be grievous to them 6. The very Bodily informities of Believers are a constant help to keep them humble They have all this treasure but is earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4. 7. Their souls are here so poorly lodged in corruptible Tabernacles of earth and so meanly cloathed with frail diseased mortal flesh that it is madness to be proud 7. And the many and great afflictions of the godly are medicines that are purposely given them by their Physicion to cure Pride and keep them humble Why else must their sufferings be so many and why must they daily bear the Cross but that they may be conformed to the image of Christ 8. And to the same end it is that God doth let loose upon them so many enemies All Satans temptations and the worlds allurements and vexations and all their disappointments here and all the scorns and mocks of the ungodly and the censures and slanders of wicked tongues and often bitter persescutions what are they but the bitter medicines of God permitted and ordered by him though cansed by the Devil and wicked men to save the servants of the Lord from the sin and danger of being lifted up Do you say that their Honour will make them proud Why you that thus oppose them and despise them are â—uring them of their pride and do not know it as Scullions scoure the rust off the vessels for their Masters use and as Leeches draw out the blood that causeth the disease and as the Jews by their sin promoted the Redemption of the world by the death of Christ When God seeth his servants in danger of being lifted up above measure he oft sendeth a messenger of Satan who may be an Executioner of Gods chastisements to buffet them 2 Cor. 12. 7. Sometimes by slanders sometime by reproaches sometime by imprisonments or greater sufferings and sometimes by horrid troublesom temptations 9. The very foresight of death it self is a humbling means and the last enemy Death is yet unconquered and our Bodies must corrupt in dust and darkness and be kept in the grave as common earth till the Resurrection that the soul may not grow proud that hath such a body 11. And the Day of Judgement is so described to us in the Scripture as tends to keep the soul in awe and in Humility To think of such a day and such a reckoning before such a God me 〈…〉 should humble us 11. And our Absolution and Glorification at that day is promised us now but conditionally though God will see that the condition be performed by all that he will save And therefore the poor soul is oft so far to seek about the certain sincerity of his own Faith and Repentance that most of the godly are kept in fears and doubtings to the death Yea and Humility and Self-denyal are part of this Condition And all their Honour and Glory with Christ is promised to the Humble only Humility is commanded them in the Precept Humility is it that they are exhorted to by the Ministers And Pride is threatened with everlasting wrath and described as the Devils image So that Holiness hath all the advantages against Pride that can be here expected 12. To conclude the Godly know that as they have nothing but from God so they have nothing but for God so that their own Honour is for him more then for themselves and it is essential to their Holiness to make God their end and set him highest and referr all to his Pleasure and Glory So that you see now that we may Honour them that fear the Lord Psalm 15. 4. without being guilty of making them proud and that we must not deny them the Honour that God hath given them as their due for fear of their being proud of it Though this as all things else must be prudently managed to particular persons according to their various states And therefore let me here warn all you that profess the fear of God Take heed lest you be proud of any thing that God hath Honoured you with For if you be you see what an Army of Reasons and Means you sin against and consequently how great your sin will be And your consciences and the world shall be forced to justifie God and his Holy wayes and to prove against you that it was not long of them that you were proud and that none in the world was more against it then God and Holiness and that it was not because you were so Religious but because you were no more Religious And if Pride of Knowledge Gifts or whatsoever be unmortified in you it will certainly prove that you are none of the sanctified when your profession of Sanctity will never prove that Sanctity was a cause or confederate in your sin AND now I have shewed you the Honour of Godliness let us briefly and but briefly consider of your Honour that reject it and see then whether the godly or ungodly are more Honourable 1. Ungodly men have the Basest Master in the world Would you know who Let Christ be Judge John 8. 44. Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father you will do 2 Tim. 2. 26. They are taken captive by the Devil at his will that is to do his will It is he that stirreth you up to filthy talking to speak against Godliness to curse and swear and you do his will His will is that you should neglect a holy life and you do his will His will is that you live not after the spirit but after the flesh and you do his will O poor souls Do you think it is only Witches that expresly Covenant with him that are his miserable servants Alas it is you also if you do his will For if you will believe either God or common reason to whom you yield your selves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness Rom. 6. 16. The godly themselves were the servants of sin till they obeyed from the heart the doctrine of the Lord v. 17. And are you not come to fair preferment to be the Devils drudges Though he should cloath your Bodies with Purple and fine linnen and feed you sumptuously every day yet indeed you are no better as the case of that miserable man may tell you Luke 16. It is the greatest Baseness to have so Base a Master 2. And it is but an ignoble Base de sign that the ungodly carry on in the world What is it but to provide for and please their flesh It aimeth at nothing beyond this life And a beast can eat and drink and sleep and play and satisfie his lust as much as they A swine can carry a mouth full of straw to his lodging and a bird can build a nest for her young ones And what do ungodly men more in the world whether Gentlemen or Beggars the flattered Gallants or the poor day-labourers if they be not such as first seek Heaven
children fools or mad men use as long as you mind not and seek not after the One thing necessary What ever they may be to others they are no wiser or better to your selves This is my judgement yea this is the judgement of the Spirit of God Phil. 3. 8. If Paul was not mistaken your gain it self is to be accounted Loss and all but dung in comparison of the knowing and winning of Christ that you might be found in him and have his righteousness Think not the name of dung too base when God himself hath written it here upon your highest endowments and honours by his Spirit And indeed what will they all do more then dung to procure you the favour of God or the pardon of your sins If you offer him gold will it do any more then if you offered him so much dirt Is not the prayer of a beggar heard as soon as of a Lord or Gentleman If they would do any thing to buy you peace of Conscience or everlasting life or if they would but keep you alive on earth I should not marvail at your course But when they will do none of this but make your way to Heaven more difficult yea your salvation a thing impossible while you thus live after the flesh Rom. 8. 13. how then can any easier sentence be past upon your choice Be you the Greatest or the Wisest in your own esteem or in the esteem of others of your mind I believe yea I am sure that you are all this while but laboriously idle and honourably debasing your selves and delightfully tormenting your selves and wisely befooling your selves and thriftily undoing your selves for ever I have reason to say that your rising and honourable and voluptuous imployments are not only like childrens playing in the sand and making them houses with sticks and stones but so much more pitifull as the reason which you abuse exceedeth theirs And could you all attain to be Lords and Ladies I should look upon you but as a King or Queen upon a Chess-board as to any felicity that it bringeth to your selves whatsoever use the over-ruling providence of God may make of you for his Churches The wise Merchant is he that seeking pearls doth find this One of greatest price and selleth all that he hath and buyeth it even all the worldly treasures which you so highly value Mat. 13 45 46. There is more true Riches in this One pearl then in a thousand loads of sand or dirt If you will load your selves with mire and clay conceiting it to be your treasure your backs will be broken before you will have enough to make you rich O Sirs with what eyes with what hearts do you use to read such passages of Christ that speak so plainly to you as if he named you and so piercingly as one would think should make you feel Luke 12. 19 20 21. Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry But God said to him Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God Would you have Christ speak plainer to to you or closelyer apply it that you may perceive he speaks to you You have lost all the Labour of your lives but that 's not all 3. But furthermore consider that if the One thing needfull have been neglected whatever else you have been doing or whatever you have got unless as preparatory to this you have not only lost your labour but you have all this while been busily undoing your selves and labouring for your own perdition If it were but the loss of your Time and Labour you would then die but as brutes and be as if you had never been and to those that have brutified themselves this will seem more tolerable then to live in holiness to God But alas you have done much worse then this You have not only been digging your own graves but barring up against your selves the doors of heaven and kindling the unquenchable fire to torment you Mar. 9. 44. I beseech you give me a considerate hearing you ambitious Gentlemen you covetous worldlings and you that serve your lusts and pleasures Do you think you had been doing the the work of wisemen if you had all this while been burning your own fingers or cutting your own flesh or setting your own or your neighbours houses on fire What would you have us call that man that would live in such imployments as these and yet would be accounted wise or honourable Do I need to tell thee as Nathan did David that Thou art the man Do I need in so plain a case to tell you that you have been doing worse I speak not rashly a thousand times worse against your souls then this would have been which is supposed to be only against your bodies Alas self-destroyers what do you mean Did God send you hither on no better an errand than to kindle and blow the fire of his wrath and fall into it when you have kindled it Have you no better work in the world to do then to prepare your selves a place in hell and with a great deal of care and cost and stir to labour for damnation as if you were afraid of losing it I know you will say God forbid we hope better we intend no such thing But alas the question is not What you intend but what you are doing Not whether it be your desire that everlasting death should be the wages of sin but whether it be the Law and unchangeable will of God Rom. 6. 23. If you seek not first Gods Kingdom and his righteousness and look not after the One thing needful with your chiefest Estimation Resolution and Endeavours as sure as Christ is true this will prove your case at last though now you wink and wilfully go on and will not believe it As sure as the Gospel is true this is true There are but two Ends Heaven and Hell and if you miss the former you fall into the latter If you live after the flesh you shall die whatever you imagine and you must mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the spirit if you will live Rom. 8. 13. If you see a man cutting his own threat and you ask him What are you doing man will you kill your self and he answereth you No God forbid I have no such meaning I will hope better Would you think that this would save his life or that his hopes and meanings would prove him ever the wiser man I tell you from the Word of God it is one of the plainest truths that is there contained that if you value not choose not and seek not the One thing Needful above all other things whatsoever you are all this while but sowing the seeds of endless misery whose fruit you must reap in outer darkness where will be weeping and
