will Now where 's that Man in all the World that can do this beside the Christian Serious Godliness will make every change of Condition good for us thô the change shock both Nature and Grace A change of condition is either the hope or fear of every one in this World and 't is not the least part of Heavens happiness that there 's no fear of change In that state of Happiness wherein Men and Angels were created Mutability was their Out-let into Sin and Misery but now through Grace there 's no change formidable Alas we change more or less every day and who is it that meets not with some almost overwhelming changes in his life and doth or should preparingly expect his greatest change at Death And let the Consciences of all that are not worse than dead say whether any thing on this side now-despised Godliness can so much as endure the thoughts of such a Change In the comparatively petty changes of our life when we but change Plenty into Want or Credit into Disgrace or Health into Sickness how do Persons fret and toss like a wild Bull in a Net or lye down sullen under God's hand as if he had done us wrong or were to give us account why he grieves us But now Grace in exercise turns our eyes inward and shews us what we have more cause to lament no evil comparable to the evil of Sin whatever God doth against us on this side Hell 't is less than sin deserves Will God any way prepare us for our unchangeable change glory be to Free Grace Serious Godliness will make Relative Afflictions which of all outward Afflictions are the most grievous good for us and nothing else can do it I confess 't is morally worse for all the Relations of a Family to go the broad way to ruine and thô their Lusts clash one against another yet to be all agreed to be the Devils willing Servants 'T was sad in Egypt n Exod. 12.30 when there was not an house whore there was not one dead but 't is far worse to have whole Families where there is not one Spiritually alive but thô 't is Sinfully worse than Divisions in Families about Religion yet 't is at present more dolefully Afflictive to have those whose Souls welfare we desire as our own to be Devils incarnate For a David a man after Gods own heart when he comes from publick worship o 2. Sam. 6.20 c. to bless his houshold to be so revil'd by Michal as to divert his Zeal to a twitting her with her Fathers rejection and his Blessing of his Houshold into Gods Curse upon her Self On the other hand for a most obliging Abigal p 1 Sam. 25.17 c. to have such a Son of Belial to her Husband that a man cannot speak to him that when by her prudent fore-sight he was preserv'd from sudden death he was so drunk as not to be capable of hearing of his danger Again for Abraham the Father of the faithful to have a seven years Promise of a Son and for God to give that Son his Name and this Son to prove a scoffing Ishmael for Isaac the quietest of all the Patriarchs to pray twenty years for a Son and to have his first-born prove a profane Esau for good Eli to have such Children as †1 Sam. 2.17 made the Offerings of the Lord to be abhorred And on the other hand for Hezekiah of whom 't is said q 2 Kings 18.5 After him was none like him among all the Kings of Judah nor any that were before him to have such a Father as Ahaz that as it were r 2 Kings 16.3 devoted his Children to the Devil and hath this peculiar brand upon him ſ 2 Chron. 28.22 that in the time of his distrests did he trespass yet more against the Lord this is that King Ahaz How might every one of these complain as Rebekah did t Gen. 27.46 I am weary of my Life because of some wicked Relations and if I should have more such what good shall my Life do me Again for Masters to have such Servants as Mephibosheth had of Ziba * 2 Sam. 16.1 4. who irreparably blasted him in his Reputation and ruin'd him in his Estate For Servants to have such a Master as Laban was to Jacob who gives this account of his twenty years Service †Gen. 31.40 c. In the day the Drought consumed me and the Frost by Night and my sleep departed from mine Eyes and had not God relieved him by little less than Miracle Surely thou hadst sent me away empty And now having mentioned sinful relative Afflictions I 'le mention no other for there 's no Evil comparable to Sin nor any Evil so intolerable to a Gracious Soul that if Serious Godliness can keep from sinking under this burden you need fear no other to be inseparably related to one that is loaded with infamy or even famisht thrô Poverty loathsomely diseased or incurably distracted these are but flea-bitings to the stabbing wounds of wicked Relations But now serious godliness doth not only support but grow under this burden which is a priviledge they are injurious to themselves to overlook Christ takes upon him all those Relations that are impossible to meet in any other that what is grievous in any Relation may be comfortably made up in him and God usually increaseth their Graces thô not alwayes their present Comforts Serious Godliness will make horror of Conscience and divine Desertions good for us These where there is no godliness nor working towards it they are none of the least of Hell torments but where they befall any one that is godly or that God is about to make so they prove healing thô rough Physick When God thorowly awakens the Conscience thô with a fright and drops spiritual influences thô withdraws he makes Convictions more deep and Repentance more sound you may take this for a tryed case Those serious Christians whom God is pleased to exercise with tremblings of Conscience temptations of Satan and apprehensions of Desertion God thereby makes them eminently gracious and compassionately useful they walk most humbly with God justifying and praising him under his most astonishing Providences And thô above all temptations these are so far from joyous that they are most grievous yet these even these u Heb. 12.11 afterwards yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby Serious Godliness will force something good out of the evil of Sin Here it concerns me to speak with more Caution than in any other Case whatsoever for we must not dare to venture upon Sin thrô hopes of extracting good out of it as Chymists extract Spirits out of Soot and Vrine c. No The Apostle tells us * Rom. 3.8 That those that do but say that offer to say we may do Evil that Good may come of it the Damnation of those slanderers is just So that
Now let me propound a few Incentives to blow and stir up the dying embers of Divine Love in our Souls 1. No man can love God truly unless he know God truly 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him therefore examine what knowledge thou hast of God especially what practical Knowledge It is clear practical Gospel Knowledge to know God in Christ this is saving and brings Life Eternal Joh. 17.3 This is Knowledge that transforms 2 Cor. 3.18 This is a Sanctifying Knowledge Ephes 4.21 22. This is a justifying Knowledge or the Knowledge of Faith Isa 53.11 Philip. 3.8 9 10. This Light and Knowledge comes in to the Soul by the Illumination of the Spirit of God turning our darkness into light and is the teaching of God and the anointing of God teaching all things Joh. 6.46 Joh. 2.20 27. This principally teacheth us these two things 1. The Love of God in Christ to us 2. The Loveliness of Christ to inflame our love to him by his Beauty and Excellency Now when we clearly see and duely consider this our Hearts are marvellously drawn out in Love to the Lord And without this knowledge of God we can never truly love him O pray for it and attend and improve the Means of it This is that which the Apostle points at as the most transcendent of all other in the World which carnal Hearts are no wayes capable of without the work of Gods Spirit in the Soul 1 Cor. 2.9 to the end read and mind that Scripture well There are some things which we can never see in their Excellencies without the help of Telescopes and Perspective glasses by reason of the weakness and dimness of our sight In like manner we can never see the Amiableness of God in Christ without the help of Gods Spirit This sets the Soul upon the Top of a high Mountain as Moses upon the Top of Pisgah whereby he gains a prospect of the Heavenly Canaan or as Christ and his Disciples upon Tabor in the Transfiguration 2 Pet. 1.17 18. 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. from that excellent Glory Or such a sight as Paul had in his Rapture 2. A second means and Motive to blow up the Flame of Divine Love in us is to consider That the Lord is incomparably the most lovely Object in the World Psal 119.68 Mat. 19.16 17. being the chief of all good and goodness For which reason our Saviour saith Why callest thou me good there is none good but one that is God If we Love a drop of good in the Creature how should we be ravished with an Ocean Psal 36.7 8.9 10. many Oceans in God! Happy he that enjoyes the Fountain of good for with him is the well of Life c. God is purely good without Mixture infinitely good without Measure absolutely good without Dependency communicably good without Failure eternally good without End say the Schools therefore most amiable O consider this And this good this God is ours for ever and ever may every Believer say O let this inflame our Love to this good 3. Examine thy Faith in the Truth of it and labour for the growth of it and observe the working of it for true Faith works by Love and the stronger thy Faith is the stronger thy Love is Gal. 5.8 The Apostle Peter shewing the excellency of Faith and of a tryed Faith that it is more precious than Gold he saith by it we love Jesus Christ though we never saw him with our bodily Eyes and we love him by Believing and rejoyce in it with unspeakable glorious Joy 1 Pet. 1.7 8. Aug. Tract 7. in 1 Joh. Faith is the first Principle and chief root of all Operation in the Soul and it is therefore a vain thing to talk of loving God without Believing Bern. for whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin God doth not put the Oyl of his Mercy but into the Vessel of Faith We believe therefore we speak saith the Apostle we believe therefore we love What made the Saints not value worldly Treasures and Delights What made them Love not their lives to the Death What made them so wonderful in their Active and Passive Obedience for Christ but their Faith by seeing him that is invisible for there is not such an Eye on Earth Heb. 11.24 25 26 27. that see Spiritual things in their Spirituality and notwithstanding their remotest distance such a Faith doth break forth in the flames of Love to God that thereby the Heart where it is is ravished by it the Lord saith his Heart is also ravished with that Eye Cant. 4.9 4. Consider that God best deserves thy Love All the World cannot vye with God in loving us therefore are not worthy to be Rivals with him It is a horrid and an amazing thing how the glorious God should so far be provoked by such Rivals and bear so long Of this he complained severely in his People of old Jer. 2.5 11 12 13 31 32. Read the Prophets and that one Chapter for instance And this is true of the greatest part of the World one silly Idol or other courts all of them yet they never did any man any good nor can it but hurt By loving them they cannot love us again they cannot save us in our trouble they cannot hear us when we cry Jer. 2.28 no more than Baal did his Priests 1 Kings 18.26 Our love is lost upon them they distress us but help us not Like Summer-Brooks that are dry when we most need them Job 6.15 16 17 18. What say you doth not the Lord best deserve your Love what is there that he hath not done for you you owe him not only for your Blessings but for your Being You stand indebted to him for all things pertaining to life and godliness for all in hand and hope And how many grow fat and wanton under the Mercyes of God Deut. 32. yea Jeshurun kicking at his Bowels and beating the Breasts that feed them Strange degenerate Brats Isa 1.2 3. Jer. 3.1 so far that the Lord cryes out to Heaven and Earth to be astonished at it yet for all this continues loving them still and like a good Shepheard seeks after straying Sheep that of themselves would never return without fetching Will any Creature in the world whom thou Idolizest do this for thee Is this after the manner of men No it is the peculiar kindness of God only think on it 5. Consider if thou love the Lord truly and keep thy self in his Love thy heart will cease to love any thing else in the World and be dead to Creatures and they will be dead to thee Gal. 6.14 Si cor amore Christi inardescit omnis creatura vilescit All things are contemptible to one that truly loves God Phil. 3.8 When the Sun shines the Stars vanish and when it shines upon a Fire it puts the Fire out So doth the Love of God in the Soul
flatter themselves whilst they please that on one consideration or other they shall be the Objects only of their kindness if these men according to their Profession be obliged in conscience to execute whatever their Superiors shall command them no less than Abraham was to sacrifice his Son on the Command of God they hold their Lives at the Mercy and on the good Nature of these Superiors who are always safe out of the reach of Revenge It is marvellous that Mankind doth not agree to demolish this cursed Image or the Ascription of a Godlike Power unto men to require blind Obedience unto their Commands especially considering what effects it hath produced in the world All men know by whose Device it was first set up and erected by whom what means and unto what end it was confirmed and consecrated and at this day it is maintained by a Society of men of an uncertain Extract and Original like that of the Janizaries in the Turkish Empire their Rise being generally out of obscurity among the meanest and lowest of the People Such they are who by the Rules of their Education are taught to renounce all respect unto their Native Countreys and Alliances therein but so as to make them only the way and matter for the advancement of the interest of this new Society And this sort of men being nourished from their very first entrances into the conduct of the Society unto hopes and expectations of Wealth Honour Power Interest in the disposal of all publick Affairs of Mankind and the Regulation of the Consciences of men it is no wonder if with the utmost of their Arts and Industry they endeavour to set up and preserve this Image which they have erected from whence they expect all the advantage which they do design But hereof I may treat more fully when I come to speak of the Image of Jealousie it self SECT X. From these Generals I shall proceed unto more particular Instances and those for the most part in important Principles of Religion wherein Christian Faith and Practice are most concerned And I shall begin with that which is of signal Advantage unto the Framers of these Images as the other also are in their degree for by this craft they have their Livelihood and Wealth and most pernicious to the Souls of other men It is a Principle of Truth that such as wherein the whole course of Christian Obedience is concerned that there is a Spiritual defilement in Sin This the Scripture every where declares representing the very Nature of it by spiritual Uncleanness And this Vncleanness is its contrariety unto the Holiness of the Divine Nature as represented unto us in the Law This Defilement is in all men equally by Nature all are alike born in Sin and the pollution of it Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean And it is in all personally in various degrees some are more polluted with actual Sins than others but all are so in their degree and measure This pollution of Sin must be purged and taken away before our entrance into Heaven for no unclean thing shall enter into the Kingdom of God Sin must be destroyed in its Nature Practice Power and Effects or we are not saved from it This Purification of Sin is wrought in us initially and gradually in this Life and accomplished in Death when the Spirits of just men are made perfect In a compliance with this work of Gods Grace towards them whereby they purifie themselves consists one principal part of the Obedience of Believers in this world and of the exercise of their Faith The principal internal immediate efficient cause of this purification of Sins is the Blood of Christ the Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth us from all our Sins 1 John 1.7 The Blood of Jesus purgeth our Consciences from dead works Heb. 9.14 He washeth us in his own Blood Rev. 1.5 And there is an external helping Cause thereof which is Trials and Afflictions made effectual by the Word and accomplished in Death But this way of purging Sins by the Blood of Christ is mysterious There is no discerning of its Glory but by spiritual Light no experience of its Power but by Faith Hence it is despised and neglected by the most that yet outwardly profess the Doctrine of the Gospel Men generally think there are a thousand better ways for the purging of Sin than this by the Blood of Christ which they cannot understand See Micah 6.6 7. It is Mysterious in the Application of it unto the Souls and Consciences of Believers by the Holy Ghost it is so in the Spring of its efficacy which is the Oblation of it for a Propitiation and in its relation unto the new Covenant which first it establisheth and then makes effectual unto this end The Work of it is gradual and unperceptible unto any thing but the eyes of Faith and diligent spiritual Experience Again It is so ordered by Divine Wisdom as strictly to require to begin excite and encourage the utmost diligence of Believers in a compliance with its efficacy unto the same End What Christ did for us he did without us without our aid or concurrence As God made us without our selves so Christ redeemed us but what he doth in us he doth also by us what he works in a way of Grace we work in a way of Duty And our Duty herein consists as in the continual exercise of all gracious Habits renewing changing and transforming the Soul into the Likeness of Christ for he which hopes to see him purifieth himself as he is pure so also in universal permanent uninterrupted Mortification unto the end whereof we shall speak afterwards This also renders the Work more Mysterious and difficult The improvement of Afflictions unto the same end is a principal part of the Wisdom of Faith without which they can be of no spiritual Use unto the Souls of men This Notion of the Defilement of Sin and that of the Necessity of its purification were retained in the Church of Rome for they could not be lost without not only a rejection of the Scripture but the stiffling of natural conceptions about them which are indelibly fixed in the Consciences of men But Spiritual Light into the Glory of the thing it self or the mystical Purification of Sin with an experience of the power and efficacy of the Blood of Christ as applied unto the Consciences of Believers unto that end by the holy Ghost were lost amongst them In vain shall we seek for any thing of this Nature either in their Doctrine or their Practice Wherefore having lost the Substance of this Truth and all experience of its Power to retain the Use of its Name they have made sundry little Images of it creeping things whereunto they ascribe the power of purging Sin such as Holy Water Pilgrimages Disciplines Masses and various commutations But they quickly found by experience that these things would neither purifie the Heart nor
of obedience whereby the work of purifying and cleansing the whole person may be carryed on toward perfection see 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Thes 5 2â— 1 John 3.3 And he who is constantly engaged in that work with success will see the folly and vanity of any other pretended way for the purging of sins here or hereafter The consequent of these things is peace with God for they are assured pledges of our justification and acceptance with him and being justified by Faith we have Peace with God and where this is attained by the Gospel the whole Fabrick of Purgatory falls to the Ground for it is built on these Foundations that no assurance of the love of God or of a justified state can be obtained in this life For if it may be so there can be no use of Purgatory This then will assuredly keep the souls of believers in a contempt of that which is nothing but a false relief for sinners under disquietment of mind for want of peace with God SECT XI Some other instances of the same abomination I shall yet mention but with more brevity and sundry others must at present be passed over without a discovery It is granted among all Christians that all our helps our relief our deliverance from sin Satan and the world are from Christ alone This is included in all his Relations unto the Church in all his offices and the discharge of them and is the express Doctrine of the Gospel It is no less generally acknowledged at least the Scripture is no less clear and positive in it that we receive and derive all our supplies of Relief from Christ by Faith other wayes of the participation of any thing from him the Scripture knoweth not Wherefore it is our duty on all occasions to apply our selves unto him by Faith for all supplies Reliefs and deliverances But these men can find no life nor power herein at least if they grant that somewhat might be done this way yet they know not how to do it being ignorant of the life of Faith and the due exercise of it They must have a way more ready and easy exposed to the capacities and abilities of all sorts of Persons good and bad yea that will serve the turn of the worst of men unto this end An Image therefore must be set up for common use instead of this spiritual application unto Christ for relief and this is the making of the sign of the Cross Let a man but make the sign of the Cross on his forehead his breast or the like which he may as easily do as take up or cast away a straw and there is no more required to engage Christ unto his assistance at any time And the vertues which they ascribe hereunto are innumerable but this also is an Idol a teacher of Lies invented and set up for no other end but to satisfie the carnal minds of men with a presumptuous supposition in the neglect of the spiritually laborious exercise of Faith an Experience of the work of Faith in the derivation of all supplies of spiritual Life Grace and Strength with deliverance and supplies from Jesus Christ will secure Believers from giving heed unto this triffling deceit SECT XII One thing more amongst many others of the same Sort may be mentioned it is a notion of Truth which derives from the Light of Nature That those who approach unto God in divine Worship should be careful that they be pure and clean without any Offensive defilements This the Heathen themselves give Testimony unto and God confirmed it in the Institutions of the Law But what are these defilements and pollutions which make us unmeet to approach unto the presence of God how and by what means we may be purified and cleansed from them the Gospel alone declares And it doth in opposition unto all other ways and means of it plainly reveal that it is by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon our Consciences so to purge them from dead Works that we may serve the Living God see Heb. 9.14 chap. 10.19 20 21. But this is a thing mysterious nothing but spiritual Light and saving Faith can direct us herein Men destitute of them could never attain an Experience of purification in the way Wherefore they retained the notion of Truth it self but made an Image of it for their use with a neglect of the thing it self And this was the most ludicrous that could be imagined namely the sprinkling of themselves and others with that they call Holy Water when they go into the places of sacred Worship which yet also they borrowed from the Pagans So stupid and sottish are the minds of men so dark and ignorant of heavenly things that they have suffered their Souls to be deceived and ruined by such vain superstitious Trifles This Discourse hath already proceeded unto a greater length than was at first intended and would be so much more should we look into all parts of this Chamber of Imagery and expose to view all the abominations in it I shall therefore put a close unto it in one or two instances wherein the Church of Rome doth boast it self as retaining the Truth and Power of the Gospel in a peculiar manner whereas in very deed they have destroyed them and set up corrupt Images of their own in their stead SECT XIII The first of these is the Doctrine and Grace of Mortification That this is not only an important Evangelical Duty but also of indispensable necessity unto Salvation all who have any thing of Christian Religion in themselves must acknowledg It is also clearly determined in the Scripture both what is the nature of it with its causes and in what acts and duties it doth consist For it is frequently declared to be the crucifying of the Body of Sin with all the Lusts thereof For Mortification must be the bringing of something to death and this is sin and the dying of sin consists in the casting out of all vitious habits and inclinations arising from the Original depravation of nature it is the weakning and graduate extirpation or destruction of them in their roots principles and operations Whereby the Soul is set at liberty to act universally from the contrary principle of Spiritual Life and Grace The means on the part of Christ whereby this is wrought and effected in believers is the communication of his Spirit unto them to make an effectual application of the vertue of his death unto the death of sin for it is by his Spirit that we mortifie the deeds of the flesh and the flesh it self and that as we are implanted by him into the likeness of the death of Christ By vertue thereof we are crucifyed and made dead unto sin in the Declaration of which things the Scripture doth abound The means of it on the part of Believers is the exercise of Faith in Christ as crucifyed whereby they derive vertue from him for the crucifying of the Body of death And this
compleat in all the will of God Col. 4.12 The Believer in Christ notwithstanding all weaknesses and remainders of indwelling sin is much safer than innocent Adam in Paradise because Christ has engaged for believers that they shall endure to the end and that he will give them eternal Life and none shâ—â—â— pluck them out of his hand and the hand of his father In such hands they must need be safe indeed 7. Improve this Knowledg of Christ with reference to comfort T is He that sends the Comforter who abides with the Church for ever Joh. 16.7 The Church and the Churches comfort are built upon the same Rock Christ Your Consâ—lation then will be strong if you fly for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before you Heb. 6.18 You that are Saints well may you rejoyce in Christ Jesus since by him you have received the atonement Peace he has left you for a legacy a peace that will abide in the midst of the greatest outward troubles a comfort that most abounds when sufferings are most aboundant 2 Cor. 1.5 Consider the Lord Jesus and be filled with everlasting consolation and good hope through grace How strong is his hand how tender his heart how unchangeable his kindness Jesus is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 8. Improve the knowledge of Christ with reference to his Churches enemies He is above their match and he will make them know it they cannot hide their counsels from him who searcheth the Reins and Hearts and they must needs at last be disappointed and worsted for Christ will Reign till all his foes be made his footstool Heb. 10.13 Julian the Emperour wanted neither Policy nor Valour nor an armed power and yet of a suddain he had a deadly wound given him and cries out Vicisti Galliaee O Galilean so he called Christ thou hast overcome me This will be the end of the stoutest and proudest of the Churches Adversaries Christians are as dear to Christ as the Apple of his Eye They are bold fellows that will venture to give Christ a blow on his very eye this affront will not be born long and what a deadly stroke will this judge of the world at last return Mirabili modo fit dum mors Christum devorat devoratur dum occidit occiditur dum vincit vincitur Luther Tom. 4. p. 679-b 9. Improve the knowledge of Christ with reference to Death He has grappled with Death and has been to hard for it he has taken away its Sting which was the worst thing in it and is ready to deliver from that Bondage which the fear of Death causes Heb. 2.15 The Apostle having eyed Christ and the Resurrection insults over this last enemy 1 Cor. 15.53 O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Christ has sanctified the Grave into a bed of rest and to use Luthers expression Mors est 〈◊〉 vitae Death is the Gate to life and immortality The dying Christian when he lifts up his eyes to his Lord and Saviour he may say then with Laurentius Noâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 non habet the night of Death hath no darkness in it but is an entrance into the light that is everlasting 10. Improve the Knowledge of Christ with reference to Eternity So vast and endless a thing may well be of an amazing consideration and when â—â—ce in Eternity thâ—â—â— is no correcting of mistakes Look therefore unto Jesus 〈…〉 prove you and to keep you sincere and without offence unto the last And when Time is just come to an end behold your Lord entered into everlasting joy himself and ready to receive you into the same Christ is none already as your forerunner nay as your representative and has taken possession of the incorruptible and undefiled inheritance Heb. 6.20 do you gladly follow him as knowing that when this earthly house of your Tabernacle is dissolued you have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Quest How may our belief of Gods Governing the world support us in all wordly distractions SERMON XIII PSALM XCVII 1 2. The Lord reigneth let the Earth rejoyce let the multitude of Isles be glad thereof Clouds and darkness are round about him righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his Throne THE State of affairs is oftentimes and so it is at this day so involved and confused that we need not wonder if we see men of wisdom greatly perplexed in their spirits and almost sunk into discouragement The best of Saints whose hearts are most furnished and fortified with grace would be of all others most subject to discomposure were it not that they feel peace and comfort flowing into them from the remembrance and sweet consideration of a God above What good man could possibly have any tolerable enjoyment of himself or possess his Soul in patience while he observes the scentrick and irregular motions of things below the restlesness tumblings and tossings of the world desireable comforts and delights blasted in a moment afflictions and troubles breaking in with a sudden surprize order quite subverted Laws violated and the edge of them turned against those that are faithful and peaceable in a Land and all things indeed turned upside down Wickedness rampant and Religion opprest The spurious brood of Babylon cloathed in Scarlet and prospering in the world when at the same time the precious Sons of Zion comparable to the finest Gold are esteemed as earthen pitchers yea broken potsherds and so thrown upon dunghils or cast into Prisons and filled full with the contempt of them that are at ease these things I say would soon break his heart did he not see him who is invisible and firmely believe a wheel within a wheel an unseen hand which steadily and prudently guides and directs all things keeping up a beautiful order where reason can discern nothing but at ataxie and confusion Those that are conversant in the sacred Scriptures do find that the flourishing state of ungodly men and the afflicted condition of gracious Presons hath proved to some of the Saints so hard a knot as they have gone to God for the untying of it and to others it hath been the occasion of so furious and violent temptations as had almost tript up their heels and broken the neck of their Religion Upon that very score holy Asaph was almost ready to conclude he had in vain cleansed his heart and washed his hands in innocence But if we will repaire unto the Sanctuarie and consult the divine Oracles and believe them when they tell us that the eternal God our God is the Rector and Governour of the world it will revive our Spirits reduce our Souls into their right frame and preserve them in a due composure when the scene of affairs is most ruffled To entertain you with a discourse upon this choice and seasonable subject is the work allotted me at this time and the Question now to be discust and answered
