God is a further Motive to draw you to trust in him Yea the Apostle addeth that the Lord giveth us all things richly to enjoy that is not only for the present to spend as being absolutely necessary but also to lay up and reserve so as it is not unlawful to lay up for aftertimes The Apostle presseth it on Parents as a bounden duty 2 Cor. 12.14 to lay up for their children Only let this lawful liberty be limited with these such like bounds 1. That wee lay up nothing but what is justly gotten To lay up riches of unrighteousness is to kindle a fire that may destroy both our temporal and our spiritual estate 2. That wee be not so covetous of hoarding up as to deny our selves what is needful for our use and comfort or to deny the poor what is needful and necessary for them but that wee willingly give out as what is meet for our selves so what is needful to the poor 3. That in our treasuring up wee aim not meerly wholly and only at our selves but withall have an eye as to the charge which in particular God hath committed to us so also to the Church Common-wealth and Poor for the time to come 4. That wee exceed not measure in our treasure no though we aim at the fore-mentioned good ends So much for the clearing the first duty the Apostle would have pressed upon rich men especially which is to Trust in God The second is Charity towards men expressed in several phrases as first by doing good Charge them that are rich in this world that they do good So that true Charity consisteth not onely in compassionate affections and kind speeches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in good deeds as the word in the Original implieth You rich men ought to bee rich in good works as the Apostle addeth For God expecteth fruit answerable to the seed which hee soweth Hee giveth you plenty of seed therefore you must be plentiful in this kind of fruit The next branches Ready to distribute willing to Communicate set forth the manner of our charity The former implying a wise distribution of our Alms for to distribute is not hand over head without consideration to give but according to the need of them to whom wee give The latter implying a willingness therein As by distributing good is done to others so by willingness therein much comfort is brought to our own souls and grace to the work 2 Cor. 9.7 And God doth best accept such for hee loveth a chearfull willing giver In the next place follows the Reasons to enforce the fore-named duties taken from the benefit of performing them which is in brief assurance of eternal life implied in these words Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life The Apostle here for their better encouragement to lay out a portion of their estate on good works telleth them that they are so far from loosing what they so lay out as in truth they lay up thereby in store for themselves Yea they lay up a good foundation that is such a treasure as is like a foundation in the ground that cannot bee shaken nor over-thrown This treasure the Apostle thus expresseth in opposition to the forementioned uncertainty of riches So as by a cheerfull distribution of this worlds wealth they do indeed but exchange uncertainties for certainties and so no fear of loosing by such bargains Yea they thereby obtain eternal life Quest Are then good works the cause of eternal life Answ Surely No only they are the means and way of attaining thereto and in this sense is this phrase here used That they may lay hold on eternal life Having thus shewed you the occasion of the words the logical resolution of them their sense and meaning I should now according to my accustomed method come to such points of Doctrine which the words do naturally afford unto us But I must wave them and fall upon that Question or case of conscience which was given mee to handle viz. Quest How or after what manner must wee give Alms that they may bee acceptable and pleasing unto God In the resolving whereof I shall endeavour to answer most of the cases of conscience about alms-giving Answ 1. It must bee with justice giving only of our own whereunto wee have a just right title so much our Saviour implieth in that precept of his where hee saith Give Alms of such things as you have Luke 11.41 whereby is not meant such things as a man hath by him for one may have another mans things by him but such things as are his own whereunto hee hath a just title an undoubted right whereof hee is the lawful proprietor hath the power of disposing those things and those only hee may lawfully and justly give away This Caveat is very necessary for many Reasons 1. Because otherwise we shall sever mercy from justice which should alwaies go hand in hand God hath put them together Prov. 21.21 Dan. 4.27 we must not put them asunder indeed they are two links of one the same chain of which other vertues and graces are also other links So many vertues so many links Now if one link of a chain fall off the whole chain is broken and down falls that which is drawn or held up by it so wee that are held out of the pit of destruction by the Chains of graces are in danger to fall into it if one grace bee violated and severed from the rest 2. By giving that which is not our own 1 Sam. 4.21 the excellency and glory of Charity is lost of such charity it may bee said Ichabod where is the glory The glory of Charity consists in this that wee are willing to part with our own and therein to damnifie our selves for