you saw the everlasting Glory which Christ hath purchased and prepared for his Saints That you had been once with Paul rapt up into the third Heavens and seen the things that are unutterable would you not after that have rather lived like Paul and undergone his sufferings and contempt than to have lived like the brain-sick brutish world If you had seen what Stephen saw before his death Acts 7.55 56. the Glory of God and Christ standing at his right hand If you had seen the thousands and millions of holy glorious spirits that are continually attending the Majesty of the Lord If you had seen the glorified spirits of the just that were once in flesh despised by the blind ungodly world while they waited on God in faith and holiness and hope for that blessed Crown which now they were If you had felt one moment of their joyes if you had seen them shine as the Sun in glory and made like unto the Angels of God if you had heard them sing the song of the Lamb and the joyful Hallelujahs and praise to their eternal King what would you be and what would you resolve on after such a sight as this If the rich man Luke 16. had seen Lazarus in Abrahams bosom in the midst of his bravery and honour and feasting and other sensual delights as afterwards he saw it when he was tormented in the flames of Hell do you think such a sight would not have cooled his mirth and jollity and helpt him to understand the nature and value of his earthly felicity and have proved a more effectual argument than a despised Preachers words at least to have brought him to a freer exercise of his Reason in a sober consideration of his state and waies Had you seen one hour what Abraham David Paul and all the Saints now see while sin and flesh doth keep us here in the dark what work do you think your selves it would make upon your hearts and lives 4 Suppose you saw the face of Death and that you were now lying under the power of some mortal sickness Physicians having forsaken you and said There is no hope Your friends weeping over you and preparing your winding sheet and coffin digging your graves and casting up the skulls and bones and earth that must again be cast in to be your covering and company Suppose you saw a Messenger from God to tell you that you must die to morrow or heard but what one of your predecessors heard Luke 12.20 Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee then whose shall these things be that thou hast provided How would such a Message work with you would it leave you as you are If you heard a voice from God this night in your chamber in the dark telling you that this iâ— the last night that you shall live on earth and before to morrow your souls must be in another world and come before the dreadful God what would be the effect of such a Message And do you not verily believe that all this will very shortly be Nay do you not know without believing that you must die and leave your worldly glory and that all your pleasures and contents on earth will be as if they had never been and much worse O wonderful that a change so sure so great so near should no more affect you and no more be fore-thought on and no more prepared for and that you be not awakened by so full and certain a fore-knowledge to be in good sadness for eternal life as you seem to be when death is at hand 5. Suppose you saw the great and dreadful day of Judgement as it iâ— described by Christ himself in Matth. 25. When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him and shall sit upon his glorious Throne and all Nations shall be gathered before him and he shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left v. 31 32 33. and shall sentence the righteous to eternal life and the rest into everlasting punishment If you did now behold the glory and terrour of that great appearance how the Saints will be magnified and rejoyce and be justified against all the accusations of Satan and calumnies of wicked men and how the ungodly then would fain deny the words and deeds that now they glory in and what horrour and confusion will then overwhelm those wretched souls that now out-face the Messengers of the Lord Had you seen them trembling before the Lord that now are braving it out in the pride and arrogancy of their hearts Had you heard how then they will change their tune and wish they had never known their sins and wish they had lived in greater holiness than those whom they derided for it What would you say and do and be after such an amazing fight as this Would you sport it out in sin as you have done Would you take no better care for your salvation If you had seen those sayings out of the holy Ghost fulfilled Jude 14 15.2 Thes 1.7 8 9. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power What mind do you think you should be of What course would you take if you had but seen this dreadful day Could you go on to think and speak and live as sensually stupidly and negligently as now you do 2 Pet. 3.10 11 12. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the bravens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent beat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Is it possible soundly to believe such a day so sure so near and no more regard it nor make ready for it than the carelâ—ss and ungodly do 6. Suppose at that day you had heard the Devil accusing you of all the sins that you have committed and set them out in the most odious aggravations and call for justice against you to your Judge If you heard him pleading all those sins against you that now he daily tempts you to commit and now maketh you believe are harmless or small inconsiderable things If you heard him saying At such a time this sinner refused grace neglected Christ despised Heaven and preferred Earth at such a time he derided godliness and made a mock of the holy Word and Counsels of the Lord at such a time he prophaned the name of God he coveted his neighbours wealth he cherished thoughts of envy or of lust he was drunk or gluttonous or committed fornication and he was never thorowly converted by renewing
godliness is profitable to all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.7 8. 6.6 16. And the future perfect Goodness may invite us to present imperfect Goodness the Promises of the Gospel do second the Precepts with the strongest motives in the world so that everlasting blessedness and joy is made the reward of temporal sincerity in faith love and obedience And if Heaven it self be not a reward sufficient to invite men to be good there is none sufficient 17. Yea the penalties and severities of the Christian Religion do shew the Goodness of it When God doth therefore threaten Hell to save men from it and to draw them up to the obedience of the Gospel Threatned evil of punishment is but to keep them from the evil of sin and to make men better And he that will testifie his hatred of sinful evil to the highest doth shew himself the greatest enemy of it and the greatest lover of good and he that setteth the sharpest hedge before us and the terrible warnings to keep us from damnation doth shew himself most willing to save us 18. So good is Christianity that it turneth all our afflictions unto good It assureth us that they are sent as needful medicine however merited by our sin And it directeth us how to bear them easily and to make them sweet and safe and profitable and to turn them to our increase of holiness and to the furtherance of our greatest good Heb. 1 to 13. Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. 19. It also stablisheth a perpetual office even the sacred Ministry for the fuller and surer communication of all this good forementioned In which observe these particulars which shew the greatness of this benefit 1. The persons called to it must by Christs appointment be the wisest and best of men that can be had 2. The number of them is to be suited to the number of the people so that none may be without the benefit 3. Their work is to declare all this forementioned Goodness and Love of God to man and to offer them all this grace and mercy and to teach them to be holy and happy and to set before them the everlasting joyes 4. The manner of their doing it must be with humility as the servants of all with tender love as Fathers of the flock with wisdom and skill lest their work be frustrate with the greatest importunity even compelling them to come in as men that are loth to take any denyal and with patient enduring all oppositions as those that had rather suffer any thing than the peoples souls shall be unhealed and be damned and they must conrinue to the end as those that will never give up a soul as desperate and lost while there is any hope And all this must be seconded with their own example of holiness temperance and love Acts 20. 2 Tim. 2.24 25. Matth. 22.8 9. 20. So good is our Religion that nothing but doing good is the work in which it doth employ us Besides all the good of piety and self-preservation it requireth us to live in love to others and to do all the good in the world that we are able Ephes 2.10 Mat. 5.16 6.1 2 c. Titus 2.14 Gal. 6.7 8 9. Good works must be our study and our life Our work and our delight Even our enemies we must love and do good to Mat. 5.44 Rom. 12.19 20 21. And sure that doctrine is good which is purposely to employ men in doing good to all 21. So good is Christianity that it favoureth not any one sin but is the greatest condemner of them all It is all for knowledge against hurtful ignorance it is all for humility against all pride for self-denyal against all injurious selfishness for spirituality and the dominion of true Reason against sensuality and the dominion of the flesh for heavenliness against a worldly mind for sincerity and simplicity against all hypocrisie and deceit for love against malice for unity and peace against divisions and contentions for justice and lenity in superiours and obedience and patience in inferiours for faithfulness in all relations Its precepts extend to secret as well as open practices to the desires and thoughts as well as to the words and deeds It alloweth not a thought or word or action which is ungodly intemperate rebellious injurious unchaste or covetous or uncharitable Mat. 5. 22. All the troublesome part of our Religion is but our warfare against evil against sin and the temptations which would make us sinful And it must needs be good if all the conflicting part of it be only against evil Gal. 5.17 21 23. Rom. 6. 7. 8.1 7 8 9 10 13. 23. It teacheth us the only way to live in the greatest and most constant joy If we attain not this it is because we follow not its precepts If endless joy foreseen and all the foresaid mercies in the way are not matter for continual delight there is no greater to be thought on Rejoycing alwaies in the Lord even in our sharpest persecutions is a great part of Religious duty Phil. 3.1 4.4 Psal 33.1 Zech. 10.7 Mat. 5.11 12. Deut. 12.12 18. 24. It overcometh both the danger and the fear of death and that must be good which conquereth so great an evil and maketh the day of the ungodly's fears and utter misery to be the day of our desire and felicity Rom. 6.23 1 Cor. 15.55 Col. 3.1 4. Phil. 3.21 25. It obligeth all the Rulers of the world to use all their power to do good against all sin within their reach and to make their subjects happy both in body and in soul Rom. 13.3 4 5 6. 26. It appointeth Churches to be Societies of Saints that holiness and goodness combined may be strong and honourable 1 Cor. 1.1 2.1 1. Heb. 3.13 1 Thes 5.12 13. That holy Assemblies employed in the holy love and praises of God might be a representation of the heavenly Jerusalem Col. 2.5 27. It doth make the Love and Vnion of all the Saints to be so strict that the mercies and joyes of every member might extend to all All the corporal and spiritual blessings of all the Christians yea and persons in the world are mine as to my comfort as long as I can love them as my self If it would please me to be rich or honourable or learned my self it must please me also to have them so whom I love as my self And when millions have so much matter for my joy how joyfully should I then live And though I am obliged also to sorrow with them it is with such a sorrow only as shall not hinder any seasonable joy 1 Cor. 12. 28. In these societies every member is bound to contribute his help to the benefit of each other so that I have as many obliged to do me good as there be Christians in the world at least according to their several opportunities
