for it till it surprize him and therefore when it cometh it findeth him prepared and he gladly entertaineth it as the messenger of his Father to call him to his everlasting home It is not a strange unexpected thing to him to hear he must die He died daily in his daily sufferings and mortified contempt of worldly things and in his daily expectation of his change He wondereth to see men at a dying time surprized with astonishment and terrour who jovially or carelesly neglected it before as if they had never known till then that they must die Or as if a few years time were reason enough for so great a difference For that which he certainly knoweth will be he looketh at as if it were even at hand and his preparation for it is more serious in his health than other mens is on their death-bed He useth more carefully to bethink himself what graces he shall need at a dying time and in what case he shall then wish his soul to be and accordingly he laboureth in his provisions now even as if it were to be tomorrow He verily believeth that it is incomparably better for him to be with Christ than to abide on earth and therefore though Death of it self be an enemy and terrible to nature yet being the only passage into happiness he gladly entertaineth it Though he have not himself any clear and satisfactory apprehensions of the place and state of the happiness of departed souls yet it quieteth him to know that they shall be with Christ and that Christ knoweth all and prepareth and secureth for him that promised Rest Joh. 12.26 2 Cor. 5.1 7 8. Phil. 1.21 23. Luke 23.43 Though he is not free from all the natural fears of death yet his belief and hope of endless happiness doth abate those fears by the joyfull expectation of the gain which followeth See my Book called The last enemy and the last work of a Believer and that of self-denial against the fears of death But especially he loveth and longeth for the coming of Christ to judgement as knowing that then the Marriage-day of the Lamb is come and then the desires and hopes of all Believers shall be satisfied Then shall the Righteous shine as Stars in the Kingdom of their Father and the hand of violence shall not reach them Every enemy then is overcome and all the Redeemers work is consummated and the Kingdom delivered up unto the Father Then shall the ungodly and the unmercifull be confounded and the righteous filled with overlasting joy when their Lord shall throughly plead their cause and justifie them against the accusations of Satan and all the lies of his malicious instruments O blessed glorious joyfull day when Christ shall come with thousands of his Angels to execute vengeance on the ungodly world and to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that now believe 2 Thes. 1.8 9 10 When the patient followers of the Lamb shall behold him in glory whom they have believed in and shall see that they did not pray or hope or wait in vain When Christ himself and his sacred truth shall be justified and glorified in the presence of the world and his enemies mouths for ever stopped When he shall convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Jude 14 15. Where then is the mouth that pleadeth the cause of infidelity and impiety and reproached the serious holiness of Believers and made a jest of the Judgements of the Lord Then what terrours and confusion and shame what fruitless repentings will seize upon that man that set himself against the holy ones of the Lord and knew not the day of his visitation and imbraced the image and form of godliness while he abhorred the power The Joys which will then possess the hearts of the Justified will be such as now no heart can comprehend When Love shall come to be glorified in the highest expression to those that lately were so low when all their doubts and fears and sorrows shall be turned into full contenting sight and all tears shall be wiped away and all reproaches turned into glory and every enemy overcome and sin destroyed and holiness perfected and our vile bodies changed and made like the glorious body of Christ Phil. 3.20 21. Col. 3.3 4. Then will the Love and work of our Redemption be fully understood And then a Saint will be a Saint indeed when with Christ they shall judge the Angels and the world 1 Cor. 6.2 3. and shall hear from Christ Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Mat. 25.34 Enter ye into the joy of your Lord Mat. 25.21 Then every knee shall bow to Christ and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2.9 10 11. Then sin will fully appear in its malignity and holiness in its luster unto all The proud will then be abased and the mouths of all the wicked stopped when they shall see to their confusion the Glory of that Christ whom they despised and of those holy ones whom they made their scorn In vain will they then knock when the door is shut and cry Lord Lord open unto us Mat. 25.10 11 12. And in vain will they then wish O that we had known the day of our visitation that we might have died the death of the righteous and our latter end might have been as his Numb 23.10 Rom. 3.19 Job 5.16 Psal. 107.42 31.23 13.6 8. The day of Death is to true Believers a day of Happiness and Joy But it is much easier for them to think with joy on the coming of Christ and the day of Judgement because it is a