the relief and succour of others 3. By giving that which is not our own wee do wrong and thereby make our selves liable to restitution So as Charity in such a case is a plain injury It is a case wherin recompence of revenge may more be feared than recompence of reward expected Quest Who may bee said to give that which is not their own Answ They who filch steal or rob for this very end As Parents for Children or Children for Parents or one friend for another It is a sin for one to steal to satisfie his own hunger Prov. 6.31 Much more it is sin to steal for another certainly it is a great wickedness to do injustice that wee may do acts of Charity 2. Such as having raised up an estate or got something by indirect and unjust means as by lying swearing false weigh's deceitful measures and the like think to make up all by giving part to the Poor For as the Civilians say well Bonus usus non justificat injustè quaesita the good use doth not justifie the unjust getting of their goods And
the only begotten Son of the eternall God had flesh lusting in them unto sin Which is as convincing an Argument that humane nature is blemished and infected that it hath received a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stain and venome as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of a pestential disease whose breakings out display the contagion within If the Carbuncle and the Tokens proclaim the Plague or the spots discover a pestilential feaver or the Variolae those postulous efflorescencies which we commonly name the Small Pox argue the praecipitation of the blood by some latent malignity Certainly the lustings of the flesh in all men demostrate that the very nature of man on Earth is now blasted and corrupted Methinks the Divine perfection and our owne imperfection are the two greatest Sensibles in the world both of them equally that is immensely clear and discernable For the former is no lesse illustriously undenyable then is the being light and beauty of the Sun in the Firmament at noon day And the later is no lesse evident and conspicuous than the obscurity and horrour of Midnight-darknesse Not to see the one is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without God in the world and not to feel the other for it is like the Aegyptian darknesse Exod. 10.21 that may be felt by all that are not past feeling is to be without or besides ones self Now since all the reason in the world consents to the truth of that Aphorisme of the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the best and most excellent mind is the parent of the Universe Hierecles most divinely concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Carm. Isa 57.20 and an Almighty everliving goodnesse is the Source and root of all things since heaven and earth say Amen and again Amen Hallelujah to that Oracle of the Psalmist The worke of God is honourable and glorious Psal 111.3 And all that God made was very good Gen. 1.31 No wonder if it puzzled all philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence humane nature came to be thus vitiated and debauched What are the fountains of this great Deep of sinne within us which like the troubled Sea is perpetually thus casting out mire and dirt Sure enough so universall an effect as this calamity of mankind must have a cause as universal The Sâ—cinians here and others will have us believe that we all are born as innocent as Adam in Paradise that is say they in an aequilibrium and perfect indifferency to good and evill assigning no other cause of the generall corruption of mens lives and manners but the infection of example and evill custome which is methinks as wise a guesse as to affirm the Wolf and Vulture to be bred and hatch't with as sweet and harmlesse a nature as the innocent Lamb or loving Turtle but only the naughty behaviour and ill example of their auncestors and companions have debauched them into ravennousnesse and ill manners The Manichees as St. Austin tels who was himselfe for severall years before his conversion of that heresie thought that all the evill in the world sprang from an Almighty and an eternall principle of evill counter-working and over-bearing God whom they held the opposite eternal principle of goodness But since the very formall notion of God involveth infinite perfection and that of sin meer imperfection it is a perfect contradiction that evill should be infinite if good be so It were to make imperfection perfect and meer impotency Omnipotent Therefore there can be but one God who is Almighty goodnesse And as possible it is that the Sun should darken the world by shining as Almighty goodness should do any hurt in the world or make any evill God is the Author of all the good in the world but sin and misery are of our making Hos 13.9 Much wiser than either of the two former was the conjecture of the Pythagoreans and Platonists though Heathens who having nothing else to consult as wantâ—ng the divine Revelation of holy Scripture but their own faculties embraced the conceit that all humane souls were created in the beginning upright and placed by God in happier mansions in purer and higher regions of the Universe untill at length they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hierocles phraseth it i. e. till they fell from the divine life and became inhabitants of earthly Tabernacles bringing their fallen and degenerate natures along with them This opinion had