they shall be like the Angels not only vvithout Marriage but vvithout sin they shall be like to them in Holiness and in happiness and this vvill be their happiness to attain perfection in Holiness 5. In Heaven pardoned Persons shall attain a state of perfect happiness and Glory in Soul and Body their Souls shall be glorified and their Bodies glorified in Heaven 1. In Heaven the Souls of pardoned Persons shall be glorified a shining excellency and marvellous spiritual beauty shall be put upon them the Image of God vvill there be drawn to the life in them all the faculties of their Souls vvill there be elevated ennobled and beautified vvith vvonderful perfections and filled brim full vvith glory such as doth far exceed their present capacity they shall have the brightest beams of light in their minds the purest and sweetest flames of love in their hearts and that vvith such heart-ravishing joy as is to us unconceivable but to them vvill both be full and everlasting Psal 16.11 2. In Heaven the Bodies of pardoned Persons vvill be glorified their vile Bodies vvill be fashioned into the likeness of Christ's most beautiful and glorious Body Phil. 3.21 All the defects and deformities vvhich some of their Bodies have here vvill be removed and they shall shine like the new burnisht Heavens vvhat a rare mixture of colours vvhat an exact Symetry of parts their Bodies shall have vvhat lovely Proportion and feature in their Face vvhat sparkling motions in the eye vvhat graceful gestures in the vvhole Body there vvill be it is not for us to describe for the beauty of glorified Bodies vvill be beyond all descriptions And thus much concerning the future blessedness it self vvhich pardoned Persons shall have 3. The second thing is to prove that pardoned Persons shall assuredly attain this future blessedness This will appear by several Scriptures and several Arguments drawn from the Scriptures 1. The Scriptures which prove that pardoned Persons shall assuredly attain future blessedness are these Eph. 1. v. 7 and 11. compared v. 7. In whom we have redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of his Grace v. 11. In whom also we obtained an Inheritance This Inheritance here spoken of can be no other than the Heavenly Inheritance and the Apostle plainly asserteth that such who had obtained the forgiveness of sin they had also obtained the Inheritance in whom we have obtained that is they shall as certainly obtain it as if they had it already in Possession A more full proof is in Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified This is that Golden chain so much spoken of by Divines the links of which are so fast joyned together that all the power of men or Devils can never be able to pluck them asunder As such whom God hath Predestinated before time shall certainly be called and justified in time so those who are called and justified and so pardoned in time shall certainly be glorified at the end of time and when time shall be no more And the third Scripture to prove this is Rom. 5.10 For if when we were sinners we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life Pardoned persons are reconciled persons and if when they were sinners they were reconciled through Christ's death and satisfaction surely when reconciled taken into favour and become friends they shall be saved not with a temporal but with an eternal Salvation by Christ's life and intercession which hath sufficient efficacy and prevalency to effect this thing for them Here besides the Apostle's assertion he doth insinuate an Argument for the proof of it but I shall add some other Scripture-Arguments to prove that pardoned persons shall most assuredly attain future blessedness Arg. 1. The first Argument may be drawn from God's decree of predestination or election Whom God hath predestinated or elected to the blessedness of Heaven they shall most assuredly attain it But God hath predestinated or elected all pardoned persons to the blessedness of Heaven therefore they shall certainly attain it That all such whom God hath predestinated or elected unto the blessedness of Heaven shall certainly attain it is evident to any who impartially do read and weigh the Scriptures which clearly do reveal the eternity of God's decree of particular predestination or election Ephes 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the World Ver. 5. Having predestinated us according to the good pleasure of his will God's decree of predestination or election which is to eternal happiness therefore called an ordination to eternal life Acts 13.48 an appointment and election to Salvation 1 Thes 5.9 2 Thes 2.13 being eternal is therefore unchangeable and therefore shall certainly be accomplished If any thing hinder the accomplishment of God's decree it must be either something within him or something vvithout him 1. Nothing vvithin him can hinder its accomplishment unless he should change his own mind and alter his decree and this vvould infer a changeableness in God vvhich is against both reason and Scripture and besides other imperfection it vvould infer an imperfection in God's knowledg and vvisdom that he did not foresee or consider those after-reasons vvhich should incline him unto a change from his first determination and this is inconsistent vvith his infinite fore-knowledg and eternal counsel of his vvisdom in his vvilling and decreeing this thing Men may change their purposes upon this account but God so infinitely vvise and sore-knowing cannot do it If he had fore-seen reason to have altered the thing he vvould never have decreed or determined it 2. Nothing vvithout God can hinder the accomplishment of his decree because of his infinite power to effect vvhat he hath designed and against infinite power no resistance can be made the Elect vvhich the Apostle Peter vvriteth unto 1 Pet. 1.2 As they are chosen to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for them V. 4. So they are sure to be kept by the power of God to Salvation V. 5. And surely there can be no hindering of the Salvation and Blessedness of the Elect vvho are kept for it or unto it by the Almighty power of God And thus I think it is very clear that all vvhom God hath predestinated or elected to blessedness shall certainly attain it Hence are the vvords of the Apostle vvhich may put all out of doubt Ephes 1.11 In whom also we have obtained an Inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will That all pardoned persons are predestinated or elected unto the blessedness of Heaven is also evident because pardon of sin is the effect of predestination Rom. 8.30 Whom he hath predestinated them he also called and justified Because
after all mouldred to dust by death and rottenness but there neither deformity pains nor death shall be their fear nor exercise Our Souls shall quit their prisons clouds and chains our apprehensions shall be clear 1 Cor. 13.12 and Consciences full of peace and joy Oh what an harmony and concord shall there be betwixt God's will and ours what purity order warmth and vigour shall there be in our affections and what subserviency and due prostrations in our passions yea what comfort and constancy shall there be in full and grateful exercises in the whole man No Jars and Discords shall spoil the Melody of our Spheres our Holiness shall need no Crutch but reach the fulness of a perfect stature no broken-winded nor imperfect praises there the pulse of perfect Souls shall know no intermissions nor unequal motions but keep one constant rate of work and joy And what a change of state as well as persons shall we meet with there Phil. 1.23 A vale of tears quit for Rivers of eternal pleasures an element of joys succeeds our bitter Cups our rights can never be invaded there nothing can stain the comforts of that world no blots nor wounds are there contracted nor endured no troubles in that Israel there are no pauses of astonishment through surprisals of afflictions death smites no corners there Providence makes no storms there lies that Ark wherein no vile or wicked Cham shall dwell the glory of that place it knows no eclipse nor cloud no dim discoveries or flat notes shall be the exercise or entertainment of that state How sprightly are the Airs and descants of their Hallelujahs No worm on Conscience or carkass there there Charity knows no breach no male-administrations in that Kingdom nor bad constructions of God's providence or of the Actions of his servants there there are no cuts from Friends nor gripes from Enemies no frailties to report nor Enemies to report them no falls in Israel to grate upon these holy hearts nor fears to be their painful exercises there are no wrinkles on the brows of God nor frowns upon the face of Majesty nor one dejected look amongst those blessed Myriads of Saints and Angels their Ark hath neither shake nor cover nor any startling strokes to terrifie its attendants Souls once arrived at this harbour are entertained with perfection in a morning-blush and everlasting youthfulness Oh who can draw these Breasts of Consolation dry These upper Springs they run clear and freely and all the Fountains of the great Deep shall there be broken up to overflow the Banks of Paradise with everlasting joys and satisfaction With what a torrent shall these clear and pleasant Rivers run Should I attempt a full description of this joyful state I might far sooner set Rhetorick upon the wrack and contract the Character of being one that quaintly did attempt to play the fool and was eloquently mad than think to escape that censure Job 38.2 Who is this that darkneth counsel by words without knowledge Oh it must be Vision and Fruition and not the Flourishes of expression that must reach the excellent perfections of that state 1 Cor. 2 9. See Psal 16.11 And now shall we fear to leave this world and die What! shall we be undone by being happy Is it the misery of man to be with God like him and dear and near unto him What is this state and theatre of woes and sorrows that we are so loth to quit it Methinks I see the Angels overmatcht with strange astonishment at our reluctancies to be gone and our averseness to desert our Dotages and Prisons It might in reason be expected from us that no exercise of our patience should be so sore and pinching as this that we must stay from Heaven so long and shall we after all raise such a false report about the Land of Promise by our averseness to be gone thereto as to insinuate into the thoughts of others that either the trifles of this mortal Life or the pains and terrors of our passage to the Land of Rest are much beyond the Recompences and Reparations that we shall meet with there View then the difference and be free to go Prop. 3. Death is an enemy which Christ hath conquered and God hath given us the victory through Christ 1 Cor. 15.54 57. Heb. 2.14.15 Oh what an emancipation hath Christ here wrought That Christ hath conquered it 't is clear in Acts 2.24 That Prophesie is now accomplisht Hos 13.14 with Rom. 1.4 And blessed are the consequences of this Victory to us John 6.39 40. Why should we fear this King of Terrors who gives his stroke but has no sting the stab is deep but the captivity short for vve shall have our lives again which are hid with Christ in God till Christ appear Col. 3.3 4. And Soul death is escaped for when we are absent from the body we shall be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 Sin bound us over to eternal death by Law and here vvas the strength and sting of Death but this Sentence is reversed through the Law of the Spirit of Life Rom. 8.1 4. And Death it self can neither come from nor end in any want of Love in God to us And how triumphantly doth the Apostle speak when animated with this Meditation Rom. 8.32 39. What an allay is it amidst our pangs and fears of death to think upon those Confidences Encouragements and Consolations before and in and after the shakes and conflicts yea and execution of a dying hour vvhich God allovvs intends and is resolved to give us then 'T is novv consistent vvith the dearest love to die and introductive of the best delights and state and therefore vve have little cause to fear it seeing vve shall be gainers by it 't is but a Moment's blovv and that shall be healed again 1 Pet. 1.3 4. He that is true to his baptismal covenant hath novv the title and shall have the honour and advantages of this victory if God be served and sought and loved as our great end and happiness Psal 73.25.26 if we be freely for Christ Joh. 6.37 faithful to him Rev. 2.10.3.10 Heb. 5.9 and fruitful in him Joh. 15.1.10 2 Pet. 1.5.10 if vve live in the spirit and vvalk by it Gal. 5.25 Rom. 8.9.17 and sovv to it Gal. 6.8 and if vve heartily and prevailingly ansvver the claims and ends of the Gospel of the grace of God Tit. 2.11 15. What need vve perplex our selves vvith fears as if vve served a rigid or unfaithful Master Oh let not our unvoluntary vveakness and surprisals discourage us for God is merciful his goodness is exceeding great and our High priest is sensible of our vveaknesses and true to all our interest Heb. 7.25 9 24. Heb. 2.14 18 4.14.16 And novv having thus prepared the vvay by these preliminary Propositions vvhat novv remains for us to do but to take these follovving Directions vvhich vvill come something closer to the case in hand Direct 1. See that
yea drink abundantly O beloved q. d. Thou shalt no sooner ask than be answer'd I accept thy graces and duties thy bitter repentance and thy fragrant holiness they are most sweet to me notwithstanding their imperfections and ye O my Friends whether blessed Angels or gracious Souls do you chear your selves with the same spiritual dainties wherewith I am refreshed This is much but there is more in the next expression I shall name (w) Cant. 6.5 Turn away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me q. d. I am ravish'd and vanquish'd by thy fixed eye of faith in short see the Spouse's closing request (y) Cant. 8.14 Make hast my beloved and be thou like to a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountains of Spices q. d. as I began this Song my dearest Saviour with passionate desires of thy first coming by the Preaching of the Gospel so though I thankfully praise thee for all the communion I have had with thee yet I cannot my Lord but more passionately long for thy glorious coming to take me with thee from these bottoms of death and valleys of tears to those eternal heights where nothing springs but life and glory that instead of this Song I may sing a new one to the Lamb and to him that sits upon the Throne unto all eternity Thus but in a far more Seraphick manner than I am able to express the Soul-loving God as the God-loving Soul (z) Zeph. 3.17 are rejoycing in each other with joy till they rest in each other's love In short the Soul that loves God is never so well as when most immediately with him and while there 's any distance many a love-glance passeth between God and the Soul even in the greatest croud of business and diversions 4. A putting a love-interpretation upon all things God looks upon the very miscarriages of those whom he loves as their infirmities and puts a better interpretation upon them than they dare do themselves (a) Mark 14 37 â—8 40. The Disciples slept when Christ bade them watch they wist not what to answer him Christ himself excuseth it better than they could in saying the spirit truly is ready but the flesh is weak And the loving Soul is as loath to take any thing ill at the hands of God when 't is never so bad with the Soul he blesseth God that it is no worse God and the loving Soul do those things towards each other which nothing but love can put a good interpretation upon the truth is without love 't were intollerable e. g. God requires that Service of the gracious Soul that he requires of no other viz. to bless God when persecuted to rejoyce in tribulations to hope against hope c. God puts the Soul that loves him upon those trials that he puts upon no other viz. Those chastisements from himself those reproaches from men those buffetings from Satan which are peculiar to Saints but the Soul heartily loveth God under all these Again the Soul grows upon God in prayer and the more it receives from God the more insatiable it is and God loves the Soul the better for it When afflictions are extream those that love God put the affliction upon the account of God's faithfulness On the other hand when the poor Soul is foil d and Satan runs with the tidings of it to set God against him God pities the Soul Zech. 3.1 2. c. and rates the Accuser And he shewed me Joshua the High Priest standing before the Angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him and the Lord said to Satan the Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee Joshua was cloathed with filthy garments take away the filthy garments from him c. Here 's Joshua the High Priest while executing his Office in offering Sacrifices and Prayers for the people Satan arraigns him as a Prisoner at the Bar and the accusation being true and vehement Satan takes the upper hand but now Jesus Christ as well the Patron as the Judge of Saints cuts him short with a vehement reproof and tells him those sins could not make void that choice which they could not at first hinder and farther Christ as it were tells him they had been severely punished half burnt and wasted by the heat of Gods displeasure and would he now re-kindle that fire No Satan thy charge is as it were thrown out of the Court his sins shall be pardoned his graces multiplyed and upon the well-discharging of his office he shall have places to walk among them that stand by Alluding to the walks and galleries about the Temple q. d. Thou shalt walk with these glorious Angels they shall be thy Companions and Guardians where Satan hath no place So that Christ loves a Soul the more not the less for Satan's accusations To all these effects add these Concomitants or those things that have agreement with or are near of kin to Divine Love which do not really differ from it only express some part or manner of it In short 't is love under some other form or notion I shall only mention two Concomitants 1. Devotion which is an absolute delivering up of our selves to Gods Worship and Service so as by no flatteries or dangers to be diverted (e) 1 Tim. 4.15 Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all Herein lyes the strength of Religion and the spiritual pleasure of it herein the Soul can say with some kind of triumph (f) Isa 12.2 3. Behold God is my Salvation I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and Song he also is become my Salvation Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of Salvation Christians we must not only be barely frequent in religious actions but we must act as those that are given up to God we must mind the fervour of Religion We must be exceeding watchful over out thoughts to keep them from vanity and over our affections to keep them from entanglement I would therefore commend it to you to single out every morning some short passages of Scripture or some encouraging promise that hath affected you to roll in your minds or to lye upon your hearts all day to maintain this holy fervour nothing works and keeps such an impression upon the heart as Scripture 2. The other concomitant is Zeal which is the most intense degree of desire and endeavour to please and honour God 'T is the boiling up of the affections to the greatest heat this must be the companion of every grace now Zeal is exprest against sin or in duty In the exercise of Zeal against sin I beg of you to observe this Rule viz. Whatever act of Zeal you express towards others double it first upon your selves whatever evil you reprove or would reform in others be doubly strict against it in your selves
premised my work shall be to shew what use and respect Baptism has unto this benefit of obtaining remission of Sins by Jesus Christ I shall do it in these considerations 1. First that God hath ever delighted to deal with his Creatures in the way of a Covenant that we might know what to expect from him and might look upon our selves as under the firmer Bonds of obedience to his blessed Majesty In a Covenant which is the most solemn transaction between Man and Man both parties are engaged God to us and we to God It is not meet that one party should be bound and the other free therefore both are bound to each other God to Bless and we to Obey Indeed in the first Covenant the debitum poenae is only mentioned because that only took place Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye But the other part is implied and it doth in effect speak thus much Do and Live Sin and Dye 2. Secondly because the first Covenant was broken on our part God was pleased to enter into a second wherein he would manifest the glory of his Redeeming grace and pardoning Mercy to fallen Man this was brought about in Christ 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and therefore this second Covenant is called a Covenant of Peace as being made with us after the breach and when Man was obnoxious to the wrath of God Isa 54.10 The Covenant of my Peace shall not be removed Man needeth such a Covenant and God appeased by Christ offereth it to us 3. Thirdly In this Covenant of Peace the Priviledges and Duties are suited to the State in which man was when God invited him into Covenant with himself Man was fallen from his Duty and obnoxious to the wrath and displeasure of God and therefore the new Covenant is a Doctrine of Repentance and Remission of Sins What is Preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16.16 is in Luk. 24.47 That Repentance and Remission of sins should be Preached in his Name among all Nations for that is the Gospel or the new Remedial Law of our Lord Jesus Repentance to heal us and set us in joint again as to our Duty Remission of Sins to recover us into God's favour both these benefits we have by the Redeemer Acts 5.31 Him hath God exalted to give Repentance and Remission of Sins to Israel he giveth the one simply and both giveth and requireth the other so that by the New Covenant Remission of Sins is conveyed to all true Penitents Fourthly More distinctly to understand the tenour of this New and second Covenant we must consider both the Duties and the Priviledges thereof for in every Covenant there is ratio dati accepti there is something promised and given and something required and usually the Promise consists of somewhat which the Party is willing of and the Duty or Condition required of that to which he is more backward and loath to submit so in the Covenant of Grace in the Promise God respects man's want in the Duty his own Honour Every man would have pardon and be saved from Hell but God will have subjection even corrupt Nature is not against desires of Happiness these God makes use of to gain us to Holiness All men readily catch at Felicity and would have Impunity Peace Comfort Glory but are unwilling to deny the Flesh to renounce the credit profit or pleasure of Sin or to grow dead to the World and worldly things Now God promiseth what we desire on condition that we will submit to those things that we are against as we sweeten bitter Pills to Children that they may swallow them the better they love the Sugar though they loath the Alloes so doth God invite us to our Duty by our Interest Therefore whosoever would enter into the Gospel-state must resolve to take the Blessings and Benefits offered for his Happiness and the Duties required for his Work Indeed accepting of the Benefits is a part of the Condition because we treat with an invisible God about a happiness that lieth in another World but 't is but part there are other terms and therefore we must draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of Faith Heb. 10.22 With a true heart resolving upon the Duties of the Covenant in full assurance of Faith depending upon God's Word that he will give us the blessings Fifthly The Priviledges are two Pardon and Life these are the great Blessings offered in the New Covenant you have them both together Acts 26.18 To turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith These two Benefits are most necessary the one to allay the Fears of the guilty Creature and the other to gratifie Desires of Happiness which are natural to us the one to remedy the misery incurr'd by Sin and the Fall of Man the other to establish our true and proper Felicity in the everlasting enjoyment of God the one to ease our Consciences and support us against troubles of mind the other to comfort us against the outward troubles and afflictions which sin hath introduced into the World In short the one to free us from deserved Punishment the other to assure us of undeserved Blessedness the one importeth Deliverance from Eternal Death and the other Entrance into Eternal Life Sixthly The Duties thereof do either concern our first entrance into the Christian state or our Progress therein Our Lord representeth it under the Notions of the Gate and the Way Mat. 7.14 Strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way which leadeth into Life Other Scriptures deliver it under the notions of making Covenant and keeping Covenant with God making Covenant Psal 50.5 keeping Covenant Psal 25.10 Psal 103.18 The Covenant must not only be made but kept I. As to entring into Covenant with God there is required true Repentance and Faith Mark 1.15 Repent and believe the Gospel Repentance respects God as our end Faith respects Christ as the great means or way to the Father Acts 20.21 Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ God is our end for Christ died to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 and Christ is our way John 14.6 and whole Christiany is a coming to God by Christ Heb. 7.25 Now in our first entrance Faith and Repentance are both mixt and it is hard to sever them and show what belongs to the one and what to the other at least it would perplex the Discourse Both together imply that a man be turn'd from a life of Sin to God by Faith in Christ or a renouncing the Devil the World and the Flesh and devoting and dedicating our selves to God 1. A Renouncing of the Devil the World and the Flesh for these are the three great Enemies of God and our Salvation Eph. 2.2 3. In time past ye walked according to
the pouring out his blood for you now your magnificent feasts were not so fitted for such a Commemoration for they rather would have tended to have clog'd your spirits made them dull and stupid and far less apt to have contemplated such Divine and Heavenly things as those now named are And therefore that this Supper is so mean as it is it is far better than if it were so great and royal as you conceive There are others are well enough satisfied with the wisdom of their Lord and in the nature of the things appointed for the remembrance of him which yet may be and ought to be inquisitive as to the reason of them Which I shall reduce to these 4 Questions 1. Why did the Lord appoint bread rather than any other kind of food 2. Why must it be broken bread 3. Why must it be taken and eaten 4. Why wine as well as bread and why Wine rather than any other drink 1. To the first I say he appointed bread as most apt to signifie the thing thereby to be presented to our Faith and that is himself as he is bread of life to our Souls for so he calleth himself Joh. 6.33 The bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world And 35. Jesus said I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger This is evident that man's natural life doth not more depend on the vertue of the bread that perisheth than the Soul's life of Grace and Glory depends on that vertue that proceedeth from a suffering Jesus I live saith the Apostle Paul yet not I but Christ liveth in me all that life of Faith all the indwellings of Grace in our hearts comes from and is maintained by the vertues and influences of Jesus Christ this bread of life and so likewise doth our eternal life depend on him as he likewise tells us v. 27. Labour for the meat that endureth to eternal life which the Son of man shall give you this meat is the Lord himself who by his sufferings made our peace and purchased the life of grace and glory for us And indeed no other meat as bread could so aptly set forth this Mystery because no food is so suitable to man's nature none for a constancy so pleasant none so strengthning a man can better subsist with bread without other meats than with any other meats without bread thereby the Mystery of conveighing Soul-lâ—fe to the sinner is excellently set forth for as there is other meat for the body besides bread so there is another way of giving life to the Soul besides that of a Saviour and that is an exact obedience to the Law of God but alas the sinner through the weakness of the flesh can never digest that strong meat and so cannot live by it But for a poor weak infirm sinner to be maintained in a life of grace and acceptance with an offended God in and by a Saviour is a way of living so suitable to a sinner that Men and Angels could never have thought of one so suitable and therefore nothing as bread was so fit to set forth this Mystery 2. But why must it be broken bread Christ himself acquaints us with the mystical reason thereof in the verse of the Text it is to set forth the breaking of the body of Christ by breaking his body must be taken to comprehend all the sufferings of his Humane nature as united with the Divine as all his soul-sufferings of which there are 3 Phrases used by the Evangelists very emphatically as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all signifie those dolors of mind he underwent through the dereliction of God and likewise all other sufferings of his body which are by Isaiah set forth with great variety of Phrase speaking of Christ he saith He was despised and rejected of men Isaiah 53. a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and v. 4. He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows and v. 5. He was wounded for our transgressions the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed and v. 7. he was oppressed and he was afflicted Now all these sufferings were consummated in his Crucifixion 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree These are those sufferings that made that one sacrifice of himself by which he put away sin and hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 9.26 Heb. 10.14 Upon this account it is that the bread of this Supper must be broken before it be taken and eaten the broken bread that is the sign and Christ's sufferings that is the mystery signified by it as I have shewed 3. Why must this broken bread be taken and eaten This is not without its Mystery for thereby is meant that these Breakin gs Bruisings Woundings of Christ's Soul and Body was not for any sin of his own for he was a lamb without spot 1 Pet. 1.19 but it was for our sins and for our benefit Our dear Jesus sows in tears and we reap the harvest of his tears in joy he by the meritorious extraction of his bloody sweat and agony in the Garden by his tremendious dolors of Soul and Body on the Cross prepares a Cordial and perfects it by his death which prepared Cordial we by Faith drink up and from a state of sin and death revive he offered himself as good wheat to be ground by the law and justice of God that thereby he might be made bread of life for us by Faith to feed on that we may live for ever So that Christ's breaking and giving the bread in this Sacrament to his Church doth mystically declare that the sole intentions of all his sufferings was for us and therefore he saith this is the bread that was broken for you and likewise taking and eating it doth further signifie that we do profess to believe in him for life and do rely wholly on him for acceptance with God and for the salvation of our souls 4. But why did he add wine also to this supper and commanded us to drink thereof in remembrance of him I Answer this addition was for a very good reason for thereby a further mystery of our Salvation by his bloody death is explained 1. As first if you consider that man's natural life is not maintained by eating only except he drink also for we may dye as well by thirst as by hunger Christ therefore by giving us his blood to drink which is signified by the Cup as well as his body to eat doth thereby declare that his suffering of Death for us is every way compleat and sufficient for the spiritual and eternal life of our souls So that as he that hath bread and drink wants nothing for the sustaining his natural life so he that hath by Faith an interest in a broken bleeding Christ wants nothing to the upholding the Soul in a state of
