himself on this wise What-ever my case is now sure I was made in the image of God placed under the eye of his Providence as it were of his Family and Table Heaven and Earth ministred to me I was Lord of the lower and Favourite of the upper World as if the one was made on purpose to exercise and divert me and the other to receive and reward me I have a nature capable of immortality and had eternal life designed for me as the inheritance of a Son and my task of obedience was as easie and honourable as my hopes were glorious For I had no hard burthen laid upon me nothing required of me but what was proportionable to my powers and agreeable to the reason of my mind no restraint was laid upon my passions but such as was evidently both necessary for the World and good for my self that it could not be drawn into an argument of harshness and severity in God nor make apology for my transgression All my faculties were whole and intire I was neither tempted by necessity nor oppressed by any fate I was therefore happy enough and why am I not so still It is true that humane nature hath miscarried since it came out of the hands of God and I carry the Skar of that common Wound yet is the dammage of the first Adam so repaired by the second that mankind is left inexcusable in all its actual transgressions but especially in a dissolute and impenitent course of rebellion Besides I see others whose circumstances were in all points the same with mine and their difficulties and temptations no less to live holily and comfortably having either escaped the too common pollutions of the world by an early compliance with the grace of God or at least quickly recovered themselves by repentance I find therefore that I might have lived in the light of God's countenance in serenity of mind quiet of conscience sense of my own integrity and comfortable hopes of unspeakable glory in contemplation of which I might have defied death and lived in Heaven upon Earth but I have been meerly fooled by my own incogitancy and undone by my own choice For proceeds he 2. I have forfeited all this by sinning against God and been so sottish as to prefer the satisfaction of my own humour before all the aforesaid felicities I have been ingratefull towards my great benefactour broken the law of my Creation confronted the wisedom of the most High been insolent towards a mighty Majesty violated just and righteous commandments sinned against light knowledge and conscience added presumption to folly wilfullness to weakness despised counsels exhortations promises assistances my sins are many in number horrible in their aggravations deadly in their continuance and my perseverance in them By this means I have not onely wrought disorder in the world but disordered my own Soul spoiled my own powers suffered passion to get head of my reason clouded my understanding and so by former sins rendered it in a manner necessary that I sin still For when I would doe good evil is present with me I find a law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind and carrying me into captivity to the law of sin O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I have driven away the good Spirit of God and put my self under the power of Satan become his slave and drudge I know nothing now of the comforts of innocence of the joy of a good Conscience mine is a continual torture to me I have lost the light of God's countenance and the very thoughts of him are dreadfull to me by all which together life is a burden and yet the thoughts of death are intolerable Such reflections and considerations as these break the very heart of a sinner and resolve him into sighs and tears 3. BUT this is not the worst of the case for in the third place he considers what is like to be the issue of this This miserable life saith the sinner cannot last always death will arrest me shortly and present me before a just Tribunal the grave will e're ong cover me but not be able to conceal me for I must come to Judgment Methinks I hear already the sound of the last Trump Let the dead arise let them come to judgment I see the Angels as Apparitors gathering all the world together and presenting them before that dreadfull Tribunal How shall I be able with my guilty Conscience to appear upon that huge Theatre before God Angels and Men Methinks I see the Devil standing at my right hand to aggravate those faults which he prompted me to the commission of I behold the Books opened and all the debaucheries extravagancies and follies of my whole life laid open Christ the Judge of all the World coming in flaming fire to take vengeance upon them that have not known him nor obeyed his Gospel How shall I endure his presence how shall I escape his eye I cannot elude his judgment nor evade his sentence come then ye Rocks and fall upon me and ye Mountains cover me from the face of the Lamb and from him that sitteth upon the Throne But the Rocks rend in sunder the Sea and the Earth disclose their dead the Earth dissolves the Heavens vanish as a Scroll and I hear the dreadfull Sentence Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Methinks I hear Christ Jesus thus upbraiding me You have listened to the Devil and not to me I would have saved you but you would not be ruled by me you have chosen the way of death now therefore you shall be filled with your own ways I forewarned you what would be the issue of your courses but you would have your full swing of pleasure for the present whatever came of it hereafter you laughed at judgment and it is come in earnest you have had your time of jollity and sensual transports and now your portion is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth O therefore saith the sinner that I had never been born cursed be the day that brought me forth and the Sun that shone upon me would the womb had been my grave and I had never seen the light Thus my guilty Conscience anticipates its own punishment and I am tormented before my time 4. BUT is there no hope left must I lie down thus in sorrow and despair These things I may justly expect but they are not yet incumbent upon me I am yet alive and they say there is hopes in the land of the living the door is not yet shut against me Hell hath not yet closed her mouth upon me I have heard God is a mercifull God and thereupon I presumed hitherto and abused his goodness but sure his mercies are above the measure of a man if they be infinite like himself he hath more goodness then I have ingratitude Possibly there may be some hope left in the bottom of this