these is certainly the case of the sanctified and the other of the unsanctified Gal. 3. 10 13. As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Rom. 3. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God And Mark 4. 12. shews that the unconverted have not their sins forgiven them Joh. 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already And Act. 26. 18. To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me Rom. 8. 1. There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Abundance more such passages of holy Scripture do assure us that all the unsanctified are unpardoned and all the sanctified are Justified and delivered from the Curse And which of these are in the safer state Did one of you owe ten thousand pounds more then he were worth or had you committed twenty known selonies or murders would you think your selves safe without a pardon Would you not be looking behind you and afraid of allmost every man you see lest he came to apprehend you O what a case is that man in that hath so many thousands sins to answer for and hath such a load of guilt upon his soul and so many terrible threatnings of the Law in force against him Do you not fear every hour lest death arrest you and bring you to the prison of the bottomless pit But the sanctified is delivered from this danger A thousand sins indeed were against us but we have a pardon of them all to shew In Christ we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins Col. 1. 14. The law hath nothing now against us and therefore we are safe 4. Those are safer that are dearly beloved of the Lord and reconciled to him and taken for his Children then those that are his Enemies and hated by him and under his displeasure But most Certainly the former is the state of all the sanctified and the later is the state of the ungodly You shall see both in the words of God Psal 5. 4 5. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity Psal 7. 10 11. My Defence is of God which saveth the upright in heart God judgeth the Righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day Psal 45. 7. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness Luk. 19. 27. Those mine enemies that would not I should raign over them bring them hither and stay them before me Ephes 2. 3. We were by nature the children of wrath A hundred more such places shew you the state of the unsanctified But how different is the case of the renewed upright soul 2 Cor. 6. 16 17 18. Yee are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Job 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God Rom. 8. 16 17. The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God And if Children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ Mal. 3. 17. And they shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Heb. 8. 12. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Col. 1. 21 22. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight Psal 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Zech. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Judge now by these plain expressions form the Lord who it is that is in the safer state the godly or the ungodly Is he the safer that is hated by the God of heaven or he that is most dearly loved by him He that is under his displeasure or he that is his delight Why man if God be against thee thou art no where safe not in the strongest Castle not in the greatest Army not in the highest dignity not in the merryest company Thou knowest not but a Commission is gone out for death to strike thee in thy next recreation or fit of mirth How knowest thou but death is ready to strike while thou art eating or drinking or talking or sleeping Thou hast no security from an angry God Till he be reconciled thou art nowhere safe This may be thy fatal day or night for ought thou knowest And if once the mortal blow be struck and thy soul be taken from thy body unrenewed O man where then wilt thou appear O wonderful stupidity that thou dost not eat thy bread in fear and do thy work in fear and sleep in fear and live in fear till thou be sanctified But to the soul that hath God for his security what can be dangerous or what condition while he keeps close to God can be unsafe The Father that gave us unto Christ is greater then all and no man can take us out of his hands Joh. 10. 28 29. Conquer Heaven and conquer the Saints There is their City their garrison their conversation Phil. 1. 20. Heb. 11. 10 16. what enemy what policie what power can endanger him that God will save and hath undertaken for We were never safe one day or hour till we were friends with God Deut. 33. 27. The Eternel God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms Psal 46. 1 2 5 7. God is our refuge and strength a very present helâ— in trouble therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carryed into the midst of the sea God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved God shall help her and that right early The Lord of hosts is with us the God of Jacob is
or by Policy they would rob you of your Portion they cannot do it For which way should they do it They cannot turn the heart of God against you nor make him break his Covenant with you nor repent him of his Gift and Calling which he hath extended to you For he is unchangeable and loveth you with an everlasting love Mal. 3. 6. Jer. 31. 3. Isa â—â—â— 8. Jer. 33. 20 21 23. 50. 5. Rom. 11. 29. They cannot undermine the rock that you are built upon nor batter the fortress of your souls nor overcome your great Preserver and Defence nor take you out of the hands of Christ Psal 73. 26. 31. 2 3. 62. 2. 59. 9 16. Joh. 10. 28. Cast not away the salvation that is offered you and then never fear least it be taken from you See that you chuse the better part and resolvedly chuse it and it will be certainly your own for ever For man cannot take it from you nor Devils cannot take it from you and God will not take it from you Rust and moths will not corrupt this Treasure nor can thieves break through and steal it from you Mat. 6. 19 20. But you cannot say so of worldly riches If you chuse to be Lords and Princes on the earth you cannot have your choice but if you could you cannot keep it If you chuse the wealth and credit of the world and were sure to get it you were as sure to leave it For naked you came into the world and naked you must go out Job 1. 21. If you chuse your ease and mirth and pleasure these will be taken from you If you chuse the satisfying of your fleshly desires and all the delight and prosperity that the world can afford you yet all must be taken from you Yea quickly and easily taken from you Alas one stroak of an Apoplexy or a few fits of a Fever or the breaking of a small vein or many hundred of the like effectual means are ready at the beck of God to take you from all that you have gathered for your flesh And then whose shall all these things be None of yours I am sure nor will they redeem your souls from death or hell Luke 12. 20. Psalm 49. 7. If you be in honour you abide not in it but are as to your body as the beasts that perish If you think to perpetuate your houses and your names this your way is but your â—olly though your posterity go on to approve your sayings and succeed you in your sins Psalm 49. 11 12 13. The worldly wise man doth perish with the fool as sheep they 〈◊〉 laid in the grave Death shall feed on them and the upright shall have Dominion over them in the morning ver 10 14. They shall soon be cut down like the grass and whether as the green herb Psal 37. 2. I have seen the wicked in great prosperity and spreading himself like a green bay-tree yet he passed away and loe he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found v. 35 36. You think it a fine thing to have the fulness of the creature to be esteemed with the highest and fed and cloathed with the best and fare deliciously every day as the rich man Luke 16. but hath he not paid dear think you for his riches and pleasure by this time His feeding and fulness was quickly at an end but his torment is not yet ended nor ever will be You think it a brave thing to clamber up to riches and that which you call greatness and honour in the world but how quickly how terribly must you come down Go into the Sanctuary of God and understand your end Surely God hath set them in slippery places and casteth them down into destruction How are they brought to desolation as in a moment They are utterly consumed with terrours As a dream when one awakeneth so at the awakening shall their Image or shadow of honour be despised Psalm 73. 17 18 19 20. How short is the pleasure and how long is the pain How short is the honour and how long is the shame What is it under the Sun that is everlasting You have friends but will they dwell with you here for ever You have houses but how long will you stay in them It is but as yesterday since your houses had other Inhabitants and your Towns and Countries other Inhabitants and where are they all now You have health but how soon will you consume in sickness You have life but how soon will it end in death You have the pleasure of sin you say unto your selves Eat drink and be merry but how soon will all the mirth be mar'd and turned into sadness everlasting sadness When you hear Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul and then whose shall these things be Luke 12. 20. Oh miserable wretch If thou hadst chosen God instead of thy sin and the everlasting Kingdom instead of this world thou wouldst not have been thus cast off in thy extremity God would have stuck better to thee Heaven would have proved a more durable Inheritance For it is a Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. The day is near when thy despairing soul must take up this lamentation My dearest friends are now forsaking me I must part with all that I laboured for and delighted in I have drunk up all my part of pleasure and there is no more left My merry company and honours and recreations are past and gone I shall eat and drink and sport no more but God would not have used me thus if I had set my heart upon him and his Kingdom Oh that I had chosen him and made him my portion and spent these thoughts and cares and labours for the obtaining of his love and promised Glory which I spent for the pleasing and providing for my flesh Then I should have had a happiness that death could not deprive me of and a Crown that fadeth not away Neither life nor death nor any creature could have separated me from his love I need not then have gone out of the world as a prisoner out of the Gaol to the â—â—rr and to the place of execution My departing soul should not then need to have been afraid of falling into the hands of an unreconciled God and so into the hands of the Devils as his executioners nor of passing out of the flesh to hell Oh poor sinners for how short a pleasure do you sell your hopes of everlasting Blessedness and run your selves into endless pains O what comparison is there between the time of your pleasure and the everlastingness of your Punishment How short a while is the cup at your mouthes or the drink in your bellies or the harlot in your embracements or the wealth of the world in your Possession And how long a time must you pay for this in hell How quickly are your merry hours past but your torments will never be past
