life and all things 2. As in the certainty so in the Plainness and Easiness of the truth The most excellent subjects of other knowledge have long windings before a man can come at them and are of that difficulty and abstruseness that as every brain is not fit to undertake the acquiring of it so much pains labour industry advertency assiduity is required in the best of judgments to attain but a competent measure of it witness the studies of Arithmetick Geometry Natural Philosophy Metaphysicks c. wherein great labour hath been taken to our hands to make the passage more easie and yet still are full of difficulty But in this knowledge it is otherwise as it is a knowledge fitted for a universal use the bringing of mankind to God so it is fitted with a universal fitness and convenience for that use easie plain and familiar The poor receive the Gospel Matth. 11.5 and indeed the plainness of the doctrine was that which made the wise world stumble at it and thence it was that it was hid from the wise and prudent Matth. 11.25 who like Naaman with the Prophet could not be contented to be healed without some great ostentation nor were contented to think any thing could be the wisdom of God and the power of God unless it were somewhat that were abstruse and at least conformable to that wisdom they had and were troubled to think that that wisdom or doctrine that must be of so great a use and end should fall under the capacity of a Fisherman a maker of Tents a Carpenter But thus it pleased God to choose a Doctrine of an easie acquisition 1. That no slesh should glory in his sight 1 Cor. 1.29.2 That the way to Salvation being a common thing propounded to all mankind might be difficult to none Believe and thy sins be forgiven Believe and thou shalt be saved Believe and thou shalt be raised up to Glory Joh. 6. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and Believeth on him may have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day 3. As in the Certainty and Plainness so in the Sublimity and Loftiness of the subject And hence it is that Metaphysicks is reckoned the most noble knowledge because conversant with and about the noblest subject substance considered in abstractâ— from corporeity and particular adherents falling under other Sciences But the subject of this knowledge is of the highest consideration Almighty God the dispensation of his counsel touching man in reference to the everlasting condition of mankind the true measure of just and unjust the pure will of God the Son of God and his miraculous Incarnation Death Resurrection and Ascention the great Covenant between the Eternal God and fallen man made sealed and confirmed in Christ his great transaction with the Father in their Eternal Counsel and since his Ascention in his continual Intercession for man the means of the discharge and satisfaction of the breach of the Law of God the state of the Soul after death in blessedness or misery these and many of these are the subject of that knowledge that is revealed in the knowledge of Christ such as their very matter speaks them to be of a most high nature the great transactions of the counsel and administration of the mighty King of Heaven in his Kingdom over the children of men such as never fell under the discovery or so much as the disquisition of the wisest Philosophers and such as the very Angels of Heaven desire to look down into 1 Pet. 1. and behold with admiration that manfold wisdom of God which is revealed unto us poor worms in Christ Jesus 4. As the matters are wonderful high and sublime so they are of most singular Use to be known There be many pieces of Learning in the World that are conversant about high subjects as that part of Natural Philosophy concerning the Heaven and the Soul the Metaphysicks the abstruser parts of the Mathematicks that are not in order to practice But as it may fall out that the knowledge of the subject is unaccessible in any certainty so if it were never so exactly known it goes no farther and when it 's known there 's an end and no more use of it Whereas many times subjects of an inferiour nature are more useful in their knowledge as practical Mathematicks Mechanicks Moral Philosophy Policy but then they are of an inferiour nature more useful but perchance less noble But here is the priviledge of the knowledge of Christ Jesus that as it is of Eminence and Height so it is of Use and Convenience and that in the highest measure as it is a Pearl for Beauty so it is for Value This knowledge is a kind of Catholicon of universal use and convenience In reference to this life Am I in Want in Contempt in Prison in Banishment in Sickness in Death This knowledge gives me Contentedness Patience Cheerfulness Resignation of my self to his will who hath sealed my Peace with him and Favour from him in the Great Covenant of his Son and I can live upon this though I were ready to starve when I am assured that if it be for my good and the glory of his Name I shall be delivered if not I can be contented so my Jewel the Peace of God and my own Conscience by the Blood of Christ be safe Am I in Wealth Honour Power Greatness Esteem in the world This knowledge teacheth me Humility as knowing from whom I received it Fidelity as knowing to whom I must account for it Watchfulness as knowing the Honour of my Lord is concerned in some measure in my carriage and that the higher my employment is the more obnoxious I am to temptation from without from the that watch for my halting and from within by a deceitful heart And in all it teacheth me not to overvalue it nor to value my self the more by it or for it because the knowledge of Christ Jesus presents me with a continual object of a higher value the price of the high calling of God in Christ it teacheth me to look upon the glory of the World as rust in comparison of the glory that excelleth and the greatest of men as worms in comparison of the great God And as thus in reference to the temporal condition of my life this knowledge of Christ is of singular use and makes a man a better Philosopher than the best of Morals in reference thereunto So it guides me in the management of all Relations 1. To God it presents him unto me in that representation that is right full of Majesty yet full of Love which teacheth me Reverence and yet Access with boldness Love and Obedience 2. To Man Justice giving every man his due for so the knowledge of Christ teacheth me Do as ye would be done by Mercy to forgive Compassion to pity Liberality to relieve Sobriety in the use of creatures and yet Comfort in
annexed to this Consideration We are to know that although Death be thus subdued and rendred rather a benefit than a terrour to good men yet 1. Death is not to be wished or desired though it be an object not to be feared it is a thing not to be coveted for certainly life is the greatest temporal blessing in the World It was the passion not the virtue of that excellent Prophet Elijah that desired to dye because he thought himself only left of the true worshippers of God 1 Kings 19.4 We are all placed in this World by Almighty God and a talent of life is delivered to us and we are commanded to improve it a task is set every one of us in this life by the great Master of the Family of Heaven and Earth and we are required with patience and obedience and faithfulness to perform our task and not to be weary of our work nor wish our day at an end before its time When our Lord calls us it is our duty with courage and chearfulness to obey His call but until He calls it is our duty with patience and contentedness to perform our task to be doing of our work And indeed in this life our Lord hath delivered us several tasks of great importance to do as namely 1. To improve our graces and virtues our Knowledge and Faith and those works of piety and goodness that he requires the better and closer we follow that business here the greater will be our reward and improvement of glory hereafter And therefore as we must with all readiness give over our work when our Master calls us so we must with all diligence and perseverance continue our employment out till he calls us and with all thankfulness unto God entertain and rejoyce in that portion of life he lends us because we have thereby an opportunity of doing our Master the more service and of improving the degrees of our own glory and happiness 2. And besides the former he hath also set us another task namely to serve our Generation to give an example of virtue and goodness to encourage others in the ways of virtue and goodness to provide for our Families and Relations to do all good offices of Justice Righteousness Liberality Charity to others cheerfully and industriously to follow our Callings and Employments and infinite more as well Natural Civil Moral employments which though of a lower importance in respect of our selves yet are of greater use and moment in respect of others and are as well as the former required of us and part of the task that our great Lord requires of us and for the sake of which he also bestows many Talents upon us to be thus improved in this life and for which we must also at the end of our day give our Lord an account and therefore for the sake of this also we are to be thankful for our life and not be desirous to leave our post our station our business our life till our Lord call us to Himself in the ordinary way of His Providence for He is the only Lord of our lives and we are not the Lords of our own lives 2. A second Caution is this That as the business and employments and concerns of our life must not estrange us from the thoughts of death so again we must be careful that the overmuch thought of death do not so much possess our thoughts as to make us forget the concerns of our life nor neglect the businesses which that portion of time is allowed us for As the business of fitting our Souls for Heaven the businesses of our callings relations places stations Nay the comfortable thankful sober enjoyments of those honest lawful comforts of our life that God lends us so as it be done with great sobriety moderation as in the presence of God and with much thankfulness to Him for this is part of that very duty we owe to God for those very external comforts and blessings we enjoy Deut. 28.47 A wise and due consideration of our latter ends is neither to render us a sad melancholy disconsolate people nor to render us unfit for the businesses and offices of our life but to render us more watchful vigilant industrious soberly cheerful and thankful to that God that hath been pleased thus to make our lives serviceable to Him comfortable to us profitable to others and after all this to take away the bitterness and sting of death through Jesus Christ our Lord. OF VVISDOM AND The Fear of GOD That that is True WISDOM JOB XXVIII 28. And to man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding THe great preheminence that Man hath over Beasts is his Reason and the great preheminence that one man hath over another is Wisdom though all men have ordinarily the priviledge of Reason yet all men have not the habit of Wisdom The greatest commendation that we can ordinarily give a man is that he is a wise man and the greatest reproach that can be to a man and that which is worst resented is to be called or esteemed a fool and yet as much as the reputation of wisdom is valued and the reputation of folly is resented the generality of mankind are in truth very fools and make it the great part of their business to be so and many that pretend to see◠after wisdom do either mistake the thing or mistake the way to attain commonl◠those that are the greatest pretenders 〈◊〉 wisdom and the search after it place it i◠some little narrow concern but place i◠not in its true latitude commensurate to th◠nature of mankind And hence it is tha◠one esteems it the only wisdom to be 〈◊〉 wise Politician or Statesman another t◠be a wise and knowing Naturalist anothe◠to be a wise acquirer of Wealth and th◠like and all these are wisdoms in their kind and the World perchance would be much better than it is if these kind of wisdom were more in fashion than they are bu◠yet these are but partial wisdoms the wisdom that is most worth the seeking and finding is that which renders a man a Wise Man This excellent man Job after a diligen◠search in the speech of this Chapter after Wisdom what it is where to be found doth at length make these two Conclusions viz. 1. That the true root of wisdom and that therefore best knew where it was to be found and how to be attained is certainly none other but A mighty God vers 23. God understandeth the way thereof and knoweth the place thereof and 2. As he alone best knew it so he best knew how to prescribe unto mankind the means and method to attain it To man he said to fear God that is wisdom that is it is the proper and adequate wisdom sutable to humane nature and to the condition of mankind and we need not doubt but it is so because he that best knew what was
moment I were bereft of all either by Fire or Depredation how were my mind fitted with humility and patience to submit to a poor strait wanting condition I have now a good Husband Wife Children many Friends that esteem me and are faithful to to me what if God should in a moment deprive me of all these what if my dearest Friends should become my bitterest Enemies how should I bear my self under these changes I have a great Name and Esteem in the World what if in a moment a black cloud of Infamy and Scorn and Reproach were drawn of it and that I should become a scorn and reproach with Job 30.8 among children of fools yea children of base men viler than the earth how were I fitted with humility and evenness of mind to comport with such a condition till it pleaseth God by his Providence and the manifestation of my Innocence if he think sit to scatter this black cloud of Calumny and Reproach or if not yet quietly under it to enjoy the testimony of a good conscience and my own integrity These and the like anticipations of troubled and afflicted conditions would habituate and fit our minds to bear them furnish us with suitable tempers for them render them casie to us when they come and keep our Souls in a due state of moderation and watchfulness before they come As the good Martyr Bilney before his martyrdom by often putting his Finger into the Candle made the Flames which he was after to endure more familiar and tollerable 3. The third Preparative against Affliction and calamitous seasons is to reason our selves off from over-much love and valuation of the World and the best things it affords Philosophy hath made some short essay in this business but the Doctrine of the Gospel hath given us far more noble and effectual topicks and arguments than any Philosophy ever did or can 1. By giving us a plain and clear estimate and valuation of this World and all that seems most valuable in it but this is not all but 2. by shewing us plainly and clearly a more valuable certain and durable estate after death and a way of attaining it with much more ease and contentation than we can attain the most splendid temporals of this World Certain it is that the weight and and stress of afflictions and crosses lyes not so much in the things themselves which we suffer in them or by them as in that overvaluation that we put upon those conveniences which afflictions or crosses deprive us of When news was brought to that noble Roman of the death of his Son it was a great pitch of patience that even that Moral consideration wrought in him Novi me genuisse mortalem though perchance it was not without a mixture of Stoical vain-glory We set too great a value upon our health our wealth our reputation and that makes 〈◊〉 unable to bear with that evenness and contentedness of mind the loss of them by sickness poverty reproach We set too great a rate upon our temporal life here because we set too great a rate upon this World to the enjoyment whereof this life here is accommodated and proportioned and that makes us fear death not only as the ruine of our nature but as that which puts a period to all our comforts Whereas had we but Faith enough to believe the Evangelical truths touching our future happiness it would make us not desire death because we might in the time of this life secure unto our selves that great and one thing necessary and it would make us not to fear death because we see a greater fruition to be enjoyed after it than