time of day it is with your Soul Pray therefore and strive for renewed sights of Grace and for anointing with fresh Oyl for the Saints do often lose their Impressions through carelesness and inadvertency whilest they have here and there to do or indulgence to some Carnality and through the malignancy of some over beating temper or temptation in an hour and power of Darkness And this makes the Soul to drive heavily which sometimes ran as pleasantly as the Chariots of Aminadib but now the Wheels begin to skreek through want of fresh anointings It being so look to your Vessels and your Oil and see how they are stored with it and how the Spirit shineth at any time upon his own Lines and Figures This also I premise to the answer of the Question because the soul never acteth Grace so vigorously as vvhen ones state is cleared First therefore for resolution Maintain your Faith in frequent exercise and make no less conscience of acting daily Faith than you do of daily Prayer For we are apt to rest in a quondam Call to Christ and in the original work of Faith and not to be coming still to Christ and that as earnestly and studiously as if we had never come before He that is coming unto me saith Christ John 6.35 1 Pet. 2.4 The word in the Original is a Participle of the Present Tense And through the neglect of this daily coming the soul is often in the dark and seemeth to have lost the Promise in which it was formerly drawn to Christ by means whereof it is sometimes midnight with the wisest Virgins as well as so at other times by means of their security For instance By Faith Abraham when he was called not only unto Canaan but unto Christ obeyed for he looked more to the Promised Seed than to the Promised Land else what had his Faith been But now in tract of time viz. about ten years after he begins to call the Promise into question Gen. 15.2 and to make the Steward of his house his Heir till God renewed the Promise to revive thereby the actings of his sleeping Faith Look now towards Heaven saith God and tell the Stars if thou be able to number them and he said unto him so shall thy Seed be Upon this Abraham believed in the Lord and it was accounted to him for righteousness Why Did he not believe before Yes The Apostle dateth his Faith from his coming out of Vr of the Caldees Heb. 11.8 And yet here we meet with a second Date i. e. as to an eminent reviving act of his Faith as if he had omitted to believe as indeed he did and now began again which was only an interruption not an intercision Now thus it may be with you who believed many years ago but the Promise and Impression of it is perhaps almost worn out and your Faith begins to languish but the Promise is still the same and the word of the Lord endureth for ever and that is the word of the Gospel which is preached to you wherefore take hold of it again and again and of Christ therein and not only of that particular promise wherein Christ at first was held out unto you but of any other that occurreth and in the frequent renewings of your Faith your drooping hearts will be revived and long at last for the coming of him in whom your Soul believeth You know that your Faith will determine with your Life and therefore improve it daily for your Death which draweth on by gradual steps in which you are still making forwards towards the Bridegroom's coming who keeps equal paces with you so that he and you will meet together at the point of dissolution Your Faith cannot conquer Death for there is no discharge in that war between Death and Nature only Faith will vanquish the dread and horror of it For Death in which the Bridegroom first cometh to us is in it self the King of Terrors other Afflictions as Poverty Reproach Imprisonment Debt Exile Sickness c. are inferiour fears which possibly may be escaped and out of which there is oftentimes deliverance but Death is the Soveraign Lord and King of all of them from whence there is no return He that goeth down to the Grave shall come up no more but passeth presently unto the highest Tribunal there to receive the eternal judgment whether of Absolution or of Condemnation And upon this account the fear of the King of Terrors is the King of Fears and a sore and painful bondage in which many are held all their Life-time till Faith in Christ release them yea and afterwards also if their Faith be not the stronger What shall I say then but Awake Faith and flee to him for refuge who through death hath destroyed him that hath the power of Death that is the Devil and delivered them who through fear of Death were all their life-time subject unto bondage For without this Refuge of Faith Christ's coming by Death is terrible and astonishing which the bare habit of Faith cannot cure and conquer Believe therefore that you are Christ's and believe it daily by frequent closings with him and resignations of your selves unto him and then you are not so much Death's as Death is yours 1 Cor. 3.22 23. Make good your interest in the Bridegroom and then you will rejoice at his coming Make haste my Beloved saith the Bride Cant. 8. ult Why so Because he is Beloved and my Beloved And the Spirit and the Bride say Come Rev. 22.17 i. e. The Spirit in the Bride or the Spirit of the Bride for a Bride hath a Bride-like Spirit which longeth for the coming of the Bridegroom But perhaps the weak Believer cannot reach to say thus and therefore saith the Bridegroom to him Let him that is athirst come If thou canst not say Come to me I say Come to thee For we must first come to Christ before we can say Come to him