with the innumerable excellencies and mysteries which God hath laid up in them and yet to let their thoughts run out upon vanities and toyes and complain of their barrenness and want of matter to feed their better Meditations § 8. Direct 8. Be not a stranger to the many sins and wants and weaknesses of thy soul and thou Direct 8. never needest to be empty of matter for