Whatsoever any man affirmes to me and works a real Miracle to confirme it I must needs take my self bound 〈◊〉 believe him Object But what if some one should work miracles to confirme a Doctrine contrary to Scripture Would you believe it Doth not Paul say if an Angel from Heaven teach any other Gospel let him be accursed Answ. I am sure God will never give any false teacher the power of confirming his Doctrine by Miracles else God should subscribe his name to contradictions The appearance of an Angel is no Miracle though a wonder Secondly But the maine assault I know will be made against the Minor proposition of the Argument and so the question will be de facto whether ever such Miracles were wrought or no I shall grant that we must not here argue circularly to prove the Doctrine to be of God by the miracles and then the miracles to have been wrought by the Divine Testimony of the Doctrine and so round But yet to use the Testimony of the History of Scripture as a humane Testimony of the matter of fact is no circular arguing SECT II. TOward the confirmation of the Minor therefore I shall first lay these grounds That there is so much certainty in some Humane Testimony that may exclude all doubting or cause of doubting or there is some Testimony immediately Humane which yet may truly be said to be Divine That such Testimony we have of the Miracles mentioned in Scripture If these two be cleared the Minor will stand firme and the maine work here will be done First I will therefore shew you that there is such a certainty in some Humane Testimony Both experience and Reason will confirme this First I would desire any rationall man to tell me Whether he that never was at London at Paris or at Rome may not be certaine by a Humane faith that there are such Cities For my own part I think it as certaine to me nay more certaine then that which I see and I should sooner question my own sight alone then the eyes and credit of so many thousands in such a case And I thinke the Scepticks Arguments against the certainty of sense to be as strong as any that can be brought against the certainty of such a Testimony Is it not somewhat more then probable think you to the multitudes that never saw either Parliament or King that yet there is such an Assembly and such a person May we not be fully certaine that there was such a person as King James as Queen Elizabeth as Queen Mary c. here in England Yea that there was such a man as William the Conqueror May we not be certaine also that he conquered England With many other of his actions The like may be said of Julius Caesar of Alexander the Great c. Sure those that charge all humane Testimony with uncertainty do hold their lands then upon an uncertaine tenure Secondly It may be proved also by reason For if 1. the first testifiers may infallibly know it and 2. also by an infallible means transmit it to posterity and 3. have no intent to deceive then their Testimony may be an infallible Testimony But all these three may be easily proved I had thought to have laid down here the Rules by which a certaine Humane Testimony may be discerned from an uncertaine but you may easily gather them from what I shall lay down for the confirmation of these three Positions For the first I suppose none will question whether the first testifiers might infalliby know the truth of what they testifie If they should let them consider First If it be not matter of Doctrine much lesse abstruse and difficult points but only matter of fact then it s beyond doubt it may be certainly known Secondly If it be those also who did see and hear and handle who do testifie it Thirdly If their senses were sound and perfect within reach of the object and having no deceiving medium Fourthly Which may be discerned 1. If the witnesses be a multitude for then it may be known they are not blind or deaf except they had been culled out of some Hospitalls especially when all present do both see and hear them 2. When the thing is done openly in the day-light 3. When it is done frequently and neer at hand for then there would be full opportunity to discover any deceit So that in these cases it is doubtless sense is infallible and consequently those that see and hear are most certaine witnesses 2. Next let us see whether we may be certaine that any Testimony is sincere without a purpose to deceive us And I take that for undoubted in the following cases 1. Where the party is of ingenuity and honesty 2. And it is apparent he drives on no designe of his own nor cannot expect any advantage in the world 3. Nay of his Testimony will certainly undo him in the world and prove the overthrow of his ease honour estate and life 5. And if it be a multitude that do thus testifie How can they do it with an intent to deceive 6. And if their severall Testimonies do agree 7. And if the very enemies deny not this matter of fact but only refer it to other causes then there is no possibility of deceit as I shall further anon evince when I apply it to the Question Thirdly VVe are to prove that there are infallible means of transmitting such Testimony down to posterity without depraving any thing substantiall And then it well remaine an undoubted truth that there is a full certainty in some humane Testimony and that to posterity at a remote distance Now this tradition is infallible in these cases 1. If it be as beforesaid in matter of fact only which the meanest understandings are capable of apprehending 2. If it be also about the substance of actions and not every small circumstance 3. And also if those Actions were famous in their times and of great note and wonder in the world and such as were the cause of publike and eminent alterations 