other means will not prevail 12. The wretched unthankfulness of despising his Commandments or lazily performing any service to him whose mercies have been and are so abundant and free toward us as we have found them and yet hope for infinitely more hereafter 13. The Watchfulness and diligence of worldly men and their heat for the Devil and their own lusts 14. The danger that may be to us not onely from worldly men alluring or opposing but even from those who are godly and may yet prove tempters and snares to us and so we never walk but in the middest of snares and temptations 15. The certain shortness and uncertain continuance of our lives subject to a thousand casualties and nothing to be done for God or our selves after death 16. The nobleness and excellency of our immortal souls born to higher imployment and honour than a bruitish service of the body or Paganish pursuing of this present world 17. The certainty of the hope whereunto they are called who seek the Kingdome of God above all other things 18. The infinite glory of Heaven and eternal happiness there kept in store for them that fight a good fight and finish their course and keep the faith and love and watch for the appearance of Christ 19. The exceeding greatness of the mighty power of God working for and in them that believe and live by faith 20. The exceeding great and precious promises of all kinds even for comfort in this life to them that love God and walk uprightly and forsake any thing for Christ That all things shall work together for good to them and no good thing shall be withholden from them and for any thing they have forsaken they shall receive in this world even in the midst of persecutions an hundred-fold more an eternal life in the world to come 21. The experience of that sweet peace of conscience and blessed contentation and spiritual rejoycing even in the midst of Tribulations and Persecutions that is to be seen in many of the servants of God and which all profess to be certainly attainable by those that watch and pray and are sober and exercise their Faith and Grace A Remedy against Carefulness Phil. 4.6 Be careful for nothing 1. CArefulness forbidden is taking over-much thought disquieting the mind rending the heart in pieces with doubts and fears for worldly things good to be missed lost ill to befall continue 2. The causes are Doting too much upon the thing or comfort in danger Distrust of Men. Means Gods blessing 3. The Effects are divers and not the same in all But it appears 1. When it provokes to use indirect means 2. When the means which are used though commonly sufficient are not counted sufficient 3. When the thoughts are chiefly upon it first and last contrary to the express charge Mat. 6.33 4. When it breeds interruption in holy duties Neglected Untowardly done 5. When it hinders from enjoying natural comforts 6. When it makes unfit for ones calling 7. When it hinders freedome of spirit and makes unfit for civil society 4. Hence the Reasons against it are many shewing the sinfullness of it and directing to Remedies against it 1. It is an idolatrous sin if we doted not too much on such a creature or comfort we could not be overcareful about it See Ps 73.25 compared with the former part The Remedy is to apply Gods All sufficiency who can certainly make us happy without that creature or comfort 2. It is a Paganish sin an Infidels sin if we did believe Gods Providence Attributes and Promises we could not be so out of quiet Mat. 6. The Remedy is to lay to heart these Doctrines as becomes a Christian 3. It is an unthankful sin we deserved Hell and scape that and are promised Heaven instead of it are we not bound to referre other things to God The remedy is to ponder well our sins and Gods great mercy in Christ 4. It is a fruitless sin no man gets any thing by vexing himself Gods will shall stand The Remedy is to weigh how great a piece of wisdom it is to make a virtue of necessity 5. It is a multiplying sin it endangers to make one do any thing to secure themselves from what they fear The Remedy is to consider the least sin worse than any evil to a Christians heart 6. It is a pernicious sin it provokes God often to cross us in the very thing even for our over-carefulness about it disappointing hopes or bringing fears according to our perplexed apprehensions besides worse mischief if one obtain their desire The Remedy is to consider the promises made to meekness and the comforts of a good Conscience 7. It is a prophane sin hindring religious duties The Remedy is to remember Gods service the end of our life and nothing should hinder us in it 8. It is an inhumane sin it hurts 1. The Soul in the forenamed neglect of duties to God 2. The Body by hindring the enjoying of comforts The Remedy is to love our selves wisely and our whole selves rather than our fancy in any thing or than any one particular thing for our selves how seeming unnecessary soever 9. It is an unsociable sin and inhumane in respect of others it makes unfit for all converse and so neglectful of friends and even be discomforts to them The remedy is to consider our selves not born for our selves only others afford us comfort and we owe the like to them 10. It is an unnecessary sin we have vexation enough for each day we need not vex our selves with thought for to morrow The remedy is to consider that we may die before that we misdoubt comes and then as we say the thought is taken 11. It is a self condemned sinne There are none but trust men in something or other as great as that they are now over-carefull about or must do God with a greater matter the eternal estate of their souls The remedy is to reason the like in one thing we do in another and not disparage God while we trust men 12. It is a sin against experience 1. Of the bruit and even senseless creatures God feeds the fowls and clothes the grass 2. Our own is not the life more than meat and the body than rayment specially the soul than either The Remedy is to consider God our Father who will not be kind or to a kite than to a child or prefer a flower before a son nor withhold the less being good and who is so mad as to say I would have what God sees not good having given the greater Rom. 8.32 The Lord of Earth and Heaven of Grace and Glory teach us ever to love him with Faith and thankfulness that we may enjoy all good from him through Jesus Christ Amen The Soul of Fasting Nehem. 6.5 c. 1. AN awfull Regard and Reverence of the Glorious Majesty of the Great God with whom we have to do by a through Apprehension of his infinite and incomprehensible
