true Believer should come very near such a state of death common reason and the due care of his own soul obligeth him to be suspicious of himself and to fear the worst till he have made sure of better Heb. 6. 3.10 Heb. 4.1 12 13 14. 1 Cor. 10. John 15.2 7 8 c. Direct 14. Let not the perswasion that you are justified make you more secure and bold infinning but more to hate it as contrary to the ends of Justification and to the love which freely justified you It is a great mark of difference between true assurance and blind presumption that the one maketh men hate sin more and more carefully to avoid it and the other causeth men to sin with less reluctancy and remorse because with less feat Direct 15. When the abuse of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone and not by Works doth pervert your minds and lives remember that all confess that we shall be judged according to our works as the Covenant of Grace is the Law by which we shall be judged And to be judged is to be justified or condemned I need not recite all those Scriptures to you that say that we shall be judged and shall receive according to what we have done in the body whether it be good or evil And this is all that we desire you to believe and live accordingly Direct 16. Remember still that Faith in Christ is but a means to raise us to the Love of God and that perfect Holiness is higher and more excellent than the pardon of sin And therefore desire faith and use it for the kindling of love and pardon of sin to endear you to God and that you may do so no more And do not sin that you may have the more to be pardoned The end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned Rom. 6.1 2. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid How shall they that are dead to sin live any longer therein See Titus 3.5 6 7. Rom. 5.1 4 5 6. Rom. 8.1 4 9 Gal. 4.6 5.24 26. So much for those practical Directions which are needfull for them that love not Controversie CHAP. VIII The pernicious or dangerous Errours detected which hinder the work of Faith about our Justification and the contrary Truths asserted THere is so much dust and controversie raised here to blind the eyes of the weak and to hinder the life of Faith and so much poison served up under the name of Justification and Free Grace that I should be unfaithful if I should not discover it either through fear of offending the guilty or of wearying them that had rather venture upon deceit than upon controversie And we are now so fortified against the Popish and Secinian extreams and those whom I am now directing to live by Faith are so settled against them that I think it more necessary having not leisure for both and having done it heretofore in my Confession to open at this time the method of false doctrine on the other extream which for the most part is it which constituteth Antinomianism though some of them are maintained by others And I will first name each errour and then with it the contrary truth Errour 1. Christs suffering was caused by the sins of none as the assumed meritorious cause or as they usually say as imputed to him or lying on him save only of the Elect that shall be saved Contr. The sins of fallen mankind in general except those rejections of Grace whose pardon is not offered in the conditional Covenant did lye on Christ as the assumed cause of his sufferings See John 1.29 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. John 3.16 17 18 19. Heb. 2.9 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. 1 John 2.2 1 Tim. 4.10 2 Pet. 2.2 See Paraeus in his Irenicon Twisse vind alibi passim saying as much and Amyrald Davenant Dallaeus Testarduâ—Vsher c. proving it Errour 2. Christ did both perfectly obey and also make satisfaction for sin by suffering in the person of all the Elect in the sense of the Law or Gods account so that his Righteousness of obedience and perfect holiness and his satisfaction is so imputed to us as the proprietaries as if we our selves had done it and suffered it not by an after donation in the effects but by this strict imputation in it self Contr. The contrary Truth is at large opened before and in my confession Christs satisfaction and the merit of his whole obedience is as effectual for our pardon justification and salvation as if Believers thâ—mselves had performed it and it is imputed to them in that it was done for their sakes and suffered in their stead and the fruits of it by a free Covenant or donation given them But 1. God is not mistaken to judge that we obeyed or suffered when we did not 2. God is no lyar to say we did it when he knoweth that we did it not 3. If we were not the actors and sufferers it is not possible that we should be made the natural subjects of the Accidents of anothers body by any putation estimation or mis-judging whatsoever no nor by any donation neither It is a contradiction and therefore an impossibility that the same individual Actions and Passions of which Christs humane nature was the agent and subject so many hundred years ago and have themselves now no existence should in themselves I say in themselves be made yours now and you be the subject of the same accidents 4. Therefore they can no otherwise be given to us but 1. By a true estimation of the reasons why Christ underwent them viz. for our sakes as aforesaid 2. And by a donation of the effects or fruits of them viz. pardoning and justifying and saving us by them on the terms chosen by the Donor himself and put into his Testament or Covenant