in fear O Lord that the nations may know themselves to be but men They desired evil no otherwise than good Men that are in Place of Authority over others may and ought to use it viz. not to make others poenâ miseros sed correctione beatos miserable by putting them to pain but happy by amendment 2. If you find them sometimes to have a farther reach and to look beyond time to eternity you must consider they were extraordinary persons and by the spirit of Prophesie did foresee what God had irrevocably determined concerning some men and upon this supposition they might not only acquiesce in the judgment of God against them but were obliged to approve of it too As all the Saints shall at the last day approve of the Sentence of Christ against such as they loved and earnestly prayed for when here on Earth before they knew what their final state would be That these had such a foresight is plain by what David spake of Judas many years before he was born He saw plainly what Judas his cursed end would be as you may see by reading the 109th Psalm which Peter tells us the Holy Ghost spake before concerning Judas by the mouth of David Acts 1.16 So that these being Persons and Cases extraordinary are not to be drawn into example by ordinary persons It is good for us to mind what Christ says of great sinners Mat. 12.31 32. I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men When Christ says all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men and excepts none but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost no not a word spoken against the Son of Man himself we may well think a word spoken or a deed done against our selves may be pardoned and that it may be so should pray for it and we may hope fot a good effect of it Acts 7.60 Stephen's prayer when he was stoned probably had an influence on Paul's conversion St. John tells us 1 John 5.16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death So that unless a Man could be assured that another hath sinned that sin which is unto death he may nay he ought to pray for him He shall ask c. In any case where there is but an if so be or a who can tell or a perhaps there is room left for prayer In that mighty Tempest that arose in the Sea to arrest Jonah as he was going to Tarshish which was like to have broken the Ship he is called on to arise and call upon his God Jonah 1.6 If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not Their case was very doubtful yet they pray So when Jonah had delivered his Message to the Ninevites Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown they cry mightily unto God saying Who can tell if God will turn and repent Jonah 3.9 Simon Magus was in a very bad state In the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity and Peter perceived it Si fieri possit ab ipsis inferis extrahendi nobis sunt homines Calvinus in locum yet he bids him repent and pray If perhaps the thoughts of his heart might be forgiven him and can we think that he who put him upon praying for himself would not pray for him too especially considering Simon requested it of him Acts 8.21 24. 3. The Third good means to be used to overcome evil in others is to use good words in speaking 1. Of them 2. To them 1. To speak well of them so far as with truth we may Peter Martyr thinks this is required Rom. 12.14 Bless them that persecute you bless and curse not Where by blessing in the the former part of the verse he understands speaking well of them in the latter praying for them But possibly the Apostle might double the word only for the greater Emphasis it being a duty of great necessity and not easie to be performed However it must be acknowledged a duty to speak well of them for what is praise-worthy in them Indeed we may not call evil good nor praise any for the evil they do but must say in that case as the Apostle doth to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.22 Shall I praise you in this I praise you not On the other hand we must not call good evil There being none so bad but have some good gifts and commendable qualities in them we should acknowledg them in them and praise them for them The positive part of the Ninth Commandment requires this at our hands to bear a true witness to our Neighbour Therefore as Christ when he blames this and the other Church for the faults he found in them acknowledgeth the good he found among them saying to one This thou hast and to another This thou hast Rev. 2.6 and 3.4 so should we do And how this tends to overcome evil the Wise-man will tell us Prov. 27.21 As the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold so is a man to his praise or as others so is to a man his praise That is it tries him and refines him too 2. As good words of them tend to overcome evil in others so good words to them Respectful language and modest answers are of great efficacy to allay and abate corrupt affections in others It was spiritual wisdom in Paul to answer Festus saying he was mad and besides himself calmly and respectfully I am not mad most noble Festus Acts 26.25 With what respect and reverence doth David speak of and to Saul when he was pursuing him for his life Speaking of him he calls him the Lords anointed 1 Sam. 26.16 and speaking to him he doth as it were in one breath for 't is within the compass of the Three following verses call him My Lord the King And what he spake as well as what he did at that time did for the present mollifie his heart towards him as appears by his saying to him again Is this thy voice my son David By long forbearing a Prince is perswaded and a soft tongue breaketh the bone Prov. 25.15 A Flint is sooner broken on a Pillow than on a Rock We find the men of Ephraim very angry with Gideon Judg. 8.1 because he called them not when he went out against the Midianites for the Text saith they did chide with him sharply He tho a mighty man of valour gave them this modest answer What have I now done in comparison of you Is not the gleaning of the graves of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer Intimating that they had done greater service in pursuing than he had done in routing of them Then says the Text their anger was abated toward him when he had said that Prov. 15.1 Grievous words might have stirred up anger but his soft answer turned away wrath 3. The Third thing
Thess 2.13 God hath from the Beginning chosen you to Salvation 1 Thess 5.9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain Salvation which Salvation doth include absence of all evil and presence of all good and this Salvation being Eternal Heb. 5.9 infers the absence of all evil for ever and the presence of all good for ever and whosoever is delivered from all privative Evils and possessed of all positive Everlasting good and that for ever can not be denyed to be happy for ever II. Christ hath redeemed some to be infallibly brought to Eternal Glory What reason can be given of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God if there be no Eternal misery for men to be delivered from nor any Eternal happiness to be possessed of For 1. Did Christ dye to deliver his Followers from Poverty and Prisons from Sorrow and Sufferings from Trouble and Tribulation What! and yet his Holy Humble and Sincere people lye under these more than other Men that are wicked and ungodly why was Paul then in stripes and imprisonments in hunger and thirst in cold and nakedness in perils and jeopardy of his Life continually and such as Pilate Faelix and Festus in great worldly prosperity Or can it be imagined that Men persisting in Sin should be more partakers of the fruits of Christs Death than those that forsake their sin repent and turn and follow him 2. Did Christ suffer and dye to purchase only Temporal good things as Riches Honours for his Disciples Were these worth his precious Blood VVhatever Christ dyed for it cost him his most Sacred Blood Was it then for Temporal enjoyments only which Turks and Pagans may and do possess more than Thousands of his true and faithful Followers Did Christ intend the benefits of his Death for these in more especial manner then for such as remain finally impenitent and yet shall such reap the fruit of all his Sufferings and those that believe on him go without them Sober reason doth abhor it and all the Scripture is against it Would Christ have humbled himself to such a contemptible Birth miserable Life lamentable painful shameful Death only for transitory temporal fading Mercies If we consider the variety of his sufferings from God Men and Devils the dignity of the Sufferer I profess I cannot imagine any reason of all Christs undertakings and performances if there be not an Eternal state of Misery in suffering of evil things by his Death that Believers might be delivered from and of Glory in enjoying of good things to be brought unto III. The Spirit of God doth sanctifie some that they might be made meet to be partakers of the Eternal Inheritance of the Saints in light As all are not Godly so all are not Ungodly Though most be as they were born yet many there be that are born again there is a wonderful difference betwixt men and men the Spirit of God infusing a principle of spiritual Life and making some all over new working in them Faith in Christ Holy Fear and Love Patience and Hope longing Desires renewing in them the Holy Image of God is as the earnest and first fruits assuring of them in due time of a plentiful harvest of Everlasting Happiness Faith is in order to Eternal Life and Salvation Joh. 3.16 Love hath the promise of it 1 Cor. 2.9 2 Tim. 4.8 Jam. 1.12 Obedience ends in it Heb. 5.9 Hope waits for it Rom. 8.25 and because their hope shall never make them ashamed Rom. 5.5 therefore there must be such an Eternal-Blessed state they hope for IV. The Souls of all men are immortal though they had a beginning yet shall never cease to be therefore must while they be be in some state and because they be Eternal must be in some Eternal state This Eternal state must be either in the Souls enjoyment of God or in separation from him for the wit of Man cannot find out a third for the Soul continuing to be must be with God or not with God shall enjoy him or not enjoy him for to say he shall and shall not or to say he shall not and yet shall is a contradiction and to say he neither shall nor shall not is as bad if therefore the Soul be Eternal and while it shall be shall perfectly enjoy God it shall be Eternally happy If it shall for ever be and that without God it shall be Eternally miserable because God is the chiefest good the ultimate end and perfection of man The great work in this then is to prove that the Soul is Eternal and shall for ever be For which I offer these things 1. There is nothing within nor without the Soul that can be the cause of its ceasing to be here except God who though he can take away the being of Souls and Angels too yet he hath abundantly assured us that he will not Nothing within it because it is a Spiritual Being and hath no Internal Principle by contrary qualities causing a cessation of its Being and because it is simple and indivisible it is immortal and incorruptible for that which is not compounded of parts cannot be dissolved into parts and where there is no dissolution of a Being there is no corruption or end of it there is no Creature without it that can cause the Soul to cease Matth. 10.28 Not able to kill the Soul Luc. 12.4 Fear not them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do if they would kill the Soul they cannot when they have killed the Body they have done their worst their most their all 2. The Soul of man hath not dependance upon the Body as to its Being and Existence It hath certain actings and operations which do not depend upon the Body and if the operations of the Soul be independent from the Body such must the principle be from whence such operations do arise and if it can act without dependance on the Body then it can exist and be without the Body In the Body without dependance on the Body it hath the knowledge of immaterial Beings as God and Adgels which were never seen by the eye of the Body nor can because there must be some proportion between the object and the faculty and the Soul doth know it self wherein it hath no need of the phantasie for when it is intimately present to it self it wanteth not the ministry of the phantasie to its own intellection Besides it can conceive of universals abstracted from its singulars in which it doth not depend upon the phantasie for phantasmata sunt singularium non universalium therefore since it can act in the body without dependance on the Body it can exist without the Body and not dye when the Body doth which yet is more plain and certain from the Scripture which telleth us that the Soul of Lazarus after death was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosom Luc. 16.22 but they did not carry it dead or alive but alive
bodily Eyes yet you do with an Eye of Faith and Love and therefore may rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 When you look up unto the Heavens and see and say yonder is the place of my Everlasting abode there I must dwell with God there I must be with Christ and joyfully joyn with Angels and Saints in praising of my Lord and Saviour the foresight of this will make you joyful for the present and pleasant in your looking at it 10. Look fiducially at unseen Eternal things with an Holy Humble Confidence by Jesus Christ upon the performance of the conditions of the Gospel they shall be all your own that by turning from all your Sin by Repentance and Faith in Christ you trust you shall be possessed of them that when you see there are Mansions now unseen there are Eternal Joyes an Immoveable Kingdom an Incorruptible Crown the Eternal God to be enjoyed and for all this you have a promise and you know this promise is made to you by the performance of the Conditions annexed to the promise you trust in time to come unto it or rather when you go out of time into Eternity you shall be blessed in the Immediate Full Eternal Enjoyment of all the Happiness that God hath prepared in Heaven to give you wellcome joyful entertainment in that unseen Eternal World that you so eye that World while you live in this that when by Death you are going out of this World into that you might have this well-grounded confidence to say I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day 2 Tim. 4.7 8. If you get such a sight as this as now hath been set forth before you upon such Eternal Objects as before were propounded to you you will be able from your own experience to answer the third question contained in the general case but yet I will proceed unto that branch Q. 3. What influence will such an Eying of Eternity have upon us in all we do In all we do Will its Influence be so Universal Will the efficacy of such a sight be so extensive to reach forth its virtue in all we do yes in all we do Whether we Eat or Drink or go to Sleep whether we Trade or Work or Buy or Sell. Whether we Pray or Hear or search our Hearts or Meditate or Receive or Study or Preach or Sin or Suffer or Dy it will have a mighty influence upon us in any thing wherein we are active or passive culpable or praise-worthy in any condition be it Poverty or Riches Health or Sickness in any Relation be it of Husband and Wife of Parents and Children of Masters and Servants In any Office and Imployment Sacred or Civil out of such an heap because I am limited I will take an handful and because I have not room to speak of all I will not cast them into method according to their nature connexion and dependance one upon another but take them as they come in some few particulars only 1. Such an Eyeing of Eternity in all we do would make us careful to avoid Sin in any thing we do or however we might fail in all we do yet that we suffer it not to Reign or have Dominion over us Look at Eternity with a believing Eye and you will look at sin with an angry Eye you will cast a deadly look at Sin when you have a lively look at Eternity of Joy or Misery 1. Sin would deprive me of Eternal Life therefore I will be its Death it would keep me from Eternal Rest therefore I will never rest till I have conquered and subdued it nothing in the World would bring upon my Eternal Soul the Eternal loss of the Eternal God his Glorious Son and Holy Spirit of the Company of his Holy Angels and Saints of Eternal Treasures of a Blessed Kingdom and Incorruptible Crownâ— but cursed Sin Poverty Sickness Men Death Devils cannot nothing but Sin therefore I will be its bane that shall not Reign in me that would not suffer me to live in Everlasting Happiness 2. Sin would plunge me into unseen Eternal Torments into Endless Flames and Everlasting Burnings If you could speak with a Soul departed but a Moneth ago and ask him what do you now think of the delights of Sin of sporting on the Sabbath day of your pleasant Cups and Delightful Games of pleasing of the Flesh and gratifying of its Lusts What a sad reply would he return and what a doleful answer would he make you Sin Oh that was it that was my ruine that was it which hath brought me miserable wretch to Everlasting Torment that was it which shut me out of Heaven that sunk me down to Hell O ye foolish Sons of Men that are yet in time be not mad as I was mad and do not do as I did let not the seen pleasures and profits of the World which I have found were but for a time deceive you and bewitch you the Devil shewed me the seen delights of Sin but concealed from me the Extremity and Eternity of the pain that it hath brought me to the pleasure is past and the pain continues and I am lost for ever and all this Sin hath brought me to Let your eyeing of Eternity whilst you are standing in time be instead of ones speaking to you in time that hath been in Eternity for the Eternal God doth tell you as much as any Damned Soul can tell you and would you believe one from Hell and not the Son of God that came from Heaven Oh look and view Eternity in the Glass of the Scripture and firmly believe it and it will make slaughtering work amongst your Sins and destroy that which would damn you 2. Such Eyeing of Eternity would be a mighty help to quiet your hearts under the dispensations of Providence here to Men on Earth When you look at the seen Afflictions Distresses Disgraces Stripes Imprisonments Persecutions and Poverty of the People and Children of God and the Riches Ease Honours Pleasures and the seen flourishing prosperity of the worst of Men that by the Swearing Drinking Whoring hating of Godliness being patterns of wickedness proclaim themselves the Children of the Devil and you are offended and your Mind disquieted except in this you have a better heart than Job cap. 21.6 to 16. or David a Man after Gods own heart Psal 73.2 to 16. or Jeremiah cap. 12.1 2. or Habakkuk cap. 1.13 14. Now amongst the many helps to allay this Temptation the eyeing of the last yea Everlasting things is not the least Look upon these two sorts of Men which comprehend all in the World as going to Eternity and lodged there and then you will rather pity them because of their future Misery then envy them for their present Prosperity What if they have their Hearts desire for a
causes There 's a Necessity of these things while we are in the World and we need variety of them more than for present use e. g. Childhood and Age are helpless and need greater supplies there 's difference between Sickness and Health and we must provide for both and is not this very plausible Whereas did but Persons consider how many Superfluities shroud themselves under the wing of Necessaries and how Persons love to be at their own finding rather than Gods thô there 's no comparison between them as Israel Numb 11.5 We Remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely the Cucumbers and the Melons and the Leeks and the Onions and the Garlick and now our Soul is dryed away there is nothing at all besides this Manna before our Eyes They preferred the Food which the Egyptians gave their Slaves before Manna which if the Inhabitants of the upper World needed food were fit for them We would not onely have Mercies but we would be humour'd in the Circumstances of 'em Rachel must presently have Children or she 'l be weary of her Life whereas she might have learnt from her own Husband and Grand-father that those Children of patiently believing Parents were the greatest Blessings that came from teeming Prayers and Barren Wombs but she considers not this she must have Children or dye Well God so far gratifies her she shall have Children but that which she reckoned would be the greatest Comfort of her Life proved to be her death The flattery of worldly things prevails with many The Grandeur of the World that pleaseth the Eye the Esteem of the World that pleaseth the Fancy whereas would but these Persons consider all things of the World appear better at a distance than we find them near at hand I dare confidently make this offer and without imposing upon God any thing indecent peremptorily assure you God will make it good That if you can but give any one instance of any one Person made happy satisfyingly happy by any worldly enjoyment you shall be the second I grant many are through Grace contented with a little pittance of the World but where dwelt the man that was ever yet contented meerly with the World The wealth of the World promiseth Satisfaction a Eccl. 10.19 Money answereth all things but b ch 5.10 he that loveth Silver shall not be satisfied with Silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase The pleasures of the World promise refreshment to relieve us of all our cares but instead of it c Eccl. 2.11 they are all Vanity and Vexation of Spirit The Honours of the World promise quiet and contentment but d Psal 73.18 19. surely they are set in slippery places as upon a Pinnacle whence though they do not presently fall yet they are utterly consumed with terrors of falling In short e Psal 49.20 man that is in honour and understandeth not how to honour God with it is like the Beasts that perish degrades himself into a Beast and the time is at hand when he would count it a greater happiness than ever he shall obtain if his Soul and Body might die together like a Beast Experience is beyond Speculation we see others grow great they fare better and go finer and are more esteemed in the World every one respects them and if he but grow Rich he must presently be the best in the Parish whereas those that are low and mean in the World they are despised thô never so well qualified This thou speak'st upon thine own Observation thou canst name the Persons and the places whence thou hast this experience Very well thou takest this for a demonstration that there is such a thing as an Earthly happiness Hold a little be but intreated to push the Observation a little further and consider impartially how loth thou wouldst be to take up with that for thy Happiness which thou so much admirest Single out any one of those thou accountest most happy in their outward enjoyments and be sure thou art as thoroughly acquainted with all the circumstances of his Condition as thou art with thine own and then sit down and seriously consider Is this the Person whose happiness thou admirest View him inside and outside and tell me wouldst thou have his Condition and all the Circumstances of it 'T is true he is great in the World but wouldst thou have all his cares and fears his restless Nights and troublesome Dayes wouldst thou have just his qualifications of mind that half-wittedness that makes him ridiculous his peevish Humours which make him a burden to himself and others Wouldst thou have just his temper of Body To be alwayes sickly or conceited to be so He can't eat this nor digest that nor relish any thing as do meaner Persons Those Relations that should be the greatest Comfort of his Life hanker after his Death His Children upon one account or other almost break his Heart his Servants are vexatious his Business distracting or his idleness wearisome Whereas perhaps his next Neighbour that hath scarce bread to eat hath a quieter frame of Mind a better temper of Body a better Stomach better Digestion better Health more Comfort in Relations and longer Life to enjoy all these than him thou countest the Worlds darling think of this before thou concludest for an earthly Happiness The restlesness of the Mind of man upon so many disappointments makes him eager after any thing that promiseth Satisfaction he hath experience of the uneasiness of his present Condition and none of that which flatters him So that he becomes like one that hath been long sick who is willing to try every Medicine that every Visitant commends never considering how he heightens his disease by the use of false Remedies e. g. Shouldst thou take medicines proper for an Erysipelas to cure a Dropsie or Medicines for the Stone to cure a Consumption thô those Medicines would not presently kill thee they would never Cure thee but thou must still complain of disappointments and be worse and worse instead of having any amendment Do not deceive your selves one Vanity will never cure another Satan will not be wanting to set in with all the other cheats the Inclinations of the Flesh the flatteries of the World and the various pleadings of carnal Reason Satan you may be sure will do what 's possible to be done to entangle the Soul in a fools Paradise or plunge it into inextricable difficulties especially when he hath a good second as in this Case thô one might rationally think there should need no more to fright him to his watch then to assure him the hand of Satan is in all this Suspect him in every thing he cannot be thy Friend he cannot make any one motion for thy good where he seems to do so 't is to do thee greater mischief Thus have I jumbled together something of what may be said both with real and seeming weight for empty reasonings weigh most with empty
or promise of Christ to his Disciples about Persecution jearingly telling 'em 't was for their good Let such Persons know and O that they would consider that though God hath and doth and will bring good out of evil and over-rule the fury of men for the good of his People yet this is not the least excuse for their Sin nor can it be pleaded to abate their Punishment To give you an Instance I can't give a greater and I need give no more The Jews Persecution of our Blessed Saviour 't was predetermin'd of God and eventually proved the greatest good to man yet no thank to them nor alleviation of their guilt f Acts 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate Counsel and fore-knowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have Crucified and slain They pretended high to Piety and necessity for their Process against him they Charge him with Blasphemy against God Treason against Caesar Devilism against the Souls of People and Luxury as to his common Conversation whereas he was no other than g Act. 7.52 the just one of whom ye have been now the Betrayers and Murtherers 'T was Good Counsel that Gamaliel gave those Rulers h Act. 5.29 who were cut to the Heart i. e. vext at Heart and counted it Criminal that the Apostles should dare to tell 'em We ought to obey God rather than men Refrain from these men and let them alone for if this Counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found to fight against God for 't is said of others of them that slighted this i 1 Thes 2.15 16. They have persecuted us and they please not God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak unto the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sin alway for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost And how heavy doth that Doom ly upon them to this day I 'le add no more to this Caution but a Request to Persecutors to read and think and pray over the Second Psalm This premised much may be said of the good which God doth in and for and by his Children by bringing them into his presence in and deliverance out of Persecution how God increaseth their Graces heightens their Comforts multiplyes their Experiences beyond what he doth any other time of their lives I remember Augustine hath a Passage though being separated from my Books I cannot name where That if a Person suffer death for Christ before Conversion his Martyrdom shall be to him instead of Regeneration But if you will not receive his Testimony about the first Grace I am sure you 'l not deny my next about the Exercise of Grace k Heb. 5.8 Our great Exemplar thô he was the Son of God yet as he was the Son of man he experimentally learned Obedience by the things which he suffered And the Holy Ghost tells us l Heb. 2.10 It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto Glory to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through Sufferings 'T is hard to say what kind of Perfection Christ had by Suffering but 't is easie to observe how Sufferings tend to the Perfecting of Christians they force them to a more severe examination of Heart and Life and to a more thorow Repentance of what provok't God to lay them under Sufferings then their Prayers are more fervent and their whole Conversation more regular than at other times so that I know not whether as well the former as the latter part of that passage may not be a gracious Promise m Psal 89.30 31 c. If his Children forsake my Law and walk not in my judgments if they break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments then will I visit their Transgression with a Rod and their Iniquity with Stripes nevertheless my Loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail my Covenant will I not break c. In short their greatest Sufferings shall be medicinal not destructive the more they exercise their Graces the more they increase them for here 's the difference between an Earthly and an Heavenly Treasure the one the more you spend the less you have the other the more you lay out the more you augment the Treasure n James 2.5 Hearken my beloved Brethren hath not God chosen the poor of this World those especially who are impoverished for Righteousness sake rich in Faith and according to our Faith are all our other Graces and all our other Comforts for 't is o 1 Pet. 1.8 by believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of Glory And the Apostle tells you expresly that 't is for the Comfort of others he acquaints 'em p 2 Cor. 1.5 As the Sufferings of Christ abound in us so our Consolation aboundeth by Christ Those Christians that have walkt droopingly all their dayes when God hath singled them out for Sufferings God hath clear'd up their Evidences Never did any Martyr dye in desertion 'T was in the Captivity * Dan. 10.10 c. that one while Christ the Angel of the Covenant another while a created Angel one of his menial Servants did revive instruct support and comfort Daniel as Gods greatly beloved The Blessed Apostle in one Chapter q 2 Cor. 11. gives us an account of his Sufferings and in the next r 2 Cor. 12. of his some degree of s beatifical vision and both beyond all the other Apostles And God doth not only this in and for themselves but God makes them more eminently useful unto others Persecution was the occasion of spreading the Gospel all the world over Blessed Paul wrote more Epistles in his Bonds than any one of the other Apostles in their Liberty and 't was in one of those Epistles that he appeals to his Readers †Ephes 3.4 to understand his Knowledge in the mystery of Christ 'T was in the time of the beloved Disciple's banishment into Patmos that Christ gave him a Prospect of the State of the Church from his time to the End of the World thrô all the times of the Heathen Persecutions and thrô the rise reign and ruine of the Antichristian Apostasie with peculiar Prophesies suitable Directions terrible Threatnings and chearing Promises thrô the several Visions all which thô not very easie to be understood yet well deserve the Name of Revelation evidencing Christs peculiar care of his persecuted Servants that nothing befalls them by Chance but that the main outrage of Enemies is ordered and bounded by Christs infinite Wisdom and Compassionate Love And thô time hath confuted many mistaken Calculations of the continuance of the Churches troubles yet God will not delay the Churches deliverance one moment in favour to their Enemies but gradually to ripen his own design and God will in the