of old the generall consent of the Jewes as appeareth Jo. 9.2 and yet hath as Men. Ben Israel in his Book De Resurrectione mortuorum witnesseth Among the Christians Origen is in the number of it's Sectaries in his books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some few of the Ancients But as much as is necessary for us to know about this great enquiry God hath blessed be his goodnesse sufficiently revealed in the three first Chapters of Genesis compared with Psal 51.5 Eccles 7.29 Rom. 12 5 c. And he is as wise as he need be in so great a point that knows how to understand these Scriptures according to the Analogie of Faith and consistently with the Divine perfections and that so believeth them as to put that and no other sense and interpretation upon them which is worthy of the glorious attribute and excellent Majesty of the living God Although some difficulties will remain perhaps insuperable to us in this our present estate on earth Use 2 Exhortat I have already in some measure discovered the Mysteries and secrets of this blessed art of checking sin in the beginnings of it Let me now perswade the practise of these holy Rules let us resolve in the strength of Christ to resist these lustings of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Take the exhortation of the Apostle watch ye stand fast in the faith quit your selves like men 1 Cor. 16.13 Let me press this with a few considerations 1. The more thou yeeldest the more thou mayest Sin is unsatiable it will never say it is enough Give it an inch it will take an ell See the sad example of Peter denying his Lord Matth 26. 1. He was only timerous he follows afar off vers 58. 2. At the next step he denies his Lord openly before them all vers 70. 3. He adds an oath to it vers 72. And lastly vers 74. he falls a cursing and swearing as if he meant to out-sin the vilest there It is no wisdome to try conclusions between fire and Gun-powder in the heap Who but a fool would unlock the door of his house when it is beset with Thieves and excuse it he did but turn the key that was all Why he need do no more to undo himself they will easily do all the rest 2. It is the quarrel of the Lord of Hosts in which thou fightest Caesarem vehis fortunam caesaris let thy courage rise in proportion to the goodnesse of thy cause and the honour of that great Prince Captain under whose
is not thine inevitable l 2 Cor. 12.10 weaknesse nor thy sensible dulness m Mar. 14.38.40 nor thy lamented roavings n Psal 86.11 nor thy opposed distractions o Gen. 15.11 nor thy mistaken unbelief p 1 John 5.13 it is not any nor all these can shut out thy prayer If thou doest not regard q Psal 66. â—8 iniquity in thy heart therefore be encouraged ' â—is the voyce of your beloved that saith r John 16.23 24. Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever you shall aske the Father in my name he will give it you Hitherto have ye asked nothing to what you might ask in my name Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full But this and the two next rules will be spoken to in the following Cases I shall therefore but little more then name them VI. Let every action have reference unto your whole life and not unto a part onely Å¿ Episcop Inst theol l. 1. c. 1. p. 3. propose some end to your selves in every thing t Si aliquem excuntem domo interrogaveris quo tu quid cogitas respondebit tibi non mehercule scio sed aliquos videbo aliquid agam cursus est qualis formicis per arbusta repentibus quae in summum cacumen deinde in imum inanes aguntur domum cum super vacua redeuntes lassitudine iurant nescisse se psos quaâ—e exierint Seneca de Tranquil c. 12. p. 685. and let all your lesser and subordinate ends be plainly reducible unto the great end of your living The emphasis of the Apostles Exhortation is very great u 1 Tim. 4.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est propriè exerceri in gymnade Grot. in loc Exercise thy selfe unto godlinesse q. d. Be as diligent in Religion as thou wouldst have thy children that go to School to be in learning Or thus let thy whole life be a preparation for heaven like the wrestlers or combatants preparation for victory Or thus strip thy self of all incumbrances that thou mayest attend unto piety Pleasures may tickle thee for a while but they have an heart-aking farewell Thou mayest call thy riches goods but within a few dayes what good will they do thee Men may flatter thee for thy Greatnesse but with God thy account will be the greater Therefore always mind that which will always be advantage VII Live more upon Christ then upon inherent grace Do not venture upon sin because Christ hath purchased a pardon that s a most horrible and impious abuse of Christ For this very reason there was no sacrifice under the Law for any wilfull wickedness lest people might think they knew the price of sinne as those do that truck with Popish indulgences and pardons But that none may be overwhelmed with the over-sense of their unworthinesse be it known to you We have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous w 1 John 2.1 and our salvation is better safer more for Gods glory and our comfort in his hand then in ours VIII Be every way nothing in your own eyes x Descendendo coelum ascenditur Drexel de praed 't is the humble soul that thrives exceedingly and alas what have we to be proud y Vnde superbit homo cujus coÌ„ceptio culpa nasci poena labor vita necesse mori