would break the Match being unconcluded there would be no less danger that it would break the peace afterward when the unfaithfulness should be discovered and that that breaking of the Match were so much to be preferred before this breach of Peace by how much a cross is to be preferred before a sin and I cannot be a Christian if I believe not that God can provide better for me and will if I yield up my will and all my affections wholly to him 34. I desire to let no day pass without once at least solemn casting up my account how my soul hath sped that day and my business gone forward or backward and to allot special times for a more full reckoning of many dayes and summing up my whole stock of Grace so shall I be sure never to become a Bankrupt but compound for my debts in time before I be sued or pursued to extremity Lastly I desire to account my Sureties Satisfaction my best Riches and to treasure up charily in my heart my Acquittances sealed with his bloud and to fetch from his store all needfull Grace from time to time His All sufficiency alone on all occasions must furnish me with Wisdome Righteousness Sanctification Redemption he is and must be All in all to me To him with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Glory and Love and Faith and Obedience rendred for ever Amen An Appendix applyed to the Calling of a Minister 1. I Desire specially to improve my Calling of a Minister to the advancement of Religion both in my own and others hearts Whatever Calling I had I were bound so to direct it but this was erected to that purpose immediately and no other to found men in Religion and build them up in it As therefore I must first account that of me is required a greater forwardness in Religion and higher degree of heavenly mindedness and being to the glory of Christ then of ordinary Christians because while their calling oft distracts and disturbs them from thinking of God and Christ mine leads me directly to it and those notions which they through ignorance or disuse are strangers to I am happily necessitated to make familiar to me so though I may yet have imperfection I pretend Religion in vain if I allow my self in carelesseness or unprofitableness in that Profession of mine the very exercise whereof is among the mainest Businesses of Religion and which therefore in the Prâ—parations for it and exercise of it challenges all my strength of affections and spirits If God should have given me my choice of all the imployment the world knows I could not wish any other to do at once most good to my soul and express what good I get to do others souls good also and most shew my love to Christ and Christians in thankfulness for all that good I have and look for both to my soul and body 2. I desire therefore to esteem it among the highest favours among the greatest honours so to be set on work specially with success and to make it appear that I do so esteem it by putting forth all my abilities that there may be no want in me if success follow not towards others All the time my Saviour lived his first life upon earth after his Baptism till he was to prepare himself for the Sacrifice of his Death he undertook no other Calling than this and after his Resurrection again practised it so long as he conversed with men here below O let my heart therefore be so possest with his Spirit that though my body must needs have its natural supplies in due season yet I may ever as he did count it my meat and drink to fulfill and finish this work and my recreation to go about doing good And therefore though his Sabbath the Lords day be according to nature the day of my greatest toil yet because that day I most advance the business of his Kingdom and my own soul together I may with more affections than others can call the Sabbath a delight and triumph in it not onely as a day of Liberty but of conquest and victory 3. I desire to extend the labours of my Function beyond the expectation of those to whom they are to be directed I mean not ever yet sometimes specially for length but frequency to be instant in season and out of season volentibus nolentibus And to rejoyce therefore and only therefore in the multitude of hearers because among many there is more hope of doing some good whilest yet I never suffer my self to be discouraged by their paucity since Gods grace is not tied to expect the help of a croud and one soul gained or confirmed is worth an age of pains 4. I desire in all the publick exercises of my Ministry to suit my matter method phrase repetition and all other circumstances so as I may be best understood and remembred and may best convince and perswade every mans conscience and not to own one tittle or syllable that might hinder this in any remembring herein my business to be not to break for my own credit but to deliver the messages of him who is no respecter of persons but esteems the meanest soul worth shedding his bloud for as well as the greatest 5. I desire therefore no more to neglect the instruction of the poorest child or the visiting of the most contemptible creature within my charge than of the richest and noblest rather those of the eminenter sort may better spare me because they may for themselves and theirs have more means and comforts than others can 6. Specially I desire not to omit the advantage of any ones being sick Because 1. then they may have more leisure to ponder on any good counsel than the world at other times will give them leave 2. Then also perhaps they may be straight going out of the world and I may never again have any more opportunity of offering them good and then too probably they may be more sensible of the reality of those things which concern another world when they see nothing in this world will do them good or keep them here And when I come to any never to omit the mention of death which will neither stay our leisure nor be hastened by talking of it And herein to regard the good of a soul rather than the pleasing of any ones fancy 7. I desire in all things men should rather be pleased with what I must do then for me to do any thing meerly to please men unless in things otherwise indifferent every way and in them indeed to be willing to please all men in all things taking counsel in things of that sort of mens infirmities but in substantials only of Gods Word except that even in such mens weakness or waywardness may sometimes so vary the case as that one while they may necessitate a present enforcement of a Doctrine and another time the forbearance for that season And because the forbearance of this is