Confession of Faith that Christ never commended any like it but would prescribe to Christ an exemption from Suffering not considering that Mankind would have been undone by that advice but Christ with a sharp reproof bids d Mat. 16.16.23 Get thee behind me c. In all cases about settling in the World getting Estates seeking Preferment entring into Marriage removing from one place to another be not self-conceited nor hasty to run before God nor to go out of his way but follow him follow his Commands in a way of Obedience follow his Providence in a way of Observance follow God and you may expect his Blessing Remember these two words thô you forget all the rest of the Sermon Vse 5 viz. CHRIST and HOLINESS Holiness and Christ Interweave these all manner of wayes in your whole Conversation Press after Holiness as much as 't is Possible had you no Christ to befriend you for 't is a shame to mind Holiness the less for any benefits you expect from Christ and rest as intirely upon Christ as if there were nothing else required for the best of your Holiness doth not merit acceptance 'T is serious Christianity that I press as the only way to better every condition 't is Christianity downright Christianity that alone can do it 'T is not Morality without Faith that 's but Refined Heathenism 't is not Faith without Morality that 's but downright Hypocrisie It must be a Divine Faith wrought by the Holy Ghost where God and man concur in the operation such a Faith as works by Love both to God and Man a Holy Faith full of good Works e Ephes 2.10 For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them f Phil. 3.3.8 9. Worshipping God in the Spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no Confidence in the flesh yea doubtless counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus that we may be found in him not having not trusting in our own Righteousness but that which is thrô the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith that we may be found in him c. I 'le close all with this of Solomon of whom 't is said g 1 King 4.32 33. He spake three thousand Proverbs and his Songs were a thousand and five and he spake of Trees from the Cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the Hyssop that springeth out of the wall he spake also of Beasts and of Fowls and of creeping things and of Fishes Now consider his Treatises of Natural Philosophy are utterly lost thô we may well suppose them the best that ever were writ Nay of his three thousand Proverbs those that were not divinely inspired are lost and those that were are some of them collected by other hands h Prov. 25.1 not his own but his two last and best Treatises Ecclesiastes and Canticles the one to abate our Love of the World and the other to increase our Love to Christ These are the Books these are the things with which he did with which we should close our Lives Quest How may we Experience in our selves and Evidence to others that serious Godliness is more than a Fancy SERMON II. 1 PET. III. 15. Be ready alwayes to give an Answer to every man that asketh you a Reason of the Hope that is in you CHristianity was no sooner come into the World than it was assaulted by Satan and his Instruments persecuting Believers and either Reproaching their Religion as Impious or censuring it as Madness or ridiculing it as Folly the Holy Ghost in the Scripture foreseeing this not only forewarns them of it but arms them against it and among others of his holy Penmen employs this Apostle to fence those Saints to whom he wrote against this Temptation and to direct them what to do if it came to be their Case 1. He encourageth them under Sufferings of all sorts for righteousness sake tells them that so to suffer would be so far from making them miserable that it would be their Happiness v. 14. happy are ye answerably to what his Master had before told him and the rest of his hearers Matth. 5.11 Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you c. 2. He directs them how to carry themselves 1. When persecuted and that 1. Negatively v. 14. Be not afraid of their terror c. Be not daunted nor affrighted with those fears your Enemies would work in you This passage relates to that of Isa 8.12 Neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid where the Saints are bid not to fear what others were afraid of but here with a little variation they are exhorted not to give way to or be overcome by those terrors their adversaries would strike into them 2. Positively sanctifie the Lord in your hearts v. 15. Fear him more than your Persecutors stand in awe of his Power more than their Rage fear him so as not inordinately to fear them he so afraid of offending him as not to fear suffering by them And this advice likewise is agreeable to that our Saviour gives Math. 10.28 Fear not them which kill the body c. but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell 2. When reproached or scoffed at or traduced by their Enemies If they accuse or mock your Religion as impious or childish or unreasonable if they demand a reason of you why you Believe or Practise as you do Be always ready to give them an answer to give an account of your selves and shew upon what grounds ye are Christians and to make it appear that your Faith is reall and your Obedience reasonable Three things only in the words call for a little Explication 1. What is meant by Hope Either hope here is the same that Faith is and so it is in divers other places and then to give a reason of their Hope Calvin in loc Grot. is to make a Confession of their Faith so some take it Or it may be taken Synechdochically for the whole of their Religion as others And indeed the hope of a Christian being one of the most eminent Acts of Religion and seeming withall to the profane and ignorant World one of the most strange things in it and which was most cavil'd against and laugh'd at †Act. 17.18.32 for men to expect a Life after death a glorious Resurrection after a dishonourable lying in the grave and to renounce all Worldly enjoyments and expose themselves to the bitterest sufferings meerly in hope of something they did not see nor expected to enjoy till after they were dead it might well be put for the whole of Religion as being so remarkable in it 2. What is meant by this Answer they were to give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is elsewhere frequently rendred by defence Act. 22.1 Phil. 1.7.17 it is rendred answer as here 1
Cor. 9.3 you may call it an Apologetical or defensive answer as relating to their Enemies accusation or charge against them or Examination of them they might look upon the Religion of Christians as an unreasonable thing and therefore require a reason of their Faith and Practice which if they should the Apostle would have them ready to make their defence and shew how good grounds they had for both 3. How they were to be always ready to give an answer It doth not imply that they were bound to do it to every Caviller or trifler but when the Glory of God and the Honour of the Gospel required it and when their silence might be injurious to the Truth to their own Consciences or their Brethrens Souls and so Christian Prudence ought to judge of the seasonableness of their making their defence they were not bound always actually to do it but to be always actually ready whenever God in his Providence should call them to it Now from what our Apostle enjoyns these Saints to be always ready to do I inferr what all true Saints may be able to do at least what the nature of the thing is capable of and so the doctrinal Inference I deduce from the words is this That true Christians may give a satisfactory account of their Christianity that it is something both real and reasonable Doct. not Folly nor Fancy In speaking to this Truth two things are to be done 1. I shall shew that true Believers may give an account of the Religion they profess according to the Gospel 2. I shall give Directions in answer to the Question How a Believer may be able to experience in himself and evidence to others that his Religion that powerful Godliness in the Practice whereof he lives is more than a Fancy 1 That true Believers may give a good account of the Religion they profess Most that the carnal World is wont to object against powerfull Religion in the Saints may be reduced to three heads 1. Against their Faith in which I include their Hope as of kin to it and the Fruit of it it is objected that it is but a fancy 2. Against their Obedience and close walking with God and diligence in Duty which is the fruit of their Faith that it is but the effect of Fancy and so no better than folly an unreasonable and groundless niceness and scrupulosity 3. Against their Comforts and spiritual Enjoyments that they can be no better than their Faith and Obedience from which they proceed and are no more than meer Imaginations and delusive Conceits In answer to each of these I shall I hope evidence the contrary to be most true 1. That the Faith of a true Believer is something reall and not a Fancy By the Faith of a Saint I understand only that lively and effectual Faith which is the Instrument or Means call it as you please not only of a Saints Justification a Rom. 5.1 but Sanctification b Act. 15.9 that which is called precious Faith 2 Pet. 1.1 the Faith of Gods Elect Tit. 1 1. as being peculiar to them and the effect of their Election c Act. 13.48 that Faith in a word which is an apprehending Christ as the author of eternal Salvation d Heb. 5.9 a believing the record God hath given of his Son that eternal life is in him 1 Joh. 5.11 This Faith imports in it a respect to Christ as the Author of all other spiritual benefits antecedent to eternal Life Justification whereby a Believer is entitled to it Sanctification whereby he is prepared for it Consolation by which he is encouraged in seeking it and supported under the opposition and difficulties he meets with in the way to it But here I speak of Faith especially as respecting Eternal Salvation which is one principal act of it and which includes or supposes the other and the rather because the belief and expectation of Life and Immortality after Death is that which the unbelieving World looks upon as most strange and unreasonable and takes all a Believer can say of his expecting future things in another World to be but strong fancies of great Nothings There is no act of Faith against which the Objections of carnal Reason are more usually levelled than against this and if the reality of a Christians Faith appears in this it can scarce be denyed in others Now that this belief of Eternal Life is something real in a Saints Heart and not meerly a Fancy in his Brains might appear more than probable in that it hath been and still is to be found in those who are least fancyfull men as serious as judicious as rational as any in the World though not many wise men after the flesh are called e 1 Cor. 1.26 yet some are And it cannot reasonably be imagined that they who are confessedly Grave and Prudent and Discreet and free from Conceits and Fancies in all other things should dote in those only which are of the greatest Concernment to them especially if we consider that this Faith is stirring in them at such times as men use to be least given to Fancies as on the most solemn Occasions under the greatest Afflictions and at the approach of the most terrible of all temporal evils Death it self Men are most apt to be taken with Fancies and Appearances when they are wholly at Ease and flush in the World and have hope or some prospect of great things in it then they are apt to fancy things according to their Appetites and fondly to believe that that will be which they desire may be But when Death draws nigh they have nothing to encourage such imaginations and then usually their Fancies vanish they come to discover their folly and deceitfulness they judge quite contrary to what they did before they then see those things to be real which they counted but Fancies and those things to be but Fantastical which they had thought to be real Now at such a time as this the Faith of a Saint saving what desertions or Temptations may occasion in particular instances is ordinarily more-strong and active as his judgment of earthly things is more true when he is leaving them so his apprehension of heavenly is more clear when he draws nigh to them the approach of Death proves an enlivening to his Faith he hath the fairest view of the Crown of Glory when his Lord is about to set it on his head the same thoughts indeed he then hath which before he had only more clear and affecting they are at the last there being less to interrupt or discompose him It were hard to say that all the Comforts and Joyes of dying Saints and Martyrs have been meer Delusions and Cheats and yet so they must be if the apprehensions they have had of heavenly things were but Fancies and Ravings But to pass this by it will sufficiently evince the reality of a Christians Faith if we can make it appear that the
them which yet may be no true Acts of Obedience to him because not according to his Word They do but obtrude a Worship upon God and Fancy it will please him because it pleaseth them Whereas indeed nothing is acceptable to him but what is enjoyned by him Nothing is Duty but that which hath a Warrant from God for the Performance of it Men may abound in Will-worship and come short in Obedience they may do more than is enjoyned them and yet less too much which will never be reckoned to them as it was never required of them You must judge of your selves not meerly by what you do but by the ground you have for the doing of it when Gods Will is the Reason of it and not the Precepts of men nor your own Fancies so much and no more you do for God as you do in Obedience to his Command 2. Vniversal both as to the extensiveness and continuance of it 1. As to its Extensiveness See that you be not Partial in the Law a Mal. 2.9 that you walk with God in all his Ordinances Luke 1.6 have respect to all his Commandements Psal 119.6 There is the same reason for Obedience to one Command as well as another b Gods Authority who is the Law-giver and therefore when men chuse one Duty and overlook others they do not so much obey the will of God as gratifie their omn Humours and Fancies pleasing him only so far as they can please themselves too and this is not reasonable we never yield him a reasonable Service but when it is universal 2. As to its Continuance and duration If Gods Command be still the same and the Obligation of it it is but reasonable that our Obedience likewise should be still the same Constancy and Perseverance in serious Godliness will greatly confirm and Evidence the reasonableness of our Practice and reality of our Principles Fancies are usually transient and variable and so are their Effects in mens actions few Live by Fancy all their dayes but one time or other they find their Error When a Christians carriage is uniform in the course of his Life and still continues the same in a congruity and suitableness to his Principles it can hardly be imagined that it should be the effect of meer Fancy but must proceed from something in him more fixed and settled 3. Spiritual If the Obedience we yield to God be conformable to his Nature who is a Spirit so far it is reasonable and that is such as Christ requires and this the reason he gives for it John 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth See therefore that the Service you do him be not meerly external and carnal but inward and Spiritual 1. Spiritual in its Principle The goodness of your outward actions proceeds especially from within and you cannot judge rightly of them but by the Principles from which they proceed those Principles are Faith and Love Your work must be the work of Faith d 1 Thess 1.3 Rom. 1.5 your Obedience the Obedience of Faith Faith both in the Command and Promise must put you upon it and if your believing both makes you Act conformably to them the Faith of the Command presseth you to Obedience and the Faith of the Promise encourages you in it you therefore Serve the Lord because you believe him and trust in him that Service cannot be unreasonable And so likewise for Love Love to God must set you at work for God Exod. 20.6 those that love me and keep my Commandments If love within Command all without if that make you Labour in his Service fear to offend him strive to please him if you can not only see your own Obedience but feel your Love to God working your hearts to it you may be sure that Obdience is reasonable because its Principle is so reall Love felt in your Hearts and breaking out in your Lives cannot be a Fancy and what more Reasonable than for him that loves God to do all he can for God 2. Spiritual in the End for which ye Act. 1. Cor. 10.31 See that whatever you do you do it for the Glory of God as the Supreme End It is most Reasonable that as you do all from God so you should do all for him that he who is the first Cause of all you have should be the ultimate End of all you do and if you can be content to be abased that God may be Exalted to deny your selves as to your Credit and Interest and all Worldly concernments purely that God may be Honoured it is your desire that in all things Christ Jesus may be magnified in you whether by Life or by Death e Philip. 1.20 and so in doing or suffering that Obedience which is not only qualified as before mentioned but is directed to such an End is not Folly nor the effetct of Fancy 3. Spiritual in the Acts of it not that all Gospel Obedience or Worship consists only in the internal Acts and workings of the Mind for external Worship it self may be spiritual Worship and so it is when rightly performed that is when it is accompanied with and proceeds from internal but by Spiritual in its Acts I mean that which principally consists in the inward Acts of Faith and Love and Fear c. which is a Serving God in our Spirits f Rom. 1.9 yet withall is productive of and manifests it self in an outward behaviour correspondent to those internal workings See therefore that your Religion do not consist meerly in Externals that you make as much Conscience of inward and Heart-worship as outward and Bodily of the Actings of Faith and Love as of Praying and Hearing look as much at least to what is within as to what comes out Do not rest in the outside of Duty nor satisfie your selves with what you do when yet it is without life and warmth have as much regard to the Manner of Performing as to Performance it self to the motions of your Hearts as to the Labour of your Lips or postures of your Bodies To conclude this direction let your work in the whole of your conversation be as much about your Hearts g Prov. 4.23 as your Lives be the same in secret that you are in publick the same when under Gods Eye only that you are in the Face of the World This I am sure cannot be said to be foolish and unreasonable when it is grounded on the greatest reason God sees in secret h Math. 6.6 looks to the heart 1 Sam. 16.17 and calls for the heart i Prov. 23.26 and therefore it is but reason we should look to them too It is the seat of Sin the Fountain whence it springs and therefore must be look't too that we may prevent the working of it and mortifie the root of it and it is the seat of Grace there is no more good in any man than what is in his
to stay here There is more in the World to Wean us than to tempt us Is it not a valley of tears and do we weep to leave it Are we not in a Wilderness among fiery Serpents and are we loath to leave their company Is there a better Friend we can go to than God are there any sweeter Smiles or softer Embraces than his k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menand Sure those who know when they dye they go to receive their Reward should neither be fond of Life nor fearful of Death the Pangs of Death to Believers are but the Pangs of Travel by which they are born into Glory Believe this Reward Vse 2 Exhortation look not upon it as a Platonical Idea or Fancy Sensualists question this Reward because they do not see it they may as well question the Verity of their Souls because being Spirits they Branch 1 cannot be seen where should our Faith rest but upon a Divine testimony we believe there are such places as Affrica and America though we never saw them because Travellers who have been there affirm it and shall we not believe the Eternal Recompences when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God himself affirms it The whole Earth hangs upon the Word of Gods Power and shall not our Faith hang upon the Word of his Truth Let us not be Scepticks in matters of such importance The Rabbins tell us the great dispute between Cain and Abel was about the future Reward Abel affirmed it Cain deny'd it The disbelief of this Grand Truth is the cause of the flagitiousness of the Age. Immorality begins at Infidelity l Heb. 3.12 to mistrust a Future Reward is to question the Bible and to destroy a main Article of our Creed Life Everlasting such Atheists as look upon Gods Promise but as a forged deed put God to swear against them that they shall never enter into his rest m Heb. 3.18 If God be such an exceeding great Reward let us endeavour that Branch 2 he may be our Reward In other things we love a Propriety This House is mine this Lordship and Mannor is mine and why not this God is mine Go saith Pharaoh to Moses and Aaron Sacrifice to your God not My God The leaving out one Word in a Will may spoil the Will the leaving out this Word My is the loss of Heaven n Tolle meum tolle Deum Psal 67.6 God even our own God shall bless us He who can pronounce this Shibboleth My God is the happiest man alive How shall we know that God is our Reward Quest If God hath given us the Earnest of this Reward Answ this Earnest is his Spirit o Pignus redditur arrha retinetur Hierom. Ephes 1.14 Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise which is the earnest of the Inheritance Where God gives his Spirit for an Earnest there he gives himself for a Portion Christ gave the Purse to Judas not his Spirit Quest How shall we know we have Gods Spirit Answ The Spirit carryes influence along with it p Est Vehiculum influentiae it consecrates the Heart making it a Sacrary or Holy of Holyes it Sanctifies the Fancy causing it to mint Holy Thoughts it Sanctifies the Will strongly by assing it to good as Musk lying among Linnen perfumes it so the Spirit of God in the Soul perfumes it with Sanctity Object But are not the Unregenerate said to partake of the Holy Ghost Answ They may have the Common Gifts of the Spirit not the special Grace they may have the enlightning of the Spirit not the anointing they may have the Spirit movere not vivere move in them not live in them But to partake of the Holy Ghost aright is when the Spirit leaves lively impressions upon the Heart it softens sublimates transforms it q Implet Spiritus Sanctus organum suum tanquam fila Chordarum tangit digitus Dei corda Sanctorum Prosper writing a law of Grace there Heb. 8.10 By this Earnest we have a Title to the Reward 2. If God be our Reward he hath given us an Hand to lay hold on him this hand is Faith Mark 9.24 Lord I believe a Weak Faith justifies r Credo Domine languida fide tamen credo Cruciger As a weak hand can tye the Knot in Marriage a weak Faith can lay hold on a strong Christ the nature of Faith is assent joyned with affiance ſ Acts 8.37 Acts 16.31 Faith doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make God ours other Graces make us like Christ Faith makes us One with him and this Faith is known by it's Vertue No precious Stone saith Cardan but hath some vertue latent in it Precious Faith hath Vertue in it it quickens and enobles it puts worth into our Services t Rom. 16.26 it puts a difference between the Abba Father of a Saint and the Ave Mary of a Papist 3. We may know God is our Reward by our choosing him Religion is not a matter of Chance but of Choice u Psal 119.30 have we weighed things in the ballance and upon mature deliberation made an Election We will have God upon any Tearms have we sat down and reckon'd the cost what Religon must cost us the parting with our Lusts and what it may cost us the parting with our Lives Have we resolved through the assistance of Grace to own Christ when the Swords and Staves are up and to sail with him not only in a Pleasure Boat but in a Man of War x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ignatius ad Tars This choosing God speaks him to be Ours Hypocrites profess God out of Worldly design not Religious choice 4. God is known to be our Reward by the complacential Delight we take in him Psalm 34.7 How do men please themselves with rich Portions what delight doth a Bride take in her Jewels Do we delight in God as our Eternal Portion y Hae sunt Piorum delitiae Deo pacato frui Indeed he is a whole Paradise of delight all excellencies meet in God as the Lines in the Center is ours a Genuine delight do we not only delight in Gods blessings but in God himself is it a Superior delight do we delight in God above other things David had his Crown Revenues to delight in but his delight in God took place of all other delights Psalm 43.4 God my exceeding Joy or as it is in the Original the Gladness z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Cream of my joy can we delight in God when other delights are gone Hab. 3.17 Though the Figtree shall not Blossom yet I will rejoice in the Lord. When the Flowers in a mans Garden dye yet he can delight in his Land and Money thus a Gracicious Soul when the Creature fades can rejoyce in the Pearl of price Paulinus when they told him the Goths had Sack'd Nola a Domine ubi sunt omnia mea tuscis and
practice when it is so easie to misjudge and do wrong Most of all when the matter wherein I presume to fit in judgment upon another is of so high a nature as the posture of his heart God-ward A matter peculiarly belonging to another Tribunal of divine cognizance and which we all confess to be only known to God himself And if I would take upon me to conclude a man insincere and an hypocrite only because he is not of my mind in these smaller things that are controverted among us how would I form my argument No one can with sincerity differ from that man whose understanding is so good and clear as to apprehend all things with absolute certainty just as they are And then go on to assume and a strange assuming it must be But my understanding is so good and clear as c. 'T is hard to say whether the uncharitableness of the one assertion or the arrogance of the other is greater and whether both be more immoral or absurd But the impiety is worst of all for how insolently doth such a man take upon him to make a new Gospel and other terms of salvation than God hath made when his sentiments and determinations of things which God hath never made necassary must be the measure and rule of life and death to men How is the throne and judicial power of the Redeemer usurp't which he hath founded in his blood Rom. 14.4 Who art thou that judgest another mans servant to his own master he standeth or falleth Yea he shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand verse 9. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living verse 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother or why dost thou set at nought thy brother we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ verse 11. For it is written As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God One would think they that lay no restraint upon themselves in this matter of judging their brethren upon every light occasion reckon this chapter came by chance into the Bible And that our Lord spake himself at random words that had no meaning when he said Mat. 7.1 Judge not that you be not judged c. What man that fears God would not dread to be the framer of a new Gospel and of new terms of salvation It is a great solace indeed to a sincere mind but implies a severe rebuke in the mean time to such a self-assuming censorious spirit that it may in such a case be so truly said It is a much easier thing to please God than man They that find this measure will have the better of it if they can abstain from retaliating when as the reason of it is the same on both sides For they may say You are to remember I differ no more from you in this matter than you do from me and if I judge not you about it what greater reason have you to judge me And they have little reason to value such a mans judgment concerning their duty in a doubtful matter who cannot see his own in so plain a case The matter for which they judge me may be very doubtful but nothing can be plainer than that they ought not so to judge 9. A due Christian love would oblige us after competent endeavours of mutual satisfaction about the matters wherein we differ to forbear further urging of one another concerning them Which urging may be two wayes Either by application to our Affections or to our Reason and Judgment Some perhaps find it more sutable to their own temper and measure of understanding and conscience to go the former way and only vehemently perswade to do the thing wherein the other shall comply with them and in some fort justifie the course which they have taken Without regard to the others conscience press them right or wrong to fall in with them Sometimes labouring to work upon their kindness by flattery sometimes upon their fear by threats and menaces Sincere love would certainly abhor to do thus Would it let me violate anothers conscience any way The love I bear to a fellow-Christian if it be true having for its measure that wherewith I love my self would no more let me do it than hurt the apple of mine own eye An inspirited waking conscience is as tender a thing and capable of a worse sort of hurt If some have more latitude than I and think what they may do in present circumstances so far as they may they must would it not be the dictate of love patiently to admit it especially when it comes to suffering For let me put my own soul in his souls stead and would I be willing to suffer upon another mans conscience and not upon my own and forfeit the consolations which in a suffering condition belong to them who for conscience towards God endure grief would I if I lov'd them be content they had the grief and did want the consolation There will be still found in a state of suffering somewhat that will prove a common cause to good men wherein they will most entirely agree whatsoever smaller things they may differ in As the pious Bishops Ridley and Hooper well agreed upon a Martyrdom at the Stake in the same important Cause who before had differed somewhat angrily about some Ceremonies Concerning which difference how pathetical is the Letter †Fox Martyr of the former of these to the other when both were Prisoners the one at Oxford the other at London on the same account But now my dear brother saith he forasmuch as we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion against the which the World so furiously rageth in these our dayes howsoever in time past by certain by Matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity I grant have a little jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sense and judgment Now I say be you assured that even with my whole heart God is my witness in the bowels of Christ I love you in the truth and for the truth's sake which abideth in us and as I am perswaded shall by the grace of God abide in us for evermore Again if others have less latitude It would be far from us to add to the affliction they are liable to upon that very account by a vexatious urging and importuning them Especially to do it with insulting threats and menaces and labour to overawe their brethren against their consciences into the embracing of their sentiments and way Is it possible a Christian should not understand how necessary it is to every ones duty and peace that he exactly follow that direction of the Apostles and esteem it most sacred Rom. 14.5 Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind And that