Saints but 't is by the permission of the universal Soveraign who hath the hearts of all in his hands and suffers their rage for holy ends The enemy designes against their Faith but God's aim is to make them change their lives Now if either through strong fears or the stinging sense of troubles upon the account of Religion our Courage fails we are presently in danger of falling away and denying our Master The faint-hearted person is usually false-hearted and for want of resolution being frighted out of his Conscience and duty chooses sin rather than suffering and thereby justly deprives himself of the Crown of life that is promised only to those who are Faithful unto the death Besides not only the loss of heaven but the torments of hell are threaten'd against those who withdraw from the service of God to avoid temporal evils Rev. 21.8 The fearful and unbelieving are in the front of those that shall have part in the lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death Now what folly is it when two evils are propounded to choose the greatest that is eternal death rather than temporal and of two goods to prefer the less a short life with its Conveniencies on earth before that which is eternally glorious in heaven By which it appears how much it concerns us to fortifie and fix our minds by a stedfast belief of God's supporting presence with us in all troubles and of his gracious promise that in due time we shall reap if we faint not in well-doing 2. They are incapable of the Comforts proper to an afflicted state Those arise from the apprehension that God loves whom he chastens Rev. 3. for the least sin is a greater evil than the greatest trouble and his design is to take that away and from the expectation of a happy issue Hope is the anchor within the vail that in the midst of storms and the roughest seas preserves from shipwrack The character of Christians is Rom. 12.12 that they are rejoycing in hope But when the afflicted are under fearful impressions that God is an irreconcileable enemy and sadly conclude their miseries are past redress those divine Comforts that are able to sweeten the most bitter sufferings to believers are of no efficacy their deep sorrows are not like the pains of a travelling woman that end in a joyful birth but the killing tortures of the stone that are fruitless to the patient An obstinate grief and rejecting the Consolations of God is the beginning of sorrows the first payment of that sad arrear of mourning that shall be exacted in another world The Use shall be to excite us to those duties that are directly contrary to the extremes forbidden viz. to demean our selves under the chastenings of the Lord with a deep reverence and humble fear of his displeasure and with a firm hope and dependance upon him for a blessed issue upon our complying with his holy Will 1. With a humble reverence of his hand This temper is absolutely necessary and most congruous with respect to God upon the account of his Soveraignty Justice and Goodness declar'd in his chastenings and with respect to our frailty our dependance upon him our obnoxiousness to his Law and our obligations to him that he will please to afflict us for our good This is the reason of that expostulation Will the Lion roar in the forrest when he hath no prey Shall God's threatenings and judgments have no effect Who ever hardened himself against him and prospered Amos 3.4 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie the most sensible and severe attribute when it is incens'd Are we stronger than he Can we encounter offended Omnipotency Can we with an army of lusts oppose myriads of mighty Angels 'T is not courage but such a prodigious degree of folly and fury that one would think 't were impossible a reasonable creature were capable of it Yet every sinner unreformed by afflictions is thus desperate Job 15.25 26 He stretches out his hand against God and strengthens himself against the Almighty he runneth upon him even on his neck upon the thick bosses of his bucklers Such a furious rebel was Ahaz who in the time of his distress did trespass more against the Lord This is that King Ahaz But God hath most solemnly declared that he will be victorious at last over the most fierce obdurate enemies 2 Chron. 28. As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me His power is infinite and anger puts an edge upon his power and makes it more terrible If our subjection be not voluntary it must be violent 'T is our wisdom to prevent acts of vengeance by humble submissions The duty of the afflicted is excellently exprest by Elihu Job 34.31 32 Surely it is meet to be said to God I have born chastisements I will not offend any more that I know not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do so no more Add further upon another account reverence is due to God's chastenings for when love is the motive that incites one to give us counsel though it be mixt with reproofs and his prudence is not great yet a respect is due to the affection Now God who is only wise chastises men from a desire to make them better and happy he intends primarily to refine not to consume them by afflictions so that a serious regard to his hand is the most just and necessary duty of the creature Briefly every chastisement should leave deep and permanent impressions upon us the sense of God's displeasure should make our hearts mournful and mollified broken and contrite that his will may be done by us on earth as 't is in heaven 2. Let us alway preserve an humble dependance and firm hope on God for a blessed issue out of all our troubles The support and tranquillity of the soul ariseth from hence Christian patience suffers all things as well as charity being encouraged by a continual expectation of good from him Patience confirms all other graces and is to the whole armour of God what the temper is to material weapons that keeps them from breaking in the combat Now to maintain a constant hope in affliction 't is necessary to consider the reason of the Exhortation as 't is admirably amplified by the Apostle 1. The relation God sustains when he afflicts believers He is a Judge invested with the quality of a Father The Covenant of grace between God and Jesus Christ our true David contains this observable cause If thy children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments if they break my statutes Psal 89.30 31 32. and keep not my commandements then will I visit their transgressions with a rod and their iniquity with stripes The love that ariseth from this relation though it cannot hate yet it may be displeased and chastise them for their follies Moses tells the Israelites Thou shalt consider in thy heart Deut. 8.5 that as
may be drawn from the certainty of all pardoned persons perseverance in Grace unto the end All such as persevere in Grace unto the end shall certainly obtain Eternal blessedness Mat. 24.15 He that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved Rev. 2.10 Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rom. 2. 6 7. Who will render to every Man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life All pardoned persons shall persevere in Grace unto the end they shall not only persevere through Faith 1 Pet. 1.5 but they shall persevere in it God will fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness in believers and the work of Faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 God will keep them in his hand out of which none is able to pluck them Joh. 10.29 He that hath begun a good work in them will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 God hath promised them to enable them to persevere I will make an everlasting Covenant with them and I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32.40 The Scripture is very full and clear in the Doctrine of the true believer's perseverance and all pardoned persons being believers as I have already shewed all pardoned persons shall persevere to the end and therefore shall certainly attain future Eternal blessedness of Heaven 3. The third particular to be spoken unto is to shew how this future Eternal blessedness of Heaven doth render pardoned persons blessed here upon the Earth this will appear in these following particulars 1. Pardoned persons have a sight of their future blessedness and the excellency of it 1. They have a sight of the Eternal blessedness it self 1 Tim. 1.10 Christ hath abolished death and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel The Lord hath made a clear Revelation in his Gospel unto them of that Eternal Life and blessedness which he hath laid up in Heaven for them This in former ages and generations was not made known to the Sons of Men as now it is made known unto them by the Spirit of Christ in the Gospel Man by his fall hath lost his eyes and cannot find the way unto Paradise and this is one part of his misery that he doth not know what his chief happiness is nor how it is to be obtained The Heathen Philosophers have had several hundred opinions concerning the chief good and in all mistaken The Heathen Poets had foolish and groundless fancies of the Elisian pleasures and delights which the Souls of the vertuous should enjoy in the other world but they were in the dark as to the true discovery of Heaven The Saints themselves had the future happiness of Heaven discovered in a dark way under Types Figures and Shadows the earthly Canaan Typifying the Heavenly Canaan the Jerusalem below shadowing forth the Jerusalem which is above the Holy of Holies in the Temple made with hands figuring the holy place made without hands eternal in the Heavens But now the darkness is past and the true light shineth the shadows are fled the vail before the Holiest is rent and the cloud in the Temple removed so that now with open face though still in a glass the glory which is above may be seen The Gospel doth reveal what Man 's chiefest happiness is and wherein it doth consist that it doth not consist in earthly riches nor worldly honours nor Epicurean pleasures nor the Stoick's Apathy nor the Platonist's dark contemplation of Idea's nor the Peripatetick's exercise of Moral vertues but that God is the chief good of the Children of men the Gospel reveals God in the face of Jesus Christ and that man's chief happiness doth consist in the Vision and fruition of him begun here and which will be perfected in Glory hereafter the Gospel reveals Heaven to pardoned sinners discovers the Holy of Holies that is above and the way to it as well as the Glories that are in it And pardoned sinners have not only a notional knowledg of the chief happiness hereafter But secondly they have a sight of the excellency thereof which cannot be seen by any carnal Eye and this they have by the Eye of Faith and the light of the Spirit by the Eye of Faith Heaven is realized to them and made evident to their view in its transcendent excellency Faith being the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 But this as the Eye of Faith is enlightned by the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation whereby they perceive the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance Eph. 1.17 18. When the Apostle speaking of those things which God hath prepared for them that love him saith That neither eye hath seen nor ear heard neither have they entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him yet God saith he hath revealed these things to us by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.9 10. This foresight of Heaven and something although comparatively little of the Glory and excellency thereof doth render pardoned persons blessed even in this World 2. That which doth further contribute to the present blessedness of pardoned persons is not only their foresight of future blessedness but also their hopes of it that they shall one day have possession of so great felicity They are blessed now in hopes of what they shall be they carry about with them in their Bosoms the greatest hopes of any in the World and their hopes are such as shall not make them ashamed Rom. 5.5 The hopes of worldlings make them ashamed in that either they fall short of the thing which they hope for God's providence oftentimes bringing upon them unthought of crosses and unexpected disappointments yea that which is quite contrary to their hopes disgrace instead of honour poverty instead of riches trouble instead of peace pain instead of pleasure yea sudden death which cuts off them and their hopes together or if they attain the thing which they hoped for they are ashamed of their hopes in that they are always disappointed of that satisfaction and contentment which they looked for in the thing the waters of the Cistern cannot quench the thirst of man's desire the Creatures cannot give more than they have and they which hope for contentment in any thing beneath the chief good must needs meet with a disappointment riches may fill the House Gold and Silver may fill the baggs but none of these things can fill the heart honour and esteem of men may swell and puff up the mind but the Soul cannot be filled unto satisfaction with Air and Wind sensual delights may cloy the Appetite but the desires of the Soul are too high and capacious for such things to fill up So that worldling's hopes must needs one way
What useful Instruments have holy Kings and Princes been for God upon their Thrones Plenty and fulness are desirable 'T is better to give than to receive Acts 20.35 Innocence and Independence steel the Countenance 'T is comfortable to be the poor man's staff and the rich man's pattern The like I may say of Liberty Gifts Parts c. And when God throws these things upon us to make us useful it would be our misery shame and sin to cast them from us with contempt and as both Life and Comforts stand in relation to Vsefulness and Glory Grace rather heightens than abates esteem and value of them and rather quickens and engages thankfulness and affections for and to them than sets the heart against them thus considered 3. It is the Apostasie of our state and hearts from God that sets our lives and comforts in their capacity of being snares to us Had it not been for sin God and our Lives and Comforts had not been reduced to such an inconsistency as now they are nor had our natural Lives and Comforts been our snares had not their end and ours been changed they had never been so insignificant as to our safety and delight had we not torn them from that their Figure God himself to whom their true subordinate relation gave them their whole worth and value Our snares and surfeits come from our own irregular appetites 1 Tim. 6.9 10. Luke 21.34 Life and its Consolations are God's and good Jam. 1.17 The Lust is ours 1 John 2.16 4. Life and all things must be disregarded as they are separate from God and set against him as they are separated from God so they must be neglected and as they are set against God so they must be opposed Our lives must never be a course of lusts Rom. 13.13 Nor must their Comforts and Continuance be entertained or indulged as God's Opponents or Corrivals nor be preserved possest or prosecuted to the prejudice of better things even holy works and joy while they and better things may keep together the elder must serve the younger Our present Life and Comforts must minister to the great Concernments of another better state and when Religion or our Lives must go we must disclaim the latter to secure the former Nothing must bound or circumvent Religion nor must it be subjected to the trifling ends and dotages of a transient Life Our Lives and Comforts are dispensed to us for usefulness not satisfaction We must secure obedience and submission to God's preceptive and disposing Will and a true constant practical relation and subserviency unto God's Glory and our own eternal Welfare and the full credit of Religion and its advancement in our selves and others And wherein soever the love of Life threatens or makes towards an equality with God and Life-to-come-concernments or makes us change our Lord to serve our Lusts or grow reluctant to that great Seal and Testimony which we owe to the full Interest and Claims of Christianity or makes us more remiss sluggish and fearful in our Christian Course of holy painful and resolved exercises than our Hopes and Circumstances can admit of therein must Life be wholly disregarded Query 3. Whence is it evident that this Design and Prospect will have such powerful influences upon concerned serious Christian as to make this regardlesness of Life and every thing to be a possible attainment 1. From personal Instances All that are gone to Heaven have reach'd this Frame Oh what a Cloud of Witnesses is afforded us Heb. 11.2 39. 10.32 The Apostle here himself stands like a Monument with this Superscription 'T is possible to be a Conqueror of Life and Death 2 Tim. 4.6.8 Acts 21.13 Phil. 1.20 23. Nor doth he want his Seconds as Barnabas Acts 15.26 Epaphroditus Phil. 2.30 Daniel also and the Three Children long before Dan. 3.16 18. 6.13 22. and those in Rev. 12.11 and many others 2. From Scriptural Injunctions and Comminations Luke 14.26 1 Pet. 4.12 16. It is no ways probable that such weighty Accents of Command Concernedness and Importunity and Caution should be laid upon Impossibilities or that God should urge and threaten man and press upon him both with promises and menaces and be at such expence of cost and patience grace and bounty and digest his Name and Treasures into such cogent arguments and make both Heaven and Earth yea Hell and Conscience minister to this Design of ripening and advancing him to such a p tâ—h of exâ—ltation above all prejudicial love of Life and fear of Death if this were foreign to his own capacity and therefore unattainable for this would be the way even to distract the Hâ—rmony of God's whole Name with such unaccountable and impossible Discords as that account which God hath given us thereof would not admit of nor is it consonant to that Analogy which his Image on the New Creature expresly beareth unto himself 3. From the Advantages which the Design and Prospect of the Text afford us We have something nobler to attempt than to preserve and cherish that Life and Interest which is separate from God and set against him and something better to expect and promise to our selves than such contracted transient Comforts as Death can strip us of namely the finishing of an honourable Course that is set before us and reaching of those matchless Consolations which are tendred to us and affixed to the end and termination of that costly painful Race which we have to run And such things have an exact sufficiency in their kind as Arguments and Motives to our Hopes and Diligence and Resolution to make us more than Conquerors both of and in Life and Death Rev. 2.10 Rom. 8.18 2 Tim. 1.8 12. 2.12 Acts 24.14 16. Rom. 8.32 39. 4. From the Assistance which God is ready to afford us 1 Cor. 10.13 2 Cor. 1.3 5. 12.7 10. John 14.18 Mat. 28.20 Jer. 1.8 Our Winter-work hath sutable furniture and provisions Jam. 1.2 6. We shall have Counsels Comforts Quicknings and sutable Relishes Views and Strength to all our Work and Exercises Query 4 and the Case in hand What must we therefore do to and how must we overcome the inordinate Love of Life and Fear of Death For no man can love or dare to dye that loves this Life inordinately and values it too dear to let it go or that prevailingly doubts or fears or undervalues a better Life hereafter Now in this instance in my Text Bonds and Afflictions seemed to minister to Death and Death is very terrible to Nature as its Dissolution and terrible to interested Souls in the Concernments of this Life as ending all the Pleasures Profits Honors that Sense Fancy can be courted with 't is terrible to those that are not satisfied of another state because it ends what they were sure of the existence of and had the greatest desires of and pleasures in and because it ushers them thither where their doubt will be resolved and that for ought
from things below and wedding them to things above and managing all our Duties with all diligence and resolution the very oppositions and difficulties of the way and of our work in this world would make us weary of our entertainment here and full of vehement longings and desires to be gone We should have little heart to wish for long continuance where we can have neither welcom nor satisfaction Our very works and sufferings would abate our love to Life and our incumbrances about many things and from them when they are apprehended as prejudicial to the one thing needful would be rejected by us because distastful to us Direct 4. Keep up your ordinate fear of Death as the Corrective of your inordinate love to Life and see that this be well improved Psal 49.6 14. Why should our hearts be where we must not stay Had Eve but thought more upon Death the forbidden Fruit had never been betwixt her teeth We fancy Immortality in a maze of Vanity and our imagined continuance here inflames our hearts and did we more consider how short a time we have to stay and how much work to do how sure we are to die and why Death came into the world and how suddenly yea and surprizingly the King of Terrors who receives not Bribes may make dispatches of his sharp and hasty Arrows into our sides and hearts the enamouring influences of this mortal Life vvould more effectually be mortified and obstructed Why should I doat on that to day from vvhich I may be gone to morrovv The fear of Death hath its ordained place and use and calls upon us to prepare Job 14.14 He that is sensible of his ovvn vanity here belovv and capable of Immortality above ought to be ready for his change and call If vve be negligent in the Discipline of our Affections vvithin the prospect of our dying day our misery becomes our choice and we betray our souls to startling sorrows and surprizals and give our hearts avvay for trifles in the very face of danger Security makes us prodigals and vvantons and exposes us to the povverful charms of fearful fascinations Extinguished Lamps and empty vessels are only in the hands of slumbring Virgins by vvhom the Midnight-cry is clear forgotten Treasures and Goods laid up for many years and then the heart is gone and sold to empty confidences and vain delights until that Cry Thou Fool this night thy Soul must go correct the Cheat and shame the dreaming vvanton Methinks the avvful thoughts and looks of Death should quench those flames of Love vvhich have no other Fewel but a Vapour or thin exhalation vvhich hath no light and glory but in its ovvn destruction and they should rather make us careful to secure that Treasure in the Heavens vvhich remains to be possess'd vvhen our Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life Our daily instances of Mortality should start such fresh remembrances in us of our ovvn approaching dissolution and that amazing alteration of our comforts and employments which vvill ensue thereon as should irresistibly prevail upon us to guard and fortifie our hearts against the inrodes and invasions of such addresses as the corrupting flatteries and pretences of Life and Comforts here below are apt to make upon our hearts for this inordinacy of love to Life gives Death a fatal sting to strike us with Direct 5. As to the inordinate fear of Death labour to get a perfect understanding of its Grounds and Cure for our mistake herein may make the application of the Medicine both dangerous and successless And therefore let us first enquire into what it is that makes us loath or afraid to die and then what Antidotes are expedient for this Cure of such inordinate Fears and then direct your Application 1. That which makes Death terrible to us is either relating to 1. What we leave behind us as Life Comforts or Advantages here for getting and exercising Grace in order to eternal Glory Or 2. The state we are going to as to which we either 1. Doubt of its existence as to eternal comforts Or 2. Want a Title to them and so fear the loss of them and pains of Hell for ever Or. 3. A value for them Or 3. The passage from one state to another and that either 1. As to its pains or 2. Its conflicts or 3. It s separation of Soul and Body and 4. A remaining in that state of separation of Soul and Body through a defect of Divine Power or Faithfulness to and Mercy for us 2. The proper Antidotes and Expedients for the Cure of these excessive Fears vvhich I shall briefly give you are in these following Propositions Propos 1. There is a state of Life and Immortality designed and prepared for holy persons It is prepared Mat. 25 34. Discovered 2 Tim. 1.10 Purchased by Christ and proposed by God Eph. 1.11.14 Promised Tit. 1.2 And reserved in Heaven for such 1 Pet. 1.4 We have all the imaginable proofs demonstrations of it that things invisible and at a distance from us can be capable of God hath made us capable thereof and hath implanted in us a desire of and longing for it though some through sin have rotted these desires at the roots And further on these desires capacity and inclinations God hath grounded Laws for Moral Government and rules the world by hopes and fear whose vital influences are derived from this future state And further still God hath sent his Son to tell us of these preparations who in the humane nature publish'd such reports which God attested by frequent apparent uncontroulable Miracles and sealed them with his blood and rose again as the first fruits of them that sleep and after taught this Doctrine and went to Heaven to take possession and make necessary preparations for our conduct thither and title and possession there and sent the Spirit down for the repeated Seals and Publication of this Doctrine of a Life to come who did inspire Apostles to write and preach it and urge it upon the Consciences of men and to prepare the heart of man for this Inheritance to urge it as an Argument of weight upon them and start joys and sorrows in them as they carry in relation hereunto And he hath declared that he will judge the world by Christ in order to their legal settlement in this state Prop. 2. Our present state of life and comforts is no way comparable to what is designed hereafter It is a State and City in respect whereof God is not ashamed to be called our God Heb. 11.16 with Luke 20.34.38 Oh what a change of persons shall we meet with there Phil. 3.21 1 John 3.2 1 Cor. 15.49 54. Our bodies shall not be what they now are even the wracks and loads and chains of souls What are they now but foul unactive lumps of Clay they are pierced with cold and worn with labours appaled with griefs and dangers and griped with pains and macerated with keen and envious passions and