to despise the Idol of the ungodly and to lay that under our feet which is nearest to their heart and to be able without impatiency to be scorned spit upon buffeted and abused to be poor and of no reputation among men and though not to enslave our selves to any but if we can be free to use it rather 1 Cor. 7.21 yet to be the loving and voluntary servants of as many as we can to do them good and not to desire to have a great retinue and to be such voluntary burdens to the world as to be served by many while we serve none as if we who are taught by Christ and Nature that it is more honourable to give than to receive and to be helpful unto many than to need the help of many would declare our impotency to be so great that when every poor man can serve himself and others we are and had rather be so indigent as not to live and help our selves without the help of many servants yea scarce to undress and dress our selves or to do any thing which another can do for us Only such persons are willing to eat and drink and sleep for themselves and to play and laugh and to sin for themselves but as to any thing that 's good and usefull without their present sensitive delight they are not only unserviceable to the world but would live like the lame or dead that must be moved and carryed about by others Among Christs servants he that is the chief must be the chief in service even as a servant unto all Luke 22.26 Matth. 23.11 And all by love must serve one another Gal. 5.13 4. His submission unto death and conquest of the natural love of life for a greater good even the pleasing of God and the Crown of Glory and the good of many in their salvation To teach us that not only the pleasures of life but life it self must be willingly laid down when any of these three ends require it Matth. 20.28 John 10 11. 15.13 1 John 3.16 Joh. 10.17 Acts 20.24 Matth. 10.39 16.25 Mark 14.26 Phil. 2.30 1 John 3.16 Rev. 12.11 Direct 16. Let Faith behold Christ in his relation to his universal Church and not unto your selves alone 1. Because else you overlook his most honourable relation It is more his glory to be the Churches Head and Saviour than yours Ephes 5.23 1.21 22. And 2. You else overlook his chief design and work which is for the perfecting and saving of his body Ephes 1.23 Col. 1.24.18 And 3. Else you overlook the chief part of your own duty and of your conformity to Christ which is in loving and edifying the body Ephes 4.12 16 Whereas if you see Christ as the undivided and impartial Head of all Saints you will see also all Saints as dear to him and as united in him and you will have communion by faith with them in him and you will love them all and pray for all and desire a part in the prayers of all instead of carping at their different indifferent manner and forms and words of prayer and running away from them to shew that you disown them And you will have a tender care of the unity and honour and prosperity of the Church and regard the welfare of particular Brethren as your own 1 Cor. 12. throughout John 13.14 34. 15.12 17. Rom. 13.8 stooping to the lowest service to one another if it were the washing of the feet and in honour preferring one another Rom. 12.10 Not judging nor despising nor persecuting but receiving and forbearing one another Rom. 14. throughout 15.1 2 3 4 7 8. Gal. 5.13 6.1 2 3. Ephes 4.2 32. Col. 3.13 Edifying exhorting and seeking the saving of one other 1 Thes 5.11 4.9 18. Heb. 3.13 10.24 Not speaking evil one of another James 4.11 Much less biting and devouring one another Gal. 5.15 But having compassion one of another as those that are members one of another 1 Pet. 3.8 Rom. 12.5 Direct 17. Make all your opposition to the temptations of Satan the world and the flesh by the exercise of Faith in Christ From him you must have your weapons skill and strength It is the great work of Faith to militate under him as the Captain of our salvation and by vertue of his precepts example and Spirit to overcome as he hath overcome Of which more anon Direct 18. Death also must be entertained and conquered by Faith in Christ We must see it as already conquered by him and entertain it as the passage to him This also will be after spoken to Direct 19. Faith must believe in Christ as our Judge to give us our final Justification and sentence us to endless life Rom. 14.9 10. John 5.22 24 25. Direct 20. Lastly Faith must see Christ as preparing us a place in Heaven and possessing it for us and ready to receive us to himself But all this I only name because it will fall in in the last Chapters CHAP. III. Directions to live by Faith on the Holy Ghost THis is not the least part of the life of Faith If the Spirit give us Faith it self then Faith hath certainly its proper work to do towards that Spirit which giveth it And if the Spirit be the worker of all other grace and Faith be the means on our part then Faith hath somewhat to do with the Holy Ghost herein The best way that I can take in helping you to believe aright in the Holy Ghost will be by opening the true sense of this great Article of our Faith to you that by understanding the matter aright you may know what you are here both to do and to expect Direct 1. The name of the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God is used in Scripture for the third person in the Trinity as constitutive and as the third perfective principle of operation and most usually as operating ad extra by communication And therefore many Fathers and ancient Divines and Schoolmen say That the Holy Ghost the third person and principle is THE LOVE OF GOD which as it is Gods Love of himself is a constitutive person or principle in the Trinity but as it is pregnant and productive it is the third principle of operation ad extra and so that it is taken usually for the pregnant operative Love of God And thus they suppose that the Divine POWER INTELLECT and WILL or Wisdom and Love are the three constitutive persons in themselves and the three principles of operation ad extra To this purpose writeth Origen Ambrose and Richardus the Schoolman but plainlier and fullier Damascene and Bernard and Edmundus Cantuariensis and Potho Prumensis cited by me in my Reasons of the Christian Religion page 372 373 374. Augustine only putteth Memory for Power by which yet Campanella thinketh he meant Power Metaphys par 2. l. 6. c. 12. art 4. pag. 88. what Caesarius and many other say de triplici lumine I pass by The Lux
Psal 5.4 5. 9.7 James 1.15 By this time methinks you should better know what the use and meaning of the Gospel and Grace and Ministers is and what is the design of Preaching and in what manner it should be done Would you have us silent or talk to you as in jeast while we see such a day as this before us Every true Preacher spaketh to you with Judgment and Eternity in his eye Our work is to prepare you or to help you to prepare to meet the Lord and to be ready for your final sentence O then with what seriousness should we speak and should you bear and should both we and you prepare It 's pitty to see people hear Sermons many years and not so much as know what a Sermon is or what is the use and nature of it If our business were to draw away Disciples after us and to make our selves the admired heads of factions then we would speak those perverse things contrary to the doctrine which you have been taught by which our ends might be carryed on Acts 20.30 Rom. 16.17 Or if our design were to be high and great and rich we would flatter the great ones of the world that we might rule you with violence instead of love Or if we consulted our case we should spare much of this labour and let you silently alone at cheaper rates to the flesh than now we speak to you But O who can be silent who is engaged in this sacred office when he foreseeth what will shortly be the issue of our prevailing or not prevailing with you Now as we love Christ we must feed his sheep and necessity is laid upon us and woe be unto us if we preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 Our preaching Christ is to warn every man and teach every man that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Col. 1.22 And to perswade men as knowing the terrours of the Lord 2 Cor. 9.10 11. Heb. 12.25 29. If it were only that we loved so to hear our selves talk or to be cryed up by many followers we deserved to pay dear indeed for such Preaching But when our Lord loved and pittied souls at the rate of his sufferings and bloody death surely our rates are not above the worth of souls O what a doleful sight is it to us to foresee by faith how loud how earnestly you would knock and cry when the door is shut and hope is gone And what you would then give for one of these daies which you now are a weary of and for a drop of that mercy which now doth beg your entertainment What then remaineth but as ever you believe that day and as ever you care what becometh of your souls and bodies for ever and as ever you would not be chargâ—d and condemned as final and obstinate refuâ—ers of mercy and salvation yea and for wronging the Ministers of Christ by making them study and preach in vain That you harden not your hearâ—s but hear Christs voice to day while it is called to day before the door of grace be shut O cry while crying and begging may do good Meet Christ now as may best prepare you to meet him then Meet him now as the Prodigal met his Father Luke 15. Saying I have sinned and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me one of thy hired servants Meet God as Abigail met David 1 Sam. 25.32 34. with an offering of peace even Christ apprehended by an obedient faith When she heard from David Except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me all had been destroyed Meet him to enquire of his sacred Oracle what is like to become of thy soul as the King of Syria sent Hazael with a present to Elisha to meet him saying Shall I recover of this disease 2 King 8.8 Or as Paul met with Christ when he humbled and converted him saying Who art thou Lord and what wouldst thou have me do Acts 9. Meet him as the men of Israel and Juda did David their King 2 Sam. 19. striving who should first own and honour him Amos 4.12 Meet God thus nâ—w when hâ— caâ—â—eth you by his Word when he perswadeth you by his Mâ—â—â—sters when he moveth you by his Spirit when he allureth and obligeth you by his mercies while he driveth you by affliction while he waiteth on you by his patience and by all thâ—se calleth you to repent to love him and to obey to set your hearts on Heaven if ever you hope it should be your portion Meet him thus now and then you may joyfully meet him in his glory II. And O all you that are true Believers lift up your heads with hope and joy for your final deliverance draweth nigh The world hath but a little while longer to abuse you Satan hath but a little while more to molest you The blinded Sodomites shall not long be groping for your doors You shall not long walk among snares and dangers nor live with enemies nor with troublesome unsuitable friends You have not long to bear the burden of that wearisome body of that seducing flesh of those unruly passions or those disordered thoughts you have not long to groan under the misery of that troubled and doubting conscience that darkened mind those dull affections those remnants of unbelief stupidity and carnality nor to cry out with weariness from day to day O when shall I know God better and love him more Death is coming and quickly after Christ is coming One will begin and the other perfect your full deliverance and put an end to these complaints And remember that though Death hath somewhat in it which to nature is terrible God having made the love of Life to be the pondus or spring of motion to the great engine of the sensitive world yet what is there in the second coming of Christ that should seem unwelcome to you You shall not meet an enemy but a friend your surest and your greatest friend one that hath done more for you than all the world hath done and one that is ready now to do much more and shew his love and friendship to the height One that will be then your surest friend when all the world shall cast you off You go not to be condemned but to be openly justified yea honoured before all the world and sentenced to endless glory You go not to be numbered with the enemies of holiness or with the slothful and unprofitable servants but to be perfectly incorporated into the heavenly society and to see the glorified faces of Henoch Moses and Elias of Peter and John and Paul and Timothy and all the Saints that ever you knew or whose writings you have ever read or whose names you ever heard of millions more You go to be better acquainted with those Angels that rejoyced at your repentance and that ministred for your good and that bore you in their hands and were your continual guard both night and day You go
