by the outward behaviour of our assemblies The shell is not sweet but serves to hide the sweeter part from those that will not storm those walls that they may possess it as their prize The kernel of Religion is covered with a shell so hard that flesh and blood cannot break it Hard sayings and hard providences to the Church and to particular believers are such as many cannot break through and therefore never taste the sweetness The most admired feature and beauty of any of your bodies which fools think to be the most excellent part of the body is indeed but the handsome well-adorned case that God by nature doth cover his more excellent inward works with Were you but able to see within that skin and 〈…〉 once to observe the wonderful motions of Heart and Braine and the course of the blood in the veins and arteries and the several fermentations and the causes and nature of chylifications and sanguifications and the spirits and senses and all their works and if you saw the reason of every part and vessel in this wonderous frame and the causes and nature of every disease much more if you saw the excellent nature and operations of that rational soul that is the glory of all you would then say that you had seen a more excellent sight then the smooth and beauteous skin that covers it The invisible soul is of greater excellencie then all the visible beauties in the world So also if you would know the excellencies of Religion you must not stand without the doors or judge of it by the skin and shell but you must come neer and look into the inward Reasons of it and think of the difference between the high imployments of a Saint and the poor and for did drungery of the ungodly between walking with God in desire and love and in the spiritual use of his Ordinances and creatures and conversing only with sinful men and transitory vanities between the life of faith and hope which is daily maintained by the foresight of Everlasting Glory and a life of meer nature and worldliness and sensuality and idle complement and pompe which are but the progenitors of sorrow and end in endless desperation Come neer and try the power of Gods Laws and of the workings of his spirit and think in good sadness of the place where you must live forever and the glory you shall see and the sweet enjoyment and employment you shall have in the presence of the eternal Majesty and think well of all the sweet contrivances and discoveries of his love in Christ and how freely all these are offered to you and how certainly they may be your own peruse the promises and sweet expressions of Love and Grace and exercise your souls in serious meditation prayer thanksgiving and praise and withall remember that none but these will be durable delights and then tell me whether a life of sport and pride and worldliness and flesh-pleasing or a life of faith and Holiness be the better the sweeter and more pleasant life Direct 3. If you would taste the Pleasures of a Holy life you must apply your self to Christ in the use of his appointed means for the renewing of your natures that his Spirit may give you a new understanding and a new heart to discern and rellish spiritual things For your old corrupted minds and hearts will never do it They are unsuitable to the things of God and therefore cannot Receive them nor savour them nor be subject to the holy laws 1 Cor. 2. 14 15. Rom. 8. 5 6 7 8. The appetite and rellish of every living creature is agreeable to its nature A fish hath small pleasure in the dry land nor a bird in the deeps of water grass and water is sweeter to an Ox then our most delicate meats and drinks Corruption and Custom have made you so vitious that your natures are not such as God made them at the first when he himself was mans desire and delight but they are now inclined to sensual things being captivated by the fleshly part and have contracted a strangeness and enmity to God And therefore those Hearts will never rellish the sweetnesses of a life of Faith and Holiness till Faith and Holiness be planted in them and they be born again by regenerating grace For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and but flesh and therefore doth reach no higher then a fleshly inclination can move it and that which is born of the spirit is spirit and therefore will rellish and love things Spiritual Direct 4. Lastly if you would taste the pleasures of a Holy life you must forbear those sinful fleshly pleasures which now you are so taken up with For these are they that infatuate your understandings and corrupt your appetites and make the sweetest things seem loathsom to you As the using of vain sports and filthy lust abroad doth make such persons a weary of their own relations and families and business at home so also the glutting of the mind with vanity and using your selves to sinful pleasures is it that turns your hearts from God and maketh his Word and Wayes unsavoury to you You must first with the Prodigal Luke 15. be brought into a famine of your former pleasures and be denyed the very husk and then you will remember that the meanest servant in your Fathers house is in a far better case then you having bread enough while you perish through hunger And hence it is that God doth so often promote the work of Conversion by Affliction and by the same means carryeth on the work of Grace in most that he will save Cannot you tell how to leave your sensual pleasures What will you do when sickness makes you weary of them Weary of your meat and drink and bed weary to hear talk of that which now doth seem so sweet and to say I have no pleasure in them Cannot you spare your friends your sports your bravery your wealth and other carnal accommodations What will you say of them when pain disgraceth them and convinceth you of their insufficiency to stand you in any stead These things that you are now so loth to leave may shortly become such a load to your souls as undigested meat to the stomack that is sick that you can have no ease till you have cast them off Away therefore with these luscious Vanities betime which vitiate your appetites and put them out of rellish with the things that are truly pleasant O what a shame it is to hear a man say I shall never endure so godly and spiritual and strict a life when he can endure and take pleasure in a life of sin You may wiselyer lie down in the dunghill or the ditch and say I shall never endure a cleaner place or feed on carrion and say I shall never endure a cleaner dyet or accompany only with enemies and wild beasts and say I shall never endure the company of my friends What! is God