do nothing without sin 69. He can do nothing against his will yet he doth what he would not 70. He wavers and doubts and yet obtains he is often tossed and shaken and yet like Mount Zion 71. He is a Serpent and a Dove a Lamb and a Lion a Reed and a Cedar 72. He is sometimes so troubled that he thinks nothing is true in Religion and yet if he did think so he could not be at all troubled 73. He thinks sometimes God hath no mercy for him and yet resolves to die in the pursuit of it 74. He believes like Abraham in hope and against hope though he can never answer Gods Logick yet with the woman of Canaan he hopes to prevail with the rhetorick of importunity 75. He wrestles with God and prevailes and though yielding himself unworthy the least blessing he enjoyes already yet Jacob-like will not let God go without a new blessing 76. He sometimes thinks himself to have no grace at all and yet how poor and afflicted soever he be besides he would not change conditions with the most prosperous upon earth that is a manifest worldling 77. He thinks sometimes the Ordinances of God do him no good at all and yet he would rather part with his life than be deprived of them 78. He was born dead and yet so as it had been murther to have taken his life away 79. When life was first put into him is commonly unknown and with some not untill they had learned to speak and were even grown up to the stature of a man and with others not till they were ready to drop into their graves for age 80. After he begins to live is ever dying and though he have an eternal life begun in him yet he makes account he hath a death to pass through 81. He counts self-murder a most hainous sin yet he is continually busied in crucifying his flesh and putting to death his earthly members 82. He believes that his soul and body shall be as full of glory as theirs that have more and not more full than theirs that have less 83. He lives invisibly to those that see him and those that know him best do but guesse at him yet they somitimes see further into him and judge more truly of him than himself doth 84. The world did sometimes count him a Saint when God counted him an hypocrite and after when the world branded him for an hypocrite God owned him for a Saint 85. In fine his death makes not an end of him his soul which was created for his body and is not to be perfected without his body is more happy when it is separated from it then it was all the while it was united to it and his body though torn in pieces burnt to ashes ground to pouder turned into rottenness shall be no loser His Advocate his Surety shall be his Judge his mortal part shall become immortal and what was sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption and glory and his spiritual part though it had a beginning shall have no end and himself a finite creature shall be possessed of an infinite happiness Amen A Character of visible Godliness A Godly man is one who being not ignorant of the wayes and Doctrine of God lives not only without scandal but approves and practises the general Duties of Christianity and those that are special to his condition More particularly A godly man is one that loves the word in the power of it and at least despises it not in the plainness of it that comes to the World not to censure and cavil but to be taught and ruled that professes not to allow himself in any known sin but resolves and practises self-denyal so far as it is made plain to him that Christ denies his desires He is one that loves those that seem religious and conscionable untill they prove scandalous and be manifestly discovered for Hypocrites and then esteems never the worse of the Profession it self and of those others whom he knows no harm by He is unwilling to believe all of such and though he see them faulty doth not streight condemn them to be altogether void of sincerity Mean time he is so far from rejoycing at their miscarriages that even particular scandals are amongst his greatest griefs But especially he is afraid to give any ill example himself as knowing himself made and redeemed to no other end than that he should live to Gods glory Therefore also he professes and resolves to do what good he can in his place and particularly to have his family know and fear God and believe in Christ He is one that accounts sin worse than shame or loss or any other misery and resolves to suffer rather than offend He esteems Godliness the greatest gain and contentment a necessary piece of godliness and that honour pleasure wealth to be sufficient to contentment which casts upon him while he first seeks his Kingdom and Righteousness And lastly who hath so much wisdome as to take more thought how to redeem time than to pass it away having somewhat setledly to do besides following his pleasures which he uses as his recreation and makes not his business Generall Considerations to excite to Watchfulness and to shake of spiritual drousiness 1. THe glorious and dreadfull Majesty of God with whom at all times we have to do who is a consuming fire and therefore his service and obedience to him is not to be slighted but to be performed with watchfulness reverence and godly fear 2. Our sins in number exceeding the hairs of our heads in weight the measure of the sand The vileness of sin generally and the unreasonable odiousness of ones own sins in many respects worse than any others we know 3. The fearful curses and punishments due to sin to our sins on earth and torments inconceivable and eternal in hell 4. The abominableness of sin demonstrated specially in that nothing could expiate it but the bloud and death of Christ not only man but God 5. The infinite love of God and Christ to sinful mankind in those sufferings of Christ for sin 6. The certainty of damnation still to those that carelesly despise or willfully abuse the grace of Christ to carnall security or willing customary sin 7. The manifest expressions of Scripture that multitudes even of those that live within the visible Church shall yet go to Hell 8. The Devils unwearied malice violence cunning going up and down like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour unto whom they that watch not must needs become a prey 9. The prodigious and desperate corruption that is in every ones heart ready to betray us even to the basest lust and most horrid wickedness 10. The fearfull frights of Conscience that God may awaken us withall out of our drowsie dreams 11. The sharp and stinging scourges even in worldly respects wherewith God may rouse us out of our carnal security and must and will with one or other if