A SUPPLEMENT TO THE Morning-Exercise At CRIPPLE-GATE OR Several more Cases of Conscience Practically Resolved by sundry Ministers The Second Edition Our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our conversation in the World 2 Cor. 1.12 Conscientia est nescio quid divinum nunquam perit officium nostrum nobis semper ad memoriam revocat Doroth. Bibl. Pat. T. 4. p. 769. Quaerimus quomodo animus semper aequalis secundoque cursu eat propitius sibi sit sua laetus adspiciat hoc gaudium non interrumpat sed placido statu maneat nec attollens se unquam nec deprimens Seneca de Tranq anim p. 678. LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Sign of the Atlas in Cornhil near the Royal-Exchange MDCLXXVI To that part of Christ's Flock to which I am more specially related Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour Beloved Christians AS I called in a Contribution of Help for the composing of a Legacy for others before my Civil Death so I now tender you A Supplement to that Exercise for your better liveliness of Spiritual Life I shall say nothing to commend these Sermons to you my Brethren are all herein unanimous to seek the Church's Profit not their own Applause only this I must say to prevent mistake viz. If any curious Reader shall find matter of Exception besides the Errors of Printing which I confess are too many the blame must be Personal because this joynt-work is no otherwise Social than as single Pearls strung together make one Neck-lace I easily grant here 's not yet a stating of all important Cases yet be this known to you whoever shall follow these Directions shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the work of the Lord nor miss of an abundant entrance into his Everlasting Kingdom Live up to what you have attained and you may be confident that what is further wanting God will as you want it supply it Be assur'd of this that you will get more skill and strength for all necessary Graces and Duties by an humble serious constant Course of Godliness than you possibly can do by captious Criticismes and wrangling Contentions about lesser things in which too many spend their Lives I herein appeal to your Consciences should not these Sermons answer expectation but according to your judgment either the Cases are ill chose or not well stated in that the Matter is either defective or redundant the Language too curious or too careless the Directions too common or too singular I appeal from your Passions to your Consciences and down-right charge you in the Name of my Master who must be your Judg that you read with other Spectacles These are not calculated to humour you but to better you These are not Duties to be cavil'd at but to be practised O that you may be effectually perswaded 1. That your Love to God Sermon 1 must be predominant and growing or you degrade your selves below the Beasts 2. That your Love to Man must be universal and spiritual Sermon 2 Sermon 3 or you can't evidence your Love to God 3. That your Love to the World must truckle under both be subservient to both and never be otherwise for if the World master you 't will â—â—in you Oh that your awakened Sermon 4 Consciences may now allarm you 4. To catch at Salvation while it is Sermon 5 offer'd lest you perish for ever Though 't is a vexed Problem 5. What Knowledg is necessary to Salvation yet can you satisfie your Consciences without diligent Endeavours to proportion your Knowledg to the Means you enjoy And to bring forth Fruits every day as those that in some Sermon 6 measure feel 6. What 't is to be in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and Sermon 7 8. that the Word 7. Preach'd and 8. Read may be so impress'd upon Heart and Life that it may be an infallible Evidence you are taught of God And when through weakness of the Flesh your Duties may prove Sermon 9 wearisom 9. Learn to refresh your selves with the Songs of Zion But would you have more particular Directions They are before you Sermon 10 Here you may learn true Christianity 10. In the daily Improvement of Sermon 11 your Baptism Here you may learn 11. How to propagate Religion to Posterity by riveting Truth upon your own Hearts and teaching it to Sermon 12 others but while you are giving Milk to Babes 12. Excuse not your selves upon any account whatsoever from frequent and hungry feeding upon stronger Meat Be you as willing to seal to the Conditions of the Covenant as you are desirous God should seal to the Promises of it But who is sufficient for these things Pour out your Hearts therefore and Sermon 13 list up your Souls to God in all manner of Prayer 13. Let extraordinary Sermon 14 Prayer answer that title 14. Your secret Prayer speak secret Communion Sermon 15 with God 15. Let your Family prayer bring down Blessings upon your Family that you be neither Holy nor Happy alone but that when your Family-relations shall cease they may bless God to Eternity that ever there were such Relations between you Now therefore Sermon 16 16. Let Husbands and Wives be the liveliest Emblems in the World of Sermon 17 Christ and his Church 17. Let Parents and Children be the Evidences and Pledges of God's special presence with this and the next Sermon 18 Generation 18. Let Masters and Servants adorn the Gospel by their exemplary Faithfulness to their Heavenly Master Thus doing Sermon 19 19. Your Thoughts will be cured and in them you 'l enjoy God Sermon 20 20. Your Tongues will in some sense be God's glory as well as yours But Sermon 21 then 21. You must cautiously avoid the catching Canker of Detraction Sermon 22 22. So you shaâ—l by your Conversations convince the World there 's an Excellency in Christianity And that all this may be as well acceptable Sermon 23 to God as approved of Men 23. Do all in the Name of Christ and Sermon 24 while you thus embarque with Christ 24. He 'l steer you safe between Presumption and Despair those Rocks upon one of which most perish Hereby also 25. You 'l make your Port with the chearing Joys of an Sermon 25 Heroick Faith 26. And keep above all Vexing Discontents with your Sermon 26 Worldly Condition 27. And what Afflictions God's wise Love shall Sermon 27 inflict you 'l be able to bear them with more than a Roman Courage 28. And though reproachful Reproofs may bear hard upon you you 'l not Sermon 28 fret but welcome them as a precious Balm But when you have done your best yet through the Remainders of Corruption Guilt will be contracted 29. You can't but be restless till it be removed 30. Then you Sermon 29 30. may rather hope for than
fear Death and 31. Grace thus in Exercise Sermon 31 is but one degree from Glory Now Christians though there are many particular Cases wherein you 'l need Direction yet let me close with this Request Try your utmost what the practical Transcript of these Directions into your Hearts and Lives will produce ere you complain for more That these may be useful to you whoever else censures them as useless shall be the hearty Prayer of June 19. 1674. Your worthless Servant Samuel Annesley The CONTENTS Dr. Annesley Serm. 1 HOw may we attain to love God with all our hearts souls and minds Mat. 22.37 38. Mr. Milward Serm. 2 How ought we to love our Neighbour as our selves Mat. 22.39 Mr. Gale Serm. 3 Wherein the love of the world is inconsistent with the love of God 1 Joh. 2.15 Mr. Jenkyn Serm. 4 How may we improve the present season of grace 2 Cor. 6.1 2. Mr. Veal Serm. 5 What spiritual knowledg they ought to seek for that desire to be saved c. Isa 27.11 Mr. Case Serm. 6 How ought the Sabbath to be sanctified Isa 58.13 14. Mr. Senior Serm. 7 How may we hear the Word with profit James 1.21 Mr. Watson Serm. 8 How may we read the Scriptures with most spiritual profit Deut. 17.19 Mr. Wells Serm. 9 How may we make melody in our hearts with singing of Psalms Eph. 5.19 Dr. Manton Serm. 10 How ought we to improve our Baptism Acts 2.38 Mr. Lye Serm. 11 By what spiritual rules may catechising be best manag'd Prov. 22.6 Mr. Wadsworth Serm. 12 How may it appear to be every Christian 's indispensable duty to partake of the Lord's Supper 1 Cor. 11.24 Mr. Barker Serm. 13 A Religious fast Mark 2.20 Mr. Lee Serm. 14 How to manage secret Prayer that it may be prevalent with God to the comfort and satisfaction of our Souls Mat. 6.6 Mr. Doolitle Serm. 15 How may the Duty of Family-prayer be best manag'd Josh 24.15 Mr. Steele Serm. 16 What are the Duties of Husbands and Wives towards each other Eph. 5.33 Mr. Adams Serm. 17 What are the Duties of Parents and Children Coloss 3.20 21. Mr. Janeway Serm. 18 What are the Duties of Masters and Servants Eph. 6.5 6 7 8 9. Mr. S. C. Serm. 19 The sinfulness and cure of thoughts Gen. 6.5 Mr. West Serm. 20 How must we govern our tongues Eph. 4.29 Mr. Poole Serm. 21 How may detraction be best prevented or cur'd Psal 15.3 Mr. Baxter Serm. 22 What is that light which must shine before men in the works of Christ's Disciples Matth. 5.16 Dr. Wilkinson Serm. 23 How must we do all in the Name of Christ Col. 3.17 Mr. Cole Serm. 24 How may we steer an even course between Presumption and Despair Luke 3.5 6. Mr. Fowler Serm. 25 How Christians may get such a faith as may not only be saving at last but comfortable and joyful at the present 2 Pet. 1.8 Dr. Jacomb Serm. 26 How Christians may learn in every state to be content Phil. 4.11 Dr. G. Serm. 27 How we may so bear afflictions as neither to despise them nor faint under them Heb. 12.5 Dr. Owen Serm. 28 How may we bring our Hearts to receive Reproofs Psal 141.5 Mr. T. Vincent Serm. 29 Wherein doth appear the blessedness of forgiveness and how it may be attained Psal 32.1 Mr. Silvester Serm. 30 How may we overcome the inordinate love of Life and fear of Death Acts 20.24 Mr. Hook Serm. 31 What gifts of Grace are chiefly to be exercis'd in order to an actual preparation for the coming of Christ by Death and Judgment Mat. 25.10 Quest How may we attain to love God with all our Hearts Souls and Minds Serm. I. Matth. 22.37 38. Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind This is the first and great Commandment IT is fit this Exercise should begin with a general Introduction that may indifferently serve every Sermon that shall be Preach'd I should be much mistaken and so would you too should we think this Text unsuitable let 's therefore not only in the fear but also in the love of God address our selves to the management of it This Command you have in Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might This Command is not found in Exodus nor in Leviticus but only in Deuteronomy i. e. the second Law of Moses which as some express it bore a Type of the second Law viz. the Evangelical to which this Command is proper for the Old Law was a Law of fear tending to bondage and therefore Moses mentions the incussion of terror in the giving of it which when he hath dispatch'd he begins the following Chapter with Love noting that the Holy Ghost will cause the Law of Love to succeed the Law of Fear And 't is observable that the Jews read this place with the highest observation and their Scribes write the first and last words of the Preface to it with greater Letters than ordinary to amplifie the sense and to note that this is the beginning and the end of the Divine Law and they read this Scripture morning and evening with great * Jansen Harmon The Occasion Religion The occasion of Christ's pressing this command upon them at this time was this when the Pharisees heard how he had baffled the Sadduces and stopped their mouths with so proper and fit an answer that they had no more to say they consult how they may shew their acumen and sharpness of wit to diminish Christ's credit concerning his Doctrine and Skill in Scripture and therefore they chuse out one of their most accomplish'd Interpreters of the Law captiously to propose an excellent question They call him Master whose Disciples they will not be they enquire after the Great Commandment who will not duely observe the least they thought Christ could not return such an answer but that they might very plausibly except against it * Cartw. Harm Auth. imperfect op If Christ should have named any one command to be the greatest their exception was ready why not another as great as that but Christ's wisdom shames their subtilty Christ doth not call any command Great with the lessening of the rest but he repeats the summe of the whole Law and distinguisheth it into two Great Commands according to the subordination of their Objects Thou shalt love c. Though the excellency of the subject calls for the enlargement of your hearts yet the copiousness of it requires the contracting of my discourse To save time therefore let me open my Text and Case both together The Case is this The Case What is it to love God with all the heart
comprehends both the Vegetative and Sensitive part To love God with the soul is to subject all those works that pertain to an Animal life unto the love of God Plainly and in short it is not enough to love God in our Will but we must not admit any thing contrary to the Love of God in our sensual delights Whatsoever sensualists do for the gratifying of their lusts and desires let those things be drained from the dregs of sin and consecrate them all unto God Whatever use wicked men make of their souls in a way of hatred of God we must make the contrary use in a way of loving of God And then Thou must love God with all thy Soul What it is to love God with all the soul we must be ready to lay down our lives for God d Origen if any one should be ask'd what in all the world was most dear unto him he would answer his life for life-sake tender Mothers have cast off the sence of Nature and fed upon their own children It is Life that affords us being sense motion understanding riches dominions If a man had the Empire of the World he could enjoy it no longer than he hath his soul in his body when that is gone he presently becomes a horrid Carkass or rather a loathsom dunghil Now then if a man love his Life so much why should he not love God more by whom he lives and from whom he expects greater things than this Life God is the soul of our soul and the life of our life he is nearer to us than our very souls e Acts 17.28 in him we live and move and have our being He that doth but indifferently weigh these things will acknowledge that it is no rashness to call that man a Monster that loves not God how then can we think of it without grief that the whole world is full of these Monsters almost all men prefer their Money or Pleasures or their Honours or their lusts before God So oft as you willingly break any Law of God to raise your Credit or Estate you prefer the dirt and dust of the world before God Alas what use do's a wicked man make of his soul but to serve his body whereas both soul and body should be wholly taken up with not only the service but the love of God Then may you be said to love God with all your souls when your whole Life is filled with the love of God when your worldly business truckles under the love of God the love of the dearest Relations should be but hatred when compared with your love to God When you eat and drink to the glory of God sleep no more than may make you serviceable unto God when your solitary musings are about the engaging your souls to God when your social Conference is about the things of God when all acts of Worship endear God to you when all your Duties bring you nearer to God when the love of God is the sweetness of your Mercies and your Cordial under Afflictions when you can love God under amazing Providences as well as under refreshing Deliverances then you may be said to love God with all your Souls What it is to love God with the mind 3. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Mind though Anselm take this for the Memory that we should remember nothing whereby we are hinder'd in our thinking of God yet generally this is taken for the understanding and so the Evangelist Mark expresly interprets it when he renders this Command in these words f Mark 12 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all thy understanding to love God with our Minds is to have the understanding moved and commanded by the love of God to assent unto those things that are to be believed and to admit nothing into the understanding which is contrary to the love of God g Cajetan h Origen nihil cogitantes vel proferentes nisi ea que Dei sunt The Mind should let nothing go in or out but what payes tribute of love to God there 's one interprets the word by the Etymology of the word Mind from Measuring i Mens dicitur a metiendo c. Avendan The Mind must be so full of love to God that love must measure all our works k 1 Cor. 10 31. When we eat we should think how hateful it is to God that we should indulge our Palat and thence shun Gluttony when we drink we should think how abominable Drunkenness is in the sight of God and thence drink temperately l Rom. 14.8 so that whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords our Life and our Death must be measur'd by our Love to God We must love God with all our Mind What it is to love God with all our mind we must alwayes converse with God in our Minds and thoughts our thoughts must kindle our affections of love Love to God makes the hardest Commands easie while our thoughts are immers'd in love to God love to Enemies wlll be an easie Command the keeping under of our Bodies by Mortification will be an easie work Persecution for Righteousness will be a welcome Trial love will change Death it self into Life There 's another word added by Mark which indeed is in Deut. 6.5 whence this is taken Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Strength now because this word doth not express any other species or power of the Soul but only notes the highest and most intense degree of Love that flows from all the Faculties of the Soul I will close this Enquiry with a Word of this We are to love God with all the Powers of our Soul with all the members of our Bodies Our understandings wills inward and outward Senses appetite speech whatever we have whatever we are must be all directed into the Love of God and into Obedience flowing from Love You commonly hear that of Bernard the cause of loving God is God himself and the only measure is to love him without measure We must love God strongly because with all our strength our love to God must get above Interruptions no threatnings calamities or discommodities whatsoever must pull us away from God but that all the Powers of Soul and Body must be taken up into his service that our Eyes beholding the wonderful works of God the Sun Moon and Stars the clear evidences of his Divinity we may be in love with him that our Ears piously hearkning to his Instructions may be in love with him that our Mouth may love to praise him our Hands to act for him that our Feet may be swift to run the way of his Commandments that our Affections may be withdrawn from Earthly things and deliver'd over to the love of God that whatever is within us it may be bound over to
some commands may be observed without so much as common grace as duties meerly moral but this must have a great measure of the spirit it speaks much acquaintance with God through experience of his wayes and much conformity to Christ in a well composed conversation in short it includes the highest perfection possibly attainable in this life yet let not this difficulty fright you for through Christ our sincere love though weak is accepted and our imperfect love because growing shall not be despised 8. This is the first and great command in respect of the End 8 Ratione finis All the commands of God are referr'd to this as their end and last scope which was first in the mind of the Law-giver 9. This is the first and great command in respect of the lastingness of it 9 Ratione perperuitatis Thou shalt love the Lord thy God it is not only spoken after the Hebrew (e) Futurum pro imperativo way of commanding but it notes singular perseverance Most of the other commands expire with the world as all or most of the commands of the second table but this remains and flourishes more than ever When Repentance and Mortification which now take up half our life when Faith which is now as it were Mother and Nurse to most of our Graces when Hope which now upholds weak faith in its languors when all these shall as it were dye in travail perfection of grace being then in the birth love to God shall then be more lively than ever That love which as it were passed between God and the Soul in letters and tokens shall then be perfected in a full enjoyment Our love was divided among several objects that cut the banks and weakned the stream henceforth it shall have but one current Our love is now mixt with fear fear of missing or losing what we love but that fear shall be banished There shall never be any distance never any thing to provoke jealousie never any thing to procure cloying never any thing more to be desired than is actually enjoyed Is not this then the first and great Commandment is it not our priviledge and happiness to be swallowed up in it this may suffice to evidence it to be our duty But then What abilities are requisite for the well performance of this duty and how we may obtain those abilities 3. What Abilities are requisite to the performance of this duty and how may we attain those Abilities This we must be experimentally acquainted with or all I can say will at best seem babling and therefore let me at first tell you plainly nothing on this side Regeneration can capacitate you to love God and it is God alone that giveth worketh infuseth impresseth the gracious habit of Divine Love in the Souls of his people Our love to God is nothing else but the eccho of Gods love to us Through the corruption of our Nature we hate God God implanted in our Nature an inclination to love God above all things amiable but by the fall we have an headlong inclination to depart from God and run away from him and there is in every one of us a natural impotency and inability of turning unto God The grace of love is no Flower of Nature's Garden but a Forreign p Non secundum bona naturalia sed secundum dona gratâ—ita Aquin. plant We may possibly do something for the meerly rational inflaming of our hearts with love to God e. g. God may be represented as most amiable we may be convinced of the unsatisfyingness of the Creature we may understand something of the worth of our Souls and what a folly it is to expect that any thing but God can fill them and yet this will be at the utmost but like a solid proof of the truth of the Christian Religion which may Non-plus our cavils but not make us Christians This may make love to God appear a rational duty but it will not of it self beget in us this spiritual Grace It is the immediate work of God to make us love him I do not mean immediate in opposition to the use of means but immediate in regard of the necessary efficacy of his Spirit beyond what all means in the world without his powerful influence can amount unto 'T is the Lord alone that can direct our hearts into the love of God q 2. Thes 3.5 Exoplat a Leo quod non ambigit posse praestari Ambros God is pleased in a wonderful and unexpressible manner to draw up the heart in love to him God makes use of Exhortations and Counsels and Reproofs but though he works by them and with them he works above them and beyond them r Deut. 30.6 19 20. The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou may'st live And again I call heaven and earth to record this day against thee that I have set before thee life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that both thou and thy seed may live that thou may'st love the Lord thy God and that thou may'st obey his voice and that thou may'st cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy dayes He is thy life i. e. effectively and that by love saith Aquinas it is reported s Sales of the love of God p. 63. that it often happens among Partridges that one steals away anothers eggs but the young one that is hatcht under the wing of a stranger at her true Mothers first call who laid the egg whence she was hatch'd she renders her self to her true Mother and puts her self into her Covey 'T is thus with our hearts though we are born and bred up among terrene and base things under the wing of corrupted Nature yet at and not before God's first quickning call we receive an inclination to love him and upon his drawing t Cant. 1.4 we run after him God works a principle of love in us and we love God by that habit of love he hath implanted hence the Act of love is formally and properly attributed to man as the particular cause u Psal 18.1 116.1 Vâ—â—tius I will love thee O Lord my strength and I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice the Soul works together with God in his powerful working the Will being Acted of God Acteth It is a known saying of w Non ideo bene currit vt rotunda sit sed quia rotunda est Augustine The wheel doth not run that it may be round but because 't is round The Spirit of God enables us to love God but 't is we that love God with a created love 't is we that acquiesce in God in a gracious manner What God doth in the Soul doth not hurt the liberty of the will but strengthens it insweetly and powerfully drawing it into
thing but his displeasure Is not here love and do not these love God for himself 't is true God's love to them all this while is great but they perceive it not 3. The third step is to love nothing but for God's sake in him and for him and to him It is said to be Teresia's Maxime All that is not God is nothing indeed the very word that Solomon uses for (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vanitas quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nâ—n Deuâ— Merc. Pagn vanity which he indorseth upon the best of Creature-happiness in the very notion of it proclaims it It is not God therefore it is vanity 't is a noble employment to try experiments upon every lovely object to reduce our love to them to the love of God To be still musing upon spiritual cases still supplying of spiritual wants still longing for spiritual enjoyments that I may not only love others things in subordination to God but to love nothing but for God e. g. In all outward enjoyments have I an estate I will honour God with my substance because I love him Have I any thing pleasant or delightful in this world I 'le run it up to the fountain O how pure and satisfying are the loving Soul's delights in God Have I any esteem in the world I am no way fond of it but so far as it may make my attempts for the honour of God more successful I 'le improve it and upon all other accounts decline it Nearer yet My Relations are dear unto me I truely love them but yet my love to God shall animate my love to them e.g. I truly love my friend but this shall be my love's exercise to perswade him to love God I dearly love my Parents but Oh no Father like God my Soul is overcome with that expression of Christ's (p) Mat. 12.50 whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my Brother and Sister and Mother My conjugal relation is dearest to me but my heart is passionately set upon this that we may both be infallibly espoused unto Christ my heart yearns towards my children but I had rather have them God's Children than mine Nearer yet as to inward qualifications e. g. for natural parts I bless God that I am not an Idiot that I have any capacity of understanding but I am resolved to the utmost of my capacity to endeavour the convincing of all I converse with that to love and enjoy God is most highly rational and most eminently our interest Have I any acquired endowments of Learning or Wisdom I bless God for them but I count all Wisdom folly and all Learning dotage without the knowledge of God in Christ (q) 1 Cor. 8.2 3. If any man thinks that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know but if any man love God the same is known of him Higher yet for gracious qualifications that capacitate me for glory I love grace the best of any creature wherever I see it but 't is for the sake of the God of all grace without whom my grace is inconsiderable Once more higher yet and higher than this I think we cannot go To love those things that are not lovely meerly for God's sake or out of love to God e.g. How many have you heard complain for want of afflictions for fear God does not love them though by the way those betray their weakness who thus complain for did they but observe their want of evidence of divine love and did they more sympathize with the Church of Christ under the Cross they would find they need not complain for want of afflictions But be it so complain they do and that for want of afflictions Afflictions are no way lovely we are no where bid to pray for them but 't is our duty to pray for preventing and removing them and yet the gracious Soul is through love to God in some respect in love with them Here 's a notable degree of divine love that the Soul would upon any terms experiment the love of God and engage the heart in love to God again and to love nothing but for God 4. The fourth step of our love to God is for our highest love of every thing to be hatred in comparison of our love to God The truth is we can never so plainly know to what a degree we love God as by weighing it against whatever stands in competition with it Why should I so far debase my love to God as to weigh it in the same ballance with love to sin but alas why do besotted Sinners so dote upon sin as if love to God were not worthy to be compar'd with it Methinks I may a little more than allude to that passage of Isaiah (h) Isa 46.6 they lavish Gold out of the bag and weigh Silver in the ballance and hire a Goldsmith and he maketh it a God c. they give out their Gold by handfuls without weighing for matter of their Idols but they will be good Husbands in their expences about the workmanship of them Man cares not at what rate he loves his Idols those lusts upon which they bestow their affections due to God alone though in all other things they are wary enough But why should I wast time in speaking to these they have not yet gone one step towards the love of God and therefore are so far behind that they are not within learning of what is spoken to good proficients in the love of God Let me only leave with them this parting word From a person's first sincere and ardent love to God he can neither speak nor think of sin without abhorrency From the first infusion of grace there 's a graciously natural antipathy against sin Sin receives its death's wound 't is too true it may struggle for life and seem to be upon recovery but grace will wear it out and will never leave the conflict till it has obtain'd the conquest But this is not the thing I intended to speak to in this particular it is other-guess things than Sin that the Soul that loves God is afraid to spill his love upon he prizeth those Ordinances wherein he meets with Communion with God but is afraid his love should terminate there he values them but as Windows to let in the light though something excellent may be written there as with the point of a Diamond yet it is neither writing nor window is prized but the light when that 's gone shut up the window as if it were a dead wall that 's no more regarded till the light returns 'T is the light of God's countenance that is better than life it self Perhaps you 'l say this comes not up to what I asserted that our highest love to every thing is to be hatred in comparison of our love to God Well let this be warily considered one whose love to God is at this height is exactly curious in the