4. If it be delivered down in writing and not only by word of mouth where the change of speech might alter the sense of the matter 5. If the Records be publike where the very enemies may see them yea published of purpose by Heralds and Ambassadors that the world may take notice of them 6. If they are men of greatest honesty in all Ages who have both kept and divulged these Records 7 And if there have been also a multitude of these 8. And this multitude of severall countries where they could never so much as meet to agree upon any deceiving councells much lesse all accord in such a design and lest of all be able to manage it with secrecy 9. If also the after preservers and divulgers of these records could have no more self-advancing ends then the first testifiers 10. Nay if their divulging and attesting these records did utterly ruinate in the
world their states and lives as well as it did the first testifiers 11. If there be such a dispersing of the copies of these records all over the world that the cancelling and abolishing them is a thing impossible 12. If the very histories of the enemies do never affirme any universall abolishing and consuming of them 13. If all these dispersed copies through the world do perfectly agree in every thing materiall 14. If it were a matter of such moment in the judgement of the preservers neither to add nor diminish that they thought their eternall Salvation did lye upon it 15. If the histories of their enemies do generally mention their attesting these records to the losse of their lives and that successively in every age 16. If these records and attestations are yet visible to the world and that in such a form as none could counterfeit 17. If the enemies that lived neer or in those times when the things were done do 1. write nothing against them of any moment 2. but oppose them with fire and sword in stead of Argument 3. nay if they acknowledge the fact but deny the cause only 18. And if all the enemies were incompetent witnesses 1. witnessing to the Negative of which they could have no certainty 2. and carryed on with apparent malice and prejudice 3. and having all worldly advantages attending their cause 4 and being generally men unconscionable and impious 19. If all these enemies having all these worldly advantages could neither by Arguments nor Violence hinder people from believing these famous and palpable matters of fact in the very age wherein they were done when the truth or falshood might most easily be discovered but that the generality of beholders were forced to assent 20. If multitudes of the most ingenuous and violent enemies have in every age from the very acting of these things to this day been forced to yield and turned as zealous defenders of these records and their doctrine as ever they were opposers of them before 21. If all these Converts do confesse upon their coming in that it was ignorance or prejudice or worldly respects that made them oppose so much before 22. If all the powers of the world that can burn the bodies of the witnesses that can overthrow Kingdoms and change their Laws could never yet reverse or abolish these Records 23. Nay if some notable judgement in all ages have befallen the most eminent opposers thereof 24. And Lastly if successions of wonders though not Miracles as the first have in all ages accompanied the attestation of these records I say if all these twenty four particulars do concurre or most of these I leave it to the judgement of any man of understanding Whether there be not an infallible way of transmitting matter of Fact to posterity And consequently whether there be not more then a probability even a fall certainty in such a humane Testimony SECT III. 2. THe second thing now which I am to manifest is That we have such a Testimony of the Miracles which confirmed the Doctrine and Writings of the Bible And here I must run over the three foregoing Particulars again and shew you first That the witnesses of Scripture-Miracles could and did infallibly know the Truth which they testified secondly That they had no intent to deceive the world and thirdly That it hath been brought down to Posterity by a way so infallible that there remains no doubt whether our Records are Authentick For the first of these I think will be most easily acknowledged Men are naturally so confident of the infallibility of their own senses that sure they will not suspect the senses of others But if they should let them apply here what is said before to put them out of doubt First It was matter of Fact which might be easily discerned Secondly The Apostles and others who bear witness to it were present yea continuall companions of Christ and the multitude of Christians were eye-witnesses of the Miracles of the Apostles Thirdly These were men neither blinde nor deaf but of as sound and perfect senses as we Fourthly This is apparent first Because they were great multitudes even that were present and therefore could not all be blinde if they had how did they walk about Fifthly These Miracles were not done by night nor in a corner but in the open light in the midst of the people Sixthly They were not once or twice onely performed but very oft of several kindes by several persons even Prophets and Christ himself and his Apostles in many Generations so that if there had been any deceit it might have been easily discovered Seventhly and lastly It was in the midst of vigilant and subtil enemies who were able and ready enough to have evinced the deceit So that it remains certain That the first Eye witnesses themselves were not deceived 2. Let us next consider whether it be not also as certain that they never intended the deceiving