as certainly but not in the same manner as if we had done and suffered them our selves 5. If Christ had suffered in our person reputatively in all respects his sufferings would not have redeemed us Because we are finite worms and our suffering for so short a time would not have been accepted instead of Hell sufferings But the person of the Mediator made them valuable 6. God never made any such Covenant with us that he will justifie us and use us just as he would have done if we had our selves perfectly obeyed and satisfied They that take on them to shew such a Promise must see that no wise man examine it 7. God hath both by his Covenant and his Works ever since confuted that opinion and hath not dealt with us as he would have done if we had been the reputed doers and sufferers of it all our selves For he hath made conveyance of the Benefits by a pardoning and justifying Law or Promise and he giveth us additional pardon of renewed sins as we act them and he addeth threatnings in his Law or
by a Redeemer as we must do They had their too great selfishness Phil. 2.21 They had their pusillanimity and fears of men as Peter and the Apostles They had their sinful controversies as Paul and Barnabas and sinful separations in complyance with the censorious as Peter and Barnabas had Gal. 2.16 17. They had their carnal sidings factions and divisions in the Church 1 Cor. 1. 3. Many a time have they been put to groan O wretched man who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7 c. 11. They had as difficult duties to go through as any of us They were put upon as many tears and troubles watchings and travels fastings and self-denyal as the most laborious and suffering Christians now 12. They had as long delayes of the accomplishment of their desires as any of us 13. And lastly they past through death it self as we must do They lay gasping on their beds of languâ—shing and death broke in upon every part and they underwent that separation of soul and body as we must do Their flesh was turned to rottenness and dust and laid out of the sight of man in darkness and remaineth to this day as common earth All this the Saints in Heaven have undergone This was their case a while ago who are now in glory And this was not only the case of some few but of thousands and millions and that in the most of these particulars even of all that are gone before us unto blessedness It is not we that are tempted first that are persecuted or afflicted first that have sinned first that must die first but all this host hath broke the Ice and are safely past through this Red Sea and are now triumphing in felicity with their Saviour Direct 3. Let Faith next look back and see by what way these Saints have come to this felicity I mean by what means they did overcome and win the Crown And briefly you will find 1. That they all came to Heaven by the Mediation the Sacrifice the meritorious Righteousness of a Redeemer Jesus Christ either as promised or as incarnate none of them were justified by the works of the Law or the Covenant of Innocency 2. That their common way was by Faith Repentance Love and Obedience Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed oâ— us abundently through Christ Titus 3.5 Even by the triple Image of the Divine perfections Power Love and Wisdom 2 Tim. 1.7 They lived soberly righteously and godly in the world and were zealous of good works looking for the blessed hope which they have attained Titus 2.14 15. Knowing that Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ are the summ of saving doctrine and duty Acts 20.21 And that to fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole duty of man Eccles 12.13 And that the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 and that Love is the fulfilling of the Law 3. They studied the Word of God or such means of knowing him as God afforded them in order to the attaining and maintaining of these graces Psal 1.2 and sought the Lord with all their hearts while he might be found and called upon him while he was near Isa 55.6 10. And did not presumptuously neglect Gods helps and despise his Word while they trusted for his mercy 4. They lived in a continual conflict against the temptations of the Devil the world and the flesh and in the main did conquer as well as strive They made it their work to mortifie those fleshly lusts which others make it their interest and work to please Gal. 5.17.21 22. 6.14 5. They suffered afflictions and persecutions patiently and being reviled they did not revile They loved their enemies and blest those that curse them and prayed for those that despitefully used and persecuted them Matth. 5.44 45. 1 Cor. 4.11 12 13. 2 Cor. 1.6 7. Heb. 11. They would not accept of deliverance from imprisonment torments and death upon sinning terms 6. They endured to the end and did not fall off and forsake the Covenant of their God Rev. 2. 3. 7. Lastly They did all this by the motive of their hopes of Heaven and by a confidence in the promises of it and in a heavenly mind and conversation as knowing that they did not labour or suffer in vain 1 Cor. 15.58 2 Cor. 4.17 1 Tim. 4.10 Rom. 8.18 Matth. 