quoad modum tendâ—nd in objectam 1 Cor. 13.8 Voet. ibid. Love never faileth the same kind of love the same Numerical love that was in gracious Persons on Earth shall be continued in Heaven and receive it's perfection presently after its delivery from the Body of Death There will be a greater change in all our Graces than in our Love A great part of our Life is taken up in the Exercise of those Graces that I may in some respect say dye with us The one half of our Life is or should be spent in Mortification The whole of our time needs the exercise of our Patience Our Life at best is but a Life of Faith much of our sweet Communion with God is fetch'd in by secret Prayer But now in Heaven there shall be no sin to be mortifi'd nothing grievous to be endured Faith shall be swallow'd up in Enjoyment and your Petitions shall be all answer'd So that now Christians set your selves to love God and you shall no way lose your labour Other Graces are but as Physick to the Soul desirable for something else which when obtained they are useless but Love to God is the healthful Constitution of the Soul there 's never any thing of it in any sence useless Most of the Graces of the Spirit do by our Souls as our Friends by our Bodies who accompany them to the Grave and there leave them But now love to God is the alone Grace that is to our Souls the same that a good Conscience our best Friend in both Worlds 4. This Divine Love is so unknown to the World that when they behold the Effects and flames of it in those that love God in an extraordinary manner they are ready to explode it as meer Vanity Folly Madness Ostentation and Hypocrisie When Paul manag'd his Audience more like a Sermon than a Defence Festus cries out upon him as mad (h) Acts 26.24 Yea when Christ himself in love to God and Souls is more hungry after Converts than Food his nearest Relations think him craz'd and the multitude cometh together again Mark 3.20 21 32. so that they could not so much as eat bread and when his Friends heard of it they went out to lay hold on him for they said he is beside himself But were they any other but his carnal and graceless Relations that did this See behold thy Mother and thy Brethren without seek for thee (i) 1 John 3.13 No marvel then that Enemies reproach you Friend forsake you Relations slight you and the World hate you Christ tells us (k) Joh. 15.18 23. if the World hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you But how can the World hate Christ who in love to it came to dye for it Christ tells his Hearers the true Reason (l) Joh. 5.40 42. I know you this is no groundless surmise nor censorious rashness but I know you that you have not the love of God in you Let what will appear at the top this lies at the bottom And therefore judge I pray you who more phanatick those that hate God when they pretend to love him or those that are counted phrantick for their serious Love to God I shall neither name more nor enlarge further on this first rank of Characters but be brief also in the second The Absolute Properties of Love to God are among many some of them such as these 1. It is the most ingenious of all Graces In poor inconsiderable Loves not worth the mentioning how do persons contrive wayes for the expressing and exciting of Love and there 's no way to prevent it Oh how much more when the Soul loves God there 's nothing meliorates the parts like Grace Divine Love makes the best improvement of Wit Parts Time when a Person loves to pray though he can scarce speak sence to men he can strenuously plead with God a person that loves to meditate though he knows not how to make his thoughts hang together in other things they multiply on his hand with a spiritual and profitable consistency In short to do any thing that may engage the Heart to God what gracious stratagems doth Love abound with That (m) Nieremberg de art Vol. p. 114. as he that beholds his Face in a Glass makes the Face which he sees his very look is the Pensil the Colour the Art so he that loves God sees such a Reflexion of God's love to him that a proud person doth not more please her self in her own fancyed beauty than this gracious Soul is graciously delighted in the mutual dartings of Divine Love Keep from Will-worship and humane Inventions in the things of God especially from imposing upon others your Prudentials of Devotion and then I will commend it to you to try all the Experiments which the Scripture will warrant to encrease the flame of your Divine love 2. Love to God is the most bold strong constant and daring Grace of all the Graces of the Spirit of God (n) Cant. 8.6 Love is strong as Death every one knows what work Death makes in the World It is not the Power of Potentates nor the Reverence of Age nor the usefulness of Grace can prevent its stroke it conquers all So doth love to God Nothing can stand before it what dare not love to God attempt It designs impossibilities viz. Perfection and is restless for the want of it I may in some sence say it would fain have contradictions true viz. to be without the Body while in it the Body's being a clog is so wearisome Love to God not only baffles Satan but through God's gracious condescension it even prevails with God himself that God will deny nothing to the Soul that loves him 3. Love to God is the onely self-emptying and satisfying Grace (o) Nieremb p. 322 c. spaâ—siâ— Love 't is self's egress 't is a kind of Pilgrimage from self he that loves is absent from himself thinks not of himself provides not for himself But oh how great is the gain of renouncing our selves and thereby receiving God and our selves we are as it were dead to our selves and live to God nay more by love we live in God (p) 1 John 4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him By Faith we live upon God by Obedience we live to God but by Love we live in God It is herein alone that we can give something like a carnal though 't is indeed an highly spiritual answer to Nicodemus his question (q) Joh. 3.4 How can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers Womb and be born We have our Soulâ— immediately from the Father of Spirits by Regeneration we return to God again from whom by Sin we are estranged and by love we live in him in some little resemblance to the Child's living in the Mother's womb what the mother loves the
of that which is our duty is hardly discerned by us yet there is no man whom the light of nature doth not move to love himself we find a Law of self Preservation stampt upon the whole creation of God it is plainly to be seen in all the Creatures whether animate or inanimate and in man in a special manner To this end God hath placed affections in mans Soul that he might use them as feet to carry him forth readily to that which is good and from that which is evil or hurtful to him Hence it is that when any thing is represented as good there is not only an inclination to it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pursuing of it when evil and destructive there is not only an aversation but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a flight from it It is said of the prudent man that he foreseeth the evil and hideth himself and of Noah that being moved with fear he prepared an ark And even Christ himself who was altogether void of sin when they sought to destroy him withdrew himself as he did hide himself at another time when they took up stones to cast at him thus he did till the hour was come John 10.18 when he was to lay down his life according to a command that he had received from the Father 2. Although there be no direct and express command saying Thou shalt love thy self yet all the Commands of God do vertually and implicitely enjoyn it No man can comply with that first and great command of loving God with all his heart (g) Diligere Deâ—m est diligere se ergo cum precipitur ut Deum diligâ—mus praecipitur eidem operà ut no metipsos dilâ—â—â—mus Davenantius Psal 19.11 but in so doing he loves himself because in the fruition of God is a mans greatest happiness The like may be said of every other commandment in proportion for as it is good in it self so it will be found to be good for us David had experience of it when he said that in the keeping of them there was great reward And when he prayed that as God was good and did good he would teach him his statutes Yea all the promises and threatnings in the book of God do suppose that man May and Should love himself in the Promises God sheweth us something that is good for us and so draweth us to himself by the cords of a man when he Threatens he shews us something that is evil and bids us fly from present wrath or wrath to come whether he threatens or promiseth it is that we chuse the good and refuse the evil I have set before you life and death Deut. 30.19 blessing and Cursing therefore chuse life It is the will of God that every man should make the (h) Non tam Lex tibi ô homo qâ—à m tu Legi adâ—ersaris â—â—ò 〈◊〉 p o 〈◊〉 est tu conâ—ra illam â—ec contra illam tantùm â—ed eâ—iam cont a re Salv. de Guber Dei lib. 4. Luk 18.19 best choice for himself and every man doth so when he is regulated in it by the will of God the sum which is this that we love him above all and our neighbour as our selves 3. We come now in the third place to lay down four short conclusions about our love to God our Neighbour and our selves 1. Conclu The first is this that as God is to be loved above all things else so he is to be loved for himself There is none good but one that is God None originally independently essentially and immutably good but he and therefore he only is to be loved for himself It was well said by one of the Ancients (i) Bernardus Causa diligendi Deum Deus est modus sine modo diligere The cause of loving God is God himself The measure is to love him without measure 2. Conclu That Creatures may be loved according to that degree of goodness which God hath communicated to them not for themselves but for God Prov. 16.4 who made all things for himself As all waters come from the Sea and go through many places and countries not resting any where till they return to the Sea again So our love if it be right hath its rise in God acts towards several Creatures in due manner and measure but rests in God at last bringing into him all the Glory of that goodness which he hath derived to the Creatures 1 Cor. 10.31 Whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God We may neither love our selves nor our neighbours for our or themselves (k) Amor fruendi quibuscunque crea uris sine amore Câ—eatoris non est à Deo August contra Jul. lib. 4. but for God that God in all things may be glorified I do not say that in every act of love we put forth it is necessary that we actually mind the glory of God but that our hearts be habitually disposed and framed to glorifie God in all 3. Conclu No man can love himself or his neighbour aright while he remains in a state of sin until a man come to himself he cannot love himself or any other man as he ought the reason is manifest from what was said before l Amor Dei quo pervenitur ad Deum non est nisi à Deo Patre per Jesum Christum eum Spiritu Sancto August contr Jul. lib. 4. Gal. 5.22 Eph. 6.23 He doth not he cannot love either in God and for God when the Prodigal came to himself and not till then he said I will return to my Father Love is a fruit of the Spirit and therefore is never found in any who are destitute of the Spirit The grace of Love flows from Faith and therefore the Apostle prayed for the Ephesians that they might have faith and love from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ 4. Conclu The most gracious souls on earth though they may and do love God themselves and their Neighbours truly and sincerely yet by reason of the relicts of corruption in their hearts there are many m Qualis est fidei habitus talis est charitatis si fideihabitus esset perfectus Charitatis habitus esset etiam perfectus Camero 1 Thess 3.10 defects in their love to God and much inordinacy in their love to themselves and to their Neighbour As there is always something lacking in our Faith so also in our love We come now to the Question How ought we to love our Neighbour as our selves For the resolution of this question we shall first lay down these two general propositions 1. In the same things wherein we shew love to our selves we ought to shew love to our Neighbour 2. After the same manner that we love our selves we ought to love our Neighbour First In and by the things that we do and may shew love to our selves we ought to shew love to others It is not possible to enumerate all the
Love to the world is spiritual Adultery and thence incoherent with the Love of God The jealousie of God will not admit of any corrival in the bent of the heart but Oh! how doth love to this world run a whoring after other Lovers so Ezek. 16.17 18 38. and 23.5 11. and Aholah played the harlot when she mas mine c. The like James 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendsh p of the world is enmity with God Which implies that love to and friendship with this whorish world is spiritual Adultery and so hatred against God O! how soon are those that love the world killed by its adulterous imbraces hence 6 Love to the world is a deliberate contrived lust and so habitual enmity and rebellion against God Acts of lust which arise from suddain passions though violent may consist with the love of God but a deliberate Bent of heart towards the world as our supreme interest cannot The single act of a gross sin arising from some prevalent Temptation speaketh not such an inveterate bitter root of enmity against God as predominant love to the world James 4.4 whosoever therefore will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God Oh! how much of contempt rebellion and enmity against God is there in friendship and love to the world 7 Love to the world forms our profession into a subservience unto our worldly interest and so makes Religion to stoop unto yea truckle under lust Now what can be more inconsistent with the Love of God than this This was the case of the carnal Jews Ezech. 33.31 With their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness They shew much love in profession but O how little have they of sincere affection and why because their avaricious hearts made the whole of their profession to conform to their worldly interest Thus also it was with unbelieving Jews in our Lords time John 5.42 But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you I know you There lies a great emphase in that you you who profess so much and yet have so little love in you They had much love to God in their mouth but none in their heart this appeareth by v. 43 44. where our Lord tells them in plain terms that their worldly honour and interest was the only measure of their profession This also was the measure of Judas's Religion John 12.5 6. where he pretends much love to the poor but really intends nothing but the gratifying his avaricious humor The like Hos 10.11 Ephraim loveth to tread out the Corn c. because there was profit liberty and pleasure in that but Ephaim loved not plowing work because that brought her under a yoke and brought in no advantage to her Love to the world brings us under subjection to it and so takes us off from the service of God What we inordinately love and cleave unto we are soon overcome by Now subjection to the world and subjection to God are inconsistent Mat. 6.24 8 Love to the world is the root of all sin and therefore what more inconsistent with the love of God To love God is to hate evil Psal 97.10 therefore to love evil either in the cause or effect is to hate God Now love to the world has not only a love for but also a causal influence on all sin And that 1 As it exposeth men to the violent incursion and assaults of every tentation so 1 Tim. 6.9 But they that will be rich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that have their wills biassed with a violent bent or vehement weight of carnal love towards riches This Solomon expresseth Prov. 28.22 By hasting to be rich What befalls such why saith Paul such fall into tentation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction and then he gives the reason and cause of it v. 10. For the love of money is the root of all evil c. i. e. There is no sin but may call the love of money Father whence Philo calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Metropolis of evil 2 Love to the world is the cause of all sin in that it blinds and darkens the mind which opens the door to all sin It is an observation of the prudent moralist (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch that every lover is blind about that he loves which he himself interprets of love to lower goods And oh how true is this of those that love the world what a black veil of darkness is there on their minds as to what they love hence Paul calls such mens love 1 Tim. 6.9 foolish lusts They are indeed foolish not only eventually but causally as they make men fools and sots 3 Love to the world stifles all convictions breaks all chains and bars of restraining grace and so opens a more effectual door to all sin We find a prodigious example hereof in Balaam Numb 22.22 40. where you see at large how his predominant love to the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2.15 stifled all those powerful convictions of and resolutions against sin he lay under 4 Love to the world is the disease and death of the soul and therefore the life of sin 1 Tim. 5.6 she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth 5 Love to the world (u) Amor est quidam ingressus animi in rem amatam quae si fuerit ipso amante ignobilior polluit Dignitatem ejus Jansen August pollutes our whole Being Animal passions defile the soul inordinate lustings after things lawful pollute the most of professors more or less 6 Love to the world puts the whole soul yea world into Wars Confusion and Disorders so James 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your Members 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of your pleasures i. e. by a Metonymie from your lusts after pleasures and superfluous things that war in your members Hence note that all extern wars and confusions come from the wars and confusions of intern lust in the heart Now all intern wars and disorders are inconsistent with the love of God which is peaceable and orderly In these regards love to the world impedes and hinders the love of God 9 Love to the world is inconsistent with the love of God in that it causeth Apostasie from God The Conversion of the heart to the Creature always implies its Aversion from God He that cannot part with the World will soon part with God The world draws Men from God at Pleasure because it doth engross your best Time Thoughts Affections and Strength in its service How many professors by being bewitched with love to the World have lost many hopeful blossomes and beginnings of love to God How little do Spiritual Suavities savour with Carnal Hearts Yea do not the Flesh-pleasing sweets of this World make all
mens speech all the day no jest so idle no story so common and fruitless but will pass at our tables and in our private conference Many spend the best of their time no better than the Idolatrous Athenians did their worst in nothing else but either telling or hearing some new thing What news is the most innocent question wherewith I would I could not say most men fill up the vacancies of a Sabbath And is that sinful will you say was it not in Nehemiah's question Nehem. 1.2 Hanani one of my brethren came he and certain men of Judah and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped which were of the Captivity and concerning Jerusalem c. presently what news And why may not Christians ask the same question yes they may when they ask it with Nehemiah's spirit to Nehemiah's end sc that we may get our hearts sutably affected with the miseries or prosperity of the Church of God abroad or at home see what a gracious use he makes of his news in that and in the following chapter at your leisure go ye and do likewise and it shall be your honour But to tell news and to inquire after news meerly for novelty sake and to fill up time for want of better discourse is a miserable idling out of precious time which might be spent to mutual edification whereas by ordinary and unsavoury discourses which are usually heard amongst us people do edifie one another indeed but it is Ad Gehennam they edifie one another to hell You that pretend to be the Lords people be more jealous for the Lords day and honour The Lord takes pleasure in his people Oh let the Saints be joyful in glory Psal 149.4 5. Let your speech be always seasoned with salt especially on Gods day that you may season your children and servants which otherwise will be corrupted by such rotten communication O let your prayer be all times but especially on the Sabbath day that o holy David set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep the door of my lips the sabbath is Gods glory let your tongues be so too The like caution we ought to use about our thoughts by the rule of proportion they being the language of our hearts 8th Rule and as audible in the ears of God as our words are to mens yea whereas men understand our hearts by our words God understand our words by our hearts Moses did set bounds about the mount that neither man nor beast might break in whatsoever touch't the mountain must dye Exod. 19 12. 19. so must we set bounds about our heart that neither humane nor brutish distractions may break in There is death or life in it and therefore of all keepings keep thy heart Prov. 4 23. for out of it are the issues of life The heart indeed is not so fenceable as the mountain but the more open it lieth the stronger-guard had we need to set upon it and to pray for a guard from heaven as David Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart Psal 19 ult be acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer If vain or vile thoughts break in upon thee do as the ravished virgin was to do in the Law cry out to God and thou shalt not be held guilty Deut. 22.27 Christians this caution is of a special concern to you O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayst be saved Jerem. 4.14 how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee Resolve the Text into its integrals and it will afford you some such observables 1. Thoughts will defile the heart as well as deeds Wash thy heart 2. This defilement will damn the soul wash that thou mayst be saved 3. The reason is implied they are wickedness wash thine heart from wickedness 4. All this evil is even in vain thoughts as well as in vile thoughts how long shall thy vain thoughts c. 5. Therefore we must wash our hearts from vain thoughts as well as from wicked and blasphemous thoughts Hence I infer 6. If this should be the work of a Christian every day how much more on Gods day the purer the paper the fouler the stain and blot Christians look to your hearts Further take notice of the appropriation Thy own ways Thy own pleasureâ— thy own words Object And are not holy ways and holy pleasures and holy words our own as well as such as are carnal and sensual yes they are but God speaks here according to our sense and apprehension from whence Note how brutish and sensual laps't man is in his notions and apprehensions of things that he can call nothing his own but what relateth to the flesh Hâ—seâ— 8.13 I have written to him saith God the great things of my law but they were accounted a strange thing Alienum forreign and of no concernment to himself at all And let this also serve for a tenth rule In our sanctifying of the Sabbath we must be specially careful to distinguish what is Gods and what is our own Indeed we must distinguish between what is Satans Our own and Gods There be sinful wicked pleasures ways words thoughts I say wicked and sinful in themselves and these are properly the Devils pleasures the Devils ways the Devils words and thoughts and these are lawful at no time much less on Gods time Gods day and the Devils imployment do not well agree And there are our own pleasures ways words and thoughts such as concern the present life relating to the body and outward man These may be lawful on our days six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but are not lawful on the Sabbath day In it thou shalt do no manner of work c. save what is of necessity or Charity And then there are Gods pleasures ways words and thoughts i. e. of Gods command and such as lye in a direct tendency to the worship and service of God in publique private or secret and these only we may and must do and mind upon the Sabbath if we mix any of the Devils or our own pleasures and profits with Gods we pollute the holy things of God and profane his Sabbath This is the sum of what time will give me leave to say upon the Negative part of this Model only before I dismiss it let me add this short note of observation that if what hath been spoken even on this negative part be the mind and will of God concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath then may the generality of Christians lye down in the dust and smiting upon their thigh with brinish tears upon their cheeks confess with a Pious Honourable Lady upon her dying Bed O I never kept a Sabbath in all my life The Lord teach us so to lay this sin to heart that God may never lay it to our charge Having thus briefly dispatcht the Negative part of Sabbath-Sanctification contained in this model I
will sing Praise to the Name of the Lord most High And sometimes he calls upon others 1 Chron. 16.9 Sing unto him sing Psalms unto him and tell of his wondrous Works Nay sometimes he summons the whole Earth to join in this duty 1 Chron. 16.23 Psalm 68.32 Sing unto the Lord all the Earth shew forth from day to day his Salvation And holy Hezekiah he propagated this service 2 Chron. 29.30 Nay in their times when the Royal Majesty was lodg'd in Judah Singers were a peculiar Office enjoined constantly to sing the Praises of the Lord 1 Kings 10.12 And Jehosaphat appointed Singers 2 Chron. 20.21 Nay and Asaph Heman Jeduthun and Ethan men eminent and holy were employed in this holy service 2 Chron. 5.12 But why should I light a Candle at Noon-day Thus this harmonious service was most usual and most acceptable in the times of the Law And I need not straggle from my Text to bring in Gospel-Precept for this sweet Ordinance And the Apostle takes care to acquaint other Churches with the same injunction So Colos 3.16 Col. 3.16 Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And so firmly the Apostle states this Musical Service this exhilarating Ordinance that he himself act his own injunction though fettered in a Prison and makes Barnabas a Companion of his Song as well as of his Sorrows Acts 16.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They Hymned God i.e. they celebrated his Praises with a Hymn and as Bede saith Lorinus Bede with singing 2. From Scripture-Argument And I shall only take out one shaft out of the whole Quiver I shall use one Argument among many which is this viz. We always find this duty of singing Psalms linked to and joyned with other Moral Duties Thus the Psalmist joyns Singing and Prayer together Psal 95.1 6. O come let us sing unto the Lord Psal 95.1.6 in the first Verse O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker in the sixth Verse There is Prayer and Singing connexed Singing being supposed to be of equal necessity and authority with other Ordinances And so the Apostle James Jam. 5.3 joins these two together Is any among you afflicted let him pray Is any merry let him sing Psalms So you may observe both these Services are equally calculated for man's necessity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. 119. Quad Orthodox Thus Paul and Silas join them in their practice Acts 16.25 And so Justin Martyr in his 117. Question ad Orthodoxos tells us that in his time They Sang and sent up Prayers to God the Primitive Church confirming David's Injunction and the Apostolical Command So that by these instances we may observe That the duty of Praying and Singing have walk'd in the same equipage and lay claim to an equal Authority from Divine Writ the Scripture jointly favouring both 3. From Scripture-Pattern Moses both pens a Psalm viz. the Ninetieth and sings a Holy Song and the 15th of Exodus Is the record of it So David tripudiates in the practice of this delightful service Psal 104.33 Psal 104.33 Nay David composeth Psalms and Hezekiah appoints them to be Sung 2 Chron. 29.30 So David and Asaph Hezekiah and the Levites all join to Sing forth the praises of the Lord. Nay our dearest Jesus the King of Saints and the Redeemer of Mankind practiseth this sweet duty and calls in his blessed Apostles to make up the Quire Mat. 26.30 Rev. 15.3 Mat. 26.30 And when they had Sung an Hymn they went up into the Mount of Olives Our blessed Saviour honours this Ordinance with his own practice and this he did a little before his death so to seal this Ordinance with his blood as well as to consecrate it with his lips Thus this Celestial Quire of Christ and his Apostles six this sweet Ordinance in the Church for future successions 4. From Scripture-Prophesie And here I may speak of Singing as Paul speaks of Timothy's Ordination 1 Tim. 4.14 It was given by Prophesie There are divers Prophesies in the Old Testament concerning this Ordinance in the New So in Psal 108.2 Upon which Mollerus Mollerus observes That in that Text David pours forth ardent Prayers and wishes for the Kingdom of Christ And so Divines observe that the Psalm 100.1 2. are Prophetical Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye Lands serve the Lord with gladness come before his presence with Singing To which may be added that pregnant prophesie recorded in Isa 52.8 Isa 52 8. Speculatores simul jubilabunt opinare quantum sit gaudium futurum ob Redemptionem ad eptamper Christum Musc My watchmen shall lift up their voice with their voice together shall they sing which clearly prognosticates this Musical Ordinance in Gospel times And Musculus much favours this Interpretation when he saith These watchmen shall Jubilee when they shall consider the great joy approaching for the Redemption obtained by Christ And there are two things which not only establish but sweeten and honour an Ordinance 1. Promises 2. Prophesies Christ himself was the fruit and issue of both Secondly we may take notice of the sweetness of this Duty Singing is the Soul's Jubilee Our Spiritual recreation The shout of the heart Our tuning of our Hallelujahs The sweetest solace of a Sanctified Soul David was in a kind of rapture when he cries out I will Sing praise to the Lord while I have my being Psal 104.33 Psal 104.33 One well observes of Singing There is a dilating of the sound and a drawing out of the voice which gives more tïme for the fixing of the heart upon that which is Sung and so puts the Soul upon a sweeter Meditation Psal 10.4 34. Psal 104.34 And we may animadvert it That when we Sing Psalms there is more than ordinary raising and lifting up of the Soul there is an elevation to a higher degree of Communion with God It is the Soul 's high Mount towards Heaven the Saint flies higher towards the Element and Sphere of joy Then we are fledged for sublime things One asserts There is not a greater resemblance of Heaven upon Earth than a company of God's people Singing a Psalm together Then the Soul rejoyceth in Divine goodness and exults in Divine excellencies meditates on Divine promises And whatever we make the matter of our Singing it will much affect the heart 1. If we Sing of God Of his goodness It inflames our heart to love Of his Wisdom It raiseth our heart to admiration Rom. 11.33 Of his Power It engageth the heart to Faith and Confidence Nay of his Judgments It over-awes the heart to a due and reverential Fear 2. If we Sing of any thing concerning our selves If for the diversion of a trouble It fills the heart with humility If for the obtaining of a mercy It boils up the heart in Desire 3. If we Sing of
