to God therefore inconsistent with the Love of God These six things the Lord hateth yea seven which his Soul hateth Prov. 6.16 Psal 97.10 Math. 6.24 Therefore ye that love the Lord hate evil These are two Masters which we cannot hate and love both 3. Sin separates from God therefore we cannot keep our selves in the love of Sin and in the love of God Sin makes us depart from God and God to depart from us Therefore Conversion reconciles God to us because it mortifies Sin in us by vertue of Christs Death for us VII He that will keep himself in the Love of God must clear up his Interest and Union to Jesus Christ 1. Because Jesus Christ was sent us as the greatest Instance and the greatest Token of Gods Love in the World 1 Joh. 4.9 2. Because the Lord Jesus purchased the Love of God to us when we were the greatest Enemies to each other Rom. 5.8 10. 3. Because Jesus Christ is the Souls Love Cant. 3.1 4. Because Jesus Christ is all Loves Cant. 5.16 5. Because this was the End of Christs coming into the World to save us from our sins the sole cause of Gods hatred to Sinners Math. 1.21 6. Because the Father loveth whom Christ loveth and he loveth them that love Christ Joh. 16.27 7. Because our Interest in Christ puts a Soul out of all danger Rom. 8.1 Rom. 5.1 Chap. 7.24 25. 8. Because the Lord Jesus makes the Fathers Love to him the measure of his love to us As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue in my love Joh. 15.9 i. e. By this ye keep in Gods Love 9. Because the Lord Jesus teacheth us the way how to keep in his Love Joh. 15.10 Consider all this and how cogently they prove this Head of clearing up our Interest and Union unto Christ to keep our selves in the Love of God VIII An eighth way of keeping our selves in the Love of God is by keeping Gods Commandements I do not mean as to a Covenant of Works but upon a Gospel account If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my Love as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his Love John 15.10 Vers 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you O! mind that Again mark this Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and doth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and we will make our abode with him This Love is the fulfilling of the whole Law and the Gospel too There be many that will complement a Love to God but will do nothing for him The greatness of Abraham's Love to God and of David's Love and of Peter's Love and of Mary's Love of Paul's Love and of the Martyrs Love was in doing and in dying for him And is not the greatness of Gods Love and of Chists Love to us Joh. 15.13 in Doing and Suffering We read of Labour of Love because true Love is Laborious as it was in Jacob's Love for Rachel There is nothing God hates more than pretending to love therefore the Lord hates Hypocrites Not every Mat. 7.21 one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven As God saith This People Deut. 5.29 have well said in all that they have spoken O that there were such a Heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments alwayes So I say of Professors and great Pretenders that shew much kindness with their Mouth but their Heart is not right with God O that there were such a Heart in them that they would make Conscience to do the Will of God If the Lord loved the young man that was in a fair way of keeping the Commandments of God and was not perfect and thorow-pac'd how much more will he have a Love for them that have a respect to all the Commandments of God Psal 119.6 IX The way to keep our selves in the Love of God is to walk closely with God in wayes of strict Holiness This is a Commendation and Character upon Record of Gods chiefest Favourites Thus it was with Abraham Gen. 17.1 Thus it was with Enoch Gen. 5.22 Thus it was with Noah Gen. 6.9 Thus it was with Caleb Num. 14.24 And thus David Psal 73. ult Now we shall see how such a one is to God who desires to keep in the Love of God We have known 1 Joh. 4.16 and believed the Love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him O sweet dwelling You shall shall find that the Holyest Persons were alwaies the highest Favourites of God Witness those before-mentioned and these following Instances Job 1.1 2 3. How did God bless him and praise him and trie him and reward him for his eminent Holiness Zachary and Elizabeth Luk. 1.6 7. How singularly did they shine in Holiness and in the Favour of God to whom God gave a Son in their old age the Harbinger of Christ Mary the Mother of Christ Luk. 1.28 how was she for her Holiness pronounced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 highly favoured And Simeon Luk. 2.25 c. and Anna vers 36 37 38. Holiness and Purity brings us to the fight of God which is called Beatifical which is the Souls highest Happiness and ultimate end Math. 5.8 Psal 24.4 Heb. 12.14 and therefore is pronounced Blessed Psal 119.1 2. X. They keep themselves in the Love of God who do not wave or abate their Profession and Practice of Godliness in evil times and do not baulk the wayes of God under severe Providences and sharp Tryals this was eminent in all Christs Worthyes Thus David Psal 44.17 to vers 22. Mind that Place Though they were sore broken and smitten into the Place of Dragons and cover'd as with the shaddow of death yet we have not forgotten thee nor declined from thy way c. Job 13.15 cap. 3.17 18. Thus Job Though he slay me yet I will trust in him Thus Habakkuk Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom the Vine Olive and Field shall fail of their Fruit and not any Flocks or Herds left yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of my Salvation The Lord God is my strength And thus all the Champions of God Let Paul be one Instance more Rom. 8.35 36 37 38 39. Reason Prov. 3.11 12. 1. A Friend loveth at all times and a Brother is born for the day of Adversity Prov. 17.17 2. They know the Lords Chastenings are in Love Heb. 12.6 Rev. 3.19 Psal 119.67 71 72. 3. They know that all the Lords Severities are for good many wayes To drive them to Ordinances and Duties to sweeten them and to teach them to profit by them to know more of the Will of God by them and to give us a better Relish of the
in Flattery 's Mirrour How glorious was Alexander M. while he rejected Fawners How lovely but how Eclips'd how despicable when he believed and loved them which the Athenians did generously enough witness when they fined their Envoy ten Talents for calling him a God and put to death Evagoras for Adoring him There was more than ordinary in Herod which gave him the Name of Great but when he over-loved the Praise of men God left him a Monument and Warning to all Posterity giving up so contemptible a Slave of his own vain-glory to the most contemptible loathsome and shameful death Lice bred in his own Bowels destroy his Body as the Vermin of Self-love and Self-admiring reflections had destroy'd his Mind Look first on the deformity of a Self-admirer next on the beauty of a self-denying Humility and this will cure this distemper As the sight of the Putrid Carkass once cured the fond desire of Friends who doted on their own Fancy for his Picture whilest living or as the sight of the Loathsomeness in Serapis's Temple cur'd the Superstitious Aegyptians So the sight of the deformity of our Love of the undue Praise of men would cure this disease But 3. Thou who lovest to be unduly praised come with me 3. Deplorable miseries of it view the many great deplorable miseries it hath fill'd the World with read the Tragedies it hath acted and all these mostly upon it's Friends as it would cure the excessive praises men bestow on the great Commanders of conquering Armies if they would recount with themselves how many fair and goodly Countreys they laid desolate how many Cities they razed how many millions of Souls Innocent and peaceable they Sacrificed to their Ambition so here the bloody Pawes of the disguis'd Lion would cure us of our dotage on the Foxes Skin It hath ever proved a Mortal and †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deadly Cup. If you Travel through waste and desolate Kingdoms and enquire who ruin'd them you 'l find the Flatterers about Prince and Court so true is that known Observation of the Historian * Regnum saepius ab assentatoribus quam abbostibus everti solet Q. Curtius de gest Al. Flatterers do more frequently overthrow a Kingdom than open Enemies But did Flatterers find such great ones Ears stopt and their minds fortifi'd against or alienated from their flatteries the danger were not considerable The Flatterer can but attempt our Love to the flattery gives the success the Head and Shaft of the Arrow cannot fly to endanger the Eagle 't was his own Feathers that contributed to his Wound and Death Scarce a City Family or Person whose Calamities were fit to be noted in the World but you may find some Parasites some close undermining Flatterers charged as a great occasion of those Calamities and the love affection and delight those Flaterers found much more the Cause of those fatal Calamities Ahab fell more by his own Love of Flattery than by the Artifices of the Son of Chenaanah and his Accomplices 1 Kings 22. So in the Parable Ezek. 13.12 16. the Wall fell for the Builders built it with untemper'd Morter and the People loved to see the building thus go forward Scarce one that dislik't it as Ezek. 22. ver 28. observeth the consequence of which is ver 29. I saith the Lord have poured mine Indignation upon them I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath c. When Prophets prophesie falsely and Priests bear rule by their means and the people love to have it so what will you do in the end thereof Jer. 5.31 In a word can you love that flattery which never had extorted a Tear a Sigh a Grief or complaint from you if you had hated it which hath filled you or yours whole Families Cities Kingdoms yea the whole World in all ages with the complaints and sorrows which Treachery loved and trusted could bring upon those that were so much over-seen We shew you the scatter'd bones about the Dens mouth and desire to ask whether you think fit to Love the Couching Lion which lurks in it 4. Would you be cur'd of immoderate Love of an undue praise then so often as you perceive any one soothing you therewith suspect there may be and search what likeliest is the design such have upon you We may with good manners question the Integrity of his purpose who doth on our Knowledge transgress the rules of Truth in the words we hear from him such men lye for advantage the discovery of this designing wheedling Projector will if you have any Spirit of a man in you take off your Love yea turn it into hatred No man can love to be impos'd upon be assured there is a snare hid search after it keep a watchful Eye upon it in time you will discover what you prevented and never love what endanger'd you in vain is the Net spread in the sight of any Bird. And there 's much in that of Diogenes to a Flatterer Nihil proficis cum te intelligam Seneca in Epist It is the great care of these Lurkers to lye conceal'd and to hide their purposes and to blind-fold those they lead for 't is but one labour to expose them to our view and to our hatred Could weeping Parents give their seduced Children Eyes to see the seducing projects of corrupt Flatterers they need be no farther solicitous their Children would find Hearts to hate them There is nothing truly amiable in flattery and none that know it approve or love it Solomon therefore takes so much pains for discovery of the designs of a flattering Mouth and then counselleth us to decline and reject it Prov. 5. The monster in the dark doth not but in the light he will make us recoil with abhorrence Find him out then Adulatio periculosa est quae latet view him exactly and I know 't will do much toward your Cure 5. If you would be cured you must resolutely and peremptorily reject the Friendship of the man who turns due praises into Flattery Let such know they please least when they praise most and that you make their first offence an opportunity to inform them that the second offence in this kind is and shall be unpardonably punisht with loss of your Friendship I know not any reason why I may not interpret that of Flatterers which David speaks of Liers He that telleth Lies shall not come into my House Psal 101. This he did know was the way to prevent Love of Flatteries and Flatterers to keep them out of his presence This Tympany is never cured while Sycophants are suffered to blow up weak minds with conceits of worth greater than is due to their Persons It is not unfitly resembled to those distempers which increase on us by our Indulgence It 's an Itching humour runs in our blood as Sigismund the Emperour observed and when it breaks out the tickling Flatterer doth increase it if you would cure you must let
have been about things less necessary yet their Hearts have been more thorowly broken and more unexpressibly longing for Spiritual supplies 'T is about Gods bestowing of his Grace that they adore his Sovereignty justifying God though he should reject them and wondering even to astonishment how he can shew kindness to them so that the more Spiritual any Christians are the more they lose their will in the will of God and the less they quarrel with God let him do what he will with them They do not think it in vain to serve God thô he should but he will not cast them off at last they thankefully acknowledge they receive so many mercies from God here as are infinitely more worth than all the Services they can do him and they see cause to love God thô there is no cause why God should love them so that they 'l pray and wait hate sin and love holiness admire God and abase themselves and let God do what he will with them This is the temper and practice of the most serious Christians This will teach us to observe Gods answering of Prayer so as to be thankful or penitent to retract or alter or urge our Petitions as our case requires And this I think I may say One of the choicest exercises of Grace is about the improving the return of Prayer e. g. I think such a thing to be good for me suppose a better frame of Health for this I fill my Mouth with Arguments and my Heart with Faith but God answers me with disappointments this puts me upon reflection I find causes more than are good why God should deny me Suppose further I beg the pardon of sin am sensible that I must perish if I be denyed and therefore reckon I can't be too earnest but am so far from speeding that to my apprehension God seems Implacable and I have less hopes every day than other Well! this puts me upon a more thorow Scrutiny and I find I have not observ'd Gods Method for Pardon I would have the comfort of a Pardon without a suitable sense of the evil of Sin which if I should obtain I should not be so shie of Sin as when I have felt the smart of it I should not look upon my self as so much beholding to Christ but that I might venture upon sin and have a Pardon at pleasure I should not so much pity others under their Soul-troubles In a word the more we consider the more cause we shall see why God answers Prayer according to his own wisdom not our Folly We do not see that Religion doth any great matter towards the Object 2 bettering of every condition those that pretend to Religion have always their own good word they love to speak and hear of the Atchievements and Priveledges of Religion thô they are invisible to all but themselves A little more Modesty and less Arrogancy would better become ' em To our grief we must acknowledge Answ that Serious Christians are shamefully defective in living up to such a height of Heavenly-mindedness as to have the Experiences they might have and shall we when we are injurious to our selves expect God to fulfill conditional Promises when we neglect the Condition of them No! Christians God will say to us what he once said to Israel e Lev. 26.3 c. If thou wilt walk in my Statutes and keep my Commandments and do them then the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee c. f Deut. 28.1 c. But if you will walk contrary unto me then will I walk contrary to you also g Num. 14.34 and you shall know my breach of Promise God doth not only in displeasure but in kindness make his People feel a difference in their Comforts from the difference in their walking ou may as well expect to buy things without Money because Money answers all things as to expect Promises fulfill'd to Godliness when you want that Godliness to which the Promise is made 'T is true God may give it of bounty but not of Promise and then it may be a Mercy but not a Blessing Make Conscience of performing the Condition and make Conscience of believing the Promise for God will certainly fulfill that Promise or a better so that the fault 's our own that we don't inherit the Promises When I have granted all that can rationally be demanded in the Objection do but impartially observe and you 'l find that notwithstanding all the defects and imperfections of Christians 't is they alone that live most above the vanity of every Condition h 2 Pet. 1.4 't is they only have received those exceeding great and precious promises whereby they are partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust and though they have not already attained that heavenly frame they hope for neither are already perfect i Phil. 3.12 c. yet this one thing they do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before they press towards a full Experience of what is to be found in the wayes of Holiness If this be not a sufficient answer to this Objection what I shall add will be more than enough Whereas I have by an Induction of six comparative Cases I hope demonstrated the excellency of Serious Godliness I shall now in as many Instances beyond all Comparison and beyond Contradiction demonstrate the superlative excellency of the Power of Godliness all which may serve as arguments for Practical Godliness Serious Godliness will make your present Condition good for you be it what it will Every thing but Religion will make you think any Condition better than your present Condition There 's one Text I would commend to your consideration in this matter 1 Tim. 6.5 6. Those that are destitute of the Truth suppose that Gain is Godliness from such withdraw thy self but Godliness with contentment is great gain q. d. Those that only talk of Religion and wrangle about it they have no higher design than to make a gain of it avoid all familiarity with them but those that are sincerely Religious that know and fear and worship God aright there 's a Treasure a great Treasure k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fundus quasi perannis sons a constant Revenue an unexhaustible Spring and then Content is not mentioned as a Condition added to Piety as if Piety were not great gain without Content added to it but Content is mentioned as the very genuine effect of Piety m Purum putum pietatis effectum The Godly man is so well contented with his Condition that he is not so solicitous as others for the bettering of it whatsoever is wanting to him is made up by Tranquility of mind and Hope in God that God will supply him with necessaries and he acquiesceth in his
receive it i. e. To acknowledge receive resign entrust and subject our selves unto God in Christ revealed in it 2ly And of how vast importance this is towards our establishment the confirming fortifying and uniting of our hearts and our joynt preservation in our Christian state the main thing we are to design and be solicitous for we may see in these particulars 1. Hereby we should apprehend the things to be truly great wherein we are to unite That union is not like to be firm and lasting the center whereof is a trifle It must be somewhat that is of it self apt to attract and hold our hearts strongly to it To attempt with excessive earnestness an union in external formalities that have not a value and goodness in themselves when the labour and difficulty is so great and the advantage so little how hopeless and insignificant would it be The mystery of God even of the Father and of Christ how potently and constantly attractive would it be if aright understood and ackowledg'd Here we should understand is our life and our all 2. Hereby we should in comparison apprehend all things else to be little And so our differences about little things would languish and vanish We should not only know but consider and feelingly apprehend that we agree in far greater things than we differ in and thence be more strongly inclin'd to hold together by the things wherein we agree than to contend with one another about the things wherein we differ 3. Hereby our Religion would revive and become a vital powerful thing and consequently more grateful to God and awful to men 1. More grateful to God who is not pleased with the stench of Carkasses or with the dead shewes of Religion instead of the living substance We should hereupon not be deserted of the divine presence which we cannot but reckon will retire when we entertain him but with insipid formalities What became of the Christian interest in the world when Christians had so sensibly diverted from minding the great things of Religion to little minute circumstances about which they affected to busie themselves or to the pursuit of worldly advantages and delights 2. More awful to men They who are tempted to despise the faint languid appearances of an impotent inefficacious spiritless Religion discern a Majesty in that which is visibly living powerful and productive of suitable fruits Who that shall consider the state af the Christian Church and the gradual declining of Religion for that three hundred years from Constantines time to that of Phocas but shall see cause at once to lament the sin and folly of men and adore the righteous severity of God For as Christians grew gradually to be loose wanton sensual and their leaders contentious luxurious covetous proud ambitious affecters of Domination so was the Christian Church gradually forsaken of the divine presence Inasmuch as that at the same time when Boniface obtained from Phocas the title of universal Bishop in defiance of the severe sentence of his Predecessor Gregory the great sprang up the dreadful delusion of Mahomet †Brerewood's Enquiries And so spread it self to this day thorough Asia Africa and too considerable a part of Europe that where Christians were twenty or thirty to one there was now scarce one Christian to twenty or thirty Mahometans or grosser Pagans And what between the Mahometan infatuation and the Popish Tyranny good Lord what is Christendom become when by the one the very name is lost and by the other little else left but the name 4. Hereby we shall be inabled most resolvedly to suffer being call'd to it when it is for the great things of the Gospel the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ clearly and with assurance understood and acknowledg'd Such a faith will not be without its pleasant relishes 'T is an uncomfortable thing to suffer either for the meer spiritless uncertain unoperative notions and opinions or for the unenlivened outward forms of Religion that we never felt to do us good in which we never tasted sweetness or felt power that we were really nothing ever the better for But who will hesitate at suffering for so great things as the substantials of the Gospel which he hath clearly understood whereof he is fully assured and which he hath practically acknowledged and embraced so as to feel the energy and power of them and relish their delicious sweetness in his soul And thô by such suffering he himself perish from off this earth his Religion lives is spread the more in the present age and propagated to after ages So seminal and fruitful a thing is the blood of Martyrs as hath alwaies been observ'd And as such a faith of the Mystery of the Gospel appears to have this tendency to the best firmest and most lasting union among Christians and the consequent preservation of the Christian Interest this mystery being more generally considered only So this tendency of it would be more distinctly seen if we should consider the more eminent and remarkable parts of it The mystery of the Redeemers person The Emmanuel God uniting himself with the nature of man His Office A reconciler of God and Man to each other His Death as a propitiatory sacrifice to slay all enmity His victory and conquest over it wherein is founded his universal Empire over all His triumphant entrance into Heaven whither he is to collect all that ever lov'd trusted and obey'd him to dwell and be conversant together in his eternal love and praises How directly do all these tend to endear and bind the hearts and souls of Christians to God and him and one another in everlasting bonds Thus then we have the answer to our question in the two parts of the Text. The former pointing out to us the subjects of our union with the uniting principle by which they are to be combin'd with one another The other the center of it with the uniting principle whereby they are all to be united in that center Vse And what now remains but that we lament the decay of these two principles And to our uttermost endeavour the revival of them 1. We have great cause to lament their decay for how visible is it and how destructive to the common truly Christian Interest It was once the usual cognisance of those of this holy profession See how these Christians love one another and even refuse not to dye for each other Now it may be How do they hate and are like to dye and perish by the hands of one another Our Lord himself gave it them to be their distinguishing character By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if you love one another Good Lord what are they now to be known by And what a cloudy wavering uncertain lank spiritless thing is the Faith of Christians in this age become How little are the ascertaining grounds of it understood or endeavoured to be understood Most content themselves to profess