yea we must have some sense of our coming unto him before we can heartily say Come to h m. And this Faith that I have spoken of is the principal Grace preparing the Believer for the coming of Christ provided that it be maintained in frequent exercise for hereby the Person is justified the Heart purified the Conscience pacified a sweet Correspondence continued between Christ and the believing Soul Death conquered and Heaven opened Secondly This Faith doth necessarily work by Love and as they always do co-operate so are they commensurate and carry a just proportion each to other though peradventure you may be more sensible of your Love than of your Faith But now the more you abound in both the more you will long for the coming of Christ and be the more prepared for it No marvel therefore that the Apostle loved the appearance of Christ 2 Tim. 4.8 with Acts 21.13 who had so great a love to his person that he was not only ready to be bound but to dye at Jerusalem for the
comprehends both the Vegetative and Sensitive part To love God with the soul is to subject all those works that pertain to an Animal life unto the love of God Plainly and in short it is not enough to love God in our Will but we must not admit any thing contrary to the Love of God in our sensual delights Whatsoever sensualists do for the gratifying of their lusts and desires let those things be drained from the dregs of sin and consecrate them all unto God Whatever use wicked men make of their souls in a way of hatred of God we must make the contrary use in a way of loving of God And then Thou must love God with all thy Soul What it is to love God with all the soul we must be ready to lay down our lives for God d Origen if any one should be ask'd what in all the world was most dear unto him he would answer his life for life-sake tender Mothers have cast off the sence of Nature and fed upon their own children It is Life that affords us being sense motion understanding riches dominions If a man had the Empire of the World he could enjoy it no longer than he hath his soul in his body when that is gone he presently becomes a horrid Carkass or rather a loathsom dunghil Now then if a man love his Life so much why should he not love God more by whom he lives and from whom he expects greater things than this Life God is the soul of our soul and the life of our life he is nearer to us than our very souls e Acts 17.28 in him we live and move and have our being He that doth but indifferently weigh these things will acknowledge that it is no rashness to call that man a Monster that loves not God how then can we think of it without grief that the whole world is full of these Monsters almost all men prefer their Money or Pleasures or their Honours or their lusts before God So oft as you willingly break any Law of God to raise your Credit or Estate you prefer the dirt and dust of the world before God Alas what use do's a wicked man make of his soul but to serve his body whereas both soul and body should be wholly taken up with not only the service but the love of God Then may you be said to love God with all your souls when your whole Life is filled with the love of God when your worldly business truckles under the love of God the love of the dearest Relations should be but hatred when compared with your love to God When you eat and drink to the glory of God sleep no more than may make you serviceable unto God when your solitary musings are about the engaging your souls to God when your social Conference is about the things of God when all acts of Worship endear God to you when all your Duties bring you nearer to God when the love of God is the sweetness of your Mercies and your Cordial under Afflictions when you can love God under amazing Providences as well as under refreshing Deliverances then you may be said to love God with all your Souls What it is to love God with the mind 3. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Mind though Anselm take this for the Memory that we should remember nothing whereby we are hinder'd in our thinking of God yet generally this is taken for the understanding and so the Evangelist Mark expresly interprets it when he renders this Command in these words f Mark 12 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all thy understanding to love God with our Minds is to have the understanding moved and commanded by the love of God to assent unto those things that are to be believed and to admit nothing into the understanding which is contrary to the love of God g Cajetan h Origen nihil cogitantes vel proferentes nisi ea que Dei sunt The Mind should let nothing go in or out but what payes tribute of love to God there 's one interprets the word by the Etymology of the word Mind from Measuring i Mens dicitur a metiendo c. Avendan The Mind must be so full of love to God that love must measure all our works k 1 Cor. 10 31. When we eat we should think how hateful it is to God that we should indulge our Palat and thence shun Gluttony when we drink we should think how abominable Drunkenness is in the sight of God and thence drink temperately l Rom. 14.8 so that whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords our Life and our Death must be measur'd by our Love to God We must love God with all our Mind What it is to love God with all our mind we must alwayes converse with God in our Minds and thoughts our thoughts must kindle our affections of love Love to God makes the hardest Commands easie while our thoughts are immers'd in love to God love to Enemies wlll be