seise upon my Body no part of my Body free from pain no place affords me ease no Cordial gives me comfort my Breath short and painful and even loathsome unto my self my eyes consumed and weary with expectation of Deliverance my Heart faint and not able to support its weak and languishing motion my Stomach gone and not able to receive or digest the most pleasant meat my exhausted consumed Body standing in need of supply and yet unable to receive it my Intrails parcht and scorcht with burning heat which is nevertheless the more increased by that which should allay it my Limbs and Joynts and Arteries torn and racked with tormenting Convulsions my Sleep gone or more troublesome than if I were awaked no posture no place affording me ease or relaxation in the Morning I wish it were Night and in the Night I long for the Morning my easie Bed assords me no ease and I desire to rise and when I am risen I cannot bear it I must presently lie down importunately longing for this or that meat and when I have it loathing the very sight of it In sum the whole mass of my Blood corrupted and my whole Body a bag full of putrefaction stink and corruption loathsome to my self and others a very Carcass bound to a living Soul tired with her burthen exquisitly sensible of it unable either to bear it or deliver her self of it These be some of those sad attendants that accompany this condition and it may be all those Calamities befal a Man at once together with the loss of Friends or near Relations as in the case of Job and then what remains to denominate a Man perfectly miserable if the calamities of this World can do it But if under any or all of those Pressures I can upon sound grounds and assurance rest upon my Hope of Immortality these and a thousand more External miseries will not only be tolerable but easie When I can upon sound Convictions and Experiences practically entertain my self with such thoughts as these It is true I am as miserable in Externals as the World can make me but in the midst of all my External Losses and Poverty I have in my prospect a Kingdom prepared for me that cannot be shaken a Treasure in Heaven above the malice and reach of Men and Devils and after a few days spent in my poor Pilgrimage through this World I shall as surely possess it as if I were already actually invested in it and as this Hope doth allay the sharpness of my passage so in my arrival to my Happiness my present suffering will make my future rest more welcome That Beam of Light and Comfort that this Hope darts into my Soul will inlighten my darkest Night here and walk along with me to my Canaan when my Hope shall be swallowed up in Vision and Fruition in the midst of all the Storms and Reproaches and Vilifyings that the World heaps upon me I injoy the Comfortable Presence and Favor of my God in my Soul and his Suffrage and Attestation and Acceptance of my Innocence which doth infinitely more over-ballance the Frowns and Contempts of the World than the favor of the greatest Prince doth over-weigh the Reproaches of the basest Peasant In the midst of my closest and darkest Restraints I have that converse which the strictest guard the strongest Bars cannot exclude I have the Presence and Conversation of my Saviour Christ and his Blessed and Sacred Spirit which doth cure and heal the noysomness and supply the retiredness of my closest Restraints and this company makes my Prison a Temple wherein I can with his Blessed Apostle with a chearful Heart magnifie my God my Soul and Mind is at liberty and free in despight of Gates of Brass and Bars of Iron In the midst of all my Pains and Sickness and the tedious declination of my Body to its final corruption and dissolution I can satisfie my self with an expectation of a happy Resurrection when this weak and frail and dying Body of mine shall be made like unto the glorious Body of my glorified Saviour and translated into the Company of Saints and Angels where there shall be no Sickness nor Sorrow nor Pain nor Sin nor Death and I shall meet with those Friends and Relations of mine which died before me in the same hope I look upon these my present Pains and Sickness and Weakness as the Harbingers of that dissolution which shall put an end to them and begin my Happiness and hereupon I bear them not only with-Patience but Comfort the greater their Violence is the sooner they will finish their business and rend away this mortal corrupted Carcass from my Immortal Soul and even in the instant of my dissolution can by the eye of my Faith discern the Blessed Angels ready to transport my Soul cleansed by the Blood of Christ into the joys of Heaven and my Blessed Redeemer standing on the other side as it were of this dead Lake ready to receive me and lead me into those Heavenly Mansions of Rest and Happiness which he went before to prepare for me This Hope and Assurance as it makes the best things of this World in their best appearance and dress but light and vain and empty and nothing So it makes the worst things that the World and Mortality can inflict or suffer light and easie For these light Afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal 2 Cor. 4.17 18. These be some of those Preparations that will admirably fit and prepare us to meet with Afflictions and in them these two things are to be remembred First That we do not only content our selves with Notions and bare Speculations of these things but that we may practically digest them into our Hearts and Resolutions for if they be but notional only Afflictions when they come will easily rend and defeat these Notions I have known many Men that have had very excellent Notions of this kind and could discourse excellently of them nay could urge them very effectually upon others but when any little Cross hath overtaken them they have been quite out of all Patience and Comfort and as much to seek how to entertain it as those that had never known any such matter nay a poor experienced Christian that could not talk half so much hath received the shock of Affliction with much more Christian Resolution than the other and the reason is The former had digested these Matters barely into Notion and the latter he made it Practical and Cordial When I read Plutarch and Seneca and Tully I find excellent Instances and Reasonings to support the Mind in Afflictions and many times upon the soundest Grounds that can be Plutarch de Animae Tranquillitate tells us That he