formerly a great sinner himself and hath known by sad experience the deplorableness of that condition and found mercy at God's hands methinks such a person should with warm affections and tender bowels awaken that man into an apprehension of his danger who is in the condition he himself hath escaped and incourage him to try those mercies of God which he himself hath experimented For if either a righteous man that never needed repentance i. e. such a change of his whole state as we have been speaking of should be less sensible of such a man's case or especially if a proud self-applauding Pharisee despise him yet it will by no means become a Convert to be without compassion For besides all other arguments to this purpose it may be such a man may have just cause to consider whether his own example when he did goe on in the way of sin had not that pernicious contagion as to infect or confirm this man in his wickedness which he sees him now lie under and then it will not be only charity but justice which will oblige him to this duty IT was the opinion if I remember rightly of St. Basil that in Hell the torments of the damned are daily increased in proportion as the evil seed of their corrupt doctrine or the evil example which they sowed whilst they were alive fructifies upon earth but whether that be so or no it is certain men's sins are aggravated by the mischief they do to others as well as by other circumstances and therefore every such Penitent as we speak of must think it his duty and concern to indeavour to hinder the propagation of sin and to stop the infection in others as well as to destroy the malignity of it in himself § II. NOW there are many ways which an honest heart will find out of doing this we are recommending without taking upon him to be a Preacher Solomon tells us A wicked man speaketh with his feet and teacheth with his fingers that is though he say nothing with his lips all his life and actions do teach and instruct the world in wickedness and there is no question but that holy men may most effectually recommend vertue to others by their own practice and example Example insinuates gently works insensibly but powerfully as almost all great Engines do it relieves men's modesty and yet shames their sloth it kindles emulation presses upon ingenuity recommends the excellency convinces the necessity demonstrates the possibility of vertue Besides that there are a great many of the most curious lines thereof that are not to be described by the pencil or that can be expressed by words but are to be observed in the life and conversation of good men For this reason amongst others it pleased God to send our Saviour not only to preach the divine life to the world but to live and converse with men that by his example he might more plainly convince them of it and for this cause also we solemnly thank God for the examples of all holy men that have gone before us AND besides example there are many opportunities and advantages which good men have of propagating a sense of piety and Religion such as the authority of Parents influence of benefactours interest of relations convenience of travelling together society of commerce and all other bonds of conversation Every of which a mind inflamed with the love of God and compassion to the Souls of men will find usefull to this purpose And this was the course Moses advised Israel for the keeping up a sense of God and his Laws in their minds and the propagation of it to posterity Deut. 6. 6 7. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up c. And for the incouragement of all good men in this business besides the great honour it is to be subservient to God in so important an affair and besides the unspeakable comfort to our own Consciences If by converting a sinner from the evil of his way we save a Soul from death and cover a multitude of sins Jam. 5. 20. and that by such an act of zeal we have also the happiness to efface our own former miscarriages Besides all this I say in present we shall also advance our own glory and crown hereafter for in the words of the Prophet Daniel They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever Daniel 12. 