Endeavours used by Satan for our Souls so does Satan to gain the Soul fas est ab hostes doceri We may learn this from our greatest Enemy that our Souls are worth all our care and pains in keeping being our Adversary the Devil thinks no pains too great to get them 1 Pet. 5.8 He goeth up and down seeking whom he may devour He compasses the Earth as we may read in the book of Job Job 1.7 Job 2.2 He had considered Job and so considers all others what temptation is likest to prevail what their tempers and distempers are what traps will take some and what snares others He knows our beloved sins and dresses them up so as we might be loath to part with them He did not desire to go into the herd of Swine that he might destroy them but that by that means he might tempt their owners as indeed it took effect the Gadarens preferring their Swine before their Souls or their Saviour When our Saviour came to cast him out of any one the Devil was tormented Why art thou come to torment us they cry it was not because they were forced to leave their Bodies but because by that means he should have no such opportunity to mischief their Souls Matth. 8.29 Luke 8.28 Oh this is a torment to Satan to be deprived of our Souls There is not a Sermon we hear but this Evil One is ready to take away the seed as soon as ever it is sown Matth. 13.19 there is not a Prayer we make but these fowls of air attend to light upon the Sacrifice and hardly can they be driven away Gen. 15.11 Wheresoever we are whatsoever we do the Devil attends and waits for advantage against us that he might but gain our Souls And oh that men were but so industrious to preserve their Souls as Satan is to ruine them The Philistines are upon thee and doest thou sleep The Thieves are up that intend to rob thee and doest not thou arise Satan does not do all this for nothing or for that which is worth but little This Eagle does not catch at Flyes he hunts for the precious Soul 4. The duration of our Souls 4. There is one Argument more to prove the Excellency of our Souls and that is if you consider their duration or lasting It is as a dead colour upon all the beauties and glories in the World that they are fading there is a worm at the root of the Gourd which men delight in and set with greatest content under Insomuch as 't is not yet resolved whether our comfort is greater whilst we have these outward things or our grief when we part from them to be sure the one must needs bear proportion unto the other and the more any thing is loved the loather we are to leave it Now that the Soul transcends in this respect the World and all that is in it It being to remain when they shall be no more may appear from the nature of the Soul which admits not those contrary qualities which acting upon one another destroy their subject in which they are There are many Treatises to prove the Immortality of the Soul which I will not so much as mention only one Argument Bernard uses Libro de Anima because I find it not elsewhere I shall set down here Immortalis anima est quoniam cum ipsa sibi vita sit sicut non est quo cadat à se sic non est quo cadat à vita The Soul of man being life unto its self as it cannot part with its self so it cannot part with its life the body therefore dyes because it hath its life not in its self but from the Soul which it may be severed from but the Soul lives not by vertue of its union with the Body but the Body lives by vertue of its union with the Soul I am the less intent upon my proving of this because all thinking men do grant it Nay it is an Antecedent verity to the Christian Religion unless our Souls be immortal our faith is vain and all those absurdities will follow which the Apostle reckons up 1 Cor. 15. as the consequents of denying the Resurrection of the Body Nay unless the Soul be immortal all Religion is but imposture and we are design'd upon and abused when we are call'd upon and perswaded to the worshipping and serving of God so that it is indeed as necessary forus to believe our Souls to be immortal as it is necessary for us to believe that there is a God and either a good man's hope or a wicked mans fears are sufficient Evidences of both That there is another life or a future state after this life a good man would not but believe and a wicked cannot but believe They are only inconsidering debauched men whose Lusts and Sins have made it greatly their Interest that they might dye like Beasts as well as they have lived like them Who did ever seem to question it I say seem to question it for their surda vulnera the wounds that Conscience makes in them would not pierce so deep nor look so sadly if they had such a lenitive as the thoughts that they might not be felt in the other world But o th Eternity Eternity What a shrill and dismal noise do it make in a wicked man's ear or heart rather when heard or thought on and on the contrary what melody is it to a gratious man to hear that his Soul is immortal and his Crown incorruptible But the Text supposes the Soul may be lost and what is that else Objection but that it dyes The Soul indeed may be lost and dye in a figurative sense Answer There is a great resemblance betwixt the death of the Body and that of the Soul The Body dyes when it is separated from the Soul by which it lives And the Soul dyes when it is separated from God who is its life Sicut anima vita est corporis sic Deus vita est animae Bern. Librâ—â— de Anima Take a Soul from the Body the Body stirrs breathes lives no more So if Gods Grace and Spirit be not in the Soul it moves not but is dead in trespasses and sins Sin does that to the Soul which Diseases and Mortal Wounds do to the Body In the day that thou eatest thereof i. e. whensoever thou sinnest thou shalt dye Gen. 2.17 I should here have concluded my Arguments for the preciousness of the Soul but I will add one or two more ad hominem which may affect men most according to what they are usually taken with and perswaded by And therefore 5. In the fifth place The Soul is the cause of that life 5. The Cause of our Life which we so prize and it preserves that body which we so value and certainly then if ye may be Judges your selves it is most considerable What is the Body of the most beloved Person without the Soul a stench and
our principal perfections in Heaven and Earth These he recommends by the most affectionate and obliging the most warming melting Perswasives the superlative Love of God to us and our Communion with the Saints in Nature and Grace In the former Verse the Apostle argues for the reality of the effect as an evidence of the Cause Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ that is the Saviour of the world foretold to the Prophets and expresses the truth of that Faith in a sutable conversation is born of God and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him Grace is not less powerful in producing tender reciprocal affections between the off-spring of the same heavenly Father than the subordinate endearments of Nature The pretence is vain of Love to God without loving his regenerate Children And in the Text he argues from the knowledge of the Cause to the discovering of the sincerity of the Effect By this we know that we love the Children of God with a holy affection if we love God and keep his Commandments There is but one difficulty to be removed that the force of the Apostles reasoning may appear 't is this a Medium to prove a thing must be of clearer evidence than what is concluded by it Now though a demonstration from the Cause be more noble and scientifical yet that which is drawn from the Effect is more near to Sence and more discernable And this is verified in the Instance before us for the Love of God who is absolutely spiritual in his Being and Excellencies doth not with that sensible fervour affect and passionately transport us as Love to his Children with whom we visibly converse and who are receptive of the most sensible testimonies of our Affection Accordingly the Apostle argues He that loves not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen As the Motives to love our Brethren from our conjunction in Nature and familiar Conversation are more capable to allure our Affections and more sensibly strike the Heart than the invisible Deity who is infinitely above us by the same reason we may more easily judge of the truth of our Love to them than of our Love to God To this the Answer is clear the Apostle doth not speak of the Love of God as a still silent contemplative affection confined to to the superior Faculty of the Soul but as a burning shining affection like Fire * Lumine qui semper proditur ipso suo active and declarative of it self in those effects that necessarily flow from it that is voluntary obedience to his Commands and thus it becomes manifest to the renewed Conscience and is a most convincing proof of the sincerity of our Love to the Saints The Text being cleared affords this Doctrine Doctrine The sincerity of our Love to the Children of God is certainly discovered by our Love to God and Obedience to his Commands For the Illustration and Proof of the Point I will briefly shew 1. Who are described by this Title the Children of God 2. What is included in our Love to them 3. What the Love of God is and the obedience that flows from it 4. How from love to God and willing obedience to his Commands we may convincingly know the sincerity of our love to his Children To explain the first we must consider that this Title the Children of God is given upon several accounts 1. By Creation the Angels are called the Sons of God and Men his off-spring The reason of the Title is 1. The manner of their production by his immediate Power Thus he is stiled The Father of Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of the Flesh For though the conception and forming of the Body be the work of his secret Providence yet 't is by the hand of Nature the Parents concurring as the second Causes of it but the production of the Soul is to be entirely ascribed to his power without the intervention of any Creature 2. In their spiritual immortal Nature and the intellectual operations flowing from it there is an Image and resemblance of God from whence this Title is common to all reasonable Creatures and peculiar to them for though the Matter may be ordered and fashioned by the hand of God into a figure of admirable beauty yet 't is not capable of his likeness and image so that neither the Lights of Heaven nor the Beasts and plants of the Earth are called his Children II. By external Calling and Covenant some are denominated his Children for by this Evangelical Constitution God is pleased to receive Believers into a filial relation Indeed where there is not a cordial consent and subjection to the Terms of the Covenant visible Profession and the receiving the external Seals of it will be of no advantage but the publick serious owning of the Gâ—â—pel entitles a person to be of the Society of Christians and filius and foederatus are all one III. There is a Sonship that arises from supernatural regeneration that is the communicating a new nature to man whereby there is a holy and blessed change in the directive and commanding Faculties the Understanding and Will and in the Affections and consequently in the whole Life This is wrought by the efficacy of the Word and Spirit and is called by our Saviour Regeneration because it is not our original carnal Birth but a second and celestial 'T is with the new man in Grace as with an Infant in Nature that has the essential parts that compose a man a Soul endowed with all its faculties a Body with all its organs and parts but not in the vigor of mature age Thus renewed Holiness in a Christian is compleat and entire in its parts but not in perfection of degrees there is a universal inclination to all that is holy just and good and a universal aversion from sin though the executive power be not equal And regenerate Christians are truly called the Children of God for as in natural generation there is communicated a Principle of Life and sutable Operations from whence the Title and Relation of a Father arises so in Regeneration there are derived such holy and heavenly qualities to the Soul as constitute a Divine Nature in man whereby he is partaker of the Life and Likeness of God himself from hence he is a Child of God and has an interest and propriety in his Favour Power and Promises and all the good that flows from them and a Title to the eternal inheritance Secondly I will shew what is included in our Love to the Children of God 1 Pet. 1.22 1. The Principle of this Love is Divine The Soul is purified through the Spirit to unfeigned Love of the Brethren Naturally the Judgment is corrupted and the Will depraved that carnal respects either of Profit or Pleasure are the quick and sensible incitements of Love and till the Soul be cured of the sensual contagion the