us to think that if the Inferiour Animals have a kind of Felicity or Happiness attending their being and suitable to it that much more Man the nobler being should not be destitute of any Happiness attending his being and suitable to it 3. But rather consequently that Man being the nobler Creature should not only have an Happiness as well as Inferiour Animals but he should have it placed in some more Noble and Excellent rank and kind than that wherein the Brutes have their Happiness placed 4. It is plain that the Inferiour Animals have a Happiness or Felicity proportionate to their Nature and Fabrick which as they exceedingly desire so they do in a great measure Enjoy namely a sensible Good answering their sensible Appetite Every thing hath Organs and Instruments answerring to the Use and Convenience of their Faculties Organs for their Sense and Local motion and for their Feeding for their Generation of their kind Every thing hath its peculiar Instincts and Connatural Artifices and Energies for the Exercises of their Organs and Faculties for their Preservation and Nourishment Every thing hath a supply of External Objects answering those Faculties Desires and Instincts Meats proper for their Nourishment Places proper for their Repose difference of Sexes in their several kinds answering their Procreative Appetite And most commonly such a proportion of Health and Integrity of Nature as goes a long to that period of time allotted for their duration and in default thereof they are for the most part furnished with Medicines naturally provided for them which they naturally know and use so that they seem to want nothing that is necessary to the complement of a Sensible Felicity It is true they are in a great measure Subjected to the Dominion of Mankind which is sometimes over severely exercised but then they have the Benefit of Supplies from them Protection under them and if they meet not with Masters more unreasonable than themselves they find Moderation from them They are also exposed to the Rapine one of another the weaker Beasts Birds and Fishes being commonly the prey of the greater but yet they are commonly endued with Nimbleness v. Lactant. de Opific Dei c. 2. Artifices or Shifts to avoid their Adversaries But be these what Abatements of their Sensible Happiness may be yet they have certain Negative Advantages that conduce very much to their Happiness or at least remove very much of what might abate it and thereby render their fruition more free and perfect and uninterrupted for instance they seem to have no Anticipations or Fear of Death as a common Evil incident to their nature They have no Anticipations of Dangers till they immediately present themselves unto them They have no great sense or apprehensions of any thing better than what at present they enjoy They are not under the Obligation of any Law or under the Sense of any such thing and consequently the Sincereness of what they enjoy not interrupted by the strokes of Conscience under a sense of deviation from Duty or Guilt 5. It is therefore plain that if the Humane Nature have no greater or better Happiness than what is accommodate only to a Sensible Nature they have no greater Happiness than the Beasts have which is not reasonable to be supposed for a Nature so far exceeding them 6. Farther yet if the Humane Nature were not under a capacity of a greater Happiness than what is terminated in Sense mankind were much more Vnhappy than the basest Animal and the more Excellent the Humane Nature is above the Beasts nay the more excellent any one individual of the Humane kind were above another the more miserable he were and the more uncapable of being in any measure happy for the more Wise and Sagacious any man were the more he must needs be sensible of Death which sense would sower all the Happiness of a sensible Good the more sensible he must needs be not only of the shortness and uncertainty of sensible Enjoyments but also of their Poorness Emptiness Insufficiency Dissatisfactoriness It is evident that a Fool sets a greater rate upon a Sensible Good than a Man truly Wise and consequently the Fool could be the only man capable of Happiness for it is most certain that according to the measure of the Esteem that any man hath of any good he enjoys such is the measure of his Happiness in that Enjoyment Since the Happiness is somewhat that is intrinsecal to the Sense or Mind that enjoys it A thing really Good can never make that man Happy who is under a Sense of Evil or Inconvenience by that enjoyment so long as he is under that sense Since therefore it is preposterous and unreasonable to suppose that Man the best of terrestrial Creatures and Wise men the best of men should be Excluded from at least an equal degree of Happiness with the Beasts that perish and since it must needs be that a bare Sensible Good can never communicate to a man an Equal degree of Happiness with a Beast nor to a Wise man an Equal degree of Happines with a Fool it remains there must needs in common reason be some other subject wherein the Happiness of a Man of a Wise Man must consist that is not barely Sensible Good 7. All the good things of this Life they are but Sensible Goods and therefore they cannot be the true matter of that Happiness which we may reasonably think belongs to the reasonable Nature as such the former will appear by an induction of particulars which I shall pursue in order with the particular instances of their Insufficiencies to make up a true Happiness to the Reasonable Nature as well as that general that they are but Sensible Goods and meerly accommodated to a Sensible Life and Nature 1. Life it self is not as such a sufficient constituent of Happiness and the Instance is Evident because it is possible that Life it self may be Miserable there may be Life where there is Sickness Pain Disgrace Poverty and all those External Occurrences that may render life Grievous and Burthensome Life may indeed be the Subject of Happiness when it hath all those contributions that concur to make it such but Life alone and as such cannot be Happiness because there may be a Miserable Life 2. Those Bona Corporis or Compositi the Goods of the Body are not sufficient to make up a suitable Happiness to the Reasonable Nature as Health Strength for the Beasts themselves enjoy this and for the most part the Brutes enjoy a greater measure of these than Mankind and besides still there is that which is like the Worm at the root of the Gourd that spoils the Happiness that must arise from it viz. Mortality and Death which will certainly pull down this Tabernacle and Man hath an unintermitted Pre-apprehension of it which sowers the very enjoyment it self And in this as hath been said the Beasts that perish have a pre-eminence over Mankind for though both are
are attaining we cannot secure to be of any long or certain continuance and vanisheth or proves utterly unuseful when we die Of what use will then the knowledg of Municipal Laws of History of Natural Philosophy of Politicks of Mathematicks be in the next World although our Souls Survive us As to the 2. Namely Moral Virtues It is true Aristotle 1. Ethicor. Cap. 7. Tells us that Happiness or Blessedness is the Exercise or Operation of the Reasonable Soul according to the best and most perfect Virtue in vita perfecta in a perfect Life But he tells us not what that vita perfecta is nor where to be found and yet without it there is no Happiness But even this exercise of Virtue though much more noble than the bare habit of Virtue which is but in order to Action or Exercise if considered singly and apart and abstractively from the reward of it is not enough to constitute a Happiness suitable to the Humane Nature 1. The Actions of Virtue for the most part respect the good and benefit of others more than of the party that exerciseth them as Justice Righteousness Charity Liberality Fortitude and principally if not only Religion Temperance Patience and Contentation are those Virtues that advantage the party himself the rest most respect the good of others 2. We find it too often true that most good men have the least share of the comforts and conveniencies of this Life but are exposed many times even upon the account of their very Virtues to Poverty Want Reproach Neglect so that their very Virtues are occasions oftentimes of such Calamities which must needs