3. IT were very easy to inlarge on this subject but that which is most pertinent and the peculiar consideration of this place is to shew the particular aptness of those that have themselves been converted from a wicked life to be instrumental of recovering others which I will briefly give account of in the following particulars and so dismiss this point And in order to this § III. IN the first place it is considerable that those that are of sickly constitutions are generally observed to be more pitifull and compassionate to the infirm then those robust and healthy persons that scarce ever knew what sickness meant and those that have long languished under any painfull infirmity and at last have recovered are both the best able and most willing to give advice to others under the same distemper Upon which account it hath been the custom of some Nations who had no professed Physicians to bring their sick out into the Market-place where all persons that came were obliged by Law to take notice of them that by this means the experience of one that had escaped a disease might afford a relief to him that now laboured under it And so it is reasonable to think that those who have been sick in sin and of sin heretofore must needs by their own experience know the baits that allure men the charms that bewitch them the fallacies of Sathan that impose upon them the folly and perverseness that defixes men in that unhappy estate the workings of passion the regret of Conscience the thoughts and reasonings the objections the prejudices and the very inside of other men in that condition And therefore as God commands Israel Exod. 23. 9. Thou shalt not oppress a stranger for ye know the heart of a stranger seeing ye were strangers in the land of Aegypt i. e. they knew what injuries oppressions insolencies and affronts a stranger was exposed to and what fears anxieties and jealousies he must needs be always under and therefore it having been their own case they ought to think it reasonable to pity such so in the present case the Convert is furnished both with more observations to render him serviceable to the conversion of Souls and more compassion to apply and make use of his experience to
men or rather as much as the advantages of Christianity out-went those of Philosophy For this man is not only improved by humane discourse but raised by divine revelation and governed by the wisedom of God is not under the faint and fluctuating hopes which reason can suggest but under the assurances of faith is not only eminent for some one or more vertues but being inflamed by the love of God and the prospect of Heaven he breaths nothing but greatness and glory wherever he goes God is in his heart Heaven is in his eye joy in his countenance and he spreads the sweet odours of piety and casts a lustre upon Religion FOR in the first place he is sanctified throughout the image of God is restored upon him and Christ Jesus formed in him All the maims of his fall are cured the confusion of his powers rectified the tyranny of custom vanquished his Conscience is inlightned his reason raised his passions subdued his will set right and all the inferiour powers obedient Vertue is made natural easy and delightfull to him and it is his meat and drink to doe the will of his Heavenly Father FURTHERMORE to assure his station he is confirmed by the grace of God and upheld by divine power he is the peculiar care of God's providence the special charge of the holy Angels and the Temple of the blessed Spirit all God's dispensations provide for his safety consider his strength and work for his good The Devil is so restrained that he shall not tempt him above what he shall be able to bear and hath not so little wit with his great malice to attempt where he is sure to be foiled Persecutions may assault him and flatteries may undermine him prosperity may indeavour to blow him up or adversity to crush him down raillery may goe about to shame him out of his course or buffonry to laugh him out of it but his race is as certain as that of the Sun or the Stars in the Firmament and his foundation sure as the Mountains for he knows whom he hath believed AGAIN he is adopted a Son of God and sealed by the Holy Ghost to the day of redemption he feels himself quickned by his vital presence warmed with his motions and assured by his testimony This erects the hands that would hang down and strengthens the feeble knees this lifts up his head with joy because he knows his redemption draweth nigh Every day he walks he finds himself a days journey nearer Heaven therefore he sets his face thitherwards he puts on the habit the mein the joy the very heart of Heaven he goes up by contemplation and views it he ravishes his heart with the sight of it he falls into a trance with admiration and when he comes to himself again cries out Come Lord Jesus come quickly He needs nothing he fears nothing he despises the world life is tedious death is welcome to be dissolved and to be with Christ is best of all WHAT can trouble him that hath peace in his Conscience what can disturb him that hath Heaven before him what can dismay him that is secure of immortality what can affright him whom death cannot hurt and what can deject him that is sure of a crown of glory AND lastly no wonder if after all this such a man be active and vigorous for God if he be used by God and become his Embassadour beseeching men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God For all those comforts and incouragements afore mentioned inlarge his Soul like an Angel put wings upon him like a Cherub and set him on fire like one of the Seraphim with holy zeal of God's glory and the good of men Therefore with David he tells the unbelieving world what God hath done for his Soul and with his Lord and Master Christ Jesus he goes about doing good and in this flame of holy love is contented to offer up himself a sacrifice of a sweet smell to God HERE is adulta virtus Religion and Piety at their highest pitch and fullest maturity that is attainable in this world the next step is Heaven one degree more commences Glory Let the envious world now if they dare reproach Religion as hypocrisy or as meer pretences and great words when they observe that this glorious state is the design and the attainment of it whenever it is wisely and worthily prosecuted or let them say all this is impossible who as Tully well expresses it Ex sua