day of fuller joy and soul and body shall be conjoyned in the blessedness and there is nothing in it to be so great a stop to our desires as Death is which naturally is an enemy God hath put a love of life and fear of death into the nature of every sensible creature as necessary for the preservation of themselves and others and the orderly Government of the world But what is there in the blessed day of Judgement which a Justified child of God should be averse to O if he were but sure that this would be the day or week or year of the coming of his Lord how glad would the confirmed Christian be and with what longings would he be looking up to see that most desired sight 2. And the weak Christian is so far of the same mind that he had rather come to God by Death and Judgement than not at all except when temptations make him fear that he shall be condemned He hath fixedly made choice of that Felicity which till then he cannot attain He would not take all the pleasures of this world for his hopes of the happiness of
therefore your holiness and obedience should also be exceeding great You have all the Book of Nature to instruct you Every Creature may teach you God and calls loud upon you to perswade your hearts yet nearer to him Every work of disposing Providence is an instructer and perswader of you Every leaf and line of Scripture is a guide or spur to you You have Ministers able and willing to help you You have the help of the Communion of Saints the help of the examples of the good and the warnings of the Judgments of God upon the wicked the helps of Sermons the helps of Sacraments the helps of Prayer and holy Meditation and Conference Mercies to encourage you Afflictions to excite you What more would you have And yet will you be Infants and do no more with all your helps But this I toucht upon before 6. It is an exceeding great necessity that is upon you And therefore your Resolutions should be exceeding high and your diligence exceeding great For all you are Converted your Salvation lyeth yet upon your stability and perseverance Col. 1.22 23. Christ hath reconciled you in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight if ye continue in the Faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard God will not be an accepter of persons You must stick to his terms if you will partake of his Salvation He will not make two words with you He hath told you what he expecteth of you and that he will have Death will not be bribed nor put by Judgment is comming on There is no shifting out of the hands of God And under such pressing necessities as these what Christians should we be How stable and abundant in Faith and Righteousness 7. It is a great account that you have to make and therefore a great preparation that should be made When you shall be brought before the living God and all your times and thoughts and waies must be called over and you see what follows and are waiting for the final doom then there will be no dull thoughts in your hearts all will be then lively and quite above this careless frame Then even the wicked will have strong desires O that we had taken another course that we had but prevented this dreadful doom whatever it had cost us And should not believers now be awakened to great and careful preparations for such a day as this 8. For trifles here are great endeavours used To climb up into honour or riches in the World to satisfy the flesh to lay up a treasure on earth and labour for the meat that perisheth O what endeavours then should be used for the heavenly everlasting treasure 9. Consider also How forward and diligent should those men be that are sure they can never go too high nor be too diligent when they have done their best Nay that are certain that the best do come so abundantly short that they must after sit down and lament that they were no better O there is not the holiest Saint on earth but will confess with lamentation how little his love to God is in comparison of what it should be how short all falls below our duty below the glorious Majesty of God below the precious love of Christ below the worth of precious Souls below the weight of endless glory below the Mercies that should warm our hearts below the great necessity that is on us and consequently below their own desires Look therefore after greater things while you may attain them 10. Lastly Consider what abundance of great engagements are on you that are sincere Believers more than upon others 1. You are nearlyer related to Christ than any others are And therefore you should be more tender of offending him and more eminent in love and service to him You are his houshold-servants and will you not labour for him and stick to him You are his friends and should a friend abuse him should not a friend be faithful You are his dear adopted children and his Spouse and should not you be faithful to him to the death Should not all the love and service that you have be his Isa. 1.2 3. Mal. 1.10 Gal. 5.4 2. You have bound your selves to him by more serious frequent vows and Covenants than other men have done How many persons and places and necessities of yours can witness against you if you be not firm and forward for the Lord. As Joshua said to Israel Josh. 24.27 Behold this stone it shall be a witness unto you lest you deny your God So