When your corpses are laid in the grave men can say Now he hath done his satisfying the flesh and following the world but never man can truly say Now he hath done suffering for it Your life of sin is passing as a dream and your honours as a shadow and all your business as a talc that is told but the life of Glory which you rejected for this would have endured for evermore Suppose as many thousand years as there are sands on the Sea or piles of grass on the whole earth or hairs on the heads of all men in the world yet when these many are past the Joy of Saints and the Torments of the wicked are as far from an end as ever they were The eternal God doth give them a duration and make them eternal When our joyes are at the sweetest this thought must needs be part of that sweetness that their sweetness shall never have an end If our short fore-taste be Joy unspeakable and full of glory what shall we call that Joy which flows from the most perfect fruition and perpetuation 1 Pet. 1. 7 8. We have Joy here but alas how seldom Alas how small in comparison of what we may there expect Some Joy we have but how oft do Melancholy or crosses or losses in the world or temptations or sins or desertions interrupt it Our sun is here most commonly under a cloud and too often in an Ecclipse and we have the night as often as the day Yea our state is usually a Winter Our dayes are cold and short and our nights are long But when the flourishing state of glory comes we shall have no Interscissioâ—s nor Ecclipses Tâ—â— path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. And the perfect day is a perpetual day that knows no interruption by the darkness of the night For there shall be no night there nor need of candle or Sun for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever Rev. 22. 5. This is the life that fears no death and this is the feast that fears no want or future famine the pleasure that knows nor fears no pain the health that knows nor fears no sickness this is the treasure that fears no moth or rust or thief the building that fears no storm nor decay the Kingdom that fears no changes by Rebellion the friendship that fears no falling out the Love that fears no hatred or frustration the Glory that fears no envious eye the possessed Inheritance that fears no ejection by fraud or force or any failings the Joy that feels or fears no sorrow while God who is Life it self is our life and while God who is Love is the fountain and object of our Love we can never want either Life or Love And whiles he feeds our Love our Joyful praises will never be run dry nor ever go out for want of fewel This is the true perpetual motion the câ—rculation of the holy blood and spirit from God to man and from man to God Being prepared and brought near him we have the blessed Vision of his face by seeing him and by the blessed emanation of his love we are drawn out perpetually and unweariedly to Love him and Rejoyce in him and from hence uncessantly to praise and honour him In all which as his blessed Image and the shining reflections of his revealed glory he taketh complacency which is the highest end of God and man and the very term of all his works and wayes I Thought here to have ended this First Part of my Discourse but yet compassion calls me back I fear lest with the most I have not yet prevailed and lest I shall leave them behind me in the bonds of their iniquity I daily hear the voice of men possessed by a spirit of uncleanness speaking against this Necessity of a holy life which Christ himself so peremptorly asserteth I hear that voice which foretelleth a more dreadful voice if in time they be not prevailed with to prevent it One saith What need all this ado This strictness is more ado then needs Another saith You would make men mad by poring so much on matters that are above them Another saith Cannot you keep your Religion to your selfe and be Godly with moderation as your neighbours be Another saith I hope God is more merciful then to damn 〈…〉 that â—â— not so precise Another saith I shall never endure so strict a life and therefore I will venture as well as others The summe of allis They are so far in love with the world and sin and so much against a holy life that they will not be perswaded to it and therefore to quiet their consciences in their misery they make themselves believe that they may be saved without it and that it is a thing of no Necessity but their coming to Church and living like good neighbours may serve the turn without it for their salvation And thus doth the malicious Serpent in the hearts of those that he possesseth rise up against the words of Christ Christ saith that this is The One thing needful And the Serpent saith It is more ado then needs and What needs all this ado Though I have fully answered this ungodly objection already in my Treatise of Conversion sect 36. pag. 284. c. and more fully in my Treatise of Rest Part 3. Chap. 6. yet I shall once more fall upon it For death is coming while poor deluded souls are loytering and if Satan by such sensless reasonings as these can keep them unready in their sin till the â—atal stroak hath cut them down and cast them into endless easeless fire alas how great will be their fall and how unspeakably dreadful will be their misery Whoever thou be whether hâ—gh or low learned or unlearned that hast disliked opposed or reproached serious godly Christians as Puritanes and too precise and that thinkest the most diligent labour for salvation to be but more ado then needs and hast not thy self yet resolvedly set upon a holy life I require at thy hands so much impartiality and faithfulness to thy own immortal soul as seriously to peruse these following Questions and to go no further in thy careless negligent ungodly course till thou art able to give such a rational answer to them as thou darest stand to now at the Barr of thine own Conscience and hereafter at the Barr of Christ Quest 1. Canst thou possibly give God more then is his due Or love him more then he deserveth Or serve him more faithfully then thâ—â— art bound and he is worthy of Art thou not his creature made of nothing and hast thou not all that thou art and hast from him and if thou give him all dost thou give him any more then what is his own If thou give him all the affections of thy soul and all the most serious thoughts of thy heart and every hour of thy time and
Knowledge If I referr my health to thee as my Physicion thou must not refuse to try my pulse and see my urine and use the means to find out the disease Wouldst thou be my Lawyer and refuse to read my Evidences and study my case And wilt thou needs be judge thy self of the matters of thine own felicity or misery and yet refuse to read and hear and pray and meditate and use the necessary means of understanding Wilt thou lie in bed and work out thy salvation Wilt thou make use of no ones eyes but thy own and yet wilt thou wink or draw the Curtains or shut the windows and cast away thy spectacles and neither come into the sunshine nor use a candle This is but to say I will willfully condemn my soul and none shall hinder me 2. But yet another condition I must propose If thou wilt but as I said before of others a while make Tryal of a holy life and try in thy self what Faith and Hope and Charity are and try what selfdenyal is I will then referr the matter to thy self Go back from God if thou find any Reason for it and turn from Christ and Heaven and Holiness if thou do not like them But if thou wilt needs be the judge and wilt not be perswaded to try the thing thou art a partial self-deceiving judge 3. But it this much cannot be obtained at least be Considerate in thy judging If thou wilt but take thy self aside from the noise of wordly vanities and deceits and commune seriously with thy heart and bethink thee as before the Lord and as one that knows he must shortly dye Whether Heaven or Earth should be sought most carefully and Whether God or thy flesh should be served most resolvedly and diligently and if thou wilt but dwell so long upon these manlike thoughts till they are digested and Truth have time to shew its face I dare then leave the question to thy self The next time that the Sermon or any affliction comes near thee and awakeneth thy Conscience do but withdraw thy self into secret and soberly bethink thee of the matter what hopes thou hast from the world and what thou 〈◊〉 have from God what Time is and what Eternity is and give â—â—â— Conscience leave to speak and then I will venture the issue upon thy Conscience For thee I mean though I must stick to a better judge my self Doth not Conscience sometime tell thee that the Holyest persons are the wisest and that thy labour is liker at last to be lost and repented of than theirs Doth not Conscience sometime make thee wish that thou wert but in as safe a case as they and that thou mightest but die the death of the Righteous and that thy last end might be as theirs 4. But if all this will not serve the turn thou shalt be Judge thy self but it shall be when thou art more capable of judging If God by Grace shall Change thy heart I will stand to thy Judgement If he do not when thy graceless guilty soul shall pass out of thy pampered dirty flesh and appear before the dreadful God I will then leave the case to thy Conscience to judge of To all Eternity it shall be partly left to the judgement of thy Conscience whether sin or Holiness be better and whether Saints or careless sinners were the wiser and whether it had not been be ter sor thee to have spent that life in preparing for thy Endless life which thou spentst in slighting it and caring for the world and flesh Then thou shalt be Judge thy self of these matters but under a more severe and righteous judge And so as shall make thy tearing heart to wish with many a thousand groans that thou hadst judged wiselier in time But because that Judgement will be to desperation and too late for hope or any help let Conscience speak when thou lyest sick and seest that thou art a dying man Then judge thy self whether a Holy or a worldly life be better and whether it had not been thy wiser course to have sowed to the spirit that so thou maist reap everlasting life then to have sowed to the flesh from which thou now lookst to reap no better then corruption Be not deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Gal. 6. 6 7. But because it will be very late to stay till thy own Death draw so neer thee go but to thy neighbours that lie in sickness looking for the stroak of death Yea to thy companions in sin and folly and ask them then which way is better Ask them then which is the better part Whether now they had rather be the Holyest Saints or such as they have been Whether now they had not rather they had spent their time in the most careful seeking for Everlasting life then in doing as they have done Say to thy old companion now Brother I see you are near your end the mortal stroak of death is coming you are now leaving all the pleasures of this world I pray you tell me now your Judgement whether mirth and sport and feasting and drinking and wealth and honour be more to be sought then life eternal and whether Hearing and Reading the word of God and Praying and meditating and flying from sin be as bad or as needless a thing as we have formerly taken it to be Had you rather appear before the Lord in the case of those that we derided as Puritans and too precise for making such a doe about salvation or in the case that you and I have lived in Ask but this Question to thy old companions and try whether the Consciences of almost all that approach their end do not bear witness against ungodliness and do not justifie the holy diligence of the Saints It is but two days since a poor drunkard of a neighbour Parish being ready to pass out of this world did send hither and to other Parishes in the terrours of his soul to desire our Congregations to take warning by him and to strive with God if possible for some mercy for his soul that was passing in terrours into another world because of the guilt of his odious sin Well sirs I have gone along with you to all the creatures in this world that have any fitness to judge in this case and if all these will not serve we must go to another world for Judgement or stay till you come there 11. And really do you think if we could speak with Angels or departed Souls that they would not consent with God and all Believers in their Testimony O how they would rebuke their madness that make any doubt of so great so plain so sure a truth as this of the necessity and the excellency of a Holy life None are so fully resolved of this question as they that have tasted the End of both and past the righteous judgement of the Lord. They that are feeling the anguish of their