ignavia inertia non ex ipsa virtute de virtutis robore existimant These things are no Romances nor have I dressed up any Legendary Hero the things are true and real Thus shall it be done to the man whom God delights to honour All this hath been attained and might be attained again would men but cease to take up an opinion of their own goodness from the extream badness of others and take their measures rather from the rules and motives and assistances of the Gospel then from the examples and customs of the world then without doubt others besides St. Paul might be able to say I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith from henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. And that brings me to the last instance of the Father's kindness and the top of that glory which God bestows upon truely good men CHAP. V. The splendid Entertainment or the joys of Heaven St. Luk. Chap. 15. Vers 23. And bring hither the fatted Calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry THE CONTENTS § I. The peculiar intendment of this passage of the Parable That by the feast upon the fatted Calf are represented the joys of Heaven § II. The several figurative expressions which the joys of Heaven are set out by in holy Scripture viz. Paradise Rest a City a Kingdom a Feast § III. A more plain and literal account of the felicities of the other world especially in four particulars 1. The resurrection of the Body 2. Provision of objects fit to entertain and satisfy all the powers both of Soul and Body 3. The eternity of that state of life and happiness 4. The blessed presence of God and our Saviour and the happy society of Angels and Saints § I. IT was thought to be a just civility amongst the more soft and voluptuous Nations especially those of the East that those who were to be the Guests at a Feast should be as curious in the preparation of themselves for the solemnity as he that made the entertainment was for their accommodation and for that cause usually a considerable time of notice was given them before-hand that they might be in such circumstances as should both do honour to him that invited them and also render them
Convert is also the most charitable and favourable Judge of others and the furthest from censoriousness There is nothing more unbecoming that modesty which should be in all men then to be Critical and curious in espying the failings of others and nothing can be more arrogantly done towards God then to take the judgment out of his hand and place our selves in the Tribunal nay there is nothing more infests the peace of the world then this pragmatical humour of censoriousness but saith the Convert Let those that are without sin cast the first stone at others for my part I have enough to do at home and see more evil in my self then in all the world besides I have learnt of the Apostle to Speak evil of no man considering that I my self was sometime foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3. 3. Thus he composes himself to be an example to the world of that temper then which nothing is more conducent to better the estate of mankind he will not rake in men's wounds nor rip up their old sores but forgives as he hopes to be forgiven he will not give ear to malicious whispers which like the arrow of the pestilence flies in the dark and kills without noise he will entertain no uncharitable surmises but hopes the best nor aggravate men's follies but makes the most benign and candid interpretation that that the case can bear and thus not judging others he shall not be condemned of the Lord. Nay further the Convert is so far from all the aforesaid instances of uncharitableness that he is the most compassionate man in the world both towards those that are yet in a state of sin and those also who have stumbled and faln in their race of vertue and the most ready and officious to bring the former to an apprehension of his danger and to restore the latter in the spirit of meekness he knows the wretchedness of a sinfull condition he hath felt the pangs of a guilty Conscience his heart trembles at the thoughts of Hell and therefore his Soul is troubled for those that are insensible of their own case his Bowels yern his Eyes weep in secret and his Heart bleeds for them he counsels persuades forewarns them prays for them and as the Prophet towards the Widows Son he as it were stretches himself upon their dead Souls and by the application of a lively example indeavours to bring spiritual warmth and life into them And now it cannot be imagined that such affection to Souls should be unrewarded by the great lover of Souls our Lord Jesus BESIDES it is not to be doubted but the Convert who hath this compassion to the Souls of others will be infinitely cautious of indangering his own he knows the Devil continually goes about as a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour he understands how many artifices and strategems he hath to deceive Souls and is sensible how full the world is of charms and allurements he is well aware of the pit which he hath but lately escaped and therefore is always watchful and sollicitous of himself careful to resist beginnings and cautious of all appearance of evil and in all these things his care and circumspection surpasses that of those happy men who never foully miscarried No saith he let those be secure that never knew what danger was but in contemplation only 't is not for me to live at ease it was too much to hazard a Soul once God forbid I should do it again O my heart akes at the very danger it hath escaped methinks I am not yet safe till I am in Heaven stand upon thy guard O my Soul keep God in thy eye trust not thy self a moment but in his and thy