2. But now more particularly I. He that will keep himself in the Love of God must he himself love God for Love deserveth Love and Love begetteth Love Gods Love worketh thus towards us and therefore our Love must work towards God Prov. 4.6 Prov. 8.17 Our Love to God is but the Reflection of the Beams of Gods Love upon us Love Wisdom and she shall love thee I love them that love me And thus the Beams are doubled and the Love of God to the Soul and the Souls love to God encreaseth the heat betwen both as it is with the Sun shining on the Earth II. He that loves God loving him Magnes amoris amor is drawn to God by the attractive Beams of Divine Love these are called the Bands of Love Hos 11.4 He that loves God loving him is inflamed with Gods Love as it is in a Burning Glass This is a Heavenly Fire kindled from Heaven and not easily quenched Cant. 8.7 He that loves God loving him finds the strongest Obligation upon him to Love God as constrained to it 2 Cor. 5.14 and God endears him to love God from his Heart for Love ravisheth the Heart beyond all things in the World The Lord and his Spouse ravish one another Cant. 4.9 III. He that will keep himself in the Love of God must mind and meditate on four Attributes and Properties of Gods Love which will have great influence upon his Heart and Love 1. On the Eternity of Gods Love to him which hath been ever of old time out of Mind yea before all Time he hath been thy Friend and thy Fathers friend therefore forget him not Prov. 27.10 Because Election which is the effect of Gods Eternal Love is Eternal Ephes 1.4 And because he is Love essentially 1 John 4.8 therefore his Love is Eternal as himself Hos 14.4 2. On the Freeness of Gods Love All the Arguments of his Love are drawn out of his own Breast therefore this free Love of God is called Grace 2 Tim. 1.9 which is no Grace unless it be gratuitous and free Not according to works saith the Apostle the great Champion of Free Grace which Bradwardin calls the Cause of God but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus Rom. 11.5 6. before the world began And again There is a remnant according to the election of grace and if by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace O meditate on this How should the consideration of this keep us in the Love of God! ¶ Mark and mind this well Free Grace and Love sent Jesus Christ into the World and all the train of Spiritual Blessings Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.9 1. The free Love of God was the Cause of Election Rom. 11.5 2. The free Love of God is the cause of our effectual Vocation Gal. 1.6.15 3. The free Grace and Love of God is the cause of our Adoption Eph. 1.5 6. 4. The free Love and Grace of God is the cause of our Justification Rom. 3.24 5. The free Love and Grace of God is the cause of the Pardon of Sin Rom. 5.20 6. The free Grace and Love of God is the cause of true and thorough Conversion 1 Cor. 15.10 7. The free Grace and Love of God is the Cause of true Faith Act. 18.27 8. The free Grace and Love of God is the cause of Christs suffering for us Heb. 2.9 9. The Free Grace and Love of God is the Cause of that inestimable Jewel and Blessing the Word of God Act. 14.3 10. The free Grace and Love of God is the cause of our Salvation Eph. 2.5 8. ¶ O meditate and mind the infinite free Love of God in all the sweet Streams of it and dwell upon the meditation of it and be ravished with it and give the God of Grace and Love the Glory of it for ever 3. Mind the Immensity of Gods Love This is so vast an Ocean that thou wilt find neither Bounds nor Bottom in it Hear the Apostle upon it Eph. 3.18 That ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the Breadth and Length and Depth and Height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge To know it to pass all knowledge The Consideration of this alone hath so amaz'd some devout Souls that they have been in an Extasie above and besides themselves with it 4. Mind and meditate on the Unchangeableness of Gods Love This is grounded upon two immutable things by which it is impossible for God to lie This O! Heb. 6.17 18. this gives sure Anchor-hold and comfort to a true Believer in a Storm v. 19. This Assurance God hath given his People of old Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love Rom. 8. ult Joh. 13.1 It is an Inseparable Love It is a final Love but not finite Love It is to the end and without end It is Invincible Love Cant. 8.6 It is an Vnquenchable Love Cant. 8.7 Obj. If this be so what need then of the Apostles Exhortation to keep our selves in the Love of God Answ 1. Because Gods Promises and Believers Priviledges do not exclude but include the use of Means For instance Phil. 2.12 13. Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure Eph. 1.5 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundaon of the World that we should be holy and without blame before him in love 2 Pet. 1.4 to verse 10. He tells them God hath given them exceeding great and precious Promises yet bids them to give all diligence to make their Calling and Election sure by adding Grace to Grace Ephes 2.3 He saith we are saved by Grace through Faith which is the Gift of God without Works and yet he saith we are created to good Works that we should walk in them and this God hath ordained v. 9 10. 1 Thes 5. After he had Exhorted them to many Dutyes he adds this Faithful is he that hath called you who also will do it Mark our Text and compare it with the Context after when he bids us keep our selves in the love of God he saith Vers 24. God is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy 2. God who prevents us with his Grace and works upon us and in us unto Conversion and Regeneration hereby puts into us an Active Principle and helps and recruits it continually by auxiliary Grace Our habits of Grace cease acting if God suspends the influence of Grace as we see in Peters ease both upon the Waters when he began to Sink till the Lord gave him a Hand and went on denying his Master till the Lord looked upon him and melted him into Tears God will ever have us beholding to him and lean upon him h. 15.4 5.
to the end and ye see what power he had with God in Prayer for wicked Sodom God communicated his Secrets to him as one Friend to another and Abraham made Intercession to him as Favourites of Princes for Malefactors So did he for Sodom and ye know how far he prevailed for he was a Righteous man Jam. 5.16 and such a mans Prayer prevaileth much And what was Abrahams Righteousness even the Righteousness of Faith by Imputation Rom. 4. and this Faith living and working XV. We keep our selves in the Love of God when we declare a publick Spirit for the Cause of God in his Church against the Enemies of it by being zealous for his Glory and valiant for his Truth in our Station Judg. 5. This is lively asserted in the Song of Deborah and Barak who after she had praised some for their appearing and others for not appearing in this Cause dispraised the Lord she praised above all for his presence with his People and for that Spirit of Love he poured out upon them in these Words vers 31. So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord but let them that love him be as the Sun when he goeth forth in his might Now the Reason why this publick Spirit in the Cause of God is expressed by our Love to God is this Because God is so much concerned in it 1. As to his Honour to defend and deliver his People from his and their Enemies as the Midianites were 2. As to his Power in reducing thirty thousand to three hundred Jud. 7. as in Gideons case all that lapped He as a poor Barley Cake tumbled all the Enemies down and by a small company And a Woman in Deborahs case that is by her self and Jael Judg. 4.21 destroyed Jabin and Sisera's mighty Host To omit many other instances of publick Hearts in this case signally owned by God because they signally appeared for God Thus Moses Exod. 2.11 13. Judg. 5.9 This was their Love Thus saith Deborah My Heart is towards the Governours of Israel that offer themselves willingly bless ye the Lord. Zebulun and Napthali jeoparded their lives unto Death in the high places of the Field and thus did Issachar ver 15. But Reuben Gad Manasseh Dan and Asher are branded for their Cowardise I say all this appearing in the defence of all that was dear to God and them is called Love to God Therefore we may in no wise exclude this Noble publick Spirit in the cause of God and his People from the Love of God for there is no principle in the World like to the Love of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 3.8 Deum odisse in sacris literis peculiariter illi dicuntur qui falsos deos colunt Maimon Which love me and keep my Commandments Illa praecipuè quae ad arcendas pravas superstitiones pertinent Grot. Hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pij dicti sunt Ezek. 16.33 36 37. chap. 23.5 Jer. 2.2 I remember the love of the Espousals to animate and inflame the Soul to do great things for God This Spirit was marvellous in David whose very Name was from Love Therefore it is the duty of every Child of God to pray for the Spirit of God which only sheds all divine Love abroad in the Heart Rom. 5.5 which God inspires as he pleaseth XVI A great means of keeping our selves in the Love of God is to be Sincere and Sound in the Worship of God Mark this well for herein lyes the Love or Hatred of God as appears plainly in the second Commandement Exod. 20. ver 6. Therefore Idols and Idolaters are called our Lovers Hosea 2.5 7. Jer. 8.1 Hosea 13. They kissed the Calves ver 2. Therefore our Hankering and embracing of a false Worship provokes God to jealousie Therefore the Lord deals with Superstition and Idolatry in his People after the Law of Harlots and Adulterers The Scripture is full of this Language There is no higher Act of Love in God than to espouse a People to be his own and to give them a Rule of Worship of his own Institution and to hold them to it as he did Israel And when a People follows God and serves God according to his own appointments there are no higher Acts of Love towards him in Gods account God is enamoured with such a People God in his highest acts of jealousie was inraged against his Idolatrous people Psal 78.59 They kissed their Idols giving them all the tokens of Love and Homage 1 King 19.18 Job 31.27 They burnt their Children to them as the costlyest Sacrifice as Abraham would his Isaac in Love to God but God only tryed him by it Mark 7.7 Colos 2.22 Mat. 15.2 3 6. Rev. 17.4 5. he calls them his Hephsibah and his Beulah Isa 62.4 We see it also in the instance of good Kings how the Lord prized and praised them for this very thing for Reforming and setting up the true Worship of God as David Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah how the Lord prospered them because their Hearts were right and perfect with God in this thing On the other side how he hath branded and blasted all those that were false herein For this was David a man after Gods own Heart fulfilling all his Wills which is chiefly meant in the point of Gods Worship Act. 13.22 As for the Wills of men in the Worship of God by their Inventions Traditions and Commandements he tells you he hates them and they are Abomination to him And no wonder for what intrencheth more upon the Honour of Gods Wisdom and Soveraignty than this That he doth not know best how to appoint his own Worship but must be fain to be beholding to Man for his devices and dictates in the Case This though it seems very gay is Whorish and Poysonous this golden Dress and Cup is intoxicating XVII A great Means of keeping in the Love of God is keeping up the Communion of Saints in all the parts and duties of it What this is we shall see according to Scripture The Communion of Saints is our Participation of all the good things of God in common whereunto all the Saints and only they have right consisting in our Union to God as our chiefest good this is with God as a Father with the Son and Holy Spirit 1 Joh. 1.3 2 Cor. 13.13 1. We have Communion with the Father as Children and all in the greatest Love 1 Joh. 3.1 Rom. 8.16 17. This is procured by Christ 1 Joh. 2.23 only obtained by Believing Joh. 1.12 And maintained by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 Who walk not in darkness but in light 1 Joh. 1.6 7. 2. We have Communion with Jesus Christ the Son of God By which we are made partakers of him of his Nature and of his Grace and of his Glory all which is done by Faith that uniteing and marrying Grace and this works such Conjugal Love between Christ and his Church as makes them
and they have it not to pay them its hard to keep all this from going too near the heart and hard to bear it with obedient quiet submission to God especially for Women whose Nature is weak and liable to too much Passion 2. And this Impatience turneth to a setled Discontent and Vnquietness or Spirit which affecteth the Body it self and lieth all day as a Load or continual Trouble at the Heart 3. And Impatience and Discontent do set the Thoughts on the Rack with Grief and continual Cares how to be eased of the troubling Cause they can scarce think of any thing else and these Cares do even feed upon the Heart and are to the Mind as a consuming Feaver to the Body 4. And the secret Root or Cause of all this is the worst part of the Sin which is too much Love to the Body and this World Were nothing ovâ—â—loved it would have no power to torment us if Ease and Health were not overloved Pain and Sickness would be the more tolerable if Children and Friends were not overloved the Death of them would not overwhelm us with inordinate sorrow if the Body were not overloved and worldly wealth and Prosperity overvalued it were easie to endure hard Fare and Labour and Want not only of Superfluities and Conveniences but even of that which is necessary to Health yea or Life it self if God will have it so at least to avoid Vexations Discontents and Cares and inordinate Grief and Trouble of mind 5. There is yet more Sin in the root of all and that is it sheweth that our Wills are yet too selfish and not subdued to a due submission to the Will of God but we would be as Gods to our own chusing and must needs have what the Flesh desiâ—◠〈…〉 â—â—â—t a due Resignation of our selves and all our Concerns to God and 〈…〉 as Children in due dependance on him for our daily Bread but â—â—â—t needs be the keepers of our own Provision 6. And this sheweth that we be not sufficiently humbled for our sin or else we should be thankful for the lowest state as being much better than that which we deserved 7. And there is apparently much Distrust of God and Vnbelief in these troubling Discontents and Cares could we trust God as well as our selves or as we could trust a faithful friend or as a Child can trust his Father how quiet would our minds be in the sense of his Wisdom All-sufficiency and Love 8. And this Unbelief yet hath a worse Effect than worldly Trouble it sheweth that men take not the Love of God and the Heavenly Glory for their suffâ—cient portion unless they may have what they want or would have for the Body this world unless they may be free from Poverty and Crosses and Provocations and Injuries and Pains all that God hath promised them here or hereafter even everlasting Glory will not satisfie them and when God and Christ and Heaven are not enough to quiet a mans mind he is in great want of Faith Hope â—nd Love which are far greater matters than Food and Rayment III. Another great cause of such trouble of mind is the guilt of some great and wilful sin when conscience is convinced and yet the foul is not converted sin is beloved and yet feared Gods wrath doth terrifie them and yet not enough to overcome their sin some live in secret fraud and robbery and many in drunkenness in secret fleshly lusts either self-pollution or fornication and they know that for such things the wrath of God cometh on the Children of disobedience and yet the rage of appetite and lust prevaileth and they despair and sin and while the sparks of Hell fall on their consciences it changeth neither heart nor life there is some more hope of the recovery of these then of dead hearted or unbelieving sinners who work uncleanness with greediness as being past feeling and blinded to defend their sins and plead against holy obedience to God Bruitishness is not so bad as Diabolisme and malignity But none of these are the persons spoken of in any Text Their sorrow is not overmuch but too little as long as it will not restrain them from their sin But yet if God convert these persons the sins which they now live in may possibly hereafter plung their souls into such depths of sorrow in the review as may swallow them up And when men truly converted yet dally with the bait and renew the wounds of their consciences by their lapses it is no wonder if their sorrows and terrours are renewed Grievous sins have fastened so on the consciences of many as have cast them into uncurable melancholly and distraction IV. But among people fearing God there is yet another cause of Melancholly and of sorrowing overmuch and that is Ignorance and mistakes in maâ—â—â—â— which their peace and comforts are concerned in I will name some particulars 1. One 〈◊〉 Ignorance of the tenor of the Gospel or Covenant of Grace as some Libertines called Antinomians more dangerously mistake it who tell men that Christ hath Repented and believed them and that they must no more question their Faith and Repentance than they must question the righteousness of Christ so many better Christians understand not that the Gospel is tidings of unspeakable joy to all that will believe it and that Christ and Life are offered freely to them that will accept him and that no sins how great or many soever are excepted from pardon to the soul that unfeignedly turneth to God by faith in Christ that whoever will may freely take the water of life and all that are weary and thirst are invited to come to him for ease and rest And they seem not to understand the conditions of forgiveness which is but true consent to the pardoning saving baptismal Covenant 2. And many of them are mistaken about the use of sorrow for sin and about the nature of hardness of heart they think that if their sorrow be not so passionate as to bring forth tears and greatly to afflict them they are not capable of pardon though they should consent to all the pardoning Covenant and they consider not that it is not our sorrow for it self that God delighteth in but it is the taking down of pride and that so much humbling sense of sin danger and misery as may make us feel the need of Christ and mercy and bring us unfeignedly to consent to be his Disciples and to be saved upon his Covenant terms Be sorrow much or little if it do this much the sinner shall be saved And as to the length of Gods sorrow some thinks that the pangs of the new birth must be a long continued state whereas we read in the Scripture that by the penitent sinners the Gospel was still received speedily with joy as being the gift of Christ and pardon and everlasting life humility and self-loathing must continue and increase but our first great sorrows may be swallowed up with