I may say the places where you have kneeled and prayed and promised will be witnesses against you if you be not firm to God the Churches that you have assembled in the places you have walked in in your solitary Meditations the persons that have heard your promises and professions the World about you that hath seen your forwardness will all witness against you if you be not firm 3. It is you that have the life and kernel of mercies Others have but the crums that fall from your Tables Others have common mercies but you have the great and special mercies that accompany Salvation All things are yours and should not you be Christs 1 Cor. 3.21 22. Of you it is that God is so exceeding tender that he chargeth your enemies not to touch you and tells them that touch you that they touch the Apple of his eye Zech. 2.8 And should not you abound in love and holiness and should you not be as tender of his favour and his law and honour as of the Apple of your eye Should not he that toucheth the Name and Law and Honour of God by profaning them by sin be as one that toucheth the Apple of your eye 4. You have a spirit and heavenly Life within you which the rest of the World are unacquainted with And can you think it is not somthing extraordinary that God must needs expect from you Will you not walk in the Spirit which is given you and mortify the flesh by it Gal. 5.16 17 24. Is there not more expected from the living than the dead Surely he that hath made you New Creatures and made you partakers of the Divine nature doth expect somwhat Divine in your affections and devotions and that you be somwhat more than men 5. Moreover it is you above others for whom the Word and Messengers of God are sent We must speak to all but it is you that Gods special eye is upon it is your Salvation that he intends to accomplish by us Luke 4.26 27. There were many Widdows in the dayes of Elias and many Lepers in the dayes of Ehsha but it was but to one of them that the Prophet was sent We make the ungodly multitude even rage against us and Ministers are hated for magnifying the Grace of God to you and declaring his special love to you
resignation of your selves to him Of which I warned you in the former Directions O this is it that makes our people fall so fast in a day of tryal some shrink in adversity and some are enticed away by prosperity Greatness and honour deceiveth one and riches run away with another and fleshly pleasure poison a third and his Conscience Religion Salvation and all he Sacrificeth to his belly and swalloweth it down his throat and all the Love and goodness of God the Bloud of Christ the workings of the Spirit the Precepts and Promises and Threatnings of the Word and the joy and torments which once they seemed to believe all are forgotten or have lost their force And all because the Foundation was not laid well at the first But because this was the very business of the former Directions I will dismiss it now DIRECT II. Think not that all is done when once you are Converted but remember that the work of your Christianity then comes in and must be as long as the time of your lives OF this also I shall say but little because it is the drift of all the moving Considerations before-going I doubt it is the undoing of many to imagine that if once they are sanctified they are so sure in the hands of Christ that they have no more care to take nor no more danger to be afraid of and at last think that they have no more to do as of necessity to Salvation and thus prove that indeed they were never sanctified I confess when a man is truly Converted the principal part of his danger is over he is safe in the love and care of Christ and none can take him out of his hands But this is but part of the truth the other part must be taken with it or we deceive our selves There is still a great deal of work before us and Holiness is still the way to happiness and much care and diligence is required at our hands And it is no more certain that we shall be saved by Christ than it is that we shall be kept in Faith and love and holy obedience by him It is as true that none can separate us from the Love of God and from a care to please him and from a holy diligence in the work of our Salvation as that none can take us out of his hands and bring us into a state of condemnation He that is resolved to bring us to Glory is as much resolved to bring us to it by perseverance in Holiness and diligent obedience for he never decreeth one without the other and he will never save us by any other way Indeed when we are Converted we have escaped many and grievous dangers but yet there are many more before us which we must by care and diligence escape We are translâ—ted from death to life but not from earth to heaven We have the life of Grace but yet we are short of the life of Glory And why have we the life of Grace but to use it and to live by it Why came we into the Vineyard but to work And why came we into the Army of Christ but to fight Why came we into the race but to run for the prize or why turned we into the right way but to travel in it We never did God faithful service till the day of our Conversion and then it is that we begin And shall we be so sottish as to think we have done when we have but begun Now you begin to live that before were dead Now you begin to awake