abate the perfection of Life which is a necessary ingredient into Happiness 3. But if their life be not rendred grievous upon the account of their Virtues yet they are not thereby priviledged from many Calamities which render their lives unhappy and oftentimes renders them uncapable of the exercise of those Virtues which must make up their Happiness Poverty disables them from acts of Liberality Neglect and Scorn by great Men and Governors renders them uncapable of acts of distributive Justice Sickness and tormenting bodily Diseases many times attack them and render their lives miserable and many times disables even their very intellectuals and to these disasters they are at least equally lyable with others and if all these Calamities were absent yet there are two states of life which they must necessarily go through if they live that in a great measure renders them necessarily uncapable of these actions of Virtue namely the Passions and Perturbations of Youth and the decays and infirmities of Old Age. 4. The highest Good attainable by the exercise of Virtue in the party himself is Tranquillity of Mind and indeed it is a noble and excellent portion but as the case stands with us in this life without a farther prospect to a life to come even such a Tranquillity of mind is not perfectly attainable by us and hath certain appendances to it that abate that sincereness of Happiness that is requirable in it to compleat the Happiness of the Humane Nature and these are principally these two 1. The necessity that we are under considering the weakness of our nature by our daily failings Errors and Sins to turn aside from the perfect rule of Virtue whereby we are under a kind of moral necessity of violating or abating that Tranquillity of mind so that it seems in it self morally impossible either fully to attain or constantly and uniformly to hold that Tranquillity of mind 2. Still Mortality Mortality Death and the Grave terminates this Felicity if it only respect this life and the fear and pre-apprehension of such a termination sowers and allays even that Felicity which Tranquillity of mind otherwise offers This fear and anticipation of death as the Apostle says Heb. 2. detains men Captive all the days of their life and in a great measure breaks that Tranquillity of mind which is the constituent of this Happiness Again though Virtue and Virtuous actions have had their Elogia by excellent Philosophers Orators Poets and we are told by them that Si Virtus oculis cerneretur it would appear the most beautiful thing in the World yet it hath had but few followers in respect of the rest of the World and possibly would find a much colder entertainment if the recompence of Reward were not also propounded with it and believed Therefore there is and must be somewhat else besides bare Platonick Notions of Virtue and naked proposals of it that must give it a conquest over the satisfaction of our Lusts and Pleasures especially in the time of our Youth and Strength and before old age overtake us And hence it is that in all ages wise Rulers and Governors have annexed sensible Rewards and Honours and such things as have a lively and quick relish with them unto the exercise of Virtue And hence it is that the most wise God himself hath not propounded Virtue and Goodness to the children of men singly as its own and only Reward but hath also promised and really and effectually provided a Recompence of Reward for it that Happiness which I have been all this while in quest after and hath made Virtue and Goodness the way the method to attain that happiness which is in truth the end of it Upon the whole matter I therefore conclude that the Happiness of Mankind is not to be found in this life but it is a flower that grows in the Garden of Eternity and to be expected only in its full complement and fruition in that life which is to succeed after our bodily dissolution that although Peace of Conscience Tranquillity of mind and the sense of the favour of God that we enjoy in this Life like the bunches of Grapes brought by the Spies from Canaan are the prelibations and anticipations of our Happiness yet the complement of our Happiness consists in the Beatifical Vision of the ever blessed God to all Eternity where there is a vita perfecta a perfect life free from Pain from Sorrow from Cares from Fears vita perfecta a perfect life of Glory and Immortality out of the reach or danger of Death or the loss of that Happiness which we shall then enjoy in the presence of the ever Glorious God in whose presence is fulness of Joy and at whose right hand are Pleasures for evermore Amen OF THE Chief End of Man what it is AND The Means to attain it Thesis I. The Chief End of Man is to Glorifie God and everlastingly to enjoy him WHen we come to any reasonable measure of understanding the first question we propound concerning the actions of our selves or others is to enquire concerning the End why this or that is done and the propounding of an End to what we do is one thing that gives us Reasonable Creatures a priviledg above the Beasts And the wiser we grow the more we enquire after and propound to our selves more excellent Ends and of
the Writings of Men especially when written by several Men at several times their Writings do seldom or never agree but differ and cross one another And the reason is because they are written by several Men who are all guided by several Minds and Judgments But the Scriptures though written by several Men in several Ages many unacquainted with one anothers Writings yet they all consent and speak the same Truth which is an evidence that it was One and the same Spirit that did dictate them 2. It is not possible for any Man without Revelation from God to foretel things to come Now these holy Writings foretold things that most certainly came to pass in their several seasons though many Generations after the Prophesie written therefore they were written by Inspiration from God As for instance the Babylonian Captivity and the Deliverance from it by Jeremy the Persian and Grecian Monarchy by Daniel the Birth and Death of Christ the final destruction of Jerusalem and Dispersion of the Jews the Conversion of the Gentiles by Isaiah and the rest of the Prophets 3. The Matter contained in these holy Writings is that of the greatest importance the Will of God concerning Man the discovery of the Creation of the World by God of assurance of the Life to come of the means of Peace between God and Man These are things of the highest concernment in the World yet things which could never be discovered but by God himself and such as never any writings of Men only ever could discover or durst pretend unto The height and rarity and excellence and weight of the matter of these Books do evidence that they were the Revelations of God to Man and by his Providence committed to writing and delivered over to Mankind as the Rule to attain their Chief End 3. As the Rule to attain our Chief End must come from God and as the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Word of God so we say That these Scriptures are the Rule and the only Rule to attain our Chief End Good Books of other Men good Education good Sermons the determinations of the Church are good helps but there is no other Rule but this It is by this Rule we must try other Mens Books and Sermons yea the very Church it self Thus the Bereans tried the