language from their mouths even the joyful praises of their Redeemer and the thankful acknowledgements of his abundant love How sweet unto their souls is the remembrance of kindness and how delightful a work is it from day to day to magnifie his name 5. You must also distinguish between those weak mistaken Christians that understand not the extent of the Covenant of grace and those that do understand it If a believer by mistake should think that the grace of the Gospel extendeth not to such as he because he is unworthy and his sins are great no wonder if he be troubled As you would be if you should conceive that your lease were not made to you but to another or as a malefactor would be if he thought his pardon belonged not to him but to another man But hence you should rather observe the riches and excellencies of the Gospel and the happiness of the heirs of promise then dream that its better be strangers to the holy Covenant still They are better that have a promise of life and understand it not then they that have none But those that know the freeness and fulness of the promise and study with all Saints to comprehend what is the bredth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 18 19. do use to walk more comfortably according to the riches of that grace wich they do possess 6. Consider also that most of these complaining Christians are glad that they are in any measure got out of their former state and therefore apprehend their cause to be better then it was before Or else they would turn back to the state that they were in which they would not do for all the world And therefore they take a godly life to be far more pleasant to them that do attain it 7. Moreover the sorrow of believers is such as may consist with Joy At the same time while they are grieved that they are no better they are gladder of that measure of grace which they have received then they would be to be made the rulers of the world While they are mourning for the remnant of their sins they are glad that it is but a remnant that they have to mourn for Yea while they are troubled because they doubt of their sincerity and salvation they are more sustained and comforted with that little discerning which they have of their evidences and with their hopes of the everlasting love of God then they could by all your sinful pleasures Try the most dejected mournful Christian whether he would change states and comforts with the best and greatest of the ungodly The soul of man is so active and comprehensive that it can at once both rejoyce and mourn While they mourn for sin and feel affliction believers can have some rejoycing taste of Everlasting Life 8. Yea the godly sorrow of a believer is the matter of his joy He is gladder when his heart will melt for sin then he would be to be your partner in your carnal pleasures He would not change the comfort that he findeth in his penitent tears for all your laughter 9. The Joy of a believer is intimate and solid as I said before according to the object of it and not like the fleering of a fool or the laughter of a child or the sensual mirth that Solomon called Madness And therefore it is not so discernable to others as carnal mirth is And therefore you think that the servants of Christ are void of pleasure when they have much more then you It is little ridiculous accidents and toys that make men laugh but great things give us an inward sweet content and joy which scorns to shew it self by laughter And what can be a fitter object of such great content then to be a member of Christ and an heir of heaven 10. Moreover this sorrow of the Godly is but medicinal and a preparative to their after-Joys It doth but work out the poison of sin which would marr their comforts and drive them to Christ and fit them to value him and tast the sweetness of his love and grace 11. And as it is not the state and life of a Christian but his fasting days or time of Physick so the comforts of the godly ordinarily do far exceed their sorrows at least in weight if not in passionate sense They have their hours of sweet access to God and of heavenly meditation and delightful remembrance of the experiences of his love and perusal of his promises and communion with his people and of the exercise of faith and hope and love And with those Christians that have attained stability and strength these comforting graces are predominant and their life is more in Love and Praise then in vexatious fears and sorrows And it should be so with all believers Love is the Heart of the new creature It is a life of Love and Joy and praise that Christ calls all his people to and forbids them all unnecessary doubts and sorrows and keepeth them up so strictly from sin that he may prevent their sorrows And if you will judge whether Holiness be a pleasant course you must goe to the prescript and consider the nature and use of Holiness and look at those that live according to the mercies of the Gospel and not look at the dejections and sorrows of those that grieve themselves by swerving from the way of Holiness as if you would judge that Health is unpleasant because you hear a sick man groan And yet even these weak and mournful Christians usually have more joy then you The very preservation of their souls from that despair which sin would cast them into if they had not a Christ to fly to and the little tasts of mercy which they have felt and the revivings that they find between their sorrows and the hopes they have of better days are enough to weigh down all your pleasures and all their own sorrows 12. Lastly consider that this is not the life of perfect Joy and therefore some sorrows will be intermixt Comfort will not be perfect till Holiness be perfect and till we arrive at the place of perfect joy What 's wanting now while we live in a troublesome malignant world shall shortly be made up in the Heavenly Jerusalem when we have admittance into our Masters joy And then all the world shall be easily convinced whether sin or duty a fleshly or or Holy life hath the greater Pleasures and contents Object But it is not only the weakness of professors but the very way that is prescribed them that must bear the blame For they are commanded to fast and weep and mourn Answ 1. That is but with a medicinal necessary sorrrw for preventing of a greater sorrow as bitter medicines and blood-letting and strict diet are for the prevention of death God first commandeth them to take heed of sin the cause of sorrow But if they will fall and break
certain experience of all true Christians in the world They all have tasted and found that excellencie in the holy ways and Ordinances of the Lord that they value them above all the world With David they esteem them above Gold and Silver Psal 119. 72. With Solomon they say that all the things that we can desire are not to be compared to them Prov. 3. 15. 8. 11. And with Job they value the word of God above their necessary food Job 23. 12. And with Paul they count all things Loss aud dung in comparison of the excellent knowledge of Christ Phil. 3. 7 8. They know that it is a thousand times better with them since God converted them to a holy life then it was before as well as you know that you are better in your health then you were in sickness Try whether you can make men that ever were among those where plague and war and famine raigned to believe that it was never a good world since this plague and war and famine ceased You may as soon make wise men believe this as make experienced godly men to believe that it is worse with them for their turning to the Lord and living holy heavenly lives You can never by all your doating and self-conceited prating make those believe whom God hath sanctified that they were in a better case before when they were the slaves of Satan and served sin were under the wrath and curse of God They feel that within them that will never suffer them to believe you The health of their recovered souls their experience of the Goodness of the ways of God the comforts they have had in the pardon of sin and the hopes of Glory do make them know that you talke distractedly when you tell them that they were better before or that the world is the worse for the grace of God 6. And we cannot believe you when you speak evil of a holy course because your words are against all Religion and common reason and much more destructive of the Christian faith If God be not to be Loved with all our hearts and served with our greatest care then he is not God or then there is no such thing as Religion to be regarded A God that is worse then the Creature is no God If we must not seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof Matth. 6. 