With a reflection of Care and Watchfulness that thou mayst never dare to fall into the Sins that thou bewailest in another and that thou mayst never admit a temptation to a Sin in thy self which is the object of thy Lamentation in another That thou who labourest to quench the fire that hath seized upon thy Neighbours house mayst be careful to preserve thine from being set on fire also To conclude that thou mayst not dare to do that which doth or should grieve thee to see another do § 17 III. To shâ—w why this holy Mourning is 1. The Disposition and 2. Duty of the Righteous I shall express the Reasons of both distinctly 1. It is their Disposition and that under a threefold qualification 1. Because they are a knowing People They know what tears and heart-breakings Sin hath stood them in they know that Sin will cost the Wicked either Tears of Repentance or Damnation They know that Sin is but gilded Destruction and Fire and Brimstone in a disguise Knowing the terror of the Lord saith Paul we perswade men 2 Cor. 5.11 'T is as true we mourn for men that will not be perswaded In one word the Godly know that when the Wicked sin they know not what they do The Word threatning Sin makes Woe as present to a knowing Saints Faith as the evil threatned can in its execution be present to a Sinners sense To a Saints eye sinning is but the Seeds-time of Wrath and Eternal Vengeance in the root But principally the Godly know what Sin hath cost Christ not tears of Water only but great and many drops of Blood 2. As to a Saints Disposition He is Compassionate and tender-hearted § 18 If Sinners mourn he mourns with them If not he mourns for them The Wicked are more the objects of his Pity than Anger The Saints only have Bowels Col. 3.12 and Christs Bowels Phil. 1.8 The Wicked as the High Priests were to Judas are hard-hearted in drawing to Sin and in leaving those whom they have drawn into it Good men are full of tears see it in David Ezra Joseph Josiah Jeremiah Quanto quisque sanctior tanto fletus uberior The more holy the more plentiful are our tears Saints have received and return Compassion Grace kills not but only cleanseth Affection 3. The Righteous are a purifi'd sanctifi'd People A Saint as such § 19 hates nothing but Sin Grace ever conflicts with Sin where it sees it either in a mans own Soul or in the Life of another Holiness contends with Sin where it cannot conquer it Now where an Object is truly hated it ever causeth Sorrow till it be removed Further every sanctifi'd Soul labours to keep it self holy Now sorrow for Sin puts us upon carefulness to avoid it 2 Cor. 7.11 All take heed of that which occasions their grief 2. 'T is the Duty as well as the Disposition of the Righteous to § 20 mourn for the Sins of others And that as they are considerable in a threefold Relation 1. In their Relation to God they are his Sons Phil. 2.15 As the Sons of God they are commanded to be blameless without Rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation This Relation of Sonship doth as truly make us mourn for the Sins of others as it engageth us to avoid Sin in our selves It suffers us not to put up dishonour offered to God our Father with sinful Patience It makes us quietly to bear our private troubles but not quietly to suffer the Sufferings of Gods Name Exod. 32.11.27 Thô Moses when with God pray'd for the People yet when with the People he vindicated the honour of God with the Sword Job 2.10 Thô Job when a Sufferer from God was holily patient yet when an hearer of the Counsel of his Wife to curse God he was as holily impatient A Son of God cannot bear the abuses offered to his Father Saints can no more endure the dishonour done to their heavenly Father according to that measure of Grace given unto them than the Angels which are in Heaven do according unto theirs Jesus wept for Lazarus's death because his Friend and should not we much more weep for Gods dishonour because our Father Gods Glory should be dearer to us than our Lives He that toucheth it should touch the Apple of our Eye and that soon makes it water § 21 2. Their Relation to the Mediator the Lord Christ Here I shall mention only a double relation between Christ and Saints that engageth them to mourn for the Sins of others The first is his Relation to us as a suffering Surety in respect whereof he sustain'd and pay'd the debt of Penalty which we owed to Gods Justice for 't was Sin in man that made Christ a man of Sorrows Saints have but one Friend and He but one Enemy how then is it possible that that Enemy when seen should not be the Object of Sorrow Sin drew not from our dear Lord Jesus's eyes only tears of Water but from his sacred face great drops of Blood 'T was Sin that pierced not his feet hands and side only but his Soul Who can look upon the bloody Knife that stabb'd Christ without some Sorrow 2. There 's a second Relation between Christ and Saints that should make them mourn for the Sins of the Wicked and that is the Relation of Teacher and Instructer We are his Disciples and Scholars and 't is our Duty as much to make him our Example as to expect he should obtain our Pardon Christ never had a Pollution but oft a Commotion of Affection Christ never wept but for Sin or its effects How full of Zeal was he for his Father when he saw his Glory blemished Joh. 2.17 Joh. 19.9 10 11. Mar. 3.5 his House defiled did it not after a sort eat him up and consume him The Reproaches of them that reproached God fell upon Christ Rom. 15.3 'T is observable thô Christ in his own cause gave Pilate no answer but stood silent yet when he heard Pilate arrogate to himself the Power of Life and Death over Christ he could not forbear to shew Pilate his Sin by telling him of an higher Power than his from whence his was derived How full of grief was Christ Luk. 19.41 seeing the hardness of the Jews hearts to their own destruction In his approach to Jerusalem filled with Enemies to God and him he wept over it for their Blindness and Impieties and approaching Destruction He bewail'd the Sins of those that rejoyced in them and shed his tears for those that thirsted to shed his blood Either resemble Christ or lay off the name of Christian § 22 3. Their Relation to the Wicked for whose Sins they should mourn 1. The Saints are men with the worst they have the Relation of humane nature to the greatest Sinners upon Earth they are ex eodem luto formati In the Body as the Apostle expresseth it Heb. 13.3 'T is a wickedness to hide our selves from
and we are made up of nothing else but Dependency and Frailty Luc. 22.61 Now this active principle is chiefly Faith and Love Faith working by Love Faith gives us union to Christ and maintains that Union Now as we are kept by Faith so we and our Faith are kept both by the power of God to salvation 1 Pet. 1.4 5. Our Inheritance is kept in Heaven for us and we are kept in Earth for it till we possess it in Heaven Quis custodiet ipsos custodes We should be poorly and Miserably kept if the Lord were not our keeper How did Adam keep his Estate and the Angels theirs and Esau his Birth-right and the Prodigal his Portion when all was trusted in their own hands One lost all for an Apple and another for a Mess of Dainty Broth and another for his carnal pleasures but happy Believers whose All is in better Trustees hands 1 Pet. 4. ult even the hand of a Faithful God IV. He that will keep himself in the Love of God must keep himself free from the Love of the World because the Love of this World is contrary to the Love of God 1 Joh. 2.15 16. and therefore inconsistent with it 1. Because the Love of the World and its Trinity or threefold Lust is a dangerous Heart-thief it Steals away the Heart from God as Absolom stole away the Hearts of the People from David by his Kisses 2 Sam. 15.5 6. and Flatteries Hos 4.11 What the Prophet speaks of Wine and Whoredom is true of all other worldly things 2. The Love of the World makes God jealous because Worldlings make an Idol of it and it is the worst Idolatry being that of the first Commandement Mâ—t. 6.24 So is Covetousness and Mammon when the Heart is inordinate upon Creatures Silver Gold Relations that is our Treasure Luc. 12.34 Colos 3.5 Therefore saith the Lord take heed and beware of Covetousness Luk. 12.15 A double caution all little enough And of this nature is Luxury and Epicurism also Phil. 3.18 19 20. Drunkenness the Love of Pleasure more than God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Belly-gods Nay thus it is likewise in the inordinate Love of Children which is soon done and they become Idols and God in his jealousie breaks them 1 Sam. 2.21 or breaks us for them as he did old Eli honouring his Sons above God And he that loveth Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me Math. 10.37 saith Christ 3. Because the Love of the World is a Choak-pear to all that 's truly good as is clear in the Thorny Ground Math. 13. v. 7.22 Experience teacheth this universally and the nature of the things being contrary one to the other and killing one of another * Like the Torment of Mezentius putting the Living to the Dead which corrupts and kills the Living one being Spiritual and Heavenly the other Carnal Sensual and Destructive yea both are destroyers of each other Rom. 7.24 Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Do not we see what mortal Enemies worldly men are to Divine things The Word saith the world lyeth in wickedness the Devil is the Prince of the wicked World and ruleth in the children of disobedience it feeds the Flesh and nourisheth the carnal part and is not subject to the Law of God nor can be Rom. 8.7 Yea it is a deadly thing to the Soul Rom. 6.6 Gal. 5.17 Rom. 8.13 Gal. 6.14 Gal. 2.20 Gal. 5.24 and such deadly things are these two Lovers that is these two Lusts that they hunt for the life of each other fighting against each other to the death and the quarrel alwayes ends in the death of one or th' other If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the flesh ye shall live See the Scriptures in the Margin 4. The Love of the World hath Sorcery and Witchcraft in it when once men drink of the Worlds Cup they are intoxicated We read of Simon Magus how he bewitched the People Act. 8.9 We read of Jezebels Witchcrafts 2 King 9.22 Nahum 3.9 Rev. 17.2 3 4. Falsus fallax est mundus exterius aurens interius lutens N. N. and Babylons Sorceries and Witchcrafts and it is joined with the Works of the Flesh Gal. 5.17 to ver 21. Sixteen in number Rev. 22.15 Maxima totius orbis venefica The greatest Witch in the world is the World Her Honours are bewitching Honours Her Delights and pleasures are bewitching Her Riches and Profits are bewitching How then is the Love of the World consistent with Gods Love Therefore for the Love of God love not the World 5. The Love of the World makes Men Apostates from Christ So it made Demas 2 Tim. 4.10 and so it hath made thousands more and thee among the rest if thou lookest not well to thy Self 6. Psal 17.14 Phil. 3.18 19 20. Because the Love of the World makes men take up their Heaven on this side Heaven Of those men the Apostle could not speak without Weeping This is like the Prodigal that preferred a Tavern and a Brothel-House before his Fathers House Luc. 15.13 V. He that will Love God and keep himself in the Love of God must not be a Self-lover there is no greater Enemy to the Love of God than to Love our selves 2 Tim. 3.2 Mark the place for it is a remarkable place He tells you of perilous times a coming and there gives nineteen marks of such men as make the times perilous Of all which Lovers of themselves leads the Van for where once this Principle prevails it opens a Floodgate to all Sin and shuts the door upon all Holy Motions If Self be beloved admired and idolized it is the worst Idol in the World this is an Idol in a secret place continually adored this is Dagon set above the Ark and a Man above God and provokes to jealousie this perverts the course of Nature and Gods order who is one God and uppermost and only to be adored and men set up themselves in Gods Throne and Ungod him by deifying themselves and for one God they set up millions of gods as many gods as Creatures This is mans misery by losing the Integrity wherein God made him and seeking out many Inventions And when the Lord Christ came into the World he he speaks our Love and wooes us for it and commands self-denyal as the first Lesson to be learned in his School Mat. 16.24 25. Mat. 10.37 whereby the great Stumbling-block to Gods Love is taken away VI. If ye would keep your selves in the Love of God be very shy of Sin both in the Risings of it and as to the Temptations to it For the love of God and the love of Sin are more contrary to each other than Heaven and Hell Because they are Morally contrary Rom. 8. 1. Sin is Enmity against God in the Abstract 2. Sin is hatefull
to the end and ye see what power he had with God in Prayer for wicked Sodom God communicated his Secrets to him as one Friend to another and Abraham made Intercession to him as Favourites of Princes for Malefactors So did he for Sodom and ye know how far he prevailed for he was a Righteous man Jam. 5.16 and such a mans Prayer prevaileth much And what was Abrahams Righteousness even the Righteousness of Faith by Imputation Rom. 4. and this Faith living and working XV. We keep our selves in the Love of God when we declare a publick Spirit for the Cause of God in his Church against the Enemies of it by being zealous for his Glory and valiant for his Truth in our Station Judg. 5. This is lively asserted in the Song of Deborah and Barak who after she had praised some for their appearing and others for not appearing in this Cause dispraised the Lord she praised above all for his presence with his People and for that Spirit of Love he poured out upon them in these Words vers 31. So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord but let them that love him be as the Sun when he goeth forth in his might Now the Reason why this publick Spirit in the Cause of God is expressed by our Love to God is this Because God is so much concerned in it 1. As to his Honour to defend and deliver his People from his and their Enemies as the Midianites were 2. As to his Power in reducing thirty thousand to three hundred Jud. 7. as in Gideons case all that lapped He as a poor Barley Cake tumbled all the Enemies down and by a small company And a Woman in Deborahs case that is by her self and Jael Judg. 4.21 destroyed Jabin and Sisera's mighty Host To omit many other instances of publick Hearts in this case signally owned by God because they signally appeared for God Thus Moses Exod. 2.11 13. Judg. 5.9 This was their Love Thus saith Deborah My Heart is towards the Governours of Israel that offer themselves willingly bless ye the Lord. Zebulun and Napthali jeoparded their lives unto Death in the high places of the Field and thus did Issachar ver 15. But Reuben Gad Manasseh Dan and Asher are branded for their Cowardise I say all this appearing in the defence of all that was dear to God and them is called Love to God Therefore we may in no wise exclude this Noble publick Spirit in the cause of God and his People from the Love of God for there is no principle in the World like to the Love of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 3.8 Deum odisse in sacris literis peculiariter illi dicuntur qui falsos deos colunt Maimon Which love me and keep my Commandments Illa praecipuè quae ad arcendas pravas superstitiones pertinent Grot. Hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pij dicti sunt Ezek. 16.33 36 37. chap. 23.5 Jer. 2.2 I remember the love of the Espousals to animate and inflame the Soul to do great things for God This Spirit was marvellous in David whose very Name was from Love Therefore it is the duty of every Child of God to pray for the Spirit of God which only sheds all divine Love abroad in the Heart Rom. 5.5 which God inspires as he pleaseth XVI A great means of keeping our selves in the Love of God is to be Sincere and Sound in the Worship of God Mark this well for herein lyes the Love or Hatred of God as appears plainly in the second Commandement Exod. 20. ver 6. Therefore Idols and Idolaters are called our Lovers Hosea 2.5 7. Jer. 8.1 Hosea 13. They kissed the Calves ver 2. Therefore our Hankering and embracing of a false Worship provokes God to jealousie Therefore the Lord deals with Superstition and Idolatry in his People after the Law of Harlots and Adulterers The Scripture is full of this Language There is no higher Act of Love in God than to espouse a People to be his own and to give them a Rule of Worship of his own Institution and to hold them to it as he did Israel And when a People follows God and serves God according to his own appointments there are no higher Acts of Love towards him in Gods account God is enamoured with such a People God in his highest acts of jealousie was inraged against his Idolatrous people Psal 78.59 They kissed their Idols giving them all the tokens of Love and Homage 1 King 19.18 Job 31.27 They burnt their Children to them as the costlyest Sacrifice as Abraham would his Isaac in Love to God but God only tryed him by it Mark 7.7 Colos 2.22 Mat. 15.2 3 6. Rev. 17.4 5. he calls them his Hephsibah and his Beulah Isa 62.4 We see it also in the instance of good Kings how the Lord prized and praised them for this very thing for Reforming and setting up the true Worship of God as David Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah how the Lord prospered them because their Hearts were right and perfect with God in this thing On the other side how he hath branded and blasted all those that were false herein For this was David a man after Gods own Heart fulfilling all his Wills which is chiefly meant in the point of Gods Worship Act. 13.22 As for the Wills of men in the Worship of God by their Inventions Traditions and Commandements he tells you he hates them and they are Abomination to him And no wonder for what intrencheth more upon the Honour of Gods Wisdom and Soveraignty than this That he doth not know best how to appoint his own Worship but must be fain to be beholding to Man for his devices and dictates in the Case This though it seems very gay is Whorish and Poysonous this golden Dress and Cup is intoxicating XVII A great Means of keeping in the Love of God is keeping up the Communion of Saints in all the parts and duties of it What this is we shall see according to Scripture The Communion of Saints is our Participation of all the good things of God in common whereunto all the Saints and only they have right consisting in our Union to God as our chiefest good this is with God as a Father with the Son and Holy Spirit 1 Joh. 1.3 2 Cor. 13.13 1. We have Communion with the Father as Children and all in the greatest Love 1 Joh. 3.1 Rom. 8.16 17. This is procured by Christ 1 Joh. 2.23 only obtained by Believing Joh. 1.12 And maintained by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 Who walk not in darkness but in light 1 Joh. 1.6 7. 2. We have Communion with Jesus Christ the Son of God By which we are made partakers of him of his Nature and of his Grace and of his Glory all which is done by Faith that uniteing and marrying Grace and this works such Conjugal Love between Christ and his Church as makes them
them Many dark Souls are assaulted by the erroneous and told that they are in a wrong way and they must take up some Errour as a necessary Truth and so are cast into perplexing difficulties and perhaps repent of the Truth which they before owned Many fearful Christians are troubled about every Meal that they eat about their Cloaths their Thoughts and Words thinking or fearing that all is sinful which is lawful and that unavoidable infirmities are heinous sins All such as these are Troubles and Sorrows without Cause and therefore overmuch 2. Sorrow is overmuch when it hurteth and overwhelmeth Nature it self and destroyeth bodily Health or Understanding Grace is the due qualification of Nature and Duty is the right employment of it but neither of them must destroy it As Civil and Ecclesiastick and Domestick Government are for edification and not for destruction so also is personal self-government God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and he that would not have us kill or hurt our Neighbour on pretence of Religion would not have us destroy or hurt our selves being bound to love our Neighbour but as our selves As Fasting is a Duty no further than it tendeth to some good as to express or exercise true humiliation or to mortifie some fleshly Lust c. so is it with sorrow for sin it is too much when it doth more hurt than good But of this next II. When Sorrow swalloweth up the Sinner it is overmuch and to be restrained As 1. The Passions of Grief and Trouble of mind do oft overthrow the sober and sound use of Reason so that a mans Judgment is corrupted and perverted by it and is not in that case to be trusted As a man in raging Anger so one in fear or great trouble of mind thinks not of things as they are but as his Passion represents them about God and Religion and about his own Soul and his Actions or about his Friends or Enemies his Judgment is perverted and usually false and like an enflamed Eye thinks all things of the colour which is like it self When it perverteth Reason it is overmuch 2. Overmuch Sorrow disableth a man to govern his Thoughts and ungoverned Thoughts must needs be both sinful and very troublesom Grief carrieth them away as in a Torrent you may almost as easily keep the Leavs of Trees in quietness and order in a blustring Wind as the Thoughts of one in troubling Passions If Reason would stop them from perplexing Subjects or turn them to better and sweeter things it cannot do it it hath no power against the stream of troubling Passions 3. Overmuch Sorrow would swallow up Faith it self and greatly hindereth its Exercise They are Matters of unspeakable Joy which the Gospel calleth us to believe and it is wonderful hard for a grieved troubled Soul to believe any thing that is matter of Joy much less of so great Joy as Pardon and Salvation are Though it dare not flatly give God the Lie it hardly believes his free and full Promises and the expressions of his readiness to receive all penitent returning Sinners Passionate Grief serveth to feel somewhat contrary to the Grace and Promises of the Gospel and that feeling hinders Faith 4. Over much Sorrow yet more hindreth Hope when men think that they do believe Gods Word and that his Promises are all true to others yet cannot they Hope for the promised Blessings to themselves Hope is that Grace by which a Soul that believeth the Gospel to be true doth comfortably expect that the benefits promised shall be its own it s an applying Act. The first act of Faith saith the Gospel is true which promiseth Grace and Glory through Christ The next act of Faith saith I will trust my Soul and all upon it and take Christ for my Saviour and Help And then Hope saith I hope for this Salvation by him But Melancholly overwhelming Sorrow and Trouble is as great an Adversary to this Hope as water is to fire or snow to heat Despair is its very pulse and breath Fain such would have hope but they cannot All their thoughts are suspitious and misgiving and they can see nothing but danger and misery and a helpless state And when Hope which is the Anchor of the Soul is gone what wonder if they be continually tost with storms 5. Over much sorrow swalloweth up all comfortable Sense of the Infinite Goodness and Love of God and thereby hindereth the Soul from Loving Him And in this it is an Adversary to the very Life of Holiness It is exceeding hard for such a troubled Soul to apprehend the Goodness of God at all but much harder to judg that he is good and amiable to him But as a man that in the Desarts of Lybia is scorched with the violent heats of the Sun and is ready to dyâ— with draught and faintness may confess that the Sun is the Life of the Earth and a Blessing to mankind but it is misery and death to him even so these Souls overwhelmed with Grief may say that God is good to others but he seems an Enemy to them and to seek their destruction They think he hateth them and hath forsaken them and how can they love such a God who they think doth hate them and resolve to damn them and hath decreed them to it from Eternity and brought them into the world for no other end They that can hardly love an Enemy that doth but defame them or oppress and wrong them will more hardly love a God that they believe will damn them and hath remedilesly appointed them thereto 6. And then it must needs follow that this distemper is a false and injurious Judg of all the Word and Works of God and of all his mercies and corrections Whatever such a one reads or hears he thinks it all makes against him every sad Word and Threatning in Scripture he thinks meaneth him as if it named him But the Promises and Comforts he hath no part in as if he had been by name excepted All Gods mercies are extenuated and taken for no mercies as if God intended them all but to make his sin the greater and to encrease his heavy reckoning and further his damnation He thinks God doth but sugar over poison to him and give him all in Hatred and not in any Love with a design to sink him the deeper in Hell And if God correct him he supposeth that it is but the beginning of his misery and God doth torment him before the time 7. And by this you see that it is an Enemy to Thankfulness it rather reproacheth God for his Mercies as if they were Injuries than giveth him any hearty thanks 8. And by this you may see that this distemper is quite contrary to the Joy in the Holy Ghost yea and the Peace in which Gods Kingdom much consisteth Nothing seemeth Joyful unto such distressed Souls Delighting in God and in his Word and Ways is the flowâ—r and life of true Religion But
these that I speak of can delight in nothing neither in God nor in his Word nor any Duty They do it as a sick man eateth his meat for meer necessity and with some loathing and aversness 9. And all this sheweth us that this Disease is much contrary to the very Tenor of the Gospel Christ came as a Deliverer of the Captives a Saviour to reconcile us to God and bring us glad Tidings of pardon and everlasting joy where the Gospel was received it was great rejoycing and so proclaimed by Angels and by men But all that Christ hath done and purchased and offered and promised seems nothing but matter of doubt and sadness to this Disease 10. Yea it is a Distemper which greatly advantageth Satan to cast in Blasphemous thoughts of God as if he were bad and a hater and destroyer even of such as fain would please him The Design of the Devil is to describe God to us as like himself who is a malitious Enemy and delighteth to do hurt And if all men hate the Devil for his hurtfulness would he not draw men to hate and blaspheme God if he could make men believe that he is more hurtful The worshipping God as represented by an Image is odious to him because it seems to make him like such a Creature as that Image representeth How much more blasphemous is it to feign him to be like the malicious Devils Diminutive low thoughts of his Goodness as well as of his Greatness is a sin which greatly injureth God As if you should think that he is no better or trustier than a Father or a Friend much more to think him such as distempered Souls imagine him You would wrong his Ministers if you should describe them as Christ doth the false Prophets as hurtful Thorns and Thistles and Wolves And is it not worse to think far worse than this of God 11. This overmuch sorrow doth unfit men for all profitable meditation it confounds their thoughts and turneth them to hurtful Distractions and Temptations and the more they muse the more they are overwhelmed And it turneth Prayer into meer Complaint instead of Child-like believing Supplications It quite undisposeth the Soul to Gods Masses and especially to a comfortable Sacramental Communion and fetcheth greater terror from it lest unworthy receiving will but hasten and increase their Damnation And it rendreth Preaching and Câ—unsel too oft unprofitable say what you will that is never so convincing either it doth not change them or is presently lost 12 And it is a distemper which maketh all sufferings more heavy as falling upon a poor diseased soul and having no comfort to set against it And it maketh Death exceeding terrible because they think it will be the gate of Hell so that life seemeth burdensome to them and death terrible They are a weary of living and afraid of dying Thus overmuch sorrow swalloweth up III. Quest What are the causes and cure of it Answ With very many there is a great part of the cause in distemper weakness and diseasedness of the body and by it the soul is greatly disabled to any comfortable sense But the more it ariseth from such natural necessity it is the less sinful and less dangerous to the soul but nevertheless troublesome but the more Three Diseases cause overmuch sorrow 1. Those that consist in such violent pain as natural strength is unable to bear But this being usually not very long is not now to be chiefly spoken of 2. A natural passionateness and weakness of that reason that should quiet passion It is too frequent a case with aged persons that are much debilitated to be very apt to offence and passion And children cannot chuse but cry when they are hurt but it is most troublesome and hurtful in too many Women and some men who are so easily troubled and hardly quieted that they have very little power on themselves even many that fear God and that have very found understandings and quick wits have almost no more power against troubling passions anger and grief but especially fear than they have of any other persons Their very natural temper is a strong disease of troubling sorrow fear and displeasedness They that are not melancholly are yet of so Childish and sick and impatient a temper that one thing or other is still either discontenting grieving or affrighting them They are like an Aspen leaf still shaking with the least motion of the air The wisest and most patient man cannot please and justifie such a one a word yea or a look offendeth them every sad story or news or noise affrighteth them and as children must have all that they cry for before they will be quiet so is it with too many such The case is very sad to those about them but much more to themselves To dwell with the sick in the house of mourning is less uncomfortable Bâ—t yet while reason is not overthrown the case is not remediless nor wholly excusable 3. But when the Brain and Imagination is Crazed and Reason partly overthrown by the Disease called Melancholly this maketh the cure yet more difficult for commonly it is the foresaid Persons whose natural temper is timerous and passionate and apt to discontent and grief who fall ito Crazedness and Melancholly And the conjunction of both the Natural Tempâ—r and the Disease do increase the misery The sigâ—s of such diseasing Melancholly I have often elsewhere described As 1. The trouble and disquiet of the mind doth then become a setled habit they can see nothing but matter of fear and trouble all that they hear or do doth feed it danger is still before their eyes all that they read and hear makes against them they can delight in nothing fearful dreams trouble them when they sleep and distracted thoughts do keep them long waking it offends them to see another laugh or be merry they think that every Beggars case is happyer then theirs they will hardly believe that any one else is in their case when some two or three in a week or a day come to me in the same case so like that you would think it were the same persons case which they all express they have no pleasure in Relations Friends Estate or any thing they think that God hath forsaken them and that the day of Grace is past and that there is no more hope they say they cannot pray but howl and groan and God will not hear them they will not believe that they have any sincerity and grace they say they cannot repent they cannot believe but that their hearts are utterly hardened usually they are afraid lest they have committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost In a word fears and troubles and almost despair are the constant temper of their minds 2. If you convince them that they have some evidences of sincerity and that their fears are causeless and injurious to themselves and unto God and they have nothing to say against it yet