of the world First It is evident that they were neither fools nor knaves 〈◊〉 but men of ingenuity and extraordinary Honesty There needs no more to prove this then their own Writings so full of enmity against all kinde of vitiousness so full of conscientious zeal and heavenly affections Yet is this their Honesty also attested by their enemies sure the very remnants of Natural Honesty are a Divine off-spring and do produce also certain effects according to their strength and nature God hath planted and continued them in man for the use of societies and common converse for if all Honesty were gone one man could not believe another and so could not converse together But now supernatural extraordinary Honesty will produce its effect more certainly If three hundred or three thousand honest godly men should say they saw such things with their eyes he is very incredulous that would not believe it 2. It is apparent that neither Prophets Apostles nor Disciples in Attesting these things could drive on any designs of their own Did they seek either Honor or Ease or Profits or worldly Delights Did their Master give them any hopes of these or did they see any probability of their attaining it or did they see any of their fellows attain it before them 3. Nay was it not a certain way to their ruine in the world Did not their Master tell them when he sent them out That they should be persecuted of all for his sake and the Gospels Did they not finde it true and therefore expect the like themselves Paul knew that in every City Bonds and Afflictions did abide him and they lay it down as a granted Rule That he that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution Now I would fain know whether a mans Self his State his Liberty his Life be not naturally so neer and dear to all that they would be loath to throw it away meerly to deceive and cosen the world All that I know can be objected is That they
called Christians so named from him do remain Thus far Josephus a Jew by Nation and Religion who wrote this about eighty six years after Christ and fourteen years before the death of St. John Himself being born about five or six years after Christ. 20. Consider also how that every Age hath afforded multitudes of VVitnesses who before were most bitter and violent enemies And divers of these men of note for Learning and place in the world How mad was Saul against the Truth Surely it could be no favour to the Cause nor over-much credulity that caused such men to witness to the death the truth of that for which they had persecuted others to the death but a little before Nor could childish Fables or common flying Tales have so mightily wrought with men of Learning and Understanding For some such were Christians in all Ages 21. Nay observe but the Confessions of these Adversaries when they came to believe How generally and ingenuously they acknowledg their former ignorance and prejudice to have been the cause of their unbelief 22. Consider also how unable all the enemies of the Gospel have been to abolish these sacred Records They could burn the Witnesses by thousands but yet they could never either hinder their succession or extinguish these Testimonies 23. Nay the most eminent Adversaries have had the most eminent ruine As Antiochus Herod Julian with multitudes more This stone having faln upon them hath ground them to powder 24 It were not difficult here to collect from unquestioned Authors a constant succession of VVonders at least to have in several Ages accompanied the Attestation of this Truth and notable judgments that have befaln the persecutors of it And though the Papists by their Fictions and Fabulous Legends have done more wrong to the Christian Cause then ever they are able to repair yet unquestionable History doth afford us very many Examples And even many of those actions which they have deformed with their fabulous additions might yet for the substance have much truth And God might even in times of Popery work some of these wonders though not to confirm their Religion as it was Popish yet to confirm it as the Christian Religion for as he had then his Church and then his Scripture so had he then his special Providences to confirm his Church in their belief and to silence the several enemies of the Faith And therefore I advise those who in their inconsiderate zeal are apt to reject all these Histories of Providences meerly because they were written by Papists or because some Witnesses to the Truth were a little leavened with some Popish errors that they would first view them and consider of their probability of Truth or Falshood that so they may pick out the Truth and not reject all together in the lump least otherwise in their zeal against Popery they should injure Christianity And now I leave any man to judg whether we have not had an infallible way of receiving these Records from the first VVitnesses Not that every of the particulars before mentioned are necessary to the proving or certain receiving the Authentick Records without depravation for you may perceive that almost any two or three of them might suffice and that divers of them are from abundance for fuller confirmation SECT IV. ANd thus I have done with this first Argument drawn from the Miracles which prove the Doctrine and VVritings to be of God But I must satisfie the Scruples of some before I proceed First Some will question whether this be not 1. To resolve our faith into the Testimony of man 2. And so to make it a Humane faith And so 3. To jump in this with the Papists who believe the Scripture for the Authority of the Church and to argue Circularly in this as they To this I Answer First I make in this Argument the last Resolution