33. as Christ hath commanded then it is in vain to seek it at all If there be no Heaven or Hell let us lay by all Religion But if there be that man that thinks it not worth his greatest care and diligence to be saved doth forseit the reputation of his reason with his soul Will you believe that man that saith he believeth that there is an Everlasting Glory to be sought and made sure of in this life of our pilgrimage and warfare and yet thinks it not worth our seeking for above all and worthy all our cost and labour He speaks a gross and blockish contradiction A Heaven no better then Earth is no Heaven A Heaven that is not worthy the labour of a holy life is no Heaven And a God that is not worthy of all that we can do is no God Either plainly say that you are Pagans and worse and believe not any life but this Or else live as Christians if you will be called Christians say not that you believe there is a Hell if you think a Holy life too dear to scape it 7. Yea this is not all but your words do tend to Brutishness it self Pagans did believe for the most part a life after this And Julian that Apostate Infidel himself doth prescribe to all his Idols Priests a very strict and Religious life according to the Religion which he owned and professeth that all care and temperance and piety should be used to please God and obtain the happiness to come And shall men called Christians take the very Infidels for Puritanes and be worse then Heathens If we have not another life to look after then what are we but beasts that perish If you think that you die like beasts call your selves beasts and never more own the name of men If you are not beasts but men that have you souls to save or lose to be happy or miserable for ever And is it not worth all our care labour to look after them 8. Another reason why I will never believe you that the world was better when there was less preaching and Religion is because you speak against the very end and nature of preaching and Religion For the word of God is written and preached to this very end to make men better And is that the way to undoe the world to perswade them to amend O Impudent malignant tongues What doth the word of God speak against but sin Doth it anywhere speak against any thing that is Good or doth it anywhere command you any thing that is bad Let the bitterest enemy of God upon earth say so and prove it if he can I here in defiance of the Devil and all his instruments and servants challenge them in their bitterest malice to say the worst they can of the Gospel or of true Religion and prove that ever it encouraged men to sin or that ever any was a loser by it O wonderful Must the God of heaven indite such Laws against all evil condemning it and threatning damnation for it and yet will these wretches have the faces to say that it is long of the Scripture or of Religion that the world is Evil What! Will preaching against your wickedness make you wicked If it do be it known to the faces of you that it is you and not preaching that shall be one day found to be the cause and be condemned for it Must Princes and Parliaments make Laws to hang thieves and murderers and when they have done will you say it is long of them and their Laws that men are robbed and murdered Why this is not yet so impudently unjust as you deal with God For they threaten but hanging and he threatneth everlasting damnation against sin and executeth it on all the unconverted as sure as he threatneth it And would you have him yet do more to testifie his dislike of sin Tell me thou that blasphemest the holy commands of thy Creator Wouldst thou have him do more then everlastingly to damn unconverted sinners to prove that he is no friend or cause of sin what should he do more Is there a greater plague then Hell to threaten Or wouldst thou have him do more to shew how much he loveth Goodness then to command it and perswade men daily to it and to promise Everlasting Glory for their Reward Is there any greater Reward to be promised I tell thee blasphemer to the Justifying of my Lord that all the world hath never done the thousandth part against mens faults as God hath done Never were there stricter Laws against them then his Laws And never
Sing unto the Lord sing Psalms unto him talk of all his wonderous works Glory ye in his holy name let the heart of them rejoyce that seek the Lord Psal 105. 1 2 3. The Saints shall shout aloud for joy Psal 132. 9 16. Be glad in the Lord O ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Psal 32. 11. Behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed Behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and shall houle for vexation of spirit Isa 65. 13 14. Abundance such passages tell you what manner of persons it is that God delighteth in and what he would have you be and doe These I have recited to shame the godly out of their undecent troubles and dejectedness as you would shew a child his face in a glass when he cryeth that he may see how he deformeth it The very Kingdom of God consisteth in righteousness and Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost If you would live as is most pleasixg unto God and as beseemeth those that are indeed believers let the joy of believers be as far as is possible your ordinary frame And if by sin you wound your souls and bring smart upon your selves dwell not in that wounded smarting state but go to your Physicions and beg of God that he will restore to you the joy of his salvation and make you to hear the voice of joy and gladness that your broken heart and bones may rejoyce Psa 51. 8 12. And take notice throughout all the Scripture whether you find the servants of God so much complaining of their want of assurance and of their frequent doubtings of their own sincerity and his love I think you will find this a very rare thing in the ancient Saints They were sensible of sin as well as we and they were as sensible of Gods afflicting hand and oft as Job David Hezekiah c. complained under it perhaps with some excess and too much questioning Gods favour to them as if he had forsaken them But besides and without any such affliction to live in ordinary trouble of mind through the doubting of their sincerity and of Gods special love and to be exercised in the complaining and disconsolate way as now abundance of Christians are this I find little of the Scripture Saints The reason was not because they had more holiness and less sin than many that now are thus cast down For the Gospel time excelleth theirs in degrees of grace and I think the greater care that Christians have of their hearts and of inward rectitude and communion with God and their fuller apprehensions of the life to come and so of their greatest hopes and dangers is one great cause But yet there are worse concurring causes The Love of God and his readiness to shew mercy should not be more questioned now when it is so abundantly revealed by Christ then it was in times of darker revelation The servants of God did formerly conceive that nothing but sin could make man miserable and therefore when they had sinned they repented and instead of continuing doubts and fears they bent their resolutions against their sins and having cast away their gross and wilful sins and continuing the conflict against their unavoidable infirmities which they hated they knew that the door of mercy was still open to them and that if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father who is the propitiation The time that is now spent in doubting and complaining and asking How shall I know that I sincerely repent was then spent in Repenting and reforming and using the means that God hath appointed for the conquering of sin and then trusting to his grace and Covenant in the blood of Christ for pardon And it would be better with us if we did thus Judge now by all these Scriptures and by the course of former Saints how God would have you behave your selves Do you not read an hundred times of their joy and thanks and praising God and calling upon others to praise him for once that they perplexedly question their sincerity But perhaps youâ—le say that your strength is so weak and your sins and enemies so strong and all your duty so imperfect and unworthy that having such continual cause of trouble you cannot choose but walk in heaviness and in fears I answer you 1. But why do you not tell what you have as well as what you want Have you not greater cause to say My sins being mortified at the root and all forgiven and my soul renewed and reconciled unto God and I being made an heir of Heaven how can I choose but live in joy 2. Are you heartily willing to forsake your sins and overcome the things of which you so complain or are you not If you are not why do you complain of them and why will you not consent to let them go and use Gods means to overcome them If you are willing then they are but your pardoned infirmities For that 's the difference between infirmities and reigning sins Whatsoever sin consisteth with a greater Habitual willingness to avoid that and all other sin then to keep them is but an Infirmity for it stands with present saving grace and is always Habitually or virtually repented of and actually when grace by knowledge and consideration hath opportunity and advantage to produce the act 3. And when once you are truly ingraffed into Christ he is your worthiness and your righteousness and the treasury of your souls and what you want in your own possession you have in his hands and as what you have is but his gift so what you want he is able and ready to supply Look not too much to your selves as if your safety and happiness were principally in your own hand God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his son He that hath the son hath life 1 Joh. 5. 