and not dead Stephen when dying expected the continuance of his Soul in being and its entrance into Blis Act. 7.59 saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit The Thief upon the Cross had a promise from Christ that that day he should be with him in Paradise in his Body he is not yet therefore in his Soul without the Body therefore the Soul doth exist without the Body Paul believed the Immortality of his Soul and its existence after the death of his Body Phil. 1.23 I am in a strait having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better If his Soul had not existed he had not been a moment sooner with Christ nay his Soul in the Body had some communion with Christ if it dyed with the Body it had none and that was not far better but worse 3. The original of the Soul by immediate Creation is usually brought as an argument of the Immortality and Continuance of it to Eternity to assert the Creation of the Soul hath this difficulty attending on it how to clear the propagating of Original Sin to affirm the Soul is extraduce propagated by generation hath this knot to be untied how it doth consist with the Immortality of the Soul when that which is generable is corruptible but I for present shall take their arguing which prove it shall exist for ever because it is created immediately by God according to the worne axiom whatsoever is ingenerable is also incorruptible The Soul cannot be from the Matter or Bodies of the Parents because that which is Spiritual and Immaterial cannot be produced out of that which is a Corporeal and Material Substance for then the effect would be more noble than its cause and the cause would give and impart something to the effect which it self hath not but that which any thing hath not it cannot give to another as in a Spiritual so in a Natural sense that which is born of the flesh is flesh but the Soul is a Spirit Nor are the Souls of the Children from the Souls of the Parents either by Multiplication or Division not by Division that part of the Souls of the Parents should be communicated and pass from the Parents to the Children because it is a Spirit and therefore indivisible into parts because it hath none being without matter therefore without quantity therefore without divisible parts Not by Multiplication for this must be by participation of something from the Parents Souls or not if not then it inferreth Creation for that which is brought out of nothing into being is created if by participation of something of the substance of the Parents Soul this infers Division which before was shewed cannot be 4. That the Soul shall never dye but abide to all Eternity I argue either God neither can nor will maintain the Soul in Eternal duration or he would but cannot or he could but will not or he both can and will If he cannot then God is not Omnipotent for the Soul being a Spirit it no more implies a contradiction that the Soul should live for ever then that Angels and Devils should live for ever If he can and any say he will not I desire a reason of this assertion how shall any man know Gods Will by but what he hath revealed and God hath not revealed that he will not maintain the Souls of men in Eternal Being but the contrary It follows then that God both can and will and therefore they must live to all Eternity V. The certainty of an Eternal State in the other unseen world is evident from the innate appetite universally in all men after Eternal happiness There is no man but would be happy and there is no man that would have his happiness cease a man might as soon cease to be a man as cast away all desires of Happiness or Will to be for ever miserable though most mistake what their happiness is This innate Appetite cannot be filled with all the good things in this World for though the rational appetite be subjectively finite yet it is objectively infinite God therefore and Nature which do nothing in vain hath put unsatisfied restless desires after happiness into the hearts of men which cannot be any thing among things seen and Temporal there must be something that must be the object of this Appetite and able to quiet and fill it in the other world though most by folly blindness and sloathfulness miss of it VI. The absurdities which follow the denyal of an Eternal state of men though now unseen demonstrate the certainty of it 1. For then the lives of men even of the best must needs be uncomfortable and the life of reason would as such be subject to more fears and terrors than the life of sense which is against all sense and reason for Beasts must dye but do not foresee that they must dye but the rational foresight of Death would imbitter all his sweetest delights of Life if there were no reason to hope for another after this and the more the Life of Man as Man is more noble than the Life of Beasts the more the foresight of the certain loss thereof without another after this would affright afflict torment Now it is not rational to think that God who made Man the chiefest and the choicest of all his visible works should endue him with such powers and faculties as Understanding and Will to make his Life as man more burdensom by being filled with fretting fears wracking griefs and tormenting terrors more than any Beasts are liable to or capable of Nay and add that the more any Man did improve exercise and use his reason in the frequent Meditations of Death the more bitter his Life would be to consider that all the present good he doth enjoy must certainly and shortly be lost by Death and he not capable of any good after Death in the stead and room thereof 2. Then the Condition of many wicked yea the worst of men would be better than the condition of the godly that are the best if the wicked have their good things here and no evil hereafter and the people of God their evil things here and no good hereafter 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life only we had hope we were of all men most miserable 3. Then the chiefest and greatest encouragements to undergo Sufferings and Losses for Gods sake were taken away Why did Moses refuse the Honours of Pharaoh's Court and chose to suffer Afflictions with the People of God but because he had his Eye to the recompence of reward Heb. 11.25 26. Why did Paul endure such Conflicts but for the hope of Life and Immortality which the Gospel had brought to light 2 Tim. 1.10 12. and well might he ask what it would advantage him that he fought with Beasts at Ephesus if the Dead rise not to Eternal happiness 1 Cor. 15.32 Might not then the Suffering Saints repent when they come to dye that they had been so imprudent
our own flesh Isa 58.7 Humanity in respect of common nature should cause Humanity in regard of Affection To see Mans Nature so depraved that was once so beautiful so like the Devil that once so much resembled God so swiftly running to Hell that was once an Heir of Heaven should draw forth Pity unless our hearts be Flint and Marble A mans Beast deserves thy Pity much more his Soul 2. The Righteous are the same with the Wicked in respect of § 23 corrupt depraved Nature born in Sin as much as they Eph. 2.3 with a Principle of inclination to all their Impieties Saints by nature grew upon the same Root flow'd from the same Fountain were Stones digg'd out of the same Quarry Should it not then make thee mourn to consider by the wickedness of others thine own inbred depravation What thou hadst done thy self if God had not either renewed or restrained thee yea what thou wouldst do if God should leave thee and withdraw his Grace from thee What are all the visible Impieties in the World but Comments and Expositions upon thy depraved Nature This Drunkard Adulterer Sodomite Murderer and I say Lord were both cut off from the same piece and only Free Grace came between us If it have made thee white Paper thou wert by Nature as very a Dunghil rag as the filthiest Sinner 3. Perhaps the Holiest men have been some way or other Furtherers § 24 of the Sins of the Wicked among whom they live perhaps by their former Sinful Example when they lived in the same Sins themselves which now the Wicked wallow in 'T is very possible that one that shall be saved may have been the cause of anothers Damnation shouldst not thou then mourn for killing that Soul which God so severely punisheth thô Free-Grace hath pardon'd thee Should we not quench that Fire with our Tears which we have blown up with our Bellowes of encouragement Saints that are to mourn for others Sins possibly have suffered Sin in others when they might have restrained them We destroy all those whom we suffer to sin and perish when we can prevent it May there not be some Elies among Godly men who have too negligently reproved and animadverted upon the Sins of those under their charge 'T is possible to be a good man and yet a bad Magistrate Minister Parent by not restraining the Sins of those committed to us Cold Reprovers cause bold Sinners An idle silence may sometimes be more pernicious than Idle yea profane Words 4. In this Relation of Saints to Sinners that should put them upon § 25 Mourning for them 't is very considerable that the Godly and the Wicked make up one Community or political Body in the places where they live in which respect the Sins of some particular offender or offenders may pull down Judgments upon the whole body or lump of persons that abide where those offenders live So that every one had need do his utmost by mourning and in whatever other way he can to redress the Sins and so to prevent the Plagues of the place where he lives 'T is very evident Deut. 21.1 2 3. c. the Blood of one man murdered defiles the whole bordering Land and provokes the Lords displeasure against a people even all the place where one notorious Wickedness is committed The Sin of making the Golden Calf thô 't was not the Sin of all yet it endangered all The Altar built by the two Tribes and an half which the rest of the Tribes thought had been built for Sacrifice was thought by Phineas to be so great a provocation as that Josh 22.18 for it the Lord would be wroth with the whole Congregation of Israel For the villany by some of the Inhabitants of Gibeah committed in abusing the Levites Concubine Judg. 20.46 the Vengeance came not only upon the City where it was committed Josh 7.12 2 Sam. 21.1 but upon all the Tribe of Benjamin Achans Sin troubled all Israel There came a Famine upon Israel for three years together for the Sin of Saul in killing the Gibeonites contrary to his Fidelity This was the chief Cause of the custom which was at the publick Fasts in Israel for the finding out of notorious Offenders and offences to have Vengeance taken on them openly Hence was the pretence of Jezabel for the killing of Naboth 1 King 21.9 10. under a shew of Execution of Justice against a Blasphemer to pacifie Gods anger By all this 't is evident what just cause the Godly have to mourn for all the Abominations committed among them which else may pull down Divine Vengeance upon them § 26 IV. APPLICATION 1. Use of Information in sundry Branches 1. Godliness is Vniform in all times places and companies Saints in the worst of these keep up their Integrity and are so far from joining with Sinners in their Sins that they by lamenting their Sins before the Lord enter their Protestation against them A Righteous man is not as the Swine in a Meadow clean only in clean places he will maintain opposition to Sin in the midst of Inducements to Sin Lot did so in Sodom His goodness may justly be suspected that only shews it self in good Places Companies and Times § 27 2. The greatest Sinners cannot Constrain us to sin They cannot extort our consent to Sin Sodom could not thô never so filthy make Lot so No external inducement can take from a Godly man either his Peace or Purity Men may constrain thee to be poor not impure The worst Creatures either among Men or Devils cannot take away what is best The greatest temptation is no plea for committing the least Sin if we give not away none can take away our Holiness 3. One Cause may produce contrary Effects Others sins draw the Wicked § 28 to follow them but they put the Saints upon bewailing them The coming of the Angels into Sodom stirrs up in Lot a desire to exercise Hospitality in the entertaining them but it stirres up in the impure Sodomites the heat of Lust and the most horrid Uncleanness That which sets the Graces of Saints on work puts the Wicked upon Acts of Impiety A Godly man is drawn nearer to God by that very thing that drives the Wicked farther from God 'T is the Disposition of the Person that makes what befalls him good or bad Davids beautiful House of Cedar puts him upon setting up Gods House Nebuchadnezzar's Palace puts him upon thoughts of haughtiness and proud self-admiration 4. 'T is our Duty to rejoyce in the Holiness if to mourn for the Sins § 29 of others Love to Gods house in others was Davids gladness Psal 122.1 'T was the greatest joy of holy John that his spiritual Children walk'd in the truth 3 Epist 4. Holy ones were Paul's Joy Crown and Glory 1 Thes 2.19 20. This rejoycing in the Grace of others must be thô their Grace out-shines and eclipseth ours They who have but a little Grace themselves must rejoyce
to God therefore inconsistent with the Love of God These six things the Lord hateth yea seven which his Soul hateth Prov. 6.16 Psal 97.10 Math. 6.24 Therefore ye that love the Lord hate evil These are two Masters which we cannot hate and love both 3. Sin separates from God therefore we cannot keep our selves in the love of Sin and in the love of God Sin makes us depart from God and God to depart from us Therefore Conversion reconciles God to us because it mortifies Sin in us by vertue of Christs Death for us VII He that will keep himself in the Love of God must clear up his Interest and Union to Jesus Christ 1. Because Jesus Christ was sent us as the greatest Instance and the greatest Token of Gods Love in the World 1 Joh. 4.9 2. Because the Lord Jesus purchased the Love of God to us when we were the greatest Enemies to each other Rom. 5.8 10. 3. Because Jesus Christ is the Souls Love Cant. 3.1 4. Because Jesus Christ is all Loves Cant. 5.16 5. Because this was the End of Christs coming into the World to save us from our sins the sole cause of Gods hatred to Sinners Math. 1.21 6. Because the Father loveth whom Christ loveth and he loveth them that love Christ Joh. 16.27 7. Because our Interest in Christ puts a Soul out of all danger Rom. 8.1 Rom. 5.1 Chap. 7.24 25. 