not what or for want of a little care in seeking it You say You know not whether there be a Hell for ungodly men or no But what if it prove true as certainly it will where are you then Will you venture your selves upon the Possibility of such an Endless Loss and Torment which now you might on reasonable terms escape You will confess that a Possibility of a Kingdom should be more regarded then a Certainty of a pin or a feather And a Possibility of some Tormenting disease but for twenty years should more carefully be avoided then the Certain stinging of a Nettle Quer. 2. You say You are not sure that there is a life to come But are you sure to continue the life you have Or is it any great matter that you are called to lose for the obtaining of 〈…〉 that you are not sure of You know the contrary or easily may do You are sure that you have not long to be here Nothing more sure then that you will shortly die And your are not sure but it may be to morrow And while you are here it is nothing worth the naming but what hath reference to another life that you do possess What have you to your flesh but meat and drink and sleep and lust and such kind of beastial delights Which it is better be without then have if we could also be without the need of them Can you call these by the name of Happiness without renouncing your Reason and Experience You say You know not what God will do for you hereafter But you know what sin and the world will do for you here Even Nothing but hold you in a transitory dream and then dismiss you into rottenness and dust If you were not certain of another life as long as you are most certain of the vanity of this doth not Reason tell you that a Possible Everlasting Glory should be preferred before a Certain vanity If you were not sure to get any thing by God and a Holy Life yet as long as you are sure even as sure as you live that you can lose nothing by it that is worth the talking of is not the case then resolved which way is the Better If you say you shall lose your fleshly pleasures I answer They are not worth the having The pleasure doth not countervail the trouble no more then the delight of scratching as I said before doth countervail the trouble of the itch Moderation and temperance is sweeter then excess If too much be better then enough and that which hurteth nature better then that which helpeth it then self-destroying and fighting against your bodily welfare would be best Is not a temperate meal more pleasant then a gluttonous surfet that is worse to the feeling of the glutton the next day Is not common food that costeth not much and kindleth no troublesom itch in a mans appetite more pleasant then enticing costly dainties Is not so much drink as nature requireth much better then that which makes the stomack sick the brain witless if not the purse pennyless and breedeth many noysom diseases to the flesh and hasteneth death that hasteth of it self By that time the gawdy apparel the dainty fare and drink is paid for and by that time the flesh hath suffered all that pain and sickness that are the ordinary followers of excess me thinks you should say that if there were no Hell your sin were a punishment it self and that in this life it brings more pain then pleasure and that such kind of pleasure is noâ— worth the keeping to the hazard of the least Possibility of 〈◊〉 Everlasting life Wouldst thou under thy hand and seal give away thy hopes and possibility of everlasting life and run the hazzard of an everlasting Torment for the Pleasures of sin or to avoid the trouble of a Holy life Why then thou maist as well even sell it all for pins or points or childrens rackets Then thou art as foolish as the worst of Witches that sell their souls to a lying spirit that whatever he doth promise them doth pay them with nothing but calamity and deceit When thou comest to know better what it is that the world can do for thee thou wilt then confess there was nothing in it that should not have been sleighted for the smalest hopes of an Everlasting life Doâ—t thou think the world will be much better to thee for the time to come than hitherto it hath proved Deceive not thy self it will prove the same yea and worst at last Look back now upon all the pleasures of thy life from thy infancy to this day and tell me what the better thou art for them If this were the hour of thy death would all the profits or pleasures of thy life be any comfort to thee or make thy death a whit the easier Have the dust or bones of the Carkasses of Voluptuous sinners any comfort or benefit now by all the pleasure of their former sin Surely I need not all these words to a man of common understanding to convinee him that if Heaven were as uncertain as the Infidel doth imagine a man of Reason should venture all that he hath upon the meer Possibility because his All indeed is Nothing and he is sure he can be no loser by the bargain it being not so much as the venture of a pin for the Possibility of a Crown Quer. 3. But that 's not all What if I shall prove to thee past all denyal that even in this life Holiness is far the most delightful gainful honourable life and that the ungodly live in a continual misery Will not this serve turn to convince thee that a Holy life should be undertaken for a meer Possibility of Heaven if we had no more Read but the Proofs of this anon and if I make it not good to thee call me a deceiver But if I prove that Holiness is the sweetest life on Earth and Heaven the sure Reward hereafter and that sin is a misery it self to the sinner and Hell the certain punishment hereafter then see that thou confess that God is a good Master and the Devil a bad one for at last thou shalt be forced to confess it Quer. 4. Well You say You are not sure that there is another life for man But have you used the Means to make it sâ—â— to you and to be well-resolved If you have then you have impartially searched and prayed and meditated on the Word of God and heard what can be said by Wiser men for that which you say you are not sure of but if you have trusted to your own understanding and neglected Meditation Prayer Enquiry and other needful means what wonder then if you be uncertain Even whether there be a Heaven or Hell It s no disgrace to Physick or Astronomy or Musick or Languages or Navigation but to you if you say that you are uncertain of all their conclusions when you never studied them or at least
the renewed state that grace hath brought them into For the Kingdom of God consisteth as in Righteousness so in Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Believers receive not the spirit of bondage again to fear that is they are not under the bondage of the Law nor have the spirit or state of mind which is suited to those Legal impositions and terrible comminations but they have received the spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba father that is As they are brought under a more gracious dispensation and a better Covenant and promises and God is revealed to them in the Gospel as a Reconciled Father through his son so doth he treat them more gently as reconciled children and the spirit which answereth this gracious Covenant and is given us thereupon doth qualifie us with a child-like disposition and cause us with boldness Love and confidence to call God Father and fly to him for succour and supply in all ouâ— dangers and necessities And how Pleasant it must be to a believing soul to have this spirit of Adoption this childlike Love and confidence and freedom with the Lord methinks you might conjecture though its sensibly known by them only that enjoy it Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is Love Joy Peace c. when the word is first received by Believers though it may be in much affliction through the persecutions and cross that attend the Gospel yet is it ordinarily in the Joy of the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1. 6. The Holy Ghost is the Comforter of true Believers And if he have taken it upon him as his work he will surely do it in the degree and season fittest for them And if Joy it self be part of the state of Grace and Holiness you may see that it is the most delightful Pleasant course 7. Yea that we may have a Pleasant and comfortable life the Lord hath forbidden our distracting cares and fears and doubts and our inordinate sorrows and commanded us to cast our care on him and promised to care for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. and he hath bid us be careful for nothing but in all things make our wants known to him Phil. 4. 6. And can there be a course of life more Pleasant then that which dost consist in faith and Love and hope and Joy that 's built on God and animated by him and that excludeth inordinate cares and sorrows as health doth sickness where it is unlawful to be miserable and to grieve our selves and no sorrow is allowed us but that which tendeth to our joy where it is made our work to Rejoyce in the Lord yea always to Rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. A servant or tradesman will judge of the pleasure of his life by his work If his work be a drudgery his life is tedious and filled with grief If his work be Pleasant his life is Pleasant Judge then by this of a Holy life Is it care and fear and anguish of mind that God commandeth you no it is these that he forbiddeth Care not Fear not are his injunctions Isa 35. 4. 41. 10. Do you fear Reproach Why you do it contrary to the will of God who biddeth you Fear not the reproach of men Isa 51. 7. Do you fear the power and rage of enemies Why it is contrary to your Religion so to do God biddeth you Fear them not Isa 43. 5 13 14. 44. 2 8. Do you fear persecution or death from the hands of cruel violence why it is contrary to the will of God that you do so Matth. 10. 