10 11. It is through him that we can do all things so far as he strenghteneth us and without him we can do nothing Make use of him therefore as the Lord of life and joyfully acknowledge all that you receive and stand not dejectedly lamenting that you need him If you would have the waters of life goe to the fountain and do not sit down and fruitlesly vex your selves with complaining of your wants instead of seeking for supplyes Is there not an all sufficient Physicion of souls at hand Doth he not freely offer you his help what though you are not suddenly cured wounds may be caused in an hour but they use not to be cured in an houre Stay his time and use his remedies and cheerfully trust him and you shall find the cure successfully go on though it will not be finished till death 5. Consider also that it must needs be the best and most desirable life which is likest to our life in Heaven And therefore as Heaven is a state of Joy so Joy
you proud and self-conceited sinners that will plead for your ungodly ways and plead against a holy life and quarrel with the most faithful administrations of youâ— Pastors It is a matter of Everlasting moment that you and we do differ about and which of us is liker to be in the right I confess I am a weak and ignorant man but is the sottish ungodly quarreller any wiser then I am How camest thou man to thy knowledge that thou thinkest thy self wiser then me and all the Pastors of the Church My Knowledge that is but little hath cost me almost forty years hard study Hast thou read and meditated and studied more Hadst thou better helps and means of Knowledge God usually giveth his gifts in the painful use of means If I should think my self wiser in thy trade and able to control thee thou wouldst judge me a self-conceited fool What hast thou done for thy knowledge that I have not done Hast thou prayed for it day and night So have I. Hast thou had any private way of Learning that no man knoweth Truly I have marvelled at the â—aces of many ignorant careless men that they do not blush when we have thus expostulated with them when they quarrel with their Teachers and set against them with as brazen a face as if they were all Doctors or had studied forty years and we were as they are Yea as if they were wiser thâ—n all the Apostles Doctors and Pastors of the Church Were it not a wonder indeed if God should give more knowledge about the matters of salvation to a sensual voluptuous Gentleman or to an idle droan or a fellow that scarce ever read over the Bible and to such as live a worldly fleshly and ungodly life then to all his Ministers and Servants that love his Laws and meditate in them day and night and live in Prayer and other holy exercises and make it their daily care and business to conform their hearts and lives to the holy Doctrine which they study Surely God will sooner reveal his mind to a diligent searcher that feareth and loveth him then to a lustful Epicurâ— or a drunken swearing worldly sot He that every day abuseth the Holy Ghost that should be his Teacher is not so likely to come to Knowledge as he that humbly learneth and obeyeth him It is â— strange evidence that most wicked men do give us to prove themselves wiser then their Teachers when they can scarce give 〈◊〉 wise account of the Principles of Religion contained in a Catechisâ—â— they will prove themselves wise by despising wisdom and railing at the Wise They prove themselves Learned by reproaching the learned They prove themselves godly enough to be saved by hating and scorning them that are Godly and prove themselves the servants of Christ by speaking against his service They prove themselves wise enough to Teach or quarrel with their Teachers by refusing to Learn and to be any wiser and by babling out their sinfull folly And when they have done they prove that their hearts for all this are as good as the precisest by prating against that Holiness which is the only health and goodness of the heart and by shewing us to our grief that they neither know what Goodness is nor what is in their hearts They prove to us that they have Hopes for all this of being saved and seeing the face of God by hating them that are Pure in heart that have the promise of seeing his face Mat. 5. 8. and by reviling or forsaking the way of salvation and by shewing us on their souls the open Marks of the wrath of God and of a state of condemnation This is the Devils Logick And this is the wisdom of the wicked They may next go further and prove that they are chaste by reviling chastity and prove that they are sober by speaking against sobriety and by wallowing in their vomit or prove that they know all arts and trades and sciences by reviling them And as they now prove that they are the freemen of Christ by shewing us the Devils fetters upon them so if they hold out they will shortly have nothing to prove themselves in Heaven but by shewing us the flames of Hell which they endure If therefore all the Holiest and wisest men on earth may be admitted to be witnesses then Holiness must be your Best and all things else be nothing worth in comparison of it 5. Moreover if yet you would have more witness shall those be heard that have tryed both states the state of Sin and the state of Holiness and that have gone both wayes and therefore are able to speak to us by experience If you were to take advice about any worldly business you would choose a man of Experience for your Counsellor an experienced Physicion for your bodies and an experienced Tradesman for your work You will sooner believe a Traveller that â—ath seen the places that he speake of if he be honest then another godly men have tryed both wayes Alas they have known and too much known the way of sin and they have tryed the Holy way that you dislike I think therefore that they are competent Witnesses And if their witness be worth any thing the cause must go against the ungodly For their Lives tell you their Judgement Their hatred to sin their diligent seeking after God their constant endeavours in a Holy course their suffering any thing rather then forsake this Holy way when once they have sincerely chosen it all these do fully acquaint you with their judgement Do you think it is for Nothing that the holy servants of the Lord do stiek so close to him and labour so constantly in his work surely if they had not found that this way is beyond comparison the best you might draw them from it into a state of ungodliness again at least fire and sword and torment might perswade them to forsake it Something he findeth in it that is good that will let go his life and all the world for it What say you now have you any just exceptions against the testimony of these Experienced men The ungodly cannot be competent witnesses for they have tryed but one side They have had experience of a prophane a fleshly worldly life but they never yet tryed a Holy life And therefore how should they be fit to tell you what Good is in the way of God which they never travelled in Or what Gain is in the Heavenly Treasure which they never traded for Or what Beauty is in the face of Christ and Glory which they never had an eye of faith to see Or what sweetness is in the Hidden Manna which they never tasted If you say that many that have tryed the way of Godliness have turned from it and are against it I beseech you weigh my answer 1. It is not One of a hundred that doth so no not in these apoâ—â—â— tizing times when all seducers are let loose And is one mans
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