that were before asleep And therefore now you should begin to work that before did nothing or rather a thousand fold worse than nothing Work is the effect of life it is the dead that lye still in darkness and do nothing If you had rather be alive than dead you should rather delight in action than in idleness It 's now that you set to Sea and begin your voyage for the blessed Land many a storm and wave and tempest must you yet expect Many a combat with temptations must you undergo many a hearty prayer have you yet to pour forth Many and many a duty to perform to God and man Think not to have done your care and work till you have done your lives Whether you come in at the first hour or at the last you must work till night if you will receive your wages And think not this a grievous doctrine It is your priviledge it is your joy your earthly happiness that you may be so employed that you that till now have lived like swine or moles or earthly vermine may now take wing and fly to God and walk in heaven and talk with Saints and be guarded by Angels is this a life to be accounted grievous Now you begin to come to your selves to understand what you have to do in the world to live like men that you may live like Angels And therefore now you should begin accordingly to bestir you I would not have you retain the same measure of fear of Gods displeasure nor the same apprehensions of your misery nor the doubts and perplexities of mind which you were under at your first conversion for these were occasioned by the passage in your change and the weakness of your grace in that beginning and your former folly made them necessary for a time But I would have you retain your fear of sinning and be much more in the love of God and in his service than you were at first Temptations will haunt you to the last hour of your lives If therefore you would not fall by these temptations you must watch and pray to the last Give not over watching till Satan give over tempting and watching advantages against you The promise is still but on condition that you persevere and abide in Christ and continue rooted and stedfast in the faith and overcome and be faithful to the death as you may see in Joh. 15. throughout Joh. 8.31 Rev. 2. 3. Col. 1.22 23. Work out therefore your salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 If you have begun resolvedly proceed resolvedly It 's the undoing of mens souls to think that all the danger is over and lose their apprehensions of it when they are yet but in the way when their care and holy fears abate their watch goes down the soul 's laid open as a common wilderness and made a prey to every lust And therefore still know your work 's not done till your life be done DIRECT III. Be sure that you understand wherein your establishment and growth consisteth that you may not miscarry by seeking somewhat else instead of it nor think you have it when you have it not or that you want it when you have it and so be needlessly disquieted about it FOr your assistance in this I shall further shew you wherein your confirmation and growth consisteth in its several parts both as it is subjected or exercised in your understandings
of him shall be much required and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more Luke 12.48 DIRECT XVII Redeem your Time and highly value every minute and spare for no labour in the work of your salvation Dream not of an easie idle sluggish life as sufficient to your high and glorious ends Nor rest not in a customary and outside way of duty without regard to the Life and the success IF any thing in all the World require all our power and time it is that for which all our powers and time are given us and which we are sure will a thousand fold recompense us for all O what a sottish kind of stupidity is it for a man to trifle in the way to eternity that hath an endless life of joy or sorrow depending on the preparations of so short a life How little doth he know the worth of his Soul the Joyes of Heaven the terrors of Hell the malicious diligence of Satan or the difficulty of Salvation that can idle and play away whole hours of time and pray as if he prayed not and seem to be Religious when he is not in good earnest and bestireth not himself so much to escape Hell fire and to obtain everlasting Joyes with Christ as he would do to escape a temporal death or misery or to obtain some dignity or riches in the World 1 Cor. 7.29 30. O therefore as ever you care what becometh of your Souls and as ever you will have comfort in the review of your present life make not a jest of Heaven and Hell Trifle not in your race and warfare Dally not with God and Conscience Play not and dream not away your Time Know the worth of an hours Time for the sake of your work and of your Souls as it is commonly known by dying men But of this I have spoke already in my NOW or NEVER and a Saint or a Bruite and in the third part of the Saints Rest. DIRECT XVIII Sit down and count what it may cost you to be Christians indeed and to be saved Reckon not on prosperity or a cheap Religion but resolve to take up the Cross and follow Christ in suffering and to be Crucified to the World and by many tribulations to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Luke 14.26 27 28 30 33. Gal. 6.14 Acts 14.22 1 Thes. 3.4 and 2 Thess. 