Actions and Accidents two things considerable 1. The Action for example such a Text was handled such a charitable Action done such a Man brake his Leg was drunk or the like 2. The Inference or Observation to be gathered from thence for all Events whether good or bad are intended by the wise God for mans Instruction Now the Memory lays up the former and can retain it a long time but the Lesson which we should learn from it that 's neglected that 's forgotten 2. Things Hurtful to us to wit Injuries These usually stick in the memory when better things slip out If any body hath spoke or done evil to us the memory is trusty enough about these As one says we can remember Old Songs and Old Wrongs long enough yea those whom we profess to forgive yet we declare that we cannot forget them Not but that a man may have a natural remembrance of an injury so that he have not an angry remembrance of it As our heavenly Father himself remembers all a Believers sins but puts away his anger so we may rationally remember them but we must spiritually forget them for else the remembrance of them generally doth us a great deal of hurt but no good at all it cools our love weakens our trust and prepares us for revenge as did Amnon towards Absolon 2 Sam. 13.32 3. Things Sinful thus we can remember a filthy Story seven years when we do forget a saving Sermon in seven hours And herein the Memory is the great Nurse of Contemplative wickedness and represents to the idle and sinful heart all the sins it wots of with renewed delight and so strengthens the impression and doubles the guilt Ezek. 23.19 She multiplyed her Whoredoms in calling to remembrance the days of her youth wherein she had played the Harlot in the Land of Egypt The depraved Memory is herein fitly compared to a Sive that lets the good Corn fall through and reserves only the chaff by which its plain that the Faculty is not lost but poyson'd So that in this respect we may say as Themistocles did to Simonides when he offered to teach him The Art of Memory rather says he teach me The art of Forgetfulness for the things which I would not I remember and cannot forget the things I would 2. The cortuption of the Memory stands in Forgetting those things which we should remember But these things being so exceeding many great and useful though I cannot enumerate them yet I shall comprize the chief of them in these following general heads 1. Our Creator and what he hath done and what he hath done for us Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth And yet whom do we more forget Jerem. 2.32 Can a Maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her Attire yet my people have forgotten me days without number And our Forgetfulness here is most inexcusable because we may see taste and feel him every moment forasmuch as he is not far from every one of us seeing in him we live and move and have our Being and yet we can make shift to forget Him which shews the great Craze we had by the Fall And then the great things which he hath done to wit in the Works of Creation and Providence especially for his Church these we early forget but should remember Psal 77.11 I will remember the Works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of Old And particularly what he hath done for us the many and great Mercies and Deliverances especially the most remarkable of them which every good Christian should have a Catalogue of in his mind or in his Book Deut. 8.2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy GOD led thee these Forty Years c. 2. Our Redeemer and what he hath suffered for us Never was there such an Instance of free and transcendent Love in the World as that the Eternal Son of God should give himself to be a Sacrifice to expiate our Sin and yet we that can profess of far less kindnesses from men that we shall never forget them can forget this else he had never instituted the Lords Supper on purpose to keep up the solemn and useful Remembrance thereof which Remembrance sets a work all our Graces our Faith Love Repentance Thankfulness c. And without the frequent Use of this Ordinance where it may be had a defect will be forced in these Graces for the greatest things wear off with time and Holy David himself found cause to charge it uopn his Soul Ps 102.3 Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits c. 3. The Truths of Religion especially the most weighty Malach. 1.4 Remember ye the Law of Moses my Servants which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Judgments And of these the Apostle Peter saith 2 Pet. 1.12 13 15. he would put the Christians in remembrance though they knew them that they might be established in present Truth yea he would stir them up by putting them in remembrance as long as he lived The Doctrine of God of Christ of the Creation of the Fall of the Covenant of Grace of Faith Repentance the Resurrection as in my Text and Judgment to come these things should be so ingrafted into the hearts of Christians that they should know and remember as well as their own Names or the rooms of their Houses and yet it is a shame to find how easily and almost utterly these things are forgotten by too many How few do we find that have been long Hearers of Gods Word that can give any tolerable account of the Nature of that Faith by which the Soul lives 4. The Duties of Religion The Scripture that so often requires us to remember them plainly implies that we are apt to forget them what 's the meaning of that Exodus the 20 Chap. Verse 8. Remember the Sabboth to keep it holy but that we easily forget it we are surprized by it it returns ere we are aware so that Heb. 13. Verse 2 3 16. which is called by some a Chapter of Remembrance be not forgetful to entertain Strangers Remember them that are in Bonds to do good and to Communicate forget not All which as they shew our duty so do they imply our defectiveness herein though to forget those and such like are as absurd as if we did forget to eat or sleep For as Christians we live by Faith and breath by Prayer so to forget to repent to believe to pray and to discharge the duties of our Relation Callings and all other duties toward God and toward men is to forget Christianity it self 5. Our Sins As there is a culpable so there is an useful and necessary remembrance of them when we remember sin to renew our love to it that 's damnable but when we remember it to loath it and to loath our selves for it that 's saving Ezek. 36.31 Then shall ye remember
wherein you will be as careful to fulfill the Conditions as you would have God faithful in fulfilling the Promises Look out so sharp to the Progress of your Sanctification that Sin may not expire but be mortified and that Grace may be so lively as to confute the reproach of Enemies and exceed the Commendation of Friends Bear Afflictions not as a Malefactor goes to Execution because he can't help it but as chary not to miss the Fruit of Affliction the Participation of Gods Holiness Thô you look first to your selves be not only selfish though in the most Gracious manner but endeavour to be Blessings as far as your Name is heard of In short perform all your duties to God your selves and others in the Name of Christ thrô his Strength according to his Command relying upon his Promises that you may feel what it is to be accepted in Gods and your beloved This is to be Serious in Religion Learn to be more than barely contented with your present Condition Vse 2 't is that which God in Wisdom chooseth for you preferring it before any other Condition Every Condition hath some lessons peculiar to it which are better learnt in that Condition than in any other and those things that may be best learnt in thy Condition are the things you most need learning which when you have learnt then God will put thee into other circumstances to teach thee something else Every Condition hath something grievous in it by reason of the Sin and Vanity that cleaves to it but that which is most grievous if it be used as Physick will help to cure thee We all grant 't is best to take Physick when we need it a 1 Pet. 1.6 Now for a season if need be you are in heaviness thrô manifold Trials and when we take Physick we imprison our selves in our Chamber as much as others in a Gaol we abstain from riot as much as they that want bread we tend our Physick and need no Arguments to do so Christians let God be your Physician and prescribe what Physick he pleaseth we have nothing else to do but observe his Instructions for it's beneficial operation Apply this to any Condition that is uneasie to you and you 'l see cause not only to justifie but to praise your wise Physitian but if this arguing be not cogent I will commend one that is I confess I love those Directions that will apply themselves that will work their way for Application That you may so far like your present Condition as to perform the duties of it before you desire an Alteration of it take this course Sit down and consider should God so far humour thee as to let thee frame thine own Condition to thine own mind to give thee thy choice for a worldly Happiness Suppose he allowed thee time to think to consult Friends to alter and add upon second and third yea upon your twentieth Thought whatever the Wit of man could suggest or the Heart of man desire and all this for a whole Moneth together before you fixt your choice I suppose when you chose it should be Wealth without Care Pleasure without Weariness Honour without Hazard Health without Sickness Friends without Mistake Relations without Crosses Old Age without Infirmities and if God should thus alter the course of his Providence unto what would your own Pride and the Worlds Envy expose you O! but you 'l say all this with Grace will do well Do you think so but would not Grace without all this do better Can you think that such a Condition would Wean you from the World and fit you for Heaven or is Earth the place where you would live for ever and have no more Happiness than that can afford you Return Poor Soul return to thy Self and to thy God acknowledge that God is Wise and thou art a Fool And 't is better be employed in the present Duty of thy present Condition than to doze out thy Life in wilde Imaginations Vse 3 Make Conscience of both sorts of Duties Religious and Worldly and allot fit and distinct times for Heavenly and Worldly Business but with this difference let Religion mix it self with worldly business and spare not but let not the World break in upon Religion lest it spoil it Religion will perfume the World but the World will taint Religion Though every thing in the World be clogg'd with Vanity yet there 's something of Duty about every thing we meddle with and we must not call neglect of Duty contempt of the World Use the World as you do your Servants to whom you give due liberty as the best way to prevent their taking more than is due so to take a due care about the World is the best way to prevent Religion's being justled out by worldly cares Count not any Sin or Duty about the least matters so small as to venture upon the one or neglect the other but proportion your carefulness according to the business before you I see more cause every day than other to commend both the Truth and Weight of the Observation that all Over-doing is undoing You can't bestow too much diligence about one thing but you rob something else of what diligence is necessary and marr that about which you are over-solicitous I 'le close this with that of the Apostle b 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. This I say Brethren the time is short we have none to spare It remaineth for the future that both they that have Wives be as though they bad none let 'em not be Uxorious and they that weep as if they wept not if God bring them under sorrrow let them but water their Plants not drown 'em and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not we must at best rejoyce with trembling and they that buy as if they possessed not there 's nothing we can purchase worth the name of a Possession and they that use this world as not abusing it to any other use than what God hath appointed for the fashion of this World passeth away the Pageantry of this World will soon be over but I would have you without carefulness without distracting carefulness about worldly things Whatever you do for the bettering of your Condition follow God but Vse 4 do not go before him This is a direction of great moment being a necessary Caution against that Sin that doth always beset us Every man is an Orator to aggravate his own grievances and thinks himself a Politician for fitting them with Remedies yea hath the confidence of a Prophet that they shall certainly be effectual if God will but take his Time and Method for their operation c Job 11.12 Vain man would be wise thô he be born like a wild Asses Colt to kick up his heels against Gods unsearchable Wisdom You may at once see both your proness to the Sin and Christ directing to this Remedy in one and the same instance viz. When Peter had made such a
because they think they do not live and act as they should do that believe such weighty Truths and expect such great things as they profess they do If therefore your Conversation be correspondent to your Faith you take away the great Cause of their cavilling with you and slandering your Profession 2. More particularly Be as much in acting for God as speaking for him Not only commend his wayes but walk in them not only plead his Cause verbally but really by being in your proper Sphere active for it not only speak well of them that are good but do good to them Many will speak for God and good men but when it comes to doing there is an end of their goodness they will not stir a step not part with a penny they can say as Jam. 2.16 Be thou filled and be thou warmed and yet not give them those things that are needful to the Body they will be Religious as far as good words will go which cost them nothing but are loath to be at the charges of doing any real good How many have their Tongues tipt with good discourse whose Lives are unfruitful as to good works See therefore that your actions keep pace with your words that your Religion do not consist meerly in talking that will be a sign it is either fantastical or hypocritical when the Fruit of it reacheth no further than the Tongue it is odds if the root reach any deeper than the head but when your Religion appears in action your Enemies themselves will confess the reality of it 3. Be as diligent in and make as much Conscience of the Duties of the second Table Righteousness and Mercy in their place and order as those of the first Without this your Religion cannot be real and then no wonder if men think it not real Jam. 1.6 Pure Religion and undefiled in the sight of God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and the Widdow in their Affliction c. In the sight of God God himself that searches the Hearts yet having given men such a Law as may govern their owtuard as well as inward man and influence them in those things which relate to their Neighbour as well as which relate to himself doth accordingly look to their outward Carriage toward men as well as the inward respect they bear to him and so expects the fruits of Righteousness in their Lives as well as the root of Piety in their Hearts That holy Principle he hath put within them is such as extends to their Conversation outwardly and not to the inward frame of their Hearts alone and so the reality of it in it self must be evidenced by the power of it in its effects Now if these external actings where opportunities and means are are requisite to ascertain the Truth of Godliness in the Heart as to its very being we may be sure they are no less necessary as indications of it in the sight of men The World which is apt to traduce you as Hypocritical or Fanatical in Religion will be best confuted by your Carriage in those things which relate to themselves and from which some benefit redounds to them If men see you Just and Righteous and Merciful in your dealings with and behaviour toward others Helpful toward them that want you Pitiful to them in their Misery c. what is in your Hearts and Minds they cannot see but they will be more ready to judge well of it because they see so good Effects of it what they see they will think is real because it is sensible True indeed the first place is due to the Moral Duties of Gods immediate Worship prescribed in the first Table but yet those of the second must accompany them or you will never be able to prove the reality of your Christianity or reasonableness of your Practice to your selves and much less to others They must and will judge of what is within by that which appears without of what they do not see as your Faith and inward Holiness they do not by that which they do see 4. Be most diligent in those Duties which all own to be Duties wheof the first or second Table those which are confessedly Moral and which your Enemies themselves cannot deny to be Duties Some Duties have an intrinsick Loveliness in them and are of good report †Phil. 4.8 even among those themselves that are but Carnal These carry Conviction along with them and if you be diligent in the Practice of them you will have the Consciences of your Adversaries take part with you and their Judgments to applaud you when perhaps their Malice censures you and their Lusts oppose you you will have something within them to bear testimony to you and when they do not love you yet they cannot condemn you 5. Labour to out do and excell others in the World in all those good things in which they excell most Whatever you see praise-worthy in any though Enemies do it and outdo them in it If they be just do you be more just either more exactly or more universally or more constantly so If they be temperate and sober if it be possible go beyond them in it if they be Charitable be you more Charitable if they be Humble Meek Gentle Courteous endeavour to excell them in each if you think that cannot be in some cases yet it is but in some and may you not exceed them as to the general course and whole of a moral Conversation Labour then to make it appear that a Nobler Principle out of which you act an higher End at which you aim and a more perfect Copy after which you write can raise and heighten you to a pitch above any thing not only that Fancy might do in you but natural Conscience or moral Virtue in them And though the best and highest of such moral performances in your external Conversation might be in themselves but insufficient arguments as to your own personal satisfaction of the truth of Grace in your hearts yet your overtopping others in what they excell most or in the main of your Life and Practice may be an argument ad hominem and be a means to silence Enemies and stop their mouths it may be convince their judgments or if it do not make them acknowledge what you do to proceed from a supernatural Principle it may however force them to own it as coming from something more than a Conceit or Fancy 5. Be diligent in those Duties the performanee of which hath least Connexion with a secular Interest So Christ commands Luk. 6.35 Love your Enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again Sowe good Seed though upon barren ground and which is like to yield but a poor Harvest Buy the Truth and never sell it though you should for the present be losers by it Nay follow it at the heels though it should kick out your teeth They that do good to others only from whom they expect good give
to them that are like to give again do plainly turn Religion into Bartery and may be said to be good Traders but scarce good Christians When men appear for Religion only when and where it is countenanced or while there is something to be got by it Practice in an Employment Custom in a Trade or the favour of men or applause from them they may well be suspected if not of Fancy yet of Design and Hypocrisie But when men will do Duty and keep Gods way though they get nothing by it but frowns or blowes detriment or danger it cannot be reasonably imagined but that they have some better thing in their eye which they look for hereafter and some very Powerful Principle at present within them to support them under difficulties and prompt them to such Duties as are for ought the spectators can discern both unprofitable and hazardous 6. Labour so to carry your selves in the sight of men as to let them see that you are as much set upon gaining Heaven as getting or keeping the World Be as active as busie and shew as much concern for the things of the other life as the things of this Scarce any thing is a greater blemish to Religion or disreputation to them that profess it than their passionate and over-eager pursuit of Temporal things with a coldness and visible indifferency in seeking Eternal when they can rise up early and sit up late and eat the bread of Carefulness spend their time and strength in labouring for the World nay lose the comfort of their Lives by scrambling for the things of this life and in the mean time put God off with some little superficial Service neglect some duties and hurry over others let the croud of business thrust their spiritual work into a corner of their time if not quite out of it the world indeed justle God and Christ and Heaven out of their discourse and conversation which savours of nothing but Trades and Bargains and Adventures and getting Estates and tends to nothing but the promoting a meer Worldly Interest Are these men think their carnal Neighbours in good earnest for Religion when they are so mad upon their business doth their Happiness lie in Heaven when their labour is only for the Earth can their Treasure be above when their hearts are below and their actings plainly shew that they are so can their hope of Eternal Glory be any better than a Fancy who do so little for that Glory and lay out themselves for this World as if there were no other And indeed who can judge otherwise of some men that hears their pretences and yet sees their practice And therefore Christians think with your selves How doth it become you to act if you would perswade others that you have real designs for future happiness What would you do if you did pretend to the hope of some great Estate or enjoyment in the world to convince them that that hope were reasonable and well grounded would you not act at such a rate as to make them acknowledge you were serious would you not make it your great business to attain your great Ends Do the same in the present case let men see that your belief of things to come is as real as of present things by your pursuing them as earnestly and acting as vigorously for them Nay shew a greater concernedness for them and that will be a means to convince men that you believe a greater excellency in them and that they cannot be obtained upon easier terms 7. The more you pretend to the comforts of Christianity the more mortified let your conversation be to the things of the World and pleasures of Sense and your carriage more apparently holy Let it never be said that the Comforts of the Spirit make you give liberty to the Flesh When men see that the more you pretend to spiritual enjoyments the more spiritual you are and the more pleasure you profess to find in Gods wayes the more exactly you walk in them and the less ye dare sin against him they will have little to say against you Those comforts cannot but be real which have so great so good Effects and when men see the effects so real they cannot judge the cause to be less so Whimsies and Fancies do not use to make men grow in Righteousness and Humility and Meekness and Mortification Let men see the respect you bear to all Gods Commands and they will scarce dare to question the comforts you receive from his Promises 8. Labour to make such advances in the way to Heaven as may not only be sensible to your selves but perceivable by others let your profiting appear unto all men 1 Tim. 4.15 Let your paths be as the shining light shining forth more and more Prov. 4.18 Not only grow in Grace and inward Holiness but abound in the fruits of Righteousness A sensibly thriving Religion cannot be thought to be an imaginary one they that observe the progress you make will not be able to question the grounds upon which you go When they see that as you grow older and wiser so you grow better they cannot reasonably imagine that strength of Fancy ever raised you to that height of goodness but rather suppose that you do more good than you did because you see more reason for it and have more lively hopes of being gainers by it 9. Lastly a Heb. 10.23 Be sure to persevere and hold on in the Faith you d profess and the practice of Godliness your Constancy may be a special means to evidence your reality not only to your selves but others When men grow weary of Gods wayes their Courage fails them their Zeal is out of breath it is a sign their Religion was never real but when they act uniformly under the most contrary Providences and among all the Vicissitudes and Changes of humane affairs in Conformity to the Principles they have all along professed and owned the shock of Temptations they meet with cannot justle them out of the way of Holiness nor the Enticements and Courtship of a sometimes fawning World wheedle them into a complyance with it they hope to the end b 1 Pet. 1.13 are not weary of well doing c Gal. 5.9 labour and faint not d Rev. 2.3 bring forth Fruit with patience and persevere to do so serve God as long as they have their being e Psal 104.33 live to him as long as they live at all act by the same Rule aim at the same End while they live and when they come to die in a word when opposition from men temptations from Satan nay frowns from God himself have not discouraged them nor lessened their love to him or activeness for him or diligence in his Service and at last upon reflection they approve of that good course they have now finished and have the same thoughts of God and Holiness they had before the worst of Enemies cannot but as impudently as unreasonably charge