be grievous to them 6. The very Bodily informities of Believers are a constant help to keep them humble They have all this treasure but is earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4. 7. Their souls are here so poorly lodged in corruptible Tabernacles of earth and so meanly cloathed with frail diseased mortal flesh that it is madness to be proud 7. And the many and great afflictions of the godly are medicines that are purposely given them by their Physicion to cure Pride and keep them humble Why else must their sufferings be so many and why must they daily bear the Cross but that they may be conformed to the image of Christ 8. And to the same end it is that God doth let loose upon them so many enemies All Satans temptations and the worlds allurements and vexations and all their disappointments here and all the scorns and mocks of the ungodly and the censures and slanders of wicked tongues and often bitter persescutions what are they but the bitter medicines of God permitted and ordered by him though cansed by the Devil and wicked men to save the servants of the Lord from the sin and danger of being lifted up Do you say that their Honour will make them proud Why you that thus oppose them and despise them are â—uring them of their pride and do not know it as Scullions scoure the rust off the vessels for their Masters use and as Leeches draw out the blood that causeth the disease and as the Jews by their sin promoted the Redemption of the world by the death of Christ When God seeth his servants in danger of being lifted up above measure he oft sendeth a messenger of Satan who may be an Executioner of Gods chastisements to buffet them 2 Cor. 12. 7. Sometimes by slanders sometime by reproaches sometime by imprisonments or greater sufferings and sometimes by horrid troublesom temptations 9. The very foresight of death it self is a humbling means and the last enemy Death is yet unconquered and our Bodies must corrupt in dust and darkness and be kept in the grave as common earth till the Resurrection that the soul may not grow proud that hath such a body 11. And the Day of Judgement is so described to us in the Scripture as tends to keep the soul in awe and in Humility To think of such a day and such a reckoning before such a God me 〈…〉 should humble us 11. And our Absolution and Glorification at that day is promised us now but conditionally though God will see that the condition be performed by all that he will save And therefore the poor soul is oft so far to seek about the certain sincerity of his own Faith and Repentance that most of the godly are kept in fears and doubtings to the death Yea and Humility and Self-denyal are part of this Condition And all their Honour and Glory with Christ is promised to the Humble only Humility is commanded them in the Precept Humility is it that they are exhorted to by the Ministers And Pride is threatened with everlasting wrath and described as the Devils image So that Holiness hath all the advantages against Pride that can be here expected 12. To conclude the Godly know that as they have nothing but from God so they have nothing but for God so that their own Honour is for him more then for themselves and it is essential to their Holiness to make God their end and set him highest and referr all to his Pleasure and Glory So that you see now that we may Honour them that fear the Lord Psalm 15. 4. without being guilty of making them proud and that we must not deny them the Honour that God hath given them as their due for fear of their being proud of it Though this as all things else must be prudently managed to particular persons according to their various states And therefore let me here warn all you that profess the fear of God Take heed lest you be proud of any thing that God hath Honoured you with For if you be you see what an Army of Reasons and Means you sin against and consequently how great your sin will be And your consciences and the world shall be forced to justifie God and his Holy wayes and to prove against you that it was not long of them that you were proud and that none in the world was more against it then God and Holiness and that it was not because you were so Religious but because you were no more Religious And if Pride of Knowledge Gifts or whatsoever be unmortified in you it will certainly prove that you are none of the sanctified when your profession of Sanctity will never prove that Sanctity was a cause or confederate in your sin AND now I have shewed you the Honour of Godliness let us briefly and but briefly consider of your Honour that reject it and see then whether the godly or ungodly are more Honourable 1. Ungodly men have the Basest Master in the world Would you know who Let Christ be Judge John 8. 44. Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father you will do 2 Tim. 2. 26. They are taken captive by the Devil at his will that is to do his will It is he that stirreth you up to filthy talking to speak against Godliness to curse and swear and you do his will His will is that you should neglect a holy life and you do his will His will is that you live not after the spirit but after the flesh and you do his will O poor souls Do you think it is only Witches that expresly Covenant with him that are his miserable servants Alas it is you also if you do his will For if you will believe either God or common reason to whom you yield your selves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness Rom. 6. 16. The godly themselves were the servants of sin till they obeyed from the heart the doctrine of the Lord v. 17. And are you not come to fair preferment to be the Devils drudges Though he should cloath your Bodies with Purple and fine linnen and feed you sumptuously every day yet indeed you are no better as the case of that miserable man may tell you Luke 16. It is the greatest Baseness to have so Base a Master 2. And it is but an ignoble Base de sign that the ungodly carry on in the world What is it but to provide for and please their flesh It aimeth at nothing beyond this life And a beast can eat and drink and sleep and play and satisfie his lust as much as they A swine can carry a mouth full of straw to his lodging and a bird can build a nest for her young ones And what do ungodly men more in the world whether Gentlemen or Beggars the flattered Gallants or the poor day-labourers if they be not such as first seek Heaven
them to be for their good or in it self more excellent then their good That is Pleasant to one man that is loathsom to another As the food and converse is delightful to a beast that is loathsom and as â—ad as death to man So one mans Pleasure is anothers Pain Even about the common matters of this life variety of complexions educations customs dispositions doth cause a variety of affections the difference between the sanctified and unsanctified the spiritual and the carnal mind doth cause a greater contrariety If therefore the errour of wicked minds or the distemper of your souls do make the Best things seem the worst and the sweetest things to seem most Bitter this is no confutation of my Argument that proves the way of Godliness most Pleasant If I would prove that wine is pleasanter then Vinegar or Bread then dirt or ashes I mean not to appeal to the appetites of the sick It is the sound and healthful that must be judges If a man will suffer his mind to be possessed with prejudice and base thoughts of God himself no wonder if he cannot love him nor take any delight in him And if men have a malignant enmity to Godliness no reason will perswade them that it is most pleasant but what perswades them from that enmity No Reason will perswade a sloathful person that Labour is better then sleep and idleness no Reason will perswade a drunkard glutton or voluptuous wretch that abstinence and continence are the sweetest life Could we change their Hearts we should change their Pleasures Such as men are such are their delights But the thing that I undertake is to manifest to any competent discerner that Holiness is the most Pleasant course and that all the Pleasures of the Earth are Nothing to the Pleasures which the Godly find in God and in a Holy life and if any be not of this mind it is because his souls diseases have made him an incompetent judge And that Godliness is the Pleasant State of life will appear to you 1. From the Nature of the thing it self 2. From the encouragements and helps with which it is attended 3. From the effects and fruits I. The Nature of Holiness is to be found 1. In the Understanding 2. In the will and affections and 3. In the Practice of mens lives And in all these I shall shew you that it is the most Delightful course 1. Knowledge in it self is a pleasant thing to humane nature Ignorance is the blindness of the soul It is not so pleasant for the eye to behold the sun as for the mind of man to discern the truth To Know Good and Evil had never been the matter of so strong a Temptation to Adam if Knowledge had not been very desirable to innocent nature How hard do many even ungodly persons study to know the mysteries of Nature And nothing hath more strongly tempted some wretches to witchcraft or contracts with the Devil then a desire of knowing unrevealed things which by his means they have hoped to attain A studious man hath far more natural valuable Delight in his reading and succesful studies then a voluptuous Epicure hath in his sensual Delights But it is a special kind of Knowledge that Holiness doth initially consist in which transcendeth in true Pleasure all the common wisdom of the worid For 1. How Pleasant a thing must it