26 28 31. Fear not them which kill the body c. O blessed life where all that is against us is forbidden and all that is truly Joyous and delightful and necessary to make us happy is commanded us and made our duty which is contrary to misery as life to death and as light to darkness Come hither poor deluded sinners that fly from care and fear and sorrow If you will but give up your selves to Christ you shall be exempted from all these except such as is necessary to your joy You may do any thing if you will be the servants of the Lord except that which tendeth to your own and other mens calamity Come hither all you that call for pleasure and love no life but a life of mirth Let God be your master and Holiness your work and Pleasure then shall be your business and holy Mirth shall be your employment While you serve the flesh your pleasure is small and your trouble great vexation is your work and unspeakable vexation is your wages But if you will be the hearty servants of the Lord Rejoycing shall be your work and wages If you understand not this peruse your lesson Psal 33. 1. Rejoyce in the Lord O ye Righteous for Praise is comely for the upright Psal 97. 11 12. Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye Righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Phil. 3. 1. Psal 5. 11. Let all those that trust in thee rejoyce let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them let them also that Love thy name be joyful in thee Psal 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Psal 132. 9. 16. Let thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousness and let thy Saints shout for joy 16. I will also cloath her Priests with salvation and his Saints shall shout aloud for joy such precepts and promises abound in Scripture which tell you if you will be Saints indeed that Joy and gladness must be your life and work I know objections will be stirring in your minds But forbear them but a while and I shall fully answer them anon 2. I have told you wherein the Inward part of Holiness is Delightful I shall briefly shew you that the Outward part also is very Pleasant and fit to feed these inward joys And 1. let us view the Duties that are more directly to be performed unto God and 2. The works of charity and righteousness unto men 1. How sweet is it to be exercised in the word of God In hearing or reading it with serious meditation For the man that hath been revived by it renewed sanctified saved by it to hear that powerful heavenly truth by which his soul was thus made new For the soul that is in Love with God to hear or see his blessed name on every leaf to read his will and find the expressions of his Love his great eternal wonderous love how sweet this is experience tells the Saints that feel it If you that feel no sweetness in it believe not them that say they feel it at leaâ—â— believe the word of God and the professions of his ancient Saints Psal 119. 97. O how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day v. 103. How sweet are thy words unto my tast yea sweeter then
for ever and when the force of Love doth open our lips that our mouthes may shew forth his praise it is pleasant both to God and us The Lord himself doth put on joy as delighting in his peoples praise and when they joyn obedience with holy worship they are pleasant in his eyes Jer. 9. 24. Isa 62. 4. 42. 1. Zeph. 3. 17. He meeteth him that Rejoyceth and worketh righteousness and that remembers him in his wayes Isa 64. 5. Would you taste of the sweetest life on earth Learn then to Delight your selves in God Do you want recreation Be acquainted with his Praise Is there not a better cure for Melancholy here among the servants of the Lord then in an Ale-house or in the company of transgressors Their carnal pleasures are unwholsom for you like luscious fruits that will make you sick But the delights of Faith are safe and healthful Fleshly pleasure is windy and deceitful and weakeneth and befools the soul But the Joy of the Lord is our strength Neb. 8. 10. A little may be too much of fleshly pleasures and it is of very hard digestion and leaves that behind that spoils the sport But the further you go in the Delights of Faith the better they are and the sweeter you will find them You may quickly catch a dangerous surfet of your fleshly pleasures but of spiritual Delights the more the better For they are curing reviving and much confirm and exalt the soul Our spiritual pleasures are so heavenly and have so much of God and Glory in them that they must needs prepare the soul for heaven and be excellent helps to our salvation O therefore if you would live a Pleasant life draw near to God and by Faith behold him and by Love adhere to him and take a view of his infinite Goodness and all his perfections and behold him in his wonderous works and then break forth into his chearful praises and you shall taste such pleasures as the earth affordeth not Lanch forth into the boundless Ocean of Eternity and let your hearts and tongues expatiate in the Praise of the Heavenly Majesty and use this work and ply it close and be not too seldom or customary or careless in it and you shall find the difference between the Pleasures of Faith and of the flesh of a Holy and of a sensual life Psalm 135. 2 3. Ye that stand in the House of the Lord in the Courts of the House of our God Praise the Lord for the Lord is Good sing praises to his Name for it is pleasant Psal 71. 8. Let my mouth be filled with thy Praise and with thy honour all the day Psal 96. 2. 6. Sing unto the Lord bless his name shew forth his salvation from day to day Honour and Majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his Sanctuary O that the Lord will but shine upon my soul with the Light of his countenance and open my heart to the entertainment of his Love and hold a gracious Communion with my soul by his holy Spirit and keep open these doors to me and continue this liberty of his House and Ordinances which we enjoy this day that I may joyn with a faithful humble people in holy Communion and in his Praise and Worship and that with a heart that is suitable to these works I shall then say with David Psal 16. 6. The lines â—â—faln to me in pleasant places I have a goodly heritage I will â—â— for no greater pleasures or honours or advancement in this world Let who will surfet on the pleasures of the flesh Here doth my soul delight to dwell Psalm 27. 4 5 6. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the daies of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his holy Temple For in the time of trouble he will hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me he shall set me up upon a Rock And then shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me therefore will I offer in his Tabernatle sacrifices of Joy I will sing yea I will sing Praises to the Lord. Till I come to the promised Everâ—… Pleasures I shall ask of God no greater Pleasures These would be as much as my soul in the prison of flesh can bear Till 〈…〉 to the Land of Promise may I but have these clusters of 〈…〉 in my present Wilderness I shall not repine My heart 〈…〉 shall be glad and my glory shall rejoyce and at death my flesh 〈…〉 in hope For as the Lord now sheweth me the path of 〈…〉 so in his presence is 〈…〉 of Joy and at his right hand are 〈…〉 for 〈…〉 Pâ—… 4. Another Pleasant Holy Duty is Our holy Communion with Christ and his Church in the Lords Supper This is a holy Feast that is purposely provided by the King of Saints for the entertainment of his family for the refreshing of the weary and the making glad the mournful soul The night before his bitter Death he instituted this Sacramental Feast He caused his Disciples to sit down with him and when they had partaked of the Passover the Sacrament of Promise and had their taste of the old wine he giveth them the New even the Sacrament of the better Covenant and of the fuller Gospel-Grace He teacheth them that his Death is Life to them and that which is his bitterest suffering is their Feast and his Sorrows are their Joyes as our sinful pleasures were his sorrows The slain Lamb of God our Passover that was sacrificed for us that taketh away the sins of the world was the pleasant food which Sacramentally he himself then delivered to them and substantially the next day offered for them The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world John 6. 33. He is the Living Bread which came down from Heaven If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the bread that he giveth is his flesh which he hath given for the life of the world ver 50 51. Except we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood we have no life in us Whoso eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath Eternal life and he will raise him up at the last day For his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed He that eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him As the Living Father hath sent the Son and he liveth by the Father so he that eateth him shall live by him This is that bread that came down from Heaven not as the Fathers did eat Maâ—â—â— and are dead he that eateth this bread shall live for ever I know that to an unbelieving carnal wretch the Sacrament is but a common thing For Christ himself and his Gospel is â—o better in his
far sweeter thing to talk of holy edifying matters then it is to you to talk of vanity Is the subject of your discourse more fit to delight a man of wisdom Do you talk of better things then God or of higher things then Heaven or of things that nearlyer concern you then the matters of everlasting consequence When I have heard such people talking and laughing as if they had been the merryest people in the world I have sometimes hearkened to their discourse to hear what talk it was that made them so merry and it hath been nothing but impertinency and folly like a mans talking in his sleep enough to make a mans head ake to hear them I should be quickly tired with their delights The blowing of the wind or the falling of the rain or as Solomon saith the crackling of thorns in the fire hath as much in it to please my ear and much less to displease it then such mens discourse Go to a company of merry fellows as you take them and to a company of serious godly prudent people and secretly write down all the words that you hear from both companies and read them over together when you come home and tell me which is the pleasanter discourse What a hodg-podge of non-sense impertinency levity immodesty worldliness pride and folly shall you find in one and what savoury necessary edifying encouraging and comforting speeches will you find you have gathered from the other It is far pleasanter to be among the singing birds the bleating sheep yea the chattering daws then these idle prating foolish companions For with the former you shall have some natural good without any mixture of sinful evil But in foolsh prating company what shall you perceive but how Nature is depraved how sinners are beside themselves how Satan doth befool them and how God is forgotten while he is present with them and they are laughing in the Devils chains and at the very brink of death and hell And can a man be merry to hear such mirth as this It is a sad spectacle to see men laugh in Bedlam but much more to see them merry in the fetters of their sin and under the threatnings and wrath of God Were you but men of right composed minds I durst referre it to your selves whether holy company and discourse be not like to be be much pleasanter then yours Do you think that the discourse of Learned men about Arts and Sciences History and the like is not more pleasant then your idle talk Much more is the holy discourse of Saints about the things of their salvation Whether do you think the company and discourse of Christ and his Prophets and Apostles or of your merry companions should be the more delightful Can you foâ— shame say that the later were the best Why you know that Christ and his Prophets and Apostles had no such idle talk as yours It was holy things that they discoursed of Can you for shame say that you Love God above all and yet have more pleasure in prating over a pot of Ale