to stay here There is more in the World to Wean us than to tempt us Is it not a valley of tears and do we weep to leave it Are we not in a Wilderness among fiery Serpents and are we loath to leave their company Is there a better Friend we can go to than God are there any sweeter Smiles or softer Embraces than his k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menand Sure those who know when they dye they go to receive their Reward should neither be fond of Life nor fearful of Death the Pangs of Death to Believers are but the Pangs of Travel by which they are born into Glory Believe this Reward Vse 2 Exhortation look not upon it as a Platonical Idea or Fancy Sensualists question this Reward because they do not see it they may as well question the Verity of their Souls because being Spirits they Branch 1 cannot be seen where should our Faith rest but upon a Divine testimony we believe there are such places as Affrica and America though we never saw them because Travellers who have been there affirm it and shall we not believe the Eternal Recompences when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God himself affirms it The whole Earth hangs upon the Word of Gods Power and shall not our Faith hang upon the Word of his Truth Let us not be Scepticks in matters of such importance The Rabbins tell us the great dispute between Cain and Abel was about the future Reward Abel affirmed it Cain deny'd it The disbelief of this Grand Truth is the cause of the flagitiousness of the Age. Immorality begins at Infidelity l Heb. 3.12 to mistrust a Future Reward is to question the Bible and to destroy a main Article of our Creed Life Everlasting such Atheists as look upon Gods Promise but as a forged deed put God to swear against them that they shall never enter into his rest m Heb. 3.18 If God be such an exceeding great Reward let us endeavour that Branch 2 he may be our Reward In other things we love a Propriety This House is mine this Lordship and Mannor is mine and why not this God is mine Go saith Pharaoh to Moses and Aaron Sacrifice to your God not My God The leaving out one Word in a Will may spoil the Will the leaving out this Word My is the loss of Heaven n Tolle meum tolle Deum Psal 67.6 God even our own God shall bless us He who can pronounce this Shibboleth My God is the happiest man alive How shall we know that God is our Reward Quest If God hath given us the Earnest of this Reward Answ this Earnest is his Spirit o Pignus redditur arrha retinetur Hierom. Ephes 1.14 Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise which is the earnest of the Inheritance Where God gives his Spirit for an Earnest there he gives himself for a Portion Christ gave the Purse to Judas not his Spirit Quest How shall we know we have Gods Spirit Answ The Spirit carryes influence along with it p Est Vehiculum influentiae it consecrates the Heart making it a Sacrary or Holy of Holyes it Sanctifies the Fancy causing it to mint Holy Thoughts it Sanctifies the Will strongly by assing it to good as Musk lying among Linnen perfumes it so the Spirit of God in the Soul perfumes it with Sanctity Object But are not the Unregenerate said to partake of the Holy Ghost Answ They may have the Common Gifts of the Spirit not the special Grace they may have the enlightning of the Spirit not the anointing they may have the Spirit movere not vivere move in them not live in them But to partake of the Holy Ghost aright is when the Spirit leaves lively impressions upon the Heart it softens sublimates transforms it q Implet Spiritus Sanctus organum suum tanquam fila Chordarum tangit digitus Dei corda Sanctorum Prosper writing a law of Grace there Heb. 8.10 By this Earnest we have a Title to the Reward 2. If God be our Reward he hath given us an Hand to lay hold on him this hand is Faith Mark 9.24 Lord I believe a Weak Faith justifies r Credo Domine languida fide tamen credo Cruciger As a weak hand can tye the Knot in Marriage a weak Faith can lay hold on a strong Christ the nature of Faith is assent joyned with affiance ſ Acts 8.37 Acts 16.31 Faith doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make God ours other Graces make us like Christ Faith makes us One with him and this Faith is known by it's Vertue No precious Stone saith Cardan but hath some vertue latent in it Precious Faith hath Vertue in it it quickens and enobles it puts worth into our Services t Rom. 16.26 it puts a difference between the Abba Father of a Saint and the Ave Mary of a Papist 3. We may know God is our Reward by our choosing him Religion is not a matter of Chance but of Choice u Psal 119.30 have we weighed things in the ballance and upon mature deliberation made an Election We will have God upon any Tearms have we sat down and reckon'd the cost what Religon must cost us the parting with our Lusts and what it may cost us the parting with our Lives Have we resolved through the assistance of Grace to own Christ when the Swords and Staves are up and to sail with him not only in a Pleasure Boat but in a Man of War x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ignatius ad Tars This choosing God speaks him to be Ours Hypocrites profess God out of Worldly design not Religious choice 4. God is known to be our Reward by the complacential Delight we take in him Psalm 34.7 How do men please themselves with rich Portions what delight doth a Bride take in her Jewels Do we delight in God as our Eternal Portion y Hae sunt Piorum delitiae Deo pacato frui Indeed he is a whole Paradise of delight all excellencies meet in God as the Lines in the Center is ours a Genuine delight do we not only delight in Gods blessings but in God himself is it a Superior delight do we delight in God above other things David had his Crown Revenues to delight in but his delight in God took place of all other delights Psalm 43.4 God my exceeding Joy or as it is in the Original the Gladness z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Cream of my joy can we delight in God when other delights are gone Hab. 3.17 Though the Figtree shall not Blossom yet I will rejoice in the Lord. When the Flowers in a mans Garden dye yet he can delight in his Land and Money thus a Gracicious Soul when the Creature fades can rejoyce in the Pearl of price Paulinus when they told him the Goths had Sack'd Nola a Domine ubi sunt omnia mea tuscis and
that others have and act more than they The Preaching of Christ by those that envyed made Paul joyful Phil. 3.18 It should please us though another can do more service to God than our selves 5. Christianity abolisheth not Affection but rectifies it It dries not § 30 up the streams of Sorrow Joy Hatred c. but only turns them into the right Channel it removes not away their Being but their ill Being Religion non mactat sed sanctificat it slayes not but sanctifies affections It doth not unman a man but only undevil him Grace is like the percolation or dreining of Salt water through the Earth it only takes away the brackishness and unsavouriness of our affections and faculties It kills not Isaac but the Ram it doth not break but only tune the string of nature Non tollit sed attollit it destroyes not but advanceth Nature When you are Godly you have more innocent Humanity than ever You may exercise humane affections and actions as much as you can desire only not to damn your selves You may eat thô not be Gluttons drink thô not be drunk buy and sell so as you make not sale of a good Conscience Grace gives leave to every thing besides damning your Souls 6. Every thing betters a Saint Not only Ordinances Word Sacraments § 31 Holy Society but even Sinners and their very sinning Even these draw forth their Graces into exercise and put them upon Godly broken-hearted Mourning A Saint sails with every wind As the Wicked are hurt by the best things so the Godly are bettered by the worst Because they have made void thy Law therefore do I love thy Commandements Psal 119.127 Holiness is the more owned by the Godly the more the world despiseth it The most eminent Saints were those of Caesars Nero's house Phil. 4.22 They who kept Gods name were they that lived where Satans Throne was Rev. 2.13 Zeal for God grows the hotter by opposition and thereby the Godly most labour to give the Glory of God reparation Lime by casting Water upon it grows inflamed and opposition confirms the upright Christian in Holiness Winds make the trees more firmly rooted 'T was said of old Grave bonum a Nerone damnari the best action Saints account that which is opposed by the worst men Elijah's Jealousie for Religion was the more kindled by its being opposed by Idolaters 1 King 19.14 Lot shew'd himself a better man in Sodom than in the Cave Gen. 19.30 § 32 7. The great Misery Sin hath brought into the World to make Sorrow and Mourning necessary Could we live so holily as we cannot as not to see cause of trouble from our selves we must be troubled by observing others Ever since the coming in of Sin Sorrow is become a Duty What is to live long in the World but to be Mournful and Afflicted long It should make us long for a better World where that which is here our Duty to practise shall for ever be our Priviledge to be freed from And § 33 8. There must needs remain a better State for the Saints Surely thô here Sorrow yea because Sorrow is here their Duty it must not alway last here and hereafter too in both Worlds for then their Condition in this regard would be worse than that of the Wicked who have their good things here § 34 9. How ought Sinners to mourn for their own Sins The nearer the Enemy is the more dreadful he is Nothing more dismal than to see a Sinner to go not swiftly only but merrily to Eternal Mourning Maxime gemendus qui non gemit He that hath no tears for himself should be helpt by ours § 35 The Second Use is of Reprehension and that to sundry sorts Vse 2 1. To those that reproach the holy mourning of Saints for others Sins They count it at the best but melancholy Mopishness First they cause them to mourn and then they deride them for mourning like some that beat a person till he cryes and then they beat him for crying 'T is better to be a Mourner for Sin than a Mocker for mourning Some account mourning for publick Sins a sign of disaffection to the Publick Government As Jeremy who mourned for the Sins of his time was charged to be an Enemy to the State They are not to be accounted the troublers of Israel who are the only persons troubled for the cause of Israels troubles They are falsly esteem'd the Incendiaries in a State whose great study is to quench Gods burning Wrath. If Sinners kindle the Fire let Saints quench it 2. This Doctrine of Mourning for the Sins of others speaks Reproof § 36 to those that take pleasure in the Sins of others Rom. 1.32 I fear there are many who would be glad were Sin more common that there might be none to make them asham'd of Sin that delight in the frowardness of the Wicked Prov. 2.14 that recreate themselves with others Sins that say of Sinners as the Philistines of Blind Samson Let them come and make us sport by Sinning that cannot be merry unless a Sinner be in their Company Fools make a mock of Sin Prov. 14.9 Some have observed that among all Solomons delights he never had a Fool to make him merry Of all Fools Sinners are the greatest but especially they that are delighted with the sinful follies of others To be delighted with the Holiness of others is a good sign but to be delighted with the Sins of others is a black mark Holy David was of a contrary temper Depart saith he Psal 119.115 from me ye Workers of Iniquity No Wicked mans Company is to be desired unless to do him good We should not be with the Wicked as Companions but Physicians The Wicked's good Fellowship will have a bad Conclusion 3. This Doctrine reproves those that mourn for the Holiness of others § 37 Who are troubled when they see a Child or Yoke-fellow holier than themselves These are most afraid where no fear is That a man can be too fearful of Sin 'T is sad that a precise Turk or Papist should be honoured for their silly self-contrived preciseness and Fopperies and that a Saint should be derided for real Sanctity I have known some Parents that have greatly desired their Children should be good Husbands to get and encrease their Estates but then have been very fearful lest they should be too Godly and it hath been the righteous Judgment of God that their Children proved Spend-thrifts neither Godly nor Good Husbands 'T is often seen that as Gardiners with their Sheers ship off the tops of the tallest sprigs so men most labour to discountenance the tallest in Christianity 4. This Doctrine reproves those that put others upon Sin so far § 38 are they from mourning for their Sins Poor Souls have they not Sins enough of their own to answer for must they needs contract to themselves the Guilt of others Sins also How many instead of being burning Coals to inflame others with love
to God are blacking Coals to defile others with Sin They are not willing to go to Hell alone 'T is little enough to be a Leader to Heaven but too much to be a Follower to Hell what then to be a Leader Of Exhortation to mourn for the Sins of the Wicked among whom § 39 Vse 3 we live 1. If we mourn not for others Sins theirs become ours We are justly to be accounted approvers of others Sins if we enter not this Protestation of Mourning against them If sin be not layd to thy heart thou knowing it it will in some degree be layd to thy Charge When the Corinthians mourned for the sin committed among them the Apostle pronounc'd them clear of this matter 2 Cor. 7.11 Their Hatred of it did not clear them till followed with mourning for it § 40 2. Mourning for others sins is the way to awaken thy Conscience for thine own former Sins It will mind thee what thou hast done in thy former unconverted state It will bring to remembrance as Paul speaks Tit. 3.3 what thou didst in times past and cause a fresh bleeding in thy Soul for Sin § 41 3. Without Mourning for Sinners you 'l never seek the Reformation of Sinners The greatest Mourners have been the greatest Reformers See it in Nehemiah Ezra David Neh. 9.16 Ezra 9.6 7. 6.10 We only seek to redress what is burdensom If Reformation be our Joy Sin to be reformed will be our Sorrow All mourners will desire to remove the Cause of their Mourning Private Sorrow increaseth publick Care § 42 4. This mourning for others Sins will make us more fearful to admit Sin into our selves It will keep us at a greater distance from temptation to Sin the best way to keep us from infection by Sin Who will dare to do that which he grieves to see another do He that is afraid of a Plague-sore upon another will fear it should come upon himself § 43 5. Mourning for others Sins speaks thee a man of publick usefulness to thy Countrey That thou hast an holy Care of it that thou art to be reckon'd among the Chariots and Horsemen of it and a Pillar of thy Nation a Defender of it and one that stands in the gap to prevent the incursion of what would destroy it That in a publick Conflagration thou hadst rather bring thy bucket of Tears than take thy sleep A publick Spirit is only truly Noble § 44 6. Mourning for others Sins makes the Sins of others beneficial to thee Instead of infecting thee by sinful Example it stirs up thy Graces of Zeal Compassion and holy Charity It speaks thee like to Christ who had a Commotion without Pollution of Affection That thou hast an Heart like a Garden of Roses or a well of Rose-Water which the more blown upon and stirr'd smell the more delightfully For this § 45 7. Holy Commotion of Soul for others sins sends forth a most acceptable and fragrant savour into the Nostrils of God It speaks thee marked out for Mercy God bottles thy Tears He likes it that thou art good in bad times and highly approves our mourning for them He will shortly wipe all these Tears from thine Eyes and bring thee to that state where thou shalt have neither Sin in thy Soul nor Sinner in thy Society where thou shalt be freed from the power and presence of both in one word where thou shalt find that thou who didst contend in secret hast prevailed openly 4. I shall adde thô but name one Use more and that is Direction § 46 to the means of practising this duty of holy Mourning for others Sins Vse 4 1. Look not upon this duty with self-Exemption as if it belonged only to the highest in the practice of Religion or persons in Office The whole Church of Corinth were bound to mourn for that great Sin among them All desire to be marked 1 Cor. 5.2 and therefore should be Mourners 2. Look upon mourning for Sin to be no Legal practice but an Evangelical Duty the Gospel-Grace makes Tears sweeter not fewer 3. Preserve tenderness of Conscience in respect of thine own Sins 4. Strengthen Faith in divine Threatnings against Sin 5. Be Holily not curiously inquisitive into the state of the times Lastly Take heed of being drown'd in sensual Delights Quest How a Child of God is to keep himself in the Love of God SERMON VI. JUDE Vers 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God Syr. hath it thus Let us keep our selves in the Love of God But the Greek Arab. Aethiop have it as we read it THIS is the Scripture upon which we ground this solemn Case and Question And a weighty one it is to every Soul that pretends to the Love of God and the happy Priviledges of it Now the summe of this short Epistle whâ—ch is but one Chapter is this I say the design of the Spirit of God by the Apostle is in two things 1. To confirm true Believers in the Faith of Christ 2. To caution them against the Enemies of it These Enemies are described in four things Verse 4. 1. By their Qualities they turned the Grace of God into Laesciviousness and denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Such were the Carpocratians and Gnosticks this they did both in Doctrine and Manners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 In their Entrance into the Church Subtilly and secretly as Foxes into the Fold or like Wolves in Sheeps-clothing the proper mark of False Teachers 3. By their End Which is Condemnation whereunto they are appointed vers 4. 4. By their Parallel of the Evil Angels the old World Sodom and Gomorrah Vers 14. to 19. ver 7. 8. Such were foretold by Enoch and the Apostles Of these the Apostle Jude warns the Saints and withall shews how they should quit themselves principally in two things 1. As to themselves 2. As to others The First consists in four things 1. Building up our selves in the Holy Faith 2. Praying in the Holy Ghost vers 20. 3. Keeping of our selves in the Love of God 4. Looking for the Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto Eternal Life vers 21. The second what they must do to others 1. They must put a difference between them that are fallen off Verse 22 23. and them that are falling as being of different Complexions having Compassion on some with the Spirit of Meekness others treating with some quickness pulling them out of the Fire 2. They must hate the Appearance of Evil even the Garment spotted with the Flesh 3. Pray for them that God would keep them from falling Verse 20. 24. For the Grace of Christ by which we alone stand without which neither they nor we can do any thing he both can and will do it faithfully 4. Praise the Lord who hath made such Provision for our Preservation and Salvation vers 24 25. Now that which I shall confine my self to is in vers 21. the first Clause Keep
of Jesus Christ THE CVRE of MELANCHOLY AND OVERMUCH-SORROW BY FAITH and PHYSICK Quest What are the best Preservatives against Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow SERMON XI 2 COR. II. VII Lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow THe Brevity of a Sermon not allowing me Time for any unnecessary Work I shall not stay to open the Context nor to enquire whether the Person here spoken of be the same that is condemned for Incest in 1 Cor 5. or some other nor whether Chrysostom had good Tradition for it that it was a Doctor of the Church or made such after his Sin nor whether the late Expositor be in the right who thence gathers that he was one of the Bishops of Achaia and that it was a Synod of Bishops that were to excommunicate him Dr. Hammond who yet held that every Congregation then had a Bishop and that he was to be excommunicated in the Congregation and that the People should not have followed or favoured such a Teacher It would have been no Schism or sinful Separation to have forsaken him All that I now intend is to open this last Clause of the Verse which gives the Reason why the censured Sinner being penitent should be forgiven and comforted viz. Lest he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow as it includeth these three Doctrines which I shall handle all together viz 1. That Sorrow even for Sin may be overmuch 2. That overmuch Sorrow swalloweth one up 3. Therefore it must be resisted and asswaged by necessary Comfort both by others and by our selves In handling these I shall observe this Order 1. I shall shew you when Sorrow is overmuch 2. How overmuch Sorrow doth swallow a man up 3. What are the Causes of it 4. What is the Cure I. It is too notorious that overmuch Sorrow for Sin is not the ordinary Case of the World A stupid blockish Disposition is the common Cause of mens perdition The Plague of a hard Heart and seared Conscience keeps most from all due sense of Sin or Danger or Misery and of all the great and everlasting Concerns of their guilty Souls A dead sleep in sin doth deprive most of the use of Sense and Understanding they do some of the outward Acts of Religion as in a Dream they are vowed to God in Baptism by others and they profess to stand to it themselves they go to Church and say over the Words of the Creed and Lords Prayer and Commandments they receive the Lords Supper and all as in a Dream They take on them to believe that Sin is the most hateful thing to God and hurtful to man and yet they live in it with delight and obstinacy they dream that they repent of it when no perswasion will draw them to forsake it and while they hate them that would cure them and will not be as bad and mad as they who feel in them any effectual sorrow for what is past or effectual sense of their present badness or effectual resolution for a new and holy Life They dream that there is a Judgment a Heaven and a Hell but would they not be more affected with things of such unspeakable Consequence if they were awake would they be wholly taken up with the Matters of the Flesh and World and scarce have a serious thought or word of Eternity if they were awake O how sleepily and senselesly do they think and talk and hear of the great Work of mans Redemption by Christ and of the need of Justifying and Sanctifying Grace and of the Joys and Miseries of the next Life and yet they say that they believe them When we preach or talk to them of the greatest things with the greatest evidence and plainness and earnestness that we can we speak as to the dead or to men asleep they have Ears and hear not nothing goeth to their hearts One would think that a man that reads â—n Scripture and believes the everlasting Glory offered and the dreadful punishment threatned and the necessity of Holiness to Salvation and of a Saviour to deliver us from Sin and Hell and how sure and near such a passage into the unseen world is to us all should have much ado to moderate and bear the sense of such overwhelming things But most men so little regard or feel them that they have neither time nor heart to think of them as their Concern but hear of them as of some foreign Land where they have no interest and which they never think to see Yea one would think by their senseless neglect of preparation and their worldly minds and lives that they were asleep or in jest when they confess that they must die and that when they lay their Friends in the Grave and see the Skulls and Bones cast up they were but all this while in a Dream or did not believe that their Turn is near Could we tell how to waken Sinners they would come to themselves and have other thoughts of these great things and shew it quickly by another kind of Life Awakened Reason could never be so befooled and besotted as we see the wicked world to be But God hath an awakening day for all and he will make the most senseless soul to feel by Grace or Punishment And because a hardned Heart is so great a part of the Malady and Misery of the unregenerate and a soft and tender Heart is much of the New Nature promised by Christ many awakened Souls under the work of Conversion think they can never have Sorrow enough and that their danger lies in hard-heartedness and they never fear overmuch sorrow till it hath swallowed them up yea though there be too much of other Causes in it yet if any of it be for sin they then cherish it as a necessary Duty or at least perceive not the danger of Excess and some think those to be the best Christians who are most in doubts and fears and sorrows and speak almost nothing but uncomfortable Complaints but this is a great mistake 1. Sorrow is overmuch when it is fed by a mistaken Cause All is too much where none is due and great sorrow is too much when the Cause requireth but less If a man thinketh that somewhat is a Duty which is no Duty and then sorrow for omitting it such sorrow is all too much because it is undue and caused by errour Many I have known that have been greatly troubled because they could not bring themselves to that length or order of meditation for which they had neither Ability nor Time And many because they could not reprove sin in others when prudent instruction and intimation was more suitable than reproof And many are troubled because in their Shops and Callings they think of any thing but God as if our outward Business must have no thoughts Superstition always breeds such sorrows when men make themselves Religious Duties which God never made them and then come short in the performance of