acceptance with God or in a condition of spiritual life that is the forerunner and earnest of a life of glory 2. But again if you consider the nature of the drink which he hath appointed it is wine and not water By it may be signified thus much that as there is no sort of drink so grateful to the palate so reviving and strengthning to the spirits so that spiritual life that the Soul is raised to by the Death of Christ is a life of the greatest pleasure and joy that is conceivable for as no liquor like Wine doth chear a sad drooping spirit so nothing doth so glad and chear the Soul as Faith in a Crucified Christ according to that of the Apostle Peter in whom though we have not seen 1 Pet. 1.8 yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory Thus much for the Duty this do 2. The end of the Duty and that is in remembrance of me Here are two things to be inquired into I. What reason was there for the instituting an Ordinance for his remembrance II. Why of all the acts and expressions of his love to sinners above all he would be remembred in his sufferings for us which is the special signification of this Supper 1 To the first I say you must call to mind that the time of instituting this supper was the night before that day he died Now the consequent of his Death was to be this that he should be taken from Earth to Heaven there to be personally present till the day of judgment Now that his Church on Earth might not forget him in this long absence he therefore appointed this supper for a frequent quickning them to the remembrance of him till he came again 2 To the other Question I Answer That the reasons why Jesus would have this act of his love to be especially remembred above all other may be these 1. Because his dying for his Church was the greatest act of love he ever shewed his Church Greater love saith Christ hath no man than this John 15.13 1 John 3.16 that a man lay down his life for his friends Again saith the Apostle Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us If a man should part with his liberty and suffer bonds or lay down his estate and become poor or leave his Country and become an exile for his friend these were all expressions of great love but none of them are comparable to laying down life and shedding ones blood for a friend This last is that wherein Christ hath eminently demonstrated his love to his Church this he glorieth in and this is that which he would never have his Church forget but frequently remember in this supper 2. Because that though he gave and still doth give very great testimonies of his love to us as in his Resurrection Ascension Intercession preparing Glory and lastly in his coming again to raise us justifie us and to take us to himself to behold and enjoy that Glory that he had with the Father before the World was yet this Ordinance is rather for the remembrance of his bloody Death for us than for the remembrance of any of the other blessings and why Because that all these other depend on this Christ could never have risen to our justification had he not died for the satisfaction of the Law and his Fathers Justice Nor would he have been admitted as an Intercessor nor have been allowed one mansion in Glory for any of us nor would his Father have suffered him to have returned again to take any one of us to himself if he had not by his death made our peace opened the new way into the Holy of Holies and purchased a glorious Resurrection and an Ascension to the Heavenly and eternal glory for us So that since all his other acts of love to his Church depend on this of his dying no wonder if he appointed this Supper for the remembrance of his death rather than any thing else he either did or promised to do for us The Conclusion is that since that the end of this Ordinance is so glorious and that is the remembrance of the greatest love that ever God the Father or Son shewed to us it cannot but cast a Lustre and Glory upon the duty of coming to this Supper and engage us to a chearful participation thereof 3. The Obligation to this duty and that is Christ's Command this is implied in the Text but exprest in the foregoing verse what saith the Apostle Paul I have received of the Lord that which also I declare unto you The Apostle doth but declare the Command is Christ's he is the Author of it It is Christ not Paul that said This do in remembrance of me Christ's Commands are the bonds by which we are tied up to Obedience if we break his bonds we are transgressors Remember who they were that conspired together saying Let us break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from us they were such that the Lord hath in derision to whom he will one day speak in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure The commands of superiors set out all duty to inferiors and punish for neglect and the higher or greater the superior is the more authority hath the command and the greater punishment will be inflicted on the disobedient If disobedience to the word spoken by Angels received a just recompence of reward of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy that disobey the command of Jesus Christ If a Child's disobedience deserves the rod or a Servants the cudgel or a Subjects the axe or halter what doth disobedience to the Lord Jesus deserve that is greater than Father or Master or any earthly Soveraign whatever Take heed then my brethren of being found guilty of neglect of this duty that is bound upon you by the command of so great an authority as this of the Lord Jesus that hath said This do in remembrance of me 4. In the next place is to be considered the persons obliged and those are the Church of Christ so far as by Scriptural Qualifications they are capacitated to a participation thereof who are 1. Those that can discern the Lord's body in this supper the want of this the Apostle gives as the reason of unworthy receiving it 1 Cor. 10.29 and tells us they eat damnation to themselves Now there are two ways wherein the Lord's body may be said to be discerned in this supper 1. When the Understanding is spiritually enlightned to perceive the true nature and ends of this supper and thereby is enabled to see a greater difference between this and our ordinary meals for he that shall for want of knowledg therein come to this Table with no better preparations or to no other intents than when he goes to his own Table he doth certainly pervert the ends of the institution and prophanes the Ordinance and therefore cannot chuse
to us all if God had spared him her or them if your house had been consumed by flames and God had turned you all out of doors before morning would you not have said It would have been a mercy if God had safely preserved us and our dwellings and caused us to rest and sleep and rise in safety Why Sirs will you not acknowledg mercies to be mercies till God hath taken them away from you and if you do should you not give the praise daily unto God Was it not God himself that watched over you while you did sleep and could not did not watch your selves When you all did sleep you knew not where you were nor what dangers you were exposed unto nor how you might prevent them but God then was good unto you and should you not conjunctly acknowledg this when you do wake and rise and see that God hath kept you and do enjoy the comfort and the benefit of his watchful Providence over you Psal 127.1 Except the Lord keep the City the Watchman waketh but in vain 2. for so he giveth his beloved sleep And as you have had many Family mercies in the night to bless God for in the morning so you have many Family mercies in the day to give thanks to God for at night before you go to bed If you see not cause to acknowledg God's goodness towards you you are blind if you do and have not hearts you are worse Methinks you should not quietly sleep till you have been together on your knees least God should say this Family that hath not acknowledged my mercy to them this day nor given me the glory of those benefits of which to them I gave the comfort shall never see the light of another day nor have the mercies of one day more to bless me for When sleep doth close their eyes so shall death too they shall live no longer and rise no more this night they shall go to their beds and the day or two after shall be carried to their graves I wonder Sirs that you do not dream of an angry God because thus slighted by you I wonder that you do not dream of some sore judgment or other that might overtake you before the Sun doth rise What if God should say unto you when you are laid down in your beds THIS NIGHT your Souls shall be required of you you that went to bed before you had given me the praise of the mercies that I had given unto you all the day and before you had prayed for my protection over you in the night and should send some suddain sickness to make you feel that he is offended with you for this neglect might not God say shall I keep and preserve that Family till the morning that would not so much as ask me so to do and if I do will not acknowledg it to be a mercy or a kindness to them Take heed though God be patient do not provoke him Reason 2. You should pray to God daily in your Families because there are sins committed every day in your Families 2. 2. Ad candem à defectibus nostris excitamur Do you indeed sin together and will you not pray together what if you should be damned all together Doth not every member of your Family commit many sins every day How great is the number then of all when considered or put together What! so many sins every day under your roof within your walls committed against the glorious blessed God and not one Prayer one sin should be lamented with a thousand tears but you have not one tear shed by one and another by another in Prayer together for a thousand sins Is this to repent daily when you do not confess them daily Would you have God to pardon all the sins of your Family say would you or no If you would not God might justly let you go to your Graves and Hell too with the guilt of sin upon your Souls If you would is not pardon worth asking for Would you have it and not beg it at the hands of God would not all judg that man worthy of death that being justly condemned might yet have life for asking for and will not How do you how can you quietly go to your beds and sleep with the guilt of so many sins upon your Souls and have not prayed to have them blotted out What do you take to make you sleep What is your pillow made of that your heads can rest upon it under the weight and load of so much guilt Is indeed your bed so soft or your heart so hard that you can rest and sleep when to all the sins of commission in the day you add this sin of omission in the evening Lay to heart your daily Family sins and you will feel a reason why you should pray to God in your Families daily Reason 3. 3. You should pray in your Families daily unto God 3. Ad eandem plerisque tum cerporaelium tum spiritualium bonorum indigentiis premimur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indiget vir viro sed omnes Deo etiam Hercules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Od. lib. 8. Omne bonum Dei donum because you have many daily Family wants which none can supply but God God wants not your Prayers but you and yours want God's mercies and if you will have them should you not pray for them Can you supply your Families wants If they want health can you give it them If they want bread can you give it them except God first give it unto you Why then did Christ direct us to pray Give us this day our daily bread If they want grace can you work it in them or do you not care though they die without it Is not God the giver of every good gift Jam. 1.17 Every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights Mercies are above and good things are from above and prayer is a means appointed by God to fetch them down Jam. 1.5 If any man want wisdom let him ask it of God Do you think you do not want wisdom to discharge your duties to God and man that you do not want wisdom to manage your family for their temporal spiritual and eternal good If you think so you are fools and if you think you want it not by those very thoughts you may discern your want of it If you think you have enough it is plain that you have none and should you not ask it of God if you would have it If you and yours want health in your Family should you not ask it of God Can you live without dependance upon God or can you say you have no need of God's help to supply your wants then you speak contradictions for to be under wants and not to be dependent beings is a contradiction to think you do not live in dependence upon God is to think you are
in a praying Family and were frequent at the duty but we did not pray as they should do that were to pray for the escaping of such dreadful torments we did sleep often in our prayers but there is no sleeping here no ease no resting here O that God would try us once more once more were it but for a moneth or two and set us out and send us to a praying life again O that we were in time again in time again and in the same circumstances again as once we were and had the same possibility yea probability of escaping those restless torments But this cannot be this must not be this will not be time is gone is gone and we must pray no more for ever O time how didst thou slip away How swift was thy motion O that this eternity would hasten as fast as time did hasten When we had lived twenty years our life was so much nearer expiration but here we have been a thousand years and yet as far from an end as the first moment we came into this dreadful place and dark and doleful dungeon This then addeth to our misery that here we are and must be here for ever here we are woe be to us that here we are and that without all hopes of recovery and possibility of redemption and deliverance Had our pain been extreme yet if it had not been eternal it might have been the better born or if it were to be eternal if it had not been extreme it might have been more easily endured but to FEEL it is EXTREME and to THINK it is ETERNAL makes our misery unexpressible What! O what extreme and eternal too extreme and eternal too Cannot we dye cannot we dig into our own bowels and take away our own beings but must we live in pain and torment extreme and eternal too O miserable Caitiffs that we are those creatures that were Toads and Serpents feel none of this as they are not happy so they are not miserable but we are not happy no no there is no happiness here misery is our portion Oh cursed wretches Oh foolish sinners that we were that prayed with no life to escape eternal death Damnation is a dreadful things we find we feel to our own confusion that damnation is a dreadful thing Thus realize the happiness and the misery of souls in the unseen world and take a believing view of them beyond this life and try whether you shall not find much benefit by such prayers that after such a sight are put up unto God Direction 5. 5. Direct Then next consider Quemadmodum â—ovem mensibus noâ— tenet maternus uterus praeparaâ— non sibi sed illi loco in quem videmur emuti jam idonei Spiritum trahere in apâ—rto durare sic per hoc spotium quod ab infantia patet in sâ—nâ—ctutem in alium naturae sumimur partum alia erigo nos expectat alius rerum status detrahetur tibi haec circumjecta novissimum vehimentum tui cuâ—is detrahetur care suffusus sanguis discurrensque per totum detrahentur essa nervique sirmamenta fluâ—dorum labentium dies iste quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est Senec. Epist p. 816 817. Vigilandum est nisi preperamus relinquimur agit nos agitur velex dies Inscii rapimur omnia in futurum disponimus inter praecipitia lenti sumus fugit des fugere currendi genus concitatissimum est quid ergo câ—ssamus nos ipsi concitare ut velocitatem rapid ssurae rei possia â—s aequare Idem Epist p. 834. that one of these two places you must shortly very shortly be in When you are going to prayer look behind you and you shall see death hastning after you that death is at your backs and look forward and you shall see Heaven and Hell before you your selves standing upon the very brink of time and the next step might be into eternity of joy or sorrow where you did but now by faith see others were there you your selves must quickly really be where you shall rejoyce with them or suffer and sorrow with them Do but look a little before you fall down upon your knees and you might see your selves cast down upon a bed of sickness your friends weeping and fearing you will die the Physicians are puzled and at a loss giving you over for the grave and your self gasping for life and breathing out your last Look but a little before you and you might as it were hear your friends saying he is dead he is dead he is gone he is departed and then as it were you might see them haling you out of your bed and wrapping you in your winding sheet and nailing you up in your Coffin you might see your Grave a digging and men hired to carry you on their shoulders from your house to your grave Relations and Neighbours following after to see you lodged in the dust to lie and rot among the dead Then think before all this can be done unto your body your Soul hath taken its flight into eternity where it is without change and alteration for ever to be with God or Devils Work it on your hearts that you must quickly and O how quickly will it be that you must be in Heaven or Hell that when you die Heaven must be won or lost for ever and everlasting torments escaped or endured for ever Try whether such believing thoughts as these will not stir you up to manage all your praying together as well as apart in that manner that you shall find great benefit thereby Direction 6. Id ago ut mihi instar totius vitae sit dies nec mehercule tanquam ultimum rapie sed sic illum aspiciâ— tanquam esse vel ultimus possit hoc animo tibi hanc Epistolam scribo tanquam cum maxime scribentem morâ— ea oâ—atura sit Son Epist p. 634 6 5. 6. Direct Since this is so consider next that you do not know but now you are going to make your last Family Prayer together You do not know but God and death might seize upon some of you before the next time of prayer do come again that God might single out the Master or Mistris of the house this Child or that Servant and every one think I might be the first that you may never pray all together again Pray then as if you were to pray no more and see if you shall not find real spiritual benefit by such a Prayer A Heathen writing a Letter to his Friend did say I write unto you not knowing but death might call me away whilst the pen is in my hand and should not Christians pray as such as do not know but death might seiz upon them with their prayers in their mouths Direction 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anton. lib. 2. §. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vehementer assiduè incumbere rei alicui difficili laboriâ—sae donec eum ad
reverence her Husband This is the Dictate of our Creator both by the Light of Nature and of Scripture This is the constant language both of the Old Testament and of the New And is more purposely handled and prest by the two great Apostles of the Jews and Gentiles that so all Christians however descended should submit unto it The Apostle Paul Ephes 5.22 c. Col. 3.18 c. The Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 3.1 c. Not that these are all their respective Duties but these are specified either 1. (n) Mr. Byfield on Col p. 111. Because in these are the most frequent failings Husbands too commonly being defective in their Love and Wives most defective in their Reverence and Subjection Or 2. Because these two are the sum of the rest and no other Duties are either Possible or Acceptable without them And my present Work is to digest and urge these in a solemn and impartial manner that it may appear Our Religion doth not only propound Rewards to make us happy in the world to come but doth also direct the methods of setling our quiet and comfort in this present world For certainly it is not the Having of Husbands or Wives that brings contentment but the mutual Discharge of both their Duties and this makes their Lives though never so poor an Heaven upon Earth But herein I can but draw up an Abstract and send you where you may be far better provided In the mean time let us all in the prosecution hereof sadly reflect on our former failings and sincerely resolve on future amendment according to that whereof we shall be convinced by the word of Truth And here I shall indeavour these Four things 1. To propound the Mutual or Common Duties of Both. 2. The special Duty of every Husband 3. The special duty of every Wife 4. Directions how to accomplish them That so they may most certaily be Blessings to each oher First let us see what are those Mutual Duties that lie common between Husband and Wife wherein Both of them are equally at least according to the place and power of each concern'd and oblig'd And they are These following 1. Mutual Cohabitation For the man he (o) Gen. 2.24 must leave father and mother and cleave to his Wife And the Woman she (p) Psal 45.10 must forget her kinred and her fathers house The Husband (q) 1 Pet. 3.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must dwell with the Wife and the Wife (r) 1 Cor. 7 10. she must not depart from the Husband though he be an Infidel And indeed the Ends and Duties of marriage are such as will not ordinarily dispense herewith For Example 1 Cor. 7.3 4.5 Let the husband render unto the Wife due benevolence and likewise also the wife unto the husband The wife hath not power of her own body but the husband and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife Defraud you not the one the other except it he with consent for a time that you may give your selves to fasting and prayer and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency Which plainly shews that even the sober use of the Marriage-bed is such (s) The wife of Galeac Caracciola denying this debt upon the direction of her Confessor on pain of Excommunication was judg'd a sufficient Reason of Divorce In vita a mutual debt that it may not be intermitted long without Necessity and Consent Nay in the †Deut. 24 5. Old Law the greatest necessity should not send the husband from his wife the first year that their affections might be throughly settled and that he might chear up his Wife which he hath taken * For the man is the head the Woman is as the body for the head and body to be sundered it is present death to either Gataker Serm. p. 203. Neither indeed can any of the following Duties towards each others Souls or Bodies be throughly performed nor many grievous snares avoided without dwelling together And therefore neither desire of Gain nor Fear of Trouble no occasional Distasts nor pretence of Religion should separate those from Conjugal converse and (t) Alibi fluctuare sese existimet in domo autem apud uxorem suum tanquam in portu optat◠conquiescere Daven in Col. Cohabitation unless with consent and that but for a time whom God hath joyned together 2. Mutual Love This though in a peculiar manner it be the Duty of the Husband Col. 3.18 Husbands love your Wives yet it is required also of the Wife Tit. 2.4 they must love their Husbands Indeed this is the (u) First you must choose your Love and then you must love your choice Smith Serm. Conjugal Grace the great Reason and the great Comfort of Marriage Not a sensual or doting Passion but genuine conjugal and constant out of a pure heart fervently Not grounded on beauty wealth or interest for these may soon wither and fail nor only upon Graoe and Piety for this may decay to the least degree and in the opinion of both parties quite disappear but it must be grounded upon the Command and Ordinance of God whereby of Two they are made * Vna caro non nexu amoris nec commixtione corporum nec procreatione liberorum sed vinculo conjugii Zanch. One flesh So that though either of them be poor deform'd froward though unregenerate wicked Infidels yet in Obedience to God and in Conscience of the Marriage-Vow which obligeth for better and for worse they ought to love each other with a (x) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in Eph. hom 29. superlative Love and when the sacred knot is once tyed every man should think his wife and every wife her husband the fittest for them of any in the world And hereupon the (y) Cael. Rhodig l. 28. p. 1575. Heathens took the Gall from their nuptial Sacrifices and cast it behind the Altar to intimate the removing of all bitterness from the Marriage-state there should be nothing but Love And this Love must be as durable and constant as are the grounds of it to the Persons of each other until death and to the memory and posterity of each other when they are dead and gone and thus the good wife is understood by some to do her husband good (z) Prov. 31.12 all the days of her life not only of his life but when he is dead to his Posterity What strange instances of this lasting love former (a) Portia the wife of Brutus A ria the wife of Cecinna Pae us In Valer. Max. Ages hath given and some (b) The Bannyon Wives among the Indians burn themselves to ashes at the funeral of their husbands Herbert in his Travels Pagans at this day is in History both evident and admirable This true-hearted Love will bring true Content and constant Comfort into that Condition will make all counsels and reproofs acceptable will
they have been justly gain'd yet if they have been niggardly hoarded up and not put to good uses but Parents have liv'd miserably and basely only to increase riches they will prove not good but rusty though lawful money and they are kept to their owners disquiet and hurt and to their Childrens disappointment (o) Eccles 5.12 13. in the proof after an age likely they find nothing or nothing with the blessing of God (p) Prov. 10.22 16.8 for that is entailed not on the Miser's seed but on his that is all the day merciful (q) 20.7 Psal 37.26 when either the urgent necessities of the poor or the interest of the Church and State require a proportion to the defrauding of which under a pretext of raising a portion for Children were to cause a canker in what is rais'd Thus of Parents office whiles there be promising hopes of staying with their Children upon earth There remains somewhat yet 3. At their departure when they are admonish'd to be thoughtful of leaving them and have some prenotices of death approaching to arrest and carry them to their long home then Parents should set their house in order (r) 2 Kings 20.1 by giving or leaving such lessons of wisdom to their Children as by God's blessing will make a deeper impression being utter'd by dying persons (s) Gen. 15.16 Thus did Isaac and Jacob (t) 28.2.3 4. 49.1 2. 'T is true there was something of an extraordinary Prophetick spirit in some of them but those things of ordinary use which they gave in charge will be sufficient proof for our purpose as Isaac's sending Jacob to Laban with his blessing David's advice to Solomon (u) 1 Chron. 29.9 1 Kings 2.2 3 c. and Jacob's about his funeral (w) Gen. 50.16 and others making a Will or Testament bequeathing and devising their Estate (x) 25.5 with Gal. 3.15 Lev. 25.23 1 Kings 21.3 Hebr. 9 16 17. seconding all with solemn parental warnings and prayer to God for a blessing (y) Gen. 28.3 24.60 48.15 1 Chron. 29.19 and advising them after their their death to consult such friends upon emergencies whom they have oblig'd to their assistance as David did (z) 22.17 28.2 The Reverend Mr. Robert Bolton * In his life and others gave notable instances of this last duty The above mention'd Dr. Robert Harris refer'd his dear Wife and Children after several Heavenly and savoury speeches to the advice and counsel he had annex'd to his Will made by him about 22 years before his departure Therein he left his Children excellent instructions for their Souls their Bodies their Callings both as to the choice and use of them for their company for their marriages for their Children for themselves within themselves for their Estates and for the Publick Things really worth the reading and observing both by Parents and Children In imitation of which but not publish'd I have likewise with delight read very good advice left by a serious Citizen †Mr. R. B. May 9. 1662. Mr. T. H. as it should appear lying sick of a Consumption whereof he died to be given to his only Son and Child then a little one when he should come to the use of his reason which I doubt not but is faithfully performed by his Executor It might be of great advantage to their posterity if Parents would have more regard in due circumstances to this last office of theirs which is much sleighted by many in our days who seem unconcern'd what shall become of their posterity when they are gone as to the best of enjoyments 'T is true there be on another hand Parents over solicitous to leave great Estates to their Children when they themselves leave the world being loth to part with them before they think they can never make their Children rich enough in the world without any regard to the riches of grace never considering that conveniencie is really more eligible than abundance (a) Prov. 30.8 and where there is much wealth more grace and wisdom are needful to enjoy it well For if Children have not their hearts established with grace (b) Hebr. 13.9 or want prudence to manage an Estate they are but like a Ship that hath more sail than ballast which is ready to be overset with any gust of vvind A great Estate vvithout Vertue is but strong poyson vvithout an antidote and earthly minded Parents in this respect do vvith their Children as the Ostrich vvith her Eggs leaves them in the dust but takes no further care of them so they leave them rich in temporals but for their spiritual and eternal vvelfare they are little or nothing concern'd That they may eat drink be merry and cloth'd vvith the best they provide by setting their nest high and making their seed great on the earth (c) Hab 2.9 10. vvhen alas they do but consult shame to their house and vvrong their own souls They do but observe lying vanities and forsake their own mercies (d) Jon. 2.8 sith God usually turns the vvheel and disappoints them vvhen the riches of the sinner are laid up for the just (e) Prov. 13.22 Others become Masters of their Childrens Estate vvhereas the good man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children vvho in after ages reap the benefit of an Estate consecrated and blessed by their pious Parents prayers the gracious answer vvhereunto they are still receiving 'T is more then time I should speak to 2. The enforcement of these great and important offices mention'd in my Text vvhich is the Father of Heaven's prohibition of provocation to the discouragement of children Provoke not your children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they be not discouraged Now as I shew'd the positive injunction of the Lord vvas a sufficient Reason to enforce the duties of children so this inhibition or negative precept is of equal strength to move Parents unto theirs sith it plainly shews the Will of him who hath an uncontrollable dominion that Parents conduct should be moderated according to those equitable positive as well as negative pr cepts that have been produced in the enumeration of the foregoing particulars And the special one in my Text carries with it a reason drawn from the end lest the Children should be consumed with sorrows saith the Syriack version others lest they become pusillanimous and dispirited pining away with grief which may be by any neglect or abuse of parental authority either in defect or excess by omitting the duties required or committing what God hath inhibited and so falling into either extremes Now what can be more cogent with affectionate Parents to engage them unto the good government of those God hath put into subjection to them than a care they be not dishearten'd by any male-administration of theirs Certainly to give any just occasion of discouragement to the hopeful fruit of their own body must needs be very evil and unnatural this puts them in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