1.6 7 8. Mal. 5.10 11 12. 2 Tim. 3.12 ALL that will live godly in Christ shall suffer Persecution It is not All that are Baptized and called Christians but All that will live godly in Christ Jesus It is Godliness and not the bare name of Christianity which the Serpents Seed have so great an enmity to I have elswhere cited an excellent saying of Dr. Th. Jacksons to prove that this is to be expected under Christian as well as Heathen Governments and that it is not through the goodness of the Great ones of the World but the cowardliness of our hearts that the Ministers of Christ are not ordinarily Martyrs Though God may possibly exempt you from any notable suffering for his Cause yet it is not wise or safe to expect such an exemption For that will hinder your preparation for Suffering And a mind prepared to suffer is essential to true Christianity And no man that is not a Martyr in Resolution and disposition can be saved If the fiery tryal come upon you let it not seem a strange unexpected thing 1 Pet. 4.12 13 14 17. When Persecution ariseth because of the Word the unrooted unfound unsetled Christian is presently offended and falls away Mat. 13.21 Mark 4.17 Then they will fall to distinguishing and carnal reasoning and prove any thing lawful which is necessary to their Peace Gal. 6.12 As many as desire to make a fair shew in the Flesh they constrain you to be Circumcised only lest they should suffer Persecution for the Cross of Christ Gal. 6.12 Shrink not for Sufferings Fear not them that can but kill the body Luke 12.4 Never doth the Spirit of God and Glory so much rest upon Believers as in their greatest Sufferings for Righteousness sake 1 Pet. 4.14 and never have they cause of more exceeding joy Matth. 5.11 12. Prosperity doth not so well agree with a life of Faith as Sufferings and Adversity Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the temporal things which are not seen but at the things eternal which are not seen 2 Cor. 4.17 18. Read Rom. 8.33 to the end DIRECT XIX If you fall into any sin rise speedily by a through Repentance and take heed both of delay and of a palliate Cure Luke 13.3 5. and 22.32 TAke heed of trusting to a General Repentance or a Converted state instead of a particular Repentance and Conversion from any known sin especially which is more than the ordinary unavoidable infirmities of a Saint For it is not General Repentance indeed which reacheth not to every known particular If temptation have cast you down take heed of lying there but presently get up again What the Apostle saith of Wrath Eph. 4.26 the same I may say of other falls Let not the Sun go down upon them But go out with Peter and weep with him if you have sinned with him If your bones be out of joynt or broken get them set presently before they settle in their dislocation And let the Cure be through and spare not for a little pain at first Let as open confession as the case requireth and as full restitution signify the sincerity of your Repentance For a gentle handling of your selves may undo you And palliation is the Hypocrites cure O take heed lest you presume to sleep one night in your unrepented sin and take heed lest Delay encourage the Tempter to offer you the bait again and again and to say Why not once more Why may you not be as well pardoned for twice as for once and for thrice as for twice c. It 's dangerous playing or sleeping at the brink of Hell Away from the temptation and occasion of your sin stand not disputing but Resolve and be gone And sin no more lest a worse thing come unto you John 5.14 Stick not man at the shame or loss or suffering which confession restitution or reformation may bring but remember that you can never escape damnation at too dear a rate This is Christs meaning when he speaketh of cutting off a Right hand or plucking out a right eye if it offend that is ensnare and tempt you unto sin Matth. 5.29 30. Not that you should do so indeed for you have an easier way to avoid the sin but that this is far the lesser of the two evils to lose a hand or eye than to lose the Soul and therefore to be chosen if there were no other remedy If the thief had no other way to forbear stealing than to cut off
friend who dealeth freely with him and is the greatest enemy to his faults And a flatterer he taketh but for the most dangerous insinuating kind of foe 2. But the weak Christian though he hate his sin and love reformation and loveth the most searching Books and Preachers and loveth a gentle kind of reproof yet hath so much pride and selfishness remaining that any reproof that seemeth disgracefull to him goeth very hardly down with him like a bitter medicine to a queasie stomack If you reprove him before others or if your reproof be not very carefully sugured and minced so that it rather extenuate than aggravate his fault he will be ready to cast it up into your face and with retortions to tell you of some faults of your own or some way shew you how little he loveth it and how little thanks he giveth you for it If you will not let him alone with his infirmities he will distaste you if not fall out with you and let you know by his smart and impatience that you have touched him in the sore and galled place He must be a man of very great skill in managing a Reproof that shall not somewhat provoke him to