all the glory of this present World can yield 4. The next Preparative against Afflictions is to keep Piety Innocence and a Good Conscience before it comes As Sin is the sting of death so it is the sting of affliction and that which indeed gives the greatest bitterness and strength unto affliction and the reason is this because it weakens and disables that part in man which must bear and support it This is that which the Wise man observes Proc. 18.14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear which is no more than this It is the mind and spirit of man rightly principled that doth bear and carry a man through those difficulties and afflictions and infirmities under which he is but if that spirit or mind which should carry and bear those evils be hurt or wounded or faint or infirm what is there left in a man to bear that which indeed should be our support Innocence and a Good Conscience keeps the mind and spirit of a man in courage and considence and indeed it hath an influence and suffrage and attestation and support from the God of Heaven to whom a good conscience can with an humble confidence appeal as Hezekiah did under a great affliction Isa 38. and this access to Almighty God doth give new supplies succours and strength to the Soul to bear it up under very great and pressing afflictions But on the other side Sin doth disable the Soul to bear affliction till it be throughly repented of 1. Because it doth in a great measure emasculate and weaken the spirit of a man makes it poor cowardly and unable to bear it self up under the pressure of afflictions 2. It doth in a great measure obstruct the intercourse between God and the Soul and that influence that might and would otherwise be derived to the spirit or mind of a man by the God of the spirits of all flesh Therefore the best preparative against affliction is to have the Soul as clear as may be from the guilt of Sin 1. By an innocent and watchful life in the time of our prosperity before affliction attach us 2. Or at least By a speedy sincere and hearty Repentance for Sin committed and this repentance to be speedy before affliction come For although it is true that many times affliction is the messenger of God to awaken a sinner to repentance and that repentance is accepted by the merciful God yet that repentance is most kindly and easie and renders afflictions less difficult and troublesom which prevents affliction and performs one great end and use of afflictions before it comes He that hath a Soul cleansed by Faith and Repentance from the guilt of Sin before the severity of affliction comes upon him hath but one work to do namely to fit himself with patience to undergo the shock of affliction But he that defers his repentance till driven to it by affliction his work is more difficult because it is double namely to begin his repentance and to bear his affliction And because in many things we offend all and the best have their failings and sins of daily incursion a daily revising and examining of our own failings and renewing of our repentance for our daily faults is of singular use to render afflictions easie because repentance
our Saviour Luk. 22.61 and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter certainly that look of our Saviour as it carried a secret message of a gentle reprehension so also of much sorrow and grief in our Lord as if he should have said Ah Peter canst thou see thy Saviour thus used and wilt thou not own me Or if thou wilt not yet must thou needs deny me deny me thrice deny me with oathes and with execrations The unkindness of a Disciple and such a Disciple that hast been privy to my Glory in my Transfiguration and to my Agony in the Garden cuts me deeper than the scorns and derision of these abjects But that 's not all this apostacy of thine these denials these oathes these execrations will lye heavy upon me anon and add to that unsupportable burden that I am under the Thorns and the Whips and the Nails that I must anon suffer will be the more envenomed by these Sins of thine and thou castest more gall into that bitter Cup that I am drinking than all the malice of mine enemies could do In sum though thou goest out and weepest bitterly yet these Sins of thine would stick unto thy Soul unto eternity if I should not bear them for thee they cost thee some tears but they must cost me my blood The next morning the high Priests and Elders hold a second consultation as soon as it was day Luk. 22.66 their malice was so sollicitous that they prevent the morning Sun and after they had again examined him and in that Council charged him with Blasphemy the Council and the whole multitude lead him bound to Pilate and there they accuse him and to make their accusation the more gracious charge him with Sedition against the Romans and though he had no other advocate but silence and innocence for he answered them nothing yet the Judge acquits him Luk. 23.23 I find no fault in him and yet to shift his hands of the employment and to gratifie an adversary he sends him to Herod and his accusers follow him thither also Luk. 23.10 the chief Priests and Scribes vehemently accuse him Herod when he had satisfied his curiosity in the sight of Jesus to add to the scorn of our Saviour exposeth him to the derision of his rude Souldiers and cloathes him in a gorgeous Robe and remands him to Pilate Thus in triumph and scorn he is sent from place to place first to Annas then to Caiphas then convented before the Council of the Priests then sent into the high Priest's Hall then re-convened before the Council then sent bound to Pilate and from thence to Herod and from him back again to Pilate and in all those translations from place to place exposed unto and entertained with new scorns and derisions and contempts At his return to Pilate he again the second time declares his Innocence that neither he nor Herod found any thing worthy of death Luk. 23.15 and yet to gratifie the Jews he offers to have him scourged whom he pronounceth innocent yet to avoid the gross injustice of a sentence of death offers to release him to observe their custom but this could not not satisfie To preserve their custom and yet to fulfil their malice they choose the reprieve of Barabbas a murderer and importune the crucifying of the innocent Jesus and now the third time Pilate pronounceth him innocent Luk. 23.22 and yet delivers him over to be crucified The Executioners did it to the uttermost and and to add pain and scorn to his scourging put upon him a Crown of thorns and in this disguise of blood and contempt he brings him forth shews him to his prosecutors Joh. 19.5 Behold the man as if he should have said You Jews that that have accused this man must know I find no fault in him yet to satisfie your importunity I have delivered him over to the severest and vilest punishment next unto death Scourging and Scorn here he is see what a spectacle it is let this satisfie your Envy But all this will not serve there is nothing below the vilest of deaths can satisfie all cry out Crucifie him and when yet the Judge professeth he finds nothing worthy of death they impose a Law of their own We have a law and by our law he ought to dye because he made himself the Son of God But when this rather made the Judge the more cautious they engage him upon his fidelity to Casar his Master He that maketh himself a King speaketh against Casar But all this was not enough but at length the importunity of the Priests and people prevailed and Pilate who had been before warned by the monition of his Wife and had these several times pronounced him innocent yet against the conviction of his own Conscience to satisfie and content the Jews adds this farther cruelty and unjustice to what he had before done gave sentence that it should be as they required Luk. 23.24 delivered him over to that cursed and servile death of Crucifixion and yet his persecutors malice and envy not satisfied but after his judgment pursue the execution of it with as great malice scorn and cruelty as they had before used in obtaining it His Crown of thorns upon his head a purple Robe upon his body the Blood of his scourging and thorns all covering his visage a Reed in his right hand and the base and insolent multitude with spittings and strokes and reproaches abusing him till his Cross be ready and then the purple Robe is taken off and he conducted to the place of his Execution and to add torment to his shame our Blessed Lord wearied with an agony and long watching the night before and from the time of his apprehending hurried from place to place and his blood and spirits spent with the scourging and thorns and blows and which is more than all this a soul within laden with a weight of sorrow and the burden of the wrath of God which did drink up and consume his spirits yet in this condition he is fain to bear his burdensom Cross towards the place of his Execution Joh. 19.17 till he was able to carry it no longer but even fainted under it and then Simon of Cyrene is compelled to bear it to the place When he comes to the place of Execution he is stript stark naked and his clothes afterwards divided by lot among the Souldiers Matth. 27.35 and his naked body stretched upon the Cross to the uttermost extension of it Psal 22.17 I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon me and at the uttermost extension which the cruel Executioners could make of our Saviour's body his hands and his feet nailed to that Cross with great Nails through those tender parts full of nerves and arteries and most exquisitely sensible of pain And in this condition the Cross with our Saviour's body is raised up in the view of all and that even in this his execution that the shame and ignominy of the manner
motions and tendencies of our Sensual Appetite This sensual appetite is in it self good placed in us by the God of Nature for excellent ends viz. for the preservation of the individual nature as eating and drinking and those invitations of sense subservient thereunto or for the preservation of the species as the desires of sexes But they then become a sinful part of this inferior world 1. when they become inordinate 2. or excessive 3. or unseasonable or generally 4. when they are not subordinate in their actings to the government of reason enlightened by moral or religious light A Christian hath no such enemies without him as unruly and undisciplined lusts and passions within him and it is a vain thing to think of overcoming the world without us until this world within us be brought into subjection for without the corruptions and lusts within the world and the evil men of the world and the evil one of the world could not hurt us Non vulnus adactis Debetur gladiis percussum est pectore ferrum The wedge of gold was an innocent thing but Achan's covetous heart within gave it strength to do harm We come into the world as into a great shop full of all variety of wares accommodate to our senses lusts and affections and were it not for these those wares would lye long enough upon the hands of the prince of this world before they could get within us or corrupt us 2. The world without us is of three kinds 1. The Natural world which is the work of Almighty God most certainly in it self good and is not evil but accidentally by man's abuse of himself or it It doth contain a general supply of objects answerable to the desires of our vegetable and sensible nature and the exigences and conveniences of it is a great shop full of all sorts of wares answerable .... there is wealth and places and delights for the senses and it becomes an enemy to us by reason only of the disorder and irregularity of those lusts and passions that are within us and by reason of the over-value that we are apt to put upon them they are indeed temptations but they are only passive as the wedge of gold did passively tempt Achan but it was his own lust and covetousness that did him the harm the rock doth not strike the ship but the ship strikes the rock and breaks it self This world as it is not evil in it self so most certainly it is full of goodness and benevolence to us it supplies our wants is accommodate to the exigences and conveniences of our nature furnisheth us with various objects and instances of the divine goodness liberality bounty of his power and majesty and glory of his wisdom providence and government which are so many instructions to teach us to know and admire and magnifie him to walk thankfully dutifully and obediently unto him to teach us resignation contentedness submission and dependence upon him A good heart will be made better by it and if there be evil in it it is such as our own corrupt natures occasions or brings upon it or upon our selves by it and it is a great part of our Christian warfare and discipline to teach us to use it as it ought to be used and to subdue those lusts and corruptions that abuse it and our selves by it Again secondly there is another world without us the malignant and evil world the world of evil Angels and of evil Men Mundus in maligno positus and the great mischiefs of this world are of two kinds viz. 1. Incentives and temptations from it that are apt to bring the rest of mankind into the evil of sin and offence againft God such as are evil examples evil commands evil counsels evil perswasions and sollicitations 2. The troubles and injuries and vexations and persecutions and oppressions and calumnies and reproaches and disgraces that are inflicted by them And the evil that ariseth from these are of two kinds viz. such as they immediately cause which is great uneasiness and griefs and sorrow and again such as consequentially arise from these namely the evil of sin as impatience discontent unquietness of mind murmurings against the Divine Providence doubtings of letting go our confidence in God disturst unbelief and putting forth our hands to iniquity to deliver our selves from these inconveniences either by unlawful or forbidden means by sinful compliances with the sinful world by falling in with them to deliver our selves from their oppressions persecutions or wrongs by raising commotions engaging in parties and infinite more unhappy consequences And thirdly there is a third kind of world which is in a great measure without us namely the accidental or more truly the providential world in relation to man and his condition in this world and is commonly of two kinds viz. prosperous or adverse External or worldly Prosperity consists in an accommodate condition of man in this world as health of body comfort of friends and relations affluence or at least competency of wealth power honour applause good report and the like The dangers that steal upon mankind in this condition are pride haughtiness of mind arrogance vain-glory insolence oppression security contempt of others love of the world fear of death and desires of diversion from the thoughts of it luxury intemperance ambition covetousness neglect and forgetfulness and a low esteem of God the life to come and our duty 2. Adversity as sicknesses and diseases poverty loss of friends and estate publick or private disturbances or calamities and the like And though oftentimes these are occasioned by the evil or malignant world yet many times they seem to come accidentally and are apt to breed impatience discontent unquietness of mind distrust of Providence murmuring envy at the external felicity of others and that common discomposure which we ordinarily find in our selves and others upon like occasions IV. The fourth considerable is what is this Faith which thus overcometh the world which is nothing else but a deep real full sound perswasion of and assent unto those great truths revealed in the Scriptures of God upon the account that they are truly the word and will of the Eternal God who is truth it self and can neither deceive nor be deceived and herein these two matters are considerable 1. What are those divine truths which being really and soundly believed doth enable the victory over the world or the special objects of that victorious faith 2. What is that act of faith or belief of these excellent objects which thus overcometh the world 1. For the former of these although the whole body of divine truths is the adequate object of faith yet there seem to be certain special heads or parts of divine truths that have the greatest influence into this victory over the world I shall mention some of them namely 1. That there is one most Powerfyl Wise Gracious Bountiful Just and All-seeing God the Author of all being that is present in
hast set up And therefore our Blessed Lord redoubles the injunction of our fear toward him that can destroy both body and soul in hell but forbids any fear of such persecutors who can only destroy the body and then can do no more And certainly that man that hath full assurance of favour and esteem with the great God of heaven and earth of an incorruptible weight and crown of glory the next moment after death must needs have a low esteem of the reproaches and scorns and persecutions of men for righteoufness sake and so much the rather because that very favour with God and that very crown of happiness that he expects is enhanced by those very scorns and those very afflictions For Our light afflictions which are here for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 3. Concerning the third kind of world namely the Providential world consisting in external dispensations of adversity or prosperity And first concerning the dark part of this world namely Adversity as casualties losses of wealth or friends sicknesses the common effects whereof are impatience distrust murmuring and unquietness Faith conquers this part of the world and prevents those evil consequences which either temptations from without or corruptions from within are apt to raise 1. Faith presents the soul with this assurance that all external occurrences come from the wise dispensation or permission of the most glorious God they come not by chance 2. That the glorious God may even upon the account of his own Sovereignty and pro imperio inflict what he pleaseth upon any of his creatures in this life 3. That yet whatsoever he doth in this kind is not only an effect of his power and sovereignty but of his wisdom yea and of his goodness and bounty No affliction can befall any man but it may be useful for his instruction or prevention 4. That the best of men deserve far worse at the hands of God than the worst afflictions that ever did or ever can befall any man in this life 5. That there have been examples of greater affliction that have befallen better men in this life witness Job and that excellent pattern of all patience and goodness even as a man our Lord Christ Jesus 6. That these afflictions are sent for the good even of good men and it is their fault and weakness if they have not that effect 7. That in the midst of the severest afflictions the favour of God to the soul discovering it self like the Sun shining through a cloud gives light and comfort to the Soul 8. That Almighty God is ready to support them that believe in him and to bear them up under all their afflictions that they shall not sink under them 9. That whatsoever or how great soever the afflictions of this life are if the name be blasted with reproaches the estate wasted and consumed by fire from heaven if friends are lost if hopes and expectations disappointed if the body be macerated with pains and diseases yet Faith presents to the believer something that can bear up the Soul under these and many more pressures namely that after a few years or days are spent an eternal state of unchangeable and perfect happiness shall succed that death the worst of temporal evils will cure all those maladies and deliver up the soul into a state of endless comfort and blessedness and therefore he bears all this with patience and quietness and contentedness and cheerfulness and disappoints the world in that expectation wherein its strength in relation to this condition lyes namely it conquers all impatience murmuring unquietness of mind 2. As to the second part of this Providential world namely Prosperity which in truth is the more dangerous condition of the two without the intervention of the divine grace the foils that the world puts upon men by this condition are commonly pride insolence carnal security contempt or neglect of duty and religion luxury and the like The method whereby Faith overcometh this part of the world and those evil consequences that arise upon it are these 1. Faith gives a man a true and equal estimate of this condition and keeps a man from overvaluing it or himself for it lets him know it is very uncertain very casual very dangerous and cannot out-last this life death will come and sweep down all these cobwebs 2. Faith assures him that Almighty God observes his whole deportment in it that he hath given him a law of humility sobriety temperance fidelity and a caution not to trust in uncertain riches that he must give an account of his stewardship also to the great Master of the Family of Heaven and Earth that he will duly examine all his Items whether done according to his Lord's commission and command and it lets him know that the more he hath the greater ought his care to be because his account will be the greater 3. Faith lets him know that the abundance of wealth honour power friends applause successes as they last no longer than this short transitory life and therefore cannot make up his happiness no nor give a man an ease or rescue from a fit of the Stone or Colick so there is an everlasting state of happiness or misery that must attend every man after death And on the one hand all the glory and splendor and happiness that this inferior world can afford is nothing in comparison of that glory that shall be revealed to and enjoyed by them that believe and obey 1. Nothing in respect of its duration if a man should live a thousand years yet that must have an end and the very pre-apprehension of an end is enough to dash and blast and wither any happiness even while it is enjoyed but that happiness that succeeds after death is an everlasting happiness 2. Nothing in respect of its degree there is no sincere complete perfect happiness in this world it is mingled with evils with fears with vicissitudes of sorrow and trouble but the happiness of the next life is perfect sincere and unmixed with any thing that may allay it And upon these accounts faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen and therefore by a kind of anticipation gives a presence to the Soul of those future joys renders the best happiness this world below can yield but languid and poor like the light of a Candle in the presence of the Sun On the other side the misery that after death attends the mispent present life over-ballanceth all the good that this life can yield both in its degree and duration and therefore with the pre-apprehension of it it sowres and allays all the good that is in the greatest happiness of this life 4. Faith doth assute every believing Soul that as sure as he now liveth and enjoyeth that worldly felicity it hath so surely if he in belief and obedience to the will of God revealed in and through Christ
consideratioâ— would have made them wise and prudentâ— avoid those great Apostasies which shouâ— occasion so terrible a desertion and rejectiâ—â— by God But certainly the words contain an evâ—dent truth with relation to every particulâ— person and to that latter end that is coâ—mon to all man-kind namely their latâ—end by death and separation of the Soul aâ—â— Body the due consideration whereof is great part of Wisdom and a great meaâ— to attain and improve it and very maâ— of the sins and follies of man-kind as thâ— do in a great measure proceed from tâ—â— want of an attentive and serious consiâ—â—ration of it so would be in a great measâ—cured by it It is the most certain known experienâ— truth in the World that all men must dâ—â— that the time of that death is uncertaiâ— that yet most certainly it will comâ—â— and that within the compass of no loâ— time Though the time of our Life migâ—â— be protracted to its longest period yetâ— is ten thousand to one that it will not exceâ— fourscore years where one man attaiâ— to that age ten thousand dit before it aâ—â— this Lecture is read unto us by the many casualties and diseases that put a period to the Lives of many in our own experience and observation by the many warnings and monitions of Mortality that every man finds in himself either by the occurrences of diseases and weaknesses and especially by the declinations that are apparent in us if we attain to any considerable age and the weekly Bills of Mortality in the great City where weekly there are taken away ordinarily three hundred persons The Monuments and Graves in every Church and Church-yard do not only evince the truth of it whereof no man of understanding doubts but do uncessantly inculcate the remembrance of it And yet it is strange to see that this great truth whereof in the theory no mans doubts is little considered or thought upon by the most of man-kind But notwithstanding all these monitions and remembrances of Mortality the living lay 〈◊〉 not to heart and look upon it as a buâ—â—ness that little concerns them as if they were not concerned in this common condition of man-kind and as if the condition of Mortality only concerned them that actually die or are under the immediate Harbingers of it some desperate or acute diseases but concerned not them that are at present in health or not under the stroke of a mortal sickness The Reasons of this Inconsiderateness seem principally these 1. That men are not willing to entertain this unwelcom thought of their own latter End the thought whereof is so unwelcom and troublesom a Guest that it seems to blast and disparage all those present enjoyments of Sense that this Life affords Whereby it comes to pass that as Death it self is unwelcom when it draws near so the thoughts and apprehensions of it becomes as unwelcom as the thing it self 2. A vain foolish conceit that the consideration of the latter End is a kind of presage and invitation of it and upon this account I have known many superstitiously and foolishly to forbear the making of their Wills because it seemed to them ominous and a presage of Death whereas this consideration though it fits and prepares man for Death it doth no way hasten or presage it 3. A great difficulty that ordinarily attends our humane condition to think otherwise concerning our condition than what at present we feel and find We are now in health and we can hardly bring our selves to think that a time must and will come wherein we shall be sick We are now in life and therefore we can hardly cast our thoughts into such a mould to think we shall die and hence it is true as the common Proverb is That there is no man so old but he thinks he shall live a year longer It is true this is the way of man-kind to put far from us the evil day and the thought of it but this our way is our folly and one of the greatest occasions of those other follies that commonly attend our lives and therefore the great means to care this folly and to make us wise is wisely to consider our latter end This Wisdom appears in those excellent effects it produceth which are generally these two 1. It teacheth us to live well 2. It teacheth us to die easily For the former of these the consideration of our latter end doth in no sort make our lives the shorter but it is a great means to make our lives the better 1. It is a great monition and warning of us to avoid Sin and a great means to prevent it When I shall consider that certainly I must die and I know not how soon why should I commit those things that if they hasten not my latter end yet they will make it more uneasie and troublesom by the reflection upon what I have done amiss I may die to morrow why should I commit that evil that will then be gall and bitterness unto me would I do it if I were to die to morrow why should I then do it to day perchance it may be the last act of my Life and however let me not conclude so ill for for ought I know it may be my concluding Act in this Scene of my Life 2. It is a great motive and means to put us upon the best and most profitable improvement of our time There be certain Civil and Natural actions of our lives that God Almighty hath indulged and allowed to us and indeed commanded us with moderation to use As the competent supplies of our own Natures with moderation and sobriety the provision for our Families Relations and Dependances without covetousness or anxiety the diligent and faithful walking in our Callings and discharge thereof But there are also other businesses of greater importance which yet are attainable without injuring our selves in those common concerns of our Lives namely our knowledge of God and of His Will of the doctrine of our Redemption by Christ our Repentance of Sins past making and keeping our Peace with God acquainting our selves with Him living to His Glory walking as in His Presence Praying to Him learning to Depend upon Him Rejoycing in Him walking Thankful unto Him These and such like as these are the great Business and End of our Lives for which we enjoy them in this World and these fit and prepare us for that which is to come And the consideration that our Lives are short and uncertain and that Death will sooner or later come puts us upon this resolution and practice to do this our great work while it is called to day that we loiter not away our day and neglect our task and work while we have time and opportunity lest the night overtake us when we cannot work to gain Oyl in our Lamps before the door be shut And if men would wisely consider their latter Ends they might do this great business this one thing
necessary with ease and quietness yea and without any neglect of what is necessary to be done in order to the common necessities of our Lives and Callings it is not these that disable us and rob us of our time But the Thieves that rob us of our time and our one thing necessary are negligence excess of pleasures immoderate and excessive cares and solicitousness for Wealth and Honour and Grandeur excessive eating and drinking curiosity idleness these are the great consumptives that do not only exhaust that time that would be with infinite advantage spent in our attainment and perfecting and finishing the great work and business of our lives and then when Sickness come and Death come and God Almighty calls upon us to give up the Account of our Stewardship we are all in confusion our business is not half done it may be not begun and yet our Lamp is out our day is spent night hath overtaken us and what we do is with much trouble perplexity and vexation and possibly our Soul takes its flight before we can finish it and all this would have been prevented and remedied by a due consideration of our latter End and that would have put us upon making use of the present time and present opportunity to do our great work while it is called to day because the night cometh when no man can work 3. Most certainly the wise consideration of our latter End and the employing of our selves upon that Account upon that One thing necessary renders the life the most contenting and comfortable life in the World For as a man that is a man afore-hand in the World hath a much more quiet life in order to externals than he that is behind-hand so such a man that takes his opportunity to gain a stock of grace and favour with God that hath made his peace with his Maker through Christ Jesus hath done a great part of the chief business of his Life and is ready upon all occasions for all conditions whereunto the Divine Providence shall assign him whether of life or death or health or sickness or poverty or riches he is as it were aforehand in the business and concern of his everlasting and of his present state also If God lend him longer life in this World he carries on his great business to greater degrees of perfection with ease and without difficulty trouble or perturbation But if Almighty God cut him shorter and calls him to give an account of his Stewardship he is ready and his accounts are fair and his business is not now to be gone about Blessed is that Servant whom his Master when he comes shall find so doing 2. As thus this Consideration makes the Life better so it makes Death easie 1. By frequent consideration of death and dissolution he is taught not to fear it he is as it were acquainted with it aforehand by often preparation for it Thâ— fear of death is more terrible than death iâ— self and by frequent consideration thereof a man hath learned not to fear it Everâ—â—â— Children by being accustomed to what was at first terrible to them learn not to fear 2. By frequent consideration of our latter End death becomes to be no surprize unto us The great terror of death is when it surpriseth a man unawares but anticipation and preparation for it takes away any possibility of surprize upon him that is prepared to receive it Bilney the Martyr was used before his Martyrdom to put his Finger in the Candle that so the flames might be no novelty unto him not surprize him by reason of unacquaintedness with it and he that often considers his latter end seems to experiment death afore it comes whereby he is neither surprised nor affrighted with it when it comes 3. The greatest sting and terror of death are the past and unrepented Sins of the past life the reflection upon these is that which is the strength the elixir the venom of death it self He therefore that wisely considers his latter end takes care to make his peace with God in his life time and They true Faith and Repentance to get his Pardon sealed to enter into Covenant with his God and to keep it to husband his time in the fear of God to observe His Will and keep His Laws to have his Conscience clean and clear And being thus prepared the malignity of death is cured and the bitterness of it healed and the fear of it removed and when a man can entertain it with such an Appeal to Almighty God as once the good King Hezekiah made in that sickness which was of it self mortal Isa 38. 3. Remember now I beseech thee O Lord how I have walked before thee with a perfect heart c. it makes as well the thought as the approach of death no terrible business 4. But that which above all makes death easie to such a considering man is this That by the help of this Consideration and the due improvement of it as is before shewn death to such a man becomes nothing else but a Gate unto a better life not so much a dissolution of his present life as a change of it for a far more glorious happy and immortal life So that though the Body dyes the Man dyes not for the Soul which is indeed the Man makes but a transition from her life in the Body to a life in Heaven no moment intervenes between the putting off the one to the putting on the other And this is the great Priviledge that the Son of God hath given us that by His death hath sanctified it unto us and by His life hath conquered it not only in Himself but for us 1 Cor. 15.57 Thanks be unto God who hath given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord and our Victory that is thus given us is this 1. That the sting of death is taken away and 2. That this very death it self is rendred to us a Gate and passage to life eternal and upon this account it can neither hurt nor may justly affright us It is reported of the Adder that when she is old she glides through some strait passage and leaves her old skin in the passage and thereby renews her vigour and her life It is true this passage through death is somewhat strait and uneasie to the Body which like the decayed skin of the Adder is left by the way and not without some pain and difficulty to it but the Soul passeth through without any harm and without any expence of time and in the next moment acquires her estate of Immortality and Happiness And this is the Victory over Death that all those have that by true Repentance and Faith are partakers of Christ and the benefits of His Death and Resurrection who hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel And now having gone through the benefits of this wise consideration of our latter ends I shall now add some Cautions that are necessary to be
analogical ratiocination which they find in brutes but define a man by his Religion Homo est animal religiosum because in this they find no communication or similitude of natures or operations between men and brute beasts for man iâ— the only visible creature that expresseth any inclination to Religion or the sense of a Deity or any exercise of it I do not stand to justifie this Opinion in all particulars only those things are most certain 1. That only the Humane nature seems to have any sense or impression of any regulary Religion upon it 2. That the sense of a Deity and Religion resulting from it is the great ennobling and advance and perfection of the Humane nature 3. That take away the fear of God all sense and use of Religion falls to the ground So that the Fear of God is the great foundation of Religion and consequently the great ennobling and advance of Humane nature that seems almost as great a prelation of a man truly religious above an irreligious man as to operations and use as there is between an irreligious man and a brute As Religion advanceth so Irreligion embaseth the Humane nature 2. Justice is of two kinds Distributive which is the justice of a Magistrate or Judge distributing rewards and punishments favour and displeasure and due retribution to every man according to the merits of his cause 2. Commutative which is in all Civil contracts and dealings between persons as dealing honestly keeping promises and using plainness sincerity and truth in all a man sayeth or doeth and both these kinds of Justice are effects of excellent Wisdom without these States and Societies and persons fall into disorder confusion and dissolution and therefore those very men that have not this justice and righteousness yet honour and value those that have it and use it And the fear of Almighty God is that which begetteth and improveth both these kinds of Justice Hence it was that Moses in his choice of Judges directs that they should be men fearing God and hating covetousness Jehosaphat in his Charge to his Judges thought this the best expedient to contain them within the bounds of Justice to put them in remembrance before whom and for whom they are to judge And the very Heathens themselves were some of them used to set an empty Chair in the place of Judicature as an Emblem of the presence of God the invisible and yet all-seeing God as present in the Courts of Justice observing all the Judges do and this they esteemed an excellent means to keep Judges to their duty by representing to them the glorious God beholding them And as thus in distributive Justice the fear of God is a great means to keep and improve it so in commutative Justice the fear of God gives a secret and powerful Law to a man to keep and observe it And hence it is that Joseph could give no greater assurance to his Brethren of his just dealing with them than this Gen. 42.18 This do for I fear God and on the other side Abraham could have no greater cause of suspition of ill and unjust dealing from the People with whom he conversed â—han this that they wanted the fear of God Gen. 20.11 Because I thought the fear of God was not in this place c. The sense of the Greatness and Majesty and Power and Justice and all-seeing Presence and Command of Almighty God lays a greater obligation and engagement upon a Heart fearing God to deal justly and honestly than all the terrours of Death it self can do And if any one say How came it to pass that the Heathen that knew not and therefore feared not the true God were yet great assertors maintainers and practisers of all Civil Justice and Righteousness between man and man I say though they knew not the true God they knew there was a God whom though ignorantly they feared And this imperfect and broken fear of God was the true cause of that Justice and Righteousness that was sincerely and not for ostentation practised among them and though they mistook the true God yet in this they were not mistaken that there was a God and this truth had that great prevalence upon them to do justly And if that imperfect fear of God in them did so much prevail as to make them so just how much more must the true knowledge and the fear of the true God prevail to advance Righteousness and Justice in them that have that fear of God in their Hearts 3. It is a great part of Wisdom that concerns a person in the exercise of the Duties of his Relations and indeed it is a great part of Justice and Righteousness Now thâ— fear of Almighty God hath these two great advantages therein First the will of God instructs exactly all relations in their Duties of these reciprocal relations and this will of God is revealed in his Word which contains excellent Precepts of all kinds suitable to every several relation Secondly the fear of God sets these Directions close upon the Heart and is a severe and constant obligation to observe them And so this fear of God doth effectually fit habituate guide and oblige a man to the Duties of his several relations it makes a good Magistrate a good Subject a good Husband a good Wife a good Father a good Child a good Master a good Servant in all those several kinds of goodness that are peculiar and proper to the several relations wherein a man stands 4. Sincerity Uprightness Integrity and Honesty are certainly true and real Wisdom Let any man observe it while he will an hypocrite or dissembler or double-hearted man though he may shuffle it out for a while yet at the long run he is discovered and disappointed and betrays very much folly at the latter end when a plain sincere honest man holds it out to the very last so that the Proverb is most true that Honesty is the best Policy Now the great Priviledge of the fear of God is that it makes the Heart sincere and upright and that will certainly make words and actions so For he is under the sense of the inspection and animadversion of that God that searches the Heart and therefore he dares not lye nor dissemble not flatter not prevaricate because he knows the pure all-seeing righteous God that loves truth and integrity and hates lying and dissimulation beholds and sees and observes him and knows his thoughts words and actions It is true that vain-glory and ostentation and reputation and designs and ends may many times render the outward actions specious and fair when the Heart runs quite another way and accordingly would frame the actions if those ends and designs and vain-glory and ostentation were not in the way but the fear of God begins with the Heart and puriâ—â—fies and rectifies it and from the Heart thus rectified grows a conformity in the life the words the actions 5. The great Occasion and Reason of the Folly of
his life 2. Concerning afflictions that particularly concern a man in his Estate It is very true that some are more afflicted in this kind than others The more wealth any man hath the more he is obnoxious to losses and the more any man loves wealth the deeper the affliction of this nature wounds him And this is generally true in all worldly matters whatsoever the more a man's heart is set upon it the deeper and the more bitter the cross or affliction is therein But though afflictions in this kind pinch some closer than others yet there are very few that totally escape in this kind The poor man reckons it his affliction that he wants wealth and the rich man is not without his affliction either in the loss of it or the fear of such losses which create as real a trouble as the loss it self Fire and shipwrack envy and oppression false accusations robbers a prodigal Heir or a false Friend thousands of such like avenues there are to a rich man's Treasure and either they do actually attach it and then they cause sorrow or they do continually menace it and so they cause fear Nay sometimes a rich man hath as great an affliction in his not knowing where or how to dispose of his Wealth as he hath that waâ—â—s it 3. Touching affliction in the Name Most certainly of all things in the World a good name is most easily exposed to the injury of any person a false accusation or false report an action or word misinterpreted A man hath no security of his Wealth against invasions of other but he hath much less security touching his Name because it is in the keeping of others more than of the man himself and it is visible to every man's experience that he that hath the greatest name is most exposed to the envy and therefore to the detraction and calumnies of others and he that values his name and reputation most is easiest blasted and deeper wounded by a calumny though really false than he that hath little reputation or that esteems it lightly 4. Touching Friends There are two things that induce the loss of friends 1. That which seems casual yet very common whereby either friends become enemies or at least grow into neglect which is sometimes done by misrepresentations false reports by prevalence of factions by differences in matters of interest by the declination of a man's condition 2. That which is certain Death takes away a man's friends and relations from him or him from them the more friends and relations any man hath the more losses of them or in them he shall necessarily have upon this account because every one of them is subject to all those casualties that any one of them is subject to whether in estate name body or death and consequently the more friends and relations the more crosses and calamities for all the crosses or losses that befall any of my friends are communicated to me and in a manner made mine and the greater my number of friends and relations are the more losses of them and in them I am subject to for every one of them is subject to the same calamities with my self which become in effect mine by participation So that the more friends and relations I have and the dearer and nearer they are the more crosses I have by participating theirs and every bitter Arrow that wounds any of them glanceth upon me and makes my wounds the more by how much the more friends and relations I have and makes them the deeper by how much the nearer or dearer those friends or relations are to me It is true that in a multitude of good and dear friends and relations there is a communication of more comforts but since generally the Scene of every man's life is fuller of crosses than comforts the troubles and afflictions of my many friends or relations out-ballance and over-weigh those comforts And these crosses and afflictions in body estate name and friends though possibly they may not all come together or in their perfection at one time upon any one man yet as no man is exempt from any of them at any time by any special priviledge so sometimes they have saln in together in their perfection even upon some of the best men that we read of Witness that great and signal Example of Job who at one time suffered the loss of all his Children of all his Servants of all his Goods of his great and honourable esteem among men of his health and beside all this lay under severe afflictions in his mind and under the imputation of an Hypocrite with his best and judicious friends Upon all this that hath bin said a man may and upon evident reason and experience ought to conclude That even the mâ—st sincere Piety and Integrity of Heart and Life cannot give any man an exemption or priâ—â—ledâ—e from Affiâ—ctions of some or indeed of any kind And this Consideration alone is sufficient 1. To silence and quiet that murmuring and unquiet and proud distemper that often ariseth in the minds of good men themselves that are ready to think themselves much injured if they fall under the calamities incident to mankind whereas the just and wise God never gave any promise or priviledge or exemption from external calamities and troubles to those whom yet he owns as his Children 2. This consideration is sufficient to quiet the mind of persons thus afflicted against that commâ—n temptation which is apt to arise upon this â—â—â—asion as if they were hated or sorâ—aken of God because sorely afflicted Where as most certainly the favour or love of God is not to be measured simply by externals but rather the Gospel teacheth us a quite conâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 that God â—-pleased to chasten those whom he loveth best 3. This consideration is sufficient to cheek that censorious humour that is in many who like the Barbarians presently conclude that person or place to be more sinful than others because they suffer more it may be than others This was the uneharitable and indeed unreasonable errour of Job's Friends of old and of many at this time in reference both to publick and personal visitations 2. The second good Preparative against Affliction is a frequent practical suppâ—sition where with we are to entertain our selves even in the time of our greatest Prosperity That the Case may and probably will be altered with us and so to cast our selves as it were into the mold of an afflicted condition For instance I am now in health what if I were now to enter into the valley of the shadow of death into some acute or painful or desperate disease how am I sitted with patience resignation of my self into the hand of God contempt of the World for such an estate as this I must come to sooner or later how shall I bear or carry my self in it or under it were it now upon me I have now a plentiful Estate external affluence what if at this
me Let sweet Repose and Rest my portion be Give me some mean obscure Recess a Sphere Out of the road of Business or the fear Of Falling lower where I sweetly may My Self and dear Retirement still enjoy Let not my Life or Name be known unto The Grandees of the Times tost to and fro By Censures or Applause but let my Age Slide gently by not overthwart the Stage Of Publick Interest unheard unseen And unconcern'd as if I ne're had been And thus while I shall pass my silent days In shady Privacy free from the Noise And busles of the World then shall I A good old Innocent Plebeian dy Death is a mere Surprize a very Snare To him that makes it his lifes greatest care To be a publick Pageant known to All But unacquainted with Himself doth fall OF CONTENTATION AND The MOTIVES to It BOTH MORAL and DIVINE PHIL. IV. II. For I have learned in Whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content THere are Three excellent Virtues which especially refer to our condition in this life and much conduce to our safe and Comfortable passage through them 1. Equality of Mind or AEquanimity 2. Patience 3. Contentedness 1. Equality of Mind or Equanimity is that virtue which refers both to prosperity and adversity whereby in all conditions of that kind we carry an even and equal temper neither over-much lifted up by prosperity nor over-much depressed in adversity 2. Patience properly refers to crosses disappointment afflictions and adversity whereby we carry a quiet and submissive mind without murmuring passion or discomposure of spirit in all afflictions whether sickness loss of friends poverty reproach disgrace or the like 3. Contentation which differs from equality of mind because that respects as well prosperity as adversity this only adversity and in some respects differs also from Patience though this always accompanies it 1. In the extent of the object for patience respects all kinds of affliction contentedness in propriety of speech respects principally the affliction of want or poverty 2. In the act it self for patience in propriety of speech implyes only a quiet composed toleration of the evils of adversity but contentedness imports somewhat more namely not only a quietness of mind but a kind of cheerful free submission to our present condition of adversity a ready compliance with the Divine Providence and in effect a choice of that state wherein the Divine Dispensation placeth us as well as in bearing it These though they may in strictness give a distinction between Patience and Contentation yet we must observe that Contentation is never without Patience though it be something more and that in the common acceptation and latitude of the word Contentation doth not only extend to the condition or affliction of poverty but even to all other outward afflictions reached to us by the inflicting or permitting hand of Divine Providence and in this large acceptation I shall here apply and use it Content therefore in its large acceptation is not only a quiet and patient but also a free and cheerful closing with that estate and condition of life which the Divine Dispensation shall allott unto us whether mean or poor or laborious and painful or obscure or necessitous or sickly or unhealthy or without friends or with loss or absence of friends or unkindness of friends or any other state that seems ungrateful to our natures or disposition For we need not apply this virtue to a state of high prosperity in all things wherein though men are not ordinarily contented yet they have but small temptations to discontent from the estate it self wherein they so are This lesson of Contentation was learnt by this Apostle which imports these things 1. That it is a lesson that is possible to be learned for the Apostle had learned it 2. That it is a lesson that requires something of industry and pains to acquire it for he learned it before he attained it 3. That it is a lesson that deserves the learning for he speaks of it as of a thing of moment and great use well worth the pains he took to attain it And the truth is it is of so great importance to be learned that without it we want the comfort of our lives and with it all conditions of life are not only tolerable but comfortable And hence it is that this excellent Apostle doth very often inculcate and press and commend this lesson in many of his Epistles 1 Tim. 6.6 Godliness with contentment is great gain Heb. 13.5 Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will not leave thee nor forsake thee Again 1 Tim. 6.8 And having food and rayment let us be therewith content I shall therefore set down those Reasons that may perswade and encourage us to contentation with our condition and likewise to patience under it for patience and contentation cannot be well severed And the Reasons are of two sorts 1. Moral 2. Divine and Evangelical Neither shall I decline the use of Moral Reasons considering how far by the help of these many Heathens that had not the true knowledge of God revealed in his Word and Son advanced in the practice of these virtues The Moral Reasons therefore are these 1. Very many of the external evils we suffer are of our own choice and procurement the fruits of our own follies and inadvertence and averseness to good counsel And why should we be discontented or impatient under those evils which we our selves have chosen or repine because these trees bear their natural fruit 2. The greatest part of evils we suffer are of that nature and kind that are not in our power either to prevent or help Some come from the very condition of our nature as sicknesses death of friends and of absolute necessity the more relations any man hath the more evils of this kind we may suffer And can we reasonably expect that the very natures of things should be changed to please our humour Again some come from the hands of men that it may be are powerful more subtil and malicious Why should we discontent our selves or be impatient because others are too strong for us Others again come by occurtences natural though disposed by the hand of the Divine Providence as losses by storms and tempests by unseasonable weather by intemperateness of the air or meteors Can we reasonably expect that the great God of Heaven and Earth should alter his setled Laws of Nature for the convenience of every such little Worm as you or I am It may be that storm or intemperate season that may do you or me some prejudice may do others as many and as good or it may be more and better a benefit that wind that strikes my Ship against the Rock may fetch off two or more from the Sands Let us be content therefore to suffer Almighty God to govern the World according to his wisdom and not our will
the enjoying of them a right use of the World and yet a contempt of it in comparison of my hope It makes death not terrible because a most sure passage to life Here I find a way to get all my sins pardoned whereas without this all the world cannot contrive a Satisfaction for one I find a way to obtain such a righteousness as is valuable with God and perfect before him even the righteousness of God in Christ And here I find the means and only means to avoid the wrath to come the terrour of the judgment of the great day Everlasting life unto all Eternity with the Blessed God and our Lord Jesus Christ and all the blessed Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect Thus this knowledge is useful for this life and that which is to come and that in the highest degree which all other knowledge comes short of and attains not to any one of the least of these ends 5. In the Duration and Continuance of it Many subjects of knowledge there are wherein by time or at least by death the knowledge proves unuseful or at least the labour therein unprofitable and lost For instance I study to be very exact in Natural Philosophy the mixtures or conjunctions of qualities elements and a thousand such enquiries What use will this be when the World with the works thereof shall be burnt up Or if it should not what great benefit would this be to a separated Soul which doubtless shall either know much more therein without any pains and so the labour here lost or in shall be such a knowledge as will be unconsiderable or unuseful to it And so and much more for the studies of Policy Methods of War Mechanical Experiments Languages Laws Customs Histories all these within one minute after death will be as useless as the knowledge of a Taylor or Shoomaker they are all dated for the convenience and use of this life and with it they vanish But here is the priviledge and advantage that this knowledge hath as it serves for this life so it serves for that to come and the more it is improved here the more shall it be dilated hereafter the higher measure thereof I attain here the greater measure of glory hereafter As the more knowledge I have of the mystery of Christ here the greater is my sight and admiration of the wisdom and goodness and love of God the greater my joy and complacence and delight in that sight and sense and the more my Soul carried out in the love and praise and obedience unto him So in the life to come that knowledge shall improve and consequently the sense of the wisdom mercy and love of God and consequently the flame of the Soul of love and praise unto him and delight and joy in him shall increase unto all eternity 2. As thus the knowledge of Christ Jesus and him crucified excells all other knowledge and so in comparison thereof all other knowledge upon a right judgment is as nothing so the Soul being rightly convinced thereof sets a higher price upon that knowledge than upon all other knowledge besides it priseth it highly in it self and others reckons all other knowledge without it but a curious ignorance or an impertinent knowledge and contents it self abundantly in this knowledge though it want other 3. Because that which is of most concernment requires my greatest diligence to attain it I am contented and greedy to spend more time in attaining this than that and I will rob other studies and disquisitions of the time that otherwise might be conducible to attain the knowledge of them rather than those studies should consume that time that should be allotted to this My Time is part of that Talent which my Maker hath put into my hand and for which he will at the great day demand an account and if I have spent that talent in unprofitable employments or in less profitable than I should my arrear is so much the greater If I have consumed my time in studying my preferment honour or wealth in this world in studying how to please my self with vain and unnecessary recreations in unlawful or excessive pleasures in unlawful or immoderate curiosities which I might better have spent in the study of the mystery of Christ or the conformity unto that Will and Testament he left me or improving my interest in him I have committed two follies at once 1. Lost my talent of time and opportunity for which I am accountable as mispent 2. Lost that advantage which I had in my hand to improve my interest in God and favour from him and love to him and though I have done so much as may perchance preserve the main yet I have omitted so much as might have more increased my stock of Grace and Glory my talent might have gained ten and at most it hath gained but two And surely when death comes the most comfortable hours that can return to our memories will be those we spent in improving the true and experimental practical knowledge of Christ Jesus and him crucified 4. Consequently where this knowledge and the other knowledge of an inferiour rate justle and cross one another it is the best wisdom to side with this and to deny the other to become a fool that he may be wise 1 Cor. 3.18 2. Thus concerning the first Consideration I determined not to know any thing viz. nothing in comparison of this knowledge of Christ nothing rather than not that Save Christ Jesus And truly well might the Apostle make all other knowledge give place to this first for the Excellency of it whereof before secondly for the Amplitude and Compass of it for though it be so excellent that a small dram of it is sufficient to heal and save a Soul if it be a right knowledge as is before observed yet it is so large that when the best knowledge hath gone as far as it can yet there is still aliquid ultra One consideration of it even the Love of God hath a bredth and length and depth and height passing knowledge Eph. 3.18 19. and yet there be other depths and heights in it than this so that well might the Apostle conclude as he doth 1 Tim. 3.16 Without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh Therefore for the present we shall consider 1. The Wonderful Wisdom of God in contriving and ordering the Redemption of Mankind by Christ Jesus and it is manifest in these particulars among others 1. That though he made Man the eminentest of all his visible Creatures for a most eminent manifestation of his power and glory and to be partaker of everlasting blessedness and yet in his Eternal Counsel resolved to leave him in the hands of his own liberty and did most certainly foresee that he would fall yet he did substitute and provide even from the same Eternity a means whereby he might be restored to the honour and glory of his creature and
Priests and Scribes the then external visible Church the Husbandmen of the Vineyard Matth. 21.33 But this is not all as the visible Church of the Jews is the Conclave where this Council is formed so Judas a member of the visible Church of Christ one of the Twelve is the Instrument to effect it Matth. 26.14 he contracts with them for Thirty pieces of Silver to betray his Master unto them And surely this could not choose but be a great grief to our Saviour that one of his select Apostles should turn Apostate and thereby brought a blemish upon the rest Upon the day of Eating of the Passover called the first day of the Feast of unleavened bread our Saviour and his Disciples keep the Passover together in Jerusalem and there the two memorials of our Saviour's Passion meet that of the Passover instituted by God and the Israelites going out of Egypt and the Bread and Wine after Supper instituted by our Saviour to succeed in the place of the former and each did questionless make a deep impression upon our Saviour in which he anticipated his Passion and lively represented to him that breaking and pouring out of his Blood and Soul which he was suddenly to suffer And doubtless here began a great measure of our Saviour's Passion in the apprehension which he had of that imminent Storm that he must speedily undergo From the Supper they go together to the Mount of Olives and there he acquaints his Disciples of a speedy and sorrowful parting they must have the Shepherd is to be smitten that night and the Sheep to be scattered and as he foresaw Judas treachery so he foresees Peter's infirmity the storm should be so violent that Peter himself the resolutest Apostle shall deny his Master that night and deny him thrice And surely the foresight of the distraction that should befall his poor Disciples could not choose but add much to their tender Master's affliction Matth. 26.31 All ye shall be offended because of me this night And now let us follow our Blessed Lord from the Mount of Olives into the Garden called by the Apostles Gethsemane with the affections of love and wonder in some measure becoming such an entertainment of our thoughts The Time that he chose for this retirement was the dead time of the night a season that might the more contribute to the strength of that sadness which the pre-apprehension of his imminent Passion must needs occasion The Place that he chose a solitary retired Garden where nothing might nor could interrupt or divert the intensiveness of his sorrow and fear And to make both the time and place the more opportune for his Agony he leaves the rest of his Disciples and takes with him only Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee Matth. 26.37 and to these he imparts the beginning of his sorrow that they might be witnesses of it Matth. 26. 37 38. My sould is exceeding sorrowful even unto death but yet commands their distance vers 38. Tarry ye here and watch with me and he went a little further Watch with me The confusion of his Soul was so great that the only Son of God distrusts his own humane ability to bear it and yet his submission to this terrible conflict was so willing that he leaves them that he had appointed to watch with him He went a little farther The three Disciples had doubtless a sympathy with their Master's sorrow and yet the will of God so orders it that their excess of love and grief must not keep their Eyes waking notwithstanding it was the last request of their sorrowful Master The disciples slept Matth. 26. 40. And thus every circumstance of Time Place and Persons contribute to a sad and solitary opportunity for this most terrible and black conflict And now in this Garden the mighty God puts his Son to grief lades him with our sorrows Isa 53.4 withdraws and hides from him the light of his favour and countenance interposeth a thick and black cloud between the Divinity and the humane nature darts into his Soul the sad and sharp manifestations of his wrath overwhelms his Soul with one wave after another sends into him the most exquisite pre-apprehensions of those sad and severe sufferings he was the next day to undergo begins to make his Soul and Offering for Sin and heightens his sorrow confusion and astonishment unto the uttermost In sum the mighty God the God of the spirits of all flesh who knows the way into the Soul and how to fill it with the most sad and black astonishment and sorrow was pleased at this time to estrange and eclipse the manifestation of his light and love to his only Son as far as was possibly consistent with his secret and eternal love unto him to throw into him as sad and amazing apprehensions of his wrath as was possible to be consistent with the humane nature to bear to fortifie and strengthen his sense of it and sorrow for and under it unto the uttermost that so his grief and sorrow and confusion of soul might be brim-full and as much as the exactest constitution of a humane nature could possibly bear And thus now at this time the Arm of the mighty God was bruising the Soul of his only Son Isa 53.16 And certainly the extremity of this agony within must needs be very great if we consider the strange effects it had without 1. That pathetical description thereof that our Saviour himself makes of it My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Matth. 26.37 so sorrowful exceeding sorrowful sorrowful unto death and the expressions of the Evangelists Matth. 26.37 He began to be sorrowful and very heavy Mark 14.33 He began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy It was such a sorrow as brought with it an amazement an astonishment 2. Again that strange request to his three Disciples Tarry ye and watch with me as if he feared the sorrow would overwhelm him 3. Again his Prayer and the manner of it evidence a most wonderful perturbation within Matth. 26.39 He fell on his face and prayed and what was the thing he prayed Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Or as Mark 14.36 Abba Father all things are possible unto thee take away this cup from me c. although that this was the very end for which he came into the World the Cup which in former times he reached after and was straitned till it were fulfilled yet such a representation there is thereof to his Soul that though in the will of his obedience he submits Not my will but thine be done Yet his nature shrinks and starts at it and he engageth Almighty God as much as upon as great arguments as was possible to decline the severity of that wrath which he was now to grapple with 1. Upon the account of his Omnipotency All things are possible to thee 2. Upon the account of his Relation Abba Father It is not a stranger that importunes
only both Evangelists Matthew and Luke testifie it was a cry with a loud voice to evidence to the world that in the very article of his giving up of the ghost the strength of nature was not wholly spent for he cryed with a loud voice 3. The comfortable resignation of his soul unto the hands of his Father Luk. 23. 46. Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And although but even now the black storm was upon his soul that made him cry out with that loud and bitter cry yet the cloud is over and with comfort he delivers up his soul into the hands of that God whom he thought but even now had forsaken him It is more than probable that that bitter cry was uttered at the very Zenith of all his pains and when he had taken the vinegar and proclaimed that it is finished though they were all wrapt up in a very small time about the end of the ninth hour yet now there remained no more but for him to give up his spirit which he instantly thereupon did Joh. 19.30 He said It is finished he bowed the head and gave up the ghost Now the things wonderfully observable in the death of our Saviour are many 1. That it was a voluntary delivering up of his spirit this is that which he said Matth. 10.18 No man taketh it from me but I lay it down I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again this commandment have I received of my Father And truly this voluntary delivering up of his soul was well near as great an evidence of his Divinity as his resuming it again so that this very delivering up of his soul converted the Centurion Mar. 15.39 When he saw that he so cryed and gave up the ghost he said Truly this man was the Son of God Now that he thus voluntarily gave up his spirit is evident 1. By the strength of nature that was yet upon him in the very article of his death he cryed with a loud voice 2. That the Thieves who were crucified at the same time dyed not till there was a farther violence used by breaking their legs Joh. 19.32 but he expired to prevent the violence of the Souldiers and to fulfill the type and prophecy Not a bone of him shall be broken Joh. 19.36.3 That the suddenness of his death caused admiration in those that well knew the lingring course of such a death in the Centurion Mar. 15.39 in Pilate Mar. 15.44 which might probably be the cause that the insolent Souldier to secure the assurance of his death pierced his side with a spear Job 19.34 and thereby fulfilled that other Scripture which he never thought of Job 15.37 Now the wonderful occurrences that accompanied our Saviour's death were very many and considerable 1. A strange and particular Fulfilling of the Prophecies and Types that were concerning our Saviour's death and the very individual circumstances that attended it and all to consirm our Faith that this was indeed the Messias and that he was thus delivered over to death by the most certain and pre-determinate Counsel of God The Time of his Death so exactly predicted by Daniel ch 9.v.25 26. the parallel circumstances with the Paschal Lamb in the nature of him a Lamb without spot Exod. 12.5 in the time of his delivery over to death at the Feast of the Passover and the very evening wherein the Passover was to be eaten In the Manner of his Oblation not a bone to be broken Exod. 12.46 again the Manner of his Death by piercing his hands and his feet Psal 22.16 the very Words used by him Psal 22.1 Matth. 27. 46. the Words used of him Psal 22.8 Matth. 27.43 the crucifying of him between Malefactors Isa 53.12 the Whippings Isa 53.5 the Dividing of his Garments and casting Lotts upon his Vesture Psa 22.18 the Thirst of our Saviour upon the Cross and the giving him Vinegar and Gall Psal 69.21 2. A strange and miraculous Concussion of nature giving testimony to the wonderful and unheard of dissolution of our Saviour's body and soul Darkness from the sixth hour until the ninth hour And it is observable in the night wherein he was born by a miraculous light the night became as day Luk. 2.9 but at his death a miraculous darkness turned the day into night for three hours Matth. 27.45 at his birth a new Star was created to be the lamp and guide unto the place of his birth Matth. 2.9 but at his death the Sun in the firmament was masked with darkness and yielded not his light while the Lord of life was passing into the vail of death Again another prodigy that accompanied the death of Christ was an Earthquake that rent the rocks and opened the graves and strake amazement and conviction into the Centurion that was watching him Math. 27.52 53 54. When our Saviour was entring into the earth by death the earth trembled and so it did when he was coming out of it by his Resurrection Matth. 28.2 3. Again the Graves were opened and the dead bodies of the Saints arose As the touch of the bones of Elisha caused a kind of resurrection 2 Kings 13.21 so our Saviour's body new saln to the earth did give a kind of particular resurrection to the Saints bodies to testifie that by his death he had healed the deadliness of the Grave and that the satisfaction for Sin was accomplished when Death the wages of Sin was thus Conquered 4. Again the Vail of the Temple was Rent in twain from the top to the bottom Matth. 27.57 the Vail was that which divided the most holy place from the rest of the Tabernacle Exod. 26.33 and in that most Holy place were contained the mysterious Types the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy-Seat and within this Vail only the high Priest entred once a year when he made an atonement for the People and for the Tabernacle Levit. 16.33 Heb. 9.7 and now at our Saviour's death this vail was rent from the top to the bottom and it imported divers very great Mysteries 1. That now our great High Priest was entring into the most holy with his own blood having thereby made the atonement for us Heb. 9.12 By his own blood he entred once into the most holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us 2. That the Means whereby he entred into the most holy place was by the Rending of his Humanity his soul from his body typified by the rending of that vail and therefore his flesh that is his whole humane nature was the vail Heb. 10.20 Consecrated through the vail that is his flesh 3. That now by the death of Christ all those dark Mysteries vailed up formerly in the most holy the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy-Seat are now rendred open and their Mysteries unfolded Christ the Mediator of the Covenant and the Seat of Mercy and Acceptation unto all believers founded and seated upon him and thereby that Life and
flesh earthly sensual and devilish Jam 3.15 So that there was not only in our nature an absence of any good that might move God to do any thing for us and an absence of that life that might be sollicitous for it self but there was a positive malignity in our nature against that God that should pardon against that Christ that should satisfie against that Grace and Spirit that should apply We were actuated with those vile affections and lusts that looked upon a Saviour with no less aversion and spite than those devils did that cryed out of the possessed man Art thou come to torment us before our time And yet for these and such as these our Saviour dyed nay some of these who had actually their hands in his blood found the efficacy of that very blood which they shed not crying for revenge against them but for merey for them and healing those who had cruelly spilt it the efficacy of that blessed prayer of his Father forgive them they know not what they do within some few months after his death did first wound their hearts with a sense of their guilt and then healed them with the infusion of his blood Act. 2.23 37. 6. From the consideration of the former particulars it will easily appear what was the Motive of this great work We have seen in the creature nothing but sin and enmity against God and consequently a just obligation to Everlasting wrath and misery so there we can find nothing that might upon any account of merit or desert draw out such merey as this We must seek for the motive in the Author of it and in him there was no necessity at all to bind him to it It was his own free will that at first gave man a being and a blessed being and when he had sinned against the law and condition of his Creation there was a necessity of justice for his eternal punishment but no necessity at all for his Restitution God made all things for his glory not because he stood in need of it for he had in himself an infinite self-sufficiency and happiness that stood not in need of the glory of his creation nor was capable of an accession by it And if it had yet the great God could have enjoyed the glory of his justice in the everlasting punishment of unthankful man and yet had glorious creatures enough the blessed Angels to have been the everlasting partakers and admirers of his goodness And if there had been yet an absolute necessity of visible intellectual creatures to be the participants of his goodness and the active instruments of his glory the same power that created man at first could have created a new generation of men that might have supplied the defection of our first parents and their descendants What then is the original of all this goodness to poor sinful man to purchase such a worthless creature at such an invaluable price as the blood of the Son of God Nothing but Love free undeserved love love that loved before it was sought that loved when it was rejected Deut. 7.7 The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because ye were more but because the Lord loved you he loved you because he loved you As Almighty could not define himself by any thing but himself I am that I am Exod. 3.14 so he can resolve his love into no other motive than his love he loved you because he loved you And here is the spring the fountain of all this strange and unheard of goodness of God in Christ nothing but the free love of God Joh. 3.16 So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. 1 Joh. 4.10 Here is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins and that very same individual love that was in the Father to send was in the Son to come and to dye for us It was he that loved and washed us with his own blood washed us because he loved us When we lay like Ezekiel's wretched infant Ezek. 16.5 6. polluted in our blood when no eye pitied us then this love of God passed by us and said unto us live yea said unto us when we were in our blood live And when that life was not acquirable for us but by the death of the Eternal Son of God then to purchase that life for us he sold his own and to wash us from the pollutions of our blood freely spent and shed his own This was The love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.19 7. Now let us consider the End and Scope of this admirable Love of Christ and as it looks upward towards God so it looks downward towards us as he was the Mediator between both so the end of his Mediatorship had a respect to both 1. In reference to God and so the Ends of our Lord's suffering were principally these 1. To Restore unto Almighty God the active service and glory of his creature Almighty God did at the first create man in such a constitution that he might not only passively and objectively bring unto him the glory of his Power and Wisdom in the framing of such a creature as the Heavens the Stars and other creatures below an intellectual nature do but to be a beholder of himself and his works to be an observer of his will and to glorifie his Maker in the admiration of his Power Wisdom and Goodness and in the Obedience and Observance of his Law and will and to his own glory had by an eternal bond annexed his creature's perfection and blessedness Man rebelled and thereby as he became unserviceable to the end of his creation so he lost the blessedness of his condition Christ came and by his own blood purchased as unto Man his blessedness so unto God the glory and service of his creature This was old Zachary's collection Luk. 2. 74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purâ—sie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And this was the chief part of that account that our Lord giveth unto his Father in that blessed prayer that he made a little before his Passion Joh. 17.4 I have glorified thee on the earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do As if he should have said Thou hast sent me into the world about a great and weighty business the restitution of thy fallen creature and that therein as thy creature may partake of thy goodness so thou mayst reap the glory of thy creature's service And now behold according to that command of thine I here return unto thee thy creature healed and restored that it may be as well a monument as a proclaimer of thy goodness and glory unto all Eternity
2. To manifest unto Men and Angels the Glory and infinite Perfection and Excellence of all his blessed Attributes The glory of his Wisdom in contriving and of his Power in effecting such a deliverance for the children of men by a way that exceeded the disquisition of Men and Angels the glory of his Mercy that could not have been possibly so conspicuous to mankind if man had never faln In the Creation of Man he manifested the glory of his Goodness that communicated a â—â—ing to him that so he might communicate his goodness to him But in the Redemption of Man he manifested his Mercy in forgiving and healing a rebellious and miserable creature the glory of his Justice that would not pardon the Sin till he had a Satisfaction for the sin that would not spare the Son when he chose to be the surety for the sinner 2. In reference to Man and so the ends of our Lord's suffering were principally these 1. To absolve and deliver him from guilt the consequence of sin and misery the fruit of guilt Eph. 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins and surely had the fruit of Christ's death rested here it had been a great degree of mercy if we rightly weighed the heaviness of the burden of guilt the severity of the wrath of God and the extremity of that misery that doth and must attend it If a man under the guilt and horror of some hideous Treason under the severe and inexorable sentence of the Law against him under the imminent infliction of most exquisite and continuing torments should but hear of a Pardon and discharge from this how welcome would it be though the residue of his life were to be spent in exile But our Lord's purchase rests not here 2. To Reconcile God unto his Creature So that it doth not only remove the effects of the anger of God which is punishment which may be removed and yet the anger continuing nor doth it only remove the anger of God and leaves a man in a kind of state of indifferency as it is between persons that never were acquainted one with another But it is a state of Reconciliation Eph. 2.16 That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross having slain the enmity thereby 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them And certainly this is a great addition unto the former that God in Christ should hot only pass by our sins but should no longer look upon us as strangers but as persons reconciled unto him And surely a soul sensible of the unhappy condition of being estranged from God how highly would he prize a state of reconciliation though it were in the meanest and lowest relation Luk. 15.19 I am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants So that I may not be estranged from thee reconcile me unto thy self though in the condition of thy meanest servant But neither doth the happy fruit of â—ur Lord's suffering rest here 3. To restore unto us that near and blessed relation of being Sons of God Gal. 4.5 That we might receive the adoption of sons 1 Joh. 3. 2. Behold now we are the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be This was that dear expression of our Lord after his resurrection Joh. 20.17 Go to my brethren and tell them I ascend unto my Father and your Father to my God and to your God he seems to interess them in this blessed relation in a kind of equality with himself my Brethren my Father and your Father and the sweet and comfortable consequents of this are incomparable Is he my Father then I know he can pity me as a Father pitieth his Children Psal 103.13 he can pardon and spare me as a Father spareth his Son that serves him Mal. 3.17 Is he my Father then whither should I go but to him for protection in all my dangers for direction in all my difficulties for satisfaction in all my doubts for supply in all my wants This I can with confidence expect from a poor earthly Father according to the compass of his abilities If ye then being evil know how to give good things unto your children how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him Matth. 7.11 Mercy and Compassion and Love is a virtue in a man in an earthly Father a piece of that image of God which at first he imprinted in man and yet passion and humane infirmity as it hath much weakened the habit thereof in us so it may suspend the exercise thereof to a near relation But in Almighty God these virtues are in their perfection and nothing at all in him that can remit it Mercy and tenderness are attributes which he delights in mercy pleaseth him it was that great attribute that he proclaimed his name by Exod. 34.6 and so diffusive is his mercy that it extends to all he is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works Psal 145.9 and not only to the just and good but even to the unkind causing his Sun to shine upon the evil and the good and surely he that hath Mercy and Goodness for an Enemy cannot deny it unto a Child Can a mother forget her sucking child c. Yea she may forget yet will I not forget thee saith the Lord. Isa 49.15 4. To restore us to a most sure everlasting and blessed inheritance in heaven Gal. 4.7 If a son then an heir of God through Christ and here is the complement of all not only absolved from the guilt of sin reconciled to God put into the relation of a Child of God but after all this to be everlastingly and unchangeably stated in a blessed condition unto all Eternity and all this from the condition of a most vile sinful lost creature and by such a price as the Blood of Christ More need not cannot be said 5. And by what hath been said it is easie to see what the Fruits and Effects of all this are God will not be disappointed in the end of so great a work and therefore we cannot be disappointed in the fruit of it and those are either such as are enjoyed in this life or principally appropriated to that which is to come 1. Those Benefits that naturally arise from Christ crucified and are enjoyed in this life are these 1. Justification and Acceptation in the sight of God he looks upon us as those that have satisfied his justice when his Son suffered and as those that performed his will when his Son performed it So that as our Lord imputed our fins to our Redeemer so he imputes his righteousness unto us and as he was well pleased with him so he was well pleased in him with as many as are received into this Covenant 2. Peace with God This is the natural consequence of
the former Rom. 5.1 Being justifica by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ the only cause of breach between God and his creature is sin and this being quite removed the enmity between God and his creature is removed and peace and love restored between them 3. Free Access unto God for we are restored unto peace with him and consequently access unto him and indeed it is a part of that duty which he expects from us our access to him is not only our priviledge as the access of a Subject to his Prince or a child to his father but it is our duty as a thing enjoyned unto us in testimony of our dependence and love unto him 4. Consequently Peace with our selves and our own Conscience and that upon a double ground 1. Because our Conscience is sprinkled by the blood of Christ which defaceth and oblitereth all those black Items that otherwise would be continually calling upon us 2. Because Conscience ever sideth with God whose vicegerent she is in the Soul and hath the very same aspect for the most part that heaven hath and therefore if it be clear above it is ordinarily quiet within and if God speaks peace the Conscience unless distempered doth not speak trouble 5. An Assurance of a continual supply of sufficient Grace to lead us through this vale of trouble without a final apostacy or falling from him Were our Salvation in our own hands or managed by our own strength we should utterly lose it every moment but the Power and Truth and Love of God is engaged in a Covenant of the highest solemnity that ever was sealed in the blood of the Son of God for our preservation and it shall be as impossible for us to fall from that condition as for the Almighty God to be disappointed No his counsel and truth the constant supply of the blessed Spirit of Christ shall keep alive that seed of life that he hath thrown into the soul 1 Joh. 3.9 For his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God 6. Sufficient Grace to preserve us from or support us in or deliver us out of temptations We stand more in need of Grace than we do of our bread because the consequence of the want of the former is of more danger than the latter by so much as the Soul is more valuable than the Body If our Father is pleased to furnish us with our daily bread how shall he then deny us our daily and hourly supplies of his Grace Especially since our interest therein is founded upon the covenant made in the blood of Christ 2 Cor. 12.9 My grace is sufficient for thee 7. A favourable Acceptation of our duties since they are the performances of children and therefore not measured according to their own worth but according to the relation and affection from whence they proceed 8. A Gentle and Merciful Pardoning of our Failings even as a Father pitieth and pardoneth the infirmities of a Child and though he doth not dispense with Presumptuous Offences yet he either observes not or forgives their many Infirmities And it is a Priviledge of high concernment to us that as in our first conversion the blood of Christ washeth away a whole life of sins at once so after our conversion the same fountain stands open whereunto we may and must resort to cleanse our daily Failings Christ received by faith in the heart is a continual Sacrifice which I may present unto the Father for my sins committed after my conversion 9. A comfortable Restitution of a just Interest in the creatures When man forsook the Allegiance he owed to his Maker the interest he had in the creature did as it were escheat to the Lord and though his goodness after permitted him the use of them yet it was still as it were upon account And as the sons of men have a great Account to give unto God for their sins so they have for his creatures Christ hath restored unto us a better propriety in that which Civil right hath made ours than what we had before 10. A Comfortable and Sanctified Use of all Conditions in Prosperity Moderation in Adversity Contentedness in all Sobriety For as our Lord hath purchased for us Grace to use all things aright so he hath obtained for us an inheritance that renders the best the world can give us unworthy to be valued and the worst it can give us unworthy to be feared in respect of the blessedness which he hath setled upon us 11. Consequently Contempt of the World because higher matters are in my eye such as the best the world can yield cannot equal nor the worst it can inflict cannot take away And all this upon 12. A Lively Hope a hope that maketh not ashamed even of that Glory which my Saviour came down from heaven to purchase by his blood and the assurance whereof he hath sealed with his blood Joh. 14.2 3. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am ye may be also A hope of a blessed Resurrection after death a hope of that blessed appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ a hope of that glorious sentence in the presence of Men and Angels Come ye blessed and an hope of an Everlasting estate of Blessedness and Glory in the presence of the great God and the glorified Saints and Angels unto all Eternity And the efficacy of this hope dipt in the blood of Christ brings us Victory 1. Victory over Sin Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 2. Victory over the World in the best it can afford us its flatteries and favours these are too small and inconsiderable when compared with this hope they shine like a Candle in the Sun and are ineffectual to win over a Soul that is fixed upon this hope and victory over the worst the world can inflict Our Lord hath conquered the world in this respect for us Be not afraid I have overcome the world Joh. 16. 33. and conquered it in us This is the victory that overcometh the world even your Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 3. Victory over Death which now by means of this blessed hope is stript as well of her terror as of her power Thus thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.57 And now though the nature of this argument hath carried my meditations to a great height yet to avoid mistakes some things I must subjoyn 1. That when I thus aggravate the sufferings of our Lord under the imputed guilt of the sins of mankind yet we must not think that his sufferings were the same with the Damned as not in duration so neither in kind nor in degree
to the consideration of the world without us as that which possibly is here principally intended and the victory of the Christian by his faith over it and first in relation to the Natural World This world as hath been observed is in it self very good and the evil that ariseth from it is only occasional Which is thus it is a goodly Palace fitted with all grateful objects to our senses full of variety and pleasantness and the soul fastening upon them is ready with Peter in the Mount to conclude that it is good to be here and therefore grows careless of the thoughts of another state after death or to think of the passage to it or making provision for it but to set up its hopes and happiness and rest in it and in these delights and accommodations that it yields our senses Faith overcometh this part of the world by assuring the soul that this lower world is only the place of our probation not of of our happiness our Inn not our home It presents to the mind a state of happiness to be attained after death infinitely surpassing all the contents and conveniences that this world can yield and that one great means to attain it is by setting our hearts upon it and not upon the world but using this present world not as the end of our hopes but as our passage to it and to carry a watchful hand over our desires and delights towards it or in it that it steal not away our heart from out everlasting treasure to carry a sober and temperate mind towards it and use of it as in the sight of that God that lends it us to excite our thankfulness and try our obedience not to rob him of the love and service and duty we owe unto him In short the methods whereby faith overcometh this part of the world are these 1. By giving us a true estimate of it to prevent us from overvaluing it 2. By frequent re-minding of us that it is only fitted to the meridian of this life which is short and transitory and passeth away 3. By presenting unto us a state of future happiness that infinitely surpasseth it 4. By discovering our duty in our walk through it namely of great moderation and vigilancy 5. By presenting unto us the example of the Captain of our Salvation his deportment in it and towards it 6. By assuring us that we are but Stewards unto the great Lord of the Family of Heaven and Earth for so much as we have of it and that to him we must give an account of our stewardship 7. By assuring us that our great Lord and Master is a constant observer of all our deportment in it 8. And that he will most certainly give a reward proportionable to the management of our trust and stewardship viz. if done sincerely faithfully and obediently to our great Lord and Master a reward of everlasting happiness and glory but if done falsly sinfully and disobediently then a reward of everlasting loss and misery 2. As to the second kind of world the Malignant World of evil men and evil Angels and therein first in relation to the evil Counsels and evil Examples that sollicit or tempt us to breach of our duty to God the methods whereby faith overcometh this part of the malignant world are these 1. It presents unto us our duty that we owe to God and which we are bound indispensibly to observe under the great penalty of loss of our happiness 2. It presents us with the great advantage that we have in obeying God above whatsoever advantage we can have in obeying or following the sinful examples counsels or commands of this world and the great excess of our disadvantage in obeying or following the evil examples or counsels of the world and this makes him at a point with these follicitations peremptory to conclude it is better to obey God than man and with Joseph How can I commit this great wickedness and sin against God 3. It presents Almighty God strictly observing our carriage in relation to these temptations 4. It presents us with the displeasure and indignation of the same God in case we desert him and sollow the sinful examples or counsels of men and with the great favour love approbation and reward of Almighty God if we keep our fidelity and duty to him 5. It presents us with the noble example of our Blessed Saviour 6. It presents us with the transcendent love of God in Christ Jesus who to redeem and rescue us from the misery of our natural condition and from the dominion of sin and to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works chose to become a curse and dye for us the greatest obligation of love and gratitude and duty imaginable And then it leaves the Soul impartially to judge which is the better of the two and whether this malignant World can propound any thing that can be an equivalent motive to follow their commands or examples or that can equal the love of our Saviour the reward of eternal life and the favour of the ever-glorious God and which must be denied and lost by a sinful compliance with evil counsels commands or examples of an evil world It is true the world can perchance reward my compliance herein with honour and applause and favour and riches or they can punish my neglects with reproach and scorn and loss and poverty and it may be with death but what proportion do these bear to the favour and love of God and an eternal recompence of glory and endless happiness The terms therefore of my obedience to the loving and gracious God to whom I owe my utmost duty and obedience though there were no reward attending it do infinitely out-bid and out-weight whatsoever a sinful world can either give or inflict And secondly as to the other part or Scene of this malignant world Persecutions Reproaches Scorns yea Death it self Faith presents the soul not only with the foregoing considerations and that glorious promise Be faithful unto the death and I will give thee a crown of life but some other considerations that are peculiarly proper to this condition viz. 1. That it is that state that our blessed Saviour hath not only foretold but hath annexed a special promise of blessedness unto Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven 2. That there have gone before us a noble Cloud of Examples in all Ages yea the Captain of our Salvation was thus made perfect by suffering 3. That though it is troublesom it is but short and ends with death which will be the passage into a state of incorruptible happiness And this was that which made the Three Children at a point with the greatest Monarch in the world ready to inflict the severest death upon them Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us c. but if not know O king that we will not worship thy graven image which thou
these received the Gospel The Poor receive the Gospel the poor in spirit lowly meek He that receiveth not the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter into it It was fitted and ordered and modeled in such a dress and such a method that it was suitable to the reception of such Souls and none but such were receptive of it Again humility disposeth the Glorious God to give and the humble mind to receive direction and guidance in all the walk and concern of this life A proud heart ordinarily disdaineth and undervalueth all other wisdom but his own and all other counsel but such as suits with his own Wisdom And therefore the most Glorious God most commonly crosseth and disappointeth him or leaves him to the headiness and misery of his own counsels and to eat the bitter fruit of his own rashness and folly For whatever the blind men of the world think the actions of men and their successes are under the regiment of the Divine Will and Providence and it is no wonder if he that invisibly governs the Events of the world take the wise in their own craftiness and mingles giddiness and disappointment in their counfels and breaks the head of all their contrivances for he hath a thousand ways with ease and facility to do it We may every day see what small intervention quite shatters and disorders and overturns the most politick subtil secret and well laid designs in the world so that in one moment a pitiful small unexpected occurrence wholly breaks in pieces a design of men laid together with long deliberation and forecast with huge prospect and precaution of difficulties with great reserves and preparations against all imaginable obstacles with all the advantages of secresie power combination of parties connexion and contignation of subsidiary ayds and yet one poor unthought of accident cracks in sunder and breaks all to shivers the whole elaborate Machina so that in a moment the shivers thereof lye all broken and disjoynted like a potshered dasht against a wall or the whole contrivance disappears like the fabulous enchanted Castles But on the other side an humble man leans not to his own understanding he is sensible of the deficiency of his own power and wisdom and trusts not in it he is also sensible of the all-sufficient Power and Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God and commits himself to him for Counsel Guidance Direction and Strength It is natural for any man or thing that is sensible of his own deficiency to seek out after that which may be a support and strength to him and as Almighty God is essentially Good and Perfect so he is if I may use the expression most Naturally Communicative of it to any that seeks unto him for it in humility and sincerity The Air doth not more naturally yield to our attraction in respiration or to insinuate in self into those species that are receptive of it than the Divine Assistance Guidance and Benisicence doth to the Desires and Exigences and Wants of an humble Soul sensible of its own emptiness and deficiency and imploring the Direction Guidance and Blessing of the most Wise and Bountiful God I can call my own Experience to witness that even in the External actions occurrences and incidences of my whole Life I was never disappointed of the best Guidance and Direction when in Humility and sense of my own deficiency and diffidence of my own ability to direct my self or to grapple with the difficulties of my Life I have with humility and sincerity implored the secret Direction and Guidance of the Divine Wisdom and Providence And I dare therein appeal to the vigilant and strict observation of any man's Experience whether he hath not found the same Experience in relation to himself and his own actions and successes and whether those counsels and purposes which have been taken up after an humble invocation of the Divine Direction have not always been most succesful in the end 2. And as this Humility is of admirable use in relation to the Glorious God and the Effluxes of his Blessing and Direction so it is of singular advantage in relation to the Humble man himself as may appear in these ensuing Considerations 1. Humility keeps the Soul in great Evenness and Tranquility the truth is that the storms and tempests and disorders of the Soul do not so much if at all arise from the things without us as from the passions and distempers of the Soul it self especially that of Pride and Haughtiness which as the Wise man says is the mother of Contention and that within the very Soul it self as without it is that which blows up the passions of Anger and Revenge and Envy and Hatred and Impatience and Ambition and Vain-glory and from hence it is that the passions do rage and swell and roll one upon another like the Sea troubled with a storm What is it that upon any disgrace or disrepute or affront put upon a man makes him vex himself even to death that he hath not leisure scarce for one quiet or composed thought What is it that makes him jealous of another man's advancement that makes him hate and envy another that hath attained greater dignity than himself that makes his thoughts and endeavours restless till he get to be greater or richer than others and yet when he hath attained not resting in it but still aspiring higher that fills him with fears and torturing cares lest he should either miss what he aims at or lose what he hath attained that fills him with revenge against all that oppose him or stand in his way with impatience under any cross or disappointment many times almost to the extremity of madness and frenzy that makes him unquiet and discontented with his present condition and raiseth a thousand such disorders and discomposures in the minds of men All these are most plainly resolvable into this cursed distemper of Pride and Haughtiness of mind as might most evidently be made out to any that will but trace back these disorders unto their root and original and certainly therefore the state of such a man's mind must needs be marvelous disorderly and unhappy But Humility cures this disease this Feaver of the mind keeps the passions cool and calm and quiet and low and keeps under hourly discipline throws cold water upon them Have I received an affront a disgrace with great men contempt from my equal or inferiour reproach and scandal disappointment in my expectation of some external advantage Am I like to be turned out of office to be made poor or the like I have two Considerations that keep me still in an equal temper and that silence all those passions which presently in a proud man would be all on fire and in a hurly-burly 1. I know that those things come not without the Divine commission or at least permission and shall I not quietly submit to that will of my great Sovereign Lord to
obedience to his Command and Ordinance by means whereof you make it not only an act of civil conversation but of obedience to Almighty God and so it becomes in a manner spiritualized into an act Religion 10. Whatever you do be very careful to retain in your heart a habit of Religion that may be always about you and keep your heart and your life always as in his presence and tending towards him This will be continually with you and put it self into acts even although you are not in a solemn posture of Religious worship and will lend you multitudes of Religious Applications to Almighty God upon all occasions and interventions which will not at all hinder you in any measure in your secular occasions but better and further you it will make you faithful in your Calling even upon the account of an actual reflexion of your mind upon the presence and command of the God you fear and love It will make you actually thankful for all successes and supplies temperate and sober in all your natural actions just and faithful in all your dealings patient and contented in all your disappointments and crosses and actually consider and intend his Honour in all you do and will give a tincture of Religion and Devotion upon all your secular imployments and turn those very actions which are materially civil or natural into the very true and formal nature of Religion and make your whole life to be an unintermitted life of Religion and Duty to God For this habit of piety in your soul will not only not lie sleeping and unactive but almost in every hour of the day will put forth actual exertings of it self in applications of short occasional Prayers Thanksgivings Dependance resort unto that God that is always near you and lodgeth in a manner in your heart by his fear and love and habitual Religion towards him And by this means you do effeually and in the best and readiest manner imaginable doubly Redeem your Time 1. In the lawful exercise of those natural and civil concerns which are not only permitted but in a great measure injoyned by Almighty God 2. At the same time exercising acts of Religious duties observance and Vencration unto Almighty God by perpetuated or at least frequently reiterated though short acts of devotion to him And this is the great act of Christian Chymistry to convert those acts that are materially natural or civil into acts truly and formally Religious whereby the whole course of this life is both truly and interpretatively a Service to Almighty God and an uninterrupted state of Religion which is the best and noblest and most universal redemption of his Time 11. Be very careful to prefer those actions of your life that most concern you be sure to do them first to do them chiefest to do them most Let those things that are of less moment give place to those things that are of greatest moment Every man of the most ordinary prudence having many things to do will be sure to be doing of that first and chiefest which most concerns him and which being omitted and possibly wholly disappointed might occasion his most irreparable loss We have it is true many things to be done in this life Ars longa vita brevis and we have seasons and opportunities for them but of these many things some are barely conveniencies for this life Some though they seem more necessary yet still they rise no higher nor look no surther nor serve no longer but only for the Meridian of this life and are of no possible use in the next moment after death The Pleasures the Prosits the Honours the most florid accommodations of great humane Learning stately Houses and Palaces goodly Possessions greatest Honours highest Reputation deepest Policy they are fitted only to this life when death comes they are insignisicant pittiful things and serve nothing at all to the very next moment after death nay the diseases and pains and languishings that are the praeludia of death render them perfectly vain if not vexatious and torturing But there are certain businesses that are not only excellently useful in this life but such as abide by us in sickness in death nay go along with us with singular comfort into the next life and never leave us but state us in an eternal state of rest and happiness such as may be with much ease acquired in the times of health and life but very difficult to be attained in the time of Sickness and the hour of death but never to be gotten after death such as are of that necessity that in comparison of them all other things are impertinent and vain if not desperately noxious and hurtful There is no necessity for me to be Rich and to be great in the World to have such a title of Honour such a place of Dignity or Profit to leave such an Inheritance or titular Dignity to my Son or to have so many thousand pounds in my Inventory when I die but certain matters of absolute necessity to me such as if I am without I am undone and lost and yet such as if not attained here in this life can never be attained and therefore as it concerns me in the highest degree to attain them so it concerns me in the highest degree to attain them in this life and to take all opportunities imaginable in order thereunto and to redeem every minute of time for that purpose lest I should be for ever disappointed and not to be like the foolish Virgin to be getting of Oyl when the door is ready to be shut and with the Truant-Scholar to trifle away my time allotted me for my lesson and then to begin to learn it when my Master calls for me to repeat it and those businesses are such as these the Knowledg of Christ Jesus and him Crucified the attainment of Faith in God through him the acquaintance of my self with the will God the comparing of my self with that will the exercise of true and serious Repentance for sins past the steady resolution of Obedience to his will for the time to come the attaining of the pardon of my sins and peace with God through Christ our Lord the subduing of my Lusts and Corruptions the conformation of my will and life to the holy will of God and the perfect pattern of Holiness Christ Jesus the working out my salvation with fear and trembling the giving all diligence to make my Calling and Election sure the fitting and purging of my self to be a Vessel of Glory and Immortality and fitted for the use of my great Lord and Master the casting of my self into such a frame and posture of mind and life that I may be fitted and ready to die and give up my account to my Lord with peace and chearfulness and comfort so that if I should either by the hand of some disease or casualty or other providence receive this solemn message Set thy House in order for thou shalt die I