entertainment to such loose companions as evil thoughts are Well then if we had this heavenly affection strong in us it would not suffer unwholesom weeds to grow up so near it either our Love would consume those weeds or those weeds will choak our Love 5. Exercise faith As the habit of faith is attended with habitual sanctification so the acts of faith are accompanied with a progress in the degrees of it That faith which brings Christ to dwell in our souls will make us often think of our inmate Faith doth realize divine things and make absent objects as present and so furnisheth fancy with richer streams to bath it self in than any other principle in the world As there is a necessity of the use of fancy while the soul is linked to the body so there is also a necessity of a corrective for it Reason doth in part regulate it but 't is too weak to do it perfectly because fancy in most men is stronger than reason Mirand de Imaginat cap. 11 12. man being the highest of imaginative beings and the lowest of intelligent fancy is in its exaltation more than in creatures beneath him and reason in its detriment more than in creatures above him and therefore the imagination needs a more skilful guide than reason Fancy is like fire a good Servant but a bad Master if it march under the conduct of faith it may be highly serviceable and by putting lively colours upon divine truth may steal away our affections to it Faith is the evidence of things not seen viz. not by a corporeal but intellectual eye and so it will supply the office of sense 'T is the substance of things hoped for and if hope be an attendant on faith Psal 42.5 Why art thou cast down Oh my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God our thoughts will surely follow our expectations The remedy David used when he was almost stifled with disquieting thoughts was to excite his soul to a hope and confidence in God Psal 42.5 and when they return'd upon him he useth the same diversion v. 11. The peace of God i. e. the reconciliation made by a Mediator between God and us believingly apprehended will keep or garrison our hearts and minds or thoughts against all anxious assaults both from within and without †Phil 4.6 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When any vain conceit creeps up in you act faith on the intercession of Christ and consider Is Christ thinking of me now in Heaven and pleading for me and shall I squander away my thoughts on trifles which will cost me both tears and blushes Believingly meditate on the promises they are a means to cleanse us from the filthiness of the spirit as well as that of the flesh * 2 Cor 7.1 Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves c. If the having them be a motive the using them will be a means to attain this end Looking at the things that are not seen preserves us from fainting and renews the inward man day by day †2 Cor. 4.16 18. These invisible things could not well keep our hearts from fainting if faith did not first keep the thoughts from wandring from them 6. Accustom your self to a serious meditation every morning Fresh airing our souls in Heaven will engender in us purer spirits and nobler thoughts A morning seasoning would secure us for all the day Intus existens prohibet alienum Though other necessary thoughts about our callings will and must come in yet when we have dispatch'd them let us attend our morning Theme as our chief companion As a man that is going with another about some considerable business suppose to Westminster though he meets with several friends in the way and salutes some and others with whom he hath some affairs he spends a little time yet he quickly returns to his companion and both together go their intended stage Do thus in the present case Our minds are active and will be doing something though to little purpose and if they be not fixed upon some noble object they will like mad men and fools be mightily pleased in playing with straws The thoughts of God were the first Visiters David had in the morning Psal 139 17 18 God and his heart met together as soon as he was awake and kept company all the day after In this meditation look both to the matter and manner 1. Look to the matter of your meditation Let it be some truth which will assist you in reviving some languishing grace or fortifie you against some triumphing corruption for 't is our darling sin which doth most envenom our thoughts †Prov. 23.7 As a man thinks in his heart so is he As if you have a thirst for honour let your fancy represent the honour of being a child of God and heir of Heaven If you are inclined to covetousness think of the riches stored up in a Saviour and dispensed by him If to voluptuousness fancy the pleasures in the ways of wisdom here and at God's right hand hereafter This is to deal with our hearts as Paul with his hearers to catch them with guile Stake your soul down to some serious and profitable mystery of Religion as the Majesty of God some particular Attribute The heads of the Catechism might be taken in order which would both encrease and actuate our knowledg Psal 40.5 his condescension in Christ the love of our Redeemer the value of his sufferings the vertue of his bloud the end of his ascension the work of the Spirit the excellency of the soul beauty of holiness certainty of death terror of judgment torments of Hell and joys of Heaven Why may not that which was the subject of God's innumerable thoughts be the subject of ours God's thoughts and counsels were concerning Christ the end of his coming his death his precepts of holiness and promises of life and that not only speculatively but with an infinite pleasure in his own glory and the creatures good to be accomplished by him Would it not be work enough for our thoughts all the day to travel over the length breadth heighth and depth of the love of Christ Would the greatness of the journey give us leisure to make any starts out of the way Having settled the Theme for all the day we shall find occasional assistances even from worldly businesses as Scholars who have some Exercise to make find helps in their own course of reading though the Book hath no design'd respect to their proper Theme Thus by imploying our minds about one thing chiefly we shall not only hinder them from vain excursions but make even common objects to be oyl to our good thoughts which otherwise would have been fuel for our bad Such generous liquor would scent our minds and conversations all the day that whatsoever motion came into our hearts would be tinctured with this spirit and savour of our morning
to take up a Reproach against a man's Neighbour I answer It is a defective manner of expression and therefore is diversly supplied but especially and most reasonably two ways and accordingly a man may be guilty of taking up a reproach against his Neighbour two ways 1. When he takes it up into his mouth The Hebrew word is often so used As Exod. 20.7 Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain Not take it that is not lift it up upon thy Tongue or not take it into thy Mouth So Isa 14.4 Thou shalt take up this Proverb against the King of Babylon that is thou shalt take it up into thy lips thou shalt utter and publish it Thus Ezek. 26.17 They shall take up a lamentation for thee which is explained in the following words and say to thee how art thou destroyed And therefore elsewhere the word Lips or mouth is added as Psal 16.4 Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer nor take up their names into my lips Psal 50.16 What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant into thy mouth And this phrase of taking up may possibly respect the scituation of the Mouth above the Heart which according to the Opinion of the Hebrews is the seat of the Understanding As if he had said If there should rise in thy heart any evil thought or device against thy Brother let it die there let it never come up into thy mouth Now in this respect a man may be guilty of this sin of taking up a reproach against his Neighbour two ways 1. When he is the Author and first raiser of a reproach Such as Sanballat was Neh. 6.8 There are no such things as thou sayest but thou feignest them of thy own heart 2. When a man is the Spreader or Promoter of it Suppose it comes from another Fountain if thou art the Conduit-pipe by whom it is conveyed to others thou art guilty of it Lev. 19.16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a Tale-bearer among thy people 2. When a man takes it into his Ear So some expound these words thou shalt not receive not admit not endure a reproach against thy Neighbour You know the Receiver of stoln goods is as obnoxious to the Law as he that takes them away So then a man may be guilty of this sin not only by speaking but also by the hearing of a reproach against his Neighbour and so he may be three ways 1. When a man quietly permits it and gives no check to it This is certain the great Law of Charity commands me not only to do no hurt to my Neighbour but also to suffer no hurt to be done to him which it lyes in my power to prevent or remove If another set his house on fire I must lend my help to quench it I must pull my Neighbour's Ox out of the Pit though another man hath cast him in and consequently when the good name of my Neighbour is invaded by another if I patiently bear the reproach I make my self guilty 2. When a man hears a reproach against his Neighbour greedily and with delight It is a sin and that of no small size for a man to take pleasure in the sins of others and therefore the Apostle makes it an aggravation of sin Rom. 1.32 Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but also have pleasure in them that do them 1 Cor. 13.6 Charity rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth Consider I beseech you the commonness of this sin if a reproach be fastned upon one who is a man's Enemy or of another Party men commonly hear such reproaches with delight not considering that this is not only a blemish to his own Party but also a blot to Christianity a reproach to the Protestant Religion a sin against God and against the Gospel a scandal to men and these things should rather call for tears than laughter and approbation And therefore when a man seems to approve another man's reproach and encourage the reproacher he involves himself in the guilt of it It is the saying of a very Learned Man upon the Proverbs That it is not easie to know whether is a greater sinner or whether is the greater plague to a Commonwealth he that spreads a reproach or he that willingly receives it 3. When a man easily believes a reproach It is said indeed 1 Cor. 13.7 Charity believeth all things but the object of this belief is the good of my Neighbour and not his evil Charity readily believes well concerning its Neighbour where there is the least colour or foundation for it but it is slow to believe evil concerning him and when a man is prone to believe evil concerning another man it is a great sign of an uncharitable disposition the reason is because men do most readily believe those things which comply with their own desires and inclinations as in Wars and differing Factions every man is apt to believe good tidings concerning his own Party Good men are the least suspitious and slowest to believe evil of others of which you have a remarkable instance in Gedaliah when Johanan told him of Ismael's design to murther him it is said he believed him not Jer. 40.14 And when it was pressed upon him a second time and Johanan offered to punish the Conspirator and to prevent the Execution of the Treason he said Thou shalt not do this thing for thou speakest falsly concerning Ismael verse 16. You may observe how backward fond Parents are to believe any ill report concerning their Children and whence doth this proceed even from an inordinate love and kindness to them and therefore on the contrary men's credulity unto evil reports concerning their Neighbours doth proceed from want of love and affection to them So much for the Explication 2. The Proof of the Doctrine shall consist in the representation of the sinfulness and injury of this practice of censuring back-biting and reproaching of others And that I may more effectually disswade and affright my self and you from it I shall discover to you how pregnant a sin this is There is a complication of injuries in it It is injurious First to God Secondly to your selves Thirdly to the Party censured or reproached Fourthly to other men 1. To God and Christ in divers particulars 1. It is an invasion of God's Prerogative You know how dangerous a Crime this is when it is committed against an Earthly Prince nor can you in reason think it less criminal and hazardous when it is committed against him who accepteth not the persons of Princes and who is greater than the Kings of the Earth And therefore observe how severely God rebukes this sin in the Epistle to the Romans Chap. 14. when men did censure and Reproach one another either for the Observation of dayes and meats as guilty of Superstition or for
all the Crosses in the World sufficiently with this that God is their God and his Love shall be their endless Joy Psal 73.1 and 73.25 26. And when they can Live by Faith not by Sight 2 Cor. 5.7 and can rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5.3 5. and can comfort themselves and one another with this that they shall for ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 18. and can trust him to the Death who hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 If you would have other Men honour your God and your Religion and desire to be such as you you must really shew them that you are on safer grounds and in a happier state than they And that you will hardly do if you be not more comfortable than they or at least settled in more Peace and contentedness of mind as those that have a certain Cure for the fears of Death and the danger that ungodly men are in of the revenging Justice of the final Judge I confess it 's possible for trembling troubled and distressed Christians to be saved But O that they knew what a scandal they are to Unbelievers and what a dishonour to God whom their Lives should Glorifie What Man will fall in Love with Terrors and unquietness of mind If you would Glorifie God by your fears and tears they must be such as are accompanied with Faith and Hope and you must not only shew men what would make you happy if you could obtain it but also that it is attainable Happiness is every Man's desire and none will come to Christ unless they believe that it tendeth to their Happiness They take up with the present pleasures of the Flesh because they have no satisfying apprehensions of any better And if no Man shew them the first-fruits of any better here they will hardly believe that they may have better hereafter It is too hard a talk to put a poor Drunkard Fornicator or a proud and Covetous Worldling on to believe that a poor complaining comfortless Christian is happier than he and that so sad and unquiet a Life must be preferred before all his temporal contentments and delights You must shew him better or the signs and fruits of better before he will part with what he hath You must shew him the bunch of Grapes if you will have him go for the Land of Promise when he is told of Gyants that must be overcome And O what a blessing is reserved for every Caleb and Joshua that encourage Souls and glorifie the Promise And how much do dejected discouragers of sinners dishonour God and displease him I have known some ungodly Men when they have seen believers rejoycing in God and triumphantly passing through sufferings in the joyful hopes of Glory to sigh and say would I were such a one or in his case But I have seldome heard any say so of a Person that is still sad or crying or troubling themselves and others with their Scruples Crosses or Discontents unless it be in respect to their blameless Living perhaps condoling them they may say Would I had no more sin to trouble me than you have I confess that some Excellent Christians do shew no great mirth in the way of their Conversation either because they are of a grave and silent temper or taken up with severe Studies and Contemplations or hindred by bodily pains or weakness But yet their grave and sober Comforts their Peace of Conscience and settled hopes and trust in God delivering them from the terrors of Death and Hell may convince an Unbeliever that this is a far better state than the mirth and laughter of Fools in the House of Feasting and in the vanities of a short prosperity The grave and solid Peace and Comfort of those that have made their Calling and Election sure is more convincing than a lighter kind of mirth Joh. 16.22 VI. The Dominion of Love in the hearts of Christians appearing in all the course of their Lives doth much Glorifie God and their Religion I mean a common hearty Love to all men and a special love to holy men according to their various degrees of loveliness Love is a thing so agreeable to right reason and to sociable Nature and to the common Interest of all Mankind that all Men commend it and they that have it not for others would have it from others Who is it that loveth not to be loved And who is it that loveth not the Man that he is convinced loveth him better than him that hateth him or regardeth him not And do you think that the same course which maketh men hate your selves is like to make them love your Religion Love is the powerful Conquerer of the World By it God conquereth the enmity of Man and reconcileth to himself even malignant sinners And by it he hath taught us to conquer all the tribulations and persecutions by which the world would separate us from his Love Yea and to be more than Conquerers through him that loved us and thereby did kindle in us our reflecting love Rom. 8.34 35 36. And by it he hath instructed us to go on to Conquer both his Enemies and our own yea to conquer the enmity rather than the Enemy in imitation of himself who saveth the sinner and kills the sin And this is the most noble kind of Victory Every Souldier can end a Fever or other Disease by cutting a man's throat and ending his Life But it 's the work of the Physitian to kill the Disease and save the Man The scandalous Pastor is for Curing Heresie in the Roman way by silencing sound Preachers and tormenting and burning the supposed Hereticks or at least to trust for the acceptance and success of his Labours to the Sword And if that which will restrain men from crossing the Pastor would restrain them from resâ—sting the Spirit of God and constrain them to the love of Holiness it were well Then the glory of conversion should be more ascribed to the Magistrate and Souldier than to the Preacher But the true Pastor is Armed with a special measure of Life Light and Love that he may be a meet Instrument for the Regenerating of Souls who by holy Life and Light and Love must be renewed to their Father's Image Every thing Naturally generateth its like which hath a generative power And it is the Love of God which the Preacher is to bring all men to that must be saved This is his Office this is his work and this must be his study He doth little or nothing if he doth not this Souls are not sanctified till they are wrought up to the Love of God and Holiness And therefore the Furniture and Arms which Christ hath left us in his Word are all suited to this work of Love We have the Love of God himself to Preach to them and the love of an humbled dying and Glorified Redeemer and all the amiable blessings of Heaven and Earth to open to
Divine meditation Faith is enlarged and grows up by converse with divine objects meditate upon these things 1. Christ's Deity Be well stored with Scriptural knowledg of this great truth set thy heart to it and let it be fixed in the midst of thy heart assure your selves that the eternal Godhead of Jesus is the most practical point in Heaven and will be so while Heaven is Heaven 2. Be intimately acquainted with Christ's righteousness that it is the only righteousness that can present us holy unreprovable unblameable in God's sight that it was his business in the world to bring in this everlasting righteousness that it is done and finished that he hath nothing to do with this righteousness now in Heaven but to cloath us with to present us in before God 3. Meditate on God's righteousness that it is not only his will but his nature to punish sin sin must damn thee without Christ there is not only a possibility or probability that sin may ruine but without an interest in Christ it must do so whet much upon thy heart that must God cannot but hate sin because he is holy and he cannot but punish sin because he is righteous God must not forego his own nature to gratifie our humors 8. Direct Be well skilled and settled as it becomes a Christian in the great article of justification before God thy Faith and duties and comforts depend might and main upon this Know that no servant of God be he Abraham Moses or Paul if God enter into judgment with him can stand justified in his sight God will not justifie us without a righteousness and that righteousness must be unblamable and therefore in all numbers perfect God will not call that perfect which is not so for his judgment is according to truth Rom. 2.2 where shall we find this perfect righteousness but in Christ who is Jehovah our righteousness Jer. 23.6 and made of God to us righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 how shall this become ours but by imputation Rom. 4.6 how shall we receive this gift of righteousness but by Faith Rom. 5.17 be well skilled in the good old way go in the foot steps of the flock and feed besides the shepherds tents Believe it Sirs there is no way but Christ unto the Father his blood is that new and living way Heb. 10.19 there is no standing in God's presence but in him no acceptance but by him no comfort but from him Be wise and wary there are many adversaries Only give me leave to say this I think that the Socinians had never set up man's obedience for his righteousness if they had not with wicked hands quantum in illis first pulled down Chist's Deity and as they are abhorred for this blasphemy of blasphemies so I cannot abide them for dawbing over man's obedience in this affair so deceitfully and deceivingly viz. in saying it is not only causa sine quâ non in our justification as if the material cause or the matter which God imputes for righteousness were only a poor causa sine quâ non but no more now of this jugling 9. Direct If you would preserve a right understanding of the nature of Faith take heed of advancing it into Christ's place as if God should impute the act of Faith for righteousness or that God should impute Faith and obedience as the condition or matter of our righteousness and not Christ's obedience for both cannot be imputed if God imputed Christ's obedience then not ours if ours then not Christ's The nature of Faith consists in coming to Christ for righteousness and pardon only the man hurt with the fiery sting looks to the brazen Serpent for cure Fides que that Faith which is justifying takes in Christ as Lord with all the heart but qua justificat in the business of justifitation qua sic it looks only to Christ as crucified This plain old distinction will stand If the nature of Faith did consist in Christianity I say if this were true I believe all believers could be contented to have it so for any harm they should have by it for they willingly devote themselves to the obedience of God only they cannot make this Faith or Christianity to be the condition or matter of justification for this were to fall from grace to make of none effect the death of Christ and to drive Christianity and comfort out of the world 10. Direct Get and keep this Faith specially by a constant and conscionable living in duty and living above it Say to the commandements you are my rule and love and joy to Christ thou art my life Col. 3.4 'T is the height of Christianity to live in duties and to live above them 'T is quickly said 't is an easie matter to distinguish in the Schools or pulpit but to distinguish in the conscience practically to distinguish is not so easie qui novit distinguere inter legem evangelium sciat se esse edoctum à Deo Had I all the holiness of the Saints from the beginning to this day I would bless God for the least and prize it above all treasures yet I would lay all aside and be found in Christ In the midst of thy duties ask thy soul the question soul what is thy title thy plea If I were to dye this day what have I to plead in what shall I stand before God what have I to plead why I should not perish in hell ask thy self what is thy righteousness ask it solemnly frequently is it not Christ and he only this would much conduce to confirm thy Faith such a Faith that would bring in comfort The thoughts of this so affected Dr. Mollius that he seldom names Jesus with dry eyes 11. Direct Be much in secret prayer ejaculations this will breed acquaintance and that comfort the non exercise of this breeds a strangeness between God and the soul and that 's uncomfortable This and meditation who can hinder The soul is active breathings and thoughts are quick it is soon done it will never hinder your business and in this way the blessed spirit causeth us to know and believe the love that God hath to us 1 Joh. 4.16 and refresheth the soul with joy and comfort in believing Do not only pray for the comforts and supplies of the holy spirit but pray to him to this purpose Blessed spirit convince me of my sins more and convince me more and more of Jesus Christ Holy Spirit take of Christ's and shew it unto me and the like To pass by the prophane scoffs of many and the gross ignorance of more I take it to be a very great neglect in believers that they do not glorifie the Holy Spirit as the Lord and giver of Faith and comfort Remember this qui unum honorat omnes he that honoureth one person aright honoureth every one and he that doth not honour every person honoureth none qui non omnes nec unam 12. Direct If you would get and keep this
Christianity calls for quietly and readily to resign up all our comforts to God's dispose Christian 't is a great part of thy religion to be content under these crosses not to have thy comforts ‖ Omnia ista nobis accedant non haereant ut si abducantur fine ullâ nostri lacetatione discedant Senec. Ep. 74. torn from thee as the plaister is from the flesh but to come off easily as the glove doth from the hand 5. Where there is ground of hope that the everlasting state of dead Relations is secured as there is for the Adult who lived in the fear of God for Children descending from Parents in covenant with God there 't is mere self-love which must cause discontent For had we true love to the dead we should rejoyce in their advancement as Christ saith Joh. 14.28 if ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I go to my Father You are troubled because they are not with you but you should joy in this that they are with Christ which is far better Phil. i. 21. 8. Think how others have undergone this tryal Aaron had his sons cut off by a dreadful Judgment but 't is said of him he held his peace Levit. 10.3 Job 1.21 2 Sam. 12.15 c. See Val. Max. l. 5. c. 10. So it was with Job and yet he blessed the Lord So long as there was hope of the life of the child David prayed and fasted but when he saw God's will was done he rose up and eat and afflicted himself no more Nay I might recite several examples of Heathens who did to the shame of us Christians bear the death of dear Relations with great equanimity and undisturbedness of spirit Well I hint these several things to you when any of you are thus tryed I allow you a due and regular grief and sense of God's afflicting hand but there must be no vexing or discontent under it which the Considering of the forementioned particulars may very much prevent or remove 3. Thirdly Wben Relations continued prove uncomfortable How as to uncomfortable Relations this occasions daily risings of heart and much discontent O the sad fires of passion which hereby are kindled in many too many hearts and houses The comfort of Relations is grounded upon suitableness where that is not the rose is turned into a briar or thorn What is unsuitable is uncomfortable as the yoke that doth not suit or fit the neck is alwaies uneasie Now this unsuitableness refers either to the natural temper or to something of an higher nature in both 't is very afflictive but especially in the latter There is an unsuitableness in respect of the natural temper or disposition I intend in this principally Husband and Wife the one is loving mild gentle of an even and calm spirit sweet and obliging in his or her converse the other is quite contrary froward passionate cholerick hard to be pleased alwayes quarelling c. Here 's a cross now and a heavy cross too but what 's to be done by them that bear it so as that they may learn Contentment under it why let them be often in considering these things 1. That God hath a special hand in this affliction 'T is he who brings persons together in this relation he made the match in Heaven before it was made on earth and therefore he is to be eyed in all the Consequences that attend it if it be comfort he is to be blessed for it if it be discomfort he is to be submitted to under it 2. Though this be a sharp tryal yet 't is for good where it 's sanctified It drives many nearer to God weans them more from the world keeps them humble draws out their graces gives them experience of supporting mercy learns them to be more pitiful to others and the like 3. May be this is the only affliction with which some are exercised In all things else 't is mercy only in this thing God sees it good to afflict surely such have little reason to be discontented What under such variety of signal mercies canst thou not bear contentedly one signal affliction 4. The Cross is heavy but patience and contentedness will make it lighter Levius fit patientiâ quod corrigere est nefas The more the Beast strives the more the yoke pinches the more quiet he is the less it hurts him and so it is in that Case which I am upon 5. Possibly more suitable Relations were once enjoyed but forfeited So that if you will be angry it must be with your selves not with God 6. Death will soon put an end to this Cross and we shall shortly be in that state wherein we shall have nothing unsuitable to us But 2. There is an unsuitableness in higher things such as do more immediately concern the honour of God and the everlasting condition of Souls as Grace and no Grace Holiness and sin Godliness and Vngodliness Here now I principally intend Parents and Children though other Relations may be included also Here is a Parent that fears God that lives an holy and godly life that owns the good wayes of God and walks in them c. But his Child or Children are of a quite other Spirit and take a quite other course oh they live in sin and wickedness in open enmity to God carrying it as the Sons of Belial they curse swear drink defile their bodies profane Sabbaths neglect duties scoff at Godliness puff at all good counsel discover a Spirit obstinately set against God c. This is an affliction of a very great stature taller by the head and shoulders than several that have been spoken unto before yet many godly Parents groan under it whose head and hearts are broken by ungodly Children and never was this affliction more common than now when youth is so much debauched I verily believe many good Parents could with much less grief bear the death of their Sons were they but fit for it than that which they daily undergoe through the wickedness of their lives Truly these are much to be pitied yet I would desire them to labour to be contented and submissively to bear this heavy cross In order to which frame let them consider 1. That 't is no new thing for good Parents to have bad Children Sometimes it so happens that when the Father is bad the Son is good but it more frequently happens and God suffers it to be so that the world may see Grace doth not run in a blood that when the Father is good the Son is bad It hath been so from the beginning Adam had his Cain Noah his Cham Abraham his Ismael Isaac his Esau David his Amnon and so in many others and it will be so to the end of the world Pray think of this though 't is a cutting yet but common affliction 2. Children are ungodly yet there is hope at last they may be reclaimed As stubborn as they are God can make them yield he can change