own keeping LASTLY to add no more such a person hath constantly in his bosom a burning zeal of God's glory which the consideration of God's wonderfull mercy to him hath kindled in him He therefore loves much because much was forgiven him others that have not incurred such dangers nor been sensible of such deliverances cannot have such raised affections as he hath They do not hunger and thirst after righteousness as he doth find not that savour and relish in the means of grace that he feels perceives not those obligations upon themselves to redeem their time and repair their former omissions by a double diligence in God's service IN consideration of all these things together to which severall others might have been added of like nature the Jews have a saying in their Talmud That the most just and perfect men cannot be able to stand in judgment with the Penitents and a Rabbine of theirs Commenting upon that saying adds further That no Creature no not the very Angels themselves that never sinned are able to compare with them But most assuredly without Hyperbole they are by all the qualifications forementioned prepared for vessels of honour fit objects of the divine favour and shall be received with the joy and triumph of Angels and all the celestial Host into those glorious mansions whither Christ Jesus the friend of Penitent Sinners and the Authour of eternall salvation is gone before To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory and adoration world without end Amen THE END ERRATA PAge 16. In the Contents of § 2. for his reade our Saviour's P. 27. l. 2. after the word maker add to which the Almighty replies P. 40. l. 2. for duely r. daily ibid. l. 22. r. follows P. 50. l. 12. after rule adde as if P. 56. l. 22. for not r. or ibid. after evil adde but not having such imperative power as to enforce the execution of its own dictates P. 93. l. 10. instead of worshipfull r. worship P. 135. l. 34. dele it P. 136. in Marg. for quum r. quam P. 184. l. 13. dele or ibid. l. 19. dele when P. 245. l. 19. for he r. the. P. 257. l. 1. for he r. see A Catalogue of some Books Re-printed and of other New Books Printed since the Fire and sold by R. Royston viz. Books written by H. Hammond D. D. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament in Folio Fourth Edition The Works of the said Reverend and Learned Authour containing a Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical with many Additions and Corrections from the Author 's own hand together with the Life of the Authour enlarged by the Reverend Dr. Fell Dean of Christ Church in Oxford I large Fol. Books written by Jer. Taylor D. D. and late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor Ductor Dubitantium or The Rule of Conscience in Five Books in Fol. The Great Exemplar or the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus in Fol. with Figures suitable to every story ingrav'd in Copper Whereunto is added the Lives and Martyrdoms of the Apostles By Will. Cave D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or A Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the enemies of the Church of England both
not be wanting to him But for the latter namely the doing or willing that which is evil there is nothing more requisite but the will it self provided God extraordinarily interpose not to hinder it THESE things premised I am not aware of the least suspicion that can lie against what we are asserting namely that a necessary and principal ingredient of sin is the voluntarinesse thereof and of the truth hereof the proofs are as many and pregnant as the absurdities of the contrary are manifest For what ground can there be imaginable why God should use exhortations and persuasions reproofs and expostulations with men for sin if it were not in their power to withstand it wherefore should he upbraid them for their wilfullnesse condemn them for stubbornnesse and after all severely punish them for what they could not help If the insupportable weight of necessity lies upon them or some latent and irresistible cause overpower them they are patients rather then agents and deserve pity rather then blame or punishment It was a discreet saying of Porphyry A man that is moved by force onely is properly enough said to be where he was as if he had not been moved at all For whatsoever seeming alteration necessity and violence may make for the present when once the force is over every thing returns to its own nature again and is what it was before but without doubt in all moral consideration man is reasonably to be interpreted to be in that state all the while where he was by his own choice and would have continued had not force expulsed him And Seneca said very well Necessity is the great sanctuary of humane infirmity which whosoever can lay claim to obtains protection for it perfectly excuses all the faults it commits Whatever can justly be pretended to be necessary if it be evil is a natural one and not a moral and an unhappinesse or punishment rather then a sin So the Romans judged also in a well known case It is the free mind which onely is capable of guilt dull matter and body whatsoever is passive cannot be blamed because they cannot chuse NEITHER is it possible any man should repent of doing what he could not but doe or of omitting to doe what was never in his power to effect no more then that he cannot fly like a Bird or move like an Angel What remorse or shame or trouble of conscience can there be that a man is not another kind of creature then he was made that he did what was natural and necessary for him to doe or for such things as may indeed be said to be done by him and yet not be his act that is the act of a man because he