greatest misery It is because they would not Choose that Good and refuse the way and cause of Misery But how cometh it to pass that men will make no wiser a choice Is the case so doubtful that they cannot be resolved in it every man would have that which he thinks is Best for him Why do men follow after wealth or pleasure or credit in the world but because they take it to be Best for them Why do they set so light by Holiness and Christ and Heaven bâ—… cause they apprehend them not to be Best for them Wâ—… men refuse and obstinately against all perswasions refuse a Holy life if they took it practically to be Best for them what will they contrive their own destruction do they long to do themselves a Mischief and the greatest Mischief in the world No that 's not the case But the matter is this Their senses draw them another way Their eye their ear their taste their feeling every sense hath a Pleasure of its Own and this sense or flesh is violent and unreasonable and would fain be satisfied and Reason that was given us to Rule it is bribed and blinded and perverted by it and so is ready as a servant to obey it and to take its part and the fleshly mind discerneth not the things of God for they are spiritually discerned the Will also and the Affections are by the byas of a fleshly inclination corrupted and habitually lean to the fleshly part And that which men Love they will easily think well of and are glad of any thing like Reason to defend it and that which is against the Inclination of the Will will hardly be thought well of and any thing like Reason will serve against it This depravation of the mind and will of man enslaved and ruled by the Flesh or sensuality is the very cause that most men will not choose the Better part and so the cause of their perpetual misery And till the Holy Ghost send in a heavenly light of Wisdom into the mind to shew them the true difference between the Good and the Evil and a new Inclination into the Will that shall turn their hearts from the Evil to the Good they will still go on and the matters of God will seem foolishness to them and they will take those men for the veryest fools that follow the Wisdom of the Lord and provide most carefully for eternal life and they will take those for the wisest men that are most contrary to the God of Wisdom and that dare leap most fearlesly into Hell Or if this be not their Opinion but conviction force them to a wiser kind of language yet will it be their Practical estimation and their Hearts as their Choice and Lives will easily declare For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3. 6. The fleshly man will have a fleshly mind and will and openly or secretly will Live after the flesh and such are the heirs of death Rom. 8. 5 7 13. Fleshly generation cannot make a spiritual mind or heart in any but it must be by spiritual Regeneration and therefore except a man be born again of the spirit as well as of water he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3. 3 5. This inward difference of Inclinations is the true cause of the difference of the judgements and the courses of men about the matters of God and their salvation This is it that makes so many to think none wise but those that are more dangerously mad then men in Bedlam and that makes so many others stand in doubt as men unresolved what to choose and what course to follow As if it were really a difficult point for a man to be resolved in Whether it be best and wisest to follow the teachings of God or of the flesh and to seek first the Kingdom and Righteousness of God or to make a pudder for nothing in the world and to claw this itching flesh a while though they must smart for it for ever or to master the flesh and live to God! In a word the world are half unresolved whether it be better to be Holy with Gods promise of Eternal Glory or to take the Pleasures of sin for a season and neglect this Holiness though this course be threatned by the Living God with Everlasting torments This is the true state of the Question which I say one part of the world doth seem to be unresolved in and another part are resolved on the worser side against their souls and a Holy life and only those that the illuminating sanctifying spirit hath resolved do choose the needful better part The reason of this distracted judgement of the most is within themselves It is not because that there is any such difficulty in the case as should put a wise man to a stand Nor it is not because they have not sufficient evidence in the word or that God denyed them Teachers Books or any Necessary Means for their information The Light is among them but they Love it not because their hearts and deeds are evil and their darkness doth not comprehend it and this is their delusion and their condemnation Joh. 1. 6 7 8. 3. 19. When I am preaching to a congregation of many hundred or thousand souls if the salvation of all that people did lie upon any other question no harder then this that we have in hand so it were such as fleshly interest and corrupted minds and wills had no quarrel against how easily how surely should I save the souls of all that heard me Reader let me have thy judgement If the Question were Whether Light or Darkness be the Better Whether a dead corps be better then a Living man Whether a cottage for a day or a Rich habitation for term of life be better Whether as much drink as will make thee drunk or a nights lodging with a whâ—re be better then Lands and Lordships for thy life time or for a thousand years Whether one sweet cup with shame and beggery all thy life after or one bitter draught with perpetual prosperity should be rather chosen Whether a sick man were better take an unpleasing medicine that would cure him or a pleasant poyson that would kill him Whether he were better pay a little to the Physicion or dye to save his money Whether that Prince be wise that will sell his Kingdom for a cup of wine or for childrens rackets Or whether that child â—e vertuous that cannot abide his Fathers sight or house or commands but loveth better to do that which he knows displeaseth him or to tumble in the dirt with swine I say if any of these were the Question to be Resolved and the salvation of all that heard me lay upon the true Resolution I leave it to your own judgements Whether I were not like to save the souls of all that heard me And yet in a case as