of my faith into the Miracles wrought to confirm the Doctrine If you ask why I believe the Doctrine to be of God I Answer because it was confirmed by many undeniable Miracles If you ask why I believe those Miracles to be from God I Answer because no created power can work a Miracle So that the Testimony of man is not the Reason of my believing but onely the means by which this matter of Fact is brought down to my Knowledg Again Our Faith cannot be said to be Resolved into that which we give in Answer to your last Interrogation except your Question be onely still of the proper grounds of Faith But if you change your Question from what is the Ground of my Faith to what is the means of conveying down the History to me Then my faith is not Resolved into this means Yet this means or some other equivalent I acknowledg so necessary that without it I had never been like to have believed 2. This shews you also that I argue not in the Popish Circle nor take my faith on their common Grounds For First When you ask them How know you the Testimony of the Church to be Infallible They prove it again by Scripture and ther 's their Circle But as I trust not on the Authority of the Romish Church onely as they do no nor properly to the Authority of any Church no nor onely to the Testimony of the Church but also to the Testimony of the enemies themselves So do I prove the validity of the Testimony I bring from Nature and well known Principles in Reason and not from Scripture it self as you may see before 3. There is a Humane Testimony which is also divine and so an Humane Faith which is also divine Few of Gods extraordinary Revelations have been immediate The best Schoolmen think none of all but either by Angels or by Jesus himself who was man as well as God You will acknowledg if God reveal it to an Angel and the Angel to Moses and Moses to Israel this is a divine Revelation to Israel For that is called a divine Revelation which we are certain that God doth any way Reveal Now I would fain know why that which God doth naturally and certainly Reveal to all men may not as properly be called a Divine Revelation as that which he Reveales by the Spirit to a few Is not this Truth from God That the Senses apprehension of their Object rightly stated s certain as well as this Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin c. Though a Saint or Angel be a fitter Messenger to Reveal the things of the Spirit yet any man may be a Messenger to reveal the things of the flesh An ungodly man if he have better Eyes and Ears may be a better Messenger or Witness of that matter of Fact which he seeth and heareth then a godlier man that is blinde or deaf especially in cases wherein that ungodly man hath no provocation to speak falsly and most of all if his Testimony be against himself I take that Revelation whereby I know
fighting and bloodshed to get a step higher in the world then their brethren while they neglect the Kingly dignity of the Saints what insatiable pursuit of fleshly pleasures whilest they look upon the Praises of God which is the joy of Angels as a tiring burden what unwearied diligence there is in raising their posterity in enlarging their possessions in gathering a little silver or gold yea perhaps for a poor living from hand to mouth while in the mean time their Judgment is drawing neer and yet how it shall go with them then or how they shall live eternally did never put them to the trouble of ones hours sober consideration what rising early and sitting up late and labouring and caring year after year to maintain themselves and their children in credit till they dye but what shall follow after that they never think on as if it were onely their work to provide for their bodies and onely Gods work to provide for their souls whereas God hath promised more to provide for their bodies without their care then for their souls though indeed they must painfully serve his Providence for both and yet these men can cry to us May not a man be saved without so much ado And may we not say with more reason to them May not a man have a little Air or Earth a little credit or wealth without so much ado or at least may not a man have enough to bring him to his grave without so much ado O how early do they rowse up their servants to their labour up come away to work we have this to do or that to do but how seldom do they call them Up you have your souls to look to you have Everlasting to provide for up to prayer to reading of the Scripture Alas how rare is this language what a gadding up and down the world is here like a company of Ants upon a Hillock taking uncessant pains to gather a treasure which death as the next passenger that comes by will spurn abroad as if it were such an excellent thing to dye in the midst of wealth and honors or as if it would be such a comfort to a man at death or in another world to think that he was a Lord or a Knight or a Gentleman or a Rich man on earth For my part whatever these men may profess or say to the contrary I cannot but strongly suspect that in heart they are flat Pagans and do not believe that there is an eternal glory and misery nor what the Scripture speaks of the way of obtaining it or at least that they do but a little believe it by the halves and therefore think to make sure of Earth lest there be no such thing as Heaven to be had and to hold fast that which they have in hand lest if they let go that in hope of better in another world they should play the fools and lose all I fear though the Christian Faith be in their mouths lest that this be the faith which is next their hearts or else the lust of their Senses doth overcome and suspend their Reason and prevail with