needs be to know things of so high a Nature To know the Almighty Living God to behold his wisdom goodness and power in his glorious works to be led to him by all the Creatures and hear of him by every Providence and find his Holy Blessed Name in every leaf of his sacred word how sweet and pleasant a thing is this To know the Divine Nature Persons Attributes and Will to know the mystery of the Incarnation of the person natures undertaking performance of the blessed Mediator Jesus Christ to know his birth his life temptations conquests his righteousness his holy doctrine and example the Law and promise the Law of Nature and the Covenant of Grace the sufferings Resurrection ascension glorification and intercession of our Lord to know his Kingdom Laws and Government and his Judgement with his Rewards and punishments to know the sanctifying works of the Holy Ghost by which we are prepared for everlasting life and to know that life though but by faith for which we are here prepared how high and pleasant a thing is this If it be pleasant to know the course of nature in those higher parts that are above the vulgar reach what is it to know the God of Nature and the true use and End of Nature What high things doth the poorest Christian know He knoweth the things that are invisible Think not that faith is so void of Evidence as not to deserve the name of Knowledge We Know the things which we do believe Nicodemus could say from the Evidence of Miracles Joh. 3. 2. We know that thou arâ— a Teacher come from God for no man could do these miracles that thou dost except God be with him Joh. 9. 29. We know that God spake to Moses say the Jews We know that the Scripture testimony is true Joh. 21. 24. 2 Cor. 5. 1. We know even by believing that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 1 Joh. 3. 2. We know that when we shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Joh. 14. 20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you We know that no whoremonger 〈…〉 such like shall inherit eternal life Eph. 5. 5. We know that â—â—â— Labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. Many such passages of Scripture tell us that Faith is a certain Knowledge and that Invisible things revealed by God are certainly known We know what Saints and Angels are now doing in the highest heavens for God hath told us We know the most high and glorious things revealed by God which we never saw And is not the Pleasure of such knowledge greater then the Pleasure of all the wealth the honour and sensual enjoyments in this world I durst almost refer the case to one of you that are most befooled by your own sensuality If you could go tomorrow and meet with a soul from Heaven or with an Angel that could tell you what becomes of souls and what is done in another world Would you not rather goe to such a conference then go as far to a drinking or a bowling or some such recreation I think you would if it were but to satisfie your curiosity and desire of Knowing Why then should not the servants of Christ more Delight in the reading and hearing the words of Christ that came from the bosome of the Father that hath seen God and is with God and is God himself that telleth them
and death into life as being unworthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed But the wicked have none of these delights unless they steal a little by self-deceit They may make their best of their present pleasures and of the cup while it is at their mouths and of their wealth and honour while it is in their hands but its little pleasure that they can fetch from Heaven The thought of it may rather feed their terrours What pleasure they can pick out of the dirt let them make their best of But heavenly pleasures are above their reach So much for the Objects of a Holy life from whence a Believer may fetch his pleasure Object But you tell us only of the Pleasant part but the troublesome and bitter part you say nothing of Answ Come on and say your worst of a Holy life and tell us which is that bitter part Object 1. The scripture requireth us to mortifie the flesh to renounce the world to forbear our Pleasures to deny our selves and to take up our Cross and follow Christ and will you call this a pleasant life Answ And do you indeed think this so sad a business Here are three things contained in this objection as the matter that seemeth so displeasing to you 1. The parting with your sins 2. The sufferings that are principally for sin 3. The sufferings that are principally for the cause of Christ 1. And do you think that sin is so lovely a thing that a man cannot live merrily without it sin is the breach of the Laws of God and the injury of the Heavenly Majesty and the provocation of his hot displeasure and the poison and sickness of the soul And is it your sport to abuse the Lord Is your pleasure gone if you may not injure the God that made you What natures what sinful hearts have you that must have such pleasures Cannot a man live merrily unless he may provoke the God of Heaven and trample upon mercy and despise salvation Can you not live in pleasure unless you may drink poyson or keep your sickness or tumble in the dirt One would think that mischief to our selves or others should be small pleasure to an honest mind It s no pleasure to you to spit in the face of your dearest friends or to abuse your parents or to provoke your neighbours and is it such pleasure as you cannot forsake to abuse the Lord and wrong your souls The pleasures of sin do tend to pain some pain doth usually attend it here and much more hereafter God would prevent your pain and misery by preventing or destroying your sin And do you accuse his word because it would keep you from so costly so bitter so dangerous delights It is for your Pleasure that this pleasure is forbidden you The sweeeness of the poyson of sin will be soon gone when the gripings of the tormented Conscience do remain You will forbear the most delightful fruits or drinks if your Physicion tell you they will hazzard your life or torment you afterward You are short-sighted and short-witted and look but to the present relish of things and choose them if you taste them sweet but God looks to your everlasting pleasures So that you may well reckon it among the pleasures of a holy life that you have such preservatives against the greatest sorrows and that you are kept from the pleasures that will be bitterness in the latter end Yea at the present hath not drunkenness more trouble attending it then sobriety Reckon up the consuming of mens estates the troubles of their families the sicknesses of their bodies the shame and contempt that it bringeth on them here and the wounds of their consciences and tell me whether it were not more pleasure to forbear those cups then to drink them And hath not Gluttony more trouble attending it then temperance By that time the charge be paid the sickness that fulness breedeth be endured the physicion paid and all the effects of gluttony overcome you will find that the pleasure was little to the pain The like I may say of Uncleanness worldliness passion pride and all other sins that usually bring a punishment with them 2. And then for Castigatory sufferings it is not Godliness that is the cause of them as sufferings Sin less and suffer less Provoke not God and he will spare the rod. Do you hurt your selves like careless children and then blame God for bidding you Take heed God doth not punish men for Holiness and well doing It is for want of Holiness that you are punished I think therefore that it is part of the Pleasure of a Holy life that it keeps men out of the way of punishment You must have pain and unpleasant physick when once you have taken a surfet of sensual delight and made your selves sick with too much of the creature Holiness would have prevented this And when that 's too late it would cure it by the cheapest means that your health will bear Is it not then unreasonable when you have troubled your selves to blame your physicion for troubling you in order to a cure 3. And for those sufferings that are principally for Christ conâ—ider 1. That they are also originally from sin and therefore you may know what to blame for the bitter part Though the Time and place and manner and measure of your sufferings may proceed from the gracious providence of your Lord yet that supposeth that sin had brought you into a state of suffering in general before which Christ did not presently and plenarily remit and take off but disposeth of them by his wisdom as may make most for his Glory and your good 2. And will you grudge at a little transitory pain that is usually requited with comforts in this life and rewarded with pleasures unspeakable hereafter You grudge not to cast away your seed in hope of an increase at harvest nor do you murmur at your daily labour if it be but blessed with success And will you grudge to pass through sufferings to glory and to fow in tears that you may reap in joy It is but few that suffer Martyrdom or any great matter for the cause of Christ especially in our dayes And those few have usually more joy then sorrow If you knew the joyes of Martyrs you would never so shrink at the sufferings of Martyrs And for a few mocks and scorns of foolish men it is scarcely worth the name of a suffering Nor is it so much as wicked men suffer in their sin As Godliness is a shame among the foolish wicked men so wickedness is a shame among all that are pious wise and sober And why should not the shame of sin be more loathed then the undeserved shame of honesty Alas all this is nothing to the sorrows of the ungodly A little of the vinegar of affliction will make us relish our prosperity the better and through our frailtie is become a necessary sauce to that luscious state