honoured all rejoyce 1 Cor. 12. 25 26. As weak as Christians are and as worthless in your eyes one of their hearty spiritual prayers and one word of their holy savoury conference doth profit us more then all your Treasures will ever profit you While the Divine nature is in them somewhat Divine will proceed from their mouthes and be seen in their lives which is worth more then all the Riches of the world And O how fruitful are the holy Ordinances which we partake of both in the Churches Communion and alone in our retirements A poor Christian can get more in a Sermon which you sleep under or deride then you will get by your trades or livings while you live He findeth greater Treasures in one Chapter of the Bible or in one good Book then you can get out of all your lands or labours The best of your livings will not yield you so much commodity in seven years nor in seven thousand years if you could so long keep them as a believing soul can get from God in one hours prayer even in secret where he is not by man observed You do not believe this that are ungodly I know you do not heartily believe it for else you would try it and not continue in your ungodliness But they that try it know it to be true Or else what makes them continue in it and live upon their holy Communion with God and his servants more resolvedly then you do on your lands and labours Somewhat you may conjecture they find in holy duty that makes them so instant in it as they are 7. Another part of our commodity by Holiness is the Promise and Assurance of the Love of God and of our salvation and the Peace of Conscience that followeth hereupon All true Believers have objective certainty that is the thing is certain in itself whether they perceive it or not And they may have subjective or Actual certainty in themselves if they do their parts And is not a certain Title to a Lordship or a Kingdom a greater Treasure then the possession of a straw Much more is Gods Promise of Everlasting Glory a greater Treasure then all your wealth As Heaven is infinitely better then earth so the Promise of God is the best security Though we be not with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and do not yet see the face of God yet have we a Promise that speedily we shall be there and shall see that which they see and enjoy all that which they enjoy The poorest Christian hath all that in Promise under the hand of God himself which Angels and Glorified Saints have in possession They can shew you a better Title to Heaven though they are unworthy in themselves then any of you can shew to your lands or houses in your Deeds or Leases As poor and simple as that Godly man is whom you despise he is an Heir of Heaven and a fellow-Heir with Christ Rom. 8. 17. Gal. 3. 29. Heb. 1. 14. 11. 9. When we had the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy-Ghost and were justified by grace we were made the Heirs of eternal life according to the hope that is given us by the Gospel Tit. 3. 5 7. And God that hath given them those Better things that accompany salvation is not unrighteous to forget their work and labour of love if they do but shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end and be not sloathful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Heb. 6. 9 10 11 12. For this cause was Christ the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the Transgressions under the first Testament they which are called may receive the Promise of the eternal inheritance Heb. 9. 15. And we know that he is faithful that hath promised And if your Bills and Bonds and Deeds and Leases be part of your Riches we shall much more take the Promise of God for our everlasting happiness in Heaven to be far greater Riches 8. And yet we may put this among our Riches or at least as the Over-plus given us by God that we have better advantage even for the matters of this world then the ungodly have For we have a Promise that we shall lack nothing that is good for us Psal 34. 10. and so have not they We have warrant to east all our care on God who by promise is engaged to care for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. We are commanded to be anxiously careful for nothing but in all things to make known our requests to God as little children that care not for themselves but go to their father for what they want Phil. 4. 6. It is enough for us whatever we want that our heavenly Father knoweth that we want it Matth. 6. 32. who hath charged us to disburden our minds of these vexatious cares and to seek first his Kingdom and the Righteousness thereof and promised us that other things shall be added to us Mat. 6. 33. We have also a promise that all things shall work together for our good Rom. 8. 28. And therefore we shall have more from the things of this life then the ungodly have Yea more by the want of them then they by the possession For if they do us good in our graces and communion with God and in the matter of our salvation they help us to that which is of far higher value then themselves Poverty to a true Believer is better then Riches to the ungodly that destroyeth himself by them when the Believer is helped by his poverty Imprisonment to Paul and Silas was better then liberty to their persecutors And thus in the fruits and saving benefits all things are ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. We have the Love of God with what we possess be it more or less when the wicked have his wrath with it And who would have their Riches on such terms 9. Another part of the Gain of Godliness is that it puts us into a Readiness to die and a fitness to appear before the Lord. Though all the Godly have not so great a readiness as to desire to be presently dissolved yet all of them are in a safe condition and are so far ready that death shall pass them into a blessed state For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernaâ—le were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hâ—… eternal in the heavens And in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven And God that hath given 〈…〉 the earnest of his Spirit hath wrought in us to be alwayes confident or at least given us cause knowing that whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord For we walk by faith and not by sight we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 1