some a Dram of Cremor Tartary in broth will do it in the Morning 4. Sit not down nor walk as soon as you rise in the Morning but stand still upright a quarter of an hour when you are drest and as long after Dinner it helpeth the excrements too descend And if you feel the least possibility go to Stool and make not too much haste away 5. If you have no Rheum or cold windiness of Stomach eat sometimes ten or twelve stewed Prunes and sometimes four or five roasted Pippens half an hour before Dinner 6. Take Chio Turpentine or Venice Turpentine if that cannot be had wash it well and make it into hard Pills with Powder of Epithyme as much as you can get it to take up Let the Pills be small and take a Dram or more or less as you are able to get them down all at a swallow covered in a Spoonful of Syrup of Apples or of Balm or of Mallows a little before a late Supper to work the next morning or Turpentine with Liuqorice powder or of it self in an Egg or any way got down may serve 7. If more be needful make the same Turpentine into Pills with Rubarb powdered or Senna powdered or both together and take it before Supper It goeth down easily in a Spoonful of any pleasant Syrupe But use no more Clysters nor purging things when once the Melancholly is overcome then you needs must for it difuseth nature as to its proper office 8. Their drink is of great moment that unless in cold bodies they take no strong Wines nor Claret but either Ale or good Beer with a little white Wine or Possit drink made but with little Milk and some strong Ale and white-Wine or Posset drink made with Syder Ale and a little white Wine Or take a quart of the juice of Balm with a little ground Ivey and put it into a Vessel of good Ale or Beer of about three or four gallons and drink this at meat Or sometimes some Wormwood Ale but not long But cold dull bodies may drink good strong Beer or Ale that is not hard and fat cold persons may endure Sack The Devil hath another cure for the sad and Melancholly than such as I have here prescribed which is to caste away all belief of the immortality of the soul and the life to come or at least not to think of it and for to take Religion to be a superstitious needless fancy and for to laugh at the threatnings of the Scripture and go to Play-Houses and Cards and Dice and to drink and play away Melancholly Honest Recreations are very good for Melancholly Persons if we could get them to use it but alas this Satanical cure is but like the Witches bargain with the Devil who promiseth them much but payeth them with shame and utter misery The end of that mirth is uncureable sorrow if timely repentance cure not the cause the Garrison of Satan in the hearts of Sinners are strongly kept when they are in peace but when they have fool'd away time and Mercy and Hope dye they must there 's no remedy and to go merrily and unbelievingly to Hell after all Gods calls and Warnings will be no abatement of their torment to go out of the world in the guilt of Sin and to end life before they would know the use of it and to undergo Gods Justice for the mad contempt of Christ and Grace will put a sad end to all their mirth for there is no Peace to the wicked saith my God Isa 48.22 and 57.21 But Christ saith to his mourners Mat. 5.4 Blessed are you that mourn for you shall be comforted and John 16.20 Ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejâ—â—câ— and ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy And Solomon knew that the House of Mourning was better than the house of feasting and that the heart of the wise is in the House of Mourning but the heart of Fools in the house of mirth Eccles 7.2 3 4. But holy joy of Faith and Hope is best of all Quest How we may grow in the Knowledge of Christ SERMON XII 2 PET. III. XVIII And in the Knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Petrus Cruci affigitur capite in terram verso elevatisque in sublime pedibus Plat. in vit Pet. p. 14. THE Apostle Peter when he wrote this Epistle lookt upon himself as a Dying Man the Ministers of the Gospel would preach with more Life if Death were but more within their view His Death which was violent for he ended his days upon a Cross had been foretold by Christ himself accordingly he was perswaded that quickly he should be made to put off his earthly Tabernacle But like a good Shepherd before he departed he expresses his care of the flock which he was to leave behind him He commends the Gospel to them as that which is of the Highest Authority of the Greatest Certainty That their Faith might be firm and that they might persevere in their Obedience The Apostle having lookt as far as the Grave he looks farther he beheld his own and likewise the Worlds Dissolution he plainly foresaw the end of all things and tells them to whom he writes That the Day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the night and that the Heavens will pass away with a great noise the Elements melt with fervent heat the Earth and the Works therein will be burnt up and then most rationally infers seeing all these things shall be dissolved Mali sunt intâ—rpâ—â—â—es qui in arguâ—â—s speculationibus multum consumunt operâ— cum Apostolus totam hanc do â—rinam ad piaâ— exâ—â—rtationes accommodâ—t Ca vin ad loc what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and Godliness He speaks of a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness Interpreters conclude that this refers not to the substance of the World which will remain but to the qualities of it which will be changed and even at last quâ—te purged out of it Calvin thinks meet here to give a caution against Curiosity and too great Inquisitiveness which will be unprofitable which may prove dangerous and tells us that the scope of the Apostle is mainly to be attended which is to awaken and exhort unto serious Holiness since this World must be purged by Fire all that are Christians should endeavour after a greater measure of Purity and ought to be growing in Grace and in the Knowledg of Christ continually In the words we find 1. A growth and Increase urged the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposes Imperfection but also that perfection ought to be aspired unto and that the Christians growth does make him truly great 2. This growth must be in the Knowledg of Jesus Christ the Object Christ is high and large unto Infiniteness his fulness his riches unsearchable the Knowledg of this Object must not be meerly notional verbum
notitiae connotat affectum light and heat clearer views and dearer and stronger Loves must go together 3. The Persons who are to labour after a greater measure of Knowledg and those are real Christians who have attained to some degree of spiritual Understanding that Light which is as the Light of the Moon should be increased so as to equal the Light of the Sun and that which is as the Light of the Sun should be augmented so as to equal the light of seven days should grow more and more glorious 4. The Arguments to perswade and they are two Christ is their Lord Christ is their Saviour 1. Christ is their Lord a Lord most great most gracious the more this is understood the better will his Service be liked as honourable and advantageous and Obedience will be yielded with greater chearfulness and constancy 2. Christ is their Saviour a Saviour from the greatest Evils Sin and the miserable effects of it in time in eternity a Saviour to the greatest Blessedness an everlasting Kingdom and Glory a Saviour of that which is most pretious the Soul which if safe the whole man must needs be secured The Text may be considered with a double reference to what goes before to what follows after 1. To what goes before grow in Grace and Knowledg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hence we may observe That the way to increase in Grace is to increase in the Knowledg of Christ the means of Grace will be found inefficacious and empty will convey nothing if Christ be not with them and in them if he be not understood by those that use them All that fulness out of which the Church is replenished from the beginning of the world to the very end of it it has pleased the Father should dwell in Christ Col. 1.19 If a man know where a vast Treasure lies hid he may quickly go and enrich himself the way to have more Grace is to understand that Christ is the Fountain from whence all Grace is derived He is head over all things to his Church which is his Body and is called to shew the reality and plentifulness of Communication the fulness of him who filleth all in all Eph. 1. ult 2. The Text may be referred to what follows after To him be Glory both now and for ever Amen Hence observe thâ—t thâ— grâ—â—â—â—r Knâ—â—lâ—â—â—â—â—â— Christ we attain to the more we shall â—â—â—â—â—r and sâ—◠〈…〉 glorifie him his Godhead is the same with the Fathers his 〈…〉 Dominion equal and eternal The Church millitant muâ—◠〈…〉 begin to glorifie her Lord and Saviour and wheâ— she comes to be 〈…〉 praises will be vastly higher and to magnifie to love to aâ—â—ire and to rejoyce in him will be her everlasting business But I shall wave the Connexion and from the words themselâ—â—â— râ—â—se this Doctrine That it highly concerns all sâ—â—cere 〈◊〉 to grow and iâ—crease in the Knowledg of Christ The Gospel which revâ—â—ls Christ 〈…〉 mystery which the Angels themselves desire to 〈…〉 looking they admire the manifold wisdom of God the exceeding riches of his Grace and love and shall not the Saints search farthâ—â— into this Gospel shall they not look more unto and into Jesus what 〈…〉 him the nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham The better Christ is understood the better will they understand how happy he has maâ—â—â— them and that Christ being theirs all is theirs The question that in this exercise I am to answer is this How 〈…〉 grow in the Knowledg of Christ and make use of and 〈…〉 Kâ—â—wledg Now that the Answer may be the more full I shall do theâ—â— four things First I shall tell you what it is to grow in the Knowledg of Christ 〈◊〉 the telling you this will tend to the advancement of this groâ—th Seâ—ondly What Properties are required in this Knowledg Thirdly The Directions are to follow that you may increase in the Knowledg of him Fourthly What Vse and Improvement you are to makâ— of tâ—is Kâ—â—wledg or of Christ known I begin with the first of these What it is to grow in the Kâ—â—wledg of Christ Here several Propositions are to be premised 1. The Knowledg of Christ is of the greatest Excellency The Apostle calls this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.8 Yea doubtless and I câ—â—â—t â—ll things but loss for the Excellency of the Knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord other kind of Knowledg is like Light from the Sâ—ars this like bâ—amâ— from the Sun Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness He is called Wisdâ—m in the abstract Sapientiae omnimoda sapientia Prov. 1.20 in the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdom in him iâ—â—he Sum the Perfection of Wisdom To know him does assimuâ—ate and make us like him and when we shall have a full view of him in glory we shall to our utmost capacity fully resemble him To know him is Life eternal and they that seek Life any other way will find death 〈◊〉 themselves mistaken in the end No wonder the Apostle glories in 〈◊〉 Knowledg and that an ancient Father said he was glâ—d he had sometâ—â—â—â— of value he meant Philâ—sophy to despise in comparison 2. This Knowledg of Christ is of absolute necessity Stat invicta haec rupe s. Ego sum Via nullus a in s quicquid ante m via haec non fuerit error lubricum te nebraesunt Luther Tom. 2. p. 507. In Scripture he is compared to those things which are so needful that we cannot be without them 〈◊〉 Mâ—â—t and Drink and Raiment Christ is the Bread of Life the fountain of Living Water we are to put on the Lord Jesus his righteousness is tâ—â— Garment which must cover and secure us To be totally ignorant â—f him must needs be death eternal for there is not Salvation in any other◠〈◊〉 4.12 3. The Knowledg of Christ is by supernatural revelation Much of God may be râ—â—d in the Book of nature his visible Works do make the wisdom pâ—wer and goodness of the Worker also visible But Christ is a mystery hâ—d from Ages and Genâ—rations and would have remained hid still if the Gospel had not revealed him Col. 1.26 Who could ever have thought of God his being manifested in the flâ—sh and redeeming the Church with his oâ—â—â— Blood if this had not been brought to Light by the Gospel Thâ—se are indeed the deep things of God which the Spirit reveals 1 Cor. 2.10 11. and power to discern them and believe them is from the same Spirit 4. The Knowledg of Christ was communicated in a degree under the old Testament The Prophets spake of him and if they had not what they had said besides had been insignificant The Law was a Schoolmaster to bring Israel to Christ Gal. 3.24 The Ceremonial Law requiring the blood of so many sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewed plainly that the Sacrificers themselves deservâ—d to die and therefore is said to be against them
were common between them And in the next succeeding Ages this fraternal Love was so conspicuous in the Professors of his Sacred Discipline Tert. Apoâ— c. 3â— that their Enemies observ'd it as a rare and remarkable thing See how the Christians love one another see how ready they are to die for one another Now the same gracious Principle that inclines us to do one Command will make us universally willing to observe all for sincere Obedience primarily respects the Authority of the Lawgiver which binds the whole Law upon the Conscience James 2. And as he that breaks the Law wilfully in one point is guilty of all because the violation of a single Precept proceeds from the same Cause that induces men to transgress all that is contempt of the Divine Majesty so he that sincerely obeys one Command does with consent of heart and serious endeavors obey all And from hence 't is clear that without a religious and unreserved regard of the divine Commands 't is impossible there should be in any person a gracious affection to the Saints that is the product of Obedience to God and consequently the observance of his Precepts is the certain proof of our Love to his Children 2. Spiritual Love to the Saints arises from the sight of the Divine Image appearing in their Conversation Now if the Beauty of Holiness be the attractive of our Love it will be fastned on the Law of God in the most intense degree The most excellent Saints on Earth have some mixtures of Corruption their Holiness is like the Morning-light that is checquered with the shadows and obscurity of the Night and 't is our wisdom not to love their infirmities but to preserve an unstained affection to them But the Law of God is the fairest Transcript of his Nature wherein his glorious Holiness is most resplendent Psa 19.7 8. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes This ravish'd the heart of David with an inexpressible Affection O how I love thy Law Psal 119. it is my Meditation all the day And he repeats the declaration of his Love to it with new fervor upon this ground I love thy Law because it is pure Now Love to the Commands of God will transcribe them in our hearts and Lives As affectionate expressions to the Children of God without the real supply of their wants are but the shadows of Love so words of esteem and respect to the Law of God without unfeigned and universal Obedience are but an empty Pretence 3. The Divine Relation of the Saints to God as their Father is the Motive of spiritual Love to them And this is consequent to the former for by partaking of his Holiness they partake of his life and likeness And from hence they are the dearest Objects of his Love his eye and heart is always upon them Now if this Consideration excites Love to the Children of God it will be as powerful to incline us to keep his Commands for the Law of God that is the Copy of his Sacred Will is most near to his Nature and he is infinitely tender of it Our Saviour tells us that it is casier for Heaven and Earth to pass away Luk. 16.17 than for one tittle of the Law to fail If the entire World and all the Inhabitants of it were destroyed there would be no loss to God but if the Law lose its Authority and Obligation the Divine Holiness would suffer a Blemish The Use of the Doctrine is to try our Love to the Children of God to which all pretend by this infallible Rule our Obedience to his Commands This is absolutely necessary because the deceit is so easie and so dangerous and it will be most comfortable if upon this Trial our Love be found to be spiritual and divine The deceit is easie because Acts of Love may be expressed to the Saints from other Principles than the Love of God Some for vain-glory are bountiful and when their Charity seems so visibly divine that men admire it there is the Woâ—m of vanity at the root that corrupts and makes it odious to God The Pharisees are charged with this by our Saviour Mat. 6 2. their Alms were not the effect of Charity but Ostentation and whilst they endeavoured to make their Vices virtuous they made their Virtues vicious There is a natural Love among persons united by Consanguinity that remains so entire since the ruine of Mankind by the Fall and is rather from the force of Nature than the virtue of the Will and this in all kind Offices may be express'd to the Saints There is a sweetness of Temper in some that inclines them to wish well to all and such tender Affections that are easily moved and melted at the sight of others miseries and such may be beneficent and compassionate to the Saints in their afflictions but the Spring of this Love is good Nature not divine Grace There are humane Respects that incline others to kindness to the Saints as they are united by interest Fellow-Citizens and Neighbours and as they receive advantage by Commerce with them or as obliged by their Benefits But Civil Amity and Gratitude are not that holy Affection that is an assurance of our spiritual state There are other Motives of Love to the Saints that are not so low nor mercenary in the thickest darkness of Paganism the Light of Reason discovered the amiable excellence of Virtue as becoming the humane Nature and useful for the Tranquility and Welfare of Mankind and the Moral Goodness that adorns the Saints the Innocence Purity Meekness Justice Clemency Benignity that are visible in their Conversations may draw respects from others who are strangers to the Love of God and careless of his Commandments And as the Mistake of this Affection is easie so it is infinitely dangerous for he that builds his hope of Heaven upon a sandy foundation upon false Grounds will fall ruinously from his Hopes and Felicity at last How fearful will be the disappointment of one that has been a Favourer of the Saints that has defended their Cause protected their Persons relieved their Necessities and presum'd for this that his Condition is safe as to Eternity though he lives in the known neglect of other Duties and the indulgent practice of some Sin But if we find that our Love to the Children of God flows from our Love to God that sways the Soul to an entire compliance to his Commands and makes us observant of them in the course of our Lives What a blessed Hope arises from this Reflection We need not have the Book of the Divine Decrees opened and the Secrets of Election unveil'd 1 Joh. 3.14 for we know that we are past from Death to Life if we love the Brethren This is an infallible Effect and Sign of the Spiritual Life and the Seed and Evidence of Eternal Life Quest What must we do to
degree you will let it alone and little trouble your selves about it This therefore is a Second thing that you must be convinced of and one would think there needed not much ado to bring you to this Conviction Pride indeed is such a hateful thing that few will own it the proudest persons would be accounted humble But if you look into your selves you will easily discover the manifest Symptoms and Indications of this evil disease run over the foregoing effects of Pride and then consider how many of them are found in your selves Effects do always imply and suppose their proper Causes Some bless themselves and say they thank God they are not proud because they do not follow Fashions and go brave in their Attire because they do not affect great Titles and high Places but would rather move in a lower sphere but let such know this Plague may be in their hearts though they have no such tokens of it in their faces Little do men think what a humble outside what contempt of honourable Places and Titles what meanness and plainness of Apparel in themselves what exclaiming and crying out against Pride in others yea what confessing and bemoaning of this sin to God will consist with the prevalency and predominancy of it in their own hearts You remember I distinguish'd in the beginning betwen fleshly and spiritual Pride and the latter is much the worser sort and more hateful to God he is a Spirit and as he likes best of spiritual worship so he hath the greatest dislike of spiritual Pride What matters it then that thou art not lifted up with aiery Titles with gay Apparel and the like so long as thou art puft up with things of a more spiritual Nature as with thy Gifts and Knowledge thy Priviledges and Enjoyments thy Graces and Duties Pride is a Worm that will breed in any of these The Apostle Paul was like to have been catch'd in this Snare by means of his being caught up into the third Heaven A Christian if he hath not a care may be proud of his very Humility it is hard starving this sin when as there is nothing almost but it can live upon But I remember I was too long in the first Direction therefore I must be the shorter in this and those that follow 3. Be much in the Meditation of Death and Judgment The serious Direct 3 and frequent meditation of Death will be a means to kill Pride Some to mortifie the Pride of their hearts have kept a Death's-Head or a dead mans skull always in their Chambers it is of more use to have the thoughts of Death always in their Minds What is man but a little living Clay and what is his Life but a Vapour that appears for a little while and then vanishes away Augustine doubted whether to call it mortalis vita vel vitalis mors a dying life or a living death One says of mans Life that it is a little warm Breath turn'd in and out at the Nostrils The Prophet Isaiah tells us that mans Breath is in his Nostrils and therefore in nothing is he to be accounted of And as for this reason man is not to be accounted of by others so neither by himself 't is but a little a very little while more and you must be gone hence and be seen no more your Breath goeth out and all your thoughts perish and you your selves will rot and perish and shall rotting and perishing things be proud things Shall man be lifted up with what he hath who shortly himself must not be I mean in this world Now you differ it may be from other men and are above them in riches and greatness in parts and priviledges but two Questions may clip your wings and keep you from soaring too high in your own conceits 1. Who made you to differ I suppose none of you will say as one once did that you made your selves to differ you 'll confess I hope that you have nothing but what you have received and so there is no room for pride or glorying therein If you excel in any gift or grace you must say of it as he of his Hatchet alas it is but borrowed 1. How long will there be this difference Death is at hand it stands at the door and that will level you with those that are lowest In the grave whither we are all hastning there is no differece of skulls there the rich and the poor the learned and the unlearned do all meet together the dead bones of men are not distinguish'd by the ornaments or abasures of this temporal Life As the meditation of Death will be a means to mortifie Pride so will also the meditation of Judgment The time will come when you must be accountable unto God for all you have and do enjoy all your mercies and enjoyments are but as so many Talents with which you are intrusted and for which you must give an account You are not owners but stewards of them and the time will come when you must give an account of your Stewardship So the Apostle Paul concludes Rom. 14.12 Every man must give an account of himself to God He must give an account of himself in his natural capacity as a man in his civil capacity as a great or rich man and in his spiritual capacity as a good or religious man he must give an account of all his Receipts of all his Expences what he hath received of God and how he hath laid it out for God A serious Reflection upon this one thing will have a double Effect 1. It will make you careful 2. It will keep you humble you will not easily over-reckon your selves for any thing when you consider the reckoning that you must make for all things Especially if this be added that the more you do receive the greater will be your Reckoning that is a sure word of our Saviours Luke 12.48 To whomsoever much is given of him much shall be required When God sows much he expects to reap much he requires not only an improvement of our Talents but a sutable and proportionable improvement of them that they should be doubled that two Talents should be be made four and five Talents ten 4. Consider the many and great imperfections of your Graces and Direct 4 Duties 1. Consider the imperfections of your Graces How much water is mingled with your wine and dross with your silver and honey-comb with your honey how much greater your ignorance is than your knowledge your unbelief than your faith how the love of the world is as much if not more than your love of God if you were perfect in Grace and Holiness then you would have no Pride at all how is it then that you are so proud and conceited when Grace is so imperfect when you are so short of what is attainable and of what others have attained should that man be proud who hath so little love to God and delight in him as thou hast
effectually of sin of the sin of Nature and the Nature of sin all these little appendices and appurtinances of Vanity will fall and drop of course For this was our blessed Saviour's method Mat. 23.26 Mat. 12.33 Cleanse the inside of the cup or platter and the outside will be clean also And if we could as supernatural Grace only can make the Tree good the Fruit would be good by consequence Direction X. Whatever fashions of Apparel you have found a temptation to your own souls when worn by others in prudence avoid them You may reasonably suspect that what has been a snare to you will be so to another For tho all are not guilty of the same actual sins yet all have the same seeds of sins in them And what has awakened your Pride and Lust may awaken the same Corruptions in your Neighbour Direction XI Let all your indifferences be brought under the government and guidance ef Religion Indifferent things in their general Natures are neither good nor evil but when Religion has the main stroke in managing and ordering them it will make them good and not evil Advise with Gods Glory what you shall eat what you shall drink and what you shall put on That will teach us to deny our selves in some particulars of our Christian Liberty Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do else 1 Cor. 10.31 do all to the glory of God Than which all the Masters of the Art of Eating all the Mistresses of the Science of Dressing cannot give you a more approved Directory Direction XII Use all these indifferent things with an indifferent affection to them an indifferent concern for them and about them Treat'em value 'em as they deserve Cloathes commend us not to God nor to Wise and Good Men Why are we then so solicitous about them as if the Kingdom of God lay in them The Apostle in consideration that the Time is short would have us use this World as not abusing it because the fashion thereof passes away Yet a little while and there will be no use 1 Cor. 7.31 because no need of them But God and the World are commonly of contrary Judgments and that which is highly esteemed among men Luke 16.15 is oftentimes an abomination to him Lukewarmness is a Temper hot enough for what is neither good nor evil How great then is our sin who are stone-cold in those matters wherein God would have us fervent in Spirit but where he would have us cool and moderate all of a flame Direction XIII Lastly Seek that honour chiefly which comes from God only The World is never so wise or so good that we should much value its good word or approbation but oftentimes so bad and foolish that its commendation is our reproach What evil have we done that an evil World should speak well of us To be accounted honourable by him and made beautiful by him is true Honour real Beauty In his Judgment stands our absolution or condemnation in his Sentence our life or death to him and by him we stand or fall What a wretched honour is it that we receive from it Apparel which is no part of our selves and for which we are beholden to the trivial skill of a Taylor or Attire-woman but the true Reason of the affectation of these Vanities lies in that of our Saviour How can ye believe that seek honour one of another John 5.44 and seek not the honour that comes from God only Considerations to press to such a cautelous walking that we partake not in the sinfulness of strange Apparel I. Let us seriously consider How Apparel came into the World Sin brought in Shame and Shame brought in Apparel and Apparel has at last brought in more Sin and Shame The old Riddle has here found an Oedipus Mater me genuit peperit mox filia matrem In the state of Primitive Integrity Man was cloath'd with Original Righteousness He wore the glorious Image of him that created him in knowledg righteousness and true holiness But sin has now stript him of his glory and expos'd his shame to the view of God his Judg. How great then is that Pride when we are proud of what should abase us How vile that glory that glories in its shame It was good advice of Chrysostome Homil. 18. in Genes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the wearing of our Apparel be a perpetual Memorial to us of the good things we have lost and an Instruction what penalties mankind is liable to by disobedience For as Gregory Nazianzene reasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. de Mort. If says he we had continued the same we were at first created we had had no need of a coat of skins the divine Image shining in our souls And therefore Chrysostom's Inference is very clear Tom. 6. p. 241. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cloaths were not given us to set forth our beauty but to cover that shame that proceeded from nakedness But Tertullian excellently prosecutes this argument Si tanta in Terris moraretur fides quanta in Coelis merces ejus expectatur nulla omnino vestrum sorores ex quo Deum cognovisset De hab Mulieb in initio de sua id est foeminae conditione didicisset laetiorem habitum nè dicam gloriosiorem appetisset ut non magis in sordibus ageret squallorem potius affectaret ipsam circumferens Evam lugentem poenitentem quo plenius quod de Evâ trabit ignominiam dico primi delicti invidiam perditionis humanae omni satisfactionis habitu expiaret If there was as much Faith on Earth as there is reward for it in Heaven there 's none of you since the time she knew God and understood her own condition that would have affected a joyful much less a splendid Garb but rather have lien in sackcloath and ashes carrying about her an Eve within that laments and repents that so she might compensate with the most mortified habit that she derived from the first Eve I mean the scandal of the first sin and the odium of having been the Ruin of Mankind Alas what pleasure could we take in these Vanities did we consider them as the Effect of so sad a Cause And what would the Gold of Ophir the Pearls of the Ocean the Jewels of the Indies signifie to a soul that was taken up with Reflections on its Exile from Paradise and the loss of God's Image II. It deserves to be laid to heart how we came into the World how we must go out and how we shall rise again Holy Job confessed that when he was reduced to beggary he was somewhat better than when he was born Job 1.21 Naked came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither i. e. to the Earth the common Mother of us all And we may add Naked shall I rise again I shall see my Redeemer at the last day with these eyes but I