Nos quoque floruimus sed flos fuit ille caducus Flammaque de stipula nostra brevisque fuit Ov. VERA EFFIGIES RICHARDI BAXTERI MIN IES CH IN OP ET PATA FIDEI SPEI ET CHARITATIS An. 1670. AETAT SUAE 55º Farewell vaine World as thou hast been to me Dust and a Shadow those I leave with thee The vnseen Vitall Substance I committ The Leaves Fruit are dropt for soyle and Seed Heaven's heirs to generate to heale and feed Them also thou wilt flatter and molest But shalt not keep from Everlasting Rest THE LIFE OF FAITH THE Life of Faith In Three PARTS The First is a Sermon on Heb. 11.1 formerly preached before His Majesty and published by his Command with another added for the fuller Application The Second is Instructions for confirming Believers in the Christian Faith The Third is Directions how to live by Faith or how to exercise it upon all occasions By RICHARD BAXTER 2 Cor. 5.7 For we walk by faith not by sight 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man parish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Heb. 12.27 By faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him that is invisible LONDON Printed by R. W. for Nevill Simmons at the three Crowns over against Holbern Conduit 1670. To the Worshipfull my much honoured Friend Richard Hampden of Hampden Esquire and the Lady Laetitia his Wife Grace and Peace be multiplied SIR YOur Names stand here in the front of this Treatise on a double account First that the custom of Writers having given me such an advantage I may tell the present and future Ages how much I love and honour your Piety Sobriety Integrity and Moderation in an Age when such Vertues grow into contempt or into lifeless Images and Names And how much I am my self your debter for the manifold expressions of your love and that in an Age when 〈…〉 the superioâ—â—â—â—culties is ouâ— of fâ—shion and towards such as I is grown â— crime Sincerity and 〈◊〉 are things that shall be honourable when Hypocrisie and Malice have done their worst But they are most conspicuous and refulgent in times of â—â—rity and when the shame of their contraries seâ— them off Secondly To signifie my Love and Gratitude by the best 〈◊〉 which I can make which is by tendering to you and to your family the surest Directions for the most noble manly life on earth in order to a blessed life in Heaven Though you have proceeded well you 〈…〉 need of help so great a 〈…〉 for skilfull counsel and 〈…〉 and industrious and unweaâ—â—◠〈…〉 And your hopeful children may 〈…〉 to learn this excellenâ— Life from these Directions for the love of your prefixed Names And how happy will they bâ— if they converse with God 〈…〉 are wallowing in the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 When the dead heaâ—ted sinner thinketh not of 〈…〉 be dragg'd out of 〈◊〉 paâ—pered corruptible flesh to divinie 〈◊〉 and â—â—â—with the beginnings of endless 〈◊〉 to the world where they might have found everlasting rest what joy will then be the portion of mortified and patient Believers whosâ— Treasâ—â—â—s and Hearts and Conversatiâ—â— in Heâ—ven are now the foretaste of their possession as the Spirit of Christ which causeth this iâ— the seâ—â— of God and the pledge and earnest of their inheritance If a 〈◊〉 pleasing life in a dark distracted 〈◊〉 world were better than a life with God and Angels methinks yet they that know they cannot have what they 〈◊〉 should make sue of what they may haâ—â— And they that cannot keep what they 〈◊〉 should learn to 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 may keep Wonderfull stupidity â—hâ—t they 〈…〉 dead bodies 〈…〉 grave is as common a work 〈…〉 children into the world and that this life is but the road to another and that all men are posting on to their 〈…〉 should think no more considerately whither so many thousand souls do go that daily shoot the gulf of death and return no more to the world which one they called their home That men will have no house or home but the ship which carryeth them so swiftly to eternity and spend their time in furnishing a dwelling on such a tempestuous Sea where winds and tide are hasting them to the shore and even to the end are contriving to live where they are daily dying and care for no â—â—bitation but on horse-back That almost all men die much wiser than they lived and yet the certain foreknowledge of death will not serve to make them more seasonably and more safely wiâ—e Wonderful that it should be possible for a man awake to believe that he must shortly be gone from earth and enter into an unchangeable endless life and yet not bend the thoughts of his soul and the labours of his life to secure his true and 〈…〉 Adam hath given sin the 〈…〉 grace and madness the priority to wisdom and our wisdom health and safety must now come after by the way of recovery and cure The first born of lapsed man was a malignant persecuting Cain The first born of believing Abraham was a persecutor of him that was born after the Spirit 1 John 3.12 Gal. 4.29 And the first born of this Isaac himself was a profane Esau that for one morsel sold his birth-right Heb. 12.16 And naturally we are all the off-spring of this profaneness and have not acquaintance enough with God and with healthful holiness and with the everlasting heavenly Glory to make us cordially preferr it before a forbidden cup or morsel or a game at foolery or a filthy lust or before the wind of a gilded fools acclamation and applause or the cap and counterfeit subjection of the multitude But the fortunae non tua turba ut Ov. quos sportula fecit amici ut Juv. who will serve mens lusts and be their servants and humble attendants to damnation are regarded more than the God the Saviour the Sanctifier to whom these perfidious rebels were once devoted That you and yours may live that more wise and delightful life which consisteth in the daily sight of Heaven by a Living Faith which worketh by Love in constant Obedience is the principal end of this publick appellation That what is here written for the use of all may be first and specially useful to you and yours whom I am so much bound to love and honour even to your safe and comfortable life and death and to your future joy and glory which is the great desire of Your obliged Servant RICH. BAXTER Feb. 4. 1669. THE PREFACE Reader 1. IF it offend thee that the Parts of
goodness of Gods Laws Whether the Promise and â—â—eward be the end of Obedience or Obedience the end of the 〈…〉 Reward Of Scripture examples 232 Chap. 5. How to live by faith on Gods Promises What will of God it is according to which they must ask who will receive Of a particular faith in prayer Is the same degree of grace conditionally promised to all Directions for understanding the Promises The true nature of faith or trust in Gods Promises opened at large Affiance is in the understanding will and vital power Whether Faith be Obedience or how related to it Ten acts of the understanding essential to the Christian Faith in the Promises Several acts of the will essential to Faith And in the vital power whether all true Faith have a subjective certainty of the truth of the Word Choice and venturing or forsaking all is the sign of real trust Promises collected for the help of Faith 1. Of Pardon 2. Of Salvation 3. Of Reconciliation and Adoption 4. Of pardon of new sins after conversion 5. Of Sanctification 6. Promises to them that desire and seek 7. To Prayer 8. To groans that want expression 9. Promises of all that we want and that is good for us 10. To the use of Gods Word and Sacraments 11. To the humble meek and lowly 12. To the peaceable 13. To the diligent 14. To the patient 15. To Obedience 16. To the Love of God 17. To them that love the godly and are merciful in good works 18. To the poor 19. To the oppressed 20. To the persecuted 21. In dangers 22. Against temptations 23. To them that overcome and persevere 24. In sickness and at death 25. Of Resurrection final Justification and Glory 26. For children of the godly 27. To the Church 241 Chap. 6. How to exercise faith on Godâ— Threatnings and Judgements How far belief of the threatnings in good necessary and a saving faith How saving faith is a personal application How to perceive true faith 297 Chap. 7. How to live by faith for Pardon and Justification In how many respects and waies Christ justifieth us Of the imputation of Christs Righteousness Twelve reasons to help our belief of pardon How far sin should make us doubt of our Justification 308 Chap. 8. 58 Dangerous Errours detected which hinder the 〈…〉 faith about 〈…〉 and the contrary truthâ—â—ssertedâ— 321 Chap. 9. How to live by faith in the exercise of other graces and duties And 1. Of the doctrinal Directions What Sanctification is How God loveth the unsanctified How 〈◊〉 loveth 〈◊〉 in Christ Of Preaching meer Morality â—61 Chap. 10. The practical Directions to promote Love to God and Holiness 367 Chap. 11. Of the order and harmony of graces and duties which must be taken all together Of the parts that make up the new Creature 1. The intellectual order or a method or scheme of the heads of Divinity 2. The order of Intention and Affection 3. The order of practice Of the various degrees of means to mans ultimate end Of the grace necessary to concur with these various means The circular motion by divine communication to our Receiving Graces and so by our Returning Graces unto God again The frame of the present means of grace and of our returning duties Rules about the order of Christian practice which shew that and how the best is to be preferred and which is best in fifty three Propositions How mans Laws bind conscience and many other cases resolved A lamentation for the great want of order and method and harmony in the understandings wills and lives of Christians Many instances of mens partiality as to truths graces duties sins c. Twenty Reasons why few Christians are compleat and entire but â—ame and partial in their Religion Ten Consectaries Whether all graces be equal in habit Religion not so perfect in us as in the Scriptures which therefore are the Rule to us c. 373 Chap. 12. How to use faith against particular sins 417 Chap. 13. What sins the best are most in danger of and should most carefully avoid And wherein the infirmities of the upright differ from mortal sins 421 Chap. 14. How to live by faith in prosperity The way by which faith doth save us from the world General Directions against the danger of prosperity Twenty marks of worldliness The pretences of worldly minds The greatness of the sin The ill effects 428 Chap. 15. How to be poor in spirit And 1. How to escape the Pride of prosperous men The cleaks of Pride The signs of Pride and 〈…〉 446 Chap. 16. How to escape the 〈…〉 by faith The mischiefe of serving the appetite 〈…〉 465 Chap. 17. How faith must conquer sloth and idleness Who are guilty of this sin Cases resolved The evil of idleness The remedies 474 Chap. 18. Vnmercifulness to the poor to be conquered by faith The remedies 491 Chap. 19. How to live by faith in adversity 493 Chap. 20. How to live by faith in trouble of conscience and doubts of our salvation The difference between true and false repentance How to apply the universal grace to our comfort The danger of casting our part on Christ and of ascribing all melancholy disturbances and thoughts to the spirit Of the trying the spiriâ— and of the witness of the Spirit 503 Chap. 21. How to live by faith in the publick Woshipping of God Overvalue not your own manner of Worship and overvilifie not other mens Of communion with others 519 Chap. 22. How to pray in faith 527 Chap. 23. How to live by faith towards children and other Relations 530 Chap. 24. How by faith to order our affections to publick Societies and to the unconverted world 535 Chap. 25. How to live by faith in the love of one another and to mortifie self-love It is our own interest and gain to love our neighbours as our selves Objections wherein it consisteth What is the sincerity of it Consectaries Loving others as your selves is a duty even as to the degree 539 Chap. 26. How by faith to be followers of the Saints and to look with profit to their examples and their end and to hold communion with the heavenly Society Reasons of the duty The nature of it Negatively what it is not and Affirmatively what it is Wherein they must be imitated 556 Chap. 27. How to receive the sentence of death and how to die by Faith 589 Chap. 28. How by faith to look aright to the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory 594 Reader The first and great Errour of the Printer iâ— that he hath not distinguished the three distinct Parts of the Treatise Therefore you must write Page 1. PART 1. and Pag. 81. PART 2. Chap. 1. and Pag. 168. PART 3. Chap. 1. IN the Preface Page 3. l. 16. put If you would have p. 8. l. 8. put out have p. 31. l. 31. put out out p. 40. l. 22. for that r. the p. 51. l. 37. for yoâ—r r. their p. 54. l. 13. for believe r.