then in speaking reverently of God Or would you be believed when you say that your hearts are set on Heaven when you have more delight in talking of any earthly trifle Well! I shall leave it to your consciences and to the judgement of any that will speak with Reason whether the holy converse and conference of the godly be not in it self a more Delightful thing then all the merriments the dotages and fooleries of the ungodly If you think not so it is because your relish and appetite is depraved the Devil hath deluded you and sin bereaved you of your wits 2. I have told you of the Pleasantness of the Duties of Holiness which are to be performed more directly toward God Let us now consider of the rest of a Christian life Which consisteth in our duties to be performed towards men And these are all comprehended in the works of Charity and of Justice 1. And certainly the works of Charity are Delightful There is not a pleasanter work in the world then to do good Even proud men find a great delight in the Reputation or Name of doing good that they may be accounted the great Benefactors of the world that is to be as earthly gods among their neighbours and as the Sun is to the lower world that all may be below them and live by their influence This is the top of that prosperiity that sinful ambition doth aspire to And if the Name of Well-doing be so pleasant to the Proud the Conscience of the thing it self should be more pleasant to the upright Open bounty is the hypocrites glory But to do good in secret is the believers pleasure for their Father which seeth in secret shall reward them openly Yea the very delight of doing good and especially a great or publike good a spiritual and everlasting good is a reward unto it self It is the speech of Christ recited by Paul Acts 20. 35. that it is more blessed to give then to receive There are many things concurring that make it very Pleasant to do good It proceeds from the power of Love and the exercise of Love is pleasant And Love makes our Brethren to be to us as our selves and consequently their welfare is as our own and rejoyceth us as if our selves received all that they receive And what abundant pleasure then hath a Believer When so many thousand of his brethren do receive so many thousand benefits daily from God himself and all these are to the Christian through the union and power of Love as if he had received them all himself But especially when he himself is the instrument of conveyance The poor have comfort in receiving of relief but nothing in comparison of his that gives it if it be done for the sake of Christ in uprightness of heart A poor man receiveth from the giver perhaps but an outward small commodity But the upright giver receiveth from God the sense of his acceptance and peace of conscience with the promise of an everlasting recompence A mite or a cup of cold water given to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet or to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple shall certainly be rewarded Matth. 10. 40 41 42. A true Believer is Covetous to do good as others are to receive it and studyeth for opportunities of laying out his gifts and wealth for God as others study to gather it for themselves As a worldling studyeth for a good bargain that he may grow rich a true Believer studyeth for opportunities to lay out that he hath for God and to improve his Masters stock to the best advantage The Covetous doth not more long to get more then Believers do to be rid of that they have in the way and on the terms as may do most good and be best accepted And they are even afraid lest opportunities of doing good should over-slip them and the seed-time should pass by A
Paul that had tryed both ways confesseth Tit. 3. 3. None so unlike to be the servants of Christ as they that are cloathed in purple and fine linnen and that fare sumptuously or deliciously every day Luk. 16. To live in rioting and drunkenness in chambering and wantonness in strife and envying and to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof is the description of one that walks not honestly and is far from a Christians life and hopes Rom. 13. 13 14. It is those voluptuous sensual sinners that most obstinately shut out all reproofs and refuse him that speaketh to them from heaven and will not so much as soberly consider of the things that concern their everlasting peace and therefore are oft so forsaken of grace that they grow to be scorners of the means of their salvation and being past feeling do give themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Eph. 4. 19. Which then is most desirable the healing or the wounding pleasures the quickening or the killing mirth the wholsome or the poysonous sweet the delights that mend us and further our salvation or corrupting pleasures that drown men in perdidition 9. The Delights of Holiness are kin to Heaven They are of the same nature with those that Saints and Angels have with God though we must acknowledge an unconceivable difference It is the same God and the same Glory that now delighteth us as seen by faith which shall then delight us when seen by intuition with open face We are solacing our selves in Love and Praise with the same employment that we must have in Heaven And therefore if Heaven be the state of Greatest joy and pleasure the state of Grace and work of Holiness that is likest to it must needs be next it But sensual pleasures are beastial and sordid and so far unlike the Joys of Heaven that nothing more withdraws the mind or maketh it unmeet for Heaven 10. Lastly the delights of Holiness are durable even everlasting The further we goe the greater cause we have of joy It is not a mutable good that we rejoyce in but in the immutable God the antient of days and in that Christ that loveth his spouse with an everlasting love and in the sure and faithful promises and in the hopes of the Kingdom that cannot be moved The spring of our pleasures is in Heaven and our rejoycing is but the beginning of that which must there be perpetuated Death cannot kill the joys of a believer the grave shall not bury them millions of ages shall not end themâ— Here they may be interrupted because the pleased face of God may be ecclipsed and sin and Satan may cast malicious doubt into our minds and the neighbourhood of the flesh will force the mind to participate of its sufferings But still God will keep their comforts alive at least in the root and help them in the act as we have need of them and are fit for them And in the world of Joy for which he is preparing us our Joy shall be perfected and never have interruption or end Holy-Festivals and Ordinances and sweetest Communion of Saints and dearest Love of truest friends and perfect health and prosperity in the world and all other comforts set together that this world affords are but short emblems and small fore-tastes of the Joyes which the face of God will afford us and we shall have with Christ his Saints and Angels to all eternity But sensual Pleasures are of so short continuance that they are gone before we feel well that we have them The drunkard the glutton the fornicator the gamester are drinking but a sugered cup of poyson and merrily sowing the seeds of everlasting sorrow Satan is but scratching them as the butcher shaves the throat of the swine before he kill them One quarter of an hour ends the pleasure and leaves a damp of sadness in its room He that hath had 40. or 50. years pleasures hath no relish of it when it is past but it is as if it had never been and much worse He that hath spent a day or moneth or year in Pleasure hath no more at night or at the years end when it is gone then he that spent that time in sorrow The bones and dust of thousands lie now in the Church yard that have tasted many a sweet cup and morsel and have had many a merry wanton day And are they now any better for it then if they had never known it And are not the poor and sorrowful there their equals And doubtless their souls have as little of those pleasures as their dust In Heaven they are abhorred In Hell they are turned into tormenting flames and remembred as fuel for the devouring fire There are Gluttons but no more good cheer There are Drunkards but no more drink There are Fornicators but no more lustful pleasures There are the playful wasters of their time but no more sport and recreation There are the vain-glorious proud ambitious souls but not in glory honour and renown but their aspiring hath cast them into the gulf of misery and their pride hath covered them with utter confusion and their glory is turned to their endless shame Those that are now overwhelmed with the wrath of God and shut up under desperation are the souls that lately wallowed here in the delights of the flesh and enjoyed for a season the pleasures of sin and now what fruit have they of all their former seeming happiness He that is feasted and gallantly adorned and attended to day is crying for a drop of water in vain tomorrow Luk. 16. 23 24 25 26. Christ tells you the gain of earthly riches and the duration of earthly pleasures to the ungodly Luk. 6. 24 25. Woe to you that are rich for you have received your consolation Woe to you that are full for you shall hunger woe to you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep that is You that live a sensual life and take up your pleasure and felicity here shall find that all will end in sorrow But blessed are ye that hunger now for ye shall be filled blessed are ye that weep now for ye shall laugh v. 21. that is You that are contented to pass through sorrows and tribulation on earth to the Kingdom where you have placed your happiness and hopes shall find that your sorrows will end in joy and therefore you are blessed while you seem miserable to the world Joh. 16. 20. Ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce and ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy v. 22. Now you have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you We have a constant interest in the Foutain of all Joy and if our sun be clouded it is but for a moment Our maker is our Husband the Lord of hosts is his name and our Redeemer the holy one of Israel