an easie Command the keeping under of our Bodies by Mortification will be an easie work Persecution for Righteousness will be a welcome Trial love will change Death it self into Life There 's another word added by Mark which indeed is in Deut. 6.5 whence this is taken Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Strength now because this word doth not express any other species or power of the Soul but only notes the highest and most intense degree of Love that flows from all the Faculties of the Soul I will close this Enquiry with a Word of this We are to love God with all the Powers of our Soul with all the members of our Bodies Our understandings wills inward and outward Senses appetite speech whatever we have whatever we are must be all directed into the Love of God and into Obedience flowing from Love You commonly hear that of Bernard the cause of loving God is God himself and the only measure is to love him without measure We must love God strongly because with all our strength our love to God must get above Interruptions no threatnings calamities or discommodities whatsoever must pull us away from God but that all the Powers of Soul and Body must be taken up into his service that our Eyes beholding the wonderful works of God the Sun Moon and Stars the clear evidences of his Divinity we may be in love with him that our Ears piously hearkning to his Instructions may be in love with him that our Mouth may love to praise him our Hands to act for him that our Feet may be swift to run the way of his Commandments that our Affections may be withdrawn from Earthly things and deliver'd over to the love of God that whatever is within us it may be bound over to
quoad modum tendâ—nd in objectam 1 Cor. 13.8 Voet. ibid. Love never faileth the same kind of love the same Numerical love that was in gracious Persons on Earth shall be continued in Heaven and receive it's perfection presently after its delivery from the Body of Death There will be a greater change in all our Graces than in our Love A great part of our Life is taken up in the Exercise of those Graces that I may in some respect say dye with us The one half of our Life is or should be spent in Mortification The whole of our time needs the exercise of our Patience Our Life at best is but a Life of Faith much of our sweet Communion with God is fetch'd in by secret Prayer But now in Heaven there shall be no sin to be mortifi'd nothing grievous to be endured Faith shall be swallow'd up in Enjoyment and your Petitions shall be all answer'd So that now Christians set your selves to love God and you shall no way lose your labour Other Graces are but as Physick to the Soul desirable for something else which when obtained they are useless but Love to God is the healthful Constitution of the Soul there 's never any thing of it in any sence useless Most of the Graces of the Spirit do by our Souls as our Friends by our Bodies who accompany them to the Grave and there leave them But now love to God is the alone Grace that is to our Souls the same that a good Conscience our best Friend in both Worlds 4. This Divine Love is so unknown to the World that when they behold the Effects and flames of it in those that love God in an extraordinary manner they are ready to explode it as meer Vanity Folly Madness Ostentation and Hypocrisie When Paul manag'd his Audience more like a Sermon than a Defence Festus cries out upon him as mad (h) Acts 26.24 Yea when Christ himself in love to God and Souls is more hungry after Converts than Food his nearest Relations think him craz'd and the multitude cometh together again Mark 3.20 21 32. so that they could not so much as eat bread and when his Friends heard of it they went out to lay hold on him for they said he is beside himself But were they any other but his carnal and graceless Relations that did this See behold thy Mother and thy Brethren without seek for thee (i) 1 John 3.13 No marvel then that Enemies reproach you Friend forsake you Relations slight you and the World hate you Christ tells us (k) Joh. 15.18 23. if the World hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you But how can the World hate Christ who in love to it came to dye for it Christ tells his Hearers the true Reason (l) Joh. 5.40 42. I know you this is no groundless surmise nor censorious rashness but I know you that you have not the love of God in you Let what will appear at the top this lies at the bottom And therefore judge I pray you who more phanatick those that hate God when they pretend to love him or those that are counted phrantick for their serious Love to God I shall neither name more nor enlarge further on this first rank of Characters but be brief also in the second The Absolute Properties of Love to God are among many some of them such as these 1. It is the most ingenious of all Graces In poor inconsiderable Loves not worth the mentioning how do persons contrive wayes for the expressing and exciting of Love and there 's no way to prevent it Oh how much more when the Soul loves God there 's nothing meliorates the parts like Grace Divine Love makes the best improvement of Wit Parts Time when a Person loves to pray though he can scarce speak sence to men he can strenuously plead with God a person that loves to meditate though he knows not how to make his thoughts hang together in other things they multiply on his hand with a spiritual and profitable consistency In short to do any thing that may engage the Heart to God what gracious stratagems doth Love abound with That (m) Nieremberg