Doctrine of the Apostles themselves by the Scriptures which they then had and are commended for it Acts 17.11 And Peter prefers the evidence of the Scriptures before a voice from Heaven 2 Pet. 1.18 19. And Christ himself appeals to the Scriptures to justifie himself and his Doctrine Joh. 6.39 And if the Scriptures be the only Rule 1. Then not a Natural Conscience especially as the case now stands with Mankind for that is many times corrupted and false principled puts good for evil and evil for good It is and may be a great help guide and direction not a perfect Rule 2. Then not the Writings and Traditions of Men God that appoints the End and Means must be the discoverer of the Means of our Salvation 3. Then not pretended Revelations those may be Mens imaginations or the Devils delusions to prevent and discover which God hath set up this great and standing Revelation of his Scriptures 4. Then not the Church for that may err and it hath no way to evidence it self but by the Scriptures which are its Foundation The business of Mans Salvation is of that importance and the Wisdom of God so great that he will not commit so weighty a matter to such uncertain Rules as these but hath provided one of his own making the Holy Scriptures Thesis III. The Principal Subject of the Scriptures is what Man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of Man It is the Principal Subject of the Scriptures 1. Because it is of the greatest importance and concernment Eccles 12.13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of Man Fear God which cannot be without the knowledge of him and keep his Commandments which contains his duty of Obedience to him 2. Because all the other Matters of the Scriptures have a kind of dependance upon and connexion with this Principal Matter or Subject But though this be the Principal Matter or Subject of the Scriptures yet they also contain very many other matters that do very much concern us to know and believe as namely What we are to understand concerning our selves the State of our Creation the Fall of Man the State wherein that Fall hath put all Mankind the means of our recovery the Immortality of the Soul the Resurrection the different estate of the good and bad after death the History of the Church and Houshold of God from the Creation of Man till some thirty years after the Resurrection of Christ and divers other and necessary Matters to be known both for our direction instruction and comfort And as the Scriptures do principally teach the Knowledge of Good and our duty as the principal Subject so they do principally teach it above other teachings or means It is true that the very Light of Nature doth teach us much of what is to be known concerning God and our duty to him As namely that there is a God and that there is but one God that this God is the first Cause and also the preserver of all things That he is Eternal without beginning or end Infinite Spiritual without mixture most Perfect and therefore most free most Powerful most Holy most Wise most Just most Bountiful and Merciful And upon all these Grounds the Light of Nature teacheth that he is to be Honored to be Feared to be Worshipped to be Obeyed This the Apostle shews us Rom. 1.20 For the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse And this light of Nature gives this Manifestation of God 1. By the Works of Creation and Providence 2. By the Workings of the Conscience 3. By a Traditional delivery over of some truths from man to man which by the study and pains of some wise men and Law-givers raised up by the Providence of God have been perfected and delivered over to others But the Preheminence of the Scriptures in their instruction of Mankind in the Knowledge of God and his duty to God appears partly in these considerations 1. The knowledge the Scriptures give in these things is more easie to be attained because it sets down these truths plainly that the most ordinary capacity may understand Whereas the knowledge of these things by the Light of Nature is more difficult requires much observation and industry and attention deducing and drawing down one thing from another and so arriving at their knowledge by much pains and study 2. The knowledge of these things delivered by the Scripture is much more
mind 1. The former part of this Duty is to Know our Creator This is that which aged David commended to his young Son Solomon 1 Chron. 28.9 And thou Solomon my Son Know thou the God of thy Father And we have Two excellent Books wherein the Knowledge of God is discovered to us the Book of his Works the Works of his Creation and Providence and the Book of his Word contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament wherein he is more fully and explicitly and plainly discovered unto us These Books we are often to read and consider And this is the chief reason why Understanding and Reason is given unto Mankind and not unto the Beasts that perish namely that we might improve it to the attaining of the Knowledge of Almighty God in the due consideration of the Works and Word of God and hereby we learn his Eternity his Infiniteness his Wisdom his Power his Goodness his Justice his Mercy his Alsufficiency his Soveraignty his Providence his Will his Purpose concerning Mankind his Care of them his Beneficence towards them And the Nature of this Knowledge is not barely Speculative but it is a knowledge that is Operative that perfects our Nature that conforms it to the Image of that God we thus know that sets Mankind in its due state and station keeps it in its just subordination unto the God we thus know which is our greatest Perfection This Knowledge must necessarily make us love him because he is Good Merciful Bountiful Beneficent and therefore the Wise man chuseth to express him by that Title of Creator from whom we receive our very Being and all the good that can accompany it This Knowledge teacheth us to be thankful unto him as our Greatest Benefactor to depend upon him because of his Power and Goodness to fear him because of his Power and Justice to obey him because of his Power Justice and Soveraignty to walk before him in Sincerity because of his Power Justice and Wisdom In sum the several Attributes of Almighty God do strike upon the choicest parts and faculties and affections and tendencies of our Hearts and Souls and do tune them into that order and harmony that is best suitable to the perfecting of our Nature and the placing of them in a right and just posture both in relation to Almighty God our selves and others 2. The second part of our Duty is To Remember our Creator thus known which is to have the Sense and Exercise of this Knowledge always about us to set Almighty God always before our eyes frequently to think of him to make our application to him For many there are that may have a knowledge of God but yet the exercise of that knowledge is suspended sometimes by Inadvertence and Inconsiderateness sometimes by a wilful Abdication of the exercise of that Knowledge And these are such as forget God that have not God in all their thoughts that say to the Almighty Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways The Benefits of this Remembring our Creator are very great 1. It keeps the Soul and Life in a constant and true and regular frame As the want of the Knowledge so the want of the Remembrance of God is the cause of that disorder and irregularity