2 8 9. Though the abode of the godly in the flesh is usually more needful to those about them yet to themselves their death is gain and therefore they have cause to desire to depart and be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1. 21 23 24. For sin which is the sting of death is mortified and the curse of the Law which is the strength of it is relaxed or null fied to us by the Gospel so that the Believer may triumph and say O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. and to give thanks to God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ vers 57. Verily I would not exchange my part though alas too small or dark a part in this one priviledge of true Believers for all the wealth and dominions on earth O the face of Death will soon make the Glory of all your greatness to vanish and the beauty of your flourishing estates to wither and all that you now glory in to appear as nothing And then how glad would you be to change Portions with the holy servants of the Lord whom you now despise When once you hear Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul and whose then are all those things that thou hast provided Luke 12. 20. then in a moment you will change your minds and cry out of the world as nothing worth and wish you had busied your hearts and hands in laying up a better treasure This is one difference O â—ngodly wretch between a holy servant of God and thee Death cannot undo him but it will undo thee It cannot take his Riches from him for his God his Christ his Holiness the Promises are his Riches but it will separate thee and thy wealth for ever It will put an end to all his troubles and fears and griefs and it will put an end to all thy prosperity and to all thy mirth and hope for ever A godly man dare die or if he ignorantly fear it yet shall it be the end of all his fears but thou darest not die and yet thou must or if thou ignorantly hope of a happiness after it yet will it nevertheless end all thy hopes O what a mercy is it to be ready to die 10. But the great unspeakable Riches of the Saints is in the Life to come We have here the Hope and the fore-taste but it is only there that we shall have our Portion You see what a poor Christian is according to his outward appearance But you see not what he will be to eternity There is the Kingdom for which we hope and for which we run and wait and suffer If God be true and his Gospel true then Heaven shall be the Portion of the sanctâ—fied But if it were otherwise then we would confess their hopes are vain Heaven is our Riches or we have none There have we laid up all our Hopes and in these Hopes we will live and die as knowing they will not make us ashamed Rom. 5. 5. 9. 33. 1 John 2. 28. We believe that we shall live with Christ in glory and shine as stars in the Firmament of our Father and be made like to the Angels of God and shall see his face and praise his name and live in his everlasting Love and Joy For all this he himself hath promised us 1 Thes 4. 17. 18. Daâ— 12. 3. Mat. 13. 43. Luk. 20 36. Rev. 22. 4. Mat. 25. 21. And now poor worldling what is all your Gain and Riches in comparison of the least of these Do you think in your judgements that there is any comparison Or rather doth not sin and the world even brutifie you and make you lay by the use of your reason and live as if you knew not what you know Your Treasure is all visible when ours is unseen and therefore I may bid you bring it forth and let us see it whether indeed it be better then the Treasure of the Saints Let us see what that is that is better then God and everlasting glory What! is a little fleshly ease or mirth a little meat and drink and pleasure a little more money or space of ground to use then your neighbours have are these the things that you will change for Heaven and preser before the Lord that made you O poor miserable sinners Are you not told that you have your good things here but what will you have hereafter when this is gone Luke 16. 25. When your wealth is gone and your mirth is gone your souls are immortal and therefore your misery and horrour will continue and never be gone As the wealth of the godly is within them and above the reach of their enemies and surer then yours so is it the more durable even everlasting When all your Riches are upon the wing even ready to be gone and leave you in sorrow when you are most highly valuing them you have it now but it is gone to morrow And what is the Hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Job 27. 8 9. Let the words of Christ decide the Controversie if indeed you take him for your Judge Mat. 16. 2â— 25 26 27. If any man will come after we let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul For the Son of man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works Well sirs you that are all for Getting and for wealth judge now if you have not lost your Reason whether a Holy or unholy â— Heavenly or an Earthly life be the more Profitable way I would not draw you to any thing that you should lose by If I speak not for your Gain reject my words as contemptuously as you please But if I do then be not against your own commodity Will such silly Gain as the world affords you do so much with you as it doth and shall not the Heavenly inheritance do more shall all this stir be made in the world for that which you are ready to leave behind you and will you not lay up a Treasure in heaven where rust and moaths corrupt not and where you may live for ever Matth. 6. 20. What profit now have all those millions of souls that are gone from earth by all the wealth they here possessed Hear sinners and bethink you in the name of God You are leaving Earth and stepping into Eternity and where then should you lay up your Riches Would you rather have your Portion where you must stay but a few days then where you must