5.11 2 Thes 1.6 7. Heb. 12.2 This was the way by which the Saints have gone to Heaven the only true successful way Direct 4. Consider next what helps and means God gave them for this work and compare our own with them and see whether ours be not as great 1. We have the same natural capacity as they we are intellectual free agents made for another world and capable of all that they attained There is no difference in our natural faculties 2. We have the same God to shew us mercy 1 Cor. 12.5 There are divers operations but the same God Ephes 4.4 5. There is one God one Lord c. even the Lord over all good to all that call upon him Rom. 10.12 The same mercy which called them and waited on them calleth us even a God who hath no respect of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Acts 10.37 Though he be a free benefactor he is a righteous Judge and he is good to all and the Father of every member of his Son 3. They had the same Saviour as we have the same sacrifice for their sins the same Teacher and the same example the same intercessor with the Father For though there be divers administrations there is the same Lord 1 Cor. 12.5 Ephes 4.4 For other foundation can no man lay than him who is the chief corner stone 1 Cor. 3.11 They all did eat of the same spiritual meat and drank of the same rock as we do which is Christ 1 Cor. 10.3 4. It was the reproach of Christ which Moses in Egypt esteemed better than their treasures Heb. 11.26 The same Physician of souls who hath us in cure did cure all them The same Captain who is conducting us to salvation is he that saved them The same Prince of the Covenant and Lord of life who conquered death and all their enemies hath conquered them for us and is preparing us for life with them They had no greater or better High Priest and Mediator with God than we have 4. They had the same Rule to walk by and the same way to go as all we have Gal. 1.7 8. 6.16 Phil. 3.14 15. The same Gospel and Word of God in the main though under various promulgations and administrations Those before the flood were under the Covenant of the promised seed
For he that mistaketh the extent of the Promise and thinketh that it belongeth not to such as he would believe and trust it if he understood it that it extends to him as well as others And he that doubteth of his own Repentance and Faith may yet be confident of the truth of Gods Promise to all true penitent Believers I mention this for the cure of two mischiefs The first is that of the presumptuous Opinionist who goeth to Hell presuming that he hath true saving faith because he confidently believeth that he himself is pardoned and shall be saved The second is that of the perplexed fearful Christian who thinks that all his uncertainty of his own sincerity and so of his salvation is properly unbelief and so concludeth that he cannot believe and shall not be saved Because he knoweth not that faith is such a belief and trust in Christ as will bring us absolutely and unreservedly to venture our all upon him alone And yet I must tell all these persons that all this while it is ten to one but there is really a great deal of unbelief in them which they know not and that their belief of the truth of the immortality of the soul and the life to come and of the Gospel it self is not so strong and firm as their never-doubting of it would intimate or as some of their definitions of Faith and their Book-opinions and Disputes import And it had been well for some of them that they had doubted more that they might have believed and been settled better Direct 30. Think often of the excellencies of the life of faith that the Motives may be still inducing you thereto As 1. It is but reasonable that God should be trusted or else indeed we deny him to be God Psal 20 7. 2. What else shall we trust to shall we deifie creatures and say to a stock Thou art my Father Jer. 2.27 Lam. 1.19 Shall we distrust God and trust a lyar and a worm 3. Trying times will shortly come and then woe to the soul that cannot trust in God! Then nothing else will serve our turns Then cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and withdraweth his heart from the Lord he shall be like the barren wilderness c. Then none that trusted in him shall be ashamed Jer. 17.5 6. Psal 25.3 4. Psal 73.26 27 28. 4. Gods Alsufficiency leaveth no reason for the least distrust There is the most absolute certainty that God cannot fail us because his veracity is grounded on his essential perfections 5. No witness could ever stand up against the life of faith and say that he lost by trusting God or that ever God deceived any 6. The life of faith is a conquest of all that would distress the soul and it is a life of constant peace and quietness Yea it feasteth the soul upon the everlasting Joyes Though the mountains be removed though this world be turned upside down and be dissolved whether poverty or wealth sickness or health evil report or good persecution or prosperity befall us how little are we concerned in all this and how little should they do to disturb the peace and comfort of that soul who believeth that he shall live with God for ever Many such considerations should make us more willing to live by faith upon Gods Promises than to live by sense on transitory things Direct 31. Renew your Covenant with Christ in his holy Sacrament frequently understandingly and seriously For 1. when we renew our Covenant with Christ then Christ reneweth his Covenant with us and that with great advantage to our faith 1. In an appointed Ordinance which he will bless 2. By a special Minister appointed to seal and deliver it to us as in his Name 3. By a solemn Sacramental Investiture 2. And our own renewing our Covenant with him is the renewed exercise of faith which will tend to strengthen it and to shew us that we are indeed Believers And there is much in that Sacrament