de art Vol. p. 114. as he that beholds his Face in a Glass makes the Face which he sees his very look is the Pensil the Colour the Art so he that loves God sees such a Reflexion of God's love to him that a proud person doth not more please her self in her own fancyed beauty than this gracious Soul is graciously delighted in the mutual dartings of Divine Love Keep from Will-worship and humane Inventions in the things of God especially from imposing upon others your Prudentials of Devotion and then I will commend it to you to try all the Experiments which the Scripture will warrant to encrease the flame of your Divine love 2. Love to God is the most bold strong constant and daring Grace of all the Graces of the Spirit of God (n) Cant. 8.6 Love is strong as Death every one knows what work Death makes in the World It is not the Power of Potentates nor the Reverence of Age nor the usefulness of Grace can prevent its stroke it conquers all So doth love to God Nothing can stand before it what dare not love to God attempt It designs impossibilities viz. Perfection and is restless for the want of it I may in some sence say it would fain have contradictions true viz. to be without the Body while in it the Body's being a clog is so wearisome Love to God not only baffles Satan but through God's gracious condescension it even prevails with God himself that God will deny nothing to the Soul that loves him 3. Love to God is the onely self-emptying and satisfying Grace (o) Nieremb p. 322 c. spaâ—siâ— Love 't is self's egress 't is a kind of Pilgrimage from self he that loves is absent from himself thinks not of himself provides not for himself But oh how great is the gain of renouncing our selves and thereby receiving God and our selves we are as it were dead to our selves and live to God nay more by love we live in God (p) 1 John 4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him By Faith we live upon God by Obedience we live to God but by Love we live in God It is herein alone that we can give something like a carnal though 't is indeed an highly spiritual answer to Nicodemus his question (q) Joh. 3.4 How can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers Womb and be born We have our Soulâ— immediately from the Father of Spirits by Regeneration we return to God again from whom by Sin we are estranged and by love we live in him in some little resemblance to the Child's living in the Mother's womb what the mother loves the
keep out Jealousie that bane of marriage comfort will keep the thoughts fixt and the heart chaste for it is not the Having an Husband or Wife but the Loving of them that preserves from Adultery This will prevent or soon quiet those storms within doors as we see the Mother that dearly loves her Child though it cry all night and disturb her quiet yet Love to it makes them very good friends in the morning If Love be eclipsed for a day or an hour between husband and wife they are (c) Mr. Baxter's Direct p. 520. like a bone out of joynt there is no ease nor order nor work well done till it be restored again 3. Mutual Fidelity especially to the Marriage-bed and also in each others secrets And this is directed 1 Cor. 7.2 Let every man have his Own wife and let every woman have her Own husband By which Rule the thoughts desires and actions of each of them are confin'd to their (d) Choose whether Adam thou wilt imitate the Old or the New the one hath but one Wife the other hath but one Church Hierome cited by Gataker own lawful yoke-fellow as the dearest sweetest and best Object in the world and this by vertue of the Covenant of their God The least Aberration herein if it be not speedily and sincerely mortified will strangely get ground and fester in the Soul and never rest till it come to plain Adultery (e) See of this largely and excellently Lud. Viv. de Christ foemin p. 699. And then the Comfort of their lives the quiet of their consciences and the credit of their families lye bleeding and without true Repentance their eternal happiness shipwrack't Yea this virtually dissolves the Bond of marriage and if the (f) Deut. 22.22 Divine Law were executed brings the offender to a severe Death And though some greater Shame and other Inconveniences do follow the unfaithfulness of the Wife yet man and wife being One flesh and equal power granted to them over the bodies of each other the guilt of this sin is equal unless the wisdom and strength of the man do make his fault the greater And therefore all possible care must be used to avoid all occasions and incentives of wandring desires from home and the rather because he or she that is not content with one will not be content with more for sin is boundless and nothing but Grace and the Grave can limit the desires of the Heart The same Faithfulness is necessary in the wise concealment of each others secrets whether Natural Moral or Civil unless in such cases wherein a superior Obligation doth release them For there cannot be a more unnatural treachery than when Husband or Wife the nearest of Friends make one another obnoxious to shame or harm Bad when it is done by Inadvertence worse when in their Passion worst of all when it is through ill will and malice 4. Mutual Helpfulness Hence they are called Yokefollows And of the Woman it was said at her Creation that she should be an (g) Gen 2.