worldly judgement He seeth by faith a greater ugliness in sin than in any the most deformed monster When the unbeliever saith what harm is it to please my flesh in ease or pride or meat and drink or lustful wantonness the believer takes it as the question of a fool that should ask what harm is it to take a dram of Mercury or Arsenick He seeth the vicious evil and foreseeth the consequent penal evil by the eye of faith And therefore it is that he pittieth the ungodly when they pitty not themselves and speaks to them oft with a tender heart in compassion of their misery and perhaps weeps over them as Paul Phil. 3.18 19. when he cannot prevail when they weep not for themselves but hate his love and scorn his pitty and bid him keep his lamentations for himself because they see not what he sees He seetâ— also the inward beauty of the Saints as it shineth forth in the holiness of their lives and through all their sordid poverty and contempt beholdeth the image of God upon them For he judgeth not of sin or holiness as they now appear to the dâ—stracted world but as they will be judged of at the day which he foreseeth when sin will be the shame and holiness the honoured and dâ—sired state He can see Christ in his poor despised members and love God in those that are made as the scorn and off-scouâ—ing of all things by the malignant unbelieving world He admireth the excellency and happiness of those that are made the laughing-stock of the ungodly and accounteth the Saints the most excellent on earth Psal 16.2 and had rather be one of their communion in raggs than sit with Princes that are naked within and void of the true and durable glory He judgeth of men as he perceiveth them to have more or less of Christ The worth of a man is not obvious to the sense You see his stature complexion and his cloths but as you see not his learning or skill in any Art whatsoever so you see not his grace and heavenly mind As the soul it self so the sinful deformity and the holy beauty of it are to us invisible and perceived only by their fruits and by the eye of faith which seeth things as God reveals them And therefore in the eyes of a true Believer a vile person is contemned but he honoureth those that fear the Lord Psal 15.4 4. A true Believer doth seek a happiness which he never saw and that with greater estimation and resolution than he seeks the most excellent things that he hath seen In all his prayers his labours and his sufferings it is an unseen Glory that he seeks he seeth not the Glory of God nor the glorified Redeemer nor the world of Angels and perfected spirits of the just but he knoweth by faith that such a God such a Glory such a world as this there is as certain as if his eyes had seen it And therefore he provides he lives he hopes he waits for this unseen state of spiritual bliss contemning all the wealth and glory that sight can reach in comparison thereof He believeth what he shall see and therefore strives that he may see it It 's something above the Sun and all that mortal eyes can see which is the end the hope the portion of a believer without which all is nothing to him and for which he trades and travels here as worldlings do for worldly things Matth. 6.20 21. Col. 3.1 Phil. 3.20 5. A true Believer doth all his life prepare for a day that is yet to come and for an account of all the passages of his life though he hath noâ—hing but the Word of God to assure him of it And therefore he lives as one that is hasting to the presence of his Judge and he contriveth his affairs and disposeth of his worldly riches as one that looks to hear of it again and as one that remembreth the Judge is at the door James 5.9 He rather asketh what life what words what actions what way of using my estate and interest will be sweetest to me in the review and will be best at last when I must accordingly receive my doom than what is most pleasant to my flesh and what will ingratiate me most with men and what will accommodate me best at present and set me highest in the world And therefore it is that he pittieth the ungodly even in the height of their prosperity and is so earnest though it offend them to procure their recovery as knowing that how secure soever they are now they must give an account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead 1 Pet. 4.5 and that then the case will be altered with the presumptuous world 6. Lastly A true believer is careful to prevent a threatned misery which he never felt and is awakened by holy fear to flye from the wrath to come and is industrious to escape that place of torment which he never saw as if he had seen it with his eyes When he heareth but the sound of the trumpet he takes warning that he may save his soul Ezek. 33.4 The evils that are here felt and seen are not so dreadful to him as those that he never saw or felt He is not so careful and resolute to avoid the ruine of his estate or name or to avoid the plague or sword or famine or the scorching flames or death or torments as he is to avoid the endless torments which are threatned by the righteous God It is a greater misery in his esteem to be really undone for ever than seemingly only for a time and to be cast off by God than by all the world and to lie in Hell than to suffer any temporal calamity And therefore he fears it more and doth more to avoid it and is more cast down by the fears of Gods displeasure than by the feelings of these present sufferings As Noah did for his preservation from the threatned deluge so doth the true Believer for his preservation from everlasting wrath Heb. 11.7 By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith God first giveth warning of the flood Noah believeth it not with a lifeless but a working faith that first moved in him a self-preserving fear This fear moveth Noah to obey the Lord in the use of means and to prepare the Ark and all this was to save himself and his house from a flood that was as yet unseen and of which in nature there was no appearance Thus doth God warn the sinful world of the day of judgement and the fire that is unquenchable and true believers take his warning and believing that which they cannot see by fear they are moved to flye to Christ and use his means to scape the threatned calamity By this
me How long O scorner wilt thou delight in scorning How long wilt thou go on impenitently in thy folly And now I must cry out How long How long must I feel the wrath of the Almighty the unquenchable fire the immortal worm Alas for ever When shall I receive one moments ease when shall I see one glimpse of hope O never never never Now I perceive what Satan meant in his temptations what â—in intended what God meant in the threatnings of his Law what grace was good for what Christ was sent for and what was the design and meaning of the Gospel and how I should have valued the offers and promises of life Now I understand what Ministers meant to be so importunate with me for my conversion and what was the cause that they would even have kneeled to me to have procured my return to God in time Now I understand that holiness was not a needless thing that Christ and Grace deserved better entertainment than contempt that precious time was worth more than to be wasted idly that an immortal soul and life eternal should have been more regarded and not cast away for so short so base a fleshly pleasure Now all these things are plain and open to my understanding But alas it 's now too late I know that now to my woe and torment which I might have known in time to my recovery and joy For the Lords sake and for your souls sake open your eyes and foresee the things that are even at hand and prevent these fruitless lamentations Judge but as you will all shortly judge and live but as you will wish that you had lived and I desire no more Be serious as if you saw the things that you say you do believe I know this serious discourse of another life is usually ungrateful to men that are conscious of their strangeness to it and taking up their portion here are loth to be tormented before the time This is not the smoothing pleasing way But remember that we have flesh as well as you which longs not to be accounted troublesome or precise which loves not to displease or be displeased And had we no higher light and life we should â—aâ—k as men that saw and felt no more than fight and flesh can reach But when we are preaching and dying and you are hearing and dying and we believe and know that you are nâ—w going to see the things we speak of and death will straightway draw aside the veil and shew you the great amazing sight it 's time for us to speak and you to hear with all our hearts It 's time for us to be serious when we are so near the place where all are serious There are none that are in jest in Heaven or Hell pardon us therefore if we jest not at the door and in the way to such a serious state All that see and feel are serious and therefore all that truly believe must be so too Were your eyes all opened this hour to see what we believe we appeal to your own consciences whether it would not make you more serious than we Marvel not if you see Believers make another matter of their salvation than those that have hired their understandings in service to their sense and think the world is no bigger or better than their globe or map and reacheth no further than they can kennâ— As long as we see you serious about Lands and Lordships and titles and honours the rattles and tarrying Irons of the cheating world you must give us leave whether you will or no to be serious about the life eternal They that scramble so eagerly for the bonds of worldly riches and devour so greedily the drâ—ffe of sensual delights methinks should blush if such animals had the blushing property to blame or deride us for being a little alas too little earnest in the matters of God and our salvation Can you not pardon us if we love God a little more than you love your lusts and if we run as fast for the Crown of Life as you run after a feather or a fly or if we breath as hard after Christ in holy desires as you do in blowing the bubble of vain-glory If a thousand pound a year in passage to a grave and the chains of darkness be worth your labour give us leave to belieâ—â— that mercy in order to everlasting mercy grace in order to glory and glory as the end of grace is worth our labour and infinitely more Your end is narrow though your way be broad and our end is broad though our way be narrow You build as Miners in Cole-pits do by digging downwards into the dark and yet you are laborious Though we begin on earth we build towards Heaven where an attractive loadstone draws up the workmen and the work and shall we loiter under so great encouragements Have you considered that Faith is the beholding grace the evidence of things not seen and yet have you the hearts to blame Believers for doing all that they can do in a case of such unspeakable everlasting consequence If we are Believers Heaven and Hell are as iâ— were open to our sight And would you wish us to trifle in the sight of Heaven or to leap into Hell when we see it as before us what name can express the inhumane cruelty of such a wish oâ— motion or the unchristian folly of those that will obey you O give us leave to be serious for a Kingdom which by Faith we see Blame us for this and blame us that we are not beside our selves Pardon us that we are awake when the thunder of Jehovah's voice doth call to us denouncing everlasting wrath to all that are sensual and ungodly Were we asleep as you are we would lie still and take no heed what God or man said to us Pardon us that we are Christians and believe these things seeing you profess the same your selves Disclaim not the practice till you dare disclaim the profession If we were Infidels we would do as the ungodly world we would pursue our present pleasures and commodity and say that things above us are nothing to us and would take Religion to be the Troubler of the world But till we are Infidels or Atheists at the heart we cannot do so Forgive us that we are men if you take it to be pardonable Were we bruits we would eat and drink and play and never trouble our selves or others with the care of our salvation or the fears of any death but one or with resisting sensual inclinations and meditating on the life to come but would take our ease and pleasure while we may At least forgive us that we are not blocks or stones that we have life and feeling Were we insensate clods we would not see the light of Heaven nor hear the roaring of the Lion nor fear the threats of God himself we would not complain or sigh or groan because we feel not If therefore we may
sinful world and flesh linger not now as unwilling to depart repent not of thy choice when all that the world can do for thee is past repent not of thy warfare when thou hast got the victory nor of thy voyage when thou art past the storms and waves and ready to land at the haven of felicity Thus Faith may sing our Nunc dimittis when the flesh is lothest to be dissolved But we must live by faith if we would thus die by faith Such a death doth not use to be the period of a fleshly worldly life nor of a careless dull and negligent life Nature which brought us into the world without our forecast or care will turn us out of the world without it But it will not give us a joyful passage nor bring us to a better world without it It costeth worldlings no small care to die in an honourable or plentiful estate that they may fall from an higher place than others and may have something to make death more grievous and unwelcome to them and may have a greater account to make at Judgement and that their passage to Heaven may be as a Camels through a Needle And may a believing joyful death be expected without the preparations of exercise and experience in a believing life Nature is so much afraid of dying and an incorporated soul is so incarcerated in sense and so hardly riseth to serious and satisfying apprehensions of the unseen world that even true Believers do find it a work of no small difficulty to desire to depart and be with Christ and to die in the joyful hopes of faith A little abatement of the terrours of death a little supporting hope and peace is all that the greater part of them attain instead of the fervent desires and triumphant joyes which the lively belief of endless glory should produce O therefore make it the work of your lives of all your lives your greatest work your constant work to live by faith that the faith which hath first conquered all the rest of your enemies may be able also to overcome the last and may do your last work well when it hath done the rest CHAP. I. Directions how to live by Faith And first how to strengthen Faith And secondly the natural Truths presupposed to be considered THe Directions which I shall give you as helps to live by Faith are of two ranks 1. Such as tend to the strengthening of your Faith 2. Such as tell you how to use it The first is the greatest part of our task for no man can use that faith which he hath not nor can use more of it than he hath And the commonest reason why we use but little is because we have but little to use But on this subject supposing it most weighty I have written many Treatises already The second part of the Saints Rest The Unreasonableness of Infidelity And last of all The Reasons of the Christian Religion Besides others which handle it on the by And somewhat is said in the beginning of this discourse But yet because in so great a matter I am more afraid of doing too little than too much I will here