of our minds and lives 2. And consequently the best Preventive of Sin and Apostacy and Backsliding from God and our Duty to him 3. It keeps the Mind and Soul full of constant Peace and Tranquillity because it maintains a constant humble and comfortable converse of the Soul with the Presence and Favor of God 4. It renders all conditions of life comfortable and full of contentment because it keeps the Soul in the presence of God and communicates unto it continual Influxes of Contentment and Comfort for what can disturb him who by the continual Remembrance of his Creator hath the constant acquaintance with his Power Goodness and Alsufficiency 5. Though no Man hath ground enough to promise to himself an Immunity from Temporal Calamities yet certainly there is no better expedient in the World to secure a Man against them and preserve him from them than this For the most part of those sharp Afflictions that befal Men are but to make them Remember their Creator when they have forgotten him that he may open their ears to Discipline and awake them to Remember their Creator Read Job 33. A Man that keeps about him the Remembrance of his Creator prevents in a great measure the necessity of that severe Discipline 6. In short this Remembrance of our Creator is an Antidote against the Allurements of the World the Temptations of Satan the deceitfulness of Sin It renders the best things the World can afford inconsiderable in comparison of him whom we remember it renders the worst the World can do but little and contemptible so long as we Remember our Creator it makes our lives happy our deaths easie and carries us to an everlasting Injoyment of that Creator whom we have here remembred The Injunction of the Duty of Remembring our Creator is the more importantly necessary 1. In regard of the great consequence of the benefit we receive from it as before 2. In regard of the great danger of omitting it The truth is the greatest part of the miscarriages of our lives are occasioned by the want of the remembrance of our Creator then it is that we fail in our Duty when we forget him 3. In regard of the many Temptations this World affords to make us forget our Creator the Pleasures and Profits and Recreations and Preferments and Noise and Business of this Life yea many of them which are in themselves and in their Nature lawful are apt to ingross our Thoughts our Time our Cares and to leave too little room in our memory for this great Duty that most deserves it namely The Remembrance of our Creator Our memory is a noble Cabinet and there cannot be a more excellent Jewel to lodge in it than our Great and Bountiful Creator yet for the most part we fill this noble Cabinet with pebles and straws if not with dung and filth with either sinful or at least with Unprofitable Impertinent Trifling Furniture 2. The Season for this Duty that is here principally commended is The days of our Youth And the Reasons that commend that Season for this Duty are principally these 1. Because this is the most Accepted Time God Almighty was pleased under the Old Law to intimate this in the reservation to himself of the first fruits and the first born And surely the first fruits of our Lives when dedicated to his remembrance are best accepted to him 2. Because this Season is commonly our Turning Season to Good or Evil. And if in Youth we forget our Creator it is very great difficulty to resume our Duty Commonly it requires either very extraordinary Grace or very strong Affliction to reclaim a Man to his Duty whose Youth hath been seasoned with ill Principles
this Uncourteous dealing with our Lusts and Temptations will much countervail the unpleasingness of the Duty A man is tempted to a Sin he holds conference with it and is inticed to treat with it and to think of it and it pleaseth him but it is a Thousand to one if it stay there but unless some great diversion by the Grace of God or some External restraint by Shame or Punishment prevent him he commits the Sin and so Lust when it hath Conceived will bring forth Sin and Sin when finished will bring forth Shame and Death or at the best Shame and Sorrow How will a Man reckon with himself What am I the better for that Contentment that I took in this Sin the Contentment is past and that which it hath left me is nothing else but a mis-giving Conscience a sense of a displeased God ashamed to bring my mind in his presence a pre-apprehension of some mischief or inconvenience to follow me a despondency of mind to draw near to God under it and either a great deal of Sorrow and Vexation or Affliction under it or which is the usual gratification of Satan after Sin committed to put away the remembrance of a Sin past with the committing of another till at last the Guilt grows to such a moles that a Man is desperately given over to all kind of Villany and as his Sins increase his Guilt and Shame increaseth On the other side I have denyed my Lust or my Temptation and it is gone First I am as well without it as if I had committed it for it may be the Sin had been past and the contentment that I took in it and I had been as well without it but besides all this I have no Guilt cleaving to my Soul no sting in my Conscience no dispondent nor mis-giving Mind no Interruption of my Peace with God or my self I enjoy my Innocence my Peace my Access to God with Comfort nay more than all this I have a secret Attestation of the Spirit of God in my Conscience that I have obeyed him and have pleased him and have rejected the Enemy of his Glory and my Happiness I have a secret advance of my Interest and Confidence in him and Dependance upon him and Favour with him and Liberty and Access to him which doth Infinitely more than counter vail the satisfaction of an impure and unprofitable and vexing Lust which leaves no footsteps behind it but shame and Sorrow and Guilt 15. As Resolution and Severity to a mans self is one of the best remedies against the flatttery and deceit of Lust so there are certain Expedients that are subservient to that Resolution as namely First Avoiding of Idleness for the Soul in the Body is like a flame that as it were feeds upon that oily substance of the Body which according to the various qualifications or temper of the Body gives it a tincture somewhat like it self and unless the Soul be kept in action it will dwell too much upon that tincture that it receives from it and be too intent and pleased or at least too much tainted and transported and delighted with those fuliginous foul Vapors that arise from the Flesh and natural Constitution Keep it therefore busied about somewhat that is fitter for it that may divert that Intention and Complacency in those fumes that the inferiour part of the Soul is apt to take in them and so be tempted transported or abused by them Secondly A frequent and constant Consideration of the Presence of God and his Holy Angels Luke 15.7 10. 