could not doe otherwise God hath set up Conscience as his Vicegerent and a judge within us but as we said before it is not so absolute as to judge without a Law so neither can it be so unjust and absurd as to condemn and torture without conviction of guilt And though there is no doubt of the prerogative of God to impose what Laws he pleases yet we have the manifold security of his goodnesse wisedom and justice besides his truth and faithfullnesse that he will not oppresse us with his sovereignty but in all his dispensations will consider our frame and circumstances and remember that we are but dust and ashes IN short if there be any so absurd as to affirm sin to be any way necessary to all other absurdities they bring in the surly paradox of the Stoicks and make all sins equal representing the most pitiable infirmities of humane nature equal to the most dissolute enormities they infinitely increase the number of sins but take off the weight and guilt render it little more then a notion and teach men to have no horrid apprehensions of it They excuse man and lay the fault if there be any somewhere else but wherever that is it will revolve at last upon God blessed for ever § 4. BUT I persuade my self I need not proceed further in exaggerating this matter wherefore both to close and to confirm what I have said I will only subjoin the Authority of the Apostle S. James in that remarkeable passage of his Epistle Chap. 1. vers 13 14 15. wherein he describes the conception formation growth perfection and nativity of sin The words are these Let not any man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God is not tempted of evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Upon which let me crave leave to use the liberty of this lesse strict Paraphrase As if he had said Let no man imagine that God by any act of his providence provokes or prompts or much lesse puts any necessity upon men to sin for as he by the perfection of his divine nature is infinitely above the reach of any temptation to act it himself so it is so contrary to him that he abhorrs it wherever it is and therefore can by no means contribute to it nor have any hand in the production of it And though several of his designs suppose it and his providence be exercised about the regulation of it yet this is no argument that he either ordained it or effects it For his wisedom is sufficient to inable him to see through all the series of causes and to foreknow what they are pregnant with and what they will in their respective times be delivered of without peremptory determination of them thereunto And again although it be true that sin could not have been in the world unlesse he had thought fit to permit it yet it is never the more by him since it takes its rise from nothing else but the unhappy use of that great blessing and priviledge of liberty which he endowed rational creatures withal Would you then understand more particularly the generation of this sponte-nascent take it thus FIRST then you are to know that the great and wise Creatour of all things for weighty reasons thought fit to create mankind of a middle nature and condition betwixt purely spirituall beings and the inferiour world of meer animal and natural making him participate of both and agreeably hereunto endowed him both with intellectual and sensitive powers The former whereof namely the intellectual were to enable him to serve his Creatour to render him capable of noble and excellent delights and that he might by them order and govern the inferiour and sensitive faculties And these latter were given him partly to relax his mind by a moderate and seasonable condescension to the sweetnesse of the senses but principally to be a field and exercise for those active vigorous and noble capacities of the mind AGAIN Secondly you are to consider that as that wise and benign Majesty never made any thing but
set his heart on those things that will be sure to desert him in his need and in fine which serve onely to make him do that unwillingly which must be done in spight of him that is instead of securing him from death or preparing him for it or fortifying him under it they do in every respect the quite contrary his riches perish and he perishes with them and it may be by them LASTLY for that gawd of fame and worldly glory it is of so thin a contexture that it is disputable whether it have any substance at all or no or any being otherwise then in phancy and conceit But to be sure it is far too slight to last long and too airy to give any satisfaction to a languishing Spirit or a dying man When a man's mind comes to be serious to retreat into it self to feel remorse for former follies what will it avail him that he hath a name amongst men that he hath carried it fairly and raised a reputation with those that see not into the inside of things that he hath appeared bravely upon the Stage but is stripped of all behind the Curtain is taunted and condemned by his own Conscience and by God who is greater then his Conscience and knows all things It is not all the plumes of Fame together with popular breath can lift a man up when his own weight sinks him and his guilt casts him down Especially when death approaches how ridiculous will it be to goe about to comfort a man's self with report when he is going into the land of forgetfullness A good name indeed for brave and vertuous actions embalms a man's memory to all ages but the name of the wicked shall rot in despight of all the spicery of flatterers and Parasites What is there in being talked of when I shall be no more seen what to be mentioned in History unless my name be written in the Book of Life Tully somewhere disputes with himself Longam an