so much in doubt of it If thou truly Love it thou hast it for it is only grace that causeth an unfeigned Love of grace And if thou love it not why canst not thou more quietly be without it Why dost thou make so much ado for it But if thou have it in the least degree and so art born again of the spirit thou hast with it an unspeakable treasure of delights The God of Life and Love is thine The Lord Jesus Christ is thine The Spirit is thine The promises are thine and Heaven it self is thine in title and shall be thine in full perpetual possession The God that made and ruleth all things is Reconciled to thee and is thy Father having by grace in Christ adopted thee to be his Son Rom. 5. 1 2 10 11. 8. 1 16 17. Gal. 4. 6. 2 Cor. 6. 18. The Son of God is become thy Head and thou art become a member of his body as flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone which no man ever yet hath hated Ephes 5. 23 27 29 30. Thou art become the Temple and residence of the Holy Ghost Thy title to Heaven is incomparably more sure then any mans humane title to his possessions or inheritance on earth And what rejoycing can be too great for a man in thy condition O what a Life should that man live with what sweet delight should he be transported that hath the Spirit of Christ now living in him to prepare him and seal him up for an endless life with Christ He that shall be shortly so full of joy should not be empty now when he remembreth what he must shortly be Doth it beseem him now to dwell in grief and refuse consolation that must in a few dayes be swallowed up with Joy If thou that fittest here in heaviness wert assured that shortly thou shouldst be with Christ and made a blessed companion of Angels and possessed of thy Masters joy a joy that hath no bounds or end would not thy Conscience then tell thee that thou greatly wrongest such abundant mercy in that thou art no more affected with it and that thy want of joy doth express thy too much want of thankfulness Dost thou sit there like a child of God and like an heir of Heaven and a co-heire with Christ Rom. 8. 16 17. Doth that sorrowful heart and that dejected countenance become one that must live with Christ for ever in such resplendent glory as thou must do and that hath but a few more dayes to live till thou take possession of these endless joyes The Lord pardon and heal our unbelief Did Faith more effectually play its part as it is the evidence of things not seen and withdraw the veil and shew us though but in a glass the glory which we must see with open face it would be wine to our hearts and oyl to our countenances and make our poverty sickness and death more comfortable then the wealth and health and life of the ungodly I know you will say still that you could rejoyce if you were sure all this were yours but when you rather think you have no part in it it can be but small comfort to you Answ 1. But who is it long of that you have still such fears Have you not in your souls that Love to Holiness that desire after it that hatred and weariness of sin that Love to the searching discovering use of the Word of God that Love to the Brethren which are the evidences of your title and to which God hath plainly promised salvation If then you have your Title in the Promise and your Evidences in your hearts and yet will be still questioning whether you have them or no and whether the Kingdom shall be yours your weakness and inconsiderateness causeth your own sorrows And when you have sinfully bred your doubts will you insist on them to excuse your following sins 2. Are you not sure that Christ and his benefits are yours I am sure they are yours or may be if you will and nothing but your continued refusal can deprive you of them For this is the very tenor of the promise And if you will not have Christ and his offered benefits why do you so dissemble as to take on you to mourn because you have them not But if you are willing they are yours Object But you will say if we had nothing but cause of comfort we could rejoyce but we have cause of sorrow also How can we live comfortably under so much sin and suffering Answ By this account you will never rejoyce till you come to Heaven for you will never be free from sin and suffering till then Nay it seems you would have no man else rejoyce and so would banish all comfort from the world For there is no man without sin and suffering But what can there be of any weight to prohibit a sincere Believer from seasonable spiritual rejoycing Have you sin It is not gross and reigning sin And sinful infirmities the best of the Saints on earth have had As your sin must be your moderate sorrow so the pardon of it and the degree of mortification which you have attained and the promise you have of full deliverance should be the matter of your greater joy Are your Graces weak Be humbled in the sense of that your weakness but rejoyce more that they are sincere and will be perfect Are your afflictions great Be humbled under them But rejoyce more that they are but Fatherly chastisements proceeding from Love and tending to your greater good and that you are saved from the consuming fire and shall live in everlasting rest where affliction shall be known no more Is it possible for that man that hath the love of God and shall have heaven for ever to have any sufferings that should weigh down these and be matter to him of greater sorrow then this of joy Can you imagine that there is more evil in your infirmities and sufferings then there is good in God and happiness in Heaven Is it reason and equity that you should look at sin only and not at grace and at what you want only and not at what you have received Seeing you have more cause of joy then sorrow should you not distribute your affections proportionably as there is cause I disswade you not from seasonable moderate sorrows But should not your joy be much greater as long as the cause of it is much greater 4. And here I would intreate you to consider well of the tenour of Gods commands concerning this matter in the Gospel and of the examples of the Saints there left on record And then tell me which course it is that God is best pleased with Your chearful or your dejected course of life I find that though I pitty the sad and miserable yet I had rather my self have a chearful then a drooping grieving troubled companion and friend Because I desire one suitable to my self in the state I would
fancie that it is an excellent thing to be Rich and Renowned and to rule over others or to have plenty of all accommodations for your flesh and then because God satisfieth not these carnal fancies you think he neglecteth you oâ— deals hardly with you As if every person in the Town should murmur because they are not Bâ—yliffs or Justices when if they had the wit to know it they are but kept from a double encumberance and from a burden which perhaps would break their backs When the people are thus befooled by the flesh into brutish conceits of the nature of felicity and into an over-valuing of these worldly things they are then always eitheir tickled by deluding pleasures or troubled for the crossing of their carnal wills so that they grow out of relish and liking with the true and durable delights Take heed therefore of this carnality Dir. 4. Study the greatness of the mercy which you have received You abound with mercies and yet undervalue them and over look them and sweeten not your souls with the serious observation and remembrance of them you study principally your afflictions and your wants And thus when you live in a land that floweth with milke and honey you will not feed on the prepared feast but keep still the gall and wormwood in your mouths and how then should you be acquainted with the pleasures of a holy life Yea you must use to look more to the spiritual part of all your mercies and see the love of God that appeareth in them and taste the blood of Christ in them and lose not the kernel and take not up with the common carnal part which every wicked man can value and enjoy Consider in all your mercies what there is in them for the benefit of your souls much rather then how they accommodate your flesh Could you do thus you would find the benefit of afflictions and that the denyal of what you have accounted your necessary mercies is not the smallest of your mercies And thus judging truly by the spirit and not by the flesh there is no condition except that of sin in which you might not find cause of joy Dir. 5. Take heed of sinning Keep still upon your watch against temptation sin is the cause of all your sufferings when it promiseth you delight it is preparing for your sorrow when it flattereth you into presumption it is preparing for despair when it promiseth you secresie and security it prepareth for your shame and be sure your sin will find you out Numb 32. 