1 Cor. 4.9 who are Spectators of thy Constancy to God and his party and delighted in it or of thy Apostasie Bruitishness and Baseness of mind and grieved at it If a good Man were but acquainted with all my Actions and Motions of my mind upon the Advance of Lusts and Temptations it would make me ashamed to offend in his sight but much more if a pure and glorious Angel did in my view attend observe and behold me but when the Eternal God doth behold me who hath given me this Command to deny my Lusts and hath told me the danger of yielding to them that they bring forth Sin and Death and Hell offers his Grace to assist me promiseth Reward to my Obedience and Constancy how shall I then dare to offend with so much presumption Thirdly A frequent Consideration of Christ's Satisfaction Sufferings and Intercession These Lusts that now solicit me to their observance were those that Crucified my Saviour it was the end of his Passion to Redeem me not only from the Guilt but from the subjection to them It is he that beholds me how shall I trample his Blood under foot If I prostitute my self to them how shall I despise and as much as in me lies disappoint him in the very end of his Incarnation How shall I shame his Gospel before men and as much as in me lies put him to shame in the presence of the Father and all the Holy Angels when they shall be witnesses of my preferring a base Lust before him How can I expect the Intercession of my Saviour for me at the right hand of God who beholds me thus unworthily to serve a Lust though to my Damnation rather than obey my Redeemer to my Salvation 4. Frequent Consideration of Death and Judgment A base Lust solicites me to obey it Shall I accept or deny it It may be this may be the last action of my Life and possibly Death that might have been respited if I shall deny my Lust may be my next event if I obey it and as Death finds me so will Judgment find me Would I be content that such an act as this should be the Amen of my Life and it may be seal me up to eternal rejection Would I be content that my Soul should be presently carried into the presence of God under the last act of my Life to his dishonor Or on the other side if I deny this base importunate Messenger of Hell and it should please God to strike me presently after with Sickness or Death would it not be a more comfortable entrance into that black Valley with a clear Conscience and an Innocent Heart that could with Comfort say as once Hezekiah did upon the like occasion Isai 38.3 Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Fifthly A due Consideration of the Issue of those solicitations of Lust if assented unto the end of it is Death it will be bitterness in the end it cannot with all its pleasures countervail that bitterness that will most certainly attend it nor can it give any security against it Suppose thou art solicited to a thought or act of Injustice Impurity or Intemperance if thou wilt needs be talking with the Temptation ask it whether it be not a Sin against that God in whose hands thy Soul is and if it be whether his Anger and
and Pilgrimage not of my Repose and Rest but must look further for that Happiness And truly when I consider that it hath been the Wisdom of God Almighty to exercise those Worthies which he left as Patterns to the rest of Mankind with this kind of Discipline in this World I have reason not to complain of it as a Difficulty or an Inconvenience but to be thankful to him for it as an Instruction and Document to put me in remembrance of a better Home and to incite me to make a due provision for it even that Everlasting Rest which he hath provided for them that love him and by pouring me thus from Vessel to Vessel to keep me from fixing my self too much upon this World below But the truth is did we consider this World as becomes us even as Wise Men we may easily find without the help of any such particular Discipline of this Nature that this World below neither was intended nor indeed can be a place of Rest but only a kind of Laboratory to fit and prepare the Souls of the Children of Men for a better and more abiding State a School to exercise and train us up into habits of Patience and Obedience till we are fitted to another Station a little narrow Nursery wherein we may be dressed and pruned till transplanted into a better Paradise The continual Troubles and Discomposures and Sicknesses and Weaknesses and Calamities that attend our lives the shortness and continued Vexations occurring in them and finally the common examples of Death and Mortality of all Ages Sexes Conditions of Mankind are a sufficient instruction to convince reasonable Men that have the Seriousness and Patience to consider and observe That we have no abiding City here And on the other side if we will give our selves but the leasure to consider the Great Wisdom of Almighty God that orders every thing in the World to ends suitable and proportionable the excellence of the Soul and Mind of Man the great Advances and Improvements his Nature is capable of the admirable means the Merciful and Wise God hath afforded unto Mankind by his Works of Nature and Providence by his Word and Instructions to inable him for a Nobler Life than this World below can yield will easily confess that there is another State another City to come which becomes every Good and Wise and Considerate Man to look after and fit himself for And yet let a Man look upon the generality of Mankind with a due and severe consideration they will appear to be like a company of mad or distempered People The generality of the World make it their whole business to provide for a Rest and Happiness in this World to make these vain acquests of Wealth and Honor and Preferments and Pleasures of this World their great if not only Business and Happiness and which is yet a higher degree of frensie to esteem this the only Wisdom and to esteem the careful Provision for Eternity the Folly of a few weak melancholy fanciful Men Whereas it is in truth and in due time it will most evidently appear that those Men that are most sedulous and solicitous touching the attaining of their Everlasting Rest are the only true Wise Men and so shall be acknowledged by those that now despise them Wisd 5.4 We Fools accounted his life Madness and his end to be without Honor How is he numbred among the Children of God and his Lot is among the Saints When I come to my Inn I have this consideration presently occurs to me If my Lodging be good and fair the Furniture splendid the Attendance great the Provisions good and well ordered yet I streight consider this is not the place of my Rest I must leave it to morrow and therefore I set not my Heart upon it And again if my Inn be but poor my Entertainment mean my Lodging decayed I do not presently send for Painters Carpenters and Masons to Repair or Beautifie it but I content my self with it and will bear with the inconveniencies because I consider it will be but for a night and to morrow I shall be gone and possibly come to my home where I shall be better convenienced And although the truth is that this World is little other than our Inn to entertain us in our Journey to another Life and our stay in it is many times very short yea our longest stay here in comparison of Eternity is infinitely more short than a nights lodging at an Inn in comparison to the longest life here yet it is a wonderful thing to observe how much we are taken up with the concerns of this our Inn what a stir we keep about it what pains and cost we imploy in it how much of our time is laid out upon it as if it were our only home If our Lot cast us upon a handsome Lodging as it were and in it furnished with Wealth or Glory or Honor How we pride our selves in it how goodly we look upon our selves how happy we think our selves what care we have to make it more Rich Glorious and Splendid And on the other side if our Lot cast us upon a lower