8. Because the Lord Jesus makes the Fathers Love to him the measure of his love to us As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue in my love Joh. 15.9 i. e. By this ye keep in Gods Love 9. Because the Lord Jesus teacheth us the way how to keep in his Love Joh. 15.10 Consider all this and how cogently they prove this Head of clearing up our Interest and Union unto Christ to keep our selves in the Love of God VIII An eighth way of keeping our selves in the Love of God is by keeping Gods Commandements I do not mean as to a Covenant of Works but upon a Gospel account If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my Love as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his Love John 15.10 Vers 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you O! mind that Again mark this Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and doth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and we will make our abode with him This Love is the fulfilling of the whole Law and the Gospel too There be many that will complement a Love to God but will do nothing for him The greatness of Abraham's Love to God and of David's Love and of Peter's Love and of Mary's Love of Paul's Love and of the Martyrs Love was in doing and in dying for him And is not the greatness of Gods Love and of Chists Love to us Joh. 15.13 in Doing and Suffering We read of Labour of Love because true Love is Laborious as it was in Jacob's Love for Rachel There is nothing God hates more than pretending to love therefore the Lord hates Hypocrites Not every Mat. 7.21 one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven As God saith This People Deut. 5.29 have well said in all that they have spoken O that there were such a Heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments alwayes So I say of Professors and great Pretenders that shew much kindness with their Mouth but their Heart is not right with God O that there were such a Heart in them that they would make Conscience to do the Will of God If the Lord loved the young man that was in a fair way of keeping the Commandments of God and was not perfect and thorow-pac'd how much more will he have a Love for them that have a respect to all the Commandments of God Psal 119.6 IX The way to keep our selves in the Love of God is to walk closely with God in wayes of strict Holiness This is a Commendation and Character upon Record of Gods chiefest Favourites Thus it was with Abraham Gen. 17.1 Thus it was with Enoch Gen. 5.22 Thus it was with Noah Gen. 6.9 Thus it was with Caleb Num. 14.24 And thus David Psal 73. ult Now we shall see how such a one is to God who desires to keep in the Love of God We have known 1 Joh. 4.16 and believed the Love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him O sweet dwelling You shall shall find that the Holyest Persons were alwaies the highest Favourites of God Witness those before-mentioned and these following Instances Job 1.1 2 3. How did God bless him and praise him and trie him and reward him for his eminent Holiness Zachary and Elizabeth Luk. 1.6 7. How singularly did they shine in Holiness and in the Favour of God to whom God gave a Son in their old age the Harbinger of Christ Mary the Mother of Christ Luk. 1.28 how was she for her Holiness pronounced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 highly favoured And Simeon Luk. 2.25 c. and Anna vers 36 37 38. Holiness and Purity brings us to the fight of God which is called Beatifical which is the Souls highest Happiness and ultimate end Math. 5.8 Psal 24.4 Heb. 12.14 and therefore is pronounced Blessed Psal 119.1 2. X. They keep themselves in the Love of God who do not wave or abate their Profession and Practice of Godliness in evil times and do not baulk the wayes of God under severe Providences and sharp Tryals this was eminent in all Christs Worthyes Thus David Psal 44.17 to vers 22. Mind that Place Though they were sore broken and smitten into the Place of Dragons and cover'd as with the shaddow of death yet we have not forgotten thee nor declined from thy way c. Job 13.15 cap. 3.17 18. Thus Job Though he slay me yet I will trust in him Thus Habakkuk Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom the Vine Olive and Field shall fail of their Fruit and not any Flocks or Herds left yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of my Salvation The Lord God is my strength And thus all the Champions of God Let Paul be one Instance more Rom. 8.35 36 37 38 39. Reason Prov. 3.11 12. 1. A Friend loveth at all times and a Brother is born for the day of Adversity Prov. 17.17 2. They know the Lords Chastenings are in Love Heb. 12.6 Rev. 3.19 Psal 119.67 71 72. 3. They know that all the Lords Severities are for good many wayes To drive them to Ordinances and Duties to sweeten them and to teach them to profit by them to know more of the Will of God by them and to give us a better Relish of the
Correct 'em therefore but in Love Wisdom Measure Season Obj. But I hear the bleatings of fond Parents O forbear good Sir forbear These are hard sayings The Land the City is not able to bear them 'T is nothing but Love that makes us to bear with our Children Alas who could find in their Hearts to beat so sweet a Child Sol. Nothing but Love That 's not so the Holy Ghost gives thee the lye It is not Love but real Hatred Pro. 13.24 22.15 29.15 17. not to Correct offending Children Obj. But they are little and time enough hereafter Sol. Betimes While there is hope Nip them in the bud Prov. 19.18 small hopes afterward if neglected now Obj. I cannot endure to hear him cry Sol. Let not thy Soul spare for his crying 'T is strange to see how the Holy Ghost meets with these fond Parents at every turning Obj. But would you have me cruel to my own Child Sol. No. And therefore Correct him Thou art unmerciful and cruel to thy Child if thou dost not Correct him Pro. 23.13 He will dye and perish if thou Correct him not His Arm is gangreen'd he dies if thou dost not cut it off He is in an Apoplexy cup him lance him scarifie him or he is gone and that for ever Obj. Alas Childrens faults are nothing Sol. What is their Stubornness Pride Lying Disobedience it may be Cursing Swearing nothing These all lead to Hell from whence thy Rod is ordain'd and sanctified by God to deliver him Prov. 23.14 Obj. But this is the way to make my Child hate me yea to make him a Dullard a Sot so that I shall never have any comfort in him Sol. Better that thy Child should hate thee for doing thy Duty than thy God for committing sin yea a comprehensive complicated sin All the sins thy child commits upon thy neglect of Correction are thine own but read and believe Solomon Pro. 29.17 Correct thy Son and he shall give thee rest yea he shall give delight unto thy Soul 3. When ever you Correct be sure you admonish your Child So in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 join'd Thus David saith thy Heavenly Fa-doth He Chasteneth first and then teacheth Psal 94.12 Lay Gods Law and his sin against that Law before him I have known a man that when he Corrected his Child would bring his Bible forth cause his Child to read such a Scripture as spake home to the Case and this hath pierced deeper than the Rod. Not beat with rigor nor yet with silence nor give strokes without words which may possibly cause the Child to see his fault and come to an amendment In publick Justice there goes Eviction of the fact before the Sentence and a word of Admonition before Execution If our Child heedlesly fall into the dirt we do not let him lye and beat him but first help him up settle all rhings well about him after that Correct him but close all with charging him to look better to his feet 4. To Correction and Admonition Add faithful fervent constant supplications Without this all other means are ineffectual 'T is thy Heavenly Father that must do the feat at last 'T is he alone must work effectually in thy poor Child both to will and do Bring him to Bethesda put him in there begg thy God to stir the waters and to make them healing With the woman of Canaan carry thy Child to Christ Mat. 15.22 Remember Job He sent and sanctified his Children Job 1.5 Would'st thou have thy Child a Samuel a Solomon an Austin Be thou an Hannah a Bathsheba a Monica 1 Sam. 1.12 to 19 20. Pro. 31 2. Let thy Child be the Child of thy Prayers Vows Tears and that 's the way to make him a Child of thy Praises Joys and Triumphs with the Father in the Parable Luk. 15.32 5. For a close of all Add a good Example Cause it to appear to thy Childs Conscience that thou hast begun to mend first to repent of thy darling sin of Indulgence That done thou mayst fairly hope that this Load-stone may draw him to Repentance Parents Examples are high Magneticks 2 King 14.3 15.3.34 Obj. Say both Severe and Indulgent Parents These things have we done and that faithfully and yet our Children remain wicked Sol. 1. However none have more cause to expect and with patience to wait for Gods blessing on use of means because your Children are certainly under Gods faithfull Promise Gen. 17.7 Isa 44.3 2. You have delivered your own Souls Ezek. 3.19 3. Your Endeavours graciously accepted Isa 49.4 2 Cor. 8.12 4. Your Prayers shall return into your own bosom Psal 35.13 Quest How may we best cure the Love of being Flatter'd SERMON VIII PROV XXVI v. 28. A Lying Tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it and a flattering Mouth worketh ruine IT was the Psalmist's complaint of that Age he lived in That there was no faithfulness in their mouths that while they flatter'd with their tongue their throat was an open Sepulcher Psal 5.9 10. equally devouring and insatiable In these words we may take up as mournful a complaint of our own Age or in the words of the Psal 12.1 The faithful fail from among the Children of men whilst Lying Tongues first afflict the Innocent and then hate those they afflict which is the Method that opener Enemies do observe and is the subject of the former part of the Verse Among these men Truth and Justice have no place nor bear sway but is it any whit better among pretended Friendships Flattering mouths work Ruine such smooth and Oily tongues do more slily and yet not less surely undo us The former ruine us by others the latter ruine us by our selves and these the more dangerous and cruel because they do destroy under the Covert of abused friendship making that which should be sacred among men a means to effect the most barbarous Tragedies of this the latter part of the Verse speaketh which doth present us with a Picture that in different positions sets forth the counterfeit of the greatest and most amiable beauty the counterfeit of Friendship appears in the face and at first view but if you change your place and view it at nearer distance it presents to your view a secret dangerous and destructive Enemy one that worketh ruine With this I must entertain you who either hear or read me and make it as I suppose Solomon designed it a Preservative against the ruine which Loved and affected flattery draws upon men There are few I think none but have been sometime or other more or less wounded with the sting of this Scorpion I begg you will patiently suffer me to bruise the head on the wound the Sting hath made that you may be heal'd at least the deadlyness of the Venom may be prevented This I am to endeavour while I state this Case How may we best Cure the Love of being flatter'd Solomon in our
of Jesus Christ THE CVRE of MELANCHOLY AND OVERMUCH-SORROW BY FAITH and PHYSICK Quest What are the best Preservatives against Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow SERMON XI 2 COR. II. VII Lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow THe Brevity of a Sermon not allowing me Time for any unnecessary Work I shall not stay to open the Context nor to enquire whether the Person here spoken of be the same that is condemned for Incest in 1 Cor 5. or some other nor whether Chrysostom had good Tradition for it that it was a Doctor of the Church or made such after his Sin nor whether the late Expositor be in the right who thence gathers that he was one of the Bishops of Achaia and that it was a Synod of Bishops that were to excommunicate him Dr. Hammond who yet held that every Congregation then had a Bishop and that he was to be excommunicated in the Congregation and that the People should not have followed or favoured such a Teacher It would have been no Schism or sinful Separation to have forsaken him All that I now intend is to open this last Clause of the Verse which gives the Reason why the censured Sinner being penitent should be forgiven and comforted viz. Lest he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow as it includeth these three Doctrines which I shall handle all together viz 1. That Sorrow even for Sin may be overmuch 2. That overmuch Sorrow swalloweth one up 3. Therefore it must be resisted and asswaged by necessary Comfort both by others and by our selves In handling these I shall observe this Order 1. I shall shew you when Sorrow is overmuch 2. How overmuch Sorrow doth swallow a man up 3. What are the Causes of it 4. What is the Cure I. It is too notorious that overmuch Sorrow for Sin is not the ordinary Case of the World A stupid blockish Disposition is the common Cause of mens perdition The Plague of a hard Heart and seared Conscience keeps most from all due sense of Sin or Danger or Misery and of all the great and everlasting Concerns of their guilty Souls A dead sleep in sin doth deprive most of the use of Sense and Understanding they do some of the outward Acts of Religion as in a Dream they are vowed to God in Baptism by others and they profess to stand to it themselves they go to Church and say over the Words of the Creed and Lords Prayer and Commandments they receive the Lords Supper and all as in a Dream They take on them to believe that Sin is the most hateful thing to God and hurtful to man and yet they live in it with delight and obstinacy they dream that they repent of it when no perswasion will draw them to forsake it and while they hate them that would cure them and will not be as bad and mad as they who feel in them any effectual sorrow for what is past or effectual sense of their present badness or effectual resolution for a new and holy Life They dream that there is a Judgment a Heaven and a Hell but would they not be more affected with things of such unspeakable Consequence if they were awake would they be wholly taken up with the Matters of the Flesh and World and scarce have a serious thought or word of Eternity if they were awake O how sleepily and senselesly do they think and talk and hear of the great Work of mans Redemption by Christ and of the need of Justifying and Sanctifying Grace and of the Joys and Miseries of the next Life and yet they say that they believe them When we preach or talk to them of the greatest things with the greatest evidence and plainness and earnestness that we can we speak as to the dead or to men asleep they have Ears and hear not nothing goeth to their hearts One would think that a man that reads â—n Scripture and believes the everlasting Glory offered and the dreadful punishment threatned and the necessity of Holiness to Salvation and of a Saviour to deliver us from Sin and Hell and how sure and near such a passage into the unseen world is to us all should have much ado to moderate and bear the sense of such overwhelming things But most men so little regard or feel them that they have neither time nor heart to think of them as their Concern but hear of them as of some foreign Land where they have no interest and which they never think to see Yea one would think by their senseless neglect of preparation and their worldly minds and lives that they were asleep or in jest when they confess that they must die and that when they lay their Friends in the Grave and see the Skulls and Bones cast up they were but all this while in a Dream or did not believe that their Turn is near Could we tell how to waken Sinners they would come to themselves and have other thoughts of these great things and shew it quickly by another kind of Life Awakened Reason could never be so befooled and besotted as we see the wicked world to be But God hath an awakening day for all and he will make the most senseless soul to feel by Grace or Punishment And because a hardned Heart is so great a part of the Malady and Misery of the unregenerate and a soft and tender Heart is much of the New Nature promised by Christ many awakened Souls under the work of Conversion think they can never have Sorrow enough and that their danger lies in hard-heartedness and they never fear overmuch sorrow till it hath swallowed them up yea though there be too much of other Causes in it yet if any of it be for sin they then cherish it as a necessary Duty or at least perceive not the danger of Excess and some think those to be the best Christians who are most in doubts and fears and sorrows and speak almost nothing but uncomfortable Complaints but this is a great mistake 1. Sorrow is overmuch when it is fed by a mistaken Cause All is too much where none is due and great sorrow is too much when the Cause requireth but less If a man thinketh that somewhat is a Duty which is no Duty and then sorrow for omitting it such sorrow is all too much because it is undue and caused by errour Many I have known that have been greatly troubled because they could not bring themselves to that length or order of meditation for which they had neither Ability nor Time And many because they could not reprove sin in others when prudent instruction and intimation was more suitable than reproof And many are troubled because in their Shops and Callings they think of any thing but God as if our outward Business must have no thoughts Superstition always breeds such sorrows when men make themselves Religious Duties which God never made them and then come short in the performance of