quando vel quomodo vel ubi nescire Bernard de inter dom c. 53. Mallem non esse quam talis esse Ibid. c. 33. Accuso me non excuso nec idcirco justus sum quoniamsi alter ita mea accusaret sicut ego meipsum accuso patienter sustinere non possem Ibid c. 34 c. p. 1078. of Look we either at our constitution or conversation our conception sinfull our birth poenal our life toylsome and our death we know not what but all this is nothing to the state of our soul A Stoick could give this rule that if any one z Epictetus c. 48. p. 276. Simp. com tell you of anothers speaking evill of thee do not excuse thy self but say he did not know me or else he would have spoken worse A Convert when he once comes to be sensible of sin sees more cause to be weary of his life then proud of his graces To rise and fall confesse sin and commit it to see others out-run us that set out after us to recover that time for communion with God which we trifle away in unobserved impertinencies Surely for such persons to be low and vile in their own eyes deserves not to be call'd humility though the contrary be worse then devillish pride Be perswaded therefore to believe your selves of your selves in the use of Agurs some suppose Solomons words of himself Pro. 30.2 Surely I am more brutish then any man c. q. d. I do not make use of my reason vers 3. I have not the knowledge of the holy q. d. my knowledge of holy mysteries is very little in comparison of my ignorance nothing Be as willing that others should speak ill of you as you are to speak ill of your selves and be as unwilling that others should commend a Multos vidisse qui potuèrint perferre multa incommoda in corpore fortunis qui autem potuerit contemnere laudes suas neminem Luther T. 4. p. 149. com in Gal. ex al. you as you are to commend your selves IX Entertain good thoughts of God b Psal 73.1 what ever he doth with you what ever he requires of you what ever he layes upon you c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epict. c. 38. Simpl. p. 212. We never arrive to any considerable holiness or peace till we lose d Hoc est totaelem dei voluntate conformitatem consonantiam habere nimirum nos totos ei offerendo ut quodcunque quandocunque quomodocumque ipse voluerit de nobis faciat ac statuat idque fine ulla exceptione contradictione nihil prorsus nobis reservando Rodericius exerc perfec pt 1. tr 8. c. 14. p. 355. our selves in Deity till our understandings be fil'd with admiration till our wils be in a sober sense divine till our affections be in a spiritual sense transported When we can at once unriddle Gods methods of Grace make good constructions of Gods methods of Providence making a spiritual improvement of both then we are not far from being universally and exactly conscientious there 's yet one thing wanting and that 's implyed in this but it must be eminently exprest X. Do all you do out of love to God Spiritual lâ—ve-sickness is the souls healthfullest constitution When love to God is both Cause Means Motive and End of all our activity in the business of Religion then the soul is upon the wing towards its rest Then e Ita sola bonitas dei movet ad amorem charitatis erga proximum sola ratio sanitatis movet ad utendum porione medica omnia quae
applying Christ in the promised grace of pardon and power in reference to it and thou hast heard it and known it in this case though affliction seem to search out iniquity yet it shall not be found but when affliction starts some sin which thou didst wink at or slightly passe over then thou wilt find trouble and sorrow indeed Direct 6 6. Because there is much malignity in this distemper let me here also add in reference to the same Cause and the sixth this Preventive Follow on the work of mortification close there is a combate between flesh and Spirit be sure you take the right side if sin be it which imbitters thy life and gives a sting to every affliction disarme affliction and kill that which will kill thee Es 27.9 the design of the Lord in affliction is mortification now if thou joynest thy hand in the same work God is ever with thee in the same way and not against thee but in case thou connivest at hidest shelterest some known corruption then thou canst hardly apprehend God but as thine Enemy coming against thee As it was with the City of Abell 2 Sam. 20. they were terrified at the approach of Joab and David's Army Oh! saith the woman upon the wall art thou come to destroy the Inheritance of the Lord no saith Joab but there 's a traitour Sheba harboured here c. 'T is he that put the City into fear and danger and made Joab seem their Enemy when his head was delivered all was quiet now when thou insistest on the businesse of mortification thou wilt joy when thou fallest into triâ—ulation as it was with Jael Judg. 4. having done execution upon Sisera come saith she to Baruc c. Welcome my Lords I know whom you persue here he is dead at your feet behold the nayle in his temple O! saith one visited with the stroak of death I have been long getting down this body of death and now God will do all my work at once be not slack in this work and afflictions will be more joyous than grievous 7. Yet again to come to the root of this malignity and in order to Direct 7 the advancing of the work of mortification endeavour after mortified affections to the World these are the suckers that draw away thy strength from God and the fewel and foment and strength of all that