meaner Station if we are Poor or Sickly or Neglected or under Hatches what a deal of Impatience and Discontent and Unquietness appears Nay though our Lodging and Entertainment in this Inn of the World be pretty well and will serve till we take our Journey yet if it be not so Fine and Splendid and Rich and Comely as anothers if our Meat be enough to suffice nature if our Cloaths enough to protect us from cold if our House good enough to keep off the Storms and defend us from Injuries yet if these be not so good as such a Mans or such a Neighbors not so good as my Ancestors or Relations Lord What a deal of Unquietness and Complaining and Envy and Impatience and Turbulency of mind there is in Men What Designs and Frauds and Plots and Underminings and Undue Means Men take to advance their own condition and to depress others and all this while never consider that which would easily cure the extravagance as well of one hand as of the other Namely This is not my home it is but my Inn if it be Beautiful Splendid Convenient if my condition in it be Wealthy Honorable Prosperous I will not set my heart upon it nor think any better of my self for it nor set up my Rest in it It is but my Inn I must leave it it may be to morrow On the other side if it be but Poor Weak Infirm Ignoble Low I will content my self it is but my Inn it may serve for my passage I shall it may be leave it to morrow and then if I have taken that due care that becomes me in my provision for my Eternal State I am certain the case will be mended with me however my Inn be Poor Mean Inconvenient Troublesome it is but for a night my home will be better
that hath learned the Nature of the Soul and thinks that by death it shall attain a better or at least not a worse condition hath a great freedom from fear of Death and no small viaticum to attain Tranquillity of mind in his life And many such instances are given by the Stoicks especially Seneca and by Tully But when the latter came to an exquisite apprehension of his danger from Anthony his Philosophical Notions and Contemplations were too weak to bear up his mind against those fears and therefore in his Sixteenth Epistle Lib. 10. to Atticus he writes to him to this effect If thou hast any thing to comfort me gather it up and write it not out of Learning or Books for I have these here with me Sed nescio quomodo imbecillior est medicina quam morbus But I know not how it comes to pass the Physick is too weak for the Disease And Job though a Wise and Experienced Man and bore up pretty well in his Afflictions yet his friend Eliphaz tells him and that truly Job 4.3 5. Behold thou hast instructed many and thou hast strengthned the weak hands but now it is come upon thee thou faintest c. Men may have excellent Theories to support in Affliction and can apply them to others in that condition with singular dexterity and advantage yet when the case comes to be their own their Spirits sink under them because these Theories many times flote in the Understanding but are not digested deeply and practically in the Heart Secondly What ever you do gain this Habit and Temper of Mind Actuate and Exercise your Faith make even your Reckonings get your Peace and Assurance setled before Sickness comes For a Man in any kind of suffering besides possibly may learn them because his mind is or may be in his intire strength but most certainly Sickness is an ill time to begin to learn these Contemplations unless they are learned before the Distempers of the Body discompose the Mind and make it unfit to begin to learn It is a time when that which hath been before fitted and laid up in store in the Soul must be drawn out and exercised but it will be a most difficult business then to begin that Lesson which should be learned in Health though practised in Sickness II. Thus much for our Preparation to meet Afflictions Now concerning our carriage under them First In the beginning and first Onset of any Affliction be very careful to keep the Mind in a due temper Call in all your Aids of Reason Religion and Duty to keep you in a right frame and temper of Moderation for Affliction of any kind when it hath lain a while upon a Man will probably bring him into order but at the first Onset the Passions begin to flie out and play reaks and disorder the Soul and fill it with Perturbation Then immoderate Anger or Murmuring or immoderate Sorrow or Fear flie out and Men thereby become less able to bear for the future and many times flie out into that Immoderation and Distemper at first either in Thoughts or Words or Actions that they are sorry for after and so draw upon themselves a double trouble First to Repent of their folly and immoderation and then to fit themselves for sufferings it throws more grains of Sin into the Scale of Afflictions and makes it heavier and many times longer than otherwise it would be And after such Perturbation and Exorbitancy of Passion upon the first inroads of Affliction a Man hath much ado to bring himself into a right and due temper This was Jobs case in the beginning of his Affliction he flies out into more Impatience and Disorder than all the rest of the time therefore beware and see thou keep thy mind in temper and check Perturbation at the first Onset call together all thy Grace and Resolutions and Reason to keep thy mind in due temper at first Secondly On the first Onset of any Affliction Lift up thy heart to God desire his Assistance and Grace to inable thee to carry a due temper and frame of Heart This is not only thy Duty and expected from thee by God but it is a singular help to inable thee to avoid any present Distemper For first it is a means to supply thee with more strength from Heaven to order thy self aright 2. It brings thy Soul into the Presence of God before whom it were a shame to bring any Perturbation the Passions and Distempers of our Minds are under an aw in his Presence 3. It is a diversion of the present bustle and stir that Passions are apt to make and being diverted at first they do not so suddenly nor so easily fall into a disorder Commonly Passions are most disorderly and impetuous upon the first occasion And if they be then interrupted or diverted the succors even of common Reason much more of Grace have opportunity to rally themselves and prevent Immoderate Perturbation Thirdly Make as speedy an Inquisition as thou canst into thy own state and what the cause of this Affliction may be Let us search and try our ways is the voice of every Affliction and commonly every Affliction upon any person that lies under any Sin unrepented of and not forsaken soon leads the Conscience to point out that Sin and indeed most Afflictions in such a case carry upon them the very Inscription of the Sin and bear some Analogy or Proportion with it Adonibezeks Cruelty and Davids Adultery were as it were written in the Punishments they suffered and might easily bring them to their remembrance If thou sufferest in thy Estate consider whether either Immoderate Worldliness and Covetousness or Confidence and Glory in thy Wealth went not before If thou sufferest in thy Name consider whether thy Reputation hath not been thy Idol or whether thou hast not born thy self too high upon thy Reputation and so of other Crosses Fourthly If upon this inquiry thou findest Sin written upon thy Sufferings or in the bottom of them speedily Repent of that sin Humble thy self in the sight of God for it take up Resolution against it This is the voice the injunction that this Rod gives thee and here thy special duty is Humiliation Fifthly If upon search thou findest thy Heart and Conscience clear look upon this Affliction as a Dispensation sent from God and with all Humility submit to his hand and know that the most Wise God sends it for most wise ends though thou seest not any Enormity in thy self that might deserve it It may be it is to exercise thy Patience thy Faith thy Dependance upon him It may be he discerns that some Temptation is like to meet with thee or some Corruption is growing in thee that thou dost not perceive and he sends this Messenger to divert the one and to prevent the other study to improve this Affliction to that end and here thy special duty is Patience and Vigilance Sixthly But it may be upon this search