these that I speak of can delight in nothing neither in God nor in his Word nor any Duty They do it as a sick man eateth his meat for meer necessity and with some loathing and aversness 9. And all this sheweth us that this Disease is much contrary to the very Tenor of the Gospel Christ came as a Deliverer of the Captives a Saviour to reconcile us to God and bring us glad Tidings of pardon and everlasting joy where the Gospel was received it was great rejoycing and so proclaimed by Angels and by men But all that Christ hath done and purchased and offered and promised seems nothing but matter of doubt and sadness to this Disease 10. Yea it is a Distemper which greatly advantageth Satan to cast in Blasphemous thoughts of God as if he were bad and a hater and destroyer even of such as fain would please him The Design of the Devil is to describe God to us as like himself who is a malitious Enemy and delighteth to do hurt And if all men hate the Devil for his hurtfulness would he not draw men to hate and blaspheme God if he could make men believe that he is more hurtful The worshipping God as represented by an Image is odious to him because it seems to make him like such a Creature as that Image representeth How much more blasphemous is it to feign him to be like the malicious Devils Diminutive low thoughts of his Goodness as well as of his Greatness is a sin which greatly injureth God As if you should think that he is no better or trustier than a Father or a Friend much more to think him such as distempered Souls imagine him You would wrong his Ministers if you should describe them as Christ doth the false Prophets as hurtful Thorns and Thistles and Wolves And is it not worse to think far worse than this of God 11. This overmuch sorrow doth unfit men for all profitable meditation it confounds their thoughts and turneth them to hurtful Distractions and Temptations and the more they muse the more they are overwhelmed And it turneth Prayer into meer Complaint instead of Child-like believing Supplications It quite undisposeth the Soul to Gods Masses and especially to a comfortable Sacramental Communion and fetcheth greater terror from it lest unworthy receiving will but hasten and increase their Damnation And it rendreth Preaching and Câ—unsel too oft unprofitable say what you will that is never so convincing either it doth not change them or is presently lost 12 And it is a distemper which maketh all sufferings more heavy as falling upon a poor diseased soul and having no comfort to set against it And it maketh Death exceeding terrible because they think it will be the gate of Hell so that life seemeth burdensome to them and death terrible They are a weary of living and afraid of dying Thus overmuch sorrow swalloweth up III. Quest What are the causes and cure of it Answ With very many there is a great part of the cause in distemper weakness and diseasedness of the body and by it the soul is greatly disabled to any comfortable sense But the more it ariseth from such natural necessity it is the less sinful and less dangerous to the soul but nevertheless troublesome but the more Three Diseases cause overmuch sorrow 1. Those that consist in such violent pain as natural strength is unable to bear But this being usually not very long is not now to be chiefly spoken of 2. A natural passionateness and weakness of that reason that should quiet passion It is too frequent a case with aged persons that are much debilitated to be very apt to offence and passion And children cannot chuse but cry when they are hurt but it is most troublesome and hurtful in too many Women and some men who are so easily troubled and hardly quieted that they have very little power on themselves even many that fear God and that have very found understandings and quick wits have almost no more power against troubling passions anger and grief but especially fear than they have of any other persons Their very natural temper is a strong disease of troubling sorrow fear and displeasedness They that are not melancholly are yet of so Childish and sick and impatient a temper that one thing or other is still either discontenting grieving or affrighting them They are like an Aspen leaf still shaking with the least motion of the air The wisest and most patient man cannot please and justifie such a one a word yea or a look offendeth them every sad story or news or noise affrighteth them and as children must have all that they cry for before they will be quiet so is it with too many such The case is very sad to those about them but much more to themselves To dwell with the sick in the house of mourning is less uncomfortable Bâ—t yet while reason is not overthrown the case is not remediless nor wholly excusable 3. But when the Brain and Imagination is Crazed and Reason partly overthrown by the Disease called Melancholly this maketh the cure yet more difficult for commonly it is the foresaid Persons whose natural temper is timerous and passionate and apt to discontent and grief who fall ito Crazedness and Melancholly And the conjunction of both the Natural Tempâ—r and the Disease do increase the misery The sigâ—s of such diseasing Melancholly I have often elsewhere described As 1. The trouble and disquiet of the mind doth then become a setled habit they can see nothing but matter of fear and trouble all that they hear or do doth feed it danger is still before their eyes all that they read and hear makes against them they can delight in nothing fearful dreams trouble them when they sleep and distracted thoughts do keep them long waking it offends them to see another laugh or be merry they think that every Beggars case is happyer then theirs they will hardly believe that any one else is in their case when some two or three in a week or a day come to me in the same case so like that you would think it were the same persons case which they all express they have no pleasure in Relations Friends Estate or any thing they think that God hath forsaken them and that the day of Grace is past and that there is no more hope they say they cannot pray but howl and groan and God will not hear them they will not believe that they have any sincerity and grace they say they cannot repent they cannot believe but that their hearts are utterly hardened usually they are afraid lest they have committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost In a word fears and troubles and almost despair are the constant temper of their minds 2. If you convince them that they have some evidences of sincerity and that their fears are causeless and injurious to themselves and unto God and they have nothing to say against it yet
either it takes of none of their trouble or else it returneth the next day for the cause remaineth in their bodily Disease quiet them an hundred times and their sears and hundred times return 3. Their misery is that what they think they cannot choose but think You may almost as well perswade a man not to shake in an Ague or not to feel when he is pained as perswade them to cast away their self-troubling thoughts or not to think all the enormous confounding thoughts as they do they cannot get them out of their heads night or day tell them that they must forbear long musing which disturb them and they cannot tell them that they must cast out false imaginations out of their minds when Satan casts them in and must turn their thoughts to something else and they cannot do it Their thoughts and troubles and fears are gone out of their power and the more by how much the more melancholly and crased they are 4. And when they are grown to this usually they seem to feel something besides themselves as it were speaking in them and saying this and that to them and bidding them do this or that and they will tell you now it sâ—ith this or that and tell you when and what it hath said to them and they will hardly believe how much of it is the disease of their own imagination 5 In this case they are exceeding proue to think they have Revelations and whatever comes into their minds they think some Revelation brought it thither They use to say This Text of Scripture at such a time was set upon my mind and that Text at another time was set on my mind when oft the sence that they took them in was false or a false application of it made to themselves and perhaps several Texts applyed to contrary conclusions as if one gave them hope and another contradicted it And some of them hereupon are very prone to Prophesies and verily believe that God hath foretold them this or that till they see that it cometh not to pass and then they are ashamed And many of them turn Hereticks and take up errours in Religion believing verily that God believed them and set such things upon their minds And some of them that were long troubled get quietness and joy by such changes of their opinions thinking that now they are in Gods way which they were out of all this while and therefore it was that they had no comfort Of these I have known divers persons comforted that have fallen into the clean contrary opinions some have turned Papists and superstitious and some have run too far from Papists and some have had comfort by turning Anabaptists some Antinomians some contrarily called Arminians some Perfectionists some Quakers and some have turned from Christianity it self to Infidelity and denied the life to come and have lived in licentious uncleanness But these melancholly Hereticks and Apostates usually by this cast of their sadness and are not the sort that I have now to deal with 6 But the sadder better sort feeling this talk and stir within them are oft apt to be confident that they are possessed by the devil or at least bewitcht of which I will say more anon 7 And most of them are violently haunted with blasphemous injections at which they tremble and yet cannot keep them out of their mind either they are tempted and haunted to doubt of the Scripture or Christianity or the life to come or to think some ill of God And oft-times they are strangely urged as by something in them to speak some Blasphemous word of God or to renounce him and they tremble at the suggestion and yet it still followeth them and some poor souls yield to it and say some bad word against God and then as soon as it is spoken somewhat within them saith now thy damnation is sealed thou hast sinned against the Holy Ghost there is no hope 8 When it is far gone they are tempted to lay some law upon themselves never to speak more or not to eat and some of them have famished themselves to death 9 And when it s far gone they oft think that they have apparitions and this and that likeness appeareth to them especially lights in the night about their beds and sometimes they are confident that they hear voices and feel something touch or hurt them 10 They fly from company and can do nothing but sit alone and muse 11 They cast off all business and will not be brought to any diligent labour in their callings 12 And when it cometh to extremity they are weary of their lives and strongly followed with Temptations to make away themâ—elves as if something within them were either urging them either to drown them selves or cut their own throats or hang themselves or cast themselves headlong which alass too many have done 13 And if they escape this when its ripe they become quite distracted These are the doleful symptomes and effects of melancholly And therefore how desireable is it to prevent them or to be cured while it is but beginning before they fall into so sad a state And here it is necessary that I answer the doubt whether such persons be possessed with the Devil or not and how much of all this aforesaid is from him And I must tell the melancholly person that is sincere that the knowledge of the Devils Agency in his Case may be more to his comfort than to his despair And first we must know what is meant by Satans Possession either of the Body or the Soul It is not meerly his Local Preseâ—ce and Abode in a man that is called his Possession for we know little of that how far he is more present with a bad man than a good But it is his exercising Power on a man by such a stated effectual operation As the Spirit of God is present with the worst and maketh many holy Motions to the Souls of the impenitent but he is a setled powerful Agent in the Soul of a Believer and so is said to dwell in such and to possess them by the Habit of Holiness and Love even so Satan maketh too frequent Motions to the Faithful but he possesseth only the Souls of the ungodly by predominant Habits of Vnbelief and Sensuality And so also he is permitted by God to inflict Persecutions and Crosses and ordinary Diseases on the just but when he is Gods Executioner of extraordinary Plagues especially on the Head depriving men of Sense and Understanding and working above the bare Nature of the Disease this is called his Possession And as most evil Motions on the Soul have Satan for their Father and our own Hearts as the Mothers so most or many bodily Diseases are by Satan permitted by God though there be Causes of them also in the Body it self And when our own Miscarriages and Humors and the Season Weather and Accidents may be Causes yet Satan may by these be a superiour Cause