latam famam mallet Whether was most desirable a spreading or a lasting name whether to be talked of in many Countries or to be remembred to many Ages But the matter is not great which of the two nor will both of them joyned together be of any moment if a man either cease to be or be in such a condition that it had been good for him never to have been For Notus nimium omnibus qui ignotus moritur sibi He that hath not made it his care so to know himself as to secure himself of a blessed immortality it will be little comfort or antidote against death that he shall be talked of far and near when he is gone So that upon the whole matter in these things consisting all the maintenance and incouragement the Devil can give his Servants and these being so mean and slight in themselves and failing men too at last they have a most uncomfortable bondage that give up themselves to his service CHAP. V. The Habitual Sinner's case stated or a reflection upon what hath been said in the foregoing Chapter THE CONTENTS § I. The import of the phrase when he came to himself shews that the Prodigal was all this while hitherto not well in his wits and that the habitual sinner is in a like condition § II. The truth of which appears by considering either the most usual causes or effects of distraction § III. Objections against this inference answered § IV. The application and conclusion of this First Part of the Parable Vers 17. And when he came to himself he said c. WE have in the foregoing Chapter traced the Prodigal from the freedome and felicities of his Father's house to the extremity of misery and servitude which his extravagant humour cast him into and in him and the issues of his way we have seen the beginnings the progress and the result of a sinfull course lively represented Now summing up all together and reflecting upon what hath been said it is evident that the person here described especially if he resolve to continue in this condition cannot be in his right wits The truth of which all men that seriously consider the premises cannot but bear witness to And besides it is plainly suggested by our Saviour himself in these words vers 17. when he came to himself c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which phrase either signifies a man dead or in a swound at least and coming to life again or a man drunk dispelling at last the cloud of his fumes and recovering the use of his limbs and senses or a man distracted and returning to his wits and understanding again AND indeed all these are applicable enough to an habitual sinner he is morally or spiritually dead Eph. 2. 1. You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins The disease of willfull sin doth so deprave men's natures and disable their powers that there appears no hope of recovery to a sense of God and goodness no more then of a man naturally dead unless God be pleased to breathe into him the breath of life He is drunk the steams of lust have clouded and besotted his understanding and oppressed all his vital powers that for the present he is not able to guide nor fit to govern himself he hath rather the shape then the sense of a man no man takes his judgment nor regards what he saith or doth but every man looks upon him as a beast and were it not that there is hope of his recovery would think him fit with Nebuchadnezar to be turned out to grass But because this disturbance is usually short it doth not therefore come so home to the condition of the sinner for sin is a lasting phrenzy or distraction and agrees thereto both in the causes and in the symptomes THE true account of the cause of Distraction as I take it is this when the Animal Spirits by some accident or other are so over-heated that they become unserviceable to cool and sedate reasoning And then reason being thus laid aside phansy gets the ascendent and Phaeton like drives on furiously and inconsistently This combustion of the spirits happens sometimes by over great intention of the mind in long and constant study sometimes by a feaver which inflaming the bloud that communicates the incendium to the spirits which take their original from it But most usually by the rage and violence of some of the passions whether irascible or concupiscible as they are wont to be distinguished a man setting his heart vehemently upon some object or other the spirits are set on fire by the violence of their own motion and in that rage are not to be governed by reason This we have sad examples of in Love in Grief in Jealousie in Wrath and Vexation and indeed Bethlehem is filled with the instances And this account fits but too well the case we have in hand namely of the willfull and habitual sinner He having passionately addicted himself to some one or other of
be as it may it is true in the present case that the first point of true practical wisedom is gained by studying a man's self and by making himself the subject of his meditations For as there is nothing wherein we betray more folly nothing by which we shipwreck our Consciences and lose our selves so fatally as by permitting our selves to run adrift without Card or Compass Port or Pilot so on the other hand there is nothing gives greater hopes of recovery then being able and disposed to collect our selves to call in our thoughts by serious consideration and reflection To which purpose it was worthily said by Philo That the source of all our danger and the first reason of our miscarriages lay in our running on with the boisterous tide of passion and the first hopes of safety was in being able to stay our selves and soberly to reason the matter But we have greater authority for it then Philo's For upon defect of this God himself lays the blame of men's ruine and in this he places the first signs of recovery So we find him complaining of his people Israel as in a very desperate condition Isa 1. 