corruption that must be mortified Aversion from God with an immoderate clinging and cleaving to the creature is the whole corruption of Nature Affliction is the reducing thee to God and the ungluing disengaging and divorcing thee from a carnal worldly interest therefore minus gaudebis minus dolebis the lesse thou joyest the lesse thou ruest the lesse thou layest a World-interest near thy heart the lesse that affliction which is the parting work will go to thy heart therefore let all creature-comforts and advantages be loose about thee as thy cloathes which thou mayest easily lay aside and not as thy skin which cannot be pulled off without great torture affliction endangers nothing but that which is outward therefore let not thy excessive respect to that which is without thee make thy affliction an inward terrour If thou countest the World of no value thou wilt be able without inward perplexity and fear to passe through all places of danger and plunder as the Travellour when he carries but a small matter which he knows if he looses it will not at all undoe him Besides If thou lovest the World the love of the Father is not in thee and this will be a desperate venomous sting to thy Soul in thy affliction if thou wouldst not have the World thy plague and thy poyson in the enjoying thy wrack and thy terrour in the loosing comply with the Word and Spirit of Grace in the application of a Christ crucified for the crucifying and mortifying of thy affections unto every earthly interest 8. In reference to the eighth cause unacquaintednesse with affliction Direct 8 live in the meditation and expectation of the Crosse be much in the knowledge of the necessity nature and design of afflictions 1. Necessity 1 Pet. 1.6 If need be you must be in heaviness for a time In respect of the terms of the Covenant which lye in this deny your self and take up your Cross c. And in respect of our disposition we cannot be without them to wean us from the World to imbitter the creature to us to conform us to a crucified Saviour and make us partakers of his holiness 2. The nature and design of Afflictions They are fire not to consume our gold but to purge away our dross they are not revenging Judgments but fatherly medicinal Corrections not judicial Poyson but remedial Physick c. Therefore 1 Pet. 4.12 Think not strange be not strangers as the word imports to the fiery greatest tryal and thou wilt not be dismayed when it comes Even Poyson may be habituated and made innocent If a stranger come in unexpected into our house grim and armed with Instruments of mischief we know not whence he is nor what he comes for it will startle and appale us But if we be acquainted with him and his design and expect him we are quiet and composed to entertain him So when Affliction comes we can say This is the Cup my Father gives me who I am sure means me no hurt this is but what I looked for every day c. Enure we therefore our selves to the Cross and make it familiar conversing with it in our meditation and expectation Seest thou one afflicted with the loss of a Wife another of a Husband another of a Child another of Estate another begging bread in Prison or distress c. bear part of his burden in sympathy and pity and readiness to succour him and put thy self in his or her case supposing thou wert so and so it will do thee no hurt what shouldst thou do And so God will make thy burden light Psal 41.1 So thou wilt be prepared to entertain and meet the burden and it shall not fall upon thee and upon thy spirit to crush and sink thee c. Think often and think not amiss have no hard conceits of affliction and it shall not be hard upon thee Take this Course and then as for the malice of Satan in accusing and tormenting and the seeming severity of the Lord in withholding and withdrawing thou shalt not need to trouble thy self for Satan is a restrained and conquered enemy and cannot hurt thee and God is reconciled and will not hurt thee He may try thee by intercepting the sweetness of fruition He will never curse thee by intermitting or breaking the firmness of the Union and if he hide his face for a moment lament after him and he will visit thee with everlasting kindness of his compassion which change not though there may be a change as to what thou feelest Thus much for the Preventives to prepare for double afflictions upon
1.21 23. When they knew God they glorified him not as God What follows upon this sloâ—h in not glorifying God as he ought to be glorified vers 23. They charged the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like to corruptible man and to birds Gâ—avissimum peccatum Aqui 2ª 2 ae quaest 94. act 3. Priâ—cipa ecrimen summus hujus saeculi reatus Tert. Omnis qui ad paradisum redire desiderat oportet transire per ignem aquam Aug. in serm ad Lipp and fourfooted beasts and creeping things Sloth is the high-way to Superstition and idlenesse the road-way to Idolatry 1. Cor. 10.7 neither be you idolaters as were some of them as it is written the people sate down to eate and drink and rose up to play by which is implied their idlenesse was the cause of their idolatry When Demas grew lazy and slothful in his Ministry he turned Priest in an Idols Temple where he had lesse work and more wages 2 Tim. 4.10 consider idolatry and superstition are God-provoking Land-destroying Soul-damning sins no wonder John should conclude his Epistle with keep your selves from Idols 1 Joh. 5.21 III. Consider how impossible it is that creeping Snails in Gods way should ever get to their journies end fair and softly goes far but never so far as Heaven Matth. 