And when his Operations are such as we call a Possession yet he may work by means and bodily dispositions and sometimes he worketh quite above the power of the Disease it self as when the unlearned speak in strange Languages and when bewitched Persons vomit Iron Glass c And sometime he doth only work by the Disease it self as in Epilepsies Madness c. From all this it is easie to gather 1. That for Satan to possess the Body is no certain Sâ—gn of a graceless state nor will this condemn the Soul any if the Soul it self be not possessed Nay there are few of Gods Children but its like are sometime afflâ—cted by Satan as the Executioner of Gods correcting them and sometime of Gods Trials as in the Case of Job whatever some say to the contrary it is likely that the â—rick in the Flesh which was Satans Messenger to bâ—sset Paul was some such Pain as the Stone which yet was not removed that we find after thrice praying but only he had a promise of sufficient Grace 2. Satans Possession of an ungodly Saul is the miserable Case which is a thousand times worse than his possessing of the Body but every Corruption or Sin is not such a possession for no man is perfect without Sin 3. No Sin proveth Satans damnable possession of a man but that which he loveth more than he hateth it and which he had rather keep than leave and wilfully keepeth 4. And this is matter of great comfort to such Melancholy honest Souls if they have but understanding to receive it that of all men none love their Sin which they groan under so little as they yea it is the heavy Burden of their Souls Do you love your Unbelief your Fears your distracted Thoughts your Temptations to Blasphemy Had you rather keep them than be delivered from them The proud man the ambitious the Fornicator the Drunkard the Gamester the Time-wasting Gallants that sit out hours at Cards and Plays and idle Chats the gluttonous pleasers of the Appetite all these love their Sins and would not leave them as Esau sold his Birthright for one Morsel they will venture the loss of God of Christ and Soul and Heaven rather than leave a swinish Sin But is this your Case Do you so love your sad condition You are weary of it and heavy laden and therefore are called to come to Christ for ease Mat. 11.28 29. 5. And it is the Devils way if he can to haunt those with troubling Temptations whom he cannot overcome with alluring and damning Temptations As he raiseth storms of Persecution against them without as soon as they are escaping from his Deceits so doth he trouble them within as far as God permitteth him We deny not but Satan hath a great hand in the Case of such Melancholy persons for 1. His Temptations caused the Sin which God corrects them for 2. His Execution usually is a Cause of the Distemper of the Body 3. And as a Tempter he is the Cause of the sinful and â—â—â—ublesom Thoughts and Doubts and Fears and Passions which the 〈◊〉 holy causeth The Devil cannot do what he will with us but whâ—◠〈◊〉 â—ive him advantage to do He cannot break open our doors but 〈◊〉 enter if we leave them open He can easily tempt a heavy flegmatick Body to sloath a weak and cholerick person to anger a strong and sanguine man to Lust and one of a strong Appetite to Gluttony or to Drunkenness and vain sportful Youth to idle Plays and gaming and Voluptuousness when to others such Temptations would have small strength And so if he can cast you into Melancholy he can easily tempt you to overmuch Sorrow and Fear and to distracting Doubts and Thoughts and to murmure against God and to despair and still think that you are undone undone and even to blasphemous thoughts of God or if it take not this way than to Fanatick Conceits of Revelation and a prophecying Spirit 6. But I add that God will not impute his meer Temptations to you but to himself be they never so bad as long as you receive them not by the will but hate them nor will he condemn you for those ill effects which are unavoiâ—â—ble from the power of a bodily Disease any more than he will condemn a man for raving thoughts or words in a Feaver Phrensie or utter Madness But so far as Reason yet hath power and the Will can govern Passions it is your fault if yâ—â—â—â—se not the power though the difficulty make the Fault the less II. But usually other Causes go before this Disease of Melancholy except in some Bodies naturally prone to it and therefore before I speak of the Cure of it I will briefly touch them And one of the most common Causes is Sinful Impatience Discontents and Cares proceeding from a sinful love of some bodily interest and from a want of sufficient submission to the will of God and Trust in him â—â—d tâ—king Heaven for a satisfying Portion I must necessarily use all these words to shew the true Nature of this complicate Disease of Souls The Names tell you that it is a Conjunction of many Sins which in themselves are of no small malignity and were they the predominant beâ—â—â—â—d habit of Heart and Life they would be the Signs o◠〈…〉 â—hilâ— they are hated and overcome not Grace but â—â—r heavâ—nly 〈…〉 â—â—re esteemed and câ—â—sen and sought than earthly prosperiâ—y â—he Mâ—â—cy of Goâ—â—hrough Christ doâ—â— pardoâ— it and will at last deliver us from all But yet it beseeâ—â—â—â—h â—ven a â—â—â—doned Sinner to know the greatness of his Sin that 〈◊〉 may not favour it nor be unthankful â—â—r forgiveness I wiâ—â—â—herefore distinctly open the parts of this Sin which bringeth many 〈◊〉 â—â—smal Melancholy It iâ— prâ—supposed 〈◊〉 God trieth his Servants in â—his Life with manifold Afflictions and Christ will have us bâ—ar the Cross and follow him in submissive Patience Some are tried with painful Dâ—seases and some with 〈◊〉 ougâ—â— Enemies and soâ—e with the unkindness of Friends and 〈…〉 â—â—oâ—ard provoking Relatives and Company and some 〈…〉 â—â—d some with Perâ—eâ—â—tion and many with Losses Disapp◠〈…〉 〈◊〉 here Impatieâ—â—◠〈…〉 beginning of the working of the sinful Mâ—â—â—â—â— Our Natures are all too regardful of the Interest of the flesh â—nd 〈◊〉 â—eak in bearing â—eaâ—y burdens and Poverty hath those Trials 〈…〉 â—â—ll and wealthy Persons that feel them not too little pity especially iâ—â—wo Cases 1. When men have not themselves only but Wives and Children in want to quiet 2. And when they ar◠〈◊〉 debt to others which is a heavy Burden to an ingenuous mind though thievish Borrowers make too light of it In theâ—e Straights and Trials men are apt to be too sensible and impatient whâ—â— they and their Families want Food and Rayment and Fire and other Necessâ—ries to the Body and know not which way to get supply when Landlords and Butchers and Bakers and other Creditors are calling for their Debts
and they have it not to pay them its hard to keep all this from going too near the heart and hard to bear it with obedient quiet submission to God especially for Women whose Nature is weak and liable to too much Passion 2. And this Impatience turneth to a setled Discontent and Vnquietness or Spirit which affecteth the Body it self and lieth all day as a Load or continual Trouble at the Heart 3. And Impatience and Discontent do set the Thoughts on the Rack with Grief and continual Cares how to be eased of the troubling Cause they can scarce think of any thing else and these Cares do even feed upon the Heart and are to the Mind as a consuming Feaver to the Body 4. And the secret Root or Cause of all this is the worst part of the Sin which is too much Love to the Body and this World Were nothing ovâ—â—loved it would have no power to torment us if Ease and Health were not overloved Pain and Sickness would be the more tolerable if Children and Friends were not overloved the Death of them would not overwhelm us with inordinate sorrow if the Body were not overloved and worldly wealth and Prosperity overvalued it were easie to endure hard Fare and Labour and Want not only of Superfluities and Conveniences but even of that which is necessary to Health yea or Life it self if God will have it so at least to avoid Vexations Discontents and Cares and inordinate Grief and Trouble of mind 5. There is yet more Sin in the root of all and that is it sheweth that our Wills are yet too selfish and not subdued to a due submission to the Will of God but we would be as Gods to our own chusing and must needs have what the Flesh desiâ—◠〈…〉 â—â—â—t a due Resignation of our selves and all our Concerns to God and 〈…〉 as Children in due dependance on him for our daily Bread but â—â—â—t needs be the keepers of our own Provision 6. And this sheweth that we be not sufficiently humbled for our sin or else we should be thankful for the lowest state as being much better than that which we deserved 7. And there is apparently much Distrust of God and Vnbelief in these troubling Discontents and Cares could we trust God as well as our selves or as we could trust a faithful friend or as a Child can trust his Father how quiet would our minds be in the sense of his Wisdom All-sufficiency and Love 8. And this Unbelief yet hath a worse Effect than worldly Trouble it sheweth that men take not the Love of God and the Heavenly Glory for their suffâ—cient portion unless they may have what they want or would have for the Body this world unless they may be free from Poverty and Crosses and Provocations and Injuries and Pains all that God hath promised them here or hereafter even everlasting Glory will not satisfie them and when God and Christ and Heaven are not enough to quiet a mans mind he is in great want of Faith Hope â—nd Love which are far greater matters than Food and Rayment III. Another great cause of such trouble of mind is the guilt of some great and wilful sin when conscience is convinced and yet the foul is not converted sin is beloved and yet feared Gods wrath doth terrifie them and yet not enough to overcome their sin some live in secret fraud and robbery and many in drunkenness in secret fleshly lusts either self-pollution or fornication and they know that for such things the wrath of God cometh on the Children of disobedience and yet the rage of appetite and lust prevaileth and they despair and sin and while the sparks of Hell fall on their consciences it changeth neither heart nor life there is some more hope of the recovery of these then of dead hearted or unbelieving sinners who work uncleanness with greediness as being past feeling and blinded to defend their sins and plead against holy obedience to God Bruitishness is not so bad as Diabolisme and malignity But none of these are the persons spoken of in any Text Their sorrow is not overmuch but too little as long as it will not restrain them from their sin But yet if God convert these persons the sins which they now live in may possibly hereafter plung their souls into such depths of sorrow in the review as may swallow them up And when men truly converted yet dally with the bait and renew the wounds of their consciences by their lapses it is no wonder if their sorrows and terrours are renewed Grievous sins have fastened so on the consciences of many as have cast them into uncurable melancholly and distraction IV. But among people fearing God there is yet another cause of Melancholly and of sorrowing overmuch and that is Ignorance and mistakes in maâ—â—â—â— which their peace and comforts are concerned in I will name some particulars 1. One 〈◊〉 Ignorance of the tenor of the Gospel or Covenant of Grace as some Libertines called Antinomians more dangerously mistake it who tell men that Christ hath Repented and believed them and that they must no more question their Faith and Repentance than they must question the righteousness of Christ so many better Christians understand not that the Gospel is tidings of unspeakable joy to all that will believe it and that Christ and Life are offered freely to them that will accept him and that no sins how great or many soever are excepted from pardon to the soul that unfeignedly turneth to God by faith in Christ that whoever will may freely take the water of life and all that are weary and thirst are invited to come to him for ease and rest And they seem not to understand the conditions of forgiveness which is but true consent to the pardoning saving baptismal Covenant 2. And many of them are mistaken about the use of sorrow for sin and about the nature of hardness of heart they think that if their sorrow be not so passionate as to bring forth tears and greatly to afflict them they are not capable of pardon though they should consent to all the pardoning Covenant and they consider not that it is not our sorrow for it self that God delighteth in but it is the taking down of pride and that so much humbling sense of sin danger and misery as may make us feel the need of Christ and mercy and bring us unfeignedly to consent to be his Disciples and to be saved upon his Covenant terms Be sorrow much or little if it do this much the sinner shall be saved And as to the length of Gods sorrow some thinks that the pangs of the new birth must be a long continued state whereas we read in the Scripture that by the penitent sinners the Gospel was still received speedily with joy as being the gift of Christ and pardon and everlasting life humility and self-loathing must continue and increase but our first great sorrows may be swallowed up with