give you an Index of some of the chief Helps to be close together before you for your memories to be the constant fuel of your Faith In the work of Faith it is first needful that you get all the prerequisite Helps of Natural Light and be well acquainted with their Order and Evidence and their Vsefulness to befriend the supernatural revelations For it is supposed that we are men before we are Christians We were created before we were redeemed And we must know that there is a God before we can know that we have offended him or that we need a Saviour to reconcile us to him And we must know that we have reasonable souls before we can know that sin hath corrupted them or that grace must sanctifie them And we must know that whatsoâ—ver God saith is true before we can believe that the Scripture is true as being his revelation Faith is an act of Reason and Believing is a kind of knowing even a knowing by the testimâ—ny of him whom we believe because we have sufficient reason to believe him 2. And next we must be well acquainted with the evidence of supernatural Truth which presupposeth the foresaid Natural Verities I shall set both bâ—fore you briefly in their order 1. Think well â—f the nature of your souls of their faculties or pâ—wers their excellency and their proper use And then you will find that you are not meer brutes who know not their Creatâ—ur nor live noâ— by a Law nor think not of another world nor â—â—ar any â—â—fferings after death But that you have reasâ—n free-will and executive power to knâ—w your Maker and to live by â—ule aâ—d to hope for a Reward in another life and to fear a pâ—nâ—shmeâ—t hereafter And that as no wise Artificer maketh any thing in vain so God is mâ—ch less to be thought to havâ— given you such souls and faculties in vain 2. Coâ—sidâ—r next how all the world declareth to you that there is a Gâ—d whâ— is infiniteâ—y pâ—werful wise and good And thaâ— it is not possible that all things which we see should have no cause or that the derived Power and Wisdom and Goodnesâ— of the creature should not proceed from that which is more excellent in the first and total cause Or that God should give more than he had to give 3. Consider nexâ— in whâ—t Relation such a creature must needs stand to such a Creatour If he made us of Nâ—â—hing 〈◊〉 is not pâ—ssible but that he must be 〈◊〉 Owner and wâ— aâ—d all things absolutely his Own And if he be our Maker and Owner and be infinitely powerful wise and good and we be Reasonable-free-agents made to be guided by Laws or Moral Means unto our end it is not possible but that we should stand related to him as subjects to their rightful Governour And if he be our Creatour Owner and Ruler and also infinitely Good and the grand Benefactor of the world and if the nature of our souls be to Love Good as Good it cannot be possible that he should not be our End who is our Creatour and that we should not be related to him as to the Chiefest Good both originally as our Benefactor and finally as our End 4. And then it is easie for you next to see what duty you owe to that God to whom you are thus related That if you are absolutely his Own you should willingly be at his absolute dispose And iâ— he bâ— your Soveraign Ruler you should labour most diligently to know his Laws and absolutely to obey them And if he be infinitely Good and your Benefactor and your End you are absolutely bound to Love him most devotedly and to place your own felicity in his Love All this is so evidently the duty of man to God by nature that nothing but madness can deny
it And this is it which we call Sanctification or Holiness to the Lord. And our cohabitation and relation to men will tell us that Justice and Charity are our duty as to them And when a man is fully satisfied that Holiness Justice and Charity are our duty he hath a great advantage for his progress towards the Christian Faith To which let me add that as to our selves also it is undeniably our duty to take more care for our souls than for our bodies and to rule our senses and passions by our Reason and to subject our lower faculties to the higher and so to use all sensible and present things as conduceth to the publick good and to the advancement of our nobler part and to our greatest benefit though it cross our sensual appetites All this being unquestionably our natural duty we see that man was made to live in Holiness Justice Charity Temperance and rational regularity in the world 5. When you have gone thus far consider next how far men are generally from the performance of this duty And how backward humane nature is to it even while they cannot deny it to be their duty And you will soon perceive that God who made it their duty did never put in them this enmity thereto nor ever made them without some aptitude to perform it And if any would infer that their indisposednâ—ss proveth it to be none of their duty the nature of man will fully confute him and the conscience and confession of all the sober part of the world What wretch so blind if he believe a Deity who will not confess that he should love God with all his heart and that Justice Charity and Sobriety are his duty and that his sense should be ruled by his reason c The evidence before given is not to be denyed And therefore something is marr'd in nature Some enemy hath seduced man And some deplorable change hath befallen him 6. Yea if you had no great backwardness to this duty your self consider what it must cost you faithfully to perform it in such a malignant world as we now live in what envy and wrath what malice and persecution what opposition and discouragements on every side we must expect Universal experience is too full a proof of this Besides what it costeth our restrained flesh 7. Proceed then to think further that certainly God hath never appointed us so much duty without convenient Motives to perform it It cannot be that he should make us more noble than the brutes to be more miserable Or that he should make Holiness our duty that it might be our loss or our calamity If there were no other life but this and men had no hopes of future happiness nor any fears of punishment what a Hell would this world be Heart-wickedness would be but little feared nor heart-duty regarded Secret sin against Princes States and all degrees would be boldly committed and go unpunished for the most part The sins of Princes and of all that have power to defeat the Law would have little or no restraint Every mans interest would oblige him rather to offend God who so seldom punisheth here than to offend a Prince or any man in power who seldom lets offences against himself go unrevenged And so man more than God would be the Ruler of the world that is our God Nay actually the hopes and fears of another life among most Heaâ—hens Infidels and Hereticks is the principle of Divine Government by which God keepeth up most of the order and virtue which is in the world Yea think what you should be and do your self as to enemies and as to secret faults and as to sensual vices if you thought there were no life but this And is it possible that the infinitely powerful wise and good Creatour can be put to govern all mankind by meer deceit and a course of lyes as if he wanted better means By how much the better any man is by so much the more regardful is he of the life to come and the hopes and fears of another life are so much the more prevalent with him And is it possible that God should make men good to make them the most deceived and most miserable Hath he commanded all these cares to be our needless torments which brutes and fools and sottish sinners do all scape Is the greatest obedience to God become a sign of the greatest folly or the way to the greatest loss or disappointment We are all sure that this life is short and vain No Infidel can say that he is sure that there is no other life for us And if this be so reason commandeth us to prefer the pâ—ssibilities of such a life to come before the certain vanities of this life So that even the Infidels uncertainty will unavoidably infer that the preferring of the world to come is our duty And if it be our duty then the thing in it self is true For God will not make it all mens duties in the frame of their nature to seek an Vtopia and pursue a shadow and to spend their daies and chiefest cares for that which is not Godliness is not such a dreaming night-walk Conscience will not suffer dying men to believe that they have more cause to repent of their Godliness than of their sin and of their seeking Heaven than of wallowing in their lusts Nay then these hâ—avenly desires would be themselves our sins as being the following of a lye the aspiring after a state which is above us and the abuse and loss of our faculties and time And sensuality would be liker to be our virtue as being natural to us and a seeking of our most real felicity The common conscience of mankind doth justifie the wisdom and virtue of a temperate holy heavenly person and acknowledgeth that our heavenly desires are of God And doth God give men both natural faculties which shall never come to the perfection which is their End and also gracious desires which shall but deceive us and never be satisfied If God had made us for the enjoyments of brutes he would have given us but the knowledge and desires of brutes Every King and mortal Judge can punish faults against Man with death And hath God no greater or further punishment for sins as committed against himself And are his rewards no greater than a mans These and many more such Evidences may assure you that there is another life of Rewards and punishments and that this life is not our final state but only a â—ime of preparation thereunto Settle this deeply and fixedly in your minds 8. And look up to the heavenly Regions and think Is this world so replenished with inhabitants both Sea and Land and Air it self And can I dream that the vast and glorious Orbs and Regions are all uninhabited Oâ— that they have not more numerous and glorious possessors than this small opacous spot of earth And then think that those higher creatures are intellectual spirits This is
these things and to expound all these Solemnities Laws and Ceremonies to them so that the frame of Church and State and Families was a preservative hereof 5. But to pass by all the rest in the Old Testament the Incarnation of Christ was such a work of Omnipotent Love as caâ—not by us be comprehended That God should be united to humanity in person that humanity should thus be advanced into union with the Deity and Man be set above the Angels that a Virgin should conceive that men from the East should be led thither to worship an Infant by the conduct of a Star which Caesarius thinketh was one of those Angels or Spirits which are called a flame of fire Psal 104.4 That Angels from Heaven should declare his nativity to the Shepherds and celebrate it with their praises that John Baptist should be so called to be his forerunner and Elizabeth Zachary Simeon and Anna should so prophesie of him That the Spirit should be seen descending on him at his Baptism and the voice be heard from Heaven which owned him that he should fast forty daies and nights and that he should be transfigured before his three Disciples on the Mount and Moses and Elias seen with him in that glory and the voice from Heaven again bear witness to him These and many such like were the attestations of Divine Omnipotency to the truth of Christ 6. To these may be next joyned the whole course of miracles performed by Christ in healing the sick and raising the dead and in many other miraculous acts which are most of the substance of the Gospel-history and which I have recited together in my Reasons of the Christian Religion see Heb. 2.2 3 4. 7. And to these may be added the Power which was given over all the creatures to Christ our Mediatour All power in Heaven and Earth was given him Joh. 17.2 13.3 Mat. 28.19 Rom. 14.9 Ephes 1.22 23. He was made Head over all things to the Church and all principalities and powers were put under him And this was not barely asserted by him but demonstrated He shewed his power over the Devils in casting them out and his power over Angels by their attendance and his power of life and death by raising the dead and his power over all diseases by healing them and his power over the winds and waters by appeasing them and his power over our food and natures by turning water into wine and by feeding many thousands miraculously yea and his power over them into whose hands he was resolved to yield himself by restraining them till his hour was come and by making them all fall to the ground at his name and his power over Sun and Heaven and Earth by the darkening of the Sun and the trembling of the Earth and the rending of the Rocks and of the Vail of the Temple Mat. 27.45 51. And his power over the dead by the rising of the bodies of many Mat. 27.52 And his power over the Saints in Heaven by the attendance of Moses and Elias and his power to forgive sins by taking away the penal maladies and his power to change hearts and save souls by causing his Disciples to leave all and follow him at a word and Zacheus to receive him and believe and the thief on the cross to be converted and to enter that day into Paradise 8. And his own Resurrection is an undoubted attestation of Divine Omnipotency If God gave him such a victory over death and raised him to life when men had killed him and rolled a stone upon his Sepulchre and sealed and guarded it there needeth no further evidence of the Power of God impressing and attesting the Christian Religion than that which ascertaineth to us the truth of Christs Resurrection For he was declared to be the Son of God by POWER by resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 9. And his bodily appearance to his congregated Disciples when the doors were shut his miracle at their fishing his walking on the Sea his vanishing out of their sight Luke 24. when he had discoursed with the two Disciples his opening their hearts to understand his Word c. do all shew this part of Gods Image on our Religion even his Power 10. And so doth his bodily ascending into Heaven before the face of his Disciples Acts 1. 11. But especially the sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples according as he promised To cause them that were before so low in knowledge to be suddenly inspired with languages and with the full understanding of his own will and with unanimity and concord herein this made his Disciples the living monuments and effects of his own Omnipotency Acts 2. 12. And accordingly all the miracles which they did by this power recorded partly in the Acts of the Apostles or rather the Acts of Paul by Luke who was his companion which you may there read and no doubt but other Apostles in their measures did the like as Paul though they are not recorded for they had all the same Promise and Spirit This is another impression of POWER 13. Whereto must be added the great and wonderful gifts of communicating the same Spirit or doing that upon which God would give it to those converted Believers on whom they laid their hands which Simon Magus would fain have bought with money Acts 8. To enable them to speak with tongues to heal diseases to prophesie c. as they themselves had done which is a great attestation of Omnipotency 14. And the lamentable destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans foretold by Christ was an attestation of Gods POWER in the revenge or punishment of their unbelief and putting Christ to death 15. And so was the great fortitude and constancy of Believers who underwent all persecutions so joyfully as they did for the sake of Christ which was the effect of the corroborating Power of the Almighty 16. And so was the Power which the Apostles had to execute present judgements upon the enemies of the Gospel as Elimas and Simon Magus and on the abusers of Religion as Ananias and Saphyra and on many whom they excommunicated and delivered up to Satan 17. The same evidence is found in Christs Legislation as an universal Soveraign making Laws for heart and life for all the world Taking down the Laws of the Jewish Polity and Ceremonies which God by Moses had for a time set up Commanding his Ministers to proclaim his Laws to all the world and Princes and people to obey them And by these Laws conferring on Believers no less than forgiveness and salvation and binding over the impenitent to everlasting punishment 18. But the great and continued impress of Gods Power is that which together with his Wisdom and Love is made and shewed in the conveâ—sion of mens souls to God by Christ You may here first consider the numbers which were suddenly converted by the preaching of the Apostles at the first And in how little time there were Churches planted