to help the strengthening of faith Therefore the frequent and right using of it is one of Gods appointed means to feed and maintain our spiritual life which if we neglect we wilfully starve our faith 1 Cor. 11.26 28 c. Direct 32. Keep all your own promises to God and man For 1. Lyars alwaies suspect others 2. Guilt breedeth suspiciousness 3. God in justice may leave you to your distrust of him when you will be perfidious your selves You can never be confident in God while you deal falsly with him or with others The end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 Direct 33. Labour to improve your belief of every promise for the increase of holiness and obedience And to get more upon your souls that true Image of God in his Power Wisdom and Goodness which will make it easie to you to believe him 1. The more the hypocrite seemeth to believe the promise the more he boldly ventureth upon sin and disobeyeth the precept because it was but fear that restrained him and his belief is but presumption abating fear But the more a true Christian believeth the more he flyeth from sin and useth Gods means and studieth more exact obedience and having these promises laboureth to cleanse himself from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 And receiving a Kingdom whih cannot be moved me must serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12.28 29. 2. The liker the soul is to God the easier it will believe and trust him As faith causeth holiness so every part of holiness befriendeth faith Now the three great impressions of the Trinity upon us are expressed distinctly by the Apostle 2 Tim. 1.7 For God hath not given us the Spirit of fear but of Power of Love and of a sound mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Power Love and a sound mind or understanding do answer Gods nature as the face in the glass doth answer our face and therefore cannot chuse but trust him Direct 34. Lay up in your memory particular pertinent and clear Promises for every particular use of faith The number is not so much but be sure that they be plain and well understood that you may have no cause to doubt whether they mean any such thing indeed or not Here some will expect that I should do this for them and gather them such promises Two things disswade me from doing it at large 1. So many Books have done it already 2. It will swell this Book too big But take these few 1. For forgiveness of all sins and Justification to penitent Believers Acts 5.31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Acts 13.38 39. Be it known unto you that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by
dangers of your souls Because you have your hearts desire a while you can forget eternity or bear those thoughts of it with security which otherwise would amaze your souls Luke 12.19 20. 11. When the peace and pleasure which you daily live upon is fetcht more from the world than from God and Heaven so that if at any time you ask your selves the true reason of your peace and whence it is that you rise and lie down in quietness of mind your consciences must tell you it is not so much from your belief of the Love of God in Christ nor from your hope to live in Heaven for ever as because you feel your self well in body and live at ease and prosperity in the world And when any mirth or joy possesseth you you may easily feel that it is more from something which is grateful to your flesh than from the belief of everlasting glory 12. When you think too highly and pleasingly of the condition of the rich and too meanly of the state of poor Believers when you make too great a difference between the rich and the poor and say to the man with the gold Ring and the gay Apparel Come up hither and to the poor Sit there at my footstool James 4. 5. When you had rather be made like the rich and honourable in the world than like the poor that are more holy and think with more delight of being like Lords or Great men in the world than of being more like to humble heavenly Believers 13. When you are at the heart more thankful to one that giveth you lands or money than to God for giving you Christ and the Scriptures and the Means of Grace and would be better pleased if you were advanced or enriched by the King than to think of being sanctified by the Spirit of Christ And when you give God himself more hearty thanks for worldly than for spiritual things 14. When you make too much ado for the things of the world and labour for them with inordinate industry or plunge your selves into unnecessary business as one that can never have or do enough 15. When you are too much in expecting liberality kindnesses and gifts from others and are too much pleased in it and grudge at all that goeth beside you and think that it is mens duty to mind all your concernments and further your commodity more than other mens 16. When you are selfish and partial about worldly interest and have little sense of your neighbours concernments in comparison of your own If one give never so liberally to many others and give nothing to you it doth never the more content you nor reconcile your mind to the charity of the giver If one give to you and pass by many that have more need you love and honour the bounty which satisfieth your own desires If you sell dear you rejoyce and if you buy cheap you are glad of your good bargain though perhaps the seller be poorer than you He that wrongeth you or any way hindereth your commodity is alwaies a bad man in your esteem No vertue will