language from their mouths even the joyful praises of their Redeemer and the thankful acknowledgements of his abundant love How sweet unto their souls is the remembrance of kindness and how delightful a work is it from day to day to magnifie his name 5. You must also distinguish between those weak mistaken Christians that understand not the extent of the Covenant of grace and those that do understand it If a believer by mistake should think that the grace of the Gospel extendeth not to such as he because he is unworthy and his sins are great no wonder if he be troubled As you would be if you should conceive that your lease were not made to you but to another or as a malefactor would be if he thought his pardon belonged not to him but to another man But hence you should rather observe the riches and excellencies of the Gospel and the happiness of the heirs of promise then dream that its better be strangers to the holy Covenant still They are better that have a promise of life and understand it not then they that have none But those that know the freeness and fulness of the promise and study with all Saints to comprehend what is the bredth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 18 19. do use to walk more comfortably according to the riches of that grace wich they do possess 6. Consider also that most of these complaining Christians are glad that they are in any measure got out of their former state and therefore apprehend their cause to be better then it was before Or else they would turn back to the state that they were in which they would not do for all the world And therefore they take a godly life to be far more pleasant to them that do attain it 7. Moreover the sorrow of believers is such as may consist with Joy At the same time while they are grieved that they are no better they are gladder of that measure of grace which they have received then they would be to be made the rulers of the world While they are mourning for the remnant of their sins they are glad that it is but a remnant that they have to mourn for Yea while they are troubled because they doubt of their sincerity and salvation they are more sustained and comforted with that little discerning which they have of their evidences and with their hopes of the everlasting love of God then they could by all your sinful pleasures Try the most dejected mournful Christian whether he would change states and comforts with the best and greatest of the ungodly The soul of man is so active and comprehensive that it can at once both rejoyce and mourn While they mourn for sin and feel affliction believers can have some rejoycing taste of Everlasting Life 8. Yea the godly sorrow of a believer is the matter of his joy He is gladder when his heart will melt for sin then he would be to be your partner in your carnal pleasures He would not change the comfort that he findeth in his penitent tears for all your laughter 9. The Joy of a believer is intimate and solid as I said before according to the object of it and not like the fleering of a fool or the laughter of a child or the sensual mirth that Solomon called Madness And therefore it is not so discernable to others as carnal mirth is And therefore you think that the servants of Christ are void of pleasure when they have much more then you It is little ridiculous accidents and toys that make men laugh but great things give us an inward sweet content and joy which scorns to shew it self by laughter And what can be a fitter object of such great content then to be a member of Christ and an heir of heaven 10. Moreover this sorrow of the Godly is but medicinal and a preparative to their after-Joys It doth but work out the poison of sin which would marr their comforts and drive them to Christ and fit them to value him and tast the sweetness of his love and grace 11. And as it is not the state and life of a Christian but his fasting days or time of Physick so the comforts of the godly ordinarily do far exceed their sorrows at least in weight if not in passionate sense They have their hours of sweet access to God and of heavenly meditation and delightful remembrance of the experiences of his love and perusal of his promises and communion with his people and of the exercise of faith and hope and love And with those Christians that have attained stability and strength these comforting graces are predominant and their life is more in Love and Praise then in vexatious fears and sorrows And it should be so with all believers Love is the Heart of the new creature It is a life of Love and Joy and praise that Christ calls all his people to and forbids them all unnecessary doubts and sorrows and keepeth them up so strictly from sin that he may prevent their sorrows And if you will judge whether Holiness be a pleasant course you must goe to the prescript and consider the nature and use of Holiness and look at those that live according to the mercies of the Gospel and not look at the dejections and sorrows of those that grieve themselves by swerving from the way of Holiness as if you would judge that Health is unpleasant because you hear a sick man groan And yet even these weak and mournful Christians usually have more joy then you The very preservation of their souls from that despair which sin would cast them into if they had not a Christ to fly to and the little tasts of mercy which they have felt and the revivings that they find between their sorrows and the hopes they have of better days are enough to weigh down all your pleasures and all their own sorrows 12. Lastly consider that this is not the life of perfect Joy and therefore some sorrows will be intermixt Comfort will not be perfect till Holiness be perfect and till we arrive at the place of perfect joy What 's wanting now while we live in a troublesome malignant world shall shortly be made up in the Heavenly Jerusalem when we have admittance into our Masters joy And then all the world shall be easily convinced whether sin or duty a fleshly or or Holy life hath the greater Pleasures and contents Object But it is not only the weakness of professors but the very way that is prescribed them that must bear the blame For they are commanded to fast and weep and mourn Answ 1. That is but with a medicinal necessary sorrrw for preventing of a greater sorrow as bitter medicines and blood-letting and strict diet are for the prevention of death God first commandeth them to take heed of sin the cause of sorrow But if they will fall and break
and thy Will It proclaimeth thy pernicious Folly and Impiety If thou hadst no more wit then to be Pleased more with stones then gold with dung then meat with shameful nakedness then cloathing thou wouldst not be judged wise enough to be left to thy own dispose and government But the folly which thou dost manifest is unspeakably greater Darkness is not so much worse then Light and Death is not so much worse then Life as sin is worse than Holiness and the world than God And is the Worst more Pleasant to thee then the Best It is a fool indeed to whom it is a sport to do mischief Prov. 10. 23. and so great a mischief as sin is and yet hath no delight in understanding Prov. 18. 2. Delight is not seemly for such fools Prov. 19. 10. And how wicked is that Heart as well as Blind that is so averse to God and Holiness Doth not this shew thee 1. The absence of Gods holy image 2. And the presence of Satans image upon thy soul Nothing doth more certainly prove what a man is then the complacency and displacency of his Heart If you know what it is in your selves or others that pleaseth and displeaseth most you may certainly know whether you have the spirit and grace of Christ or not This is the durable infallible Evidence which Satan shall never be able to invalidate and which the weakest Christians can scarce tell how to deny in themselves Could they be more Holy it would please them better then to be more rich Could they believe more and Love God more and trust him more and obey him better it would please them more then if you gave them all the honours of the world They are never so well pleased with their own hearts as when they find them nearest Heaven and have most of the Knowledge of God and impress of his attributes and sense of his presence They are never so well pleased with their lives as when they are most holy and fruitful and may fullyest be called A walking with God They are never so much displeased with themselves as when they find least of God upon their hearts and are most dark and dull and undisposed to holy Communion with him They are never so much weary of themselves as when their lives are least fruitful holy and exact And this is a certain Evidence of their sincerty For it shews what they Love and what it is that hath their Hearts or Wills And it is the Heart or Will that is the man in Gods account God takes a man to be what he sincerely would be As he is so he Loveth and Willeth and as he Loveth and Willeth such he is His complacency or displacency are the immediate sure discoveries of his bent or inclination This certain Evidence poor doubting souls should have oft recourse to and improve And on the contrary it is as sure an Evidence of your misery when you savour not the things of the Spirit Rom. 8. 5 6 7. and when it pleaseth you more to be great then to be good to be rich then to be religious and righteous to serve your lusts then to serve the Lord When you set more by the applause of men then by the approbations of God and had rather be far from God then near him and be excused from a holy life then used to it and constant in it When you take the world and sin for your recreation or delight and a godly life for a melancholy wearisom and unpleasant course This certainly shews that you have yet the old corrupted nature and Serpentine enmity against the Spirit and Life of Christ and are yet in the flesh and therefore can no more please the Lord then his holy wayes are pleasing unto you Rom. 8. 6 7 8. and it proveth that you are yet in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of your iniquity and that your hearts are not right in the sight of God and that you are the slaves of Satan whose nature you partake of by which you are thus alienated from the Lord. Didst thou know God as Faith doth know him his Loving kindness would be better to thee then life it self Psalm 63. 3. If thou didst Love him as it is like thou wilt pretend thou dost it would be meat and drink to thee to enjoy his Love and do his Will And if thou know him not by Faith nor cleavest to him by unfeigned Love how canst thou pretend to have his Image How would you judge of that mans heart that were no better affected to his friend to his parents or children or other relations then you manifest your selves to be to God If he can take no pleasure in the company of his wife or children but is glad when he is far from them in the company of strangers or harlots or prodigals would you not say this man had a base unmanly disposition Express but such an inclination in plain words and try how honest sober men will judge of them Much more would it be odious to Christian ears if you should tell God plainly We can find no pleasure in thee or in thy holy wayes thy Word and Service are unsavoury and wearisom unto us We had rather be talking or busied about the matters of the world We have far more pleasure in recreations and sensual accommodations then in remembring thee and thy Kingdom and then we find in the life that is called holy Would not such words as these be called impious by every Christian that should hear them And is not that an impious heart then which speaketh thus or is thus affected and that an impious life that manifesteth it though dissembling lips are ashamed to profess it If God be not most to be loved and delighted in then any thing or all things else he is not God If Heaven and Holiness be not sweeter then all the pleasures of earth and sin let them have no more such honourable names Let sin and earth then be called Heaven but wo to them that have no better 2. What monstrous ingratitude is that man guilty of that when God hath provided and Christ hath purchased such high delights and freely tendred them to unworthy sinners will say I find no pleasure in them and take them for no delights at all When the Lord beheld thee wallowing in thy filth and laughing in thy misery and making a sport of thine own perdition he pittied thee and provided and offered to thee the most noble and excellent delights that thy nature is capable of enjoying And wilt thou cast them back unthankfully in his face and say They are unpleasant tedious things If your child did so by his meat or cloathes yea or a beggar at your door did so by his alms you would think it proved his great unworthyness If he throw away the best you can give him and say It is naught there is no sweetness in it would you not think it fit that want should help to