their Wils against the last practical conclusion of their Understanding What is the excellency of this Earth that it hath so many Suiters and Admirers what hath this World done for its Lovers and Friends that it is so eagerly followed and painfully sought after while Christ and Heaven stand by and few regard them or what will the world do for them for the time to come The common entrance into it is through anguish and sorrow The passage through it is with continual care and labor and grief the passage out of it is with the greatest sharpness and sadness of all What then doth cause men so much to follow affect it O sinful unreasonable bewitched men Will mirth and pleasure stick close to you Will gold and worldly glory prove fast friends to you in the time of your greatest need will they hear your cries in the day of your calamity If a man should say to you at the hour of your death as Elias did to Baals Priests Cry aloud c. O Riches or Honor now help us will they either answer or relieve you will they go along with you to another world and bribe the Judg and bring you off clear or purchase you a room among the blessed why then did so rich a man want a drop of water for his tongue or are the sweet morsels of present delight and honor of more worth then the eternal Rest and will they recompense the loss of that enduring Treasure Can there be the least hope of any of these why what then is the matter Is it onely a room for our dead bodies that we are so much beholden to the world for why this is the last and longest courtesie that we shal receive from it But we shal have this whether we serve it or no and even that homely dusty dwelling it will not afford us alwayes neither It shall possess our dust but till the great Resurrection day Why how then doth the world deserve so well at mens hands that they should part with Christ and their salvation to be its followers Ah vile deceitful world How oft have we heard thy faithfullest servants at last complaining Oh the world hath deceived me and undone me It flattered me in my prosperity but now it turns me off at death in my necessity Ah if I had as faithfully served Christ as I have served it He would not thus have cast me off nor have left me thus comfortless and hopeless in the depth of misery Thus do the dearest friends and favorites of the world complain at last of its deceit or rather of their own selfâ—deluding folly and yet succeeding sinners will take no warning So this is the first sort of neglecters of Heaven which fall under this Reproof SECT III. 2. THe second sort to be here reproved are the prophane ungodly presumptuous multitude who will not be perswaded to be at so much pains for salvation as to perform the common outward duties of Religion Yea though they are convinced that these duties are commanded by God and see it before their eyes in the Scripture yet wil they not be brought to the constant practice of them If they have the Gospel preached in the town where they dwell it may be they will give the hearing to it one part of the day and stay at home the other or if the master come to the congregation yet part of his family must stay at home If they want the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel how few are there in a whole Town that will either be at cost or pains to procure a Minister or travell a mile or two to hear abroad Though they will go many miles to the market for provision for their bodies The Queen of the South shall rise up in Judgment with this generation and condemn them for
to be sorrowful because of his departure When did he appear among them and say Peace be unto you but when they were shut up together for fear of the persecuting Jews When did the room shake where they were and the Holy Ghost come down upon them and they lift up their voyces in praising God but when they were imprisoned convented and threatened for the Name of Christ Acts 4.24 31. When did Stephen see Heaven opened but when he was giving up his life for the testimony of Jesus Acts 7.55 And though we be never put to the suffering of Martyrdom yet God knoweth that in our natural sufferings we need support Many a Christian that hath waited for Christ with Simeon in the Temple in duty and holiness all his days yet never finds him in his arms till he is dying though his Love was fixed in their hearts before and they that wondered that they tasted not of his comforts have then when it was needful received abundance And indeed in time of prosperity that comfort which we have is so mixed according to the mixt causes of it that we can very hardly discern what of it is carnal and what is spiritual But when all worldly comforts and hopes are gone then that which is left is most likely to be spiritual And the Spirit never worketh more sensibly and sweetly then when it worketh alone Seeing then that the time of Affliction is the time of our most pure spiritual heavenly Joy for the most part why should a Christian think it so sad a time Is not that our best estate wherein we have most of God Why else do we desire to come to Heaven If we look for a Heaven of fleshly delights we shall find our selves mistaken Conclude then that Affliction is not so bad a state for a Saint in his way to Rest as the flesh would make it Are we wiser then God Doth not he know what is good for us better then we Or is he not as careful of our Good as we are of our own Ah wo to us if he were not much more and if he did not love us better then we love either him or our selves SECT VIII BUT let us hear a little what it is that the flesh can object 1. Oh saith one I could bear any other Affliction save this If God had touched me in any thing else I could have