save him from your censures and reproach But he that dealeth as hardly by your neighbour and well with you is a very honest man and worthy of your praise 17. When you are quarrelsome for worldly thing and the love of them can at any time break your charity and peace and make an enemy of your neerest friend or engage you in causless Law-suits and contentions What abundance doth the world set together by the ears 18. When you can see your poor brother or neighbour in want and shut up the bowels of your compassion from him and do little good with what God hath given you but the flesh and self devoureth all 19. When you will venture upon unlawful waies of getting or will sin for honour or commodity or at least will let go your innocency and conscience rather than lose your prosperity in the world and will distinguish your selves out of every danger or costly duty or suffering for righteousness sake and will prove every thing lawful which seemeth necessary to the prosperity and safety of the flesh 20. When you are more careful to provide riches and honors for your children after you than to save them from worldliness voluptuousness and pride and to bring them up to be the heirs of Heaven and had rather venture their souls in the most dangerous temptations than abate any of their plenty or grandure in the world These be the plain marks of worldly minds whatever a blinded heart may devise to hide them Direct 3. Take heed of those blinding pretences which worldly minds do commonly use to flatter deceive and undo themselves For instance 1. The most common pretence is That Gods creatures are good and prosperity is his blessing and that our bodies must be cherished and that synical and eremetical extreams and austerities are far from the genius of true Christianity There is truth in all this or else it would not be so fit to be made a cloak for sin by misapplication The world and all Gods works are good and to the pure they are pure to the sanctified they are sanctified that is they are devoted to the service of God and used for him from whom they come God hath given us nothing which may not be used for his service and our salvation No doubt but you may make you friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness to further your reception into the everlasting habitations You may lay up a good foundation for the time to come and you may sow to the Spirit and reap in the end everlasting life Gal. 6. You may provide you bags that wax not old you may please God by the sacrifices of distributing and communicating Heb. 13. But yet I must tell you the world and all Gods creatures in it are too good to be sacrificed to the flesh and to the Devil and not good enough to be loved and preferred before God and your innocency and salvation The body must be cherished but yet the flesh must be subdued and if you live afâ—er it you shall die Health and alacrity must be preserved because they make you fit for duty but wanton appetites must be restrained and no provision must be made for the flesh to satisfie its lusts or wills Rom. 13.14 It must be cherished as your horse or servant for his work but it must not be pampered and made unruly or your Master You may seek food for your necessity and use and ask of God your daily bread Matth. 6. Psal 145. but you may not with the Israelites ask meat for your lust as being weary of eating Manna so long Psal 78. Hurting your health by useless austerities is not pleasing unto God But sensuality and flesh-pleasing and love of the world is nevertheless abominable in his sight Object 2. Necessity makes me mind the world I have children to maintain and am in debt and cannot pay every
further than you have a present pawn or security in case he should deceive you you blaspheme him instead of taking him for your God Direct 14. Let your greatest mercy be shewed in the greatest things and let the good of mens souls be your end even in your mercy to their bodies And therefore do all in such a manner as tendeth most to promote the highest end Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy CHAP. XIX How to live by Faith in Adversity IF I should give you distinct Directions for the several cases of poverty wrongs persecutions unkindnesses contempt sickness c. it would swell this Treatise yet bigger than I intended I shall therefore take up with this general Advice Direct 1. In all Adversity remember the evil of sin which is the cause and the Holiness and Justice of God which is exercised and then the hatred of sin and the love of Gods Holiness and Justice will make you quietly submit You will then say when Repentance is serious I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Micah 7.9 And why doth living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Lam. 3.39 Let us search and try our waies and turn again unto the Lord for he hath smitten and he will heal c. v. 40 41. Object But doth not Job 's case tell us that some afflictions are only for tryal and not for sin Answ No it only telleth us that the reason why Job is chosen out at that time to suffer more than other men is not because he was worse than others or us bad but for his tryal and good But 1. Affliction as it is now existent in the world upon mankind is the fruit of Adams sin at first and contained in the peremptory unremitted sentence 2. And this general state of suffering mankind is now in the hand and power of Christ who sometimes indeed doth let out more on the best than upon others and that especially for their tryal