life that she may present her body a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is her reasonable service and so by universal obedience prove what is that good and acceptable will of God n Rom. 12.1 2. in the prevailing desires of her soul to please God who hath called her into a conjugal Relation and enabled her therein to conceive and so in her proper Office to serve her own generation by the will of God o Acts 13.36 waiting upon him with chearfulness in filling up her Relation to give her in due time an holy seed for his glory and the enlargement of his Church as holy Mrs. Joceline above mentioned earnestly desired of God that she might be a mother to one of his children * Mothers Legacy p. 1. Then 2. To submit to the effecting and disposing will of God who works all things according to the counsel of his own will p Eph. 1.11 in preparing for death not to neglect but make ready for so great salvation as is purchas'd by Christ and offered in the rich and precious promises q Heb. 2.3 If all should hearken to the charge our Saviour gives to his own Disciples r Mat. 24.44 Therefore be ye also ready then it eminently concerns a big-belli'd woman to be in a readiness for her departure that she may not be surpriz'd sith the pangs are perilous that she is to pass through and the more if she be but of a weak and not of an hail constitution * Mrs. Joceline The last mentioned pious Gentlewoman when she felt her self quick with child as then travailing with Death it self she secretly took order for the buying a new Winding-sheet thus preparing and consecrating her self to him who rested in a new Sepulcher wherein was man never yet laid and privately in her Closet looking Death in the Face wrote her excellent Legacy to her unborn child None ever repented of making ready to die And every Christian is ready who can entirely submit to Gods disposal in Life or Death Yea and then a good woman is likest to have her will in a safe temporal deliverance when she is most sincerely willing that God should have his in dealing with her as seemeth best to himself When the Yoke of Christ is easie and his Burden is light then is the good Wife in the fairest way to be most easily delivered of the burden of her belly so that she shall have the truest joys afterwards Thus of Holiness considered more generally and how the child-bearing Wife is concern'd to exercise it 2. Holiness may be considered more specially as it is conjugal and more peculiarly appropriated to the marriage-state This being a more particular exercise of Christian holiness in the Matrimonial band wherein as every one both Husband and Wife in that Relation are concerned so the childing-woman is obliged to be singularly careful to possess her Vessel in sanctification or sanctimony and honour Å¿ 1 Thes 4.4 in a special kind of conjugal cleaness and chastness which is opposite to all turpitude and lust of Concupiscence in the very appearance of it that there may be as much as possible no shew or tincture of uncleanness in the Marriage-bed but that there may be an holy seed and she may keep her self pure from any taint of Lasciviousness 'T will chear up in the hour of her Travail if she can sincerely say in the sight of God as it is said in the Apochryphal story * Tobit 3.14 15. Sara the Daughter of Raguel did Thou knowest Lord I am pure from all sin with man and that I never polluted my name nor the name of my father This is the true Eagle-stone to be constantly worn for the prevention of miscarrying that there may not indeed be labouring in vain or bringing forth for trouble but her seed may be the blessing of the Lord and her off-spring with her t Isa 65 23. with 21. who may solace her self in her Integrity and unspotted Reputation having her chast conversation coupled with fear u 1 Pet. 3.2 that all shall issue well with her and the Fruit of her Womb. But this is so much of the same Nature with the last Grace mentioned here in my Text that the Apostle annexeth that to Holiness with 4. Sobriety So we render it others Temperance others Modesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in our old Translation others Chastity And taking it largely the word seems to speak that gracious habit which may best become a prudent grave temperate moderate or modest Mother of a Family * Beza for that seems to reach the Apostles sense comparing it with what he hath in the 9th Verse of this Chapter and elsewhere w Tit. 2.4 5. Acts 26.25 I might consider this like the former Graces more generally and specially 1. More generally as Christian every one that nameth the name of Christ being under an obligation thereby to depart from iniquity x 2 Tim 2.19 is engag'd to labour after a sound mind y 2 Tim. 1.7 to be modest sober and temperate in all things z Tit. 1.8 and 2.2 4 6. 1 Cor. 9.25 learning to use this world as if we used it not minding that which is comely and attending upon the Lord without distraction a 1 Cor. 1.31 35. Yea we should let our moderation be known unto all men as those that are Christ's who have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts b Phil. 4.5 Gal. 5.24 Certainly then a Christian Wife and that in a child-bearing condition is concern'd to seek that she may be endew'd with Sobriety which purgeth the Mind from Distempers and putteth the affections into an orderly frame acceptable to God and so doth morally give the best ensurance to the promises of temporal and eternal safety But more particularly 2. The special conjugal Grace of Temperance and Modesty is to be exercised by the child-bearing woman in sobriety chastity and gracefulness both with reference to her affections and senses I have warrant from the Apostle as well as the Philosophers * Wallaei Eâ—hic â— Arist l. 4. to take the word so largely as to comprehend both Modesty and Temperance Whereupon I conclude 1. With modesty she is to govern her passions and affections so that there may be only an humble appetition of due respect and an abstinence from those unbecoming An holy care as to avoid pride on one hand so ignominy and contempt on the other as well as to give check to boldness and indecency in her gesture speech and behaviour as to lightness and wantonness in any of these So that she may by a graceful deportment as much as she can in minding things venerable just pure lovely and of good report c Phil. 4.8 not with the outward adornings of plaiting the hair and of wearing gold or of putting on of apparel d 1 Pet. 3.3 shew her self to be a vertuous
women They are heart-reviving words to every drooping woman and should lead her with Sarah to judg him faithful who hath promised g Heb. 11.11 whereupon she may notwithstanding her state of subjection and sorrows be humbly confident in this great work of serving her Generation according to the will of God in child-bearing of preservation and salvation and God will lay no more upon her than he will enable her to bear and find a way for her escape either by a comfortable sanctified deliverance here or a blessed translation to Heaven to reap in joy what was sown in tears and those but temporary when the joys are eternal Further it doth administer comfort 2. To the Husbands of such good Wives i. e. such as continue in the Graces and Duties before and in their pregnancy or growing big hoping in Gods word that Root and Branch shall do well being under the blessings of the New-Covenant When they cannot but sympathize with their Wives in their sorrows they may chear up in humble confidence that the sting being took out of the punishment their Wives joys shall be encreased by the pains they undergo and that God will deliver them and hear their prayers and they shall glorifie him h John 16.21 Psal 50.15 And if after prayers and tears their dearest consorts should decease and depart from them out of their child-bearing pains Tho this be a most cutting and heavy cross in it self yet comfort may be gathered from it in the issue For indeed that 's the comfort of comforts which affords Life in Death that 's the Honey which is taken out of the dead carcase That supposing the worst which can befall us in temporals gives better security in those things which are eternal The Fruition of God in Glory is the highest end and when we and ours attain that after the serving of our Generation here according to the will of God and thereby glorifying his most sacred Majesty there is matter of geatest consolation and truest joy to holy souls In expectation of which let pious Husbands and gracious Childing Wives in their mutual Offices wait upon God with submission for a sanctified support when they stand in most need of divine aids Then such Hand-maids of the Lord may humbly hope they shall receive help in and under their child-bearing travail and in due time even a temporal deliverance supposing that to be best for them from those pains and perils taking comfort from that gracious word of the Lord by the Prophet tho spoken upon another account i Isa 41.10 with which I shall conclude Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismaid for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness SERMON XXV Quest How may we best know the worth of the SOUL MATTHEW 16.26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a man give in Exchange for his Soul IN the Twenty first verse of this Chapter our Saviour foretels his sufferings together with many considerable Circumstances as the Place where at Jerusalem The Persons from whom the Elders and chief Priests and Scribes The Degree unto which he must suffer not only that he must suffer many things but that he was to suffer unto death and be killed by which enumeration of so many particulars he spake more plainly and preached to them the unwelcome Doctrine of the Cross A Doctrine so strange unto them as they had shewn themselves of a quite contrary Opinion expecting a worldly Kingdom and hoping for considerable advancement in it Peter in the name of the rest therefore cavils at it and enveighs against it and was probably suffered to be tempted himself and to become a Tempter to our Saviour that he might not be exalted above measure for what our Saviour had said ver 17 18. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church But our Blessed Saviour who had overcome the Devils temptations when they came immediately from himself Matth. 4. could not be overcome by them now they are suggested to him by another but shews that he continued his Resolution of suffering the utmost for us by his severe check given unto Peter under a smart compellation Satan This is that very same Apostle who but a few verses before had his Name chang'd from Simon to Peter and presently after here from Peter to Satan to shew how much he and all other differ when mightily assisted by Gods Grace and Spirit from themselves when left to themselves and become as other if not worse than other men And how easily do we slide into sin at unawares and how carefully need we to watch over our very zeal for Christ and Goodness when our very best Affections are subject to so gross mistakes and may deserve such severe reproofs Upon this occasion it was that our Saviour in stead of retracting his former resolves declares that he was not to be alone in them but they should all come to be of his mind and be conformed to his Will Nay that if they would be his Disciples in deed ver 24. If any man will come after me i. e. be in deed my Disciple alluding to the manner and custom of the Eastern Countreys when the Master or Rabbi was wont to go with his Scholers attending after him he must not only forego his Ease and resign his Will but leave his life in these things denying of himself as if his present pleasure or advantage were to be considered no longer of when they stood in opposition to Gods Glory or our Souls good And this is not only or barely asserted but convincingly proved least the Disciples shall cry again this is a hard saying as if ever they had cause to say so they had on this occasion Our Blessed Saviour is willing to abide the Tryal upon this Issue and to have it judged and determin'd by themselves Appealing in the words of the Text to their rational and wise faculties For what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul In which words as to the form of them 1. Our Judgment and Consciences are called upon being we do so often vilifie our Souls and preferr the little things of this world now one thing then another before them to shew cause for our so doing and to bring forth our strong Reasons Of all sorts and ways of arguing this came most home and is closest when we are allowed to be as it were both Judge and Party and yet must condemn our selves This manner of Speech is only used when the case is very plain and obvious And we care not who hear it or determine it Thus God calls upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah to judge betwixt him and his Vineyard Isa
5.3 His Vineyard were themselves in a Figure and God is willing the case should be referred to their own determination if they would give themselves time and leisure to think of it So Amos 2.11 Is it not even thus O ye Children of Israel saith the Lord as if God had said I call your own Consciences to witness and let them but speak they will testifie both my Mercies to you and your sins against me or as elsewhere Ezek. 18.25 Are not my wayes equal and your wayes unequal And oh that men would consider how self-condemned they must needs be for all their sins against God and all their neglects of Salvation and disregards of their Souls their sins usually go thus beforehand unto Judgment and men cannot but condemn themselves who can think but that a humble useful temperate pious Life is far better than a proud useless luxurious and prophane Conversation Would we but shew our selves men in the concerns of our Souls as we do in those of our Bodies or Estates acting with that caution and concern in the one as we do in the other what a vast change should we soon discover for all Gods Commandments are for our good and his ways are pleasantness would we but seriously view and consider them Howsoever this is that which will make the Worm to gnaw and the fire to burn the ungodly in the other World in that they have sinn'd against those notices of good and evil which they had or might have had and in that they have put no difference between their vile bodies and their precious Souls whereas our Saviour here appeals to them concerning the worth of their Souls and the worthlesness of all things comparatively besides 2. From the form or manner of expression here used by way of a positive interrogation or Expostulation What is a man profited or what shall a man give We observe that the Negation is intended to be more vehement It being usual not only in Scripture but in common speech by a positive question vehemently to deny as by a negative question vehemently to affirm any thing as by these Scriptures before quoted Amos 2.11 18. Ezek. 25. amongst many other places may appear so that the sense of these words amounts to this 1. It is most evident and undeniable that if any man could gain the whole World not that such a thing was ever done or is indeed possible but upon that supposition he would be a vast loser by it if he lost his Soul for it Because 2. There is nothing of worth or value sufficient to exchange for a Soul with all Now this Text is as it were a ballance or pair of Scales in which the Commodities therein spoken of are weighed 1. In the one Scale is layd the whole world 1 Jo. 2.16 here you may take in the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life or whatsoever serves for Pleasure Gain or Honour the worldly man's Trinity Abate nothing make good weight more than was ever weighed out to any one but supposed or granted only for Arguments sake Yet here is a Mene Mene writ against it it is weighed and found too light It is touched and found under value 2. In the other Scale only a single Soul is put yours or mine and that doth so far praeponderate and outweigh or outvie the whole World as that there is no comparison betwixt them nothing is of value to be given or taken in Exchange for any of them As to the former of these the World and the Glory of it Our present purpose is to take no further notice of it Sic transit gloria mundi The Moon is not worth the looking after whilst the Sun appears nor all these fading changeable things when the Soul comes under consideration Gal. 6.14 It is now expected that the World should be crucified to us and we to the World and then only we shall be able to hear i. e. to understand what our Saviour here says concerning our Souls which being my intended Subject I shall take occasion from his words to speak to these following Particulars 1. What is meant by the Soul here spoken of 2. What this Soul here spoken of is 3. In what more particularly the worth of this Soul does appear As to the first of these viz. 1. What is meant by the Soul What is meant by a Soul in the Text To mention no other acceptions of the word than such as may be accommodated to this place and our present purpose 1. Soul or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word here used is put for Life by a Metonymy of the Efficient for the Effect because our Life depends upon the Soul thus Matth. 6.25 take no thought for your Lives when the same word is used which is here translated Soul which well considered will give a great light into the meaning of this place For these words are looked upon as a proverbial Speech taken out of Job 2.4 All that a man hath will he give for his Life As if our Saviour had from thence inferr'd if a man being in an apparent danger of a corporal Death would give any thing or do any thing to prolong or redeem his Life how much more should a man do or part with to prevent an Eternal Death or to procure an Everlasting Life 2. The word Soul is put for the Whole Man Synecdoche Partis frequently in Scripture thus Gen. 46.26 The number of Persons that came with Jacob into Egypt are reckon'd by so many Souls as also Act. 2.41 They that were Converted by St. Peter's Sermon are counted three thousand Souls This if considered furthers our present purpose and must needs add to our esteem of our Souls for the Soul is the Man Our Souls are our selves and what by this Evangelist our Saviour calls losing of the Soul in Luk. 9.25 That Evangelist relating the same thing calls losing of our selves The Body is but the House or Cabinet the Soul is the Jewel in it the Body is but the cloathing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Soul for a while is cloathed with and must put off 3. This word Soul is taken most properly and strictly for the Form constituent and better part of Man that Breath that is breathed into him from God Gen. 2.7 when Man becomes a Living Soul And in this acception we shall take this word here in our following Discourse and are come to enquire what it is 2. What this Soul is But we shall not be throughly able to satisfie our inquiry for being all our knowledge ariseth from our Sences and there is nothing in our Understanding which was not first in one of them Our Souls not incurring into our Senses Our understanding is at a loss to frame any adaequate conceptions of them There are three things reckoned amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as cannot be known and by consequence be defined and they are
make for the Soul whilst it may be the Body hath only a dish of Herbs 2. Reprehension I may then in the next place blame and bewail the folly and madness of most men who live as if they had no Souls or as if their Souls were fit only to be placed with the Dogs of the fold Like a woman I have heard of who when her house was on fire was very busie in saving of her stuff carrying out with all her might as much as she could at last she bethought her self of her Child which was left in a Cradle but when she returned to look after that she found that the fire had destroyed it and there she was first aware of her praeposterous care for her Goods before her Child running up and down as one distracted crying my Child my Child as David for his son Absalom So â—las when 't is too late all that neglect their Souls in this life will how I out in the midst of their scorching flames 2 Sam. 18.33 Oh my Soul my Soul I would I had dyed for thee my dear and pretious Soul We would have nothing bad by our good Will we would not have bad Relatives Children or other no not so much as a bad piece of Coin and how comes it to pass that men can be so content with bad Souls Thy Soul is thy self and if thy Soul be bad thou art bad thy self and how hast thou deserved so ill of thy self that thou shouldest neglect thy self and care not what become of thy Soul which is thy self Xerxes when he beheld his numerous Army wept Oh sayd he what a many here are that in a very short space must yield to Death and be devoured by VVorms It is a far sadder consideration that such multitudes of mens Souls are lost and perish Eternally and let the abounding of sin speak whether this be a causeless fear When the Apostles heard that one of them though but one was the Son of Perdition and should lose his Soul Every one of them was jealous over his Condition and cryed out Is it I Is it I Matth. 26.22 I cannot tell who particularly it is yet I cannot but know there are many sins that speak men ripe for judgment and many other sins which though they be not so notorious and visible are yet certainly as truly destructive and damnable A leak in any part of the Ship may sink it And now oh that my words might reach your hearts I speak in the behalf of your pretious Souls These words are not about trifles which you may consider or neglect as you please but as Moses said in the like case These words are your Life and no less than Life or Death Eternal depends upon your receiving of them When your Bodies are distemper'd what sending is there for a Physitian How are the symptoms of the Disease considered Or if an Estate be doubtful what counsel do we not take What cost and charge are we not at to ensure it Yet we let our Souls run all imaginable yea and unimaginable hazards without the least care to be sure without suitable care to their worth or danger and how can we any longer go for Christians or the Disciples of him who taught us here the pretiousness of our Souls and himself valued them accordingly Whatsoever we may flatter our selves with only such as are of the same mind with him shall have Salvation by him It is high time then to be Exhorted 3. Exhortation and prevailed with to suitable affections and dispositions shall I say or rather to suitable Lives and Conversations unto what ye have heard The truths that have been spoken unto are not so much speculative as practical they meet with little or no controversie in the Theory but in the practice of them The Devil knows that let men believe what they will concerning their Souls he is sure enough to obtain them and that with great advantage to a more sore condemnation if they do not practice according to what they are convinc'd of Shew then that thou doest value and esteem thy Soul according to the worth and dignity Children or Fools or Barbarous Africans preferr Beads and Toyes before Gold and real Pearls but it were folly and madness if we should do so and yet I am afraid we do worse every day Whatsoever is the price the tempter offers or perswades to sin with remember that it is for thy Soul if thou consentest and yieldest the bargain is struck thou doest what in thee lies to give thy Soul for the pleasure or advantage of the sin Judas had an ill bargain that lost his Soul and his Saviour for thirty pence though many sell their Saviour and their Souls too cheaper every day a goodly price be it what it will God gave his Son for thy Soul and entrusted thee with it and thou ungrateful and vile wretch doest barter it away for trifles You know Nathan 's Parable of the Ew-Lamb 2 Sam. 12. so tenderly beloved by the right owner of it and yet it was slain to entertain a stranger That Parable respects more than David Thou art the Man Thy Soul is the beloved Lamb and the Devil is the Stranger whom to be sure thou art no way concern'd to entertain when thou sinnest thou slayest this Ewe-Lamb to entertain and gratifie this stranger Oh that the Parallel might be carryed a little further and that some or other upon the reading of this would cry out with David I have sinned And if thou wouldest indeed value thy Soul be perswaded from what thou hast heard that all those things which concern thy Soul are far more excellent than those which concern thy Body as for instance That 1. Thy Souls riches are the best riches call'd by our Saviour true riches Considerations to facilitate this duty Luk. 16.11 Ah that any should be contentedly without them 2. The Souls pleasures are the choicest pleasures True Joy is not a superficial thing that affects the countenance and produces smiles or laughter many poor wretches in Bedlam are thus merrily mad but res severa est verum gaudium The Heart is the seat of all our Affections and so of our Joy and nothing can rejoyce that but the favour of God to the Soul 3. The Souls honour is the truest honour if honour be in honorante what honour is it to have the applause or homage of sorry sinful men But it is God that delights to honour the Soul and will put off his own glory upon it I shall say nothing to vilifie the Body which is the other part we consist of and we overprize and value it is enough to say with Bernard quantumcunque excolatur caro est Trim thy Body pamper it bestow all thy care and pains upon it 't is but flesh still t will be wormes meat and by all thy carking and caring for it thou art but preparing to feast those contemptible Creatures more delicately or if that will
made me free from the Law of sin and death v. 2. If ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live v. 13. The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the Children of God v. 16. Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities v. 26 27. But I must confine my self to that One in the Text the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leading Conduct Manuduction which this Blessed Spirit vouchsafes to the people of God He is the Saints Leader their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dux viae the Guide of their Life Look as by Christ they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leading Accesse Admission to God the Father in Prayer Eph. 2.18 and 3.12 So by the Spirit they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leading and Guidance in their whole course of Life In the discussing of this weighty Point I will 1. Open the nature of the Act the Leading of the Spirit 2. Propound and answer some practical Enquiries about it For the better opening of it I must 1. Lay down some things more Generally concerning it 2. Then come to the closer and stricter Explication of it Under the First I shall commend the following Particulars to you Distinctions premis'd about the Spirits Leading 1. The Leading of the Spirit is either General and Common or Peculiar and Special If we consider him as God in his joint participation of the Deity with the Father and the Son and in his joint Operations with them according to their Divine Essence so there is a Leading by him which does extend to all Creatures whatsoever For all of them by his Divine Power and Influxe in their several Beings Actions Motions and Tendencies are disposed ordered governed and overrul'd to the Glory of the Creator and the good of the Universe Take them in all their Faculties and in all their Operations they are all excited directed actuated by this Spirit And so in a general Sence they all come under his Guidance and Regency This also may be said to extend to all men to the Unregenerate as well as to the Regenerate How why as they all doe act and move * Acts 17.28 in and by him as He in a Common and Providential way does order and regulate all their several Actions and Motions For this he does in all as he is the first cause and the supream Soveraign So that as there is his common Illumination common Conviction common Restraints common Gifts which even the Graceless partake of so there is too a common Leading by Him which they also have Now most certainly this is not that Leading which the Text speaks of for this cannot be the Foundation or Evidence of the Priviledge mention'd A common Act will never entitle to a special Relation Ductus spiritus quo Filij Dei aguntur non est Generalis Dei Actus quo omnia moventur sed est specialis Gratia quâ Filii Dei Sanctificantur in viâ salutis diriguntur ad Deum Pareus Observare convenit esse multiplicem Spiritus Actionem Est enim Vniversalis quâ omnes Creaturae sustinentur ac moventur sunt peculiares in Hominibus illae quidem variae sed hic sanctificationem intelligit quâ non nisi Electos suos Dominus dignatur dum eos sibi in Filios segregat Calv. in loc How many are thus led by the Spirit who yet are far from being the Sons of God! That Leading therefore must be here intended which is special and peculiar to Gods people such as will amount to the making of the Proposition here Reciprocal and Convertible thus All the Sons of God are led by the Spirit and All that are led by the Spirit are the Sons of God 2. The special Leading of the Spirit is Extraordinary or Ordinary The former was confin'd to some Persons and to some Times and was not to extend to all Saints nor to continue in all Ages Thus the Holy Prophets the Apostles were led by the Spirit as they were immediately inspir'd guided and moved by Him in the discharge of their Extraordinary Work and Office These in the penning of the Holy Scriptures and in all that they revealed of and from God were acted and †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 and hereupon they were infallible in what they reveal'd But this was extraordinary and so Limited and Temporary The latter Leading of the Spirit therefore must be that which is here spoken of that which appertains to all Gods Children and at all times Did the Apostle when he says As many as are led by the Spirit are the Sons of God mean that as many as have Extraordinary Visions Revelations Inspirations Impulses from the Spirit of God are thus related to God and none Other surely no! Should we carry it thus high we should exclude all but the foremention'd Prophets and Apostles from being Gods Children which would be both sad and also false Wherefore 't is unquestionable that the Ordinary Abiding and Permanent Leading of the Spirit and that which reaches to all Believers is here intended 3. This Act of the Spirit may be consider'd either as 't is exerted at the first Conversion or after For as we distinguish the Grace of God into Prevenient and Subsequent so we may also distinguish of the Leading of the Spirit He leads at and in order to the first Conversion as he then does irradiate the Mind incline the Will spiritualize the Affections and so lead or guide the whole Soul to God and Christ Then he leads after Conversion as this is done by him all along in the whole course of a Christians Life for it is a continued Act. The Guidance of the Sp rit to bring a man into the state of Grace that 's done but once but the Guidance of the Spirit in the state of Grace that 's done Daily and Renewedly The first imports the infusing of a Living Vital Principle into the Soul the latter supposes this Principle and makes use of it in the Conduct of a Child of God in the way of Holiness Both are here to be taken in yet I conceive the last may be most proper And Observe these two Leadings of the Spirit have a different respect to our Sonship with God For the former Constitutes it the latter only Discovers and Evidences it The Spirit as leading me to God at the first Conversion makes me a Child of God the Spirit as leading me after Conversion causes it to appear that I am a Child of God 4. There is the Having of the Spirit and there is the Leading of the Spirit We have both in this Chapter the One v. 9. if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his the other in the Text. Now although these two be conjunct and inseparable whoever have the Spirit they are led by the Spirit yet they are distinct things To have the Spirit is to