Actions and Accidents two things considerable 1. The Action for example such a Text was handled such a charitable Action done such a Man brake his Leg was drunk or the like 2. The Inference or Observation to be gathered from thence for all Events whether good or bad are intended by the wise God for mans Instruction Now the Memory lays up the former and can retain it a long time but the Lesson which we should learn from it that 's neglected that 's forgotten 2. Things Hurtful to us to wit Injuries These usually stick in the memory when better things slip out If any body hath spoke or done evil to us the memory is trusty enough about these As one says we can remember Old Songs and Old Wrongs long enough yea those whom we profess to forgive yet we declare that we cannot forget them Not but that a man may have a natural remembrance of an injury so that he have not an angry remembrance of it As our heavenly Father himself remembers all a Believers sins but puts away his anger so we may rationally remember them but we must spiritually forget them for else the remembrance of them generally doth us a great deal of hurt but no good at all it cools our love weakens our trust and prepares us for revenge as did Amnon towards Absolon 2 Sam. 13.32 3. Things Sinful thus we can remember a filthy Story seven years when we do forget a saving Sermon in seven hours And herein the Memory is the great Nurse of Contemplative wickedness and represents to the idle and sinful heart all the sins it wots of with renewed delight and so strengthens the impression and doubles the guilt Ezek. 23.19 She multiplyed her Whoredoms in calling to remembrance the days of her youth wherein she had played the Harlot in the Land of Egypt The depraved Memory is herein fitly compared to a Sive that lets the good Corn fall through and reserves only the chaff by which its plain that the Faculty is not lost but poyson'd So that in this respect we may say as Themistocles did to Simonides when he offered to teach him The Art of Memory rather says he teach me The art of Forgetfulness for the things which I would not I remember and cannot forget the things I would 2. The cortuption of the Memory stands in Forgetting those things which we should remember But these things being so exceeding many great and useful though I cannot enumerate them yet I shall comprize the chief of them in these following general heads 1. Our Creator and what he hath done and what he hath done for us Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth And yet whom do we more forget Jerem. 2.32 Can a Maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her Attire yet my people have forgotten me days without number And our Forgetfulness here is most inexcusable because we may see taste and feel him every moment forasmuch as he is not far from every one of us seeing in him we live and move and have our Being and yet we can make shift to forget Him which shews the great Craze we had by the Fall And then the great things which he hath done to wit in the Works of Creation and Providence especially for his Church these we early forget but should remember Psal 77.11 I will remember the Works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of Old And particularly what he hath done for us the many and great Mercies and Deliverances especially the most remarkable of them which every good Christian should have a Catalogue of in his mind or in his Book Deut. 8.2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy GOD led thee these Forty Years c. 2. Our Redeemer and what he hath suffered for us Never was there such an Instance of free and transcendent Love in the World as that the Eternal Son of God should give himself to be a Sacrifice to expiate our Sin and yet we that can profess of far less kindnesses from men that we shall never forget them can forget this else he had never instituted the Lords Supper on purpose to keep up the solemn and useful Remembrance thereof which Remembrance sets a work all our Graces our Faith Love Repentance Thankfulness c. And without the frequent Use of this Ordinance where it may be had a defect will be forced in these Graces for the greatest things wear off with time and Holy David himself found cause to charge it uopn his Soul Ps 102.3 Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits c. 3. The Truths of Religion especially the most weighty Malach. 1.4 Remember ye the Law of Moses my Servants which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Judgments And of these the Apostle Peter saith 2 Pet. 1.12 13 15. he would put the Christians in remembrance though they knew them that they might be established in present Truth yea he would stir them up by putting them in remembrance as long as he lived The Doctrine of God of Christ of the Creation of the Fall of the Covenant of Grace of Faith Repentance the Resurrection as in my Text and Judgment to come these things should be so ingrafted into the hearts of Christians that they should know and remember as well as their own Names or the rooms of their Houses and yet it is a shame to find how easily and almost utterly these things are forgotten by too many How few do we find that have been long Hearers of Gods Word that can give any tolerable account of the Nature of that Faith by which the Soul lives 4. The Duties of Religion The Scripture that so often requires us to remember them plainly implies that we are apt to forget them what 's the meaning of that Exodus the 20 Chap. Verse 8. Remember the Sabboth to keep it holy but that we easily forget it we are surprized by it it returns ere we are aware so that Heb. 13. Verse 2 3 16. which is called by some a Chapter of Remembrance be not forgetful to entertain Strangers Remember them that are in Bonds to do good and to Communicate forget not All which as they shew our duty so do they imply our defectiveness herein though to forget those and such like are as absurd as if we did forget to eat or sleep For as Christians we live by Faith and breath by Prayer so to forget to repent to believe to pray and to discharge the duties of our Relation Callings and all other duties toward God and toward men is to forget Christianity it self 5. Our Sins As there is a culpable so there is an useful and necessary remembrance of them when we remember sin to renew our love to it that 's damnable but when we remember it to loath it and to loath our selves for it that 's saving Ezek. 36.31 Then shall ye remember
experience Many have come by the help of God to remember more and better than they did before and why should not you increase the number of such proficients It is not fit for a Christian to despond in any such case but to be up and doing When a Ship leaks it is not presently cast away for says the Master this Vessel may yet do me Service you have leaking Memories I but being careen'd they may be much more serviceable than ever they were Obj. O but I shall never attain any Memory Ans I tell you despondency spoils all Indeavours neither do you sit thus down in other cases If your Body or Brain be weak you will try experiments you 'l go to one Physitian after another as long as you have a penny left be not then more careless of your noblest parts The cure is possible at least in some good measure 2. It is Reasonable that your Memories which have bin sinks of Sin should become Helps to Heaven All our faculties are given us for this end and is it not highly reasonable that they should be so applyed It is apparent that our Memories have bin grievously perverted and therefore as we have yielded our members Servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so we should yield our members Servants to righteousness unto holiness Rom. 6 19. Seeing God hath given us a noble faculty should we neglect or abuse it can others remember the world and their lusts and shall not we remember the holy things that refer to a better world nay can we remember a thousand unprofitable hurtful and sinful matters and not those things that do most nearly and highly concern us It is intolerable 3. This is Necessary It is an unquestionable Duty That fundamental Law propounded in the Old Testament Deut. 6 5. and confirmed in the New Matt. 22 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy mind doth oblige us to strain every faculty to the utmost in Gods behalf One end also of Christs coming into the world was to repair our depraved faculties and shall we suffer him to dye in vain The Text I am upon shews how necessary it is as a means of Faith and Salvation We find by experience that this faculty is miserably corrupted and therefore it is undoubtedly necessary that it be renewed Obj. We can do but what we can let it be never so necessary Ans And I pray how far have your indeavours travelled in this business have you carefully used the fore-mention'd means and continued in the use of them no no your impotency is wilful you cannot because ye mind it not or else certainly if inherent grace were weak assistent grace would be ready at your service 4. A good Memory is very helpful and useful It is not a vain thing that is thus prest upon you For 1. It is a great means of Knowledg For what signifies your Reading or Hearing if you remember nothing It is not eating or drinking but digesting your food that keeps you alive and so it is in this case Prov. 4 20 21. My son not only attend unto my words incline thine ear unto my sayings but keep them in the midst of thy heart Then are they life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh 2. It is a means of Faith as is plain in my Text unless ye have believed in vain For though Faith doth rest purely on the Word of God yet when the Word and works of God are forgotten Faith will stagger Hence our Saviour saith Matt. 16 9. O ye of little Faith do not ye understand neither Remember the five Loaves of the five thousand c. The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit whereby Satan is foiled but if this Sword be out of the way by reason of Forgetfulness how shall we conflict with this Enemy 3. It is a means of Comfort If a poor Christian in distress could remember Gods promises they would inspire him with new life but when they are forgotten his Spirits sink Our way to Heaven lyes over Hills and Vales when we are on the Hill we think we shall never be in our dumps again and so when we are in the Valley we fear we shall never have comfort again But now a faithful Memory is a great help Psal 77 10 11. But I said This is my infirmity but I will remember the years of the right Hand of the most High I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old So also Psal 119 52. I remembred thy Judgments of old O Lord and have comforted my self 4. It is a means of Thankfulness We are all wanting in this Duty of Thankfulness and one cause thereof is forgetfulness of the mercies of God Hence ungrateful men are said to have bad memories What abundant matter of thanksgiving would a sanctified Memory suggest to every Christian Hence holy David calls upon himself Psal 103 2. Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits By which forgetfulness and such other means it comes to pass that Praise and Thanksgiving hath so little which should have so much room in our daily devotions 5. It is a means of Hope For experience works Hope and the Memory is the Storehouse of experience therein we lay up all the instances of Gods goodness to us heretofore Lament 3 21. This I recal to mind therefore have I hope Hence they who do not trust in God are said in Scripture phrase to forget him And one reason of mens impatience and dejectedness in trouble is assign'd by the Apostle Heb. 12 5. And ye have forgotten the Exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto Children My Son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him 6. It is a means of Repentance For how can we repent or mourn for what we have quite forgotten As therefore there is a culpable remembrance of Sin when we remember it in kindness so there is a laudable remembrance of Sin when we remember it with displeasure Ezek. 16 63. That thou mayst remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth more But alas we write our Sins in the Sand and foolishly imagine that the eternal God forgets them just as soon as we though in such cases he hath said and sworn Amos 8 7. Surely I will never forget any of their works 7. It is a means of Vsefulness No man should nor indeed can be singly religious when one spark of grace is truly kindled in the heart it will quickly indeavour to heat others also so for counsel we are born we are new born to be helpful unto others Herein a good Memory is exceeding useful out of which as out of a Storehouse a wise Christian may bring forth matters both new and old Such may say Psal 44.1 Psal 48.8 We have heard with our Ears and
circa pectus a very hardy spirit that shall dare to cross the stream or stem the current of a prevailing luxuriancy So that to have a finger in this ungrateful debate must engage him in Ishmael's fate to have every mans hand lifted up against him seeing it's unavoidable that his hand must be set almost against every man § 5. That yet Charity will lend us one safe Rule That we impose a severer law upon our selves and allow a larger indulgence to others The Rule of our own conversation should be with the strictest but that by which we censure others a little more with the largest For thus has the Apostle Rom. 14. taught us to proceed in things which in their own nature are indifferent § 6. Prudence will also afford us another excellent Rule In dubious cases to take the safer side Not to venture too near the brink of a Precipice when we have room enough to walk secure at a greater distnce For seeing the best that can be said of and pleaded for many of our Fashions is That in themselves they are Adiaphorous which yet in their common use are sinful it becomes a Christian to be cautious and practise only that which is confessedly innocent and inoffensive For he that will always do what may lawfully be done shall sometimes do what is unlawful to be done § 7. An humble heart crucify'd to the World and making a conscience of its baptismal Covenant whereby it stands engaged to renounce the pomps and vanities of a wicked World with all fomentations of and incitations to the flesh will be the best Casuist Mortification would cut up the controversie by the roots cure the disease in the cause and cleanse the stream in the fountain Nor can any determine for another so well as he that is true to his soul might for himself § 8. That yet there are some modes of Apparel which so notoriously cross the ends of all Apparel so inconsistent with the Rule of Decency so apparently transgressing the bounds of Modesty that no pretence of an honest intention no uprightness of heart can atone or excuse the evil of wearing them As if for instance a Garment was made of Silk wrought in such Figures as did imitate the Pictures of Aratine and represent Nakedness in all the most obscene and filthy postures the use of such Raiment would be a gross abuse nor could any internal chastity alleviate the guilt of the outward immodesty § 9. Tho some modes of Apparel can never be well used there are none but may be ill used None so good but they may become bad tho some so bad that they never can be made good And the reason of the difference is because Bonum oritur ex integris malum è quolibet defectu All Circumstances must concur to render a practise lawful when the want of any one which ought to be present is enough to render it sinful § 10. Tho sumptuary laws may justly be made to retrench the excesses yet none can lawfully be enacted to compel men in the defects of Apparel A Law may say Farther thou shalt not go but not Thus far shalt thou go And the Reason is They that can reach the Standard assigned by the Law may lawfully abate at the command of Authority when perhaps some cannot reach the lowest pitch without entrenching upon their Purses or Consciences Having premised these things I reassume the Question What distance ought we to keep in following the strange fashions of Apparel that come up in the days wherein we live The Resolution of which Question will depend I. On an impartial Inquiry Wherein the sinfulness of Apparel does lye II. On some Directions How to walk at a due distance from these strange fashions that we partake not of the sin that may be in them I. Let us then in the first place inquire Wherein the sinfulness of Apparel