undergone it patiently but it is my dearest friend or child or wife or my health it self c. I Answer It seemeth God hath hit the right vein where thy most inflamed distempered blood did lie It 's his constant course to pull down mens Idols and take away that which is dearer to them then himself There it is that his Jealousie is kindled and there it is that thy Soul is most endangered If God should have taken from thee that which thou canst let go for him and not that which thou canst not or have afflicted thee where thou canst bear it and not where thou canst not thy Idol would neither have been discovered nor removed this would neither have been a sufficient Tryal to thee nor a Cure but have confirmed thee in thy Soul-deceit and Idolatry Object 2. Oh but saith another if God would but deliver me out of it yet I could be content to bear it but I have an uncureable sickness or I am like to live and dye in poverty or disgrace or the like distress I answer 1. Is it nothing that he hath promised it shall work for thy Good Rom. 8.28 and that with the affliction he will make a way to escape that he will be with thee in it and deliver thee in the fittest manner and season 2. Is it not enough that thou art sure to be delivered at death and that with so full an advancing deliverance Oh what cursed Unbelief doth this discover in our hearts That we would be more thankful to be turned back again into the stormy tumultuous Sea of the World then to be safely and speedily landed at our Rest And would be gladder of a few years inferiour mercies at a distance then to enter upon the Eternal Inheritance with Christ Do we call God our chief Good and Heaven our Happiness and yet is it no Mercy or Deliverance to be taken hence and put into that possession Object 3. Oh but saith another if my Affliction did not disable me for Duty I could bear it but it maketh me useless and utterly unprofitable Answ. 1. For that Duty which tendeth to thy own personal benefit it doth not disable thee but is the greatest quickening help that thou canst expect Thou usest to complain of coldness and dulness and worldliness and security If affliction will not help thee against all these by warming quickening rouzing thy spirit I know not what will Sure thou wilt repent throughly and pray fervently and minde God and Heaven more seriously either now or never 2. And for Duty to others and for thy service to the Church it is not thy Duty when God doth disable thee He may call thee out of the Vineyard in this respect even before he call thee by death If he lay thee in the grave and put others in thy place to do the service is this any wrong to thee or doth it beseem thee to repine at it Why so if he call thee out before thy death and let thee stand by and see others do the work in thy stead shouldst thou not be as well content Must God do all the work by thee Hath he not many others as dear to him and as fit for the employment But alass what deceitfulness lieth in these hearts When we have time and health and opportunity to work then we loyter and do our Master but very poor service But when he layeth Affliction upon us then we complain that he disableth us for his work and yet perhaps we are still negligent in that part of the work which we can do So when we are in health and prosperity we forget the publique and are careless of other mens miseries and wants and minde almost nothing but our selves But when God Afflicteth us though he excite us more to Duty for our selves yet we complain that he disableth us for Duty to others As if on the sudden we were grown so charitable that we regard other mens Souls far more then our own But is not the hand of the flâ—sh in all this dissimulation Secretly thus pleading its own cause What pride of heart is this to think that other men cannot do the work as well as we Or that God cannot see to his Church and provide for his people without us Object 4 Oh but â—aith another It is the godly that are my afflictâ—rs they disclaim me and will scarce look at me they censure me and backbite me and slander me and look upon me with a disdainful eye If it were ungodly men I could bear it easily I look for no better at their hands but when
lest they should be thought proud As if a Schoolmaster should let his Scholars do what their list or a Pilot let the Seamen run the Ship whither they will for fear of being thought proud in exercising their authoritie Secondly But a far greater clog then this yet doth lie upon the Ministers which â—ew take notice of and that is The fewness of Ministers and the greatness of Congregations In the Apostles times every Church had a multitude of Ministers and so it must be again or we shall never come neer that Primitive patern and then they could preach publikely and from house to house But now when there is but one or two Ministers to many thousand souls we cannot so much as know them much less teach them one by one It is as much as we can do to discharge the publike Work So that you see you have little reason to cast your Work on the Ministers but should the more help them by your diligence in your several families because they are already so over burdened SECT XIV 3. BUt some will say We are poor men and must labor for our living and so must our children and cannot have while to teach them the Scriptures we have somewhat else for them to do Answ. And are not poor men subject to God as well as rich and are they not Christians and must they not give account of their ways and have not your children souls to save or lose as well as the rich cannot you have while to speak to them as they are at their work have you not time to instruct them on the Lords day you can finde time to talk