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Help meet for him which may be rendred an Help like him for they should be both of them Helps to each other There are Three Yokes which they must joyntly carry 1. The Yoke of Cares This all people must expect to bear in a married condition and for the most part that of Labour also And these lying always on one shoulder will overload but when some help comes in the husband takes care without the wife takes care within the husband travels abroad the wife is busie at home then the burden is easier To this end it behoves the Wife to read often the last Chapter of Proverbs and the husband the rest of that Book for their quickning hereunto 2. The Yoke of Crosses and troubles For such as are married though they expect nothing but pleasure yet (h) 1 Cor. 7.28 must have trouble in the flesh losses in their estates afflictions in their children crosses both from friends and enemies Now every man and woman should chuse such yoke-fellows as may be Friends as well as Relations and may comfort support and advise each other with all faithfulness and sympathy 3. The Yoke of Jesus Christ For they should (i) 1 Pet. 3.7 live as heirs together of the Grace of Life And it is the highest end of their Relation to promote one the others everlasting happiness The Knowledg of the husband must help the wife and the Zeal of the wife must help the husband When (k) Cael. Rhodig l. 28. the Sun shines the Moon absconds when that is set this appears When the husband is at home then it is his work to instruct and pray with his Family and sanctifie the Sabbath but in his absence the wife is his stated Deputy and must look to it And both must study both in Prudence and Conscience to be of One mind incouraging reproving or correcting their Inferiors lest their Authority be weakened their spirits distempered and their indeavours frustrateâ— 5. Mutual Patience c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quomodo probabit homo animam suam si pâ—ssit tolerare uxorem malam Buxt ex Miphcah Happen This Grace we are bound to exercise towards all men how much more to such near and dear Relations Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away with all malice And be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another as God doth for Christ's sake forgive us Eph. 4.31 32. Innumerable are the l Occasions that may minister Contention in the daily affairs wherein they are concerned and Satan is ever ready to blow the coal and they have corrupt and froward Natures and therefore there is a flat necessity of this blessed Grace Alas a civil War within doors is the most intolerable The soul the body the worship of God the affairs the Family are all disordered by it No good can come of it passion reforms nothing but (m) Magis vâ—remur prudâ—ntes quam i acundos plus cogit qu etum imperium quam vehemens imperiosior concitatione quies Lu. Viv. de Christ Foem p. 729. patience may the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God The married Couple therefore must study and pray for a meek and quiet spirit mortifie pride learn self-denial and sometimes wisely (n) Thus Albuâ— us lived with his Terentiana 25 years and P. Rubrius Celer with his Ennia 44 years without a quarrel So Mr. Smith in his Sermons tels of a cholerick couple that kept the peace by each keeping silence when the other was angry withdraw till the storm be over and hold their peace to keep the peace They must consider as Holy Mr. Bolton saith that two Angels are not met together but too sinful children of Adam from whom little can be expected but weakness and waiwardness They must reckon the greatest worth and honour to be first in Overtures of Peace
the Souls of others with close and pressing importunities to prize and prosecute that Element and State of Joys and Holiness which is not credited relished and valued by himself And further 2. Were it supposed also that the regular faithfulness of a Minister was separable from the spirit faithfulness of a Christian either in themselves or in the Subject yet how can we imagine such operative influential apprehensions and true relishes of the joy reported and proposed as shall prevail against all oppositions and discouragements and competitions from the frowns and flatteries bribes and stroaks of Earth and Hell to animate a Minister's brest so as to make him through in all the Enterprizes and Employments of his Function whil'st his own Work and Interest as a Christian is neglected and those influences of this joy entailed upon a course well finished though they be powerful to make him faithful in the one shall yet be found too languid to issue in the same diligence and success as to the other And 3. We must conclude that this Eagle-eyed Apostle saw and reckoned on it that a Christian Minister and an Apostle must be a through-Christian and something yea much more or else he could not possibly conclude his Course would bring him to his Joys 1 Cor. 9.24 27. Therefore the Sense and Errand of the Text amounts to this Doctr. That the comforts of a well compleated course will make all discerning serious Christians to be above the regard of Life or fear of all afflictions bonds or death to compass them Rom. 8.18 and Phil. 1.20.23 The very instance argument and errand of my Text and Doctrine grounded thereupon imply and include several things as that 1. there is a state of future joys and retributions for we have no reason to imagine that our Apostle was so blind as to be deceived himself nor so wicked as to deceive others No man that knows and credits the existence of a Deity but he must take him to be the strongest wisest the best of beings and so that he must needs be omnipotent omniscient and all-sufficient and if so then it is beyond all controvesie that omnipotence can at such a rate address it self to Creatures as to make them happy or miserable as it best becomes it self He that ordained and framed this state cannot be thought to have acted to the utmost of his strength for what can stint omnipotence and doth it suit the wisdom of God to make a Creature capable of an everlasting state and of the hopes and prospect of it and to implant in it an expectation of it and rule him by those hopes and fears which do and must derive their influences from an eternal state and after all to make it evident that man was only made to be imposed on or ruled and managed by mistakes and meer fallacious arguments and errours or hath God afforded us the least intimation of his mind in nature providence or scriptures that this is the way of conciliating that love and honour from his Subjects or of implanting and maintaining those necessary fears in man which government requires for the attainments of its ends to make them live in expectation of what is no ways fit to reach its ends because it is either false or mean and therefore I need not go about to prove what here is granted and improved and what so many incomparably better pens have proved before me 2. this state hath sufficient force as to argument and motive to press us to do and suffer all that we can meet with or be called to in our whole Christian course All those severe perplexities which our religion calls us to as to obedience in sufferings and duty are not beyond the compensations of these approaching expected joys and if they obstruct the influences and eclips the light and glory of what is proposed and promised as our great argument and encouragement 't is utterly only our own fault that makes what is sufficient to be ineffectual 3. The comforts of a course well finished cannot be had without the regular management finishing of our course this can never be without resolution and preparation of the heart by which it must be born and kept above immoderate love to life and fear of sufferings and death Faith is the spirit of religion the spirit of faith is hope and the spirit of hope is love and these are all the most successful preparations of the heart Had faith its liberty power and prospect in the heart of all professors it would make them too sagacious concerned to be imposed on by plausible delusions and bold pretences in all these sublunary trifles to that substantial solid satisfaction and excellency which are expected by ductile mortals to be experienced therein or hoped for therefrom Did we but look beyond the grave and wilderness and search and see that land of promise which is beyond them we might be entertained and allured with such clusters from it as would afford us more grateful relishes and spirits than all the feculent extractions of these transient comforts could amount to All our delights and pleasures in and great sollicitudes about these lower things would be effectually mortified and conquered 2 Cor. 4.17 18. what breasts of consolation are evidence substance Heb. 11.1 sense and presence do strangely invigorate strengthen the dangerous influences of this Worlds comforts and concernments in their addresses to the heart of man 2 Tim. 4.10 And because the gain and comforts of true Religion are invisible and distant therefore their certainty and transcendent excellency must be concocted into deep and sound Perswasions and be digested into answerable Affections Resolutions and Pursuit and all those Arguments and Motives which must prevail upon us to run and finish the course and race which is set before us must be derived from and are to be reduced to this deep perswasion of these certain and transcendent comforts nor is it possible that Religion should live or thrive but in the power of and true proportion to our apprehensions and perswasions of those fundamental truths and principles of God's existence and rewarding excellency Heb. 16.6 Man must be ruled as God hath made him and as fear and love are the commanding passions and affections of every subject capable of moral government so something there must be reported and determined fit for the exercise and discipline thereof and if transcendency in what must influence â—oth be not credible and demonstrable their influences must of necessity prove too languid to attain their end Equality spoils choice as far as iâ— extends and if the comforts of another state do not exceed what we can meet with here sure powerful Godliness would lose its life and brests together nor could it be existent in its practice without its arguments and motives and with submission to better judgments I think that impossibility of pleasing God without faith spoken of Heb. 11.6 Results not only
and therefore the Blessing is null and moreover what the meaning of this Providence is that my Brother should come forth against me in this hostile manner I knovv not Wherefore I humbly beg thy Blessing and the confirmation of that Title vvhich hath so great an error in it Thus God brought an old reckoning to his remembrance in an evil day and set it on his conscience and put him to repent and mourn for he wept and made supplication to the Angel Hos 12.4 He came not off so easily but was fain to vvrestle hard all night to lose his rest and to struggle and sweat and pray and vveep and shed many a tear and to go halting aftervvard upon his Thigh unto his dying day Take heed therefore of old Reckonings undischarged look back and consider hovv it hath been and omit not a day vvithout revievving your Actions and Repentings I say as duly as the day determineth let not the Sun go dovvn upon any guilt contracted that so your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and exercise your self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and men and this vvill the better prepare you for the coming of Jesus Christ both by Death and Judgment Fifthly Be much in the exercise of Goodness Mercy and works of Liberality towards Christ in his needy Members according to your opportunity and power For though you shall be saved by your Faith yet you shall be judged according to your Works And it greatly concerneth us to be laborious in that Service upon vvhich the judgment shall pass at Christ's appearance Mat. 25.35 36. Call your self therefore to an account what you have done in this way for Christ as how you have fed cloathed visited relieved him in his Members here on earth And if this were more considered such as profess to Christ would be more active for him in ought wherein they might be more serviceable to him but when we see but little activity in the exercise of this Grace we may well fear there is but little Oil in the Vessel for rich anointings will make men agile and ready for every good work inasmuch as the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and they that hope for eternal Life when Christ shall come by Death and Judgment must seek for Glory Honour and Immortality not only in well-doing but in continuance in it Beware of Omissions and among others of this great duty The Judgment will reach unto all sins In the Narrative of his Life and Death and to omissions in a special manner Mat. 25.37 38. For which that learned and holy Vsher was humbled upon his death-bed The Nobleman hath put a Pound into your hand saying Occupy till I come yea he hath given you many Pounds in a literal sense with which you must trade as well as with the Talents of your Parts and Gifts of Grace And I know you would be glad to find Mercy with Onesiphorus in the day of Christ Remember therefore Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Mat. 5.7 But He shall have judgment without mercy who hath shewed no mercy whereas mercy rejoyceth against judgment A merciful man is so far from fearing judgment at Christ's coming that he rather rejoyceth at the thoughts of it Sixthly Exercise diligence and faithfulness in your particular Calling For when Christ speaketh of his Coming saith he Be ye ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh What followeth Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his houshold to give them meat in due season Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Mat. 24.44 45 46. When Christ was speaking to this Point saith Peter Lord speakest thou this Parable to us or even unto all Luke 12.41 Truly Christ spake it unto all though in a special manner to such as Peter for Christ will have an account how every one of us have managed our particular Callings But they that are Stewards in the House of God which is his Church have a very great account to give and it is required of them in a special manner that a man be found faithful and of all Christ's servants his Stewards have most to answer for that if a dispensation of the Gospel and the care of souls were not committed to them he that understandeth the weight of Stewardship would dread to undertake it but a necessity is laid upon them and wo unto them if they Preach not the Gospel It is said of Calvin that when Nature began to decline in him Melch. Adam in vit Calv. and the symptoms of a dying man appeared on him he would be diligent at his Studies from which his friends disswading him saith he Nunquid me Dominus inveniet otiosum Shall my Master find me idle Let such therefore and all be diligent and faithful in their respective place and employments And indeed every man is a Steward more or less You know what the Master saith of the slothful Servant Take him and cast him into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Such slothful servants shall be under the tribute of eternal pains Prov. 12.24 when the good and faithful Servant shall be made ruler over many things and enter into the joy of his Lord Mat. 25.23 Would you stand before Christ at his coming Oh dread Idleness and unfaithfulness in your Callings as you desire to be sound of him in peace at his appearance Fill up your days with Duty and give your time to him who gave it to you Paul was a great lover of Christ and his Appearance and who more abundant in his Labours for him For he had the Conscience of his indefatigable industry and fidelity in his work for his Master Saith he I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith 2 Tim 4.7 8. He meaneth especially his military faith and oath in fighting a good fight for Christ And wherefore do we hear him groaning so earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with his house which is from Heaven It was because he laboured ambitiously that whether present or absent he might be accepted of him For saith he We must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ that every one might receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5 2. with 9.10 Lastly That I might not multiply particulars let me add what Christ hath joined together Sobriety Watchfulness and Prayer Luk. 21 34.36 And therefore take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkenness and cares of this Life and that Day come upon you unawares Gird up therefore the loins of your minds be sober and hope to the end for the Grace that is to be brought