this Trinity also of Relations towards Man 1. Their Owner 2. Their Ruler 3. Their Benefactor The Father also as the first principle of Redemption acquiring a second title besides the first by Creation to all these and towards God Christ continueth the Relation of a heavenly Priest 30. In order to the works of these Relations for the future we must consider of Christs exaltation 1. Of his Justification and Resurrection 2. Of his Ascension and Glorification And 3. Of the delivering of All Power and All Things into his hands 31. The work of Redemption thus fundamentally wrought doth not of it self renew mans nature and therefore putteth no Law of Nature into us of it self as the Creation did And therefore we must next proceed to Christs Administration of this office according to these Relations which is 1. By Legislation or Donation enacting the New Covenant where this last and perfect edition of it is to be explained the Preceptive the Promisory and the Penal parts with its effects and its differences from the former Edition and from the Law of Nature and of Works 32. And 2. By the promulgation or publication of this Covenant or Gospel to the world by calling special Officers for that work and giving them their commission and promising them his Spirit his Protection and their Reward 33. And here we come to the special work of the Holy Ghost who is 1. To be known in his Essence and Person as the third in Trinity and the eternal Love of God 2. And as he is the grand Advocate or Agent of Christ in the world where his works are to be considered 1. Preparatory on and by Christ himself 2. Administratory 1. Extraordinary on the Apostles and their helpers 1. Being in them a spirit of extraordinary Power by gifts and miracles 2. Of extraordinary Wisdom and Infallibility as far as their commission-work required 3. And of extraordinary Love and Holiness 2. By the Apostles 1. Extraordinarily convincing and bringing in the world 2. Settling all Church-Doctrines Officers and Orders which Christ had left unsettled bringing all things to their remembrance which Christ had taught and commanded them and guiding them in the rest 3. Recording all this for posterity in the holy Scriptures 2. His Ordinary Agency 1. On Ministers 2. By sanctification on all true Believers is after to be opened 34. And here is to be considered the Nature of Christianity in fieri Faith and Repentance in our three great Relations to our Redeemer as we are his Own his Disciples and Subjects and his Beneficiaries with all the special benefits of these Relations as antecedent to our duty and then all our duty in them as commanded And then the benefits after to be expected as in promise only 35. Next must distinctly be considered the preaching and converting and baptizing part of the ministerial Office 1. As in the Apostles 2. And in their successors to the end with the nature of Baptism and the part of Christ and of the Minister and of the baptized in that Covenant 36. And then the description of the universal Church which the baptized constitute 37. Next is to be described the state of Christians after Baptism 1. Relative 1. In Pardon Reconciliation Justification 2. Adoption 2. Physical in the Spirit of Sanctification 38. Where is to be opened 1. The first sanctifying work of the Spirit 2. It s after-helps and their conditions 3. All the duties of Holiness primitive and medicinal towards God our selves and others 39. Our special duties in secret reading meditation prayer c. 40. Our duties in Family Relations and Callings 41. Our duties in Church Relations where is to be described the nature of particular Churches their work and worship their ministry and their members with the duties of each 42. Our duties in our Civil Relations 43. What temptations are against us as be to be overcome 44. Next is to be considered the state of Christians and Societies in the world How far all these duties are performed and what are their weaknesses and sins 45. And what are the punishments which God useth in this life 46. And what Christians must do for pardon and reparation after falls and to be delivered from those punishments 47. Of Death and the change which it maketh and of our special preparation for it 48. Of the coming of Christ and the Judgement of the great day 49. Of the punishment of the wicked impenitent in Hell 50. And of the blessedness of the Saints in Heaven and the everlasting Kingdom These are the Heads and this is the Method of true Divinity and the order in which it should lye in the understanding of him that will be compleat in knowledge II. And as this is the Intellectual Order of knowledge so the order which all things must lye in at our hearts and wills is much more necessary to be observed 1. That nothing but GOD be loved as the infinite simple good totally with all the heart and finally for himself And that nothing at all be loved with any Love which is not purely subordinate to the Love of God or which causeth us to love him ever the less 2. That the blessed person of our Mediatour as in the Humane Nature glorified be loved above all creatures next to God Because there is most of the Divines Perfections appearing in him 3. That the heavenly Church or Society of Angels and Saints be loved next to Jesus Christ as being next in excellence 4. That the Vniversal Church on earth be loved next to the perfect Church in Heaven 5. That particular Churches and Kingdoms be next loved and where ever there is more of Gods Interest and Image than in our selves that our Love be more there than on our selves 6. That we next love our selves with that peculiar kind of love which God hath made necessary to our duty and our happiness and end with a self-preserving watchful diligent love preferring our souls before our bodies and spiritual mercies before temporal and greater before less 7. That we love our Christian Relations with that double Love which is due to them as Christians and Relations and love all Relations according to their places with that kind of Love which is proper for them as fitting us to all the duties which we must perform to them 8. That we love all good Christians as the sanctified members of Christ with a special Love according to the measure of Gods Image appearing on them 9. That we love every visible Christian that we cannot prove hath unchristened himself by apostacy or ungodliness with the special Love also belonging to true Christians because he appeareth such to us But yet according to the measure of that appearance as being more confident of some and more doubtful of others 10. That we love our intimate suitable friends that are godly with a double Love as godly and as friends 11. That we love Neighbours and civil Relations with a Love which is suitable to
in spirit can live upon a little and mind the things of the Spirit so much that they are more indifferent to their appetite And custom maketh abstinence and temperance sweet and easie to them For a well-used appetite is like well-taught children not so unmannerly nor craving nor bawling nor troublesome as the gluttons ill-used appetite is It troubles mens minds and taketh up their thoughts and commandeth their estates and devoureth their time and turneth out God and all that is holy and like a thirst in a dropsie it deâ—oureth all and is satisfied with nothing but encreaseth its self and the disease As if such men did live to eat when the temperate do eat to live 8 Lastly It is the height of this sin when you also cherish the gulosity and excess of others When for the Pride of great house-keeping you cause others to waste Gods creatures and their time and waste your estates to satisfie their luxury and to procure their vain applause Hab. 2.15 Wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink that puttest thy bottle to him and make-est him drunken also This is the Fulness which is forbidden of God Object But is it not said that Christ came eating and drinking and the Pharisees quarrelled with him and his Disciples because they did not fast as John and his Disciples did and they called him a gluttonous person and a wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners Answ 1. John lived in a wilderness upon locusts and wild honey and because Christ lived not such an austere eremetical life the quarrelsome Pharisees did thus calumniate him But Christ never lived in the least excess Mark that part of his life which they thus accused and you will find it such as the sensual will be loth to imitate 2. Christ was by office to converse with Publicans and sinners for their cure And this gave occasion to the calumnies of malice 3. There was a difference of Reasons for John's austerity and Christs But when he the Bridegroom was taken away he foretelleth that his followers should fast 4. Christ fasted forty daies at once and drank water and lived in perfect temperance Imitate him and we will not blame you for excess His example preached poverty in spirit Direct II. Remember the Reasons why fulness and gulosity are so much condemned by God viz. 1. A pampered appetite is unruly and feedeth your concupiscence The flesh is now become our most dangerous enemy and therefore it must be dangerous to pamper it to the strengthening of its lusts When even Paul was put to buffet and tame it and bring it into subjection for fear of proving a cast-away after all his wondrous labours 2. The pleasing of the appetite too much corrupteth the delight and rellish of the soul Delight in God and Heaven and Holiness is the summ and life of true Religion and the delights of sense and fleshly appetite turn away the soul from this and are most mortal enemies to these true delights For they that are after the flesh do mind or savour the things of the flesh and they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Rom. 8.6 7. And the carnal mind is enmity to God if it cannot be subject to his Law certainly it is unfit to rellish the sweetness of his Love and spiritual mercies 3. And the Thoughts themselves are corrupted and perverted by it They that should be thinking and caring how to please God are thinking and caring for their bellies Even when all their powers should be employed on God in meditation or in prayer their thoughts will be going after their fleshly appetite as Ezekiels hearers were after their covetousness 33.31 And as some of Christs hearers were after the loaves 4. The use of pleasing the fleshly appetite doth make men need riches which is a misery and a snare Such must needs have their desires satisfied and therefore cannot live on a little And therefore if they have riches their flesh devoureth almost all and they have little to spare for any charitable uses And if they have none they are tempted to steal or get it by some unlawful means And so it tempteth them to the love of money which is the root of all evil because they love the lust which needeth it 5. And it maketh them utterly unfit for suffering which Christ will have all his followers to expect He that is used to please his appetite will take that for a grievous life which another man will feel no trouble in If a full fed Gentleman or Dives were tyed to fare as the poor labourer doth at the best he would lament his case as if he were undone and would take that for half a martyrdom if it were on a pious pretence which his neighbour would account no suffering but a feast And will God reward men for such self-made sufferings How unfit is he to endure imprisonment banishment and want who hath alwaies used to please his flesh If God cast him into poverty how impatient would he be How plentifully and pleasantly would most poor Country-men think to live if they had but a hundred pounds a year of their own But if he that hath thousands and is used to fulness should be reduced to an hundred how querulous or impatient would he be 6. It maketh the body heavy and unfit for duty both duties of piety and the honest labours of your calling 7. It maketh the body diseased and so more unfit to serve the soul It is to be noted that the excess reproved by Paul at their Love-feasts was punished with sickness and with death And as that punishment had a moral suitableness to their sin so it is not unlike that according to Gods ordinary way of punishing it was also a natural effect of their excess 8. It is a most unsuitable thing to such great sinners as we are who have forfeited all our mercies and are called so loud to penitent humiliation when we should turn to the Lord with all our hearts with fasting weeping and mourning to be then pleasing our fleshly appetites with curiosities and excess is a sin that God once threatned in a terrible sort Isa 22.12 13. Fasting is in such cases a duty of Gods appointment Joel 2.12 Luke 2.37 1 Cor. 7.5 Cornelius his fasting and alms-deeds came up before God Acts 10.30 Daniel was heard upon his fast Dan. 9.3 Christ fasted when he entered solemnly on his work Matth. 4. And some Devils would not be cast out without fasting and prayer And is luxury fit in such a case 9. Lastly Remember what was said before that others are empty while we are full Thousands need all that we can spare And they are members of Christ and of the same body with us And so much as we waste on our appetite or pride so much the less we have to give And he that seeth his Brother in need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him when he cannot deny superfluities to himself how