gracious Redeemer that you would be reconciled and that you would befriend your selves and accept of the forgiveness of all your sins I intreat you that you would not through neglect of pardon and perseverance in a sinful course irrecoverably ruine and damn your Souls methinks my heart doth yearn over you and Bleed for you who are wounding your selves and rushing on inconsiderately towards the place of everlasting weeping and wo from whence there is no coming back no coming out for ever Sinners why should you be so hard to be perswaded without any further delay to be reconciled unto God Why do I need to use so many intreaties May I at length prevail with you that you would not be miserable and prove your own Murderers that you would be blessed here and hereafter through your ready acceptation of pardoning mercy What answer must I carry back to my Master who sent me this day to proclaim in your ears the blessedness of forgiveness and to use intreaties with you in his name that you would become thus blessed Must I complain Lord there are a company of obstinate sinners whom I have intreated to accept of pardon but there is not the least spark of ingenuity amongst them nor the least sense of their sins upon them had I been to preach to Beasts or Fowls to the Earth or Stones they would have been as much moved as these sinners Lord I spent my strength and pains my voice and lungs for nought I know not how to perswade I know not which way to prevail with them I thought thy beseechings would have taken with them that the intreaties of God like a sweet flame would have melted their hearts as Wax within them I thought that when thou didst vouchsafe by me to request them to leave their sins and be reconciled unto thee that this would marvellously have affected them and that they would readily have complied in a thing so necessary for them and so much for their own happiness I did begin with terror to them and yet they were not affrighted but I hoped when I came to end with Mercy and to speak in the soft and sweet Language of thine entreaties and to urge th s most winning Argument of thy Requests unto them that then they would immediately have yielded and most thankfully have accepted so gracious proffers made unto them But alas Lord I found it far otherwise than I expected if their ears were open their hearts were shut up and they would not receive my message which from thee in faithfulness and tenderness I delivered unto them And what may I farther hope will prevail with them if thy intreaties be thus disregarded Must I thus complain or may I have occasion to say Lord I have been preaching the blessedness of forgiveness which I backed with thine intreaties of sinners that they would accept of it and through thy blessing the Arguments I used were not altogether in vain some sinners that had stouted it out a long time against thee began at length to relent and yield when they heard thine intreaties of them to be reconciled Lord I heard scalding sighs break forth from such and such whose hearts were breaking within them for their sins I saw brinish tears trickling down from some eyes proceeding from a spring of godly sorrow within newly given them by the Spirit how did they look and seem to long after thy Salvation how greedily did they hearken even like the condemned Malefactor when he hath first tidings of a pardon I hope they are gone home to intreat that of thee which thou hast by me been intreating of them to accept of O Lord grant them their desires be reconciled to that Drunkard and unclean wretch forgive the iniquities of that Swearer Sabbath-breaker and profane Sinner What do you say Sinners will you send me back to my Master sadned or rejoyced Accept of my Message and it will be the joy of my heart yea it will be the joy of Angels in Heaven and however it will cost you some grief and tears in your repentance of sin at the first yet if you so seek after this blessedness of forgiveness as to obtain it the issue will be joy to your selves you will have the beginnings of joy here and in the other world your joys will be full ineffable and eternal Methinks some of you seem almost perswaded O that you were quite perswaded without further delay to put in practice the Directions given for the obtaining the blessedness of forgiveness How we may overcome inordinate love of Life and fear of Death Serm. XXX Acts 20.24 But none of these things move me neither count I my life dear to my self that I may finish my course with joy c. THE Context tells us that the Apostle was now at Miletus v. 17. and from hence he sends to Ephesus and calls for the Elders of the Church Now these Elders were not Timothy and Trophimus for they were in his company already v. 4. and had been with him in his journey hither but rather those twelve men on whom he laid his hands and bestowed the Holy Ghost in order to their Ministry at Ephesus Acts 19.1 2 6 7. and the rest whom Timothy had ordained whilst he was there From v. 18. of this Chapter we have the Apostle's Farewel Sermon wherein he clears himself by close and smart addresses to their Consciences and Experiences as to all charges and surmises of ministerial miscarriages among them v. 18.27 and works them all within the Conscience of their ministerial charge and trust from God to imitate his Ministerial faithfulness by urging such significant and cogent Arguments as were apt and proper to startle and engage them to and in their work And these Arguments are drawn from the present and instantly succeeding circumstances and concernments of the Church of God They were in danger of Wolves breaking in upon them and seducers arising from amongst them They were the Church of God the price of his Blood committed to the care and guidance of these Ministers to whom the Apostle spake and therefore the interest and worth of Souls and their relation to them and all those sad and dangerous exercises underminings and obstructions which they were sure to meet with in their Pastoral work did call aloud upon them for all possible circumspection activity and resolution in and for their work of all which the Apostle was an exemplary and awakening instance and example My Text is the Generous Heroicism of an awakened and prepared heart occasioned by the Tidings that were brought him by the Spirit v. 23. Who told him there that bonds and afflictions did abide him in every City Here you may see those sinews cut of hopes and fears which might obstruct his Faith Diligence and Perseverance he is mortified to all that love of Life and fear of Death which possibly might controll his better prospect hopes and work In the Words we have the Apostle concerned in reference to
a double state 1. As to this mortal Life it is implied in the Text and express'd in the Context that it is a Theater of smart contentions and miseries and that he was concerned in the agonistical exercises thereof 2. As to the other Life he had the prospect of transcendent joys exhibited to his views and hopes as the determined and proposed reward of his well-managed exercises the influences and impressions whereof did strangely invigorate and fix his resolutions to maintain such a Masculine frame of spirit as should entertain and answer all the challenges of danger difficulties and temptations and to preserve that necessary liberty from and useful indifferency to the hopes and love of Life and fears of Death and Danger which might secure the spirit and prowess of a resolved and successful valour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I make no reckoning of any thing and he grows regardless of his life and hath mortified the vigour of all the arguments and inducements that can be fetcht therefrom for the utmost reach of rage and villany is to effect no more and can extend no farther than the loss of Life Mat. 10.28 And all those Comforts which are liable to the casualties and sequestrations of transient time and cannot run parallel with our capacious souls beyond the limits of a dying breath cannot be valued beyond the value of their end and therefore he that conquers and subdues the estimation of his Life hath so far overcome all the disturbing and ensnaring influences of hopes and fears relating to it and derived from it Well we have here an instance and example in this great and gracious Apostle of a resolved and proficient Christian yea and a visible practical demonstration of what Blood and Spirits are in the veins of Christianity and are bred there and what an energy and force there is in one right believing look and glance at things to come 2 Cor. 4.16 18. Heb. 12.2 And if it be objected that as the Apostles course was ministerial so were his joys which fix'd his eye and therefore in neither can he be proposed to others as their imitable pattern or exact encouragement seeing all are not Ministers neither can all expect his Exercises Furniture Encouragements and Attainments and so that we pluck not the fruit from the right tree I answer This doth not prevent his being our pattern argument and encouragement if but these few things be seriously considered 1. The Apostle had a double Course to run he had the trust and business of a Christian as well as of a Minister to discharge he had a God to please a Soul to save an Hell to escape an Heaven to reach an Heart to cleanse and Sins to mortifie unruly Passions and impetuous Affections to be curbed and managed by their proper Discipline as well as others he was a man subject to like Passions with our selves he dwelt in flesh and was opposed by the Devil as well as others he had Corruptions to be mortified and pardoned and loved his Life and what might make it comfortable saving where Inordinacies were to be corrected and subdued because of inconsistency with better work and joys yea he had such forcible inclinations to desire and beg some intermissions of and respite from his tedious Exercises as forced him to repair to Prayer and Arguments to get support so that he might not Oneri succumbere and thus I understand that Thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12.7 10. And so the Sense seems facil and it amounts to this The Apostle had been labouring in the fire for God and for the interest of Christianity and managed all his Exercises in the face of danger and growing aged he was tempted to desire of God that he might spend the residue of his declining age in liberty and quietness but when the flesh so weather-beaten by the storms grew so desirous of some respite from the severity of Travel Chains and Labours the messenger Satan comes again threatning and acquainting him with designed and determined repetitions of former Buffetings and the renewals of Reproaches Necessities Persecutions c. for Christ's sake Which when he understood and apprehended that Christ and his Gospel were so concerned in them he thought and took them as the matter of his Glory in that they might be serviceable to the Interest of Christ and great occasions of some special Illustrations of the remarkable Power and Grace of Christ but this pace aliorum The truth is Sirs he had such Exercises and Temptations as that had not the expectations and perswasions of these joys above which succeeded the Course well finished interposed to fortifie and compose his spirit this world had never been conquered nor so easily forsaken and disclaimed by him nor Death so tamely entertained nor Hopes and Fears so managed and subordinated as they were 1 Cor. 15.19 31 32 58. Now thus far he stands on equal grounds with other Christians and hath the same Exercises Arguments Encouragements Interest and Obligations that every Christian hath and if it was possible for him to finish his course under the powerful Influences of this Prospect and Design it is as possible for us for no impossibility whilst such can be our duty 2. His Ministerial Work and Trust was as to its full discharge a necessary and essential part of his saving Christianity No Minister of Jesus Christ by office can be a sound and faithful Christian that is unfaithful in his Ministry it is in so doing that he must save himself as well as those that hear him 1 Tim. 4.15 16. 3. Our accommodations being made answerable to Trust and Work our faithful management thereof is of equal necessity in much or little for we must be answerable to Relations Trust and Places and other Circumstances as God hath placed us in and under them for we must be judged and are to act accordingly to what we have received No man is commanded and encouraged faithfully to discharge his Ministry but upon some supposition that the Ministry is his lawful Calling and where that is unfaithfulness will damn him that is guilty of it for it is his place of Service even as faithful service of all Servants in general is their Duty Yet places of Service and the matter and measure of their service may be different according to the master's pleasure and affairs 4. The close connection of his whole Course and Comforts clears the Case For 1. It is not imaginable that any man can be a faithful Minister whose heart is alienated from the true powerful Principles Sentiments and Impressions of Christianity For how can any man be separated cordially to this most costly painful Calling and regularly bear the heat and burden of his Place and Day who hath not well concocted the Substance Evidence and Importance of this great Mystery of Salvation which is the indispensable and adequate exercise of his Function into deep perswasions warm affections and most unconquerable resolutions Who can unweariedly pursue
they know and they have great jealousies and suspicions of it in sober thoughts and cool blood to their eternal sorrow cost and shame 'T is terrible to those that never valued the joys and hopes and work of Godliness and cannot then expect the recompences of that Godliness which they declined and hated And it is terrible to those that are uncertain as to their spiritual state dark in their evidences low in their hopes and disturbed with melancholick or other fears about their interest in God and Christ and everlasting welfare of their immortal Souls So that where all or any of these things prevail men dread to leave this Life and to be transmitted to another state by Death be it natural or violent And the same Reasons Helps and Motives that may be useful for the one may be also useful for the other and therefore before the Case can be resolved something must be premised to prepare the way and that is this viz. The Argument of the Text is a successful proper Antidote against a double evil and it is the ground and measure of a necessary Duty 1. The Evils are the inordinate love of Life and the fear of Bonds Afflictions Death 2. The Argument imports 1. A prospect of something better than what we are called to mortifie feel or quit and that is joy resulting from a Course well finished and a state if I may call it so of meer non-existence cannot deserve or claim the name of Joy 1 Cor. 15.17 29 32. And nothing but this prospect could necessitate his sufferings or his disregard of Life nor could this do it had he not sure foundations for his Confidence Heb. 11.6 Tit. 1.2 2 Tim 1.10 2 Cor. 4.17 18. And therefore the Prospect mortifies the inordinate fear of Death Now 2. The Argument imports a Project too and that is this viz. so to manage and compleat the Course as to secure the Joy which cannot be if Life or any thing have an equal or transcendent interest in us or influence upon us and therefore the necessary Duty is the Conquest of the Love of Life and Fear of Death The measure of our necessary Conquest is fetcht from its relation and subserviency to the Prize So far as Love of Life and Fear of Death are opposed to and inconsistent with our better hopes and work so far they must be overcome And the ground of the Duty is in the Text because otherwise our Course cannot be finished with joy it can be neither regular nor successful without the conquest and attainment of my Text And therefore my Answer to the Case before us shall lie in these few following Directions Direct 2. Be throughly perswaded of and heartily affected with a Life to come 2 Cor. 4.17 18. This is the poyse and pondus of Religion Heb. 11.6 This is the heart and strength of Godliness Acts 24.14 26. 'T is this that strips that King of Terrors Death of all his frightful looks and strength This spoils his fatal Conquest Gripe and Sting 2 Tim. 4.6 8. 2 Cor. 5.1 10. and 1 Cor. 15.51 58. It was this that did invigorate the confidence and courage of that Noble Army of Martyrs Heb. 11. throughout This cloaths the Brow with Confidence to face the storms and entertain the challenges of Earth and Hell Rom. 8.35 39 This startles hearty Resolutions into awakened Exercises forceth such expressions of inward strength and fixedness as shall amaze the world and shame the daring stupid Infidel into strange Convictions of the transcendent joys gain of godliness and its approaching triumphs This makes the heart indifferent to live or dye so that by either the great concernment may be prosperous and successful and need I furnish you with arguments to perswade you to believe another state doth not the word of God the soul of man the course and consequence of moral government pass into arguments to prove this thing would God create capacity in the soul of man to render him proper for another state and do this as the result of his remarkable love and wisdom and make him capable of being influenced by motives drawn from hence and after all turn his capacity into his wrack and abuse and rule him by mistakes and errours and shame those hope and confidences in the Soul and strip it of those proper ends and exercises which God himself ordained enjoined and started Moreover will not the state and element of everlasting retributions be more significant than a probationary state and theatre and if so no way more proper to conquer the inordinacy in our case than right perswasions and resentments of another state of life It is no wonder that an Infidel should be inordinate in his love of life for he that looks for nothing when he is dead cannot attempt divorcement from his Idols interest and consolations here for now he must conclude that a living dog is better then a dead man and if the smart conviction will not suffer him to remain an Infidel for Atheists and Infidels cannot be such without his permission if not judicial stupefaction and desertion by whom they were created yet if he relish not the joys and exercises of another state hereafter he cannot but be wanton and imposed upon by his ensnaring dreams and shadows and parcel out his heart till he have lost himself amongst the incoherent transient vanities of sense and fancy The world and present life are this mans all and 't is no wonder if when he hath nothing else on which he can place his heart he fix it here but oh when better things appear in chase and view when things commensurate with his capacity and duration strike his concerned eye with close and smart appulses and so affects his heart shadows must fly away and the Sons of the Morning must suit their exercises and attempts to the discoveries of their day and alienate their hearts from what will be abusive of their souls and hopes as their discoveries will make them then conclude Direct 2. Look upon life and comforts as they are not as they seem to be under their present circumstances and make your choice and value sutable thereunto Your life is but a shadow which must disappear a cloud that must be scattered more easily passed through than embraced and all the glory of this World is easily winked into blackness and distaste and all the lower comforts of our lives are but the crums we gather from the broken world The world it self is but an Element of Sin and Sorrow and through that curse upon it which was derived by our first apostacy it is become a stormy and disturbed Region There is nothing suitable to our better part therein when separate from God and set against him Our Souls the noblest part of Man are entertained with nothing but burthens stints and snares A chain of Gold may pinch as hard as one of Iron There is nothing here that can endure those warm affections and close
embraces which our true happiness deserves and should we thus embrace them our Idols arms and hearts would certainly be broken altogether Our lawful comforts and delights are hereby embittered and polluted and melt away to nothing and bid farewel with dreadful gripes and bitter relishes and fly away upon the wings we give them for indeed the great affections of our enflamed hearts cannot but turn them all to smoak It is their subservient usefulness and relation to God our present work and future glory that make and speak them excellent and if you change their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you rob the cluster of its best juice and blessing and if your lives and comforts turn God's competitors and enemies you Spin them into snares and ruines And were but this the rule and measure of all our fears and love there would be joy in keeping and resigning them God would be with them in their stay and in their stead and places when they are gone in Psal 73.24 26. Oh! how disgracefully is this world reflected on in holy Writ 2 Cor. 4.18 Mat. 6 19 1. Rom. 8.18 And when you do compare it with that above and cast them both into an equal balance in your considerate and serious thoughts and pauses then think which is noblest in its nature most indisturbed in its possessions most uniform in its constitution most enduring in its excellence most adequate in its proportions and most desirable in its full dimensions 1 Pet. 1.4 And what advantages herein are others testimonies in the Case Would you but measure the good and evil of both worlds by the experiences and apprehensions of dying and awakened persons how vast a difference would you see betwixt the life and comforts of them both yea and their sorrows too Where have you any thing in this world that can preponderate or equal the comforts of God's blessed Face and Favour especially when all clouds and frowns are gone what is this world more apt to do than to deface God's Image in us or prevent it darken his Glory obstruct his comfortable emanations and addresses to us and to foment our Jealousies and suspitions about his present interest in us and his eternal kindness to us O what a difference is there betwixt the mantle of our mortal life which falls upon that dark and sluggish world where purblind man delights to be and those more glorious and enduring Robes of Righteousness Salvation Praise and Immortality which our Redeemer hath provided for us where by our death he calls and takes us What therefore but our inconsiderateness can make us love our Prisons Chains and Rags or the pretences of ensnaring Cheats Impostures and Delusions Direct 3. Look upon life and all its Comforts as a probationary state for something else and use them so Prov. 9.12 Eccles 9.10 2 Cor. 5.10 Rom. 2.6.10 Heb. 9.27 Trifle not here for it is your time of trial we are all designed to live elsewhere and future retributions must be answerable to our present carriage This is our trading season and would you be always in the Shop or Market Would you be always travelling homeward and never reach your Fathers house 2 Cor. 5.6 9. We must not dream of being always on the Stage we have our parts to act our work to do and must be called off ere long that others may succeed us and after a few successive Acts the Theatre must be taken down and can we fancy shadows representations and resemblances to be everlasting What! hath God sent us hither to doat upon those Lives and Comforts which are built upon the weak uncertain Sands and spend themselves in triflings upon the hasty streams of short uncertain Time Or is it not rather that we should be acting and ripening for eternal joys and exercises This is our time of Discipline Exercise and education for the Prince's Court to fit us for our everlasting Ministrations before the great Jehovah Now we are learning Principles and labouring to understand and try what it is to love and honour God what to be ruled and taught that so we might be saved by Christ to thrive upon and under preparatory quicknings counsels and consolations of the Spirit what it is to receive reflect refract God's Holiness and Image in his instituted ways and methods and can we terminate our Affections Pleasures and Desires upon these preliminary elements and prelusions to those more lofty Exercises and enjoyments that wait for us when we have regularly finished our probationary Course Surely our dark discoveries slender attainments cold affections frequent and great disturbances and faint attempts to get near God our mean proficiency and the true prospect of what we want as to both our accomplishments and enjoyments should make us easily resolve our value care and love into this one single aim and enterprize namely to see that Comforts Lives and Time be most effectually managed and improved for the securing of these joys before us for there is nothing that we are and have below but it is a Talent for the Market not the Napkin and therefore neither Life nor Comforts should lie as dead Goods upon our hands nor be as Idols in our hearts Have we but one thing needful to secure and are we upon our tryal for it and shall we turn our trust and helps to snares and hinderances by doating on them and by fixing and abiding where we should be in motion Are not we called to labour in the Vineyard in order to our reckoning and reward at night and is it not to day that we must work Heb. 3.12 15. John 17.4.5 Will not our Crop and Harvest be answerable to our Seed Gal. 6.7 9. What wonder is it that the guilty Drone so much desires to live and fears to die or that he rages frets and trembles to hear his Hour and the Judge is come When men have trifled all the day 't is a most frightful sight to see the lengthned shadow and declining Sun Stupefaction is no conquest of the fear of Death or love of Life But when the awakened soul expects and sees the King of Terrors in the head of his whole Army and on his hasty March what then can steell that countenance whose heart and life have been expended and embezled in trifling dotages and mistakes yea and gross neglects of what the man was sent into the world to do He that was sent into the world to please his God and save his Soul and to grapple with and trample on the twisted strength and subtilties of Earth and Hell and to acorn and propagate Religion by an exact and exemplary conversation and so under Christ to make all clear within and sure above when he hath neglected all cannot be comfortably furnished to sacrifice or part with life for the Concernments of Eternity with chearfulness and out of choice or to conquer the Exercises Fears and Challenges of a dying hour And besides did we but carry as upon our trial weaning our hearts