these that I speak of can delight in nothing neither in God nor in his Word nor any Duty They do it as a sick man eateth his meat for meer necessity and with some loathing and aversness 9. And all this sheweth us that this Disease is much contrary to the very Tenor of the Gospel Christ came as a Deliverer of the Captives a Saviour to reconcile us to God and bring us glad Tidings of pardon and everlasting joy where the Gospel was received it was great rejoycing and so proclaimed by Angels and by men But all that Christ hath done and purchased and offered and promised seems nothing but matter of doubt and sadness to this Disease 10. Yea it is a Distemper which greatly advantageth Satan to cast in Blasphemous thoughts of God as if he were bad and a hater and destroyer even of such as fain would please him The Design of the Devil is to describe God to us as like himself who is a malitious Enemy and delighteth to do hurt And if all men hate the Devil for his hurtfulness would he not draw men to hate and blaspheme God if he could make men believe that he is more hurtful The worshipping God as represented by an Image is odious to him because it seems to make him like such a Creature as that Image representeth How much more blasphemous is it to feign him to be like the malicious Devils Diminutive low thoughts of his Goodness as well as of his Greatness is a sin which greatly injureth God As if you should think that he is no better or trustier than a Father or a Friend much more to think him such as distempered Souls imagine him You would wrong his Ministers if you should describe them as Christ doth the false Prophets as hurtful Thorns and Thistles and Wolves And is it not worse to think far worse than this of God 11. This overmuch sorrow doth unfit men for all profitable meditation it confounds their thoughts and turneth them to hurtful Distractions and Temptations and the more they muse the more they are overwhelmed And it turneth Prayer into meer Complaint instead of Child-like believing Supplications It quite undisposeth the Soul to Gods Masses and especially to a comfortable Sacramental Communion and fetcheth greater terror from it lest unworthy receiving will but hasten and increase their Damnation And it rendreth Preaching and Câ—unsel too oft unprofitable say what you will that is never so convincing either it doth not change them or is presently lost 12 And it is a distemper which maketh all sufferings more heavy as falling upon a poor diseased soul and having no comfort to set against it And it maketh Death exceeding terrible because they think it will be the gate of Hell so that life seemeth burdensome to them and death terrible They are a weary of living and afraid of dying Thus overmuch sorrow swalloweth up III. Quest What are the causes and cure of it Answ With very many there is a great part of the cause in distemper weakness and diseasedness of the body and by it the soul is greatly disabled to any comfortable sense But the more it ariseth from such natural necessity it is the less sinful and less dangerous to the soul but nevertheless troublesome but the more Three Diseases cause overmuch sorrow 1. Those that consist in such violent pain as natural strength is unable to bear But this being usually not very long is not now to be chiefly spoken of 2. A natural passionateness and weakness of that reason that should quiet passion It is too frequent a case with aged persons that are much debilitated to be very apt to offence and passion And children cannot chuse but cry when they are hurt but it is most troublesome and hurtful in too many Women and some men who are so easily troubled and hardly quieted that they have very little power on themselves even many that fear God and that have very found understandings and quick wits have almost no more power against troubling passions anger and grief but especially fear than they have of any other persons Their very natural temper is a strong disease of troubling sorrow fear and displeasedness They that are not melancholly are yet of so Childish and sick and impatient a temper that one thing or other is still either discontenting grieving or affrighting them They are like an Aspen leaf still shaking with the least motion of the air The wisest and most patient man cannot please and justifie such a one a word yea or a look offendeth them every sad story or news or noise affrighteth them and as children must have all that they cry for before they will be quiet so is it with too many such The case is very sad to those about them but much more to themselves To dwell with the sick in the house of mourning is less uncomfortable Bâ—t yet while reason is not overthrown the case is not remediless nor wholly excusable 3. But when the Brain and Imagination is Crazed and Reason partly overthrown by the Disease called Melancholly this maketh the cure yet more difficult for commonly it is the foresaid Persons whose natural temper is timerous and passionate and apt to discontent and grief who fall ito Crazedness and Melancholly And the conjunction of both the Natural Tempâ—r and the Disease do increase the misery The sigâ—s of such diseasing Melancholly I have often elsewhere described As 1. The trouble and disquiet of the mind doth then become a setled habit they can see nothing but matter of fear and trouble all that they hear or do doth feed it danger is still before their eyes all that they read and hear makes against them they can delight in nothing fearful dreams trouble them when they sleep and distracted thoughts do keep them long waking it offends them to see another laugh or be merry they think that every Beggars case is happyer then theirs they will hardly believe that any one else is in their case when some two or three in a week or a day come to me in the same case so like that you would think it were the same persons case which they all express they have no pleasure in Relations Friends Estate or any thing they think that God hath forsaken them and that the day of Grace is past and that there is no more hope they say they cannot pray but howl and groan and God will not hear them they will not believe that they have any sincerity and grace they say they cannot repent they cannot believe but that their hearts are utterly hardened usually they are afraid lest they have committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost In a word fears and troubles and almost despair are the constant temper of their minds 2. If you convince them that they have some evidences of sincerity and that their fears are causeless and injurious to themselves and unto God and they have nothing to say against it yet
And when his Operations are such as we call a Possession yet he may work by means and bodily dispositions and sometimes he worketh quite above the power of the Disease it self as when the unlearned speak in strange Languages and when bewitched Persons vomit Iron Glass c And sometime he doth only work by the Disease it self as in Epilepsies Madness c. From all this it is easie to gather 1. That for Satan to possess the Body is no certain Sâ—gn of a graceless state nor will this condemn the Soul any if the Soul it self be not possessed Nay there are few of Gods Children but its like are sometime afflâ—cted by Satan as the Executioner of Gods correcting them and sometime of Gods Trials as in the Case of Job whatever some say to the contrary it is likely that the â—rick in the Flesh which was Satans Messenger to bâ—sset Paul was some such Pain as the Stone which yet was not removed that we find after thrice praying but only he had a promise of sufficient Grace 2. Satans Possession of an ungodly Saul is the miserable Case which is a thousand times worse than his possessing of the Body but every Corruption or Sin is not such a possession for no man is perfect without Sin 3. No Sin proveth Satans damnable possession of a man but that which he loveth more than he hateth it and which he had rather keep than leave and wilfully keepeth 4. And this is matter of great comfort to such Melancholy honest Souls if they have but understanding to receive it that of all men none love their Sin which they groan under so little as they yea it is the heavy Burden of their Souls Do you love your Unbelief your Fears your distracted Thoughts your Temptations to Blasphemy Had you rather keep them than be delivered from them The proud man the ambitious the Fornicator the Drunkard the Gamester the Time-wasting Gallants that sit out hours at Cards and Plays and idle Chats the gluttonous pleasers of the Appetite all these love their Sins and would not leave them as Esau sold his Birthright for one Morsel they will venture the loss of God of Christ and Soul and Heaven rather than leave a swinish Sin But is this your Case Do you so love your sad condition You are weary of it and heavy laden and therefore are called to come to Christ for ease Mat. 11.28 29. 5. And it is the Devils way if he can to haunt those with troubling Temptations whom he cannot overcome with alluring and damning Temptations As he raiseth storms of Persecution against them without as soon as they are escaping from his Deceits so doth he trouble them within as far as God permitteth him We deny not but Satan hath a great hand in the Case of such Melancholy persons for 1. His Temptations caused the Sin which God corrects them for 2. His Execution usually is a Cause of the Distemper of the Body 3. And as a Tempter he is the Cause of the sinful and â—â—â—ublesom Thoughts and Doubts and Fears and Passions which the 〈◊〉 holy causeth The Devil cannot do what he will with us but whâ—◠〈◊〉 â—ive him advantage to do He cannot break open our doors but 〈◊〉 enter if we leave them open He can easily tempt a heavy flegmatick Body to sloath a weak and cholerick person to anger a strong and sanguine man to Lust and one of a strong Appetite to Gluttony or to Drunkenness and vain sportful Youth to idle Plays and gaming and Voluptuousness when to others such Temptations would have small strength And so if he can cast you into Melancholy he can easily tempt you to overmuch Sorrow and Fear and to distracting Doubts and Thoughts and to murmure against God and to despair and still think that you are undone undone and even to blasphemous thoughts of God or if it take not this way than to Fanatick Conceits of Revelation and a prophecying Spirit 6. But I add that God will not impute his meer Temptations to you but to himself be they never so bad as long as you receive them not by the will but hate them nor will he condemn you for those ill effects which are unavoiâ—â—ble from the power of a bodily Disease any more than he will condemn a man for raving thoughts or words in a Feaver Phrensie or utter Madness But so far as Reason yet hath power and the Will can govern Passions it is your fault if yâ—â—â—â—se not the power though the difficulty make the Fault the less II. But usually other Causes go before this Disease of Melancholy except in some Bodies naturally prone to it and therefore before I speak of the Cure of it I will briefly touch them And one of the most common Causes is Sinful Impatience Discontents and Cares proceeding from a sinful love of some bodily interest and from a want of sufficient submission to the will of God and Trust in him â—â—d tâ—king Heaven for a satisfying Portion I must necessarily use all these words to shew the true Nature of this complicate Disease of Souls The Names tell you that it is a Conjunction of many Sins which in themselves are of no small malignity and were they the predominant beâ—â—â—â—d habit of Heart and Life they would be the Signs o◠〈…〉 â—hilâ— they are hated and overcome not Grace but â—â—r heavâ—nly 〈…〉 â—â—re esteemed and câ—â—sen and sought than earthly prosperiâ—y â—he Mâ—â—cy of Goâ—â—hrough Christ doâ—â— pardoâ— it and will at last deliver us from all But yet it beseeâ—â—â—â—h â—ven a â—â—â—doned Sinner to know the greatness of his Sin that 〈◊〉 may not favour it nor be unthankful â—â—r forgiveness I wiâ—â—â—herefore distinctly open the parts of this Sin which bringeth many 〈◊〉 â—â—smal Melancholy It iâ— prâ—supposed 〈◊〉 God trieth his Servants in â—his Life with manifold Afflictions and Christ will have us bâ—ar the Cross and follow him in submissive Patience Some are tried with painful Dâ—seases and some with 〈◊〉 ougâ—â— Enemies and soâ—e with the unkindness of Friends and 〈…〉 â—â—oâ—ard provoking Relatives and Company and some 〈…〉 â—â—d some with Perâ—eâ—â—tion and many with Losses Disapp◠〈…〉 〈◊〉 here Impatieâ—â—◠〈…〉 beginning of the working of the sinful Mâ—â—â—â—â— Our Natures are all too regardful of the Interest of the flesh â—nd 〈◊〉 â—eak in bearing â—eaâ—y burdens and Poverty hath those Trials 〈…〉 â—â—ll and wealthy Persons that feel them not too little pity especially iâ—â—wo Cases 1. When men have not themselves only but Wives and Children in want to quiet 2. And when they ar◠〈◊〉 debt to others which is a heavy Burden to an ingenuous mind though thievish Borrowers make too light of it In theâ—e Straights and Trials men are apt to be too sensible and impatient whâ—â— they and their Families want Food and Rayment and Fire and other Necessâ—ries to the Body and know not which way to get supply when Landlords and Butchers and Bakers and other Creditors are calling for their Debts
idle but drive or draw them to some pleasing works which may stir the body and employ the thoughts If they are addicted to reading let it not be too long nor any books that are unfit for them and rather let another read to them than themselves Doctor Sibbes Books and some useful pleasing History or Chronicles or news of great matters abroad in the world may do somewhat to divert them 3. Often set before them the great truths of the Gospel which are fittest to comfort them And read them informing comforting Books and live in a loving cheerful manner with them 4. Choose for them a skilful prudent Minister of Christ both for their secret counsel and publick audience One that is skilled in such cases and one that is peaceable and not contentious erroneous or fond of odd opinions one that is rather judicious in his preaching and praying than passionate except when he urgeth the Gospel Doctrines of consolation and then the more fervently the better and one that they much esteem and reverence and will regardfully hear 5. Labour to convince them frequently how great a wrong it is to the God of Infinite Love and Mercy and to a Saviour who hath so wonderfully exprest his Love to think hardlier of him than they would do of a Friend yea or of a moderate Enemy and so hardly to be perswaded of that Love which hath been manifested by the most stupendious Miracle Had they but a Father Husband or Friend that had ventured his Life for them and given them all that ever they had were it not a shameful Ingratitude and Injury to suspect still that they intended all against them and designed mischief to them and did not love them How hath God and our Saviour deserved this And many that say it is not God that they suspect but themselves do but hide their misery by this mistake while they deny Gods greatest Mercies and though they would fain have Christ and Grace will not believe that God who offereth it them will give it them but think he is one that will remedilesly damn a poor Soul that desireth to please him and had rather have his Grace than all the sinful pleasures of the world 6. Carry them oft abroad into strange Company usually they reverence strangers and strang Faces do divert them especially travelling into other parts if they can bear the Motion 7. It s a useful way if you can to engage them in comforting others that are deeper in Distresses than they For this will tell them that their Case is not singular and they will speak to themselves while they speak to others One of the chief means which cured my fears of my Souls Condition about Forty eight years ago was oft comforting others that had the same doubts whose Lives perswaded me of their sincerity And it would be a pretty diversion to send to them some person that is in some Error which they are most against to dispute it with them that while they whet their wits to convince them and confute them it may turn their thoughts from their own Distress Fâ—â—â—stus tells us that a Melancholly Patient of his that was a Papist was cured when the Reformation came into the Country by eager and oft disputing against it A better Cause may better do it 8. If other means will not do neglect not Physick and though they will be averse to it as believing that the Disease is only in the mind they must be perswaded or forced to it I have known the Lady deep in Melancholly who a long time would neither speak nor take Physick nor endure her Husband to go out of the room and with the restraint and grief he dyed and she was cured by Physick put down her â—hroat with a Pipe by force If it were as some of them fancy a possession of the Devil its possible Phisick might cast him out For if you cure the Melancholly his Bed is taken away and the advantage gone by which he worketh Cure the Choler and the Cholerick Operations of the Devil cease It is by means and humours in us that he worketh But choose a Physitian that is specially skill'd in this Disease and hath cured many others meddle not with Woemen and ignorant boasters nor with young unexperienced men nor with hasty busie overdoing ventrous men that cannot have time to study the Patients Temper and Disease but chuse experienced cautelous men Medicinal Remedies and Theological use not to be given together by the same hand but in this case of perfect complication of the Maladies of Mind and Body I think it not unfit if I do it not unskilfully My advice is that they that can have an ancient skilful experienced honest careful cautelous Phisitian neglect not to use him nor meddle with any of the medicines which I hereafter mention nor with any other Receipts whatever but by their Phisitians Advice for there is so great diversity of bodily Temperatures Age and many Accidents and of the roots and causes of the same Symptoms as that the same Medicine may cure one and hurt another and may cure the same man at one time which at another time it may hurt Skill in managing of it doth much of the Cure and not the Medicine without it But yet because there are Multitudes of persons so very poor that they cannot give a shilling to a Physitian and the dearness of Phisitians and Apothecaries so discourageth them who have not money that they do not seek to any for helps but some Woemen that tell them of their Receits And there are many in the Countries that are quite out of the reach of a skilful physitian And because there are now so great a number of Empricks and young unexperienced Physitians that will rashly venture before they throughly understand the body or the Disease And because overdoing and venturing rashly kills so many For these Reasons I will add a few safe and cheap Medicines which the poor may make themselves and which will not cause much loathing to their stomacks though I venture on the Censure of some Physitians I am none my self but I see many score much younger than I that venture much farther when they have got a License to the great cost of the purfes and bodies of their Patients The Disease called Melancholly is formally in the Spirits whose distemper unfits them for their office in serving the Imagination understanding memory and affections so by their distemper the thinking faculty is diseased and becomes like an inflamed eye or a foot that is sprained or out of joynt disabled for its proper work The matter which is the root and foundation is usually a depravation of the Mass of Blood which is the Vehicle of the spirits and that is usually accompanied with some diseases of the Stomach Spleen Liver or other parts which are for the due concoxion motion and purification of the blood which Diseases are so various that they are seldom the same in many