honoured all rejoyce 1 Cor. 12. 25 26. As weak as Christians are and as worthless in your eyes one of their hearty spiritual prayers and one word of their holy savoury conference doth profit us more then all your Treasures will ever profit you While the Divine nature is in them somewhat Divine will proceed from their mouthes and be seen in their lives which is worth more then all the Riches of the world And O how fruitful are the holy Ordinances which we partake of both in the Churches Communion and alone in our retirements A poor Christian can get more in a Sermon which you sleep under or deride then you will get by your trades or livings while you live He findeth greater Treasures in one Chapter of the Bible or in one good Book then you can get out of all your lands or labours The best of your livings will not yield you so much commodity in seven years nor in seven thousand years if you could so long keep them as a believing soul can get from God in one hours prayer even in secret where he is not by man observed You do not believe this that are ungodly I know you do not heartily believe it for else you would try it and not continue in your ungodliness But they that try it know it to be true Or else what makes them continue in it and live upon their holy Communion with God and his servants more resolvedly then you do on your lands and labours Somewhat you may conjecture they find in holy duty that makes them so instant in it as they are 7. Another part of our commodity by Holiness is the Promise and Assurance of the Love of God and of our salvation and the Peace of Conscience that followeth hereupon All true Believers have objective certainty that is the thing is certain in itself whether they perceive it or not And they may have subjective or Actual certainty in themselves if they do their parts And is not a certain Title to a Lordship or a Kingdom a greater Treasure then the possession of a straw Much more is Gods Promise of Everlasting Glory a greater Treasure then all your wealth As Heaven is infinitely better then earth so the Promise of God is the best security Though we be not with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and do not yet see the face of God yet have we a Promise that speedily we shall be there and shall see that which they see and enjoy all that which they enjoy The poorest Christian hath all that in Promise under the hand of God himself which Angels and Glorified Saints have in possession They can shew you a better Title to Heaven though they are unworthy in themselves then any of you can shew to your lands or houses in your Deeds or Leases As poor and simple as that Godly man is whom you despise he is an Heir of Heaven and a fellow-Heir with Christ Rom. 8. 17. Gal. 3. 29. Heb. 1. 14. 11. 9. When we had the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy-Ghost and were justified by grace we were made the Heirs of eternal life according to the hope that is given us by the Gospel Tit. 3. 5 7. And God that hath given them those Better things that accompany salvation is not unrighteous to forget their work and labour of love if they do but shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end and be not sloathful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Heb. 6. 9 10 11 12. For this cause was Christ the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the Transgressions under the first Testament they which are called may receive the Promise of the eternal inheritance Heb. 9. 15. And we know that he is faithful that hath promised And if your Bills and Bonds and Deeds and Leases be part of your Riches we shall much more take the Promise of God for our everlasting happiness in Heaven to be far greater Riches 8. And yet we may put this among our Riches or at least as the Over-plus given us by God that we have better advantage even for the matters of this world then the ungodly have For we have a Promise that we shall lack nothing that is good for us Psal 34. 10. and so have not they We have warrant to east all our care on God who by promise is engaged to care for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. We are commanded to be anxiously careful for nothing but in all things to make known our requests to God as little children that care not for themselves but go to their father for what they want Phil. 4. 6. It is enough for us whatever we want that our heavenly Father knoweth that we want it Matth. 6. 32. who hath charged us to disburden our minds of these vexatious cares and to seek first his Kingdom and the Righteousness thereof and promised us that other things shall be added to us Mat. 6. 33. We have also a promise that all things shall work together for our good Rom. 8. 28. And therefore we shall have more from the things of this life then the ungodly have Yea more by the want of them then they by the possession For if they do us good in our graces and communion with God and in the matter of our salvation they help us to that which is of far higher value then themselves Poverty to a true Believer is better then Riches to the ungodly that destroyeth himself by them when the Believer is helped by his poverty Imprisonment to Paul and Silas was better then liberty to their persecutors And thus in the fruits and saving benefits all things are ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. We have the Love of God with what we possess be it more or less when the wicked have his wrath with it And who would have their Riches on such terms 9. Another part of the Gain of Godliness is that it puts us into a Readiness to die and a fitness to appear before the Lord. Though all the Godly have not so great a readiness as to desire to be presently dissolved yet all of them are in a safe condition and are so far ready that death shall pass them into a blessed state For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernaâ—le were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hâ—… eternal in the heavens And in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven And God that hath given 〈…〉 the earnest of his Spirit hath wrought in us to be alwayes confident or at least given us cause knowing that whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord For we walk by faith and not by sight we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 1
2 8 9. Though the abode of the godly in the flesh is usually more needful to those about them yet to themselves their death is gain and therefore they have cause to desire to depart and be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1. 21 23 24. For sin which is the sting of death is mortified and the curse of the Law which is the strength of it is relaxed or null fied to us by the Gospel so that the Believer may triumph and say O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. and to give thanks to God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ vers 57. Verily I would not exchange my part though alas too small or dark a part in this one priviledge of true Believers for all the wealth and dominions on earth O the face of Death will soon make the Glory of all your greatness to vanish and the beauty of your flourishing estates to wither and all that you now glory in to appear as nothing And then how glad would you be to change Portions with the holy servants of the Lord whom you now despise When once you hear Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul and whose then are all those things that thou hast provided Luke 12. 20. then in a moment you will change your minds and cry out of the world as nothing worth and wish you had busied your hearts and hands in laying up a better treasure This is one difference O â—ngodly wretch between a holy servant of God and thee Death cannot undo him but it will undo thee It cannot take his Riches from him for his God his Christ his Holiness the Promises are his Riches but it will separate thee and thy wealth for ever It will put an end to all his troubles and fears and griefs and it will put an end to all thy prosperity and to all thy mirth and hope for ever A godly man dare die or if he ignorantly fear it yet shall it be the end of all his fears but thou darest not die and yet thou must or if thou ignorantly hope of a happiness after it yet will it nevertheless end all thy hopes O what a mercy is it to be ready to die 10. But the great unspeakable Riches of the Saints is in the Life to come We have here the Hope and the fore-taste but it is only there that we shall have our Portion You see what a poor Christian is according to his outward appearance But you see not what he will be to eternity There is the Kingdom for which we hope and for which we run and wait and suffer If God be true and his Gospel true then Heaven shall be the Portion of the sanctâ—fied But if it were otherwise then we would confess their hopes are vain Heaven is our Riches or we have none There have we laid up all our Hopes and in these Hopes we will live and die as knowing they will not make us ashamed Rom. 5. 5. 9. 33. 1 John 2. 28. We believe that we shall live with Christ in glory and shine as stars in the Firmament of our Father and be made like to the Angels of God and shall see his face and praise his name and live in his everlasting Love and Joy For all this he himself hath promised us 1 Thes 4. 17. 18. Daâ— 12. 3. Mat. 13. 43. Luk. 20 36. Rev. 22. 4. Mat. 25. 21. And now poor worldling what is all your Gain and Riches in comparison of the least of these Do you think in your judgements that there is any comparison Or rather doth not sin and the world even brutifie you and make you lay by the use of your reason and live as if you knew not what you know Your Treasure is all visible when ours is unseen and therefore I may bid you bring it forth and let us see it whether indeed it be better then the Treasure of the Saints Let us see what that is that is better then God and everlasting glory What! is a little fleshly ease or mirth a little meat and drink and pleasure a little more money or space of ground to use then your neighbours have are these the things that you will change for Heaven and preser before the Lord that made you O poor miserable sinners Are you not told that you have your good things here but what will you have hereafter when this is gone Luke 16. 25. When your wealth is gone and your mirth is gone your souls are immortal and therefore your misery and horrour will continue and never be gone As the wealth of the godly is within them and above the reach of their enemies and surer then yours so is it the more durable even everlasting When all your Riches are upon the wing even ready to be gone and leave you in sorrow when you are most highly valuing them you have it now but it is gone to morrow And what is the Hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Job 27. 8 9. Let the words of Christ decide the Controversie if indeed you take him for your Judge Mat. 16. 2â— 25 26 27. If any man will come after we let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul For the Son of man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works Well sirs you that are all for Getting and for wealth judge now if you have not lost your Reason whether a Holy or unholy â— Heavenly or an Earthly life be the more Profitable way I would not draw you to any thing that you should lose by If I speak not for your Gain reject my words as contemptuously as you please But if I do then be not against your own commodity Will such silly Gain as the world affords you do so much with you as it doth and shall not the Heavenly inheritance do more shall all this stir be made in the world for that which you are ready to leave behind you and will you not lay up a Treasure in heaven where rust and moaths corrupt not and where you may live for ever Matth. 6. 20. What profit now have all those millions of souls that are gone from earth by all the wealth they here possessed Hear sinners and bethink you in the name of God You are leaving Earth and stepping into Eternity and where then should you lay up your Riches Would you rather have your Portion where you must stay but a few days then where you must