you lay foundations right and deep How can it be imagined much less expected that unprepared and estranged Souls from God and Christ should face the challenges and terrors or escape the dangers of a dying day vvhat can support the confidence of that man vvho is dispirited by the deserved rebuke buffettings of an exasperated because a guilty conscience for conscience is the mouth of God and speaks his mind and vvhat speaks othervvise in point of charge or censure is rather ignorance than conscience and by his order and commission and in his name and Majesty vvhips the careless soul It is impossible to still the cryes of guilt and vvrath It is far more easie for us to charm and stupifie the man than truely cure him He that is negligent of the main affair is like to bear the smartings of his ovvn voluntary vvounds and the more voluntary our negligence appears to be to our awakened consciences when startled by gripes and fears of death the less cause will there be for help and pity All fears arising from an unconverted state have God to back and sharpen them because they are truly grounded on God's professed resolution and legal comminations to bring those fears on them by vvhom they are deserved So that our only vvay to cure and quell these fears is to remove their Cause by giving up our selves to God the Father to knovv him love him and live to him and to delight our selves in God's Image Presence and Favour in his Son Jesus Christ more than in all the treasures and delights of lovver things to knovv the Lord that bought us and to serve him in righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost vvith confidence to commit our selves to his tendred conduct government and protection and entertain him vvith all sutableness of apprehension affection and conversation to all his excellencies offices and appearances to ansvver all his kindnesses cost and care with all such faithful fruitful chearful conversations as God Christ determined and designed in man's Redemption Eph. 1.4 Yea to be ruled assisted and refreshed by vvhat the Spirit of Grace and Holiness and Wisdom hath done for us and is sent from the Father and the Son to perfect and compleat in us to live the Life of Faith and Holiness and endeavour to spend our daies in the delightful hopes and fore-tasts of and ripenings for and hasting to or hastning as the vvord imports * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 3.12 your everlasting state of Joys and Glory to make the unseen vvorld the exercise poise and spring of your most vehement desires most vigorous pursuit and most inviolable satisfaction and in a vvord to vvalk in all due conscience of your trust and charge to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit to others and your selves in all things to think and speak and do as in the sight of God relation to him and special interest and delight in him and not through ignorance enmity and sloth to let the Devil Flesh or World mortifie your delight in God your motions tovvards affections to and resolutions for God And hearken not to those discouraging thoughts and jealousies of God and Christ vvhich your grand enemy the Prince of lies and darkness is ready to abuse you vvith Where hath God told you that the vvilling thoughtful painful Soul though much distemper'd and imperfect shall be rejected by him For vvhen the Son protests so solemnly against rejecting such as come he speaks his Father's heart Jo. 6.37 40. And I profess vvhen I most seriously consider the terms tenour of the covenant of Grace I am much confirmed in this that all grounded jealousies suspitions discouragements as to our hopes of everlasting happiness can only fix upon our voluntary rejecting of God and Christ and holiness and Heaven And though many things may humble us and ought to do it yet nothing can implead our Title to the purchased possession nor our comfortable hopes at death vvhen once our vvills are sixt on Christ and vvell resolved for him and prevail upon our lives for vvalking vvorthy of our great Vocation We have no impossible conditions imposed on us especially if vve consider Gospel-assistances indulgence and encouragements for vvhen vve knovv our vvay as God hath shevved it us in Christ and have our hearts inclined and fixt for God vve are but to exert vvhat strength and povver vve have to serve and please our God and proportionably to our abilities and advantages to vvait upon God for more according to his instituted vvays and methods Improvements are but required to be proportionable to our Talents and he that brought ten Talents to his Lord had more than one or tvvo at first to make improvement of I do indeed believe the Lavv * By the Law of the Nature I â— ean God's revealed will as Ruler objectively signified in the nature of things within us and without us concerning our Duty and Rewards or Punishments and this Law is written upon and discovered by our own capacity constitution our relations to God and others and our fâ—rniture and advantages from what we are encompâ—ssed and intrusted with in the whole firme of Nature of Nature yet in force though novv incorporated into the Lavv of Christ and that the Decalogue is yet in force to bind and rule us and never look to see its abrogation proved till they that hold this abrogation can demonstrate that the Father lost his Right Throne of Government by the appearance of his Son and that Christ acted not as his Fathers Delegate and for his Glory and that Grace vvas not designed and directed to the reparation of declined Religion in the vvorld but that God was so prodigal of his Pardon and Indulgence as to grow regardless of his Government But yet that Law is one thing and this Covenant another thing For the Covenant of Grace respected those distempers perplexities disadvantages and supposed them and was suited to them in its Tenders and Provisions for which it did design Relief And now our terms of Life are not so strict as those on vvhich God dealt vvith healthful sound and innocent Adam for novv sincere and prevalent Faith and Love and Holiness shall reach those Consolations after Death vvhich once viz. antecedently to Christ's undertaking and compleating satisfaction they could not do and therefore if your insincerity and fundamental unpreparedness for your change be that which starts and feeds your fears labour to be sincere and faithful in Covenant-making and Covenant-keeping and you may be sure of this that Death will lose its sting and victory and thereupon its fearful looks when Sin hath lost its Throne and when God and Christ have got your hearts and life-to come concernments influence and rule your purposes projects and pursuits It is with relation to our manifold temptations wants and weaknesses and all despondencies and discouragements consequent thereupon that Christ hath undertaken to be our great High
consolations proper for that hour O! what refreshments do oft times issue and arise from those discoveries of God's image in us presence with and favour for us which are made by us when we are forced to retire within when all things round about us fail and lose their interest in and favour with us because our flesh decays and wasts through pains and rottenness to which the bewitching dotages of time could make their easiest and most successful applications And it oft-times happens that our fears exceed our pains and that the King of Terrors doth not gripe so hard nor stab so painfully as we are apt to think and look for but when the stroke is given indeed and the pains are gone how easily and quickly do the first openings of our eternal morning even swallow up all the remembrances of our dying sorrows Oh when the joys and visions of our God invade and exercise our departed Souls then comes the great prelusion and welcome pledge of our eternal conquest of this last enemy and after a short sleep of Bodies in the dust whilst Souls retire and go to God the Trump will found the Lord will come the World shall perish or be refined by the flames and the dead rise again and die no more 3. Is it because you fear a change of state to your great disadvantage when you are dead that you are loath and dread to die If so then it is because either 1. You credit not or question the certainty and excellency of the world to come Or 2. Because you do not understand and value it Or 3. You do suspect your interest in and fitness for it If it be the first concoct those Arguments and Intimations which God hath given you by diligent enquiries sober pauses faithful meditation reflect upon the first and second Propositions and those more cogent useful Treatises which are written on this Subject and wherewith the world abounds and let not the bribes and flatteries of a vain world divert you nor the malignant influences of a wanton Fancy corrupt and mortifie the Faculties which God hath given you for this end for here the light is ready for the prepared eye 2. If you do not understand its excellence and so have no value for it compare both states together that so your choice and value may result from wisdom and be the product of true and sober judgment Is it so good to dwell delight and perish in the flames of smart contention betwixt God and you or to have your breath and spirits expended in dreadful groans and ecchoes to the Apostle's deep complaints and cries in Rom 7.18 21 23 24. Is there no melody like heart-reproaches for practical despising and displeasing God Psal 51.3 4. Is there such harmony and advantage in the sluggish exercises motions of diseased souls Is there such pleasure in dark and difficult discoveries which are but one remove from the thick darkness of damning Ignorance and Blindness as that your aversation to be sent away unto that Element of clearer views and visions in the other world may well be fixed there Can you delightfully be exposed to temptations to injurious and unworthy thoughts of God and dwell where God is little discerned prized and served What! is an Hospital such a desirable habitation that you are loth to quit it Are the distractions pains and vanities of a forsaken world such Charms and Loadstones to your hearts as to set you on building Tabernacles and fixing there Who ever loved to be exposed to miseries or to build his Palace on the sands or hasty Streams and what is this state of Life but the true Theatre and Center of all these woes and miseries But of this see more in Prop. 2. But if you look above and pierce the Heavens there you will meet with clear discoveries and vehement flames of Love and all desirable unconceivable vigour liberty and satisfaction in an immortal state 4. Is it because you do suspect your interest in and fitness for the life to come If so then know the terms of Life and try your state thereby Do you not know what God is believe what he saith accept what he tenders and do what he commands Know you not who Christ is what he hath done what he expects what he promises and will do Are you an enemy to the Graces Truths and motions of the Spirit and to his directing quickning and comforting influences Are ye not dead to sin alive to God through Christ Is not another Life the exercise and object of your chief desire pursuit and satisfaction have you no prevalent inclinations affections and resolutions to renounce the World Flesh Devil and to discharge all your Duties to God yourselves and others with wisdom holiness activity and courage And to do all this as in the sight of God and with delight as in the hopes and prospect of a better world and to expect what God hath promised in the ways which he commands If these things be in you and abound your hearts are right condition safe and title good If you be wanting here this is your way of reparation and security Do these things and Death is yours and when these things are done all your discouraging doubts fears are answered and dispelled by being clearly understood For 1. It is one thing to be fit to die and another thing to know it 2. It is one thing to have your Title good another thing to be sinless and so fully ripe for Heaven immediately 3. It is one thing to have a serious fixed heart and will for God and another thing to have passionate affections which depend more upon the temper of the Body than the power and ripeness of the Grace of God upon the heart 4. It is one thing what we cannot be though we would be with strength and readiness of will another thing what we have little or no will to be 5. It is one thing to love and hate proportionably to what God and sin are and deserve and 't is another thing to love and hate as God requires in proportion to our strength and with reference to our Work and Joy And 6. It is one thing to have Corruption dwell in us and another thing to have it rule 7. It is one thing to be tempted of the Devil and another thing to yield thereto And 8. It is one thing to have ground of Hope and Joy and another to have the sense thereof 9. Joy is also considerable as our Duty and God's Gift And these 9 Distinctions well observed rightly applied and carefully improved will go exceeding far towards answering all those Doubts which animate unwarrantable Fears of Death in those whose hearts are right whilst their hopes are low their jealousies great their Spirits faint and so their Lives uncomfortable through their own ignorant and sad Mistakes Infer 1. Christian Religion at the worst is better than a course of wickedness at the best Inf. 2.
the folly of these Virgins lieth For you have heard of their Virginity in their separation from and profession against Antichristian Idolatry and mens Inventions and also in their escaping the world's pollutions and you have seen their Virginity in their Espousals unto Christ and visible Communion with the Wise in the enjoyment of Gospel-Ordinances you have heard also of their Light their Hopes their Awaking their Trimming their Lamps and how near they came to Heaven But here now was the one thing lacking that all this was the effect only of an external and ineffectual work wherein though there was something internal it was but light and transient which never wrought a thorow and powerful change of the heart whereas the Wise had an inward and powerful Call to Christ insomuch that the Gospel came to them not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost whereby they were made to know wisdom in the hidden part and became Virgins in affection and disposition as well as in profession and action Mean while the operations of the Spirit are languid weak and transient upon the hearts of foolish ones as we see in the stony ground in which there is no thorow powerful and abiding change And hence it is said The foolish took their Lamps but took no Oyl with them they wanted the Oyl of the Spirit of God and his saving gifts in the Vessels of their hearts Briefly the wise Virgins were sincere professors and followers of Christ the other meer Hypocrites and foolish Builders who laid their foundation on the Sand. And yet I do not say That foolish Virgins have always saving Grace to seek at the coming of Christ because there is Repentance and Pardon to be had in time for Hypocrites A foolish Professor may go forth to meet the Bridegroom with his Lamp only in his hand and no Oyl at all in his heart and yet he may meet with timely awakings by the way and Christ may infuse the Oil of saving Grace into his heart before the Midnight-cry whereby he becometh wise in the latter end who was a fool in the beginning for Christ calls upon Hypocrites as well as others to repent Mat. 23.26 Jam. 4.8 Hypocritical Sardis is called hereunto as well as the other Virgin-Churches of Asia And many unsound Professors have been effectually converted when many others have lived and died in their hypocrisie and perseverance in profession unto Christ is no Argument of a good estate to a dying Virgin except she be found in the way of wisdom 3. There remaineth one thing more to be spoken to for the clearing of the Point and that is That very miserable is the state of such as these who have Grace to get when Christ cometh For the Door is shut upon them In which words is declared their punishment of loss which some have thought to be greater than that of Sense which I shall not dispute but briefly discourse of that of loss as mentioned only in the Text which is inevitably followed by that of Sense 1. All the profession of these Virgins is lost their prayers praises humblings external reformations communications both of their worldly substance and likewise of their Parts and Gifts and so are their sufferings and their witness-bearing to the Truth c. All these are excluded from God's acceptance of them through want of an interest in the Bridegroom for none of these were offered up in Christ and the greatest and most glorious services without unfeigned Faith and Love are nothing Lev. 17.5 6. Heb. 13.15 Col. 3.17 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. 2. All opportunities and means of Grace are now lost never to be enjoyed more the door of opportunity as the Apostle calleth it 2 Cor. 2.12 16.9 is for ever shut against them they have survived all their seasons which now give place unto Eternity For the Bridegroom cometh first by Death and it is appointed unto men once to dye and after this the Judgment not after this and further means of Grace not after this a Sabbath or a Sermon or a time to pray and repent but after this the Judgment And what then succeeds the Judgment the perpetual execution of it in which respect it is called the eternal Judgment Heb. 6.2 So that the door of opportunity is now for ever shut 3. There is a door of Hope and that also is shut against them Hos 2.14 These Virgins had hopeful expectations of entrance with the Bridegroom for that was it they waited for whereas now their hope is perished and hath given up the Ghost for at best it was but a fine-spun Spider's web Job 8.14 but never a true lively hope 4. It followeth upon this that the door of Grace is shut never to be opened more Christ stretched forth his hands to them all the day long but now the accepted time and day of salvation is ended and there is no further place for Grace and Mercy nor hopes of seeing the King in his Beauty 5. They have now lost their Communion with the wise Virgins who are safe within the door that whereas they separated from the world to joyn in fellowship with Saints they are now for ever separated from the Saints to take their portion with the world Mat. 7.23 Time was when the Door of Christ's house upon earth which is the Church of God stood open to them as well as unto the wise and the Key of the Kingdom of heaven gave them admission into this lower house upon their visible subjection to his Rule and Government and they had entrance equally with the wise to partake of all the priviledges thereof and now when they think to enter into the Upper House of Eternal Glory the key is turned against them 6. These Virgins now have lost their Vails and are discovered to the wise who see not the Virgins their Companions brought to the King in fellowship with themselves in Glory and now they are discovered also to themselves and to all the world and known to be what they are so that they have nothing henceforth to cover them but everlasting shame and contempt Time was that they were taken together in the same net with them who are within the door but the Angels have gathered the good fish into their Vessels and cast away the bad Mat. 18.47 48 49. That therefore now is taken from them which they seemed to have even the shews and shadows of that Grace they never had by him that brings to light the hidden things of darkness and maketh manifest the counsels of the heart Their Lamps were going out when they awaked at the Midnight-cry v. 8 and now they are quite extinguished never to shine more the Word shall shine no longer to them nor their Knowledge and other Gifts to any 7. It now remains that they who ere while were in their midnights-sleep are now in their midnights darkness even there where the light of a candle never shined nor the voice
and light transient tasts and relishes are no evidences we must have these better things to bear up our hearts against the coming of the Bridegroom It sufficeth â—ot to be enrolled among Professors and to enjoy the charitable thoughts and approbations of the wisest Virgins under Heaven It is singular mercy to be rightly guided in self-esteem and valuation for they that measure themselves by themselves or compare themselves among themselves are not wise The Apostle 2 Cor. 10.12 would not have us to take up with the positive degree of good things but to take our aims by the comparative of better These good things are more light ineffectual and superficial and too often like the Seal that is impressed upon bare Paper whereas these better things are like the Seal's impression on the Wax Yet let no trembling Soul or broken reed be affrighted at the end of these foolish Virgins to see the Door thus shut against them the tender heart of Jesus Christ aimeth not at our consternation but awaking and to prepare and hasten us unto Glory before the Key be turned Nor doth his Apostle in the foresaid place despise the day of small things but his real scope and purpose is to excite Professors to look carefully to their foundations and then to go on unto perfection Heb. 6.1 And blessed for ever be the Lord for the second part of that sixth Chapter to the Hebrews in the close whereof we may see the afflicted heart tossed with tempests and not comforted yet hoping in Mercy and fleeing to Jesus as his Refuge and casting the Anchor of his floating Soul within the Vail whither the Fore-runner is entred for us who himself was once tossed in the Ship of the Militant Church albeit without sin but is now gone ashore to heaven as our fore-runner both to look to our Anchor which is fastned there and to hold all fast and to draw our tossed Ship to shore and to see all safe that where our fore-runner is there may we be also And thus the sweet conclusion of that Chapter doth fully recompence the severity of its beginning Let us comfort our selves and one another with these things Thirdly You have heard the miserable condition of such especially Professors of the Gospel and Pretenders to Christ who have Grace to seek at his coming As for the hapy state of such as are ready to enter in with him into the Bride-chamber of eternal peace and joy I shall speak a little in the Close Now therefore in the remainder of this Exercise it will be expected as seasonable that it be considered What gifts of Grace are chiefly to be in exercise in order to an actual Preparation for the coming of Christ by Death and Judgment For his coming is first by Death and then by Judgment And I say an actual Preparation because there is always a general and habitual preparedness to meet Christ Jesus in hearts that are truly godly but not always a particular actual fitness And this we see here in the five wise Virgins who are found in their midnight-sleep with Lamps that have need of trimming at the coming of Christ Thus Hezekiah was fit to dye as to a general and habitual fitness in that he could assert his sincerity before God when the message of death was brought him but he was to seek of a particular actual fitness in that he begs for longer life with prayers and plenty of tears The Message of Death awaked him and the holy man is startled and hath his Lamp to trim for the tidings of his death at hand was as much in effect as if it had been said unto him by the Prophet Behold the Bridegroom cometh go forth Hezekiah to meet him The nature of his distemper which some by the remedy a lump of Figs applied to the Bile conceive to have been the Pestilence and this considered with the shortness and sharpness of the Message and the Prophet Isaiah's quick abrupt departure from him that the King had then no Heir to succeed him in the Throne and also that he was now at the full strength of Nature being but nine and thirty years of age and his fear also what might become of his Kingdom and of his former Reformation after the grand Apostasie of his Father Ahaz I say these considerations made him to apprehend that there was a rebuke of God in this present Dispensation and therefore he is loth to dye under a temporal frown albeit his a vowed integrity would at the worst have seen him safe at heaven For though a Child of God cannot dye in his debt yet he is unwilling to depart under the sense of his temporal displeasure so as the good Prophet did whom the Lion slew at his return from Bethel to Judah 2 Kings 13.24 When David therefore was under God's rebukes for sin and even almost consumed with the blow of his hand he betakes himself as Hezekiah did to prayers and tears saith he Psal 39.10 11. to the end Hear my prayer O Lord and give ear to my Cry hold not thy peace at my tears for I am a stranger with thee and a Sojourner as all my Fathers were O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more Thus you see that the dear Children of God who have a general and habitual fitness to meet Jesus Christ when he is coming to them by Death and Judgment may yet be to seek of a particular actual preparation 2. Before I come to the answer of the Question let me premise this also That though a state of Grace is here supposed seeing Grace cannot be exercised where it is not yet there may be need to have it cleared inasmuch as the want thereof is a great hinderance in the way of this Duty You know that one that feareth God and obeyeth the voice of his Servant Jesus Christ may yet walk in darkness and see no light Isa 50.10 and he may say with Jonah he is cast out of God's sight and his soul is filled with troubles when his life draweth nigh unto the Grave wherefore let your eye be not only on your Lamp but also on your Vessel and examine your Oyl as well as mind your light For though you have received an Vnction from the Holy One and felt the sweet influences of the Spirit and have had the witness in your self yet the Comforter which sometimes relieved your Soul may at the present be far from you and suspend his testimony for Grace inherent is not self-enlightning but like the Moon which holdeth forth Light no longer than the Sun shineth upon it and though the Diall hath its Lines and Figures to declare the time of the day yet you will be to seek if the Sun withdraw hiâ— Light Even thus though the Spirit of God hath drawn the Lines and Figures of his Gifts and Graces in your heart yet if he also do not shine upon them you will not know what
and therefore the Blessing is null and moreover what the meaning of this Providence is that my Brother should come forth against me in this hostile manner I knovv not Wherefore I humbly beg thy Blessing and the confirmation of that Title vvhich hath so great an error in it Thus God brought an old reckoning to his remembrance in an evil day and set it on his conscience and put him to repent and mourn for he wept and made supplication to the Angel Hos 12.4 He came not off so easily but was fain to vvrestle hard all night to lose his rest and to struggle and sweat and pray and vveep and shed many a tear and to go halting aftervvard upon his Thigh unto his dying day Take heed therefore of old Reckonings undischarged look back and consider hovv it hath been and omit not a day vvithout revievving your Actions and Repentings I say as duly as the day determineth let not the Sun go dovvn upon any guilt contracted that so your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and exercise your self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and men and this vvill the better prepare you for the coming of Jesus Christ both by Death and Judgment Fifthly Be much in the exercise of Goodness Mercy and works of Liberality towards Christ in his needy Members according to your opportunity and power For though you shall be saved by your Faith yet you shall be judged according to your Works And it greatly concerneth us to be laborious in that Service upon vvhich the judgment shall pass at Christ's appearance Mat. 25.35 36. Call your self therefore to an account what you have done in this way for Christ as how you have fed cloathed visited relieved him in his Members here on earth And if this were more considered such as profess to Christ would be more active for him in ought wherein they might be more serviceable to him but when we see but little activity in the exercise of this Grace we may well fear there is but little Oil in the Vessel for rich anointings will make men agile and ready for every good work inasmuch as the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and they that hope for eternal Life when Christ shall come by Death and Judgment must seek for Glory Honour and Immortality not only in well-doing but in continuance in it Beware of Omissions and among others of this great duty The Judgment will reach unto all sins In the Narrative of his Life and Death and to omissions in a special manner Mat. 25.37 38. For which that learned and holy Vsher was humbled upon his death-bed The Nobleman hath put a Pound into your hand saying Occupy till I come yea he hath given you many Pounds in a literal sense with which you must trade as well as with the Talents of your Parts and Gifts of Grace And I know you would be glad to find Mercy with Onesiphorus in the day of Christ Remember therefore Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Mat. 5.7 But He shall have judgment without mercy who hath shewed no mercy whereas mercy rejoyceth against judgment A merciful man is so far from fearing judgment at Christ's coming that he rather rejoyceth at the thoughts of it Sixthly Exercise diligence and faithfulness in your particular Calling For when Christ speaketh of his Coming saith he Be ye ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh What followeth Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his houshold to give them meat in due season Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Mat. 24.44 45 46. When Christ was speaking to this Point saith Peter Lord speakest thou this Parable to us or even unto all Luke 12.41 Truly Christ spake it unto all though in a special manner to such as Peter for Christ will have an account how every one of us have managed our particular Callings But they that are Stewards in the House of God which is his Church have a very great account to give and it is required of them in a special manner that a man be found faithful and of all Christ's servants his Stewards have most to answer for that if a dispensation of the Gospel and the care of souls were not committed to them he that understandeth the weight of Stewardship would dread to undertake it but a necessity is laid upon them and wo unto them if they Preach not the Gospel It is said of Calvin that when Nature began to decline in him Melch. Adam in vit Calv. and the symptoms of a dying man appeared on him he would be diligent at his Studies from which his friends disswading him saith he Nunquid me Dominus inveniet otiosum Shall my Master find me idle Let such therefore and all be diligent and faithful in their respective place and employments And indeed every man is a Steward more or less You know what the Master saith of the slothful Servant Take him and cast him into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Such slothful servants shall be under the tribute of eternal pains Prov. 12.24 when the good and faithful Servant shall be made ruler over many things and enter into the joy of his Lord Mat. 25.23 Would you stand before Christ at his coming Oh dread Idleness and unfaithfulness in your Callings as you desire to be sound of him in peace at his appearance Fill up your days with Duty and give your time to him who gave it to you Paul was a great lover of Christ and his Appearance and who more abundant in his Labours for him For he had the Conscience of his indefatigable industry and fidelity in his work for his Master Saith he I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith 2 Tim 4.7 8. He meaneth especially his military faith and oath in fighting a good fight for Christ And wherefore do we hear him groaning so earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with his house which is from Heaven It was because he laboured ambitiously that whether present or absent he might be accepted of him For saith he We must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ that every one might receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5 2. with 9.10 Lastly That I might not multiply particulars let me add what Christ hath joined together Sobriety Watchfulness and Prayer Luk. 21 34.36 And therefore take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkenness and cares of this Life and that Day come upon you unawares Gird up therefore the loins of your minds be sober and hope to the end for the Grace that is to be brought