idlely as poor as you are and you can finde no time to talk of the way to Life you can finde time on the Lords day for your children to play or walk or talk in the streets but no time to minde the life to come Me thinks you should rather say to your children I have no Lands or Lordships to leave you nothing but hard labor and povertie in the world you have no hope of great matters here be sure therefore to make the Lord your portion and to get interest in Christ that you may be happy hereafter if you could get riches they would shortly leave you but the riches of Grace and Glory will be everlasting Me thinks you should say as Peter Silver and gold I have none but such as I have I give you The Kingdoms of the world cannot be had by beggers but the Kingdom of Heaven may O what a terrible reckoning will many poor men have when Christ shall plead his cause and judg them May not he say I made the way to worldly honors unaccessible to you that you might not look after it for your selves or your children but Heaven I set open that you might have nothing to discourage you I confined riches and honors to a few but my Blood and Salvation I offered to all that none might say I was not invited I tendered Heaven to the poor as well as the rich I made no exception against the meanest begger that did not wilfully shut out themselves Why then did you not come your selves and bring your children and teach them the way to the eternal Inheritance Do you say you were poor Why I did not set Heaven to sale for money but I called those that had nothing to take it freely onely on condition they would take me for their Saviour and Lord and give up themselves unfeignedly to me in obedience and love What can you answer Christ when he shall thus convince you Is it not enough that your children are poor and miserable here but you would have them be worse for everlasting too If your children were beggers yet if they were such beggers as Lazarus they may be conveyed by Angels into the presence of God But beleeve it as God will save no man because he is a Gentleman so will be save no man because he is a begger God hath so ordered it in his providence that riches are exceeding occasions of mens damnation and will you think poverty a sufficient excuse The hardest point in all our work is to be weaned from the world and in love with heaven and if you will not be weaned from it that have nothing in it but labor and sorrow you have no excuse The poor cannot have while and the rich will not have while or they are ashamed to be so forward the young think it too soon and the old too late and thus most men in stead of being saved have somewhat to say against their salvation and when Christ sendeth to invite them they say I pray thee have me excused O unworthy guests of such a blessed feast and most worthy to be turned into the everlasting burnings SECT XV. 4. BUt some will object We have been brought up in ignorance our selves and therefore we are unable to teach your children Answer Indeed this is the very sore of the Land But is it not pitty that men should so receive their destruction by tradition would you have this course to go on thus still 〈◊〉 parents did not teach you and therefore you cannot teach your children and therefore they cannot teach theirs By this course the knowledge of God should be banished out of the world and never be recovered But if your parents did not teach you why did not you learn when you came to age The truth is you had no hearts to it for he that hath not knowledge cannot value it or love it But yet though you have greatly sinned it is not too late if you will but follow my faithful advice in these 4. points 1. Get your hearts deeply sensible of your own sin and misery because of this long time which you have spent in ignorance and neglect Bethink your selves sometime when you are alone Did not God make you and sustain you for his service should not he have had the youth and strength of your spirits Did you live all this while at the door of Eternity What if you had dyed in ignorance Where had you been then What a deale of time have you spent to little purpose Your life is near done and your work all undone You are ready to dye before you have learned to live Should not God have had a better share of your lives and your souls been more sadly regarded and provided for In the midst of these thoughts cast down your selves in sorrow as at the feet of Christ bewaâ—â— your folly beg pardon recovering grace 2. Then think as sadly how you have wronged your children If an unthrift that hath sold all his lands will lament it for his childrens sake as well as his own much more should you 3. Next set presently to work and learn your selves If you can read do if you cannot get some that can and be much among those that will instruct and help you be not ashamed to be seen among learners though it