day you cannot indeed expect in this world but that 't is possible that your darkness may be much more dispell'd and 't is your fault if it be not So far as darkness remains the Prince of darkness has Power the world has an advantage and there is danger of being reduced to the works of darkness The want of greater light is the cause of doubts and fears disconsolateness and confusion How little do you know of Christ in comparison of what you ought or might Are you got beyond the surface of Gospel Mysteries how far from searching into the heart of them and discerning the depths of wisdom the â—eigâ—th of love in them Hence it is that your admiration and affection are no greater You are engaged in a warfare 't is dangerous fighting in the dark especially with an enemy that fights best there You are travelling in a very narrow way the less of light is in you you will find it the more difficult to keep this way For shame be not Babes in knowledge but in understanding be ye men 1 Cor. 14 20. Let it very much humble you to consider the small progress you have made in knowledge notwithstanding the great advantages you have had of improvement 2. Compare all other Knowledge and this Knowledge of Christ together and see the vast difference in point of excellency and this will stir you up to grow therein The Philosophers of old how restless were their minds how endless their inquiries the farther they went the more they were puz'led and after long study they came to understand that they fully understood nothing That Wise King of Israel after he had diligently employed his large understanding about humane knowledge he cryes out as a man exceedingly vexed and disappointed Eccles 1 18. In much Wisdom there is much grief and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow But the knowledge of Christ is of another nature He that rightly understands the Lord Jesus understands how to have his guilt removed his heart renewed his conscience calmed his Soul secured and that for ever This knowledge is not a vexation but a satisfaction to the Spirit both because of its certainty and because of the superabundant grace and fulness in Christ who is known Here it may truly be said Intellectus est in quiete the better Christ is understood the more the Soul that understands him is at rest 3. You must not lean to your own parts and understandings Men of the greatest natural capacities have been men of the greatest mistakes and the foolest errours and herein they have embraced for the truths of Christ and the reason is because their hearts being proud God thwarted them and their pride blinded them In your ordinary secular affairs 't is not safe to confide in your own wisdom but even here you are to acknowledge God Certainly then when searching into the Mysteries of the Gospel you must be sensible that the sharpest understanding has need of illumination from above You must indeed be fools that you may be wise 1 Cor. 3 18. A sight of your folly and weakness must make and keep you very humble Such the Lord has promised to guide in judgeâ—â—nt and to teach his way Psal 25 9. 4. Heedfully attend to the word of the truth of the Gospel this is the great means to infose and to increase the knowledge of Christ 'T is called the word of Christ Col. 3 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom Because Christ is the Author of it and the principal subject therein treated of The Gospel informs you of his Natures divine and humane of his Offices Prophetital Priestly Kingly of his benefits justification adoption regeneration strong consolation and such like Conarer in animos summâ vi inserere infigere infulcire amorem amorem autem imo vero ardorem potius literarum verè Sacrarum Conarer ad legendum illas extimulare ad perscrutandum animare ad medirandum nocturrâ versandum manu versandum diurnâ ad insenescendum aâ— immoriendum denique quanta maximâ possem vâ—â—â—mentiâ inflammare Mart. Dorpiuâ— De laud. Pauli p. 6. The Gospel informs you what he did what he suffered and how he eyed his Churches good in both It informs you where Christ is gloriously present in the highest Heavens where he is graciously present he walks in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks and accompanies his own institutions with a mighty and gracious efficacy Oh study this Gospel more take it in at your eyes by reading it at your ears by hearing it nay receive it into your very hearts the Gospel is that which brings you to the knowledge of Christ and so makes you wâ—fe unto Salvation 5. Look unto Jesus himself for in him are had all treasuries of Wisdom and Knowledge Col. 2 3. The Sun is seen by its own light the knowledge of Christ is derived from himself He is the greatest and best of Prophets who teacheth like him He not only reveals the things of peace but also gives the power of spiritual discerning 't is from Him that we have the Ey-salve to make us see Prov. 3 18 and the more of this Ey-salve we see the clearer What kind of Master would that be that were well skilled in all sorts of learning and were able also to give parts and capacities to all his Scholars that they might be all excellent Christ is such a Master as can give subtlâ—â—y to the simple and reveal those things to babes which are above the wise and prudent of the world 'T is said of Jesus that He opened the Disciples understandings thâ—t they might understand the Scriptures Luk. 24.45 There was good reason why the Apostle should wish that the Lord Jesus might be with Timothy's Spirit 2 Tim. 4 22. that he might be better instructed and that he might be a better instructer 6. Cry for more Knowledge and eye the promise of the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation The Psalmist who was wiser then his enemies that understood more then his teachers that had greater understanding then the Ancients Psal 119 98 99 100 how often and how earnestly does he cry to be taught of God v. 33 34. Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep it to the end give me undâ—rstanding and I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart He that has the greatest measure of knowledge has reason to beg for more And â—hat which is an encouragement to prayer is the readiness of the Father of lights to give Wisdom liberally without upbraiding and likewise the promise he has made of his Spirit who is styled by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of wisdom and revelation Eph. 1 17. The Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God these are the truths of Christ in the Gospel and the Spirit reveals them which also could more have entred into the heart of men 1 Cor. 2
new Wine take away the heart And therefore keep a strict watch over your selves and if you loath those Christian Rules to which you are sworn yet do not abhor morality do not renounce humanity 6. Violent passions spoil the Memory such as of Anger Grief Love Fear Passions we must have but Constitution and Education allay them in some Reason moderates them in others and Grace regulates them in the Godly Where these briddles are wanting they shake all the faculties as an Earth-quake doth a Country For example Anger when it rages manifestly alters and inflames the blood and consequently the Spirits and melts off the impressions in the brain just as the fire melts the wax and the impressions that by the Seal were fixt upon it So excessive Grief Fear and Love you cannot but perceive in your selves and others how your poor memories have suffered by some or all of them And therefore labour to mortify your passions and to that end endeavour for strength of grace strong passions had need of strong grace as you know a heady Horse had need of a strong bridle for you will find that as there is much guilt in them so much harms comes by them Where by the way you may see the excellency of our blessed Religion which tends to the health and quieting as well as to the saving of the Soul 7. A multitude of indigested Notions If a man have a stock of methodical and digested knowledg it is admirable how much the Memory will contain as you know how many images may be discern'd at once in a glass but when these Notions are heaped incoherently in the Memory without order or dependance they confound and overthrow the Memory As a Schollar that has read abundance but digested nothing he knows not where to find any thing it breaks his Memory As excess of meat cloys the stomack so an unreasonable an unmeasurable heaping of things in the memory confound it Thus many read or hear much very much too much perhaps for their capacities they have not stowage for it and so they are ever learning and never come to the knowledg of truth Omnis festinatiâ— caca Senec. like them 2 Tim. 3 7. Therefore look that ye understand and digest things by meditation run not on too fast he that rides post can never draw maps of the Country When one is impatient to stay on things Rectiùs illi quâ— multus non multa legenda censent si memoriae consulendum Magir. they leave but a shallow impression as grediness of the appetite hinders digestion When a thing is well studied and clearly apprehended it will be much better remembred And thus I have shewed the hindrances of the memory or what be the common causes of a bad memory which is the fifth Point VI. The sixth thing to be handled is the proper Helps to it And they may be rank'd under three Heads 1. Natural Helps 2. Artificial 3. Spiritual Of these in order 1. As to natural helps as I must not invade the Province of the learned Physitian so I would omit nothing that is in general necessary for this purpose And so it is observed that as too much coldness and moistness of the brain is a great cause of Forgetfulness so on the other side a convenient heat and dryness of it is a great help to the memory For the heat thereof disposeth it sooner to receive and the dryness of it to retain the impression As the wax you know being warmed receives and then being dry preserves the prints of the wax Hence some think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Remember signifies the male-kind which hath more heat in its constitution and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used for the Female which implyes forgetfulness that sex being colder another reason being also given of that Etymology to wit because the remembrance of the former induces whereas the Woman being incorporated into another Family is sooner forgotten Two things I would here recommend 1. A sober Diet. For if excesses in meat and drink do disturb the brain and consequently weaken the memory then certainly a sparing and temperate diet do preserve the Blood and Spirits in order and so by consequence a Plato in Timao together with a good air where it may be had are a certain though not so sensible help to the memory And therefore take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with fâ—rfeiting and â—â—â—kenness and cares of this life and so you quite forget that day that 〈◊〉 on men unawares Luk. 21 34. The Heathens went far in this moderation how far then should Christians go before them and what a base thing it is to destroy our Reason by gratifying our Appetite 2. A Quiet Mind For if all Passions that are violent weaken then a sedate and quiet mind greatly strengthens the Memory It s true Man is born unto trouble as the Spark do fly upward Job 5 7. And if we subject our minds unto them our Souls will be like the raging Sea in perpetual agitation and then the memory shattered As in a pool of water when it is clear you may see the Fishes and every thing easily in it but when it is troubled every thing disappears So is it with our Reason and Memory as long as the mind is quiet we may tell where to find any thing in the memory but when it is distracted every thing is hid from us Let Faith therefore ply its business upon Almighty God and his Promises and then Isa 26 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee because he trusteth in thee Saepe recordari medâ—câ—mine fortius omni 2. Artificial or outward helps are 1. The Repettiion of those things which we would remember Revolving them in the mind that makes the impression deeper and then the audible repeating of them greatly fixes them there Deut. 11 18 19. Ye shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your Soul and shall teach them your Children speaking of them when thou sittest in thy House and when thou walkest by the way when thou lyest down and when thou risest up Upon this account some great Orators have used to pronounce their harangues in their studies to fix them the better on their memories And it is recorded of Pythagoras that he appointed his Schollars to recollect every night before they went to bed what they had heard or done all that day How much more should you on the Lords-day at night revive what you have heard confer of it with others repeat it to your Family by all which you will relieve the weakness of this Faculty 2. Writing what we would remember is a merciful help to the memory a Ephaenicia Mare literas memoriae adversuâ— oblivionem remedium accivit Plutarch Socrates indeed held that Letters proved the ruin of the memory because before the invention of Letters people committed worthy matters to memory
but afterward to Books but certainly both Memory and Books are little enough to preserve those things that should be remembred The Holy Ghost teaches better Deuter. 11 20. And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine House and upon thy Gates yea Chap 17 18. The King himself was to write him a Copy of the Law in a Book that he might remember it the better The very writing of any thing fixes it deeper in the mind And therefore I should still recommend the writing of Sermons not only as a help to the memory but also as a good preservative from sleeping under Gods ordinance as also from gazing about to the great distraction of the thoughts at that Sacred imployment For alas how many excellent Doctrines Directions and Marks have you heard that are quite forgotten which a discreet use of writing might have preserved unto you b I have seen a large Common Place-Book of famous Mr. Bruâ—n filled with choice sentences out of good Authors and digested under fit heads for his own use being a private Gentleman 3. Custom or Vsing your Memories is an excellent way of improving tâ—â—â— Thus many wise persons charge their memories at the present and thereby strengthen them and then commit what they have remembred to writing when they come home that no time may wear it away For every Faculty is improv'd and strengthen'd by imploying it We say use legs and have legs and so use the memory and thou 'lt have a memory So if you oblige your Children and your Servants to bring you away an account of a Sermon or so much of a Catechism you will see that use and custom will make that easy which before they thought impossible I have seen some of an old mans girdle who could not read a word yet by the only help of a girdle which he wore which was hung about with some knotted points he could bring home every particular of a Sermon And therefore charge your memories with those things that are sit to be remembred and doubt not but use will make you perfect I purposly avoid discoursing of that which is call'd an Artificial Memory both because the inconveniences thereof are great and the handling of it unfit for a Sermon 3. The Spiritual Helps for Memory are these 1. Bewail your Forgetfulness There Reformation and amendment when it is sound begins The Jews say that when Adam look't towards Paradise he wept in the remembrance of his Fall I am sure we have cause to mourn and weep and weep again at the remembrance of it To consider not only the great guilt but the sad fruit of that Apostacy and that as in other particulars so in respect of our Memories which have born their share in that convulsion And we have cause to mourn also for all such excesses and follies which have concurr'd to make them worse wherein no man is guiltless so that though you may reckon a sorry memory but a small fault yet you will find that it is both the effect and the sign and the cause of much evil In so much that Idolatry and the worst Sins are in Scripture stil'd the forgetting of God Psal 9 17. c. Few of us would reckon it a small fault to have a Servant frequently neglect his business and run into Errors and still to excuse all by saying I quite forgot it For generally such forgetfulness is the effect of supine negligence and therefore we have the more cause to be humbled seriously for this Sin 2. Prayer is a second Help For every Good and perfect Gift whereof this is one is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights Jam. 1 17. and therefore is to be sought by frequent and earnest Prayer which is the Golden Key to unlock the Treasures of Heaven to the needy soul O beg it then of him that as he sanctifies the Soul he would sanctifie this with the rest And you have a ground for your Prayer in that Joh. 14.26 where our Saviour hath said that the Father will send the Holy Ghost to teach us all things and to bring all things to our remembrance And this Spirit you may have for asking Luke 11.13 Your Heavenly Father shall give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him understand that God will grant your Prayer herein there being joyn'd with the same a due use of all other means on which earnest Prayer brings a Blessing And you must not only crave this in your solemn Prayers but also when you are reading or hearing you should dart up an Holy Ejaculation or short desire Lord write this Truth in my heart and bless it to me This is like the clenching of a nail And when you have heard a Sermon look the Chest with Davids Prayer 1 Chron. 29.18 O Lord keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of my heart And be assured that God will hear the breathings of his own Spirit and give thee a Memory to serve thy turn 3. Diligent Attention If the mind wander in hearing the Memory will be weak in remembring Confine therefore your thoughts to the Holy Work you are about and fetch in your stragling Fancies with a hearty sigh Remember that Almighty God speaks to you by every good Book or Sermon that you read or hear every Chapter and Sermon is a Letter from the God of Heaven and directed in particular to you and you know we read with attention the meanest Letter that is directed to us and we observe every period of it The Gospel is our Saviours Will and Testament and how carefully doth every Child attend to every Clause in his Fathers Will Now the more diligent your Attention is the better you will remember As you know the greater weight we lay on the Seal the deeper Impression it doth make Holy David could say Ps 119.93 I will never forget thy Precepts for with them thou hast quickned me The Scripture the Sentence that hath quickned us we shall not easily forget when all the heart is engaged then all the head is imployed also And it is no marvel that divers remember so little when they are so palpably careless in hearing and their wandring Eyes do plainly discover their wandring minds 4. Due Estimation The more we love and admire any thing the better we remember it This is the reason given of Childrens remembring things so well because they admire every thing as being new to them And of old People the saying is known That they remember all such things as they care for For when we esteem and affect any thing the Affections work upon the Spirits which are the Instruments of the Memory and so seat things upon it Why is it that a Woman cannot forget her sucking Child because she doth vehemently love it and the like affection in us to good things would keep us from forgetting them And to this accord that saying of Mr. Guentianus Pag 25. That the best Art of Memory
our principal perfections in Heaven and Earth These he recommends by the most affectionate and obliging the most warming melting Perswasives the superlative Love of God to us and our Communion with the Saints in Nature and Grace In the former Verse the Apostle argues for the reality of the effect as an evidence of the Cause Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ that is the Saviour of the world foretold to the Prophets and expresses the truth of that Faith in a sutable conversation is born of God and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him Grace is not less powerful in producing tender reciprocal affections between the off-spring of the same heavenly Father than the subordinate endearments of Nature The pretence is vain of Love to God without loving his regenerate Children And in the Text he argues from the knowledge of the Cause to the discovering of the sincerity of the Effect By this we know that we love the Children of God with a holy affection if we love God and keep his Commandments There is but one difficulty to be removed that the force of the Apostles reasoning may appear 't is this a Medium to prove a thing must be of clearer evidence than what is concluded by it Now though a demonstration from the Cause be more noble and scientifical yet that which is drawn from the Effect is more near to Sence and more discernable And this is verified in the Instance before us for the Love of God who is absolutely spiritual in his Being and Excellencies doth not with that sensible fervour affect and passionately transport us as Love to his Children with whom we visibly converse and who are receptive of the most sensible testimonies of our Affection Accordingly the Apostle argues He that loves not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen As the Motives to love our Brethren from our conjunction in Nature and familiar Conversation are more capable to allure our Affections and more sensibly strike the Heart than the invisible Deity who is infinitely above us by the same reason we may more easily judge of the truth of our Love to them than of our Love to God To this the Answer is clear the Apostle doth not speak of the Love of God as a still silent contemplative affection confined to to the superior Faculty of the Soul but as a burning shining affection like Fire * Lumine qui semper proditur ipso suo active and declarative of it self in those effects that necessarily flow from it that is voluntary obedience to his Commands and thus it becomes manifest to the renewed Conscience and is a most convincing proof of the sincerity of our Love to the Saints The Text being cleared affords this Doctrine Doctrine The sincerity of our Love to the Children of God is certainly discovered by our Love to God and Obedience to his Commands For the Illustration and Proof of the Point I will briefly shew 1. Who are described by this Title the Children of God 2. What is included in our Love to them 3. What the Love of God is and the obedience that flows from it 4. How from love to God and willing obedience to his Commands we may convincingly know the sincerity of our love to his Children To explain the first we must consider that this Title the Children of God is given upon several accounts 1. By Creation the Angels are called the Sons of God and Men his off-spring The reason of the Title is 1. The manner of their production by his immediate Power Thus he is stiled The Father of Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of the Flesh For though the conception and forming of the Body be the work of his secret Providence yet 't is by the hand of Nature the Parents concurring as the second Causes of it but the production of the Soul is to be entirely ascribed to his power without the intervention of any Creature 2. In their spiritual immortal Nature and the intellectual operations flowing from it there is an Image and resemblance of God from whence this Title is common to all reasonable Creatures and peculiar to them for though the Matter may be ordered and fashioned by the hand of God into a figure of admirable beauty yet 't is not capable of his likeness and image so that neither the Lights of Heaven nor the Beasts and plants of the Earth are called his Children II. By external Calling and Covenant some are denominated his Children for by this Evangelical Constitution God is pleased to receive Believers into a filial relation Indeed where there is not a cordial consent and subjection to the Terms of the Covenant visible Profession and the receiving the external Seals of it will be of no advantage but the publick serious owning of the Gâ—â—pel entitles a person to be of the Society of Christians and filius and foederatus are all one III. There is a Sonship that arises from supernatural regeneration that is the communicating a new nature to man whereby there is a holy and blessed change in the directive and commanding Faculties the Understanding and Will and in the Affections and consequently in the whole Life This is wrought by the efficacy of the Word and Spirit and is called by our Saviour Regeneration because it is not our original carnal Birth but a second and celestial 'T is with the new man in Grace as with an Infant in Nature that has the essential parts that compose a man a Soul endowed with all its faculties a Body with all its organs and parts but not in the vigor of mature age Thus renewed Holiness in a Christian is compleat and entire in its parts but not in perfection of degrees there is a universal inclination to all that is holy just and good and a universal aversion from sin though the executive power be not equal And regenerate Christians are truly called the Children of God for as in natural generation there is communicated a Principle of Life and sutable Operations from whence the Title and Relation of a Father arises so in Regeneration there are derived such holy and heavenly qualities to the Soul as constitute a Divine Nature in man whereby he is partaker of the Life and Likeness of God himself from hence he is a Child of God and has an interest and propriety in his Favour Power and Promises and all the good that flows from them and a Title to the eternal inheritance Secondly I will shew what is included in our Love to the Children of God 1 Pet. 1.22 1. The Principle of this Love is Divine The Soul is purified through the Spirit to unfeigned Love of the Brethren Naturally the Judgment is corrupted and the Will depraved that carnal respects either of Profit or Pleasure are the quick and sensible incitements of Love and till the Soul be cured of the sensual contagion the