23. If therefore you have offended delay not your Repentance and spare not the flesh in your return but unless the honour of God forbid it take shame to your selves by free confession and make the fullest reparation of the injury that you can to God and man If you would thus get out the thorn that vexeth you the ways of God would be more pleasant Dir. 6. Daily live in the exercise of faith upon the everlasting pleasures Dwell as at the gates of Heaven as men that are waiting every hour when they are called in and when death will draw aside the vaile and shew them the blessed face of God And take heed that the enmity of interposing Death prevail not against the Joys of faith But look to Christ that hath conquered it and will conquer it for you And if thus you could live as strangers here and as the Citizens of Heaven that are ready to step into the immortal pleasures you would then taste the Pleasures of a holy life in the first fruits and foretasts thereof It is your Treasure that must Delight you As your Heart must be there so your pleasure must be derived thence Strangers to Heaven will be strangers to the Believers Joys As the pleasure of the Carnal world consisteth in the sense of what they have in hand so the pleasure of Believers consisteth in the fore-apprehensions of what they shall enjoy with God for ever If therefore you exercise not those apprehensions if you look not frequently seriously and believingly into the world that you must live in for ever how can the comforts of that world illustrate and refresh you in this present world The Light and Heat which is the Beauty and Life of this lower world proceedeth not from any thing in this world but from the Sun which is so far above us and sends down hither its quickning influence and rays They are not the genuine comforts of Christianity which are not fetcht from the world above Dir. 7. If you would have the experience of the Pleasures of a life of Faith and Holiness neither desire nor cherish any fears or sorrows but such as as are subservient to Faith and Hope and Love and preparatory to Thankfulness and Joy Think not Religion consisteth in any other kind of sorrows Nay if any other should assault you be so far from taking them for your duty or religion as to resist them and lament them as your sin That is true and saving Humiliation 1. which makes you vile in your own eyes and loath your selves for sin 2. And maketh you more desirous to be delivered and cleansed from your sin than to live in it how sweet or gainful soever it may seem and 3. which maketh you set more by a Saviour to deliver you than by all the pleasures riches and honours of the world What ever want of Grief or tears you find if you have these signs your Repentance and humiliation is sincere Do not therefore refuse your Peace because you have not greater sorrows nor disturb your souls by strugling for excessive sorrow Take not part with them but do your best to cast them out if they are such as would destroy your Love and Joy and drive you from Christ and hinder your Thansgivings Know that the Life of your Religion consisteth in the Holy Love of God and of his Image and servants and holy ways Love is your duty and your felicity and reward Therefore let all tend to the exercise of Love and value most those means which most promote it and think your selves best when you abound most in Love and not when you are overwhelmed with those Fears and Griefs which hinder Love Study therefore above all the Love of God revealed in Christ which is the best attractive of your Love to him and hate all suggestions which would represent God unlovely and undesirable to you Dir. 8. Use cheerful company Not carnal but holy not such as waste their time in unprofitable frothy speeches or filthy or prophane or scornful jeastings But such as have most of the sense of Love and mercy on their hearts and are best acquainted with a Life of Faith and whose speeches and cheerful conversations do most lively manifest their sense of the Love of God and of the Grace of Christ and the eternal happiness of the Saints There is a delightful and encouraging virtue in the converse of joyful thankful heavenly believers Use
the God of the whole earth For a small moment may he forsake us but with great mercy will he gather us In a little wrath he may hide his face from us for a moment but with everlasting kindness will he have mercy on us saith the Lord our Redeemer As he swore that the waters of Noah should no more goe over the earth so hath he sworn that he will not be wroth with his people nor rebuke them For the mountains shall depart and the hills shall be removed but his kindness shall not depart from us nor the covenant of his peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on us Isa 54. 5 to 19. For his anger endureth but for a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Psal 30. 5. Storms may arise that may affright us but how quickly will they all be over Come my people saith the Lord Isa 26. 20. enter into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment untill the indignation be overpast And as the momentany sorrow of the Godly is forgotten in everlasting Joy so the Joy of the wicked is but for a moment and is drowned in everlasting sorrows Job 20. 4 5 6 7 8 9. Knowest thou not this of old since man was placed upon earth That the triumphing of the wicked is short and the Joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment Though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung They which have seen him shall say Where is he He shall flie away as a dream and shall not be found Yea he shall be chased away as a vision of the night the eye also which saw him shall see him no more neither shall his place any more behold him Job 21. 12 13. They take the Timbrell and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organs they spend their daies in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave It would grieve a considerate believer to look on a worldly sensual gallant in the midst of his vain-glory or any unsanctified man in his mirth and pleasure and to think where that man will shortly be and how the case will be altered with him and where his sport and mirth will leave him As it would sadden our hearts to see one of them struck dead in the place or to see the Devil fetch them away and spoil the game so should it grieve us to fore-see the stroak of death and the condemnation of their souls to everlasting misery And can that man much value the pleasure of ungodly men that doth fore-see this end Would you not laugh at him that were a Prince but for a day and must be the scorn of the world to morrow or that would choose one day of mirth and pleasure though he knew it would fill the rest of his life with pain and misery If folly and stupidity were any wonder it were a wonder that ungodly men can be merry when their consciences tell them that they are not sure to stay one hour out of Hell nor to hold on their mirth till the end of the game But while they are saying Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry they may suddenly be told from God Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose is thy wealth and then where is thy sport and mirth Luke 12. 