11.12 The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force * Brugens Non dormientibus provenit regnum caelorum nec otio desidia torpentibus beatitudo aeternitatis in geritur Prosp. de vit contempl Qui stadium currit eniti debet contendere quaÌ„ maxime possit ut vincat Tul. 3. off Petent cum ardore Humanum quiddam dicoâ— Eras Sicut non qualitatis sed aequalitatis Cyprian was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a metaphor taken from storming Cities and Castles they storm Heaven hang their Petarhs of Praiers on heaven gates and blow them open that get Heaven by a conquest storming is not work either for the fearful or the slothful 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that you may obtain not creep but run not run but so run not indifferently but industriously as the racers in the Istmian Games to which the Apostle here alludes who did stretch and strein their legs and limbs that they might gain the prize Luke 13.24 strive to enter in at the strait gate Heaven hath a very strait gate we must crowd yea crush our selves if ever we get in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 play the Champions to a very agony for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall seek with industry and indeavour IV. Consider how equitable it is that you should be as active in the way of God as you were once in the way of sin and Sathan Rom. 6.19 I speak after the manner of men i. e. I speak Reason as well as Religion as you have yielded your members servants unto uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity As not of quality but equality even so now yield your members servants to righteousnesse unto holinesse even so in the same manner and the same measure this very consideration wrought effectually upon Paul himself who as he had formerly sinned more than all so afterwards he laboured more than all the time he could not recover by recalling he does recover by redeeming What a peircing and prevailing spur would this be to a dull and sluggish soul Ah soul what a shame what a sin is this to be a slow sâ—aâ—l in the way of â—od that have been a swift Dromedary in the way of sin V. Consider hoâ— you contradict your own Prayers your very Pater Noster wherein you desire Gods will should be so done by you on earth Angelos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse putat Plutarch as it is done by the Angels in Heaven now those winged Mercuries and messengers of Heaven do speedily and spritâ—fully execute the Commandments of God Psal 103.20 Blesse the Lord ye his Angels which excel in strength that do his Commandments hearkning to the voice of his word These heavenly Puâ—sevants stand listning to know their Princes royal pleasure and then they go to execute it 1. With all celerity and speed they are said to have wings Isa 6.2 which are the Emblems of velocity v. 6. the Seraphim came flying to Isaiah with a coal from the Altar Gabriel is sent post from Heaven Dan. 9.21 being câ—used to sly swiftly extraordinary hast that he seemed weary and tired the Angels flying upon Gods embasie is alwaies very swift the Schoolmen make a doubt whether they do ab extremo ad extremum transire yet it seems they can mend their pace in their flight from Heaven to Earth and so back again which is as those wise Astronomers Clavius in Sphaeram who have been there to measure it backward and forward above one hundred sixty millions of miles 2. With ardency and intensenesse they are called Seraphs Isa 6.2 Igniti fiery yea a flame of fire Heb. 1.7 Elijahs charet and horses of fire were Angels appearing in those forms 2 Kings 2.11 of all the Elements fire is the most intense and active the mouth of fire devours and destroys all that comes before it many of the Heathens did worship fire for their god because it devoured all their other gods these fiery Hosts of God are very devouring one of them in one night destroyed a hundred fourscore and five thousand Assyrians 2 Kings 19.35 3. With alacrity and cheerfulnesse it is a great part of their joy in Heaven that they do Gods service with joy as soon as ever they were created they rejoyced that they should be employed in such honourable service Job 38.7 When the morning Stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy how cheerfully did the Angels bring tidings of Christs birth to the World as appears by their praising God to the highest of their power Luke 2.14 Glory be to God in the highest c. surely if you consider Angels worship and doing Gods will it will make you leave off your sloth or your service either cause you to pray better or not to pray at all VI. Consider you lose the very soul and life of your duty if you do not perform it as for your life and soul You come to seek and see the face of God in the glasse of ordinances Psal 27.8 Lambunt petram mel non sugunt Cyp. de Caen. dom to have communion with him to fetch comfort from him to get some kisses of him Cant. 1.3 to mortifie some lust to increase some grace to strengthen your assurance to testifie your duty to expresse your affection c. now spiritual sloth hinders you of all this dull and drowsie eyes cannot see God heavy and slothful hearts cannot receive those benefits and blessings from God Torpor non sinit Deum esse beneficum Sloth