having lost their strength and Afflictions less grievous as having lost their sting and every Mercy will be better known and relished Reader it is under God in thine own choice now whether thou wilt live thus blessed or not and whether all this pains which I have taken for thee shall prosper or be lost If it be lost through thy laziness which God forbid be it known to thee thou wilt prove the greatest looser thy self If thou value not this Heavenly Angelical life how canst thou say that thou valuest Heaven And if thou value not it no wonder if thou be shut out The power of godliness lieth in the actings of the soul Take heed that thou stick not in the vain deluding form O man VVhat hast thou to minde but God and Heaven Art thou not almost out of this world already Dost thou not look every day when one disease or other will let out thy soul Doth not the Bier stand ready to carry thee to the Grave and the VVorms wait to feed upon thy face and heart What if thy Pulse must beat a few strokes more and what if thou have a few more breathes to fetch before thou breathe out thy last and what if thou have a few more nights to sleep before thou sleep in the dust Alas what will this be when it is gone And is it not almost gone already Very shortly thou wilt see thy glass run out and say thy self My life is done my time is gone its past recalling there 's nothing now but Heaven or Hell before me O where then should thy heart be now but in Heaven Didst thou but know what a dreadful thing it is to have a strange and doubtful thought of Heaven when a man lies dying it would sure rowze thee up And what other thoughts but strange can that man have that never thought seriously of Heaven till then Every mans first thoughts are strange about all things Familiarity and acquaintance comes not in a moment but is the consequent of Custom and frequent Converse And strangeness naturally raiseth dread as familiarity doth delight What else makes a Fish or a wilde Beast flie from a man when domestick Creatures take pleasure in his company So wilt thou flie from God if thou knewest how who should be thy onely happiness if thou do not get this strangeness removed in thy life time And is it not pity that a childe should be so strange to his own Father as to fear nothing more then to go into his presence and to think himself best when he is furthest from him and to flie from his face as a wilde Creature will do from the face of a man Alas how little do many godly ones differ from the world either in their comforts or willingness to die and all because they live so strange to the place and Fountain of their comforts Besides a little verbal or other outside duties or talking of controversies and doctrines of Religion or forbearing the practice of many sins how little do the most of the Religious differ from other men when God hath prepared so vast a difference hereafter If a word of Heaven fall in now and then in their conference alas how slightly is it and customary and heartless And if their Prayers or Preaching have heavenly expressions they usually are fetcht from their meer invention or memory or Books and not from the experience or feeling of their hearts O what a life might men live if they were but willing and diligent God would have our joyes to be far more then our sorrows yea he would have us to have no sorrow but what tendeth to joy and no more then our sins have made necessary for our good How much do those Christians wrong God and themselves that either make their thoughts of God the in-let of their sorrows or let these offered joyes lie by as neglected or forgotten Some there be that say It is not worth so much time and trouble to think of the greatness of the joyes above so we can make sure they are ours we know they are great But as these men obey not the Command of God which requireth them to have their Conversation in Heaven and to set their Affections on things above so do they wilfully make their own lives miserable by refusing the delights that God hath set before them And yet if this were all it were a smaller matter if it were but the loss of their comforts I would not say so much But see what abundance of other mischiefs do follow the absence of these Heavenly Delights First It will damp if not destroy our very love to God so deeply as we apprehend his bounty and exceeding love to us and his purpose to make us eternally happy so much will it raise our love Love to God and delight in him are still conjunct They that conceive of God as one that desireth their blood and damnation cannot heartily love him Secondly It will make us have seldom and unpleasing thoughts of God for our thoughts will follow our love and delight Thirdly And it will make men to have as seldom and unpleasing speech of God For who will care for talking of that which he hath no delight in What makes men still talking of worldliness or wickedness but that these are more pleasant to them then God Fourthly It will make men have no delight in the service of God when they have no delight in God nor any sweet thoughts of Heaven which is the end of their services No wonder if such Christians complain That they are still backward to Duty that they have no delight in Prayer in Sacraments or in Scripture it self If thou couldst once delight in God thou wouldst easily delight in duty especially that which bringeth thee into the neerest converse with him But till then no wonder if thou be weary of all further then some external excellency may give thee a carnal delight Doth not this cause many Christians to go on so heavily in secret duties like the Ox in the Furrow that will go no longer then he is driven and is glad when he is unyoaked Fifthly Yea it much endangereth the perverting of mens judgments concerning the ways of God and means of Grace when they have no delight in God and Heaven Though it be said Perit omne judicium cum res transit in affectum That Judgment perisheth when things pass into Affection yet that is but when Affection leadeth the Judgment and not when it followeth Affection holdeth its object faster then bare Judgment doth The Soul will not much care for that Truth which is not accompanied with suitable goodness and it will more easily be drawn to believe that to be false which it doth not delightfully apprehend to be good which doubtless is no small cause of the ungodlies prejudice against the ways of God and of many formal mens dislike of extemporate Prayers and of a strict observation of the Lords day Had they a true