19 20. As the tender flowers and Roses of the Spring do fall before the nipping Frosts and will not live in Winter storms no more will your fading mirth endure the frowns of God the face of death nor scarce a serious fore-thought of the day that you are near And such matter of horrour is continually before you while you are under the wrath and curse of God in a carnal unregenerate state that you are beholden to folly security and stupidity for that ease which hindreth your everlasting ease So that all things considered I must seriously profess that however the ungodly have some pleasant dreams and may live a while in carelesness and stupidity or fleere in the face while the beginning of hell is in their consciences yet I must judge that a life of Faith and Holiness are unspeakably sweet if it were but for this that they save the Conscience from the gripes and fears and terrible thoughts that either sometime feed on the ungodly or are ready to devour their mirth and them So sad and frightful a thing it is to be unsanctified and in a state of sin that it is an high commendation of the delights of Holiness that they so much deliver us from those grievous terrours and are so powerful an Antidote to preserve the heart from the wickeds pangs and desperation Believe it when conscience death and judgement are the messengers to declare your endless sorrows you will then wish and ten thousand times wish that you had some of the Faith and Holiness of the Saints to be a Cordial to your sinking hearts and then you would take it as a matter of unspeakable joy to be found in such a state as you now count sad and melancholy Ask but a dying man whether fleshly pleasure or Godliness be the sweeter thing Now when the delusions of prosperity are gone which do men most relish and which is it that they would own By the consent of all the wise men in the world I may well conclude that a Holy life is incomparably the most pleasant BUT I know there are many things that seem to cross all this that I have spoken which will be the matter of the Objections of ungodly men and therefore must have an answer before we pass any further And the principal Objection is from the too common case of those that fear God who walk so sadly and doubt and complain and mourn so frequently and shew so little chearfulness and joy when many of the ungodly live in mirth that you will think I speak against experience when I say that a life of Holiness is so pleasant and therefore that it is not to be believed You will say Do we not see the contrary in the sadness of their faces and hear it in their sad lamenting words To this I must give many particulars in answer which when you have laid together you may see that all this makes nothing against the Pleasantness of the waies of God And 1. You must difference between the Entrance into holiness and the Progress and between a new beginner that is but lately turned from his ungodliness and one that hath had time to try and understand the wayes of God Those that are entering or but newly come in must needs have sorrow But what is the cause of it Not their Godliness but their ungodliness I mean It is their ungodliness which they lament though it be godliness that causeth them to
lament it Can you expect that an ingenuous man should see his sin and look back on so many years transgressions and not be grieved To see that he hath so long abused God and lost his time and neglected his salvation and that he hath lain so long in so miserable a state must needs cause remorse in the conscience that hath any feeling And will you say that Godliness is unpleasant because it makes a man sorrow for his ungodliness If a man that hath killed his dearest friend or his own Father be grieved for the fact when he cometh to repentance will you blame his Repentance or his Murder for his grief Will you say What a hurtful thing is this Repentance or rather What an odious crime was it that must be so repented of Would you wish a man that hath lived so long in sin and misery to have no sorrow for it at his return Especially when it is but a healing sorrow preparing for remission and not a sorrow joyned with despair as theirs will be that die impenitently Observe the complaints of penitent souls whether it be their present Godliness or their former ungodliness which they lament Will you hear a man lament his former sinful careless life and yet will you lay the blame on the contrary course of duty which now he hath undertaken You may as wisely accuse a man for landing in a safe harbour because he there lamenteth his loss by shipwrack while he was at Sea Or as wisely may you blame a man for rising that complaineth how he hurt himself by his fall And as honestly may you accuse the chastity of your wife because she lamenteth her former adultery or the fidelity of your friend or servant because he lamenteth his former unfaithfulness But though the pangs of the New birth be somewhat grievous and we come not into the world of Grace without some lamentation yet this is not the state of the Holy life into which we enter nor are those pangs to continue all our daies 2. You must distinguish between the weaker and the stronger sort of Christians and consider that children are apt to cry but it is not therefore better to be unborn Sickness is querulous and the weak are froward but it is not therefore better to be dead The godly are not perfectly godly They are sinners while they are Saints They have Holiness but they have corruption with it Their sin is conquered but yet not totally rooted out The relicks do remain though it do not raign And it is the remnant of their unholiness that they lament and not their holiness They grieve not that they are godly but that they are no more godly It troubleth them not that they are come home to Christ but that they have brought so much of their corruption with them Hearken whether they complain of their Humility or their Pride of their Faith or their unbelief their confidence or their distrust their repentance or their hardness of heart It is not their heavenly mindedness that troubleth them but their earthly-mindedness Nor is it their spirituality but their carnality Nor is it the Dâ—ties but the weakness and faultiness of their souls in duty Not that they do it but that they do it no better It is more holiness that they beg for and lament the want of And will you say that Holiness is unpleasant because men would so fain have more of it You would reason with more wisdom in another case If a man that hath tasted meat or drink complain because he hath no more you would not blame his food for that nor gather from thence that it is unpleasant or that famine is more delightful 3. You must distinguish between those Christians that have saln since their conversion into any great and wounding sin or â—â—urisâ— some vexatious distempers and those that walk more uprightly with God and maintain their integrity and peace No wonder if David after his sin complain of the breaking of his bones and heart and if Peter go out and weep bitterly The servants of Christ do know so much of the evil of sin that they cannot make so light of it as the blind and obdurate world that are past feeling That sin which hath cost them formerly so dear and hath cost Christ so much dearer on their behalf must needs cause some smâ—rt in the penitent soul Sickness is felt because it supposeth the subject to be alive but the dead feel not that they are dead and rotten And it doth not follow that therefore death is more desireable then sickness It is because they are so like to the ungodly that the servants of Christ do grieve and complain But so far as they feel the healthfulness of their souls and are conscious of their sincerity and upright conversations they have greater comfort then the world can afford them 4. You must distinguish between those Christians that by misapprehensions are unacquainted with their own felicity and those that better understand their state If a man be never so holy and know it not but by temptations is brought to doubt whether he be not yet in his unsanctified state no wonder if this man be grieved with these fears But his grief is not because he is sanctified but because he is afraid lest he be unsanctified And this shews that Holiness is most lovely in his eyes or else why should he be so much troubled when he doth but doubt whether he be Holy or not If a Rich man by a false report should believe that he is rob'd of his goods and treasure or that his houses are burnt when it is not so he will mourn or be troubled till he know the truth And will any be so foolish as to conclude from thence that Riches are more uncomfortable then beggery Had you not rather be rich though for a time you know it not then to live in certain continual want If a man that is in health be perswaded by mistake that he is in a Consumption he will be troubled by his mistake But will you thence conclude that sickness is more comfortable then health Is it not better to have health with those mistaken fears then to live in sickness Methinks you should rather argue on the contrary side How sweet is Health when the fear of losing it is so troublesom and how bitter is sickness and death when the very fear of them is so grievous And so you should say How sweet is Holiness when it is so troublesome to those that have it so much as to fear lest they have it not and How miserable a life is it to be ungodly when it is so grievous to the servants of Christ even once to fear lest they are ungodly But go to those Christians that know themselves and are truly acquainted with their sincerity and their priviledges and see whether they walk so uncomfortably as those mistaken doubting souls You will find them in another case and hear other kind of