does lye And that difficulty will be best assoiled by a further inquiry into these Four Particulars 1. For what ends God appoints and Nature requires Apparel 2. What is the Rule of Decency to regulate Apparel 3. From what inward Principles these outward modes are taken up 4. What effects these fashions have or may have on our selves or others 1 Let us then enquire for what ends God appoints and Nature requires Apparel In the state of Innocency and Primitive Integrity Nakedness was mans richest cloathing No Ornament no Raiment was ever since so decent as then was no-Ornament no-Raiment For as there was then no irregular motion in the soul so neither was there any in the body that might die the Cheeks with a Blush or cover the Face with shame They were both naked Gen. 2.25 the Man and his Wife and were not ashamed But when they had once violated the Covenant and broken the Law of their Creator Shame the Fruit and Daughter of sin seized their souls and that in respect of God and of each other which latter chiefly as I conceive to hide the best expedient their confused and distracted thoughts could pitch upon was to stitch together a few fig-leaves to make themselves Aprons till God commiserating their wretched plight provided better covering more adequate to the necessity of Nature more comporting with decency i. e. coats of skins Gen 3.21 Wherein the Divine Wisdom so admirably contriv'd it That their Apparel 1. might serve as a standing Memorial of their demerits that they might carry about them the continual conviction of their sin and the deserved punishment For what less could they infer than that they deserved to die the death when the innocent Beasts must die to preserve and accommodate their lives 2. That their Apparel might direct their weak Faith to the promised seed in whom they might expect a better covering and from a greater shame that of their filthiness in the sight of God In him I say whom those Beasts probably slain in sacrifice did typifie For that any were slain merely on the account of food before the Flood is not probable when yet the distinction between the clean and unclean on the account of sacrifice is demonstrable Gen. 2.7 Now God appoints and Nature frail faded Nature requires Apparel § 1. To hide shame to cover nakedness That our first Parents and their Posterity in their Exile from Paradise might not become a perpetual covering of the eyes and shame to each other Whence it will follow 1. That whatever Apparel or fashions of Apparel do either cross or not comply with this great design of God must be sinfully used 2. That as any Apparel or fashions of Apparel do more or less cross or not comply with this end they are proportionably more or less sinful But our Semi-Evites aware of danger from these conclusions to their naked breasts will readily reply That this will be of no great use to decide this controversie because it is not clear 1. what parts of the body 't is God has appointed Apparel to cover nor
rest content with an inferior sort of Ornaments It would be a culpable effeminacy for the Man to affect and imitate all the Lawful little Ornaments of Women Nevertheless this Indulgence is clog'd with some humbling considerations 1. Has God indulg'd them a fairer liberty the very indulgence argues the Sexes weakness it speaks her the weaker vessel because she needs it small reason have they to glory in a priviledge which is but a badge of their infirmity As if a Noble Mans servant should be exalted for his laced Livery and Silvâ—â— cognizance which is but the mark of a more honourable servitude 2. Has God indeed indulg'd that Sex with a greater latitude How should it humble them that they have transgress'd the bounds of Heavens Indulgence God has given them a longer Tedder and must they needs break it Will nothing serve nothing satisfie unless they range abroad in the boundless waste of their own capricious wills and fancies 3. Know therefore That the same Authority that has given the liberty has assigned due limits to it which that they may be better understood I shall open that of St. Paul 1 Tim. 2.9 10. I will that women adorn themselves with modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety not with broided hair or gold or costly array but which becomes women professing godliness with good works A divine glass wherein that Sex may contemplate both their glory and their shame 1. Here they may hehold their real glory which consists 1. in being adorned in modest Apparel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no steam no smoak no vapour flame of immodesty without discover a latent fire of lust burning within 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the very apparel should indicate the gravity of the soul So Theodoret. Jude 23. In Loc. hating the garments spotted with the flesh A soul spotted with Lust will stain the the garment So Theophylact speaking of ancient women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Tit. 2.3 They ought says he to appear modest by their very habit and cloathing 2. In being adorned with shame-facedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The face will bear a proporion to the heart and the habit to both Rolling eyes wandring looks out-stretcht necks flearing smiles and lenocinating glances disparage the most modest apparel Isa 3.16 The daughters of Zion aequivocally so call'd were haughty in heart and it soon appear'd in the haughtiness of their necks An humble soul will adorn its Ornaments when proud gestures and postures deform them 3. In being adorned with sobriety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderation of affection towards outward things is a Christian's Holy-day-Suit not to overprize them or over-use them This Temper should shine through all our garments 4. With good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there 's no doubt had less been laid out in good cloathes more had been expended in good works but rich cloathing has beggar'd charity and since Women shone in Apparel their light has shone less bright to the glorifying their Father which is in Heaven 5. Here is the Rule by which all is to be regulated as women professing godliness Godliness must be your Caterer and Cook for the belly Godliness your Taylor and Sempster for the back Godliness must be consulted what to buy how to make up what you have bought and how and when and where to wear what you have made up But did Godliness advise to paint or patch the face to curl or crisp the hair From what principle of Godliness can these Vanities proceed By what Rule of Godliness are they order'd or to what end of Godliness are they design'd 2. In this Gospel-glass they may view their own shame and it lies in that wherein they most of all glory curiosity and costliness 1. In curiosity doing much to no purpose and nothing with a world of pains plaiting the hair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as St. Peter phrases it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 curling crisping twirling variegating into a thousand shapes into Rings into Mats into Shades Folds Towers Locks Tertullian inveighs bitterly against this sort of impertinency Quid crinibus vestris quiescere non licet De Hab. Mulieb modo substrictis modo relaxatis modo suscitatis modo elisis What ailes you says he that you cannot let your poor hair be quiet but sometimes it must be bound up by and by dishevelled and loose about your ears one while staring up in Towers Ibid. and presently polled and notched close Aliae gestiunt cum cinnis coercere aliae ut volucres vagi elabantur Some of you are all for curling it up into rings De cultu Foeminar others for a loose mode Nay says he Affigitis nescio quas enormitates sutilium atque textilium capillamentorum not content with that you stitch or I cannot well tell what monstrous extravagancies of false Locks and artificial Hair and Periwigs O that I could give you a real prospect of a converted Magdalene Luke 7.38 She wiped our Saviours feet with the hair of her head as if she would take a holy revenge on that which had been the effect of her own pride and the cause of ensnaring others as if she thought nothing too precious for him that had rid her soul of Seven Devils as if she had found more honourable employment for her locks than when they were woven into Nets to catch poor silly souls deckt with Ribbands to be a lure to gazing Youth 2. Their shame lies in the excessive costliness of their Ornaments in Gold and Pearl O the reproach that a little refined Earth should be accounted the glory of the rational creature that we should esteem that our treasure which came out of Oyster-skells that we should be at such vast charge to paint a walking Sepulcher to embroider a Tabernacle whose cords e're long must be cut asunder whose stakes in a while must be pluckt up and whose Canase-covering must shortly be fretted into Rags by the consuming Moth In a word God has given the Woman some grains of allowance She that takes more forfeits all the rest Look to it lest whilst you adorn with Gold God should call you Reprobate Silver and when you load your selves with Jewels you be not found in Gods Ballance much too light § 4. The Climate where we dwell may be of some consideration to fix the Rules of Decency God has provided us wholsome Cloath and expects we should cut our Coat according to it When the Soveraign Lord appointed the Nations the bounds of their habitations he as a careful and common Parent provided suitably for all the Inhabitants of the Earth Some he ordered to dwell under the Aequinoctial Line others under the Polar Circles To these he gave numerous flocks of Sheep that as they needed more and warmer cloathing they might have it of their own growth To those he gave the Silk-worm that as they required less and lighter Apparel they might have answerable provision But Luxury has romaged
effectually of sin of the sin of Nature and the Nature of sin all these little appendices and appurtinances of Vanity will fall and drop of course For this was our blessed Saviour's method Mat. 23.26 Mat. 12.33 Cleanse the inside of the cup or platter and the outside will be clean also And if we could as supernatural Grace only can make the Tree good the Fruit would be good by consequence Direction X. Whatever fashions of Apparel you have found a temptation to your own souls when worn by others in prudence avoid them You may reasonably suspect that what has been a snare to you will be so to another For tho all are not guilty of the same actual sins yet all have the same seeds of sins in them And what has awakened your Pride and Lust may awaken the same Corruptions in your Neighbour Direction XI Let all your indifferences be brought under the government and guidance ef Religion Indifferent things in their general Natures are neither good nor evil but when Religion has the main stroke in managing and ordering them it will make them good and not evil Advise with Gods Glory what you shall eat what you shall drink and what you shall put on That will teach us to deny our selves in some particulars of our Christian Liberty Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do else 1 Cor. 10.31 do all to the glory of God Than which all the Masters of the Art of Eating all the Mistresses of the Science of Dressing cannot give you a more approved Directory Direction XII Use all these indifferent things with an indifferent affection to them an indifferent concern for them and about them Treat'em value 'em as they deserve Cloathes commend us not to God nor to Wise and Good Men Why are we then so solicitous about them as if the Kingdom of God lay in them The Apostle in consideration that the Time is short would have us use this World as not abusing it because the fashion thereof passes away Yet a little while and there will be no use 1 Cor. 7.31 because no need of them But God and the World are commonly of contrary Judgments and that which is highly esteemed among men Luke 16.15 is oftentimes an abomination to him Lukewarmness is a Temper hot enough for what is neither good nor evil How great then is our sin who are stone-cold in those matters wherein God would have us fervent in Spirit but where he would have us cool and moderate all of a flame Direction XIII Lastly Seek that honour chiefly which comes from God only The World is never so wise or so good that we should much value its good word or approbation but oftentimes so bad and foolish that its commendation is our reproach What evil have we done that an evil World should speak well of us To be accounted honourable by him and made beautiful by him is true Honour real Beauty In his Judgment stands our absolution or condemnation in his Sentence our life or death to him and by him we stand or fall What a wretched honour is it that we receive from it Apparel which is no part of our selves and for which we are beholden to the trivial skill of a Taylor or Attire-woman but the true Reason of the affectation of these Vanities lies in that of our Saviour How can ye believe that seek honour one of another John 5.44 and seek not the honour that comes from God only Considerations to press to such a cautelous walking that we partake not in the sinfulness of strange Apparel I. Let us seriously consider How Apparel came into the World Sin brought in Shame and Shame brought in Apparel and Apparel has at last brought in more Sin and Shame The old Riddle has here found an Oedipus Mater me genuit peperit mox filia matrem In the state of Primitive Integrity Man was cloath'd with Original Righteousness He wore the glorious Image of him that created him in knowledg righteousness and true holiness But sin has now stript him of his glory and expos'd his shame to the view of God his Judg. How great then is that Pride when we are proud of what should abase us How vile that glory that glories in its shame It was good advice of Chrysostome Homil. 18. in Genes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the wearing of our Apparel be a perpetual Memorial to us of the good things we have lost and an Instruction what penalties mankind is liable to by disobedience For as Gregory Nazianzene reasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. de Mort. If says he we had continued the same we were at first created we had had no need of a coat of skins the divine Image shining in our souls And therefore Chrysostom's Inference is very clear Tom. 6. p. 241. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cloaths were not given us to set forth our beauty but to cover that shame that proceeded from nakedness But Tertullian excellently prosecutes this argument Si tanta in Terris moraretur fides quanta in Coelis merces ejus expectatur nulla omnino vestrum sorores ex quo Deum cognovisset De hab Mulieb in initio de sua id est foeminae conditione didicisset laetiorem habitum nè dicam gloriosiorem appetisset ut non magis in sordibus ageret squallorem potius affectaret ipsam circumferens Evam lugentem poenitentem quo plenius quod de Evâ trabit ignominiam dico primi delicti invidiam perditionis humanae omni satisfactionis habitu expiaret If there was as much Faith on Earth as there is reward for it in Heaven there 's none of you since the time she knew God and understood her own condition that would have affected a joyful much less a splendid Garb but rather have lien in sackcloath and ashes carrying about her an Eve within that laments and repents that so she might compensate with the most mortified habit that she derived from the first Eve I mean the scandal of the first sin and the odium of having been the Ruin of Mankind Alas what pleasure could we take in these Vanities did we consider them as the Effect of so sad a Cause And what would the Gold of Ophir the Pearls of the Ocean the Jewels of the Indies signifie to a soul that was taken up with Reflections on its Exile from Paradise and the loss of God's Image II. It deserves to be laid to heart how we came into the World how we must go out and how we shall rise again Holy Job confessed that when he was reduced to beggary he was somewhat better than when he was born Job 1.21 Naked came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither i. e. to the Earth the common Mother of us all And we may add Naked shall I rise again I shall see my Redeemer at the last day with these eyes but I