3. My people will not consider and therefore often calls upon them by the Prophets in these words Thus saith the Lord of hosts Consider your ways But most emphatically doth he express himself Isa 46. 8. Remember and shew your selves men bring it again to mind O ye transgressours And it is very observable that in that famous Chapter Ezek. 18. where above any other passage in the Old Testament God most solemnly proclaims and ratifies the efficacy of repentance he describes the first lines at least of it to consist in consideration vers 14. A Son that considereth c. Again vers 28. Because he considereth and turneth c. To all these adde the advice of the Psalmist Psal 4. 4. Stand in awe and sin not commune with your own hearts upon your bed and be still As if the serious treating with our selves was the onely way both to stifle the temptation to and to extinguish the guilt of sin The Septuagint render the last phrase of the Psalmist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. d. consider so seriously with your selves at your best retirements the evil of your ways and the danger of your course that you may feel remorse and compunction The Chaldee Targum paraphraseth thus Let your hearts concur with your mouths in saying your prayers and think of the God of death q. d. Affect your hearts seriously in secret with a deep apprehension of the danger of sin AND if we look into the N. Testament nothing can more illustriously set forth this which we are asserting then those two Parables of our Saviour Luk. 14. 28. c. of the man that intends to build a Tower and a King going to war In both which the design of our Saviour is to shew that serious debating and prudent forecasting all the difficulties of the whole course of Christianity is no less necessary to him that intends successfully to undertake it then those grave deliberations of Princes or projections of private persons when the one intends to enter into a dangerous war and the other a costly building IF indeed conversion to God were nothing else but a meer melancholy qualm or a fright if I say repentance were only a Paroxysm of devotion and the Divine Majesty so soft and easy as to be taken with an agony of mind or a kind of love-fit then an inconsiderate man might be esteemed a penitent But repentance being nothing less then the change of a man's whole temper and life the entring into a whole course of severe and constant vertue the subduing our most potent passions the denying our selves some of the most pleasant gratifications of flesh and bloud the breaking off old and radicated customs and habits it must be absolutely necessary that whosoever goes through with it do maturely consider the enterprize and call in all his force for the atchievement of it OR again if a man could be so vain and unreasonable as to hope that God would save men by force doe violence to their natures over-bear or supersede their faculties and plant grace in their hearts by a meer act of his omnipotency and new make them after the manner he created them at first without their own concurrence then indeed there would be no use of consideration and it would be as fruitless and unnecessary to contribute any endeavour as impossible to make any opposition But those that dream at this rate neither understand God nor themselves neither what is fit for him to confer nor for them to expect They know not what vertue means nor apprehend whence comfort arises they consider not what a righteous judgment to come supposes nor what the very notion of reward and punishment speaks they make no difference between free and natural Agents and condomn themselves to senseless and stupid Machines in hopes to be made Saints per saltum and to come at Heaven such a way as never any man did or can doe that is without their own endeavour OR lastly if a man could perswade himself that themeans of grace viz. the Word and Sacraments did use to work physically upon men and made them good ex opere operato as some speak after the manner of food and medicine to the Body which take place whether men consider it or no and oftentimes work the better the less the mind is employed in thinking of that or any thing else upon such a supposition there were no reason why any man should put himself to the trouble of that we have been speaking of But on the contrary it is most certain that all the means of grace have effect upon men's Souls no otherwise then by awakening the sense of the mind and making men considerative and then men's hard hearts are made contrine by operating upon themselves as the Diamond is known to be cut by its own dust For it is as impossible that Sermons Counsels or any other discourses should edify the mind of a man unless his understanding bring them close and make application of them to his Conscience by the way of consideration as it is for a man's Body to be nourished by meats who hath no digestive faculty to be or cured by medicine where all the powers of nature are extinguished In short to think otherwise is to turn devotion into conjuring and all the divine institutions into charms and amulets AND all this is so true that nothing can be objected to it but what will convince the objector of utter strangeness and unacquaintedness with converting grace for we may safely appeal either to the experience of every such convert as we are speaking of or to the observation of all those who have taken notice of others in that condition whether any thing hath been more remarkably visible in such a Crists then a pensive serious and considerative temper And it