Nature laid hold upon that seeming good and violated the Command This taught the Wise man to pray against extreams either of Plenty or Poverty because his corrupted Nature was ready to turn either into Temptation Riches into Arrogance and Presumption Poverty into Blasphemy and Murmuring Prov. 30.9 3. For that Act which is not ordered unto Sin but to some Experiment or Tryal of the temper or disposition that is in a Man a Temptation of Trial. Thus God tempted Abraham when he commanded him to offer up his Son to prove the sincerity of his Love and Obedience to God Gen. 22.12 By this I know that thou fearest God To the like purpose were all those difficult dispensations to the People of Israel at the Red Sea and in the Wilderness that he might humble them and prove them and to know what was in their heart Deut. 8.2 And for this end God often sends several Afflictions upon those he truely loves that their Faith may be tryed And these Tryals are called Temptations 1 Pet. 1.6 7. Ye are in Heaviness through manifold Temptations that the Tryal of your Faith may be found to praise c. Jam. 1.2 Count it all Joy when ye fall into divers Temptations knowing that the Tryal of your Faith worketh Patience 2. What it is to lead into Temptation and how God may be said to lead us into them 1. As to the latter of these sorts of Temptations they may and do come from God viz. Tryals of Grace by the permitting and inflicting of afflictions It is a work no way unbecoming his Purity and Justice It is ordained to singular Ends. 1. To his own Glory 2. To the good of those that he thus tryes thereby teaching them to despise the World to adhere unto him to reach out after a better Life to live by Faith and not by Sense patiently to submit to his hand and to wait upon him for deliverance By this Refiners fire he consumes their dross their carnal confidence building Tabernacles here drives them to their true home and gives them a proportion of Eternal Comfort and Hope far more valuable than that Temporal comfort which they want 2. As touching Temptation unto Sin 1. That God tempteth no Man He that is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity will never solicite any Man to that which only he hates It is the great work of God to withdraw Men from sin and surely he will never draw Men into it Jam. 1.13 God cannot be tempted with Evil neither tempteth he any Man 2. As he doth not actively tempt any Man or move him to Evil so neither doth he infuse into the Heart or Soul a Receptivity of Temptation he doth not excite the Heart to close with any Temptation or create or stir up any corruption in the Heart to take fire from a Temptation And yet in some sort he is said to lead into Temptation 1. By withdrawing that Grace of his whereby we are prevented from and defended against Temptation We walk in the midst of Enemies and snares the Prince of the air hath his Instruments that most Vigilantly takes all opportunities to draw us into sin evil Angels and evil Men And were there not a Devil or his Instruments without us to tempt us to Evil we have an old Man within us a fountain a Sea of Corruption a deceitful and wicked heart a Body of sin and death that can with much advantage and doth with much ease draw us into Sin and the merciful God that seeth these snares which the evil one layes for us in our way though we see them not sends out his own Grace and Spirit and sometimes removes the snare out of our way sometimes leads us another way that we miss the snare he over-rules and restrains this raging Sea of our own corruptions and as our Saviour did to the Winds and Seas commands them Peace and be still he doth by the same Spirit strengthen and inable our hearts to resist and oppose and subdue those Temptations that rise from within and comes from without And this Grace of his he owes not to us It is meerly of his free Mercy Gen. 20.6 For I withheld thee from sinning against me and yet such is his Goodness that he seldom withdraws this Grace from us unless we thrust it away and reject it and then he withdraws that Grace of his and that being withdrawn that cruel and subtil Enemy of our Souls falls in upon us and subdues us and that Sea of corruption within us that hath now no banks to keep it in breaks in and over-whelms us And thus was the heart of Pharaoh hardned by himself Exod. 8.15 And yet said to be hardned by God Exod. 10.1 By withdrawing from him that Grace that should soften it And this Subduction of the Grace of God principally respects Temptations from our selves 2. By Permission The Devil and his Instruments are under the restraint of the Power of God and without a commission or at least a permission from him cannot actually execute that evil that is in their Natures and Wills he solicits Job by himself and his instruments to let go his integrity but this he cannot do without a Permission Job 1.12 he seduceth Ahab to his destruction but this he cannot do without a Permission 1 Kings 22.21 he tempts David to presumption and carnal confidence 1 Chro. 21.1 But this he cannot do without a Permission 2 Sam. 24.1 he watcheth the opportunity of Gods displeasure against Israel and gets leave thereupon to tempt David to number the People and here we may see the Infinire Wisdom of God in managing that evil that was in the Devil to tempt and in David's heart to be overcome to a most just and excellent end the punishment of the sin of Israel by Davids sin Here was in the same action Malice in the Devil corruption in David yet nothing but Purity and Justice in God He never gives the Devil a Permission to tempt that Man may thereby sin but he turns that Temptation and that sin into a work either of singular Mercy or Justice The Devil could not have entered into Judas without a Permission nor Judas have betrayed our Lord without a Permission nor the Jews have delivered him up to Judgment without a Permission nor Pilate have judged him without a Permission John 19.11 Here was Malice in the Devil and Treachery in Judas and envy in the Jews and Injustice in Pilate and Murder in the Souldiers and yet in God the greatest manifestations of his Truth and Justice and Wisdom and Purity and Mercy that ever the World did or shall see While he permits the Instrument to sin he nor his action is in no sort defiled by it but manageth that sin which is none of his to bring forth that Righteousness that is only his 3. He is said to lead into Temptation by the External Dispensation of his Providence and that 1. By withdrawing those External restraints from sin such are