and good but usually some sins of their own also have a hand in them and procure the evil though his mercy turn it to their benefit Direct 2. Deal closely and faithfully with your hearts and lives in a suffering time and rest not till your consciences are well assured that no special provocation is the cause or else do testifie that you have truly repented and resolved against it Otherwise you may lengthen your distress if you leave that thorn in your sore which causeth it Or else God may change it into a worse or may give you over to impenitency which is worst of all Or at least you will want that assured peace with God and solid peace of conscience which must be your support and comfort in affliction and so will sink under it as unable to bear it Direct 3. Remember that the sanctifying fruit of Adversity is first and more to be looked after than either the comfort or the deliverance And therefore that all men no nor all Christians must not use the same method in the same affliction when as their spiritual cases differ A cleared conscience and one that hath walked faithfully with God and fruitfully in the world and kept himself from his iniquity may bend most of his thoughts to the comforting promises and happy end But one man hath been bold with wilful sin and his work must be first to renew repentance and see that there be no root of bitterness left behind and to set upon true reformation of life and reparation of the hurt which he hath done Another is grown into love with the world and hath let out his heart to pleasant thoughts and hopes of prosperity and alienated his thoughts more than before from God This man must first perceive his errour and hear Gods voice which calleth him home and see the characters of vanity and vexation written on the face of that which he over-loved and then think of comfort when he hath got a cure Another is grown dull and careless of his soul and hath lost much of his sense of things eternal and is cold in love and cold in prayer and liveth as if he were grown weary of God and weary of well doing His work must be to feel the smart of Gods displeasure so far as to awaken him to repentance and set him again with former seriousness upon his duty And when he mendeth his pace he may desire to be eased of the rod and spur But to give unseasonable cordials to any of these is but to frustrate the affliction and to hurt them and prepare for worse Nay and when they are comforted in season it must be with due caution Go thy way and sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee It is pâ—rnicious unskilfulness in those comforters of the afflicted who have the same customary words of comfort for all and by their improper cordials unseasonably applyed delude poor souls and hinder that necessary repentance which God by so shâ—rp a means doth call them to Direct 4. Remember that your part in affliction is to do your duty and to get the benefit of it but to remove it is Gods part Therefore be you careful about that part which is your own and then make no question but God will do his part Let it be your first question therefore What is it that I am obliged to in this condition What is the special duty of one in this sickness this poverty imprisonment restraint contempt or slander which I undergo Be careful daily to do that duty and then never fear the issue of your suffering Nothing can go amiss to him that is found in the way of his duty And let it be your next question What spiritual good may be got by this affliction May not my repentance be renewed my self-denyal humility contempt of the world patience and confidence on God be exercised and increased by it and is not this the end of my heavenly Father Is not his rod an act of love and kindness to me Doth he not offer me by it all this good And let your next question be Have I yet got that good which God doth offer me Have I any considerable benefit to shâ—w which I have received by this affliction since it came If not why should you desire it to be taken away Play not the Hypocrite in speaking that good of an afflicting God which you do not seriously believe If you believe that God is wiser than you to know what is fittest for you and that he is better than you and therefore hath better ends than you can have and that really he offereth you far greater good by your sufferings than he taketh from you Let your affections then be agreeable to this belief Are you afraid of your own commodity Do you impatiently long to be delivered from your gain are you so childish as to pull off the plaister if you believe that it is curing the sore and that
very brief I. For the first Case before sickness cometh Direct 1. Be sure that you settle your Belief of the life to come that your Faith may not fail Direct 2. Expect Death as seriously all your life as wise Believers are obliged to do That is as men that are alwaies sure to die as men that are never sure to live a moment longer as men that are sure that life will be short and death is not far off and as foreseeing what it is to die of what eternal consequence and what will then appear to be necessary to your safe and to your comfortable change Direct 3. All your daies habituate your souls to believing sweet enlarged thoughts of the infinite Goodness and Love of God to whom you go and with whom you hope to live for ever Direct 4. Dwell in the studies of a crucified and glorified Christ who is the way the truth and life who must be your hope in life and death Ephes 3.17 18 19. Direct 5. Keep clear your evidences of your right to Christ and all his Promises by keeping grace or the heavenly nature in life activity and increase 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 John 15 1 c. 1 John 3. Direct 6. Consider often of the possession which your nature in Christ hath already of Heaven and how highly it is advanced and how near his relation is and how dear his love is to his weakest members upon earth And that as souls in Heaven have an inclination and desire to communicate their own felicity to their bodies so hath Christ as to his body the Church John 17.24 Ephes 5.25 27 c. Direct 7. Look to the Heavenly Host and those who have lived before you or with you in the flesh to make the thoughts of Heaven the more familiar to you as in the former chapter Direct 8. Improve all Afflictions yea the plague of sin it self to make you weary of this world and willing to be gone to Christ Rom. 7. Direct 9. Be much with God in Prayer Meditation and other heart-raising duties that you may not by strangeness to him be dismayed Direct 10. Live not in the guilt of any wilful sin nor in any slothful neglect of duty lest guilt breed terrour and make you fly from God your Judge But especially study to redeem your time and to do all the good you can iâ— the world and to live as totally devoted to God as conscious that you live to no carnal interest but desire to serve him with all you have and your consciences testimony of this will abundantly take off the terrours of death whatever any erroneous ones may say to the contrary for fear of being guilty of conceits of merit A fruitful life is a great preparative for death 2 Tim. 4.8 2 Cor. 1.12 c. Direct 11. Fetch from Heaven the comforts which you live upon through all your life And when you have truly learned to live more upon the comforts of believed glory than upon any pictures or hopes below then you will be able to die in and for those comforts Matth. 6.20 21. Col. 3.1 4. Phil. 3.20 21. 1 Thes 4.18 Phil. 1.21 23. Direct 12. The Knowledge and Love of God in Christ is the beginning or foretaste of Heaven John 17.3 1 Cor. 13. c. and the foretastes are excellent preparations Therefore still remember that all that you do in the world for the getting and exercising the true Knowledge and Love of God in Christ so much you do for the foretastes and best preparations for Heaven 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him with approbation and love II. In the time of sickness and near to death Direct 1. Let your first work when God seemeth to call you away be to renew a diligent search of your hearts and lives and to see lest in either of them there should be any sin which is not truly hated and repented of Though this must be done through all your lives yet with an extraordinary care and diligence when you are like to come so speedily to your tryal For it is only to Repenting Believers that the Covenant of Grace doth pardon sin And the impenitent have no right to pardon Though for ordinary failings which are forgotten and for sins which you are willing to know and remember but cannot a general Repentance will be accepted as when you pray God to shew you the sins which you see not and to forgive those which you cannot remember or find out Yet those which you know must be particularly repented of And Repentance is a remembring duty and will hardly forget any great and heinous sins which are known to be sins indeed If your Repentance be then to begin alas it is high time to begin it And though if it be sound it will be saving that is If it be such as would settle you in a truly godly life if you should recover yet you will hardly have any assurance of salvation or such comfort in it as is desirable to dying man Because you will very hardly know whether it come from true conversion and contain a Love to God and Godliness or whether it be only the fruit of fear and would come to nothing if you were restored to health But he that hath truly repented heretofore and lived in uprightness towards God and man and hath nothing to do but to discern his sincerity and to exercise a special Repentance for some late or special sins or to do that again which he hath done unfeignedly before will much more easily get the assurance and comfort of his forgiveness and salvation Direct 2. Renew your sense of the Vanity of this world Which at such a time one would think should be very easie to do When you see that you are near an end of all your pleasures and have had all except a grave to rot in that ever this world willd o for you may you not easily then see whether the godly or the worldly be the wiser and the happier man And what it is that the life of man should be spent in seeeking after Matth. 6.33 Isa 55.1 2 3. Eccles 7.3 4 5 6. Direct 3. Remember what Flesh is and what it hath been to you that you may not be too loth to lay it down Of the dust it was made and to the dust it must return Corruption is your Father and the Worm is your Mother and your Sister Job 17.14 Drought and beat consume the Snow-waters so doth the grave those which have sinned The womb shall forget him the Worm shall feed sweetly on him Job 24.20 Flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but this mortal must put on immortality by being made a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15. And this flesh hath cost you so dear to carry it about so much care and labour to provide it food to repair that which daily vanisheth away and so many weary painful hours and so many fearful