us be exhorted to comply with God herein let us make it our care and endeavour so to do This Exhortation concerns us all forasmuch as we are all infected with this plague none can say they are free of this contagion There is no distemper more epidemical it reacheth the poor as well as the rich the godly as well as the wicked though it hath dominion only in the latter yet it dwells in the former You see how it was with the Apostle Paul you read how it was with the Apostle Peter with David with Hezekiah c. The holiest Persons on Earth are more or less sick with this disease how therefore are we all concern'd to endeavour the prevention and cure thereof And if any ask what they must do in order thereunto the remainder of the discourse shall be spent in the resolving and satisfying of this enquiry 1. Be throughly convinc't of the greatness and sinfulness of this Sin Direct 1 how that 't is a Sin of the greatest magnitude a first rate Sin greater than theft intemperance or uncleanness or any other fleshly wickedness 'T is indeed the strength and heart of the old man it lives in us when other Sins are dead yea it will help to kill other Sins that it may boastingly shew their heads and blow the sinner up with a conceit of his own strength and holiness 't is a Sin that will take Sanctuary in the holiest duties and hide it self under their Skirts yea it will pollute our holy things and turn remedies themselves into diseases I prefer this direction and shall be the longer upon it because when men are convinc't of the sinfulness of this Sin that it hath more evil in it than other disgraceful Sins they will then set themselves in good earnest to mortify and subdue it Then they will put it far away from them and deal with it as they do with those Sins that argue them in the judgment of all men to be graceless and ungodly persons Remember therefore what hath been already hinted concerning the odiousness of this Sin 'T is hateful indeed to men when it is discern'd but it is most hateful unto God his nature and his honour both engage him against it he doth severely punish it both in this world and in the next Pride is the forerunner not only of temporal but of eternal destruction This one Sin unless it be pardon'd and subdu'd is sufficient to turn us all into Hell it was the Sin and the condemnation of the Devil and his Angels There are two properties in Pride which greatly aggravate it and make it out of measure sinful and abominable 1. The Antiquity of it It was the first enemy that God ever had this was the Sin of the fallen Angels and also of our first Parents this was the original of original Sin Some have disputed whether pride or unbelief had the precedency in mans fall A question as one says much like that whether repentance or faith hath the precedency in his rising But all are of opinion that mans pride if it was not antecedaneous yet at least it was contemporary with his unbelief and that pride was the great cause of his Apostasy He proudly affected to be as God to have known good and evil He fell from what he was by a proud desire of being what he was not 2. The pregnancy of it It is a big belly'd Sin most of the Sins that are in the world are the off-spring and issue of pride Let me instance in several other Sins that are the genuine spawn of this Sin It causeth covetousness Though covetousness is said to be the root of other evils yet this root it self springs from pride what is covetousness but the purveyor of pride and a making provision for the lusts thereof why are men greedy of wordly wrath but for the feeding and maintaining of the pride of life Habakkuk tells us that he who is a proud man enlargeth his desires as Hell Again it causeth ambition Proud persons have aspiring thoughts and think themselves the fittest persons to preside in Church or State Haman said whom should the King honour but my self a proud person takes it for an injury if any be prefer'd before him though never so deserving and he bears a secret grudge to any that had a hand in it though they did it with the greatest sincerity and impartiality None are friends to proud persons but those that humour and honour them Again Pride causeth Boasting Hence it is that in two Places of Scripture Proud Persons and Boâ—sters are put together A proud person is ever praising and commending himself and when he is ashamed to do it by open ostentation then he doth it by secret insinuation and circumlocution Again it causeth Scorning Disdain of others comes from mens over-valuing of themselves Compare two Scriptures you read Jam. 4.6 How God hath said that he resisteth the proud but he giveth Grace to the humble Now where hath God said this You will find it Prov. 3.34 There 't is said he scorneth the Scorners but he gives Grace to the humble You see the same persons that are call'd Scorners in the Old Testament are call'd Proud in the New so that Scorning is the immediate fruit and effect of Pride Again it causeth Lying Proud persons are great Liars Most of the Lies and Falshoods that are told in the world are to avoid disgrace and shame or to purchase applause and esteem Again it causeth Contention The Scripture is express in this Prov. 13.10 Only by pride cometh contention ay that is the greatest Make-bate in the world Prov. 28.25 He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife he is a very firebrand in the place where he lives he is like an unpolisht stone that will never lie even in any Building Again Pride causeth Unthankfulness Hezekiah's Pride and Ingratitude are coupled together in Scripture Proud persons instead of prizing they despise the Mercies of God and think diminutively of them they look upon God's gifts as due debts and instead of being thankful for what they have they are ready to think they have not what they do deserve Again it causeth Selfishness Pride makes men prefer themselves not only before others but before God himself Proud persons Idolize themselves and make Self their principal End they love themselves more than God and they live to themselves more than to God they are not so zealous for his honour as for their own their Estates and Parts are more at the command of their Pride than at the command of God Again it causeth carnal Confidence Proud persons are fearless persons they are so perswaded of their own strength and the goodness of their hearts that they can walk in the midst of Snares and venture upon temptation and fear no harm The fool rageth says Solomon and is confident Pride makes men insensible of their danger till it be too late Again Pride causeth Self-deceit Proud persons think themselves
as the the troubled Sea Isa 57.20 which cannot rest it will be casting out the mire and dirt which before lay at the bottom Nullum vinditae genus tam in promptu habet quam hoc maledicendi Davenantius Prov. 25.28 The evil of the heart is usually vented first at the mouth but it will soon appear in the other Members When once the mouth is full of cursing and bitterness the feet will be swift to shed blood till destruction and misery be in mens ways Rom 3.14 15 16. He that will not be overcome of evil must take care to rule his own spirit He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like to a city broken down and without walls easily overcome Nothing can conduce more to the calming of our spirits when they begin to rise against such as are offensive to us Psal 103.10 Psal 130.3 2 Sam. 16.6 7 10. than to consider how obnoxious we have been and still are to the great God David's patience towards Shimei was admirable when he cast stones at him and cursed him still as he went No doubt the consideration of the sins whereby he had provoked God made him the more calm toward that vile wretch Use 3. Rest not in this That you are not overcome of evil but endeavour as much as you can to overcome evil with good Do not your Relations perform the duties of their place to you be you the more circumspect and diligent to perform the duty of yours to them Are Neighbours unkind to you let the law of kindness be in your mouth and acts of kindness in your hands to them Vis ut ameris â—na Do any hate you let your love work to overcome that hatred 1. Keep your hearts in a constant awe of God commanding you When they draw back as they will be apt to do think of God standing by you and saying Have not I commanded you If others make no great matter of sinning against God do you say as Nehemiah But so will not I because of the fear of God Neh. 5.15 This was it that kept Samuel to the duty of praying for a people that had dealt very unworthily by him As for me says he God forbid that I should sin against the Lord 1 Sam. 12.24 in ceasing to pray for you 2. Have much and often in your eye the great example of all goodness Christ whose name you bear He met with a great deal of evil from an unthankful World yet he went about doing good still Acts 10.38 How kind was he in word and deed to his greatest enemies to the very last When Judas came to betray him the worst word he gave him was Friend Mat. 26.50 Friend wherefore art thou come And when Peter in zeal for his Master's safety had drawn and cut off the ear of one of the Officers that came to take him he touched his ear and healed him Luke 22.51 Consider him therefore who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself Heb. 12.3 lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds If he whom you call Lord and Master did thus should not you do so much rather To further you in this work take these few Considerations 1. By doing thus you will shew your selves to be genuine Christians and truly spiritual Jam. 3.14 15. To render evil for evil is devilish good for good something humane but no more than Publicans used to do but to render good for evil that is Christian What do ye more than others Mat. 5.46 The fruit of the spirit is in all goodness Eph. 5.9 If then there be found in you such fruits of the Spirit as are mentioned Gal. 5.22 Love joy peate long-suffering gentleness goodness c. it will be a token that the good Spirit of Christ is in you 2. It will tend very much to amplifying of the Kingdom of Christ Haec illa virtus est qua primitiva ecclesia excelluit accrevit ferendo non resistendo ad hanc quia redditi sumus inhabiles res Christianismi in deterius ruunt in dies Aretius 2 Cor. 13.11 and the bettering of the World One great reason why Christianity hath made no greater progress in the world in latter times is because Christians have not been so much conversant in this duty as they were in the Primitive times The rendring evil for evil makes the World a doleful place an house a Bedlam for fury and disorder A City a Wilderness for rapine and confusion A Kingdom a Land that eateth up the Inhabitants thereof as was said of that Numb 13.32 But to render good for evil tends to make the World a peaceable habitation where God and Men may delight to dwell If this duty were more practised the Wolf would sooner dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid as is prophesied Isa 11.6 3. It 's a sign that God hath more blessings in store when he hath given a Man a heart to perform this duty His labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Besides the eternal reward in Heaven God doth usually give a temporal reward on earth There is this encouragement given to afford bread to an hungry enemy That God will reward it Prov. 25.21 22. Saul was among the Prophets when he presaged good to David for not suffering him to be hurt when his Spear was taken from him while he lay sleeping 1 Sam. 26.25 Blessed be thou my son David thou shalt both do great things and also shall still prevail It hath been observed That such children as have been without cause discouraged by their parents so as not to have a like share in their favour nor a portion of their substance with the rest and yet have continued every way dutiful to them have been blest by God above the rest And such Servants as have had hard and froward Masters and yet have continued diligent and faithful in their Service have been wonderfully prospered when they have set up for themselves 4. This is the most glorious way of overcoming others It 's God's and Christ's way Hosea 11.4 I drew them with cords of a man with hands of love What glory would it be to a man that it should be said of him as Psal 9.6 Thou hast destroyed cities if he himself be in the mean time destroyed by his own lusts To be slow to anger is better than the mighty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato and he that ruleth his own spirit than he that taketh a city Prov. 16.32 5. Hereby you will keep a sweet serenity in your own spirits There is not only glory and honour but peace to every one that worketh good Rom. 2.11 How was David transported with joy when Abigail had been a means of keeping him from avenging himself with his own hand on Nabal and his house His mouth was full of blessings He blesseth the Lord God of Israel that sent her he blesseth her advice 1 Sam. 25.32 33.
De cult Foem in initio c. Why then dost thou provoke Lust in thy own heart Quid autem alteri periculo sumus c. Why do we endanger the souls of others Qui praesumit minus veretur minus praecavet plus periclitatur timor fundamentum salutis est presumptio impedimentum timoris He that presumes fears little uses little precaution and runs into great danger Fear is the original of security but presumption the enemy to fear I easily grant that there is a great difference between a Cause and an Occasion of evil A Cause is much more than an occasion yet is not the latter so small and light a matter but that many of God's weighty Laws were grounded on this that the Occasion of sin in themselves and others might be avoided The Civil Law determines That if Archers shooting at rovers should kill a man passing on the Road they shall make satisfaction That they who dig Pitfalls to catch wild Beasts if accidentally a man falls into them they shall be punished and that he shall be severely punished that being set to watch a Furnace falls asleep whence a scarefire ariseth But the New Testament is very full We are not to lay a stumbling-block nor an occasion of offence nor to use our liberty in that wherein our weak brother is offended IX Lastly Let us lay it to heart That Pride is the forerunner of destruction whether Personal Domestical or National Prov. 16.18 Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall a Truth so obvious to the observation of Heathens that Seneca could say Quem dies videt veniens superbum Hunc dies vidit fugiens jacentem There is the pride of the rich who boast themselves in the multitude of their Riches there is the pride of the ambitious who swell with Titles and Dignities and there is the childish pride of Women and effeminate Men who glory in Apparel And tho this last may seem below the notice of the Divine Nemesis yet these light and small things draw down great and heavy Judgments What more trifling and ludicrous than those Fopperies mentioned Isa 3.18 The tinkling Ornaments as if they would imitate Morrice-dancers or Hobby-horses their round Tires like the Moon an Embleme of their lunacy and levity The Nose-Jewels very uncomely sure in such Epicurean Swine And tho many of them seem to be innocent as Bonnets Ear-Rings and Mantles yet God threatens v. 24. That instead of sweet smells there shall be a stink instead of a girdle a rent instead of well-set hair baldness and burning instead of beauty All which threatnings were punctually accomplisht in the Babylonish Captivity whither God sent them to spare the cost and trouble of fetching home their new Fashions their strange Apparel Archbishop Usher and Mr. Bolton Two great Lights of our Church have long since forewan'd us That God would punish England by that Nation which we were so ambitious to imitate in their Fashions of Apparel And how much is the ground of fear encreased since their days The Plague is never more easily convey'd than in cloaths And it 's to be feared that with their strange Apish Fashions we have imported their vitious Manners if not their Idolatries The Degeneracy of the Romans in this Point prognosticated their declining greatness And there 's no more easie observation than that when a People cease to be great in generous and noble Atchievements they begin to affect this Trim way of glory by Apparel But I must conclude The Use and Application must be your own This Sermon will never be compleat till you have preach'd it over to your Souls by Meditation and to the World by a thorough Reformation And if you slight this advice and counsel yet rememer the Text however That God in the day of his sacrifice will punish all such as are cloathed with strange Apparel Quest How may Child-bearing Women be most encouraged and supported against in and under the hazard of their Travail SERMON XXII 1 Tim. II. 15. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety THAT I may with all Christian tenderness give a satisfactory Answer to that Practical Case of Concernment to be resolv'd for the sake of fruitful pious Wives whose manifold sorrows call for the best aids viz. How may Child-bearing Women be most encouraged and supported against in and under the hazard of their Travail I shall by Gods assistance according as I am able with some respect to the time allottel for this Exercise open and apply this notable Text I have read to you To find out the true importance of which words it will be requisite to cast an eye upon the foregoing part of the Chapter wherein the Apostle exhorteth all Christians to pray for persons of all Ranks a Ver. 1 2 8. and particularly Christian Women to practise answerable to their profession of godliness b Ver. 9 10. instructing them about their deportment in Church Assemblies and at home both in reference to their habits that they be modest without excess in their Apparel and Dress and to their Actions which they are 1. injoyned viz. to hear with silence and subjection 2. forbidden viz. to teach because that were to usurp authority over the man c Ver. 12. which the womans posteriority in the creation d Ver. 13. and priority in the transgression e Ver. 14. doth not allow of but on the contrary brings Her by whom her Husband was deceived into subjection and Child-bearing sorrow with the Fruit of her Womb. For tho Adam was first formed Eve first sinned and so infested all with Original sin However as one notes f Testard de Nat. Gratia Thes 20. the Opposition is not to be consider'd of the Thing but in respect of the Order that the sense might be Adam was not first seduced but the Woman agreeing with the scope foregoing Yet that the Female Sex at home may not despond under the sense of that suffering which Eves forwardness to sin had more especially brought upon them the Apostle here in these heartning words prepares a most sweet and strengthning spiritual Cordial for the chearing up of all good Women and the clearing of their eyes from fumes in fainting fits And therein it eminently concerns Child-bearing ones to copy out the most approv'd Receipt in the comfortable Expressions of the Gentile Doctor That tho they breed and bear children with much trouble which may argue God's displeasure in his Sentence and is indeed a consequent of the first sin which they are very sensible of in the Antecedents Concomitants and Consequents of their sore Labour that may as it sometimes hath done in Rachael and Phineas his Wife c. bring their bodies or their Babes if not both to the Grave yet the Pains shall be sanctified and be no obstacle to their welfare their souls shall be safely deliver'd The