distaste 3. And for the seeming Christian this is his condemnation that Light is come into the world and he loveth darkness rather than light because his deeds are evil He cometh not to the light lest his deeds should be discovered and reproved Joh. 3.19 20 21. He liketh a searching Preacher for others and loveth to hear their sins laid open if it no way reflect upon himself But for himself he liketh best a General or a smoothing Preacher and he flyeth from a quick and searching ministry lest he should be proved and convinced to be in a state of sin and misery Guilt maketh him fear or hate a lively searching Preacher even as the guilty prisoner hateth the Judge He loveth no company so well as that which thinketh highly of him and applaudeth and commendeth him and neither by their reproofes nor stricter lives will trouble his conscience with the remembrance of his sin or the knowledge of his misery He will take you for his enemy for telling him the truth if you go about to convince him of his undone condition and tell him of his beloved sin Sin is taken to be as himself It is He that doth evil and not only sin that dwelleth in him And therefore all that you say against his sin he taketh it as spoken against himself and he will defend his sin as he would defend himself He will hear you till you come to touch himself as the Jews did by Stephen Act. 7.51 54. when they heard him call them stiffnecked resisters of God and persecutors then they were cut to the heart and grind their teeth at him And as they did by Paul Act. 22.22 They gave audience to this word and then lift up their voices and said away with such a fellow from the earth for it is not fit that he should live Gal. 4.16 Joh 9.40 Mat. 21.45 The priests and pharisees would have laid hands on Christ when they perceived that he spake of them And Ahab hated Michaiah because he did not prophesie good of him but evil 1 King 22.8 Deservedly do they perish in their sin and misery that hate him that would deliver them and refuse the remedy Prov. 12.1 Whose loveth instruction loveth knowledge but he that hateth reproof is bruitish Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy XII 1. A Christian indeed is one that unfeignedly desireth to attain to the highest degree of holiness and to be perfectly freed from every thing that is sin He desireth perfection though not with a perfect desire He sitteth not down contentedly in any low degree of grace He looketh on the holiest how poor soever with much more reverence and esteem than on the most rich and honourable in the world And he had far rather be one of the most holy than one of the most prosperous and great He had rather be a Paul or Timothy than a Caesar or an Alexander He complaineth of nothing with so much sorrow as that he can Know and Love his God no more How happy an exchange would he count it if he had more of the Knowledge and Love of God though he lost all his wealth and honour in the world His smallest sins are a greater burden to him than his greatest corporal wants and sufferings As Paul who because he could not perfectly fulfill Gods Law and be as good as he would be crieth out as in bondage O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7.27 2. And for the weak Christian though he is habitually and resolvedly of the same mind yet alas his desires after perfection are much more languid in him And he hath too much patience and reconciledness to some of his sins and sometimes taketh them to be sweet So that his enmity to his Pride or Coveteousness or passion is much abated and suffereth his sin to wast his grace and wound his conscience and hinder much of his communion with God He seeth not the odiousness of sin nor the beauty of Holiness with so clear a fight as the confirmed Christian doth He hateth sin more for the ill effects of it than for its malignant hateful nature He seeth not clearly the intrinsick evil that is in sin which maketh it deserve the pains of hell Nor doth he discern the difference between a holy and an unholy soul so clearly as the stronger Christian doth 1 Cor. 3.2 3. Heb. 12.1 3. And as for the seeming Christian though he may approve of perfect holiness in another and may wish for it himself when he thinketh of it but in the general and not as it is exclusive and destructive of his beloved sin yet when it cometh to particulars he cannot away with it He is so far from desiring it that he will not endure it The name of holiness he liketh and that preservation from Hell which is the consequent of it But when he understandeth what it is he hath no mind of it That holiness which should cure his ambition and pride and make him contented with a low condition he doth not like He loveth not that holiness which would deprive him of his coveteousness his intemperance in pleasant meats and drinks his fleshly lusts and inordinate pleasures Nor doth he desire that holiness should employ his soul in the Love of God and in daily prayer and meditating on his word and raise him to a heavenly life on earth XIII 1. A Christian indeed is one that maketh God and Heaven the End Reward and Motive of his Life And liveth not in the world for any thing in the world but for that endless happiness which the next world only can afford The Reasons which actuate his thoughts and choice and all his life are