dwelleth the Love of God in him When the poor we shall have alwaies with us that we may alwaies have exercise for our love And he that glutteth his own flesh to the full and giveth the poor but the leavings of his lust if it were a thousand pound a year that he giveth must look for small reward from God however he may do good to others More particular Directions may be as followeth Direct 1. Understand well how much the flâ—sh in this lapsâ—d state is our enemy and how much gulosity doth strengthen it against us and how much of the work of grace lyeth in resisting and overcoming it and what need we have to serve the Spirit and not to be helpers of the flesh And the true consideration of these things may do much Gal. 5.17 18 19 22 23. Rom. 8.6 7 8 9 10 13. Direct 2. Set your selves to the work of God according to your several places and live not idly And then mark what helpeth or hindereth you in your work If you play not the loitering hypocrites but make your duties the serious business of all your lives you will quickly find how inconsistent a bruitish appetite and a full belly and a curious costly and time-wasting pampering of the flesh is with such a Christian life Direct 3. Study well the life of Christ and the example of the ancient Saints Remember what dyet was in use with Abraham Isaac and Jacob with the Apostles and holiest servants of Christ And that it was Solomon the most voluptuous King of Israel that was told by his Mother that it is not for Kings to drink wine but for them that are of a sorrowful heart And that the description of the luxurious then was riotous eaters of flesh Prov. 31.5 23.20 And that it was the mark of fleshly Hereticks to feast themselves without fear Jude 12. And that they were destroyed by Gods wrath though they had their desire who murmured for want of flesh after many years abstinence in a wilderness and it 's called Asking meat for their lust Psal 78.18 I doubt many of our servants now would be discontented and think their bellies too hardly used if they had no better than the milk and honey of the Land of Promise yea or the Onions and flesh-pots of Egypt Direct 4. Think what a base and swinish kind of sin it is to be a slave to ones guts or appetite And how far it is below not only a Christian but a man and what a shame to humane nature Direct 5. Look often to the grave and observe those skulls into which once the pleasant meats and drinks were put and those jaws that were so oft employed in grinding for the belly And remember how quickly this will be your case and think then whether such a carkass deserve so much care and cost and curiosity to the neglect and danger of an immortal soul Direct 6. Lay a constant Law upon your appetite and use it not to be pleased without cause and benefit but use it to a wholesome but not a full a costly a curious or a delicious food And use will make intemperance to be loathsome to you and temperance to be sweet Direct 7. Learn so much reason as to know truly what is most conducible to your health both for quantity and quality and mark what diseases and deaths are usually caused by excess It is more reasonable to be temperate for prevention of diseases than under the power and feeling of them when pain and sickness force you to it whether you will or not If you will not obey God so carefully as your Physician yet obey the preventing counsels of your Physician before you need his curing counsel Direct 8. Neglect not the manly and the sacred delights which God alloweth I mean the pleasures of honest labours and of your calling and of reading and knowledge of meditation and prayer and of a well ordered soul and life and of the certain hopes of endless glory Live upon these and you will easily spare the fleshly pleasures of a Swine CHAP. XVII How to conquer sloth and idleness by the Life of Faith THE third sin of Sodom and of abused Prosperity is Idleness Ezek. 16.49 Concerning which I shall first tell you the nature and signs of it and then the evil of it and then give you more particular Directions against it But this also but briefly because I have done it more largely in my Christian Directory I. That you may know who are guilty of this sin and who not I shall first premise these Propositions 1. Nothing but disability will excuse any one from the ordinary labours of a lawful calling Riches or honours will excuse none They are the subjects of God as well as others that have less And he that hath most hath most to use and most to answer for To whom men commit much of them they require the more Luke 12.48 19.23 Greatness and wealth is so far from excusing the forbearance of a calling that it will not allow any one the omission of one hours labour and diligence in his calling If God give the Rich more wages than others it 's unreasonable to think that therefore they may do less work 2. Yet when meer necessity compelleth the poor to labour more than else they were obliged to do even to the detriment of their health or shortening of Gods Worship the rich are not bound therefore to imitate them and to incurr the same inconveniencies because they have not the same necessities As in their dyet the rich is not allowed to take any more for quantity or quality than is truly for their good any more than the poor but they are not bound to live as those poor do who want that either for quantity or quality which is truly for their good so is it also in this case of labouring 3. The labours of every ones calling must be the ordinary business of his life and not a little now and then instead of a recreation If it be a mans calling he must be constant and laborious in it 4. Yea no interposed recreation or idleness is lawful but that which either is necessitated by disability or that which is needfull to fit the mind or body for its work As whetting to the mower 5. All mens callings tye them not constantly to one kind of labour but some may be put to vary their employments every day as poor men that live by going on errands and doing other mens business under several Masters several waies And as many rich people whose occasions of doing good may often vary 6. The rich and honourable are not bound to the same kind of labour as the poor A Magistrate or Pastor is not bound to follow the Plow nay he is bound not to do it ordinarily lest he neglect his proper and greater work Some mens labours are with the hand and some mens with the head 7. Every man should chuse that calling which is most
fully shew so also shall the Saints And it is not likely that this is wholly deferred till the resurrection but as they have a Glory before that with Christ and his Angels so they have now their part in this Superintendency before though both will be greater at the Resurrection If any say what use will there be of our superiority after the world is destroyed I answer 1. The Apostle Peter plainly telleth us though some would force his words into the dark that we according to his promise expect a new Heaven and a new Earth in which dwelleth righteousness And the Creation groaneth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 And the Heavens must contain Christ till the times of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began Acts 3.21 2. And he that said the Saints shall judge the Angels seemeth so intimate that the Devils with the wicked will be in a state of subjection or servitude to them hereafter Certain it is that Michael and his Angels shall be the conquerours of the Dragon and his Angels Rev. 12.7 9. And that the Serpents head shall be bruised by all the womans seed though chiefly by the Captain of our salvation But this shall now suffice concerning their employment 3. Behold also by Faith what the departed Saints are now enjoying And what is said of their place and work will tell you that They enjoy the fight of their glorified Head Joh. 17.24 They are with him in Paradise and therefore also enjoy the sight of the Glory of God Being absent from the body they are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 They see not as in a glass as here they did but with open face They enjoy the pleasures of a more perfect knowledge of God and all his wondrous works than this world affords They are happy in their works in the perfect Love and Praises of God and they are filled with the pleasures of his Love to them This is their fruition 4. Let Faith also behold what evils they are delivered from 1. From a heavy drossy body which since the fall hath been an enemy a prison and fetters to the soul and therefore they here groaned to be better cloathed 2 Cor. 5.4 5. Rom. 8.21 2. From the worlds temptations 3. From wicked mens malice and persecutions 4. From sickness pain necessities labours weariness and all the troublesome effects of sin 5. From all troublesome passions desires anger discontent disappointments griefs and cares and fears of evil 6. Specially from the fears of Hell and the doubts of their own sincerity and salvation and from the desertions of God and the terrible sense of his displeasure 7. From the troubles and errours of ignorance and all our natural imperfection 8. From the fears of death which now is more painful than death it self 9. From the suggestions of Satan and his malicious vexing disquieting temptations and from his flattering allurements which are much worse 10. From the company and the tempting or grieving examples of ungodly men 11. From all sin it self and all our moral imperfections and defects 12. And finally from all danger and fear of ever losing the felicity they possess These are the immunities of the blessed 2. When Faith hath seen the Saints in Glory look back and think next what they were lately here on earth that it may help you to compare your state and theirs And here you will see 1. That they were lately in flesh as we now are They had bodies as drossie as vile as frail as burdensome as ours are It cost them as dear not as it doth the sensual but as it doth the temperate person now to keep them up a while for the service to which they were appointed 2. They had pains and sicknesses as we have The souls in Heaven have escaped thither from bodies which have lain as long tormented with the Stone with Stranguries Collicks Gripes Convulsions Consumptions Feavers and other the most tedious painful and lothsome diseases as sober men on earth now feel 3. Satan was as malicious to them as he is to us and to many of them as troublesome he haunted them with as ugly temptations to the greatest sins to unbelief and pride and despair and self-murder and horrid blasphemy as he doth any of us Yea he did so by Christ himself Matth. 4. 4. They met with as many allurements to worldliness sensuality pride and lust in the worlds deceiving baits and flatteries as now we do and were fain to proceed every step towards Heaven by conflict and conquest as we must do 5. They were in as many wants and straits in as poor and low and despised a state as we are now They were tempted to cares and murmurings and discontents through their wants and crosses as well as we 6. They have been in dangers and in fears and many a time at the brink of death before it came and put to cry to God for deliverance in the terrours and anguish of their hearts Their flesh and heart and friends have failed them and all the creatures cast them off 7. They have gone through far greater persecutions for the sake of Christ and righteousness than ever we did So persecuted they the Prophets before you Mat. 5.11 12. Which of the Prophets did not your Fathers kill and persecute even of them for whom their posterity erected Monuments Matth. 23.36 37 38. We have not resisted unto blood as many of them did Heb. 11. The same and greater afflictions which we have undergone were accomplished on our brethren in this world 1 Pet. 5.9 We go through the same conflict as they did Phil. 1.30 We are no more falsly nor odiously slandered in any of our sufferings than they were Mat. 5.11 12. 8. They were men of like passions as we are for so James saith even of Elias that was carryed to Heaven without our kind of death They had their ignorances uncertainties doubts mistakes their dark thoughts of God and that world where they now are Many of them knew as little of it till they saw it as we do now Many a fearful trembling hour many a thought that God had forsaken them and that the day of grace was past have many of them had as well as we 9. Yea they were imperfect in all their graces they had an imperfect faith an imperfect hope an imperfect Love to God and man and many an hour in such groans as ours now are O when shall we be saved from our darkness and unbelief when shall we better love the Lord 10. They had their actual sins also Though none that were regnant after conversion their obedience was imperfect as ours now is Many of their faults and falls are left on record for our warning There is not one humane soul in Heaven besides our Saviours that was not once a sinner They all came thither
by a Redeemer as we must do They had their too great selfishness Phil. 2.21 They had their pusillanimity and fears of men as Peter and the Apostles They had their sinful controversies as Paul and Barnabas and sinful separations in complyance with the censorious as Peter and Barnabas had Gal. 2.16 17. They had their carnal sidings factions and divisions in the Church 1 Cor. 1. 3. Many a time have they been put to groan O wretched man who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7 c. 11. They had as difficult duties to go through as any of us They were put upon as many tears and troubles watchings and travels fastings and self-denyal as the most laborious and suffering Christians now 12. They had as long delayes of the accomplishment of their desires as any of us 13. And lastly they past through death it self as we must do They lay gasping on their beds of languâ—shing and death broke in upon every part and they underwent that separation of soul and body as we must do Their flesh was turned to rottenness and dust and laid out of the sight of man in darkness and remaineth to this day as common earth All this the Saints in Heaven have undergone This was their case a while ago who are now in glory And this was not only the case of some few but of thousands and millions and that in the most of these particulars even of all that are gone before us unto blessedness It is not we that are tempted first that are persecuted or afflicted first that have sinned first that must die first but all this host hath broke the Ice and are safely past through this Red Sea and are now triumphing in felicity with their Saviour Direct 3. Let Faith next look back and see by what way these Saints have come to this felicity I mean by what means they did overcome and win the Crown And briefly you will find 1. That they all came to Heaven by the Mediation the Sacrifice the meritorious Righteousness of a Redeemer Jesus Christ either as promised or as incarnate none of them were justified by the works of the Law or the Covenant of Innocency 2. That their common way was by Faith Repentance Love and Obedience Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed oâ— us abundently through Christ Titus 3.5 Even by the triple Image of the Divine perfections Power Love and Wisdom 2 Tim. 1.7 They lived soberly righteously and godly in the world and were zealous of good works looking for the blessed hope which they have attained Titus 2.14 15. Knowing that Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ are the summ of saving doctrine and duty Acts 20.21 And that to fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole duty of man Eccles 12.13 And that the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 and that Love is the fulfilling of the Law 3. They studied the Word of God or such means of knowing him as God afforded them in order to the attaining and maintaining of these graces Psal 1.2 and sought the Lord with all their hearts while he might be found and called upon him while he was near Isa 55.6 10. And did not presumptuously neglect Gods helps and despise his Word while they trusted for his mercy 4. They lived in a continual conflict against the temptations of the Devil the world and the flesh and in the main did conquer as well as strive They made it their work to mortifie those fleshly lusts which others make it their interest and work to please Gal. 5.17.21 22. 6.14 5. They suffered afflictions and persecutions patiently and being reviled they did not revile They loved their enemies and blest those that curse them and prayed for those that despitefully used and persecuted them Matth. 5.44 45. 1 Cor. 4.11 12 13. 2 Cor. 1.6 7. Heb. 11. They would not accept of deliverance from imprisonment torments and death upon sinning terms 6. They endured to the end and did not fall off and forsake the Covenant of their God Rev. 2. 3. 7. Lastly They did all this by the motive of their hopes of Heaven and by a confidence in the promises of it and in a heavenly mind and conversation as knowing that they did not labour or suffer in vain 1 Cor. 15.58 2 Cor. 4.17 1 Tim. 4.10 Rom. 8.18 Matth. 5.11 2 Thes 1.6 7. Heb. 12.2 This was the way by which the Saints have gone to Heaven the only true successful way Direct 4. Consider next what helps and means God gave them for this work and compare our own with them and see whether ours be not as great 1. We have the same natural capacity as they we are intellectual free agents made for another world and capable of all that they attained There is no difference in our natural faculties 2. We have the same God to shew us mercy 1 Cor. 12.5 There are divers operations but the same God Ephes 4.4 5. There is one God one Lord c. even the Lord over all good to all that call upon him Rom. 10.12 The same mercy which called them and waited on them calleth us even a God who hath no respect of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Acts 10.37 Though he be a free benefactor he is a righteous Judge and he is good to all and the Father of every member of his Son 3. They had the same Saviour as we have the same sacrifice for their sins the same Teacher and the same example the same intercessor with the Father For though there be divers administrations there is the same Lord 1 Cor. 12.5 Ephes 4.4 For other foundation can no man lay than him who is the chief corner stone 1 Cor. 3.11 They all did eat of the same spiritual meat and drank of the same rock as we do which is Christ 1 Cor. 10.3 4. It was the reproach of Christ which Moses in Egypt esteemed better than their treasures Heb. 11.26 The same Physician of souls who hath us in cure did cure all them The same Captain who is conducting us to salvation is he that saved them The same Prince of the Covenant and Lord of life who conquered death and all their enemies hath conquered them for us and is preparing us for life with them They had no greater or better High Priest and Mediator with God than we have 4. They had the same Rule to walk by and the same way to go as all we have Gal. 1.7 8. 6.16 Phil. 3.14 15. The same Gospel and Word of God in the main though under various promulgations and administrations Those before the flood were under the Covenant of the promised seed
the interest of the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ and to promote the Gospel by silencing or prohibiting the most able zealous faithful Preachers of it and to go with a drawn sword among the people and say Love us or we will kill you Love Christ and us or the inquisition and wrack shall reach you love To see them take the terrifying of men by corporal penalties to be their chiefest work and the way of Love to be but such popularity as destroyeth the Church Will not now and then a walk in Heaven be a great refreshing to the mind that hath been long haunted with such hideous and ugly specters as all these Will not some converse with the most wises and holy and peaceable Society whose Life is Love be a great recreation to your minds when such sights as these have made them sad Moreover you have many burdens of your own to bear your own ignorance your own temptations your passions your wants and worst of all the relicks of your sin which you cannot bear with that hope and support which is needful to you without oft looking to the happiness of those that have overcome all these and are now at rest And you have many excellent duties to perform which will not be so well done without looking oft on such a Copy Yea you have the fears of death to overcome which will not be so easily done as by looking to all the world of souls that have already gone that way before you Yea in your converse with God himself though you have one only sufficient Mediator you will cast your selves upon great disadvantages if your thoughts leave out the blessed society of Saints and Angels who are nearest to him You cast away your stepping-stones or stairs of ascent and you will but tempt your selves to look at God as through the great interposing gulf and hinder the needful familiarity of your thoughts above Neglect not then a help so needful to you in your present state 12. Lastly The remembrance and observation of the heavenly inhabitants is the way that is commended and commanded to all Believers and that as part of their ordinary duty in their prayers to God He hath not only minded us that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are still living to prove the resurrection Matth. 12.27 but hath also comforted the expectants of Heaven by describing the joy of Lazarus as in Abrahams bosome Luke 16.22 23. and introduced Abraham as pleading Lazarus's cause v. 25 26. And hath made it a part of the comfortable description of his Kingdom that we shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in it Matth. 8.11 And when he would appear transfigured in a glimpse of his glory to Peter James and John he would not do it alone but with Moses and Elias talking with him Matth. 17. And the comfort which Paul giveth to the suffering Thessalonians is Rest with us 2 Thes 1.6 not only Rest with Christ but with his servants And when he describeth the glory of Christs appearing it is that He shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe vers 11 12. As himself describeth his appearing as with his glorious Angels Mat. 25.31 All the holy Angels with him Whether it be all the blessed Spirits of the higher worlds or only all those of them who were deputed to the service of the Church on earth Matth. 18.10 and so were made Angels to man I pass over And Henoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints c Jude v. 14. Many other Scriptures tell us that we must not leave out the Saints and Angels when we look towards Heaven by faith and when we converse and walk above But this is but as on the by That which I intend for your special observation is the third Petition of the Lords Prayer where the annexed clause which seemeth to referr to all the three first Petitions doth set the heavenly Church before us as the Pattern of that obedience to the will of God which both we and all the world must imitate and pray to God that we may imitate Thy Will be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven Here Christ requireth all Christians in Prayer to look up to the Heavenly Society and to consider how they do the Will of God and to make it their Pattern and in their daily Prayers as men that long for their celestial perfection to pray that they may become their imitators even as the Scholars in the lowest form in the school must look at those in the highest form and desire and endeavour to attain to their degree You see them that this is a commanded ordinary duty Direct 7. Consider next wherein it is that your converse with Angels and the perfected spirits of the just consisteth that you may neither by your mistake neglect it nor carry it too far I. Negatively 1. It is not a Deifying them as the Heathen did their Hero's and their Divi They are still but Gods Ministers and must have nothing ascribed to them of the Divine Prerogative 2. Nor doth it consist in building Temples and Altars to their honour which savoureth at least of a compliance with Idolatry 3. Nor doth it at all consist in praying to them 1. Because as we know that they are not omnipresent or omniscient so 2. We know not at all when they are present and when they do hear us and when not 3. Nor do we know which of them it is that is at any time present with us 4. Nor have we any precept president promise or other encouragement to such prayers in Gods Word but rather much to keep us from it 4. Nor yet is it in desiring them to pray for us For that which is their duty they better know than we and it is little that we know of their capacities or opportunities And we have no Word of God neither to encourage us to this 5. Nor doth it consist in chusing any one of them above the rest for our guardian and protector and so committing our selves to their care For we have no reason to be so presumptuous as to think that we have the choice of our own Protector or that it is a matter at all referred to us or that they will undertake it ever the more for our choice 6. Nor yet may we pretend to know what particular Saint or Angel is deputed of God to our protection For there is not the least discovery of it in Nature or in the Word of God And he that pretendeth extraordinary revelation of it must be sure to prove it 7. Nor may we pray for them as if they were in purgatory or in any misery or danger which did need our prayers for them For we have neither reason to believe the thing nor any precept or encouragement to the work And as all these seven are unlawful things so these also that follow must be medled
very brief I. For the first Case before sickness cometh Direct 1. Be sure that you settle your Belief of the life to come that your Faith may not fail Direct 2. Expect Death as seriously all your life as wise Believers are obliged to do That is as men that are alwaies sure to die as men that are never sure to live a moment longer as men that are sure that life will be short and death is not far off and as foreseeing what it is to die of what eternal consequence and what will then appear to be necessary to your safe and to your comfortable change Direct 3. All your daies habituate your souls to believing sweet enlarged thoughts of the infinite Goodness and Love of God to whom you go and with whom you hope to live for ever Direct 4. Dwell in the studies of a crucified and glorified Christ who is the way the truth and life who must be your hope in life and death Ephes 3.17 18 19. Direct 5. Keep clear your evidences of your right to Christ and all his Promises by keeping grace or the heavenly nature in life activity and increase 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 John 15 1 c. 1 John 3. Direct 6. Consider often of the possession which your nature in Christ hath already of Heaven and how highly it is advanced and how near his relation is and how dear his love is to his weakest members upon earth And that as souls in Heaven have an inclination and desire to communicate their own felicity to their bodies so hath Christ as to his body the Church John 17.24 Ephes 5.25 27 c. Direct 7. Look to the Heavenly Host and those who have lived before you or with you in the flesh to make the thoughts of Heaven the more familiar to you as in the former chapter Direct 8. Improve all Afflictions yea the plague of sin it self to make you weary of this world and willing to be gone to Christ Rom. 7. Direct 9. Be much with God in Prayer Meditation and other heart-raising duties that you may not by strangeness to him be dismayed Direct 10. Live not in the guilt of any wilful sin nor in any slothful neglect of duty lest guilt breed terrour and make you fly from God your Judge But especially study to redeem your time and to do all the good you can iâ— the world and to live as totally devoted to God as conscious that you live to no carnal interest but desire to serve him with all you have and your consciences testimony of this will abundantly take off the terrours of death whatever any erroneous ones may say to the contrary for fear of being guilty of conceits of merit A fruitful life is a great preparative for death 2 Tim. 4.8 2 Cor. 1.12 c. Direct 11. Fetch from Heaven the comforts which you live upon through all your life And when you have truly learned to live more upon the comforts of believed glory than upon any pictures or hopes below then you will be able to die in and for those comforts Matth. 6.20 21. Col. 3.1 4. Phil. 3.20 21. 1 Thes 4.18 Phil. 1.21 23. Direct 12. The Knowledge and Love of God in Christ is the beginning or foretaste of Heaven John 17.3 1 Cor. 13. c. and the foretastes are excellent preparations Therefore still remember that all that you do in the world for the getting and exercising the true Knowledge and Love of God in Christ so much you do for the foretastes and best preparations for Heaven 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him with approbation and love II. In the time of sickness and near to death Direct 1. Let your first work when God seemeth to call you away be to renew a diligent search of your hearts and lives and to see lest in either of them there should be any sin which is not truly hated and repented of Though this must be done through all your lives yet with an extraordinary care and diligence when you are like to come so speedily to your tryal For it is only to Repenting Believers that the Covenant of Grace doth pardon sin And the impenitent have no right to pardon Though for ordinary failings which are forgotten and for sins which you are willing to know and remember but cannot a general Repentance will be accepted as when you pray God to shew you the sins which you see not and to forgive those which you cannot remember or find out Yet those which you know must be particularly repented of And Repentance is a remembring duty and will hardly forget any great and heinous sins which are known to be sins indeed If your Repentance be then to begin alas it is high time to begin it And though if it be sound it will be saving that is If it be such as would settle you in a truly godly life if you should recover yet you will hardly have any assurance of salvation or such comfort in it as is desirable to dying man Because you will very hardly know whether it come from true conversion and contain a Love to God and Godliness or whether it be only the fruit of fear and would come to nothing if you were restored to health But he that hath truly repented heretofore and lived in uprightness towards God and man and hath nothing to do but to discern his sincerity and to exercise a special Repentance for some late or special sins or to do that again which he hath done unfeignedly before will much more easily get the assurance and comfort of his forgiveness and salvation Direct 2. Renew your sense of the Vanity of this world Which at such a time one would think should be very easie to do When you see that you are near an end of all your pleasures and have had all except a grave to rot in that ever this world willd o for you may you not easily then see whether the godly or the worldly be the wiser and the happier man And what it is that the life of man should be spent in seeeking after Matth. 6.33 Isa 55.1 2 3. Eccles 7.3 4 5 6. Direct 3. Remember what Flesh is and what it hath been to you that you may not be too loth to lay it down Of the dust it was made and to the dust it must return Corruption is your Father and the Worm is your Mother and your Sister Job 17.14 Drought and beat consume the Snow-waters so doth the grave those which have sinned The womb shall forget him the Worm shall feed sweetly on him Job 24.20 Flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but this mortal must put on immortality by being made a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15. And this flesh hath cost you so dear to carry it about so much care and labour to provide it food to repair that which daily vanisheth away and so many weary painful hours and so many fearful