spiritual Head and then tho her pains be never so many her throws never so quick and sharp she may be confident that all shall go well with her either in being safely delivered of the Fruit of her Womb as the Lord's reward out of his free love r Psal 127.3 or having her Soul and that of her Seed eternally saved being taken into covenant with the Almighty God Å¿ Gen. 17.1 7. so that in the issue she will at last with all humble adoration yeild that it could not have been possibly better with her than to have been in that condition of subjection and sorrow in breeding bearing and bringing up of children 'T was this Faith for the substance of it which the pious childing Women mentioned in the story of our Saviours Genealogy did exercise a continuance wherein is required of every just Christian Woman that she may live by it in the pains which threaten death For by this Principle she may be the best supported and derive Vertue from her Saviour for the sweetning of the bitterest cup and strength for the staying her up when the anguish of bringing forth her first child is upon her t Jer. 4.31 as Sarah the notable pattern of pious Women in this case did concerning whom it is recorded u Heb. 11.11 By faith Sarah her self receiv'd strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised A staying and living by Faith upon Gods Providence and Promise will revive the drooping spirits of otherwise weak and fearful Women in their good work of child-bearing for the multiplying of the Church with those whom God will save So that tho impending danger to Mother and Child may make even good women to quail when their pangs as so many touches of Gods dâ—â—pleasure against sin are upon them yet by Faith they can fetch relief out of the faithfulness of the Promiser as Sarah did and out of this good word he hath recorded in my Text or that more general by the Prophet David w Psal 55.22 with 1 Pet. 5.7 He will sustain or take care of those that cast their care and burden upon him with the like Hereupon the upright woman tho frail can resign up her self to God being fully perswaded with the Father of the Faithful x Rom. 4.11 That what he hath promised he is also able to perform in his own time and way which is ever the best And one * Mr. Oliver chap. 13. p. 139. now with God speaking largely to this matter in his Present to Teeming Women hath very well observ'd 'T was his will that in their Travail there should ever be while the World stands that most eminent instance of his power Indeed that I may say which made the great Heathen Physician Galen after a deep search into the Causes of a womans bringing forth a child to cry out Oh miracle of Nature Hence in her low estate the pious Wife who lives by Faith above Nature when she spreads her hands and utters her doleful groans before the Almighty concludes It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good y Jer. 4.31 1 Sam. 3.18 2 Sam. 15.26 Luke 22.42 If it seems good unto him then to call for her life and the life of her Babe she can say Lord here am I and the child which thou hast given me as the Prophet speaks upon another account z Isa 8 18. She trusts to that good and great promise a Gen. 3.15 That the seed of the woman shall break the serpents head and therefore comforts her self that the Serpents sting is took away by him that is born of a woman And tho the Birth of her Child may cost her much more sorrow than it doth her Husband yet as Manaoh's Wife she may have a secret intimatiom b Judges 13.3 9 23. from the Angel of the Covenant of and in her safe deliverance one way or other which her Husband knows not of and which will abundantly compensate all her sorrows If she hath been in such a condition before she can say c Rom. 5.4 Psal 63.7 Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and so by Faith conclude Because thou hast been mine help therefore will I trust in the shadow of thy wings This saving Faith I might farther shew doth presuppose and imply Repentance and express it self in Meditation and Prayer 1. It doth presuppose and imply Repentance which from a true sense of sin and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ doth cause a loathing of our selves for our iniquities d Ezek. 20.43 and 36.31 which is a very proper exercise for a child-bearing woman who is eminently concern'd antecedently to bring forth fruit meet for repentance e Mat. 3.8 that God may receive her and the Fruit of her Womb graciously upon her hearty turning from sin and returning to and trusting in him Child-bearing Women should fruitfully remember the Sentence acknowledg rightly Gods displeasure against sin and humble themselves very particularly before him who doth in mercifulness infinitely surpass all the Kings of Israel that he may shew special favour to them For as a woman newly delivered of her Child is not out of peril whilst that Physicians call the Secundine and the Placenta or part thereof remains so neither if there should be remaining any known sin unrepented of could she upon good grounds expect to be saved from her groanings One of the Ancients * Nazianz. doth set forth Repentance by comparing the Soul to a pair of writing Tables out of which must be wash'd whatsoever is written with sin and instead thereof must be entred the characters of Grace And as this spiritual washing is very necessary for all f Jo. 3.3 5. Tit. 3.5 so be sure it is specially necessary for those women who are apt to be over-curious in the washing of their Linnens for their lying in that the purity of the outward be not preferr'd to that of the inward Man 2. This saving Faith doth usually express it self in those women who are really espoused unto Christ and in whom he dwells by Meditation and Prayer which are also very requisite for the support of child-bearing ones at the approaches of their appointed sorrows 1. Faith doth express it self in Meditation and so by bringing the Soul to contemplate upon God doth as Wax is softned and prepared for the Seal make the heart soft for any sacred characters or Signatures to be imprinted upon it Hereby an Hand-maid of the Lord when she awakes is still with him g Psal 139.18 in heartning Soliloquies The good woman seriously thinking on the Sentence of the Almighty That sorrow should be multiplied in her conception and bringing forth children h Gen. 3.16 reflects upon her self and considers well how her portion of afflictions in a Federal state is allotted to her by
God Man is cited to meditate on and to glorify God for his Wisdom and Power which appear in them And indeed were it not for the Soul of man God should have made all the rest of the Creatures for nought Man is only concern'd in them and benefited by them and his Soul only able to bless God for them All Gods works of Creation nay and of Providence too are matter of praise so done as they ought to be had in remembrance Ps 111.4 When we contemplate or meditate upon them they afford our Souls great cause to be enlarged in our praising of several of the Attributes of God All things are Deo plena All things have a voice as well as day and night The Heavens and the Firmament Ps 19.1 2. They speak God to be Almighty and abundant in goodness they tell us as often as we view or consider them that God who made and preserves them is worthy of all our Fear and Love Service and Obedience It is only the Soul of man that is able to read hear or understand these things and therefore man for his Souls sake as the Priests had have many priviledges allotted to him by God Ps 8.6 who hath put the other Creatures generally under his feet It is sadly true that men rob God of his Honour they are entrusted with Ah whose Soul is a faithful Steward of Gods manifold gifts What Sacriledge do not men commit dayly And may we lay it to heart For God will call Heaven and Earth else to witness against us Every Creature and Providence can testifie they contained matter enough to excite our praises and to perswade our Obedience 2. Again the Soul of man is made capable to enjoy God to see God that is to know him and love him in whose presence there is fulness of joy Ps 16.11 The Sun and Planets with the rest of the spangles of Heaven know not their Maker nor what they are nor to what end they serve they how bright soever are not receptive of that light that shines into the hearts and upon the Souls of the Children of Men if compared with which their brightest beam is thick darkness were it only for our viaticum the repast we have on the road towards Heaven The Soul indeed sees here as through a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13.12 and knows but in part yet this very taste is better than the full meal that any other Creature can make Yet it must be confessed that anima male habitat the Soul is uneasie in this World not only with grieves and cares but because 't is out of its place as a bone out of joynt It was made to be with God and cannot be satisfyed when it is from God But what an excellent Creature must that be whom the King of Heaven and God of Glory should thus delight to honour which God should may I speak such a word choose for his Companion I am sure we are said to have fellowship with him 1 John 1.3 VVhatsoever the Soul was before by choosing and admitting it into his presence God makes it glorious Hence it is that inferiour Creatures are satisfyed with food suitable to them they have saved their End and have gone to the utmost of their line according to the Law of their Creation to their Creators praise But the Soul of man is upon the Rack and hath a thousand torments till it answers his end Irrequietum est cor meum donec venit ad te until it brings actively some Glory unto God and comes in some measure to the enjoyment of God That Life or Soul which inferiour Creatures have keeps indeed their bodies from putrifying but man hath not animam pro Sale His Soul only as salt to keep his Body from stinking but to act and govern it that it may be an Instrument in the service and to the praise of God and by reason of this his Tongue and every Member may be made his Glory when 't is imployed to the Glory of God It is certainly a debasement of the Soul to busy it about Eating and Drinking Dressing or Undressing further than what is necessary to our preservation and our passage through this world as Pilgrims and Strangers as we think Children to imploy their Souls ill whilst they make Pyes of dirt or run after gay pubbles made up of froth or stime Only here is the difference young ones are scarce capable of knowing or doing better the wings of their Souls seem not fledged but afterwards God justly expects that we should fly higher and we are able to soar above the third Heavens and in our Thoughts Meditations and Affections to go to God to taste and see how good that he is Ps 34.8 ◠The Endeavours that are used for to gain Souls The Pretiousness of the Soul appears in the great Endeavours that are used to get it This is the standard that we value all things by What is given for them VVhat is done to obtain them Insomuch that many think there is a great indifferency in Metals and Stone c. and that opinion sets the rate on them by this Gold and Silver are esteem'd before Lead or Iron c. Now though the Soul hath an essential innate worth as appears by what hath been said Yet this if I may call it extrinsecal consideration does further prove it For 'T is mainly desired by God on the one hand and by Satan on the other and though the Devil be a fallen Angel yet he hath the greatest knowledge of the Nature and worth of things and is from thence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But 1. God endeavours to win Souls 1. Gods Endeavours this he condescends to woo and intreat for My son give me thy heart Prov. 23.26 But to be more particular though we are not able to apprehend all the means God uses for our Souls Yet so many will easily come into our view that if we were not the most ingrateful and insensible Creatures in the VVorld we could not deny our Souls to God he so loves and values them he hath done and does dayly so much for them Above all 1. God's parting with his Son and Christ with his Heart-Blood and Life for them Behold how he loved him could they say when our Saviour shed but a few tears for Lazarus but much more when he shed all the blood in his Body for our Souls VVe may well say behold how he loved them VVhen man by sin had incurr'd the displeasure and deserved the Curse and VVrath of God and that the blood of Bulls and Cattle or a thousand Bulls were too mean to atone for the least Transgression God requiring a greater price for the Redemption of a lost Soul Our Blessed Saviour cryes Lo I come to do thy Will Heb. 10.7 that is to give satisfaction and to bring in Everlasting Righteousness that these pretious Souls may not perish Christ never interposed to save the Bodies so many Thousands or
Thess 2.13 God hath from the Beginning chosen you to Salvation 1 Thess 5.9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain Salvation which Salvation doth include absence of all evil and presence of all good and this Salvation being Eternal Heb. 5.9 infers the absence of all evil for ever and the presence of all good for ever and whosoever is delivered from all privative Evils and possessed of all positive Everlasting good and that for ever can not be denyed to be happy for ever II. Christ hath redeemed some to be infallibly brought to Eternal Glory What reason can be given of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God if there be no Eternal misery for men to be delivered from nor any Eternal happiness to be possessed of For 1. Did Christ dye to deliver his Followers from Poverty and Prisons from Sorrow and Sufferings from Trouble and Tribulation What! and yet his Holy Humble and Sincere people lye under these more than other Men that are wicked and ungodly why was Paul then in stripes and imprisonments in hunger and thirst in cold and nakedness in perils and jeopardy of his Life continually and such as Pilate Faelix and Festus in great worldly prosperity Or can it be imagined that Men persisting in Sin should be more partakers of the fruits of Christs Death than those that forsake their sin repent and turn and follow him 2. Did Christ suffer and dye to purchase only Temporal good things as Riches Honours for his Disciples Were these worth his precious Blood VVhatever Christ dyed for it cost him his most Sacred Blood Was it then for Temporal enjoyments only which Turks and Pagans may and do possess more than Thousands of his true and faithful Followers Did Christ intend the benefits of his Death for these in more especial manner then for such as remain finally impenitent and yet shall such reap the fruit of all his Sufferings and those that believe on him go without them Sober reason doth abhor it and all the Scripture is against it Would Christ have humbled himself to such a contemptible Birth miserable Life lamentable painful shameful Death only for transitory temporal fading Mercies If we consider the variety of his sufferings from God Men and Devils the dignity of the Sufferer I profess I cannot imagine any reason of all Christs undertakings and performances if there be not an Eternal state of Misery in suffering of evil things by his Death that Believers might be delivered from and of Glory in enjoying of good things to be brought unto III. The Spirit of God doth sanctifie some that they might be made meet to be partakers of the Eternal Inheritance of the Saints in light As all are not Godly so all are not Ungodly Though most be as they were born yet many there be that are born again there is a wonderful difference betwixt men and men the Spirit of God infusing a principle of spiritual Life and making some all over new working in them Faith in Christ Holy Fear and Love Patience and Hope longing Desires renewing in them the Holy Image of God is as the earnest and first fruits assuring of them in due time of a plentiful harvest of Everlasting Happiness Faith is in order to Eternal Life and Salvation Joh. 3.16 Love hath the promise of it 1 Cor. 2.9 2 Tim. 4.8 Jam. 1.12 Obedience ends in it Heb. 5.9 Hope waits for it Rom. 8.25 and because their hope shall never make them ashamed Rom. 5.5 therefore there must be such an Eternal-Blessed state they hope for IV. The Souls of all men are immortal though they had a beginning yet shall never cease to be therefore must while they be be in some state and because they be Eternal must be in some Eternal state This Eternal state must be either in the Souls enjoyment of God or in separation from him for the wit of Man cannot find out a third for the Soul continuing to be must be with God or not with God shall enjoy him or not enjoy him for to say he shall and shall not or to say he shall not and yet shall is a contradiction and to say he neither shall nor shall not is as bad if therefore the Soul be Eternal and while it shall be shall perfectly enjoy God it shall be Eternally happy If it shall for ever be and that without God it shall be Eternally miserable because God is the chiefest good the ultimate end and perfection of man The great work in this then is to prove that the Soul is Eternal and shall for ever be For which I offer these things 1. There is nothing within nor without the Soul that can be the cause of its ceasing to be here except God who though he can take away the being of Souls and Angels too yet he hath abundantly assured us that he will not Nothing within it because it is a Spiritual Being and hath no Internal Principle by contrary qualities causing a cessation of its Being and because it is simple and indivisible it is immortal and incorruptible for that which is not compounded of parts cannot be dissolved into parts and where there is no dissolution of a Being there is no corruption or end of it there is no Creature without it that can cause the Soul to cease Matth. 10.28 Not able to kill the Soul Luc. 12.4 Fear not them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do if they would kill the Soul they cannot when they have killed the Body they have done their worst their most their all 2. The Soul of man hath not dependance upon the Body as to its Being and Existence It hath certain actings and operations which do not depend upon the Body and if the operations of the Soul be independent from the Body such must the principle be from whence such operations do arise and if it can act without dependance on the Body then it can exist and be without the Body In the Body without dependance on the Body it hath the knowledge of immaterial Beings as God and Adgels which were never seen by the eye of the Body nor can because there must be some proportion between the object and the faculty and the Soul doth know it self wherein it hath no need of the phantasie for when it is intimately present to it self it wanteth not the ministry of the phantasie to its own intellection Besides it can conceive of universals abstracted from its singulars in which it doth not depend upon the phantasie for phantasmata sunt singularium non universalium therefore since it can act in the body without dependance on the Body it can exist without the Body and not dye when the Body doth which yet is more plain and certain from the Scripture which telleth us that the Soul of Lazarus after death was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosom Luc. 16.22 but they did not carry it dead or alive but alive
When proud unbroken impatient Souls Suffer and Die in Dread and Horrour the resigned Christian shall Expire in Peace and Confidence Quest How may a Gracious Person from whom God hides his Face trust in the Lord as his God SERMON XXIX The Text is Psal 42.11 Why art thou cast down O my Soul And why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet Praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God 1. UPon the Proposal of this Case to me I rather chose this Text than that in Isa 50.10 because I thought God and our selves were both to be considered in the just resolution of the Case before us for we must as well look within as above our selves and accordingly here we see that David's first look was into himself and then his next look was towards his God So that I thought this Text most suited to the Case 2. When and upon what occasion this Psalm was Penned I will not now enquire into but when ever it was David was then under black dispensations of Divine Providence and under dreadful Consternations of Spirit and put very severely to it how to Encourage and Support himself 3. The Text may be considered 1. As an History of 1. Davids troubles and afflictions 2. Davids Sence and temper of Spirit under them and concerning them 3. Of the Course he took to help himself 2. As a Doctrine to teach Gods Saints and Servants 1. To what they are liable 2. And by what and how they are to be relieved and supported 3. As a Directory 4. In the Text then we have observable 1. Davids self Arraignment for immoderate despondencies and dejections under the present hand of God upon him Why cast down And why disquieted within me 2. His self Encouragement and Instruction Hope thou in God 5. So that you see David 1. Cites himself to his own Court to account for his own disquietments and dejection and here his scrutiny is severe and close 2. He offers somethings to himself as a fit Course and expedient for self redress Hope thou in God and 3. The remedying Proposal is closely argued and urged For I shall yet Praise him c. I shall have Cause an Heart and an Opportunity to Praise God Times and things will be better with me than now they are I shall have cause to Praise God for he is the health of my Countenance I shall have an Heart to do it for He is my God and I accordingly now avouch him to be such I value him and confide in him as such And I do hence infer that I shall have Opportunity and a Call for to Praise acknowledge and adore him in the Solemnities of his own House First Let me then consider these words as they relate unto David and give us the History of Davids Excercise and Self-Relief And here 1. The Patient or Afflicted Person was Holy David A Man after Gods own Heart Enamoured on God devoted to him delighted in him constant and chearful in his attendencies on God exceeding sensible and observant of all Divine approaches to him and Withdrawments and Retreats from him Thirsting and Panting greatly after the Solaces and Entertainments of Gods House and Altars and bitterly lamenting the loss and absence of those Solemnities wherein he formerly had so copiously and frequently pleased himself afflicted mightily with those derisions and reproaches which reflected so severely upon God through him though nothing could sour or abate his adoring and delightful thoughts of God yet it struck him to the heart to hear Men always saying where is thy God Add hereunto that David was a King a Prophet a type of Christ a Man of vast experiences and improvements and such a peculiar Favourite to God as that he was encouraged to more than ordinary expectations from him of which he had great Seals and Earnests and yet we see he could not be excused from great Storms and Agonies and Anxieties of Spirit 2. That which this good Man underwent was a great dejection and disquietment in his own Spirit by reason of some great afflictions that befel him Gods Providence toucht him in his dearest and most valuable Mercies for he was an exile from Gods Altars Gods great Enemies toucht him in that which lay nearest to his Heart for they Reproacht him with his God and consequently with and for all his religious Hopes and Duties thus striking at his God through him All this afflicted him the more in that hereby great jealousies and suspicions were arising of Gods deserting him and dismal fears and thoughts of Gods having hid his face from him And he saw no likelihood in the posture and presages of second Causes that ever it would be better with him And hence his Spirit was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vet edit consternêtis chad par conturbaris Syr. coâ—â—ristas me Arab. deijcis te v. 6. bowed down and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b that is disquieted within me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 70. tumultueris adversum me Targ. conturbas me v. 6. Syr. Ar. stupidus es personas in me ut aliâ— disquieted within him he was as stripe of all Composures Strength and Comforts His Passions they were apt to mutiny his confidences to decay and wither and the serenity of his Spirit to decline Sorrows encompast him like a Cloud prest him down like a great Burthen bound him down like a Chain came in upon him like a Flood and rusht in on him like a dissolute and surprising Host And very difficult he found it to keep up his Religion in its just Reputation with himself whilst thus afflicted in it and upbraided with it 3. The Course he takes to help himself is this 1. He surveys his troubles and takes the exact demensions of them observing what impressions and effects they had upon his own Spirit and 2. He takes his Soul to task about them as being 1. Fittest to resolve the Case 2. Every way responsible and accountable for his resentments and deportment and for the impressions and effects of troubles 3. Most capable of self correction instruction and encouragement and consequently of self redress and most concerned therein And 4. As that which must be active too David was confident of help from God and this his confidence is quickned and kept up by Arguments and Pleas He knew no help could be expected any where but in and from God And he concludes and argues that God could work and give it because he was the God and that he would consider him in mercy because he was his God And these things must be remembred argued and revived upon his own Soul and were so 4. And with his own considerate and religious Soul this matter is debated here What! Davids Soul my Soul A Soul and therefore great in its Original Capacity and End A Gracious Soul and therefore near and dear to God encouraged by his promises and providence to