plead They good Women do it only to please their Husbands that they may keep a room in their affections now grown old and not so taken as in their youthful and florid days And they think they have a clear Text that will justifie their pious intentions She that is married careth for the things of the world 1 Cor. 7.34 Loc. com p. 383. and how she may please her husband To which I answer with P. Martyr Curent ut velint placere maritis modo id faciant citra fictionem mendacium de seipsis cogitent an vellent decipi falli ut pro viro pulchro formoso ducerent foedum deformem Let 'em do so with all my heart let 'em strive to please their Husbands but be sure they do not cheat and abuse him whilst they please him For let them make it theit own case Would they be so choused as to marry a deformed ill-looked fellow whom they took for a handsome and beautiful person An understanding man as Chrysostome would see his Wives face as God made it And says he when Women have once taught their Husbands to be in love with painted faces they will rather send them to professed Whores than tie them closer to themselves because common Harlots are a thousand times more expert in these Adulterations than honest Women And if it be a sin to sophisticate and adulterate Wares and Merchandise how much more to paint the Face And Austin in express Epist ad Possid Fucari pigmentis quo mulier vel candidior vel rubicundior appareat Adulterina fallacia est quâ etiam ipsos maritos non dubito nolle decipi For a Woman to paint her face that she may appear either more fair or more ruddy is an adulterating fallacy and I am confident Husbands would not willingly have such a trick put upon them To conclude If the Husband be a wicked Man he will suspect his Wives honesty the more and be tempted par pari referre If a good man he will need none of these Artifices to secure his affections but out of Conscience will acquiesce in his own choice and the Law and Will of God VII And weigh it seriously what a long train of sins waits upon this stately Lady Vain-glory. Pride never walks the streets alone nor without a vast Retinue of Lusts to adorn her Pageantry He that will be profuse in one instance must be covetous in another Riotous spending is accompanied with penurious sparing A great fire must have great store of fewel to feed it and an open Table requires abundance of Provision to maintain it Pride must be maintained by Oppression Fraud Couzenage If the Tradesman's Wife lashes it out in the streets the Husband must fetch it in one way or other in the Shop They that spend unmercifully must gain unconscionably The Mill will not grind unless some Lust brings Grist unto it A Gentleman anticipates his Rents in the Countrey he comes up to Town to vamp his Lady and fine Daughters with the newest Fashion He ransacks the Court and City for the Fashion searches the Shops for Materials to furnish out the pomp He returns home and then his poor Tenants go to rack the sweat is squeez'd out of their Brows the blood screw'd out of their Veins the Marrow out of their Bones that they may pay the unconscionable Reckonings and monstrous Bills that his own prodigality has drawn upon him Nor is it one single sin that fills the Train of Pride God is robb'd of his Worship the Poor of their Charity the Creditor of his just Debts Posterity of those Portions which Parents are bound to lay up for their Children Pride drinks the Tears of Widows and Orphans revels with the hard labours of the Indigent feeds on the flesh of Thousands Elegantly Tertullian De hab Mulieb Brevissimis loculis patrimonium grande profertur Uno lino decies sestertium inseritur saltus insulas tenera Cervix fert Graciles aurium Cures Calendarium expendunt A vast Estate is inclosed in one small Locket A Necklace of almost 8000. l. hangs on one single string A slender Neck carries Lordships and Mannors and the thin tip of the Ear wears a Jewel or Pendent that would defray the charges of House-keeping for a Twelve month This is the evil of what the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 costly Apparel VIII And how many precious souls hath this one Vanity destroy'd or endanger'd not with meat but which is more sinful because less necessary with superfluous Apparel How oft has thy own cloathing been thy own temptation as the proud Horse is made more proud with his Bells and Trappings Is it not enough we have a Devil to tempt us but we must be so to our selves How often has Apparel drawn out the seeds of Corruption which else had lien under the clod and never sprouted How often has it blown up the sparks of Concupiscence which else had lien buried under the ashes Is not Satan malicious enough subtil enough but we must do his work for him or render it more feisible And how do you endanger the souls of others Wicked men are hardened in their pride by your Example they triumph in you as their Converts and Proselytes they glory that the Professor is now become as one of them Others are tempted to think all Religion a cheat when it cannot prevail with those that pretend to it to deny one Vanity when it professes to deny all Who can expect a Man should deny his profit and gain that cannot deny an expensive and chargeable foolery Or how will that Man deny himself in the bulk when he cannot refuse the blandishment of so small a branch of it And how many poor innocent souls perhaps a little inclinable to entertain better thoughts of Religion have been seduced to unchaste thoughts designs and actions Nay how many may be in Hell whom thy bewitching whorish Attire hath first drawn into sin and then sent down to Hell Say not if thou art a Christian thou wilt not say it I will use my liberty and wear what I judg convenient if others will take offence and stumble 't is their sin not mine the offence is taken not given If they took an occasion I gave them no cause and therefore let them be damn'd at their own peril But didst thou know or seriously consider what thou knowest the price of a souls Redemption thou would'st not hazard its Damnation 1 Pet. 1.18 Silver and Gold and corruptible things may damn a soul but could not ransom and recover a soul What a cut would it be to thy heart could'st thou lay thine ear to the Gates of Hell and hear the Roarings Cursings and Blasphemies of that miserable Crew how they blaspheme Divine Justice curse themselves and amongst others thy self that wast an occasion to send them thither with thy tempting Braveries Hear Tertullian Quid igitur in te excitas malum illud
Thess 2.13 God hath from the Beginning chosen you to Salvation 1 Thess 5.9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain Salvation which Salvation doth include absence of all evil and presence of all good and this Salvation being Eternal Heb. 5.9 infers the absence of all evil for ever and the presence of all good for ever and whosoever is delivered from all privative Evils and possessed of all positive Everlasting good and that for ever can not be denyed to be happy for ever II. Christ hath redeemed some to be infallibly brought to Eternal Glory What reason can be given of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God if there be no Eternal misery for men to be delivered from nor any Eternal happiness to be possessed of For 1. Did Christ dye to deliver his Followers from Poverty and Prisons from Sorrow and Sufferings from Trouble and Tribulation What! and yet his Holy Humble and Sincere people lye under these more than other Men that are wicked and ungodly why was Paul then in stripes and imprisonments in hunger and thirst in cold and nakedness in perils and jeopardy of his Life continually and such as Pilate Faelix and Festus in great worldly prosperity Or can it be imagined that Men persisting in Sin should be more partakers of the fruits of Christs Death than those that forsake their sin repent and turn and follow him 2. Did Christ suffer and dye to purchase only Temporal good things as Riches Honours for his Disciples Were these worth his precious Blood VVhatever Christ dyed for it cost him his most Sacred Blood Was it then for Temporal enjoyments only which Turks and Pagans may and do possess more than Thousands of his true and faithful Followers Did Christ intend the benefits of his Death for these in more especial manner then for such as remain finally impenitent and yet shall such reap the fruit of all his Sufferings and those that believe on him go without them Sober reason doth abhor it and all the Scripture is against it Would Christ have humbled himself to such a contemptible Birth miserable Life lamentable painful shameful Death only for transitory temporal fading Mercies If we consider the variety of his sufferings from God Men and Devils the dignity of the Sufferer I profess I cannot imagine any reason of all Christs undertakings and performances if there be not an Eternal state of Misery in suffering of evil things by his Death that Believers might be delivered from and of Glory in enjoying of good things to be brought unto III. The Spirit of God doth sanctifie some that they might be made meet to be partakers of the Eternal Inheritance of the Saints in light As all are not Godly so all are not Ungodly Though most be as they were born yet many there be that are born again there is a wonderful difference betwixt men and men the Spirit of God infusing a principle of spiritual Life and making some all over new working in them Faith in Christ Holy Fear and Love Patience and Hope longing Desires renewing in them the Holy Image of God is as the earnest and first fruits assuring of them in due time of a plentiful harvest of Everlasting Happiness Faith is in order to Eternal Life and Salvation Joh. 3.16 Love hath the promise of it 1 Cor. 2.9 2 Tim. 4.8 Jam. 1.12 Obedience ends in it Heb. 5.9 Hope waits for it Rom. 8.25 and because their hope shall never make them ashamed Rom. 5.5 therefore there must be such an Eternal-Blessed state they hope for IV. The Souls of all men are immortal though they had a beginning yet shall never cease to be therefore must while they be be in some state and because they be Eternal must be in some Eternal state This Eternal state must be either in the Souls enjoyment of God or in separation from him for the wit of Man cannot find out a third for the Soul continuing to be must be with God or not with God shall enjoy him or not enjoy him for to say he shall and shall not or to say he shall not and yet shall is a contradiction and to say he neither shall nor shall not is as bad if therefore the Soul be Eternal and while it shall be shall perfectly enjoy God it shall be Eternally happy If it shall for ever be and that without God it shall be Eternally miserable because God is the chiefest good the ultimate end and perfection of man The great work in this then is to prove that the Soul is Eternal and shall for ever be For which I offer these things 1. There is nothing within nor without the Soul that can be the cause of its ceasing to be here except God who though he can take away the being of Souls and Angels too yet he hath abundantly assured us that he will not Nothing within it because it is a Spiritual Being and hath no Internal Principle by contrary qualities causing a cessation of its Being and because it is simple and indivisible it is immortal and incorruptible for that which is not compounded of parts cannot be dissolved into parts and where there is no dissolution of a Being there is no corruption or end of it there is no Creature without it that can cause the Soul to cease Matth. 10.28 Not able to kill the Soul Luc. 12.4 Fear not them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do if they would kill the Soul they cannot when they have killed the Body they have done their worst their most their all 2. The Soul of man hath not dependance upon the Body as to its Being and Existence It hath certain actings and operations which do not depend upon the Body and if the operations of the Soul be independent from the Body such must the principle be from whence such operations do arise and if it can act without dependance on the Body then it can exist and be without the Body In the Body without dependance on the Body it hath the knowledge of immaterial Beings as God and Adgels which were never seen by the eye of the Body nor can because there must be some proportion between the object and the faculty and the Soul doth know it self wherein it hath no need of the phantasie for when it is intimately present to it self it wanteth not the ministry of the phantasie to its own intellection Besides it can conceive of universals abstracted from its singulars in which it doth not depend upon the phantasie for phantasmata sunt singularium non universalium therefore since it can act in the body without dependance on the Body it can exist without the Body and not dye when the Body doth which yet is more plain and certain from the Scripture which telleth us that the Soul of Lazarus after death was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosom Luc. 16.22 but they did not carry it dead or alive but alive