or to come though it alwaies was and will be plainly to every capacity might this be thus adapted if you look backwards you cannot think of any one moment wherein God was not if you look forwards you cannot think of any one moment when God shall not be for if there had been one moment when God was not no thing could ever have been neither God nor Creature unless that which is nothing could make it self something which is impossible because Working supposeth Being and a contradiction because it infers the Being of a thing before it was for in order of time or Nature the Cause must be before the Effect Neither can you conceive any one moment beyond which God should cease to be because you cannot imagine any thing in God or distinct from him that should be the cause of his ceasing to be The Object then of Believers looking is the unseen Eternal God as their Happiness objectively considered which is so Eternal as to be without beginning and end and the enjoyment of this unseen Eternal God in the invisible Heavens which fruition being their happiness formally considered hath a beginning but no ending Should I follow the signification of the Greek word as looking at a mark we aim at or an end which we desire to obtain I should limit my Discourse only to unseen Eternal good things but if it be taken in a more extended sense to take heed to mark and diligently consider I might bring in the unseen evils in the World to come and indeed to keep our Eye fixt upon invisible things both good and bad that make Men Eternally miserable or Everlastingly Blessed Would have a powerful influence upon every step we take in our dayly travels to the unseen Eternal World To look at unseen Eternal Evil things that we might not fall into them To look at unseen Eternal Good things that we might not fall short of them Which is the design of the question propounded from this Text viz. How we should Eye ETERNITY that it may have its due influence upon us in all we do Which question will be more distinctly answered by resolving these following questions contained in it Q. 1. Whether there be an Eternity into which all men must enter when they go out of Time That we might not only suppose what too many deny and more doubt of and some are tempted to call into question but have it proved that no man might rationally deny the Eternity of that state in the unseen World for upon this lyes the strength of the reason in the Text why Believers look at things unseen because they are Eternal and the object must be proved before we can rationally urge the exerting of the act upon that object Q. 2. How we should Eye Eternity or look at Eternal things For if they be unseen how shall we see them And if they be to us in this World invisible how shall we look at them Q. 3. What influence will such a sight of and looking at Eternity have upon our Minds Consciences Wills and Affections in all we do Q. 1. Whether there be an Eternity of Happiness that we should look at to obtain and of Misery to escape Doth any question this Look at Mens Conversations see their neglect of God and Christ their frequent yea constant refusals of remedying Grace their leading a sensual flesh-pleasing Life their seldom thoughts of Death and Judgment their carelesness to make preparation for another VVorld their minding only things Temporal and then the question may be who do indeed believe that there is such an Eternal state Yet the real existence and certainty of Eternal things may be evidently manifested by Scripture and by Arguments 1. If you give assent to the Divine Authority of the Scripture you cannot deny the certainty of another World nor the Eternal state of Souls therein though this be now unseen to you Luk. 20.34 Jesus said the Children of this World marry 35. but they that shall be accounted worthy of that World and the Resurrection from the Dead neither marry nor are given in marriage 36. Neither can they dye any more for they are equal to the Angels Is not here plain mention of This and That World and the different state in both In this Men marry and die in that they neither marry nor die yea Christ himself affirms that in That World they cannot die and whatsoever words the Scripture borrows from the best things of this World to help our conceptions of the Glorious state of Holy ones in the other World some word denoting the Eternal duration of it is annexed to them all Is it called a Kingdom It is an Everlasting Kingdom 2 Pet. 1.11 a Crown It is a Crown incorruptible 1 Cor. 9.25 that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.4 is it called Glory is it Eternal Glory 1 Pet. 5.10 2 Cor. 4.17 an Inheritance it is incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.4 Eternal Heb. 9.15 an House it is Eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 Salvation it is Eternal Salvation Heb. 5.9 Life it is Eternal Life Matth. 25.46 No less certain is the Eternity of the state of the Damned by the Scriptures adding some note of Everlasting duration to those dreadful things by which their misery is set forth is it by a Furnace of fire Matth. 13.42 by a Lake of fire Rev. 21.8 it is fire Eternal and Unquenchable Matt. 3.12 Matt. 25.41 by a Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 from thence is no coming forth Matth. 5.25 26. by darkness and blackness of darkness it is for ever Jude ver 13. by burning it is Everlasting burning Isa 33.14 by torment Luk. 16.23 the smoak of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever Rev. 14.11 and 20.10 by Damnation it is Eternal Damnation Mar. 3.29 by Destruction it is Everlasting Destruction 2 Thess 1.9 by Punishment it is Everlasting Punishment Matth. 25.46 by the gnawings of the Worm it is such that never dyeth Mar. 9.44.46 48. by wrath that is to come Matt. 3.7 1 Thess 1.10 When it comes it will abide Joh. 3.36 Is any thing more fully and plainly asserted in the Scripture than that the things in the other World now unseen are Eternal things those that enjoy the one in Heaven and those that now feel the other in Hell do not cannot doubt of this and a little while will put all those that are now in time quite out of all doubting of the certainty of the Eternity of the state in the unseen world 2. The Eternity of the unseen things in Heaven and Hell the Everlasting Happy or Everlasting Miserable state after this Life may be evidenced briefly yet clearly by these following Arguments I. God did from Eternity chose some to be fitted in time to partake of happiness to all Eternity Eph. 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World that we should be holy and being made holy shall be happy in obtaining that Salvation to which he chose us 2
and not dead Stephen when dying expected the continuance of his Soul in being and its entrance into Blis Act. 7.59 saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit The Thief upon the Cross had a promise from Christ that that day he should be with him in Paradise in his Body he is not yet therefore in his Soul without the Body therefore the Soul doth exist without the Body Paul believed the Immortality of his Soul and its existence after the death of his Body Phil. 1.23 I am in a strait having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better If his Soul had not existed he had not been a moment sooner with Christ nay his Soul in the Body had some communion with Christ if it dyed with the Body it had none and that was not far better but worse 3. The original of the Soul by immediate Creation is usually brought as an argument of the Immortality and Continuance of it to Eternity to assert the Creation of the Soul hath this difficulty attending on it how to clear the propagating of Original Sin to affirm the Soul is extraduce propagated by generation hath this knot to be untied how it doth consist with the Immortality of the Soul when that which is generable is corruptible but I for present shall take their arguing which prove it shall exist for ever because it is created immediately by God according to the worne axiom whatsoever is ingenerable is also incorruptible The Soul cannot be from the Matter or Bodies of the Parents because that which is Spiritual and Immaterial cannot be produced out of that which is a Corporeal and Material Substance for then the effect would be more noble than its cause and the cause would give and impart something to the effect which it self hath not but that which any thing hath not it cannot give to another as in a Spiritual so in a Natural sense that which is born of the flesh is flesh but the Soul is a Spirit Nor are the Souls of the Children from the Souls of the Parents either by Multiplication or Division not by Division that part of the Souls of the Parents should be communicated and pass from the Parents to the Children because it is a Spirit and therefore indivisible into parts because it hath none being without matter therefore without quantity therefore without divisible parts Not by Multiplication for this must be by participation of something from the Parents Souls or not if not then it inferreth Creation for that which is brought out of nothing into being is created if by participation of something of the substance of the Parents Soul this infers Division which before was shewed cannot be 4. That the Soul shall never dye but abide to all Eternity I argue either God neither can nor will maintain the Soul in Eternal duration or he would but cannot or he could but will not or he both can and will If he cannot then God is not Omnipotent for the Soul being a Spirit it no more implies a contradiction that the Soul should live for ever then that Angels and Devils should live for ever If he can and any say he will not I desire a reason of this assertion how shall any man know Gods Will by but what he hath revealed and God hath not revealed that he will not maintain the Souls of men in Eternal Being but the contrary It follows then that God both can and will and therefore they must live to all Eternity V. The certainty of an Eternal State in the other unseen world is evident from the innate appetite universally in all men after Eternal happiness There is no man but would be happy and there is no man that would have his happiness cease a man might as soon cease to be a man as cast away all desires of Happiness or Will to be for ever miserable though most mistake what their happiness is This innate Appetite cannot be filled with all the good things in this World for though the rational appetite be subjectively finite yet it is objectively infinite God therefore and Nature which do nothing in vain hath put unsatisfied restless desires after happiness into the hearts of men which cannot be any thing among things seen and Temporal there must be something that must be the object of this Appetite and able to quiet and fill it in the other world though most by folly blindness and sloathfulness miss of it VI. The absurdities which follow the denyal of an Eternal state of men though now unseen demonstrate the certainty of it 1. For then the lives of men even of the best must needs be uncomfortable and the life of reason would as such be subject to more fears and terrors than the life of sense which is against all sense and reason for Beasts must dye but do not foresee that they must dye but the rational foresight of Death would imbitter all his sweetest delights of Life if there were no reason to hope for another after this and the more the Life of Man as Man is more noble than the Life of Beasts the more the foresight of the certain loss thereof without another after this would affright afflict torment Now it is not rational to think that God who made Man the chiefest and the choicest of all his visible works should endue him with such powers and faculties as Understanding and Will to make his Life as man more burdensom by being filled with fretting fears wracking griefs and tormenting terrors more than any Beasts are liable to or capable of Nay and add that the more any Man did improve exercise and use his reason in the frequent Meditations of Death the more bitter his Life would be to consider that all the present good he doth enjoy must certainly and shortly be lost by Death and he not capable of any good after Death in the stead and room thereof 2. Then the Condition of many wicked yea the worst of men would be better than the condition of the godly that are the best if the wicked have their good things here and no evil hereafter and the people of God their evil things here and no good hereafter 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life only we had hope we were of all men most miserable 3. Then the chiefest and greatest encouragements to undergo Sufferings and Losses for Gods sake were taken away Why did Moses refuse the Honours of Pharaoh's Court and chose to suffer Afflictions with the People of God but because he had his Eye to the recompence of reward Heb. 11.25 26. Why did Paul endure such Conflicts but for the hope of Life and Immortality which the Gospel had brought to light 2 Tim. 1.10 12. and well might he ask what it would advantage him that he fought with Beasts at Ephesus if the Dead rise not to Eternal happiness 1 Cor. 15.32 Might not then the Suffering Saints repent when they come to dye that they had been so imprudent
moment and must be tormented for ever What if they have Pleasures and carnal Delights for a season they must be under the heavy wrath of God for ever You might stand and see all their mirth at an end but their sorrow never will have end all their joy is but for a moment as the crackling of Thorns under a pot but their misery will be endless misery Let them laugh a while they shall weep for ever let them rejoyce for a season their mirth shall be turned into heaviness their Temporal rejoycing into Everlasting howling and the Eternity of Joy will be more than a recompence to the afflicted Saints whatsoever their Sufferings for Christ and Conscience be in this World A supposed case might be an help in this Temptation Suppose then that you were poor and full of pain for so long time or rather for so short that you should fall asleep and after you awake should be poor no more nor afflicted any more but have a Life of manly delights afterwards Suppose again another man were compassed about with all manner of accommodations costly Dishes to please his Palate beautiful Objects to delight his Eyes all manner of Musick grateful to his Ears many Servants to attend him all standing bare before him and bowing the knee in Honour to him and all this and much more he were to enjoy as long as he could abstain from sleeping but assoon as he doth fall asleep he should be taken off his Bed and cast into a Furnace of boyling Lead or scalding Pitch I demand which of these two Mens Condition you would choose I know it would be the condition of the former and not the latter this and infinitely beyond this is the case in hand you are afflicted till you fall asleep and then you shall be afflicted no more but live a life of Joy for ever the Wicked prosper till they fall asleep and they cannot long keep open their Eyes but Death will come and close them then the justice of God will arrest them and then Devils will seize upon them and they shall be cast into a Lake of burning Brimstone where they shall have no rest night nor day but the smoak of their Torment shall ascend for ever and ever Exercise your thoughts in this manner and have an Eye unto Eternity and you will more easily and successfully overcome such Temptations to murmuring and discontent from the different dispensations of the Providence of God here in time to good and bad 3. Such eyeing of Eternity would have great influence for the well improvement of our time Time is to be valued in order to Eternity because we go out of time into Eternity and that which should make every Man in time most concerned out of time into Eternity of Misery or Glory Oh! what a pretious thing is Time it is beyond the worth of Gold or Silver because we might do more in time in reference to Eternity than we can do by all our Gold and Silver Jewels are but Toyes in comparison of pretious Time Many are saving of their Money but are prodigal of Time and have more of Time then they know what to do with when others find so much to do that they know not what to do for time to do it in Oh Fools and blind what were an Hundred years to make preparation for Eternity Oh sluggish careless Sots Do you ask how shall we pass away the time Might ye not with more reason ask how shall we prevent hasty time from passing away with such winged motion Or if that cannot be prevented How shall we improve our time that is so fast a posting from us Blind World Do any Men in thee enquire How shall we spend our time It is easily answered in Praying Repenting begging for Grace the pardon of Sin the favour of God and peace with Him and fitness for Eternal Life Had the Damned in Hell the time that once they had and you now have do you think they would ask what they should do to pass away the time Their cry rather is Oh hasty time whither art thou fled Why didst thou move so fast while we sate still Or why in time did we so swiftly run in ways of Sin as if we could not have sinned enough before time was past and gone When we had a God to serve and Souls to save and an Everlasting State to make preparation for we like Fools did say How shall we spend our time But now our time is spent and past and gone and now the question is which never can be answered How shall we spend Eternity which never can be spent no not in enduring Ten Thousand Thousand Millions of Years in pain and punishment for when they are past it is as fresh and as far from ending as it was the first moment it began then Eye Eternity and you cannot but improve your time 4. Such Eyeing of Eternity would make us careful how we die because Death is our passing out of time into Eternity Death is dreadful to the ungodly because it opens the door into Everlasting Misery gainful to all endued with saving Grace because it lets them in to Everlasting Happiness Did you that are yet Christless Impenitent and Unbelieving see whither you are going and where you must within a little time take up your Everlasting Lodgings what fear and trembling would seize upon all your joynts and when by sickness you perceive Death to be approaching you would cry out Oh Death forbear forbear stay thine hand and do not strike for if thou cut me down in this condition I drop into Eternal Misery there is nothing but this single thred of my frail Life between me and endless wo and if this be cut or snapt asunder I sink in to irrecoverable Misery without all hope of ever coming forth Could you but see a Soul the next hour after its separation from the Body what a taking it is in what wo what despair it is filled with would you then live without Christ go to bed without Christ and rise and trade and still remain without an Interest in Christ What mean ye sirs to make no provision for Death that is so near so very near when you are as near to going into an Everlasting World as you are to going out of this Transitory World and your Souls be dragged sooner by Devils into Hell than your Bodies can be carryed by Men unto your Graves Awake arise repent and turn unto the Lord for if you sleep on in sin till you sleep by Death you will be awaked by the flames of Hell and then though you be under the power of Eternal Death you will sleep no more and rest no more for ever And Death is as gainful and desirable to a Gracious Man as it is terrible to the Ungodly for it lets him into unseen Eternal Glory to the sight of Christ unseen to us on Earth How willing would you be to go a Thousand Miles to see
Christ and converse with him if he were on Earth it is better to see this pretious Christ in Eternal Glory it is worth the while to dy to have a view of your Lord-Redeemer in the highest Heavens Oh the wonderful transporting Joyes the Soul is filled with when it first cometh into the unseen but happy World when it hath the first Glorious view of its dearest Lord. Do you think it would desire to return to live in flesh upon Earth again Do you know what you do when you are so loth to dy Do you understand your selves when you are so backward to be taken out of time It is to be loth to go into Everlasting Happiness to go and take possession of unseen Eternal Glory 5. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would make us more patient constant joyful in all our sufferings for Christs sake When we poar upon our seen troubles and do not look at rest after trouble when we see and feel what is inflicted upon us but do not look what is laid up in Heaven for us when we see the rage of men and do not look at the love of God our Hearts and Flesh do fail but if we set unseen Eternal things over against things seen and Temporal it will be strength unto us Against the power of Men which is Temporal set the Power of God which is Eternal and then you will see their power to be weakness Against the Policy of Men which is Temporal set the Wisdom of God which is Eternal and then you will see all their Policy to be Foolishness Against the Hatred of Men which in its effects to you is Temporal set the Love of God which is both in its self and in its effects to you Eternal and you will see their hatred to be no better than raging unreasonable madness Keep your Eye upon the unseen Torments in the other World and you will rather endure Sufferings in this than venture upon Sin and expose your selves to them Keep your Eye upon the unseen Eternal Crown of Glory and it will carry you through Fire and Flames Prisons and Reproaches for the sake of Christ Heb. 11.26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward 27. by Faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible 6. This Eyeing of Eternity will be a powerful preservative against the temptations of Men or Devils a Sovereign Antidote against the Poyson of Temptation I see the Invisible God looks at me shall I then yield to the suggestions of the Devil or the sollicitations of men to sin I see there is an Everlasting state of Joy or Torment that I must be shortly in as sure as I am in this place and Satans design is to bring me to that state of Torment and if I follow him I shall be excluded from yonder glorious place from God and Christ and Saints above therefore by the Grace of God I will not yield to this Temptation but strive I will and Watch and Pray I will against the assaults of this deceitful Adversary for why should I be so foolish to lose Eternal Glory for momentary Pleasures and run my Immortal Soul into Eternal pain for short delights I do plainly see what will be the end if I do yield Damnation without end banishment from God without end I do clearly see that Stealing and Murder is not a more ready road to a place of Execution upon Earth than yielding to a tempting Devil is to Everlasting Misery 7. Such Eyeing of Eternity would wean our hearts from the things of time A sight and view of Heavens Glory would darken the Glory of the World as looking at the shining Sun over your Head doth obscure in your Eyes the things under your Feet after a believing view of the invisible God and the Glory of the place above this World would appear as a very Dunghil in your Eyes Phil. 3.7 8. as where we love there we look so the more we look the more we shall love and the more we love the Eternal things that are above the less we shall love the Temporal things that are below 8. Such Eyeing of Eternity would make us more like to God and Jesus Christ it will be a transforming and assimilating look 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Therefore when we shall see Christ who is now out of sight we shall be perfectly like unto him 1 Joh. 3.2 But we know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 9. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would fill our Souls with Holy admirations of the Goodness Grace and Love of God to us When Paul had a sight of such unseen things he was in an Holy Extasie and Divine Rapture 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. When we consider the Eternal Happiness of Heaven we shall stand as Men amazed that God should prepare such things for such men and bear such Love and shew such Mercy to such as we that are so vile and full of sin and say Lord what am I that might for ever have howled in the lowest Hell that I should hope to praise thee in the highest Heavens Lord what am I that might have been in Everlasting Darkness that there should be prepared for me Everlasting Light and Joy Why me Lord why hast thou designed me and wrought upon my heart and made me in any measure meet to be partaker of such Eternal Glory Oh! the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out Rom. 11.33 How pretious are thy thoughts to me how great is the sum of them Psal 139.17 Oh how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee Psal 31.19 10. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would have this influence sure upon us to set our selves under a painful skilful serious Ministry It doth much concern you for you are going to an endless Life and Preaching is the appointed means to fit you for an endless happy Life then do you choose the most lively searching powerful Preaching it is for the life of your Souls for the Everlasting life of your Everlasting Souls If you were sick and in danger of Death when your Life lies upon it you would have the advice of an able Physitian that is serious and afraid that he no way become guilty of your Death Would you like that Physitian that seems to be unconcerned and cares not whether you live or dy if he might but have his fee Or that should merrily jest with you when you are sick at Heart and near to Death if you be not
cured Would you take Pleasure in his witty sayings and be jested into your Grave Or if you go unto a Lawyer about your whole Estate though it were in Leases that will expire would you choose one that you think did not care whether you win or lose your cause Would you be pleased with some witty sayings impertinent to the pleading of your cause Would you not say Sir I am in danger of losing all I am worth my Estate lyes at stake deal plainly with me and be serious in your undertaking for me and tell me in words that I can understand the plain Law by which my case must be tryed And will you be more careful about the Temporal Life of a Body that must dy and about a Temporal Estate which you must leave when you dy and not about your Soul that must ever live and never dye No! not so much as to set your selves under faithful Preachers that shall in words that you can understand plainly tell you the Laws of Christ by which you must be tryed for your Life and according to them be Eternally damned or saved 11. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would make you serious and lively in all your spiritual duties in all your approaches unto God If you have no Grace the serious thoughts of the unseen Eternal World would stir you up to beg and cry and call for it if you have to desire more and to exercise what you have to confess your sins with such contrite broken penitent hearts as though you saw the fire burning which by your sins you have deserved to be cast into To beg for Christ and Sanctifying Grace and pardoning Mercy with that lively Importunity as if you saw the Lake of boiling Brimstone into which you must be cast if you be not sanctifyed and pardoned to hear the Word of God that sets this Eternal World before you with that diligent attention as Men hearkning for their Lives to commemorate the Death of Christ with such life while you are at the Lords Supper while you do as it were see the Torments you are delivered from and the Eternal Happiness by Faith in a crucifyed Christ you have a Title to it will cause a fire and flame of Love in your Hearts to that Lord that dyed for you ardent desires after him complacential delight in him thankfulness hope of Heaven hatred to sin resolution to live to or dye for him that dyed for you If your Hearts are dead and dull and out of frame go and look into the unseen Eternal World take a believing view of Everlasting Joyes and Torments on the other side of time and you shall feel warmth and heat and lively actings to be produced in you Particularly this Eyeing of Eternity would make Ministers sensible of the weightiness of their work that it calls for all possible diligence and care our utmost serious study and endeavours our fervent Cryes and Prayers to God for ability for the better management of our work and for success therein for as much as our imployment is more Immediately about Eternal matters to save under Christ Eternal Souls from Eternal Torments and to bring them to Eternal Joyes When we are to Preach to people that must live for ever in Heaven or Hell with God or Devils and our very Preaching is the means appointed by God to fit men for an Everlasting state when we stand and view some Hundreds of Persons before us and think all these are going to Eternity now we see them and they see us but after a little while they shall see us no more in our Pulpits nor we them in their Pews nor in any other place in this World but we and they must go down unto the Grave and into an Everlasting World when we think it may be some of these are hearing their last Sermon making their last publique Prayers keeping their last Sabbath and before we come to Preach again might be gone into another World if we had but a firm belief of Eternity our selves and a real lively sense of the mortality of their Bodies and our own and the Immortality of the Souls of both of the Eternity of the Joy or Torment we must all be quickly in how pathetically should we plead with them plentifully weep over them fervently pray for them that our words or rather the word of the Eternal God might have Effectual Operation on their Hearts This Eyeing of Eternity should 1. Influence us to be painful and diligent in our studies to prepare a message of such weight as we come about when we are to Preach to men about Everlasting matters to set before them the Eternal Torments of Hell and the Eternal Joyes of Heaven Especially when we consider how hard a thing it is to perswade Men to leave their sins which do endanger their Immortal Souls when if we do not prevail with them to hearken to our message and obey it speedily and sincerely they are lost Eternally when it is so hard to prevail with men to accept of Christ the only and Eternal Saviour on the conditions of the Gospel You might easily see that Idleness either in young Students that are designed for this work or in Ministers actually engaged in it is an intolerable sin and worse in them than in any men under Heaven Idleness in a Shop-keeper is a sin but much more in a Minister in a Trader much more in a Preacher bear with me if I tell you an Idle Cobler that is to mend mens Shooes is not to be approved but an Idle Preacher that is to mend mens Hearts and save their Souls shall be condemned by God and Men for he lives in dayly disobedience of that charge of God 1 Tim. 4.13 Give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them 16 continue in them 2. It would provoke us to be faithful in delivering the whole counsel of God and not to daub with untempered mortar not to flatter them in their sin or to be afraid to tell them of their evils least we should displease them or offend them Is it time to sooth men up in their Ignorance in their neglect of duty when we see them at the very door of Eternity on the very borders of an Everlasting World and this the fruit that they shall dye in their sins and their Blood be required at our hands Ezek. 33.1 to 10. but so to Preach and discharge the Ministerial Function that when dying might be able to say as Act. 20.25 And now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more 26. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men 27. For I have not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God 3. To be plain in our speech that every capacity of the weakest in the Congregation that hath an Eternal Soul that
must be damned or saved for ever might understand in things necessary to Salvation what we mean and aim and drive at it hath made me tremble to hear some soar aloft that knowing men might know their parts while the meaner sort are kept from the knowledge of Christ and put their matter in such a dress of words in such a stile so composed that the most stand looking the Preacher in the face and hear a sound but know not what he saith and while he doth pretend to feed them indeed doth starve them and to teach them keepeth them in ignorance Would a Man of any Bowels of compassion go from a Prince to a condemned man and tell him in such Language that he should not understand the conditions upon which the Prince would pardon him and the poor man lose his Life because the proud and haughty Messenger must shew his knack in delivering his message in fine English which the condemned Man could not understand but this is course dealing with a Man in such circumstances that call for pity and compassion Paul had more Parts and Learning but more self-denyal than any of these when he said 1 Cor. 2.1 And I Brethren when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God 4. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing Words of mans Wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power 2 Cor. 3.12 Seeing then we have such hope we use great plainness of speech 13. and not as Moses which put a vail over his face that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished Some put a vail upon their words that people of mean Education that yet have Souls that must be damned or saved cannot look into those truths that shall never be abolished but what is this but a cursed preferring their own parts and praise before the Salvation of Eternal Souls and the preaching themselves and not Christ which will not be their praise but shame at the Eternal Judgment when some shall plead they stand there condemned because the Learned Preacher would not stoop to speak to them of Eternal matters in Language that they might have understood 4. This Eyeing of Eternity would stir us up to improve our Interest in God and Men for a continual succession of Men in the Ministerial Function In God by Prayer that the Lord of the Harvest would send forth Labourers into his Harvest In men whether such as have Children of pregnant parts studious and bookish serious in Religion and inclined to this Imployment that they would give them to God and give them Education in order to it which would be the Honour of Parents to have such proceed from their loins that shall be Embassadors to call the blind ungodly World to mind Eternity to escape Everlasting Damnation and obtain Eternal Life or whether they be such as have no Children so qualifyed or disposed yet have riches to be helpful to such as have such Children but not an Estate to bring them up for there is a necessity of a standing continued Ministry Men in all Ages are hasting to Eternity those that were our Ancestors in former Ages are already there and have taken up their Lodgings where they must for ever dwell and we are following after them and what a mercy is it that we have the Gospel preached unto us wherein we have directions how to escape Everlasting Torments and obtain Eternal Joyes in the other Eternal World to which we are a going and those that shall live after us when they have been upon the stage of this World awhile shall follow us and our Fathers into Eternity and give place to those that follow after them thus this World doth often change its Inhabitants What is the Life of Man but a coming into time and a going out into Eternity Oh how needful is it then that while they make their short stay on Earth they should have preaching Ministers to warn them of Eternal Misery and teach them the way to Eternal Glory Those that are now engaged in the work will shortly be all silenced by Death and Dust and how desirable is it that your Children and posterity should see and hear others preaching in their room and the Honourableness of the Office might allure young men to encline unto it is it not an Honour to be an Embassador of the great Eternal God to propound Articles of Everlasting peace between him and Everlasting Souls What is buying and selling Temporal Transitory things in comparison of a calling wherein it is mens work and business to save Souls from Eternal Misery and to bring them to the Eternal Enjoyment of the glorious God Thus in some few particulars we have shewed the Influence that the Eyeing of Eternity will have upon us in what we do Do you so Eye Eternity and the rest here for want of room omitted you shall by experience find out which will be better than knowing of them in the notion only because they are told you The Conclusion of this Discourse shall be some particular uses omitting many that it would afford 1. Is there an Eternal State Such unseen Eternal Joyes and Torments Who then can sufficiently lament the blindness madness and folly of this distracted World and the unreasonableness of those that have Rational and Eternal Souls to see them busily imployed in the matters of time which are only for time in present Honours Pleasures and Profits while they do neglect Everlasting things Everlasting Life and Death is before them Everlasting Joy or Torment is hard at hand and yet poor sinners take no care how to avoid the one or obtain the other Is it not matter of lamentation to see so many Thousands bereaved of the sober serious use of their Understandings That while they use their reason to get the Riches of this World they will not act as rational men to get the joyes of Heaven and to avoid Temporal Calamities yet not to escape Eternal misery Or if they be fallen into present Afflictions they contrive how they may get out of them if they be sick reason tells them they must use the means if they would be well if they be in pain Nature puts them on to seek after a Remedy and yet these same Men neglect all duty and cast away all care concerning Everlasting matters they are for seen pleasures and profits which are passing from them in the enjoyment of them but the unseen Eternal Glory in Heaven they pray not for they think not of Are they unjustly charged Let Conscience speak what thoughts they lye down withal upon their pillow if they wake or sleep fly from them in the silent night what a noise doth the cares of the World make in their Souls With what thoughts do they rise in the Morning of God or of the World Of the things of time or of Eternity Their thoughts are
sober Wisdom and the Devils cannot deny it and all Damned Souls in Hell and all the Wicked upon Earth as fast as they go down to them and feel what now they do not believe and fear shall not deny it to be Wisdom in them that escaped that and got to a better place in the Eternal World 10. In Eternity there will be no mixture In the other World there is all pure Love or all pure Wrath all Sweet or all Bitter without all Pain or without all Ease without all Misery or without all Happiness not partly at Ease and partly in Pain partly Happy and partly Miserable but all the one or the other This Life is a middle place betwixt Heaven and Hell and here we partake of some good and some Evil No Judgment on this side Hell upon the worst of Men but there is some Mercy mixed with it for it is Mercy they are yet on this side Hell and no Condition on this side Heaven but there is some Evil mixed with it for till we get to Heaven we shall have sin in us In Heaven all are good in Hell all are bad on Earth some good but more bad In Hell Misery without mixture of Mercy or of Hope they have no Mercy and that is bad and they can hope for none and that is worse while they be in time they are pityed God doth pity them and Christ doth pity them and good Men doth pity them their Friends and Relations do pity them pray for them and weep over them but when time is past all pity will be past and they in Misery without pity to all Eternity Rev. 14.10 The same shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11. and the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night No! then for the Lords sake for your Souls sake as upon my knees I beseech you if you have any dread of God any fear of Hell any desire of Heaven any care whither you must go take no rest night nor day in time till you have secured your Everlasting happy state that you might have Everlasting rest night and Day in Eternity or that you might pass into that Eternity where it is alwayes day and no night and not into that where it shall be alwaies night and never day Sirs what say ye What are ye resolved upon to sin still or to repent that ye have already sinned and by the Grace of God to sin so no more To work in time for things of time or in time to prepare for Eternity Will ye obey my message or will ye not Speak in time or I will not say hold your peace for ever but repent in time or ye shall cry and roar for ever The time of this Sermon is out and the time of your Life will be quickly out and I am afraid I shall leave some of you as unfit for Eternity as I found you and my heart doth tremble least Death should find you as I shall leave you and the Justice of God and the Devils of Hell should find you as Death shall leave you and then vengeance shall never leave you and the Burning Flames Tormenting Devils and the Gnawing Worm shall never leave you Will ye then work it upon your Hearts that ye came into Time unfit to go into Eternity that in time ye have made your selves more unfit that the only remedy is the Lord Jesus Christ that in the fulness of time did dye that Sinners might not be damned for ever that this Crucifyed Christ will not save you from Eternal Misery nor take you to Eternal Glory except ye do perform the Conditions of the Gospel without which his Death puts no Man into an actual state of Happiness ye must Repent and be Converted ye must take him for your Saviour and your Lord ye must be Holy sincerely Hate Sin universally love Christ superlatively or else the Saviour will not save you Mercy it self will not save you from Everlasting Misery Ye must persevere in all this to the end of your time and then ye shall be Happy in Eternity to Eternity Otherwise ye shall not give audience Sirs otherwise ye shall not be Happy Happy no ye shall be Miserable If the loss of God and Christ and Heaven will make you Miserable for ever ye shall be Miserable for ever If the pains of Hell the company of Devils the stingings of Conscience the terrors of Darkness total final despair of having any end of your damned condition will make you miserable ye shall be miserable If all that God can lay upon you if all that Devils can torment you with if all that Conscience can for ever accuse you for if all that is in Hell can make you miserable except you repent in time and believe on Christ in time and be sanctifyed in time ye shall be miserable for ever O my God! be thou my Witness of this Doctrine All ye that fear God that hear me this day bear me witness that I have published this in the Ears of all that hear me Thou Conscience that art in that Man that is yet going on in Sin and posting with speed to Eternal Misery bear me witness now and at the day of Judgment that I told him what must be done upon him in him and by him if he would escape Eternal Torments If he will not hearken nor obey while he is in time Conscience I bespeak thy witness against him and that thou bring thy Accusation against him and upbraid him to the Confusion of his face among all the Devils in Hell and all that shall be damned with him that he was told he could not keep his sins and be kept out of that place when he dyed he could not reject Christ and finally refuse him and be saved for ever Sinner carest thou not wilt thou still on Good God! must we end thus Must I come down without hopes of his Repenting and he dye with foolish hopes of being saved and after Death be cast into that Eternity where the Worm dyeth not and the Fire is not quenched But in those Endless Flames shall cry out and roar oh cursed Caitif what did I mean all the while I was in time to neglect preparation for Eternity Oh miserable Wretch this is a doleful dreadful state and still the more because it is Eternal Wo is me that I cannot dye nor cease to be Oh that God would cut me off Oh that Devils could tear me into a Thousand Thousand pieces or that I could use such violence to my self that I might be no longer what I am nor where I am But alas I wish in vain and all these desires are in vain for though the union of my Soul and Body in
of the Creature as Water and Wine are mingled together so that the Nature of them both is lost in that mixture For it is not thus with Angels in Heaven or the Glorifyed Spirits there for they still retain their own distinct Nature and Being though they are in the Highest Communion with God Neither is it thus between the Humane and the Divine Nature of Christ as if these two were mingled together and did lose their proper and distinct Natures in each other though the Humane and Divine Nature of Christ have a most near Union and Communion with each other But this Communion it is a Sacred and Mutual Intercourse that is between God and his People whereby they go forth and act in the Divine exercise of their faculties towards him and he comes forth in the Communication of himself in Light Life and Love to them II. I next proceed to speak of some Distinctions about Communion General II with God 1. Communion with God may be considered either with respect to this World or the World to come the one is Imperfect the other is perfect one is Mediate the other Immediate the one is Inconstant and often interrupted the other is constant fixed and uniform without any Interruption for ever 2. This Communion with God hath higher and lower degrees both in the Nether and Vpper World Both among the Saints here below and the Saints and Angels above As there are Orders of Angels in Heaven and some nearer to the Throne of God than others and receive higher Communications of God to them so it is with the Saints made perfect in that Heavenly State 3. This Communion with God is either Internal or External By Internal I mean that sacred Intercourse between God and the Soul which is managed only in the inward Man And by External I mean this Communion with God managed in some External Ordinance of his Worship in the Communion of Saints General III III. I next proceed to shew how this Communion with God is attained and then maintained I answer in General It is attained only in that way which God himself hath appointed thereunto The Heathen did aim at having Fellowship with their Gods and therefore they built them Temples to dwell in Erected Oracles for them to speak to them by and they built Altars to sacrifice to them and appointed Priests to be their Mediators or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministers of Friendship between them and their Gods they used several Charms to bring their Gods to them and keep them with them they made use of various Modes and Rites of Worship which they thought best pleased their Gods and whereby they might invite their favour to them and presence with them Yea they worshipped several Creatures though not as Gods but yet that in worshipping them they might have some Communion with those Gods that they thought did preside over those Creatures they Worshipt as Vulcan over the Fire Neptune over the Sea Ceres over the Fruits of the Earth c. But notwithstanding these vain apprehensions of the Heathen by such means to have Fellowship with their Gods yet the Apostle says they sacrificed to Devils and not to God and had Fellowship with Devils 1 Cor. 10.20 I would not saith he that ye should have Fellowship with Devils But the ways of this Communion as I said must be those which God himself hath appointed the principal whereof are Jesus Christ himself and the Holy Spirit 1. By Jesus Christ who was figured upon this account by Jacobs Ladder that stood betwixt Heaven and Earth as the Person wherein Heaven and Earth are united God and Man have Communion with each other who was also figured by the Temple whither the people came up to meet and have communion with God and God with them And particularly by the Mercy Seat where God promised to meet his people and commune with them and therefore the Apostle addeth here in the Text Our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ for on our part all our access to God is by him Eph. 2.18 Through him we both have an access unto the Father 2. All Gods approaches to us are also through him All that Light Life and Love which God communicates to his people is through him alone And we have this Communion through Christ with God First By virtue of his Incarnation He assumed our Nature into Union and Communion with God and so made way for our Persons Secondly By virtue of his Life he lived here in the World considered either in the Holy Example he hath left us to walk by or the Doctrine that he here preached by both which he did guide and lead Men in the right way to Fellowship with his Father Thirdly By virtue of his Death and making reconciliation for us by his Blood for if there had not been a Reconciliation and an agreement made between God and us we could never have had Communion with him How can two walk together if they be not agreed 1. This Communion with God it is some lower entrance into the Holyest of all in this World and this is said to be by the Blood of Jesus as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.19 Fourthly By vertue of his Resurrection whereby Believers come to be raised up to newness of Life Rom. 6.4 And it is only in this New Life that we have all our Communion with God the Old Man in us is not capable of it nor the Powers of Nature till they be renewed raised and quickned through the power of Christs Resurrection Fifthly By vertue also of his Ascension into Heaven from whence descends upon Believers a Divine Influence and Power through Faith whereby they are carryed up above this World and ascend up to Heaven and into Communion with God as the Apostle argues Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the Right hand of God Sixthly By virtue of his Intercession For this is one great thing that he Intercedes for with his Father in Heaven that his People might have Union and Communion with them as appears by what Christ prays for John 17.21 in the behalf of his Disciples that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in us and so have Communion with us so that all these things I have spoken concerning Christ ye see tend to this great end to bring up the Saints of God into this Communion with him 2. This Communion with God is also by the Spirit of God as the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.13 14. speaks of the Communion of the Holy Ghost The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost The Grace of Christ and the Love of God are communicated by the Holy Ghost So that all our Fellowship with the Father and the Son are by the Spirit Now the Spirit doth effect this Communion with
by Impatience and he in his Wisdom and Love is resolved to bring us to his Foot Well! If we Comply before hand when we see the Storm approaching God's end is Attained and he either lay's down his Rod or Mitigateth the Chastizement yea he will e're long Embrace and Comfort broken and humble Ephraim Indeed this Frame superseed's Affliction for Judgment upon Saints are not to Destroy but Subdue them to their Fathers Will. And if we meet our angry Father in this Spirit he may Correct a little but he will certainly Comfort much 5. Lastly a resigned Soul meeteth God in the way of Judgments or Mercies to great advantage They are so far from doing him harm that they do good therefore it must needs be a blessed Preparation for either Physick never works so well as when the Body is antecedently prepared nor is any Person so certainly profited by Judgments or Mercies as he that is ready to entertain them I know God can do an unprepared Soul good by any Providence but I am sure none can come amiss to such as be prepared What then will prepare us to receive Chastizments Profitably The Apostle tells us Be Subject to the Father of Spirits and Live Heb. 12.9 Comply with his Will resign your selves to his Pleasure and what ever he doth will be a quickning in proving Providence Qu. What is the Nature of this Resignation to the Will of God for his Glory Or wherein doth it consist Ans I shall reply to this Quere by laying down something implyed in it and then speak to the Proper Nature thereof It implies many things I shall Instance only in a few for Brevity's sake 1. It supposeth a Lively exercise of Faith For as no Unbeliever ever did resign himself freely to the Will of God so no believer if Faith be not in Exercise can do it Yea it must be an active Faith will enable us to put our selves into the Hands of God especially in a Day of Affliction to deal with us according to his Pleasure I say that Soul must have a good Acquaintance with and a blessed Confidence in him whom he trusteth with his Life and All. Paul therefore tells us in case of Suffering he knew whom he had Trusted 2 Tim. 1.12 Therefore our Saviour here when he Referreth himself to God expresseth his Faith in that very Resignation Father Glorify c. He believed God to be his Father and that his Father loved him and now he is Satisfied that his Father dispose of him Psal 31.14 15. But I trusted in thee Lord I said thou art my God What then my times are in thy Hands q. d. 't is not only thy Perogative to dispose of me and my Days but I refer them Voluntarily to thee He put them into the hands of his God and trusted them with him There be many Perticulers that the Faith of a resigned Soul is Exercised in As That God is his God Faith must have Interest in him whom it Trusteth Isaac will Suffer his Father to Bind and Sacrifice him Why Abraham was his Father and God who had given the command for it was his God Gen. 22. And it believes that all the will of God is Good Good in it self and good for the resigned Soul A believer may know that there may be Pain and Affliction in Suffering according to the Fathers Pleasure but 't is withal assured 't is his good pleasure Heb. 12.10 And such a Soul believes that it 's God and Father is kind loving and tender that he will not oppress that he will not overwhelm He believes that God Glorifies not himself to the damage of his People but that his Glory and their Benifit are inseparably Linkt together Yea it is in Christ the Redeemer of the Soul putteth it self into the Fathers Hands and it expects Power and Strength from its God to bear the Sufferings and carry through them When Moses forsook Egypt and his Interest there and chose to Suffer Affliction with the People of God He did this in Faith Eying him who is Invisible Heb. 12.24 c. And David in the like case was well Satisfied in the good will of God to him 2 Sam. 15 25 26. Chap. 25. 5. 2. Consequently 't is an high act of Love He that loves his Heavenly Father will be disposed of by him but it must be above becoming the glorious Objection which it is fiâ—t Matt. 22.37 A Love that prefers his Will and Glory before all things else A Love in Comparison of which all other Love is hatred Luke 14.26 A Constraining love 2 Cor. 5.13 14. Abraham loved Isaac well why then did he offer him up at the Command of God O 't was because he loved God better This is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments and nine of his Commandments are greivous 1 Jo. 5.3 What no Command greivous Not Self-denial not bearing the Cross No! Those Commands are not greivous because the Soul loves God better then it self We have a great word Rev. 12.11 They loved not their Lives unto Death why because their love of Christ was stronger then Self-love Rev. 14.4 We Read of some that followed the Lamb where ever he went Into Tribulation of all sorts they followed the Lamb Why Love constrained them Christ therefore resigned himself into the Fathers hands for he loved his Father Love will lay the Soul at Gods Feet Love will follow and Obey the Fathers call in all things Love will keep stedfastly in the way of the Will of our beloved It argues little Love to Christ when we seek to evade Suffering for his Name by finding out Carnal Shifts He that loves the Father and Son is as to the main resolved into their Will 3. To come nearer to my Intendment This resignation of our Wills to the Pleasure of God for his Glory respect's Sufferings and Dutys Principally For there is no difficulty Ordinarily to comply with the good Will of God in Distributing Mercy and Favour But to have our Wills Resolved into his in case of difficult Duty and hard Sufferings which Cross our corrupt Nature and press upon our Pamper'd Flesh is a great Work far above the Sphear of an unregenerate Person and a special Effect of the Spirit of God in and upon the Hearts of Saints But because our Subject leads to consider the matter in case of Afflictions only I shall confine my Discourse thereto Only adding this by the way that where a Soul disputeth no Sufferings it Submits to all Dutys If it be resigned to the Will of the Lord in the one 't is Subjected to him in the other also 4. Therefore the Resignation I spake of consists in several things 1. In referring our selves to the Will of God in a Day of Tryal in the very things we fear Our Lord Jesus dreaded nothing like this Hour that was coming upon him It troubled and amazed his very Soul v. 27. gladly would he be saved from it had it been
he calls our Souls ours and certainly they are ours so as nothing else is for we must forego all other things and be parted from them and have been and may be without them but without our Souls we never were nor cannot be And 't is thy only Soul thou hast to make thy darling and to be fond and careful of Most of other things we have double of as two Eyes two Hands and Feet c. but God hath given thee but one Soul Omnia Deus dedit duplicia animam vero unam If thou losest one of the members of thy Body the other in a great measure serves in its stead but thy soul must needs be more carefully looked to than thy right eye or thy right hand for nothing to be sure can stand in stead of it if it be once lost Oh remember this is the one thing necessary 5. You must answer for the loss of your Souls God hath entrusted them with you A great trust a great charge we must account for this Talent when our Lord comes David's Brethren asked him with whom he had left their Sheep God will ask every one of you with whom ye did leave your Souls Are not your Children nay are not your Goods many a man's Swine more cared for and look'd after than your Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza There are two words in the Text that are observed to be forensical and relate to a Court of Judicatory which the gaining and losing in the Text refers to The loss of his Soul will be as a Mulct or Penalty inflicted by the Just and righteous Judge upon every one that hath been careless of his Soul He that does not earnestly endeavour to keep his Soul whilst he lives the evil Angels when he dyes shall require it of him as you know the Soul of the Covetous wretch was adjudged to them How unconcernedly do we read or hear of such things But mutato nomine de te c. Yet but a little while and it may be thy case It may be the divertisements of the World will not let thee have the while to attend to what you hear but what are all the pleasures and enjoyments you can have might they be continued to thee as long as ever they were unto any but as the singing of a little longer Psalm before thy Execution Oh that my words therefore might be acceptable unto you I have shewn you the excellency of Souls as when the Disciples shewed to our Saviour the costly stones and curious Fabrick of the Temple Matth. 24.1 2. Our Blessed Lord told them the time was a coming in which not one stone should be left upon another but all should be thrown down The Application be not to all that hate us but to all that implacably hate God Oh awake arise bestir your selves watch and ward and above all call in the assistance of the Keeper of Israel that not only with all thy keeping but with all his keeping thy Soul may be kept by his Power through faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 SERMON XXVI The Leading of the HOLY SPIRIT opened With some Practical Enquiries resolv'd about it ROMANS 8.14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God OUR Apostle in the close of the preceding Verse had made use of a very powerful Motive to excite these Romans and in them all others unto Mortification if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live In this Verse he backs that Motive with an Argument to †Probatio est ejus quod proximè praecessit Calv. Probat quod dixit vivetis Esth evince its Truth and Certainty Such as are the Sons of God shall live such who are led by the Spirit viz. to mortifie the deeds of the Body are the Sons of God therefore such shall live Others consider these Words not so much as a Proof of the foregoing Motive but rather as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophyl another distinct Motive in themselves to promote Mortification Such who are led by the Spirit thereunto they are taken into the high and glorious Relation of being the Sons of God or the Children of God as 't is v. 16. Now what an inducement is this to Christians to live under and comply with the Spirits Leading as it directs and excites unto the mortifying of the deeds of the Body Both of these Connexions are good but I preferr the first If we take them apart and as they lie in themselves so they contain these three things in them 1. A Glorious Priviledge the being the Sons of God 2. A Description of the Persons to whom this Priviledge belongs they are such who are led by the Spirit of God 3. The Adaequateness or Commensurateness between the Persons describ'd and the Priviledge asserted As many as are led just so many and no more all such and none but such are the Sons of God 'T is Inclusive or Extensive to all of them Exclusive and Limiting to all others The words are an entire Proposition As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God The Subject hereof they that are led by the Spirit I am to speak unto as to the Praedicate they are the Sons of God that I shall not insist upon further than as 't is reducible under the Subject As many as are led by the Spirit of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some render it by Aguntur as many as are acted by the Spirit Some by * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. impelluntâ—r ad sanctas Actiones Piscat Impelluntur as many as are impell'd vigorously urg'd and mov'd by the Spirit The most by Ducuntur as many as are led by the Spirit We have the same Phrase with another Priviledge annext Gal. 5.18 If ye be led 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Spirit ye are not under the Law It 's evident the Expression is allusive and Metaphorical And it alludes either to Guides such as lead the Blind or those that are in the Dark or Travellers that know not their way Or to Mothers and Nurses who take their Children by the hand such as cannot goe and therefore they lead uphold and help them Answerably to both of these Believers are led by the spirit of God with respect partly to their Spiritual Blindness and Darkness and partly to their spiritual Weakness and Infirmity The Holy Ghost is both their Guide and Director to keep them from wandring and also their Vpholder and Strengthner to keep them from falling The Point to be discoursed of is this That Gods spirit is a leading spirit to â—os and in all Gods Children The Acts and Operations of this Spirit are various and multiform Several of which are instanc't in in this Chapter the Law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath