necessary with ease and quietness yea and without any neglect of what is necessary to be done in order to the common necessities of our Lives and Callings it is not these that disable us and rob us of our time But the Thieves that rob us of our time and our one thing necessary are negligence excess of pleasures immoderate and excessive cares and solicitousness for Wealth and Honour and Grandeur excessive eating and drinking curiosity idleness these are the great consumptives that do not only exhaust that time that would be with infinite advantage spent in our attainment and perfecting and finishing the great work and business of our lives and then when Sickness come and Death come and God Almighty calls upon us to give up the Account of our Stewardship we are all in confusion our business is not half done it may be not begun and yet our Lamp is out our day is spent night hath overtaken us and what we do is with much trouble perplexity and vexation and possibly our Soul takes its flight before we can finish it and all this would have been prevented and remedied by a due consideration of our latter End and that would have put us upon making use of the present time and present opportunity to do our great work while it is called to day because the night cometh when no man can work 3. Most certainly the wise consideration of our latter End and the employing of our selves upon that Account upon that One thing necessary renders the life the most contenting and comfortable life in the World For as a man that is a man afore-hand in the World hath a much more quiet life in order to externals than he that is behind-hand so such a man that takes his opportunity to gain a stock of grace and favour with God that hath made his peace with his Maker through Christ Jesus hath done a great part of the chief business of his Life and is ready upon all occasions for all conditions whereunto the Divine Providence shall assign him whether of life or death or health or sickness or poverty or riches he is as it were aforehand in the business and concern of his everlasting and of his present state also If God lend him longer life in this World he carries on his great business to greater degrees of perfection with ease and without difficulty trouble or perturbation But if Almighty God cut him shorter and calls him to give an account of his Stewardship he is ready and his accounts are fair and his business is not now to be gone about Blessed is that Servant whom his Master when he comes shall find so doing 2. As thus this Consideration makes the Life better so it makes Death easie 1. By frequent consideration of death and dissolution he is taught not to fear it he is as it were acquainted with it aforehand by often preparation for it Thâ— fear of death is more terrible than death iâ— self and by frequent consideration thereof a man hath learned not to fear it Everâ—â—â— Children by being accustomed to what was at first terrible to them learn not to fear 2. By frequent consideration of our latter End death becomes to be no surprize unto us The great terror of death is when it surpriseth a man unawares but anticipation and preparation for it takes away any possibility of surprize upon him that is prepared to receive it Bilney the Martyr was used before his Martyrdom to put his Finger in the Candle that so the flames might be no novelty unto him not surprize him by reason of unacquaintedness with it and he that often considers his latter end seems to experiment death afore it comes whereby he is neither surprised nor affrighted with it when it comes 3. The greatest sting and terror of death are the past and unrepented Sins of the past life the reflection upon these is that which is the strength the elixir the venom of death it self He therefore that wisely considers his latter end takes care to make his peace with God in his life time and They true Faith and Repentance to get his Pardon sealed to enter into Covenant with his God and to keep it to husband his time in the fear of God to observe His Will and keep His Laws to have his Conscience clean and clear And being thus prepared the malignity of death is cured and the bitterness of it healed and the fear of it removed and when a man can entertain it with such an Appeal to Almighty God as once the good King Hezekiah made in that sickness which was of it self mortal Isa 38. 3. Remember now I beseech thee O Lord how I have walked before thee with a perfect heart c. it makes as well the thought as the approach of death no terrible business 4. But that which above all makes death easie to such a considering man is this That by the help of this Consideration and the due improvement of it as is before shewn death to such a man becomes nothing else but a Gate unto a better life not so much a dissolution of his present life as a change of it for a far more glorious happy and immortal life So that though the Body dyes the Man dyes not for the Soul which is indeed the Man makes but a transition from her life in the Body to a life in Heaven no moment intervenes between the putting off the one to the putting on the other And this is the great Priviledge that the Son of God hath given us that by His death hath sanctified it unto us and by His life hath conquered it not only in Himself but for us 1 Cor. 15.57 Thanks be unto God who hath given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord and our Victory that is thus given us is this 1. That the sting of death is taken away and 2. That this very death it self is rendred to us a Gate and passage to life eternal and upon this account it can neither hurt nor may justly affright us It is reported of the Adder that when she is old she glides through some strait passage and leaves her old skin in the passage and thereby renews her vigour and her life It is true this passage through death is somewhat strait and uneasie to the Body which like the decayed skin of the Adder is left by the way and not without some pain and difficulty to it but the Soul passeth through without any harm and without any expence of time and in the next moment acquires her estate of Immortality and Happiness And this is the Victory over Death that all those have that by true Repentance and Faith are partakers of Christ and the benefits of His Death and Resurrection who hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel And now having gone through the benefits of this wise consideration of our latter ends I shall now add some Cautions that are necessary to be
that feareth God discovereth it â—elf in this that it provides and lays up a good and safe store for the future and that â—n respect of these three kinds of futurities 〈◊〉 For the future part of his life 2. For the future evil days 3. For the future life that is to take place after this present short uncertain and transitory life 1. In respect of the future time of his life It is true our lives in this world are but short at best and together with that shortness they are very uncertain But yet the man fearing God makes a due and safe provision for that future portion of his life how short or how long soever it be I. By a constant walking in the fear of God he transmits unto the future part of his life a quiet serene and fair Conscience and avoids those evil fruits and consequences which a sinful life produceth even in the after time of a man's life The bruises and hurts we receive in youth are many times more painful in age than when we first received them Our lives are like the Husbandman's seed-time if we sow evil seeds in the time of our yourh it may be they may lye five ten or more years before they come up to a full crop and possibly then we taste the fruit of these evil ways in an unquiet mind or conscience or some other sowre effects of that evil seed All this inconvenience a man fearing God prevents and instead thereof reaps a pleasing and comfortable fruit of his walk in the fear of God namely a quiet Conscience and an even setled peaceable Soul 2. But besides this by this means he keeps his Interest in and Peace with Almighty God and makes sure of the best Friend in the world for the after time of his life to whom he is sure to have access at all times and upon all occasions with comfort and acceptance for it is an infallible truth That God Almighty never forsakes any that forsake not him first The Second futurity is the future Evil day which will most certainly overtake every man either the day of feeble and decrepit age or the day of sickness or the day of death and against all those the true fear of God makes a safe and excellent provision so that although he may not avoid them he may have a comfortable passage through them and in the midst of all these black clouds the witness of a good conscience fearing God and the evidence of the divine favour will shine into the Soul like a bright Sun with comfort when a man shall be able with Hezekiah Isa 38.3 to appeal to Almighty God Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and in uprightness of heart and â—ave done that which was good in thy sight this will be a cordial under the faintness of old age a relief under the pains of sickness and cure of the fear of death it self which to such a Soul will be only a gate and passage to a life that will be free from all pains and infirmities a life of glory and immortality 3. The third futurity is the Life and State after Death Most certain it is that such a state there will be and that it is but of two kinds a state of everlasting happiness or a state of everlasting miâ—â—ry and that all men in the World do most certainly belong to one of these two states or conditions and as it is most just and equal so it is most true that they that truly fear God and obey him through Jesus Christ shall be partakers of that everlasting state of blessedness and immortal happiness And on the other side they that reject the the fear of God contemn and disobey his will shall without true repentance be subject to a state of everlasting misery Now herein the truest and the greatest â—isdom of a man appears that he duly provides against the latter and to obtain the former all other wisdom of men either to get humane Learning Wealth Honour Power all wisdom of Statesmen and Politicians in comparison of this wisdom is but vain and trivial And this is the wisdom that the fear of God teacheth and bringeth with it into the Soul 1. It provides against the greatest of evils the everlasting state of misery and infelicity and eternal death 2. It provides for and attains an everlasting estate of blessedness and happiness of rest and peace of glory and immortality and eternal life a state of that happiness and glory that exceeds expression and apprehension for Eye hath not seen nor car heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man the things that God hath laid up for them that love him 1 Cor. 2. and they only truly love God that truly fear him Mal. 3.13 And they namely that fear God shall be mine saith the Lord in that day when I make up my jewels And now for the Conclusion of this whole matter let us now make a short Comparison between the persons that fear not God and those that truly fear him and then let any man judge who is the fool and who is the wise man A man hath but a very short uncertain time in this life which in comparison of eternity is less than a moment The great God of Heaven in his Word assures us that there is an estate of Immortality after this life and that that immortal estate is but of two kinds an estate of never-dying misery or an estate of endless glory and tells them If you fear me and obey those easie Commands that are contained in the Book of the Holy Scriptures which I have given you you shall infallibly attain everlasting life and happiness and even in this present life shall have the influence and presence of my favour to support to direct and bless you On the other side if ye refuse my fear and reject my commands and prefer the unlawful and vain delusions of this present life before the obedience of my will and persist impenitently in it your portion shall be everlasting misery And now everlasting life and everlasting death being set before the children of men there are a sort of men that rather choose to disobey the command of God reject his fear and all this that they may enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season those pleasures that are fading and dying that leave behind them a sting that renders their very enjoyment bitter and that make even that very little life they enjoy but a life of discomfort and unhappiness in spight of all their pleasures or be they as sincere as their own hearts can promise them yet they are but for a season a season that in its longest period is but short but is uncertain also a little inconsiderable accident the breath of a vain ... an ill air a little ill digested portion of that excess wherein they delight may put a period to all those pleasures and to that life in a
moment I were bereft of all either by Fire or Depredation how were my mind fitted with humility and patience to submit to a poor strait wanting condition I have now a good Husband Wife Children many Friends that esteem me and are faithful to to me what if God should in a moment deprive me of all these what if my dearest Friends should become my bitterest Enemies how should I bear my self under these changes I have a great Name and Esteem in the World what if in a moment a black cloud of Infamy and Scorn and Reproach were drawn of it and that I should become a scorn and reproach with Job 30.8 among children of fools yea children of base men viler than the earth how were I fitted with humility and evenness of mind to comport with such a condition till it pleaseth God by his Providence and the manifestation of my Innocence if he think sit to scatter this black cloud of Calumny and Reproach or if not yet quietly under it to enjoy the testimony of a good conscience and my own integrity These and the like anticipations of troubled and afflicted conditions would habituate and fit our minds to bear them furnish us with suitable tempers for them render them casie to us when they come and keep our Souls in a due state of moderation and watchfulness before they come As the good Martyr Bilney before his martyrdom by often putting his Finger into the Candle made the Flames which he was after to endure more familiar and tollerable 3. The third Preparative against Affliction and calamitous seasons is to reason our selves off from over-much love and valuation of the World and the best things it affords Philosophy hath made some short essay in this business but the Doctrine of the Gospel hath given us far more noble and effectual topicks and arguments than any Philosophy ever did or can 1. By giving us a plain and clear estimate and valuation of this World and all that seems most valuable in it but this is not all but 2. by shewing us plainly and clearly a more valuable certain and durable estate after death and a way of attaining it with much more ease and contentation than we can attain the most splendid temporals of this World Certain it is that the weight and and stress of afflictions and crosses lyes not so much in the things themselves which we suffer in them or by them as in that overvaluation that we put upon those conveniences which afflictions or crosses deprive us of When news was brought to that noble Roman of the death of his Son it was a great pitch of patience that even that Moral consideration wrought in him Novi me genuisse mortalem though perchance it was not without a mixture of Stoical vain-glory We set too great a value upon our health our wealth our reputation and that makes 〈◊〉 unable to bear with that evenness and contentedness of mind the loss of them by sickness poverty reproach We set too great a rate upon our temporal life here because we set too great a rate upon this World to the enjoyment whereof this life here is accommodated and proportioned and that makes us fear death not only as the ruine of our nature but as that which puts a period to all our comforts Whereas had we but Faith enough to believe the Evangelical truths touching our future happiness it would make us not desire death because we might in the time of this life secure unto our selves that great and one thing necessary and it would make us not to fear death because we see a greater fruition to be enjoyed after it than all the glory of this present World can yield 4. The next Preparative against Afflictions is to keep Piety Innocence and a Good Conscience before it comes As Sin is the sting of death so it is the sting of affliction and that which indeed gives the greatest bitterness and strength unto affliction and the reason is this because it weakens and disables that part in man which must bear and support it This is that which the Wise man observes Proc. 18.14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear which is no more than this It is the mind and spirit of man rightly principled that doth bear and carry a man through those difficulties and afflictions and infirmities under which he is but if that spirit or mind which should carry and bear those evils be hurt or wounded or faint or infirm what is there left in a man to bear that which indeed should be our support Innocence and a Good Conscience keeps the mind and spirit of a man in courage and considence and indeed it hath an influence and suffrage and attestation and support from the God of Heaven to whom a good conscience can with an humble confidence appeal as Hezekiah did under a great affliction Isa 38. and this access to Almighty God doth give new supplies succours and strength to the Soul to bear it up under very great and pressing afflictions But on the other side Sin doth disable the Soul to bear affliction till it be throughly repented of 1. Because it doth in a great measure emasculate and weaken the spirit of a man makes it poor cowardly and unable to bear it self up under the pressure of afflictions 2. It doth in a great measure obstruct the intercourse between God and the Soul and that influence that might and would otherwise be derived to the spirit or mind of a man by the God of the spirits of all flesh Therefore the best preparative against affliction is to have the Soul as clear as may be from the guilt of Sin 1. By an innocent and watchful life in the time of our prosperity before affliction attach us 2. Or at least By a speedy sincere and hearty Repentance for Sin committed and this repentance to be speedy before affliction come For although it is true that many times affliction is the messenger of God to awaken a sinner to repentance and that repentance is accepted by the merciful God yet that repentance is most kindly and easie and renders afflictions less difficult and troublesom which prevents affliction and performs one great end and use of afflictions before it comes He that hath a Soul cleansed by Faith and Repentance from the guilt of Sin before the severity of affliction comes upon him hath but one work to do namely to fit himself with patience to undergo the shock of affliction But he that defers his repentance till driven to it by affliction his work is more difficult because it is double namely to begin his repentance and to bear his affliction And because in many things we offend all and the best have their failings and sins of daily incursion a daily revising and examining of our own failings and renewing of our repentance for our daily faults is of singular use to render afflictions easie because repentance
consideratioâ— would have made them wise and prudentâ— avoid those great Apostasies which shouâ— occasion so terrible a desertion and rejectiâ—â— by God But certainly the words contain an evâ—dent truth with relation to every particulâ— person and to that latter end that is coâ—mon to all man-kind namely their latâ—end by death and separation of the Soul aâ—â— Body the due consideration whereof is great part of Wisdom and a great meaâ— to attain and improve it and very maâ— of the sins and follies of man-kind as thâ— do in a great measure proceed from tâ—â— want of an attentive and serious consiâ—â—ration of it so would be in a great measâ—cured by it It is the most certain known experienâ— truth in the World that all men must dâ—â— that the time of that death is uncertaiâ— that yet most certainly it will comâ—â— and that within the compass of no loâ— time Though the time of our Life migâ—â— be protracted to its longest period yetâ— is ten thousand to one that it will not exceâ— fourscore years where one man attaiâ— to that age ten thousand dit before it aâ—â— this Lecture is read unto us by the many casualties and diseases that put a period to the Lives of many in our own experience and observation by the many warnings and monitions of Mortality that every man finds in himself either by the occurrences of diseases and weaknesses and especially by the declinations that are apparent in us if we attain to any considerable age and the weekly Bills of Mortality in the great City where weekly there are taken away ordinarily three hundred persons The Monuments and Graves in every Church and Church-yard do not only evince the truth of it whereof no man of understanding doubts but do uncessantly inculcate the remembrance of it And yet it is strange to see that this great truth whereof in the theory no mans doubts is little considered or thought upon by the most of man-kind But notwithstanding all these monitions and remembrances of Mortality the living lay 〈◊〉 not to heart and look upon it as a buâ—â—ness that little concerns them as if they were not concerned in this common condition of man-kind and as if the condition of Mortality only concerned them that actually die or are under the immediate Harbingers of it some desperate or acute diseases but concerned not them that are at present in health or not under the stroke of a mortal sickness The Reasons of this Inconsiderateness seem principally these 1. That men are not willing to entertain this unwelcom thought of their own latter End the thought whereof is so unwelcom and troublesom a Guest that it seems to blast and disparage all those present enjoyments of Sense that this Life affords Whereby it comes to pass that as Death it self is unwelcom when it draws near so the thoughts and apprehensions of it becomes as unwelcom as the thing it self 2. A vain foolish conceit that the consideration of the latter End is a kind of presage and invitation of it and upon this account I have known many superstitiously and foolishly to forbear the making of their Wills because it seemed to them ominous and a presage of Death whereas this consideration though it fits and prepares man for Death it doth no way hasten or presage it 3. A great difficulty that ordinarily attends our humane condition to think otherwise concerning our condition than what at present we feel and find We are now in health and we can hardly bring our selves to think that a time must and will come wherein we shall be sick We are now in life and therefore we can hardly cast our thoughts into such a mould to think we shall die and hence it is true as the common Proverb is That there is no man so old but he thinks he shall live a year longer It is true this is the way of man-kind to put far from us the evil day and the thought of it but this our way is our folly and one of the greatest occasions of those other follies that commonly attend our lives and therefore the great means to care this folly and to make us wise is wisely to consider our latter end This Wisdom appears in those excellent effects it produceth which are generally these two 1. It teacheth us to live well 2. It teacheth us to die easily For the former of these the consideration of our latter end doth in no sort make our lives the shorter but it is a great means to make our lives the better 1. It is a great monition and warning of us to avoid Sin and a great means to prevent it When I shall consider that certainly I must die and I know not how soon why should I commit those things that if they hasten not my latter end yet they will make it more uneasie and troublesom by the reflection upon what I have done amiss I may die to morrow why should I commit that evil that will then be gall and bitterness unto me would I do it if I were to die to morrow why should I then do it to day perchance it may be the last act of my Life and however let me not conclude so ill for for ought I know it may be my concluding Act in this Scene of my Life 2. It is a great motive and means to put us upon the best and most profitable improvement of our time There be certain Civil and Natural actions of our lives that God Almighty hath indulged and allowed to us and indeed commanded us with moderation to use As the competent supplies of our own Natures with moderation and sobriety the provision for our Families Relations and Dependances without covetousness or anxiety the diligent and faithful walking in our Callings and discharge thereof But there are also other businesses of greater importance which yet are attainable without injuring our selves in those common concerns of our Lives namely our knowledge of God and of His Will of the doctrine of our Redemption by Christ our Repentance of Sins past making and keeping our Peace with God acquainting our selves with Him living to His Glory walking as in His Presence Praying to Him learning to Depend upon Him Rejoycing in Him walking Thankful unto Him These and such like as these are the great Business and End of our Lives for which we enjoy them in this World and these fit and prepare us for that which is to come And the consideration that our Lives are short and uncertain and that Death will sooner or later come puts us upon this resolution and practice to do this our great work while it is called to day that we loiter not away our day and neglect our task and work while we have time and opportunity lest the night overtake us when we cannot work to gain Oyl in our Lamps before the door be shut And if men would wisely consider their latter Ends they might do this great business this one thing
annexed to this Consideration We are to know that although Death be thus subdued and rendred rather a benefit than a terrour to good men yet 1. Death is not to be wished or desired though it be an object not to be feared it is a thing not to be coveted for certainly life is the greatest temporal blessing in the World It was the passion not the virtue of that excellent Prophet Elijah that desired to dye because he thought himself only left of the true worshippers of God 1 Kings 19.4 We are all placed in this World by Almighty God and a talent of life is delivered to us and we are commanded to improve it a task is set every one of us in this life by the great Master of the Family of Heaven and Earth and we are required with patience and obedience and faithfulness to perform our task and not to be weary of our work nor wish our day at an end before its time When our Lord calls us it is our duty with courage and chearfulness to obey His call but until He calls it is our duty with patience and contentedness to perform our task to be doing of our work And indeed in this life our Lord hath delivered us several tasks of great importance to do as namely 1. To improve our graces and virtues our Knowledge and Faith and those works of piety and goodness that he requires the better and closer we follow that business here the greater will be our reward and improvement of glory hereafter And therefore as we must with all readiness give over our work when our Master calls us so we must with all diligence and perseverance continue our employment out till he calls us and with all thankfulness unto God entertain and rejoyce in that portion of life he lends us because we have thereby an opportunity of doing our Master the more service and of improving the degrees of our own glory and happiness 2. And besides the former he hath also set us another task namely to serve our Generation to give an example of virtue and goodness to encourage others in the ways of virtue and goodness to provide for our Families and Relations to do all good offices of Justice Righteousness Liberality Charity to others cheerfully and industriously to follow our Callings and Employments and infinite more as well Natural Civil Moral employments which though of a lower importance in respect of our selves yet are of greater use and moment in respect of others and are as well as the former required of us and part of the task that our great Lord requires of us and for the sake of which he also bestows many Talents upon us to be thus improved in this life and for which we must also at the end of our day give our Lord an account and therefore for the sake of this also we are to be thankful for our life and not be desirous to leave our post our station our business our life till our Lord call us to Himself in the ordinary way of His Providence for He is the only Lord of our lives and we are not the Lords of our own lives 2. A second Caution is this That as the business and employments and concerns of our life must not estrange us from the thoughts of death so again we must be careful that the overmuch thought of death do not so much possess our thoughts as to make us forget the concerns of our life nor neglect the businesses which that portion of time is allowed us for As the business of fitting our Souls for Heaven the businesses of our callings relations places stations Nay the comfortable thankful sober enjoyments of those honest lawful comforts of our life that God lends us so as it be done with great sobriety moderation as in the presence of God and with much thankfulness to Him for this is part of that very duty we owe to God for those very external comforts and blessings we enjoy Deut. 28.47 A wise and due consideration of our latter ends is neither to render us a sad melancholy disconsolate people nor to render us unfit for the businesses and offices of our life but to render us more watchful vigilant industrious soberly cheerful and thankful to that God that hath been pleased thus to make our lives serviceable to Him comfortable to us profitable to others and after all this to take away the bitterness and sting of death through Jesus Christ our Lord. OF VVISDOM AND The Fear of GOD That that is True WISDOM JOB XXVIII 28. And to man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding THe great preheminence that Man hath over Beasts is his Reason and the great preheminence that one man hath over another is Wisdom though all men have ordinarily the priviledge of Reason yet all men have not the habit of Wisdom The greatest commendation that we can ordinarily give a man is that he is a wise man and the greatest reproach that can be to a man and that which is worst resented is to be called or esteemed a fool and yet as much as the reputation of wisdom is valued and the reputation of folly is resented the generality of mankind are in truth very fools and make it the great part of their business to be so and many that pretend to see◠after wisdom do either mistake the thing or mistake the way to attain commonl◠those that are the greatest pretenders 〈◊〉 wisdom and the search after it place it i◠some little narrow concern but place i◠not in its true latitude commensurate to th◠nature of mankind And hence it is tha◠one esteems it the only wisdom to be 〈◊〉 wise Politician or Statesman another t◠be a wise and knowing Naturalist anothe◠to be a wise acquirer of Wealth and th◠like and all these are wisdoms in their kind and the World perchance would be much better than it is if these kind of wisdom were more in fashion than they are bu◠yet these are but partial wisdoms the wisdom that is most worth the seeking and finding is that which renders a man a Wise Man This excellent man Job after a diligen◠search in the speech of this Chapter after Wisdom what it is where to be found doth at length make these two Conclusions viz. 1. That the true root of wisdom and that therefore best knew where it was to be found and how to be attained is certainly none other but A mighty God vers 23. God understandeth the way thereof and knoweth the place thereof and 2. As he alone best knew it so he best knew how to prescribe unto mankind the means and method to attain it To man he said to fear God that is wisdom that is it is the proper and adequate wisdom sutable to humane nature and to the condition of mankind and we need not doubt but it is so because he that best knew what was
year in a week in a day in an hour in an unthought of moment before a man hath opportunity to consider to bethink himself or to repent and then the door of life and happiness is shut Again there are a sort of men that consider this great Proposal and choose the Fear of Almighty God and with it Eternal Life and are content to deny themselves in things unlawful to obey Almighty God to keep his favour to walk humbly with him to accept of the tender of Life and Salvation upon the terms propounded by Almighty God And in the practice of this Fear they enjoy His favour and presence and love and after this life spent whether it be long or short and whether their death be lingring or sudden are sure the next moment after death to enjoy an immortal life of glory and happiness Judge then which of these is the truly Wise man whether this be not a Truth beyond dispute The Fear of God that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to depart from evil is Underâ—anaâ—â— OF AFFLICTIONS THE Best Preparation for them and Improvement of them and of our Delivery out of them JOB V. 6 7. Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground Yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward JOB's Friends though in the particular Case of Job they were mistaken yet they were certainly very wise godly and observing men and many of their Sentences were full of excellent and useful Truths and particularly this Speech of Eliphaz which importeth these two useful Propositions 1. That the general state of man in this world is a state of Trouble and Affiiction and it is so common to him so incident to all degrees and conditions of mankind that it seems almost as universal as that natural propension in the sparks to fly upward No person of whatsoever age sex condition degree quality profession but hath a part in this common state of mankind and although some seem to have a greater portion of it than others some seem to have greater and longer vicissitudes and intermissions and allays thereof than others yet none are totally exempt from it yea it is rare to find any man that hath had the ordinary extent of the age of man but his troubles crosses calamities afflictions have overweighed and exceeded the measure of his comforts and contentments in this life 2. That yet those Afflictions and Troubles do neither grow up by a certain regular and constant course of Nature as Plants and Vegetables do out of the ground neither are they meerly accidental and casual but they are sent disposed directed and managed by the conduct and guidance of the most wise Providence of Almighty God and this he proveth in the sequel of this Chapter And as in all things in Nature the most wise God doth nothing at random or at a venture so in this part of his providential dispensation towards mankind he doth exercise the same with excellent wisdom and for excellent Ends even for the very good and advantage of mankind in general and particularly of those very persons that seem most to suffer and be afflicted by them sometimes to punish sometimes to correct sometimes to prevent sometimes to heal sometimes to prepare sometimes to humble always to instruct and teach and better the children of men And indeed if there were no other end but these that follow this seeming sharp Providence of Almighty God would be highly justified namely first to keep men humble and disciplinable Man is a proud vain creature and were that humor constantly fed with prosperity and success it would strangely pust up this vain humor Afflictions and troubles are the excellent and necessary correctives of it and prick this swelling impostumation of pride and haughtiness which would otherwise render men intollerable in themselves and one to another Secondly to bring mankind to recognize Almighty God to seek unto him to depend upon him This is the most natural and specifical effect of Afflictions Hos 5.15 In their afflictions they will seek me early Joâ—ah 1. the rough and stubborn Mariners in a storm will cry every one to his God Thirdly to tutor and discipline the children of men in this great Lâ—sson That their Happiness lyes not in this World but in a better and by this means even by the crosses and vexations and troubles of this World and by these plain and feasible documents to carry mankind up to the end of their beings God knows those few and little comforts of this life notwithstanding all the troubles and crosses with which they are interlarded are apt to keep the hearts even of good men in too great love of this World What would become of us if our whole lives here should be altogether prosperous and contenting without the intermixture of crosses and afflictions But of these things more hereafter Now since the state of mankind in this World is for the most part thus cloudy and stormy and that ordinarily we can expect it to be no otherwise there are these Considerations which become every wise and good mind to acquaint himself with 1. What Preparation is fittest to be made by every man before they come 2. How they are to be received and entertained and improved when they come and while they are incumbent 3. What is the best and safest temper of mind when any of them are removed Touching the first of these namely Preparation before they come and the best preparatives seem to be these 1. A right and sound conviction and consideration of this most certain experimental truth namely That no man whatsoever how good just pious wise soever can by any means expect to be exempt from them but must be more or less subject to Affliction of one kind or other at one time or another in one measure or another for man is certainly born to trouble as the sparks sly upward And this certain truth will be evident if we consider the several kinds of affliction that are common to mankind and herein I shall forbear the Instances which concern our childhood and youth as such which yet notwithstanding are subject to afflictions that though they seem not such to men of riper years yet are as real and pungent and deeply and sensibly grievous to them as those that seem of greater moment to men of riper years But I shall apply my self to those Instances which are more evident and of which those that have the exercise of their reason may be more capable Afflictions seem to be of two kinds 1. Such as are common calamities befalling a Nation City or Society of men 2. Or more personal that concern a man in his particular Touching the former of these namely common calamities such are Wars Devastations Famines Pestilences spreading contagious Epidemical Diseases great Conflagrations experience tells us and daily lets us see that they involve in their extent the generality of men good and bad just and unjust
and when all was done Jesus that was made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of death was crowned with glory and honour That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sens to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings Heb. 2.9 and this was done besides that Expiatory Sacrifice thereby made for us for these admirable Ends 1. That we might see before us the ordinary method of the Divine Dispensation his own Eternal Son that knew no sin yet was made a man of forrows and then why should we poor sinful men expect to be exempted and priviledge more than the Eternal Son in whom God from Heaven proclaimed himself well pleased 2. That we might have an Example before us He that is made the Captain of our Salvation was likewise to be the common pattern and image whereunto all his disciples and followers are to be conformed both passively and actively he was exhibited as the First-born among many Brethren the common image according to which all his disciples and followers should be conformed Rom. 8.29 As he was made perfect by sufferings so must we and as he through a vail of Sufferings passed into Glory so must we that if we suffer with him we may be glorified with him He was exhibited as the common standard and pattern of a Christian's condition in the lowest estate that can befall him in this life and surely we have reason to be contented to be conformed and subject to the condition of the Captain of our Salvation 3. That as he was thus exhibited as a passive example of our conformity so he became an active example for our imitation full of quietness composedness submission patience and contentation to give us an example 1 Pet. 2. 21. and to imprint upon us the same temper and frame of mind Phil. 2.6 that whiles we behold his example we may by a secret sympathy be transformed as it were into the same mould and image 4. That we might have this great pledge and assurance that he who once lived in this world and had experience of the difficulties and troubles of it and is now translated to the right hand of the glorious Majesty of God and hath the prospect of all our wants and needs and sorrows and troubles and sufferings and of the degrees of strength we have to bear it and hath the plenitude of power to support to strengthen and deliver us I say that we may be assured that he is a merciful and faithful High Priest sensible and compassionate of our condition Heb. 2. 18. for in that he himself suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Thus it hath pleased the goodness of Almighty God who knows our frame and considers that we are but dust to use as much indulgence and compliance as is possible for a most tender Father to his weak and froward Children That since he knows affliction and crosses are as necessary for us as the very best of all our blessings yet he gives us all the helps and supplies that are imaginable with the greatest suitableness to our nature to make them easie supportable and profitable and to bear us up to bear them with the greatest patience and contentation We cannot be without them for then we are very apt to grow proud and secure self-conceited insolent to set our rest and be building of Tabernacles here to dread and fear death beyond all measure and order and to be utterly unprovided for it to be desirous to take our portion in this life and to make our Heaven on this side death as the two Tribes desired their lot on this side Jordan because they found it convenient Num. 32. And though we cannot well be without them yet we frand in need of daily helps to bear them patiently contentedly and and profitably and we are accordingly by the Divine Goodness furnished with helps suitable to our condition and frame As all the afflictions crosses and troubles of this life are managed by the wise Providence and Government of the most wise and merciful God and have their voice errand and message from him to us Hear the Rod and him that hath appointed it So he hath given us the inestimable Jewel of his Word to expound and unriddle what he means by them and to instruct us how to carry our selves under them how to improve them all for our spiritual and everlasting good how with patience and cheerfulness to undergo them how to be drawn the nearer to God by them And to this end he hath given us most divine and wise counsels touching them great assurance of his love goodnrss and the light of his countenance to carry and conduct us with comfort and dependance upon him in them and hath given us admirable Examples which are as so many Commentaries and Expositions upon them and to shew us what he means and intends in them and by them As the examples of the Jewish Church and People the examples of his best Saints and Servants and their sufferings and the reasons of them and their deportment under them and wherein they failed and wherein they benefited by them as Abraham Job Moses David Hezekiah Josiah and all the Apostles and Primitive Christians in whom we may with great clearness and satisfaction observe how much advantage they got by their afflictions what losses they we are at by their peevishness frowardness and discontent with their afflicted conditions what comfort satisfaction and benefit they attained by their patience quietness equality of mind voluntary submission to the Divine Providence and contentation with their estates though never so troublesom and uneasie But above all the bountiful God hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel He hath given us the clearest conviction imaginable that this world and our life in it is not our principal End and Scope but the place of our Pilgrimage at best our Inn not our home our place of tryal and preparation for a better state He hath shewed us that it is but our passage and such a passage as must and shall be accompanied with afflictions and it may be with persecution by evil men evil Angels evil occurrences that it is the place of our warsare a troublesom and tumultuous stormy Sea through which we must pass before we come to our Haven that our Countrey our home our place of rest and â—â—ppiness lies on the other side of death where there shall be no sorrow nor trouble nor fears nor dangers nor afflictions nor tears but a place of eternal and unchangeable comfort fulness of most pure and uninterrupted pleasures and that for evermore that through many tribulations and afflictions we must enter into that Kingdom as his ancient People entred into their Canaan through a red Sea a tiresom and barren Wilderness firey Serpents wants
enemies and unintermitted dangers and difficulties that our light afflictions which are here but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Our afflictions and incoveniences in this world 1. are light in comparison of that exceeding far more exceeding weight of glory 2. As they are but light so being compared with that eternal weight of glory they are but for a moment The longest life we here live is not ordinarily above threescore and ten years and though the more troublesom and uneasie that life is the longer it seems yet compared with the infinite abyss of Eternity it is but a moment yea less than a moment if less can be yet such is the longest stay in this life if compared with Eternity And the gracious God hath presented this greatest and most important truth to us with the greatest evidence and assurance that the most desponding and suspitious Soul can desire 1. He hath given his own Word of Truth to assure us of it 2. He hath given his own Son to seal it unto us by the most powerful and convincing evidence imaginable by his mission from Heaven on purpose to tell us it by his Miracles by attestations from Heaven by the laying down his own Life in witness of it by his Resurrection and Ascention by the miraculous Mission of his Holy Spirit visibly and audibly Again 3. He hath confirmed it to us by the Doctrine and Miracles of his Apostles by their Death and Martyrdom as a Witness of the Truth they taught by the numerous Converts and Primitive Christians and godly Martyrs who all lived and dyed in this Faith and for it who made it their choice rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season declaring plainly that they sought a better City and Countrey that is a heavenly Heb. 11.15 25. and this Countrey and this City they had in their Eye even whiles they lived in this troublesom world And this prospect this hope and expectation rendred this lower world of no great value to them the pleasures thereof they esteemed but low and little and the troubles and uneasiness thereof they did undergo patiently cheerfully and contentedly for they looked beyond them and placed their hopes their treasure their comfort above them And even whiles they were in this life yet they did by their faith and hope anticipate their own happiness and enjoyed by faith even before they actually possessed it by fruition for Faith is the substance of things hoped for Heb. 11. and makes those things present by the firmness of a sound perswasion which are in themselves future and to come And this is that which will have the same effect with us if we live and believe as they did and be but firmly and soundly perswaded of the truth of the Gospel thus admirably confirmed unto us This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Heb. 10.38 The just shall live by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 We live by faith and not by sight and excellent is that passage to this purpose 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal And therefore if we do but seriously believe the truth of the Gospel the truth of the life to come the best external things of this world will seem but of small moment to take up the choicest of our desires or hopes and the worst things this world can inflict will appear too light to provoke us to impatience or discontent He that hath but Heaven and everlasting glory in prospect and a firm expectation will have a mind full of contentation in the midst of the lowest and darkest condition here on Earth Impatience and discontent never can stay long with us if we awake our minds and summon up our faith and hope in that life and happiness to come Sudden passions of impatience and discontent may like clouds arise and trouble us for a while but this faith and this hope rooted in the Heart if stirred up will like the Sun scatter and dispell them and cause the light of patience contentation and comfort to thine through them And as we have this hope of immortality and blessedness set before us so the means and way to attain it is easie and open to all no person is excluded from it that wilfully excludes not himself Isa 51.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat without money and without price Rev. 22.17 Whosoever will let him take of the waters of life freely Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest The way to everlasting happiness and consequently to contentation here is laid open to all It was the great reason why God made mankind to communicate everlasting happiness to them and when they wilfully threw away that happiness it was the end why he sent his Son into the world to restore mankind unto it And as the way is open to all so it is easie to all his yoak is easie and his burthen light The terms of attaining happiness if sincerely endeavoured are easie to be performed by virtue of that grace that God Almighry affords to all men that do not wilfully reject it namely to believe the truth of the Gospel so admirably confirmed and sincerely to endeavour to obey the precepts thereof which are both just and reasonable highly conducing to our contentation in this life and consummating our happiness in the life to come And for our encouragement in this obedience we are sure to have if we desire it the special grace of the Blessed Spirit to assist us and a merciful Father to accept of our sincerity and a gracious Saviour to pardon our failings and deficiencies So that the way to attain contentation in this life and happiness in the life to come as it is plain and certain so it is open and free none is excluded from it but it is free and open to all that are but willing to use this means to attain it And I shall wind up all this long Discourse touching Contentation with this plain and ordinary Instance I have before said that our home our Countrey is Heaven and Everlasting Happiness where there are no sorrows nor fears nor troubles that this World is the place of our travel and pilgrimage and at the best our Inn Now when I am in my journey I meet with several inconveniencies it may be the way is bad and foul the weather tempestuous or stormy
life and all things 2. As in the certainty so in the Plainness and Easiness of the truth The most excellent subjects of other knowledge have long windings before a man can come at them and are of that difficulty and abstruseness that as every brain is not fit to undertake the acquiring of it so much pains labour industry advertency assiduity is required in the best of judgments to attain but a competent measure of it witness the studies of Arithmetick Geometry Natural Philosophy Metaphysicks c. wherein great labour hath been taken to our hands to make the passage more easie and yet still are full of difficulty But in this knowledge it is otherwise as it is a knowledge fitted for a universal use the bringing of mankind to God so it is fitted with a universal fitness and convenience for that use easie plain and familiar The poor receive the Gospel Matth. 11.5 and indeed the plainness of the doctrine was that which made the wise world stumble at it and thence it was that it was hid from the wise and prudent Matth. 11.25 who like Naaman with the Prophet could not be contented to be healed without some great ostentation nor were contented to think any thing could be the wisdom of God and the power of God unless it were somewhat that were abstruse and at least conformable to that wisdom they had and were troubled to think that that wisdom or doctrine that must be of so great a use and end should fall under the capacity of a Fisherman a maker of Tents a Carpenter But thus it pleased God to choose a Doctrine of an easie acquisition 1. That no slesh should glory in his sight 1 Cor. 1.29.2 That the way to Salvation being a common thing propounded to all mankind might be difficult to none Believe and thy sins be forgiven Believe and thou shalt be saved Believe and thou shalt be raised up to Glory Joh. 6. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and Believeth on him may have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day 3. As in the Certainty and Plainness so in the Sublimity and Loftiness of the subject And hence it is that Metaphysicks is reckoned the most noble knowledge because conversant with and about the noblest subject substance considered in abstractâ— from corporeity and particular adherents falling under other Sciences But the subject of this knowledge is of the highest consideration Almighty God the dispensation of his counsel touching man in reference to the everlasting condition of mankind the true measure of just and unjust the pure will of God the Son of God and his miraculous Incarnation Death Resurrection and Ascention the great Covenant between the Eternal God and fallen man made sealed and confirmed in Christ his great transaction with the Father in their Eternal Counsel and since his Ascention in his continual Intercession for man the means of the discharge and satisfaction of the breach of the Law of God the state of the Soul after death in blessedness or misery these and many of these are the subject of that knowledge that is revealed in the knowledge of Christ such as their very matter speaks them to be of a most high nature the great transactions of the counsel and administration of the mighty King of Heaven in his Kingdom over the children of men such as never fell under the discovery or so much as the disquisition of the wisest Philosophers and such as the very Angels of Heaven desire to look down into 1 Pet. 1. and behold with admiration that manfold wisdom of God which is revealed unto us poor worms in Christ Jesus 4. As the matters are wonderful high and sublime so they are of most singular Use to be known There be many pieces of Learning in the World that are conversant about high subjects as that part of Natural Philosophy concerning the Heaven and the Soul the Metaphysicks the abstruser parts of the Mathematicks that are not in order to practice But as it may fall out that the knowledge of the subject is unaccessible in any certainty so if it were never so exactly known it goes no farther and when it 's known there 's an end and no more use of it Whereas many times subjects of an inferiour nature are more useful in their knowledge as practical Mathematicks Mechanicks Moral Philosophy Policy but then they are of an inferiour nature more useful but perchance less noble But here is the priviledge of the knowledge of Christ Jesus that as it is of Eminence and Height so it is of Use and Convenience and that in the highest measure as it is a Pearl for Beauty so it is for Value This knowledge is a kind of Catholicon of universal use and convenience In reference to this life Am I in Want in Contempt in Prison in Banishment in Sickness in Death This knowledge gives me Contentedness Patience Cheerfulness Resignation of my self to his will who hath sealed my Peace with him and Favour from him in the Great Covenant of his Son and I can live upon this though I were ready to starve when I am assured that if it be for my good and the glory of his Name I shall be delivered if not I can be contented so my Jewel the Peace of God and my own Conscience by the Blood of Christ be safe Am I in Wealth Honour Power Greatness Esteem in the world This knowledge teacheth me Humility as knowing from whom I received it Fidelity as knowing to whom I must account for it Watchfulness as knowing the Honour of my Lord is concerned in some measure in my carriage and that the higher my employment is the more obnoxious I am to temptation from without from the that watch for my halting and from within by a deceitful heart And in all it teacheth me not to overvalue it nor to value my self the more by it or for it because the knowledge of Christ Jesus presents me with a continual object of a higher value the price of the high calling of God in Christ it teacheth me to look upon the glory of the World as rust in comparison of the glory that excelleth and the greatest of men as worms in comparison of the great God And as thus in reference to the temporal condition of my life this knowledge of Christ is of singular use and makes a man a better Philosopher than the best of Morals in reference thereunto So it guides me in the management of all Relations 1. To God it presents him unto me in that representation that is right full of Majesty yet full of Love which teacheth me Reverence and yet Access with boldness Love and Obedience 2. To Man Justice giving every man his due for so the knowledge of Christ teacheth me Do as ye would be done by Mercy to forgive Compassion to pity Liberality to relieve Sobriety in the use of creatures and yet Comfort in
his own Tragedy still poor despised of his own Countreymen and of those that were of reputation for Learning and Piety scandalized under the name of an Impostor a Winebibber a friend to Publicans and sinners a worker by the Devil mad and possessed with a Devil These and the like were his entertainments in the World and which is more often put to shift for his life and in sum what the Prophet predicted concerning him fulfilled to the uttermost Isa 53.3 Despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and all this to befall the Eternal Son of God under the vail of our flesh And all this voluntarily undertaken and cheerfully undergone even for the sakes of his Enemies and those very people from whom he received these indignities 3. But all these were but like small velitations and conflicts preparatory to the main Battel We therefore come to the Third Consideration Christ Jesus and him Crucified there is the account of the Text As Christ Jesus is the most worthy subject of all knowledge so Christ Jesus under this consideration as Crucified is that which is the fullest of wonder admiration love And therefore let us now take a survey of Christ Jesus crucified as that is the highest manifestation of his love so it is the eye the life of the Text Christ above all other knowledge and Christ Crucified above all other knowledge of Christ And now a man upon the first view would think this kind of knowledge so much here valued were a strange kind of knowledge and the prelation of this knowledge a strange mistake in the Apostle 1. Crucified Death is the corruption of nature and such a kind of death by crucifixion the worst the vilest of deaths carrying in it the punishment of the lowest condition of men and for the worst of offences and yet that death and such a death should be the ambition of an Apostle's knowledge is wonderful 2. Christ crucified carries in it a seeming excess of incongruity that he that was the Eternal Son of God should take upon him our nature and in that nature annointed and consecrated by the Father full of Innocence Purity Goodness should dye and that by such a death and so unjustly Could this be a subject or matter of knowledge so desireable as to be preferred before all other knowledge which should rather seem to be a matter of so much horrour so much indignation that a man might think it rather fit to be forgotten than to be affected to be known 3. Jesus crucified a Saviour and yet to be crucified it seems to blast the expectation of Salvation when the Captain of it must dye be slain be crucified it carries in it a kind of victory of death and hell over our salvation when the instrument thereof must suffer death and such a death When the Birth of Christ was proclaimed indeed it was matter of joy and worthy the proclamation of Angels Luke 2.12 To you is born this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord and can the death of that Saviour be a thing desireable to be known The Birth of Christ seemed to be the rising Sun that scattered light hope and comfort to all Nations but can the setting of this Sun in so dark a cloud as the Cross be the choicest piece of knowledge of him which seems as it were to strangle and stifle our hopes and puts us as it were upon the expostulation of the dismay'd Disciples Luke 24.21 But we trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel But for all this this knowledge of Christ Jesus crucified will appear to be the most excellent comfortable useful knowledge in the world if we shall consider these Particulars 1. Who it was that suffered 2. What he suffered 3. From whom 4. How he suffered 5. For whom he suffered 6. Why and upon what Motive 7. For what End he suffered 8. What are the fruits and Benefits that accrew by that suffering All these Considerations are wrapt up in this one subject Christ Jesus and him crucified 1. Who it was that thus suffered It was Christ Jesus the Eternal Son of God cloathed in our flesh God and Man united in one Person his manhood giving him a capacity of suffering and his Godhead giving a value to that suffering and each nature united in one person to make a compleat Redeemer the Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 the Prince of Life Acts 3.15 the Light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world Joh. 1.9 as touching his Divine nature God over all blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 and as touching his Humane nature full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1.14 and in both the beloved Son of the Eternal God in whom he proclaimed himself well pleased Math. 3.17 But could no other person be found that might suffer for the sins of Man but the Son of God Or if the business of our Salvation must be transacted by him alone could it not be without suffering and such suffering as this No. As there was no other Name given under Heaven by which we might be saved nor was there any found besides in the compass of the whole World that could expiate for one sin of man but it must be the Arm of the Almighty that must bring Salvation Isa 63.5 So if the Blessed Son of God will undertake the business and become the Captain of our Salvation he must be made perfect by suffering Heb. 2.10 and if he will stand in the stead of man he must bear the wrath of his Father if he will become sin for man though he knew no sin he must become a curse for man And doubtless this great mystery of the person that suffered cannot choose but be a very high and excellent subject of knowledge so full of wonder and astonishment that the Angels gaze into it And as it is a strange and wonderful thing in it self so doubtless it was ordained to high and wonderful ends bearing a suitableness unto the greatness of the instrument This therefore is the first Consideration that advanceth the excellency of this knowledge the person that was Crucified 2. What he suffered Christ Jesus and him crucified though all the course of his life was a continual suffering and the preamble or walk unto his death which was the end of his life yet this was the completing of all the rest and the tyde and waves of his sufferings did still rise higher and higher till it arrived in this and the several steps and ascents unto the Cross though they began from his Birth yet those which were more immediate began with the preparation to the Passover The Council held by the chief Priests and Scribes for the crucifying of our Saviour was sate upon two days before the Passover Matth. 26.2 Mark 14.1 and this was the first step to Mount Calvary And doubtless it was no small addition to our Saviour's Passion that it was hatched in the Council of the chief
only both Evangelists Matthew and Luke testifie it was a cry with a loud voice to evidence to the world that in the very article of his giving up of the ghost the strength of nature was not wholly spent for he cryed with a loud voice 3. The comfortable resignation of his soul unto the hands of his Father Luk. 23. 46. Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And although but even now the black storm was upon his soul that made him cry out with that loud and bitter cry yet the cloud is over and with comfort he delivers up his soul into the hands of that God whom he thought but even now had forsaken him It is more than probable that that bitter cry was uttered at the very Zenith of all his pains and when he had taken the vinegar and proclaimed that it is finished though they were all wrapt up in a very small time about the end of the ninth hour yet now there remained no more but for him to give up his spirit which he instantly thereupon did Joh. 19.30 He said It is finished he bowed the head and gave up the ghost Now the things wonderfully observable in the death of our Saviour are many 1. That it was a voluntary delivering up of his spirit this is that which he said Matth. 10.18 No man taketh it from me but I lay it down I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again this commandment have I received of my Father And truly this voluntary delivering up of his soul was well near as great an evidence of his Divinity as his resuming it again so that this very delivering up of his soul converted the Centurion Mar. 15.39 When he saw that he so cryed and gave up the ghost he said Truly this man was the Son of God Now that he thus voluntarily gave up his spirit is evident 1. By the strength of nature that was yet upon him in the very article of his death he cryed with a loud voice 2. That the Thieves who were crucified at the same time dyed not till there was a farther violence used by breaking their legs Joh. 19.32 but he expired to prevent the violence of the Souldiers and to fulfill the type and prophecy Not a bone of him shall be broken Joh. 19.36.3 That the suddenness of his death caused admiration in those that well knew the lingring course of such a death in the Centurion Mar. 15.39 in Pilate Mar. 15.44 which might probably be the cause that the insolent Souldier to secure the assurance of his death pierced his side with a spear Job 19.34 and thereby fulfilled that other Scripture which he never thought of Job 15.37 Now the wonderful occurrences that accompanied our Saviour's death were very many and considerable 1. A strange and particular Fulfilling of the Prophecies and Types that were concerning our Saviour's death and the very individual circumstances that attended it and all to consirm our Faith that this was indeed the Messias and that he was thus delivered over to death by the most certain and pre-determinate Counsel of God The Time of his Death so exactly predicted by Daniel ch 9.v.25 26. the parallel circumstances with the Paschal Lamb in the nature of him a Lamb without spot Exod. 12.5 in the time of his delivery over to death at the Feast of the Passover and the very evening wherein the Passover was to be eaten In the Manner of his Oblation not a bone to be broken Exod. 12.46 again the Manner of his Death by piercing his hands and his feet Psal 22.16 the very Words used by him Psal 22.1 Matth. 27. 46. the Words used of him Psal 22.8 Matth. 27.43 the crucifying of him between Malefactors Isa 53.12 the Whippings Isa 53.5 the Dividing of his Garments and casting Lotts upon his Vesture Psa 22.18 the Thirst of our Saviour upon the Cross and the giving him Vinegar and Gall Psal 69.21 2. A strange and miraculous Concussion of nature giving testimony to the wonderful and unheard of dissolution of our Saviour's body and soul Darkness from the sixth hour until the ninth hour And it is observable in the night wherein he was born by a miraculous light the night became as day Luk. 2.9 but at his death a miraculous darkness turned the day into night for three hours Matth. 27.45 at his birth a new Star was created to be the lamp and guide unto the place of his birth Matth. 2.9 but at his death the Sun in the firmament was masked with darkness and yielded not his light while the Lord of life was passing into the vail of death Again another prodigy that accompanied the death of Christ was an Earthquake that rent the rocks and opened the graves and strake amazement and conviction into the Centurion that was watching him Math. 27.52 53 54. When our Saviour was entring into the earth by death the earth trembled and so it did when he was coming out of it by his Resurrection Matth. 28.2 3. Again the Graves were opened and the dead bodies of the Saints arose As the touch of the bones of Elisha caused a kind of resurrection 2 Kings 13.21 so our Saviour's body new saln to the earth did give a kind of particular resurrection to the Saints bodies to testifie that by his death he had healed the deadliness of the Grave and that the satisfaction for Sin was accomplished when Death the wages of Sin was thus Conquered 4. Again the Vail of the Temple was Rent in twain from the top to the bottom Matth. 27.57 the Vail was that which divided the most holy place from the rest of the Tabernacle Exod. 26.33 and in that most Holy place were contained the mysterious Types the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy-Seat and within this Vail only the high Priest entred once a year when he made an atonement for the People and for the Tabernacle Levit. 16.33 Heb. 9.7 and now at our Saviour's death this vail was rent from the top to the bottom and it imported divers very great Mysteries 1. That now our great High Priest was entring into the most holy with his own blood having thereby made the atonement for us Heb. 9.12 By his own blood he entred once into the most holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us 2. That the Means whereby he entred into the most holy place was by the Rending of his Humanity his soul from his body typified by the rending of that vail and therefore his flesh that is his whole humane nature was the vail Heb. 10.20 Consecrated through the vail that is his flesh 3. That now by the death of Christ all those dark Mysteries vailed up formerly in the most holy the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy-Seat are now rendred open and their Mysteries unfolded Christ the Mediator of the Covenant and the Seat of Mercy and Acceptation unto all believers founded and seated upon him and thereby that Life and
Immortality which was wrapt up in the mysteries of the Old covenant and yet those mysteries vailed and inclosed up within the vail is now brought to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 and the vail rent in twain that as well the meaning of those mysteries and types under the Law is discovered 4. That now the use of the Ceremonial Law is at an end the greatest and most sacred mystery of the Tabernacle and indeed of the whole ceremonial Law was this that was within the vail the most holy place wherein were the most holy and revered mysteries the Ark and the Mercy-Seat But now the vail is rent the use abolished the covenant of the people is given the Body of Christ typified by the Temple separated and so the use of the other Temple Tabernacle and the holy Places Vessels Instruments thereof ceased 5. That now the Kingdom of Heaven the most Holy Place is open unto all believers Christ our High Priest is entred in with his own blood and hath not closed the vail after him but rent it in sunder and made and left a passage for all believers to follow him with our prayers and access to the glorious God and hereafter in our persons Heb. 10.19 20. Having therefore bloldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he bath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh let us draw near with a true heart And now we have gone thus far with our Lord unto his death we shall follow him to his Grave Joseph of Arimathea having an honorable mention by all four Evangelists Matth. 27.57 a rich man and Jesus disciple Mar. 15.43 an honorable Counsellor who waited for the Kingdom of God Luk. 23.50 a Counsellor a good man and a just who had not consented to the counsel or deed of the Jews and waited for the Kingdom of God Joh. 19.38 a disciple of Christ but secretly for fear of the Jews this man manifested his faith and love to his Master when he was in his lowest condition goes to Pilate boldly and begs his Saviour's body he wraps it in a clean linnen cloth laid it in a Tomb provided for himself and hewed out of the rock and rolled a great stone upon the door of the Sepulchre And as by his death with the malefactors so by his burial in this rich man's Sepulchre he fulfilled both parts of the Prophecy Isa 53.9 He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death The high Priests continued their malice and their jealousie even against the dead body of our Saviour and to secure themselves against the suspition of his Resurrection the third day take order for making the Sepulchre sure till the third day was past Matth. 27.60 they seal the stone and set a watch And it is very Observable how the almighty Counsel of God made use of the very malice and jealousie of these people for the confirming of his own truth Christ's Resurrection and our Faith Their malicious and curious industry to prevent the possibility of a fictitious Resurrection abundantly and uncontrollably convincing the reality of our Saviour's death and true Resurrection He is laid in the grave the evening of the day wherein he suffered a Stone rolled upon the mouth of the grave such as required a considerable strength to remove it insomuch that the women that came the first day of the week to embalm the body were in a great difficulty how it should be removed Mar. 16.3 for it was a Great stone Matth. 27.60 and this stone Sealed and as if all this were too little and the bonds of death and the grave were too weak they add a Watch of Souldiers to secure the body Matth 27.66 And here we leave for a while our Saviour's body interred with Spices Joh. 19.39 in a new Sepulchre wherein never before any lay Joh. 19.41 hewen out of a rock in the garden Joh. 19.42 that as in the garden death at first laid hold of the first Adam so in the garden the second Adam undergoes the state of death and gains the victory over the grave his agony in a garden and his interrment in a garden his body rests in the grave and his soul translated into Paradise for so he witnessed of himself This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Luk. 23. 43. For at the instant of his dissolution our Satisfaction was made and the work of our Redemption so far as it depended upon his suffering finished So that had it not been for a witness of the reality and truth of his death and of the power and reality of his Resurrection and the fulfilling of the decree of God manifested in the Scriptures he might have reassumed life in the next instant after his death For the debt to the Justice of God was fully satisfied and his continuance in the grave until the third day was not by the power of death which he vanquished in the instant of his dissolution but a voluntary subjecting of himself unto that state for the strengthening of our faith and the fulfilling of the Scriptures And now we come to the Consideration of the Resurrection of our Lord by which he was declared to be the Son of God with power and by which the fulness and compleatness of our Redemption by him is abundantly manifested He chose that Time to dye when the Passover was slain that time wherein Adam was created the sixth day of the week at even He chose that time for his body to rest in the grave and for his soul to rest in Paradise wherein his Father rested from all the great work of the Creation the seventh day of the week and he chose that day to rise again which his Father chose to begin the Creation the first day of the week that the same day might bear the inscription of the Creation and of the Resurrection of the World and that as in that day the Lord God brought light out of darkness so this light the light that enlightneth every man that comes into the world should arise from the land of darkness the grave This is the day that the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce therein The Time of the Day wherein our Lord arose was very early in the morning of the first day of the week as it began to dawn Matth 21.1 while it was yet dark or scarcely full light Joh 17.1 And the Manner of it was full of wonder and astonishment An Angel from heaven comes down to draw the curtain of our Saviour's grave and with an Earthquake rolls away the stone that covered it the Keepers who had watchfully observed the command of their Commanders were stricken with astonishment and became as dead Matth. 28.2 3 4. Our Lord who had power to lay down his life and power to take it up again Joh. 10.17 reassumes his body which though it had tasted death yet had not seen
flesh earthly sensual and devilish Jam 3.15 So that there was not only in our nature an absence of any good that might move God to do any thing for us and an absence of that life that might be sollicitous for it self but there was a positive malignity in our nature against that God that should pardon against that Christ that should satisfie against that Grace and Spirit that should apply We were actuated with those vile affections and lusts that looked upon a Saviour with no less aversion and spite than those devils did that cryed out of the possessed man Art thou come to torment us before our time And yet for these and such as these our Saviour dyed nay some of these who had actually their hands in his blood found the efficacy of that very blood which they shed not crying for revenge against them but for merey for them and healing those who had cruelly spilt it the efficacy of that blessed prayer of his Father forgive them they know not what they do within some few months after his death did first wound their hearts with a sense of their guilt and then healed them with the infusion of his blood Act. 2.23 37. 6. From the consideration of the former particulars it will easily appear what was the Motive of this great work We have seen in the creature nothing but sin and enmity against God and consequently a just obligation to Everlasting wrath and misery so there we can find nothing that might upon any account of merit or desert draw out such merey as this We must seek for the motive in the Author of it and in him there was no necessity at all to bind him to it It was his own free will that at first gave man a being and a blessed being and when he had sinned against the law and condition of his Creation there was a necessity of justice for his eternal punishment but no necessity at all for his Restitution God made all things for his glory not because he stood in need of it for he had in himself an infinite self-sufficiency and happiness that stood not in need of the glory of his creation nor was capable of an accession by it And if it had yet the great God could have enjoyed the glory of his justice in the everlasting punishment of unthankful man and yet had glorious creatures enough the blessed Angels to have been the everlasting partakers and admirers of his goodness And if there had been yet an absolute necessity of visible intellectual creatures to be the participants of his goodness and the active instruments of his glory the same power that created man at first could have created a new generation of men that might have supplied the defection of our first parents and their descendants What then is the original of all this goodness to poor sinful man to purchase such a worthless creature at such an invaluable price as the blood of the Son of God Nothing but Love free undeserved love love that loved before it was sought that loved when it was rejected Deut. 7.7 The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because ye were more but because the Lord loved you he loved you because he loved you As Almighty could not define himself by any thing but himself I am that I am Exod. 3.14 so he can resolve his love into no other motive than his love he loved you because he loved you And here is the spring the fountain of all this strange and unheard of goodness of God in Christ nothing but the free love of God Joh. 3.16 So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. 1 Joh. 4.10 Here is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins and that very same individual love that was in the Father to send was in the Son to come and to dye for us It was he that loved and washed us with his own blood washed us because he loved us When we lay like Ezekiel's wretched infant Ezek. 16.5 6. polluted in our blood when no eye pitied us then this love of God passed by us and said unto us live yea said unto us when we were in our blood live And when that life was not acquirable for us but by the death of the Eternal Son of God then to purchase that life for us he sold his own and to wash us from the pollutions of our blood freely spent and shed his own This was The love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.19 7. Now let us consider the End and Scope of this admirable Love of Christ and as it looks upward towards God so it looks downward towards us as he was the Mediator between both so the end of his Mediatorship had a respect to both 1. In reference to God and so the Ends of our Lord's suffering were principally these 1. To Restore unto Almighty God the active service and glory of his creature Almighty God did at the first create man in such a constitution that he might not only passively and objectively bring unto him the glory of his Power and Wisdom in the framing of such a creature as the Heavens the Stars and other creatures below an intellectual nature do but to be a beholder of himself and his works to be an observer of his will and to glorifie his Maker in the admiration of his Power Wisdom and Goodness and in the Obedience and Observance of his Law and will and to his own glory had by an eternal bond annexed his creature's perfection and blessedness Man rebelled and thereby as he became unserviceable to the end of his creation so he lost the blessedness of his condition Christ came and by his own blood purchased as unto Man his blessedness so unto God the glory and service of his creature This was old Zachary's collection Luk. 2. 74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purâ—sie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And this was the chief part of that account that our Lord giveth unto his Father in that blessed prayer that he made a little before his Passion Joh. 17.4 I have glorified thee on the earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do As if he should have said Thou hast sent me into the world about a great and weighty business the restitution of thy fallen creature and that therein as thy creature may partake of thy goodness so thou mayst reap the glory of thy creature's service And now behold according to that command of thine I here return unto thee thy creature healed and restored that it may be as well a monument as a proclaimer of thy goodness and glory unto all Eternity
all places knows our thoughts our wants our sins our desires and is ready to supply us with all things that are good and fit for us beyond all we can ask or think hath incomprehensible Wisdom and irresistible Power to effect what he pleaseth that leaves not any of his works especially mankind without his special care and superintendence over them without whose will or designed permission nothing befalls us 2. That this most Wise and Just and Powerful God hath appointed a law or rule according to which his will is that the children of men should conform themselves and according to the upright endeavours of the children of men to conform thereunto he will most certainly give rewards and according to the wilful transgressions thereof he will inflict punishments and that he is a most strict and infallible observer of all the wayes of the children of men whether of obedience or disobedience thereunto 3. That this law and will of his he hath communicated and revealed unto the children of men in his Holy Word especially by the mission of his Son Jesus Christ who brought into the world a full and complete collection of those holy Laws of God whereunto he would have us conform 4. That he hath given unto mankind in and through Christ Jesus a full manifestation of a future life after this of rewards and punishments and according to that law of his thus manifested by his Son he will by the same Jesus Christ dispense and execute the sentences of rewards and punishments and judge every man according to his works 5. And that the reward of faith and obedience in that other life to come shall be an eternal blessed happy estate of soul and body in the glorious Heavens and in the presence and fruition of the ever Glorious and Eternal God 6. And that the punishment of the rebellious and disobedient unto this will and law of God thus manifested by his Son shall be an eternal separation of soul and body from the presence of God and the conclusion of them under chains of darkness and everlasting torments in hell fire 7. And that the Son of God hath given us the greatest assurance imaginable of the truth of this will of God of this happiness and misery by taking upon him our nature by his miracles by his death and resurrection and ascention into glory and by his mission of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation into his Apostles and Disciples both to instruct the world in his trust and to evidence the truth of their mission from him 8. That Almighty God though full of justice and severity against obstinate and rebellious yet is full of tenderness love and compassion towards all those that sincerely desire to obey his will and to accept of terms of peace and reconciliation with him and is ready upon repentance and amendment to pardon whatsoever is amiss and hath accordingly promised it And that he hath the care and love and tenderness of a father towards us that in our sincere endeavour of obedience to him we shall be sure of his love favour and protection that in all our afflictions and troubles he stands by us and will not leave us that he will most certainly make good every promise that by Christ he hath sent unto us for the life that is present and that which is to come that the Law he hath sent us by Christ to submit unto is an easie and good Law such as will perfect our nature and fit it to be partaker of his glory and that all his thoughts towards us in our faithful endeavour to obey him are thoughts of love favour peace bounty and goodness And of this he hath given the greatest assurance that is possible for mankind to expect or desire even the sending of his Eternal Son into the world to take upon him our nature to acquaint us with his Father's will and love to live a life of want and misery and to dye a death full of shame and horror to rise again to dispatch Messengers into all the world to publish the good will of God to mankind to ascend up into glory and there to make intercession for us poor worms at the right hand of God giving us also hereby assurance of our resurrection and of his coming again to judge the world and to receive his obedient servants into eternal glory These be some of those principal Objects of that Faith that overcometh the World being soundly received believed and digested 2. As touching the act it self it is no other than a sound real and firm belief of those Sacred Truths And therefore it seems that they that perplex the notion of Faith with other intricate and abstruse definitions or descriptions either render it very difficult and scarce intelligible or else take into the definition or description those things that are but the consequents and effects of it He that hath this firm perswasion will most certainly repent of his sins past will most certainly endeavour obedience to the will of God which is thus believed by him to be holy just and good and upon the obedience or disobedience whereof depends his eternal happiness or misery will most certainly depend upon the promises of God for this life and that to come for those are as natural effects of such a firm perswasion as it is for the belief of a danger to put a man upon means to avoid it or for the belief of a benefit to put a man upon means to attain it Some things are of such a nature that the belief or knowledge of them goes no further but it rests in it self as the belief or knowledge of bare speculative truths But some things are of such a nature as being once truly and firmly believed or known carry a man out to action and such are especially the knowledge or belief of such things as are the objects of our fears or of our hopes the belief of such objects do naturally and with a kind of moral necessity carry a man out to action to the avoiding of such fears and the attaining of such hopes And therefore faith and belief in reference thereunto comes often in the Scripture under the names of hope and fear as being the proper effects of it Instances we have of both 2 Cor. 5.10 11. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men 1 Joh. 3.2 3. But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every man that bath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Therefore we need not be so sollicitous touching the nature of faith what kind of faith it is that must save us certainly if it be a true and real assent of the mind to these great truths of
hast set up And therefore our Blessed Lord redoubles the injunction of our fear toward him that can destroy both body and soul in hell but forbids any fear of such persecutors who can only destroy the body and then can do no more And certainly that man that hath full assurance of favour and esteem with the great God of heaven and earth of an incorruptible weight and crown of glory the next moment after death must needs have a low esteem of the reproaches and scorns and persecutions of men for righteoufness sake and so much the rather because that very favour with God and that very crown of happiness that he expects is enhanced by those very scorns and those very afflictions For Our light afflictions which are here for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 3. Concerning the third kind of world namely the Providential world consisting in external dispensations of adversity or prosperity And first concerning the dark part of this world namely Adversity as casualties losses of wealth or friends sicknesses the common effects whereof are impatience distrust murmuring and unquietness Faith conquers this part of the world and prevents those evil consequences which either temptations from without or corruptions from within are apt to raise 1. Faith presents the soul with this assurance that all external occurrences come from the wise dispensation or permission of the most glorious God they come not by chance 2. That the glorious God may even upon the account of his own Sovereignty and pro imperio inflict what he pleaseth upon any of his creatures in this life 3. That yet whatsoever he doth in this kind is not only an effect of his power and sovereignty but of his wisdom yea and of his goodness and bounty No affliction can befall any man but it may be useful for his instruction or prevention 4. That the best of men deserve far worse at the hands of God than the worst afflictions that ever did or ever can befall any man in this life 5. That there have been examples of greater affliction that have befallen better men in this life witness Job and that excellent pattern of all patience and goodness even as a man our Lord Christ Jesus 6. That these afflictions are sent for the good even of good men and it is their fault and weakness if they have not that effect 7. That in the midst of the severest afflictions the favour of God to the soul discovering it self like the Sun shining through a cloud gives light and comfort to the Soul 8. That Almighty God is ready to support them that believe in him and to bear them up under all their afflictions that they shall not sink under them 9. That whatsoever or how great soever the afflictions of this life are if the name be blasted with reproaches the estate wasted and consumed by fire from heaven if friends are lost if hopes and expectations disappointed if the body be macerated with pains and diseases yet Faith presents to the believer something that can bear up the Soul under these and many more pressures namely that after a few years or days are spent an eternal state of unchangeable and perfect happiness shall succed that death the worst of temporal evils will cure all those maladies and deliver up the soul into a state of endless comfort and blessedness and therefore he bears all this with patience and quietness and contentedness and cheerfulness and disappoints the world in that expectation wherein its strength in relation to this condition lyes namely it conquers all impatience murmuring unquietness of mind 2. As to the second part of this Providential world namely Prosperity which in truth is the more dangerous condition of the two without the intervention of the divine grace the foils that the world puts upon men by this condition are commonly pride insolence carnal security contempt or neglect of duty and religion luxury and the like The method whereby Faith overcometh this part of the world and those evil consequences that arise upon it are these 1. Faith gives a man a true and equal estimate of this condition and keeps a man from overvaluing it or himself for it lets him know it is very uncertain very casual very dangerous and cannot out-last this life death will come and sweep down all these cobwebs 2. Faith assures him that Almighty God observes his whole deportment in it that he hath given him a law of humility sobriety temperance fidelity and a caution not to trust in uncertain riches that he must give an account of his stewardship also to the great Master of the Family of Heaven and Earth that he will duly examine all his Items whether done according to his Lord's commission and command and it lets him know that the more he hath the greater ought his care to be because his account will be the greater 3. Faith lets him know that the abundance of wealth honour power friends applause successes as they last no longer than this short transitory life and therefore cannot make up his happiness no nor give a man an ease or rescue from a fit of the Stone or Colick so there is an everlasting state of happiness or misery that must attend every man after death And on the one hand all the glory and splendor and happiness that this inferior world can afford is nothing in comparison of that glory that shall be revealed to and enjoyed by them that believe and obey 1. Nothing in respect of its duration if a man should live a thousand years yet that must have an end and the very pre-apprehension of an end is enough to dash and blast and wither any happiness even while it is enjoyed but that happiness that succeeds after death is an everlasting happiness 2. Nothing in respect of its degree there is no sincere complete perfect happiness in this world it is mingled with evils with fears with vicissitudes of sorrow and trouble but the happiness of the next life is perfect sincere and unmixed with any thing that may allay it And upon these accounts faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen and therefore by a kind of anticipation gives a presence to the Soul of those future joys renders the best happiness this world below can yield but languid and poor like the light of a Candle in the presence of the Sun On the other side the misery that after death attends the mispent present life over-ballanceth all the good that this life can yield both in its degree and duration and therefore with the pre-apprehension of it it sowres and allays all the good that is in the greatest happiness of this life 4. Faith doth assute every believing Soul that as sure as he now liveth and enjoyeth that worldly felicity it hath so surely if he in belief and obedience to the will of God revealed in and through Christ
Good God! when I look upon that which I call my Innocence what a spotted piece it is that I am even ashamed to call it innocence when I look upon my Integrity with what a deal of secret hypocrisie hangs about it that it deserves not the name of integrity which is truly such it is his gift to me that is pleased to own and reward it as mine with peace and favourable acceptance and as long as he is pleased to continue to me what indeed is his and thus to accept it as if it were my own what reason have I to fear the loss of all things else even life it self since still I enjoy much more than I deserve and which no man or devil no calamity or danger no not death it self can deprive me of And thus far of the advantages of Humility in relation to a man's self 3. The Advantage of humility in relation to Others is of two kinds 1. The advantage the humble man hath to others 2. The advantage the humble man receives from others upon the account of his Humility 1. As to the former of these we may brings to Mankind by considering the Evil that Pride or a Proud man bringeth thereunto If a man duly considers most of the mischiefs that happen to mankind and follow them to their Original he shall find that the most of them owe their original to this root Let a man but look abroad in the world he shall find a sort of evil Spirits or Furies in this that fill it with infinite disorders and misery For instance Atheisin Hatred Strife Contention Wars disparaging Powers Heresies Envy Ambition Sedition Oppression Persecution Detraction Slandering Cruelty Contempt Uncharitableness Censoriousness and a thousand more such devilish Furies that fill the world with blood and confusion and disorder And now let us but trace those or any of those to their original we shall find that for the most part Pride is that Pandora's Box out of which they spring and issue Let us take an estimate of some of them Atheism that cuts in sunder all the bonds of Religion Government and Society whence comes it but by the Pride of mens Hearts that cannot endure to have a Sovereign Lord above them but that they may be self-dependent or the Pride of mens Wits that out of seorn of any thing they think vulgar and to magnifie themselves dare attaque the most sovereign truth in the world the Being or Providence of God So for Contention Strise Disobedience to Parents Rebellion against Governors they all spring most ordinarily from the same root of Pride by Pride cometh Contention men that cannot endure to be controlled either by Laws or Governors by Parents or Superiors but think their own Will and Lusts must be the uncontrollable rule of all their actions So again for Wars there is rarely any war between Princes or States but either of both sides or at least of one side Pride and Desire of Domination is the true root and cause of it though it be gilded over oftentimes with other pretences Again for the most part the Disputes among persons of Learning or pretending to it arise from these lusts of Pride contending for sovereignty in Wit or Learning impatient of contradiction eager and implacable contesting for reputation victory and the maintaining of what they have once asserted and scorning the least retraction So that many times upon petty inconsiderable unuseful inevident trisles men are as hotly engaged as if Heaven were at stake upon it And from hence many times comes Heresies when men pretending to greatness of wit or learning but in truth of haughty ungovernable spirits either upon the score of vain-glory and reputation or upon some conceived affront or neglect from the Orthodox set up for themselves draw parties to them and begin a Scheme of Religion of their own dressing From the same root comes Envy Ambition Detraction from others because they think all preferment due to their own worth and that any good that happens to others is a kind of derogation from themselves aspiring thoughts and parties endeavouring to crush and ruine all that stand in their way to that mark of grandeur that they aim at And the like instances might be given in almost all those turbulent Lusts and Passions among men that break out to the common disturbance of mankind and all humane Societies And therefore certainly whatsoever virtue or temper or habit or whatever else we shall call it there is that cures this mad unruly and exorbitant lust of Pride among men must needs be one of the most benevolent and useful and advantageous things to mankind and humane society and this is that excellent virtue of Humility and Lowliness of the mind If this virtue did obtain among all men it were not possible that those blustering Storms that disquiet and disorder mankind would be found in the world but instead thereof Peace and Love mutual offices of Kindness and Charity Sweetness of Conversation every one giving preserence to one another rather than invading him his reputation or interest benificent to all But it is true there is little hope that all mankind will arrive to such a temper and this indeed is that which is the only considerable Objection against it which may be thus improved You commend Humility as the great sovereign Antidote against Pride the common disturber of mankind and certainly what you say is demonstratively true if all the world could be perswaded to it but this never was nor never can be expected as there are Wolves and Lions and Bears and Foxes among brutes as well as Sheep and other innocent brutes and as there are Kites and Vultures and Hawks among birds as well as Doves and other innocent birds so among men there ever have been and ever will be men of Pride and Haughtiness of Ambition and Vain-glory of Savage and Cruel Domineering spirits And therefore unless all could be perswaded to be Meek and Humble it were as good and better that none should be upon these two accounts viz. 1. That as long as the most of mankind are guilty of this passion of Pride nay if it were bmang mut an equal nay a less number in proportion to those that are humble and meek the world would still be as tumultuous as ever a violent wind coming out of one East would make the Sea as troublesom as if it came out of a many 2. Again those that were meek and humble would be exposed as a common prey to all the rest and their condition would be so much the worse in the world by their humility and meekness their case in the world would be like a fair Gamester that plays fairly meeting with a foul or cheating Gamester he were sure to go by the loss Therefore since Pride the mother of Violence will be used in the world by some and it may be the greatest part of mankind it is better to be of the same make to deal with them at
attends the commendation of such a man's wit and learning indeed he is a pretty man a good Scholar of fine parts good understanding but he knows it too well his proud self-conceitedness vain-glory spoils it all and renders the man under the just repute of a fool and ridiculous notwithstanding all his Clerkship and Learning But yet farther Pride by a kind of physical and natural consequence very oftentimes robs men even of their Wit and Learning wherein they pride themselves by carrying up into the brain those exhaled hot cholerick humors and fumes that break the staple and right temper and texture of the brain More learned men grow mad and brain-sick with the pride of that learning they think they have attained than in the pursuit and acquest of it Therefore beware of Pride of thy Wit Learning or Knowledge if thou intend to keep it or to keep thy just esteem or reputation of it On the other side Humility and Lowliness of mind is the best temper to improve thy faculties to add a grace to thy Learning and to keep thee Master of it it cools and qualifies thy spirits and blood and humors and renders thee fit to retain what thou hast attained and to acquire more 4. In all thy reflexion upon thy self and what thou hast never Compare thy self with those that are below thee in what is worthy or eminent but with those that are above thy self For instance in point of Learning or Knowledge thy partiality and indulgence to thy self will be apt to put thee upon comparing thy self with those that are ignorant or not more learned than thy self as we see ordinarily idiots or fools or men of weak intellectuals delight to converse with those they find or think more foolish than themselves with a thought that they are the wisest in the company but compare thy self with those that are more learned or wise than thy self and thou wilt see matter to keep thee humble If thou thinkest thou art a pretty proficient in Philosophy compare thy self with Aristotle with Plato with Themistius or Alexander Aphrodisaeus or other great Luminaries in Philosophy if thou thinkest thou art a pretty proficient in School-Learning compare thy self with Aquinas Scotus Suarez if thou think thou excellest in the Mathematicks compare thy self with Euclide Archimedes Tycho c. and then thou wilt find thy self to be like a little Candle to a Star The most of the Learning that this Age glories of is but an Extract or Collection of what we find in those men of greater parts only we think we have done great matters if we digest it into some other method and prick in here and there a small pittance of our own or quarrel at something that the Ancients delivered in some odd particulars And yet even in this very essay Self-love playes such a part that unless there be a great excess and admirable advantage of others that are above as in any learning or knowledge we are ready to exalt our selves above our standard and seem in our own eyes to be at least equal to those that exceed us or by envy and detraction to bring down others below our selves especially if we hit upon some little caprichio that we think they said not 5. And lastly consider the great Example of our Lord and Master Christ Jesus who was the only Son of the glorious God full of Wisdom Knowledge Power Holiness Goodness and Truth and notwithstanding all this humbled himself and became of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant emptied himself and humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross Philipp 2.5 6 7 8. Christ Jesus brought with him from heaven the Doctrine of Holiness and Righteousness ness and in all his Sermons there is not any one Virtue that he commendeth and commandeth more than Humility and Lowliness of Mind nor any one Vice that he sets himself more against than Pride and Haughtiness of Mind In his Beatitudes Matth. 5.35 Poverty of Spirit hath the first promise and Meekness and Humility the third Matth. 23.6 7. He checks and disparageth the Pride of the Pharises commands his Disciples to run quite counter to their method He that will be great among you shall be your servant Again Matth. 18.1 Luk. 9 Mar. 9 34. when the bubble of Ambition arose among the Disciples who should be greatest he checks their Pride with the pattern and commendation of a little Child And what he thus taught he lived One of the great Ends of the mission of Christ into the world was that he should not only be a Preacher of Virtue Goodness and Piety but also an Example of it And if we look through the whole life of Christ there is not one virtue that he did more signally exercise or by his example more expresly commend to the imitation of Christians than Humility I do not remember that he saith in any place Learn of me to do Miracles for I am mighty in power no nor yet Learn of me for I am Holy for I am Obedient to the Law of God for I am Liberal though in all these he was exhibited as an excellent Example of Holiness Obedience and Charity and must be the pattern of our imitation But as if Humility and Lowliness of Mind were the great Master-piece of his Example he calls out even when he was in one of the highest Extasies of spirit that we find until his Passion Matth. 11. 25 29. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls And in that signal advice given by the Apostle Phil. 5 Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God But made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man and being found in the fashion of a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the cross But Blessed Saviour was there nothing else for us to learn of thee but thy Meekness and Humility was there not something else wherein we were to bear in Mind thy Image and write after thy Excellent Copy was there not thy Holiness Purity Obedience Patience Trust in God and all that Constellation of Virtues that appeared in thy Doctrine and Life Surely yes he was exhibited both as a Prophet to Teach and an Example to be Imitated in all these also but in his Humility if we may say with reverence before all 1. Because the instance and example of his Humility was the most signal and wonderful of all the rest of his admirable virtues that the Eternal Son of the Eternal God should condescend so low as to become a man born of a woman and live upon earth such a despised life and dye such an accursed death is an instance of Humility not only beyond all example but an
as acts of Justice Charity Compassion Liberality 4. Or last Actions Religious relating to Almighty God as Invocation Thanksgiving Inquiringinto his Works Will Obedience to his Law and Commands observing the solemn seasons of his Worship and Service and which must go through and give a tincture to all the rest a habit of Fear of him Love to him Humility and Integrity of heart and soul before him and in sum a habit of Religion towards God in his Son Jesus Christ which is the magnum oportet the one thing necessary and over-weighs all the rest upon this account 1. In respect of the excellency and soveraignty of the Object Almighty God to whom we owe our Being and the strength and flower of our Souls 2. In respect of the nobleness of the end thereby and therein to be attained for whereas all the rest serve only to the Meridian of this Life the latter hath a prospect to an eternal Life 3. In respect of the nobleness of the habit it self which hath an universal influence into all the rest of the before-mentioned relations and advanceth and improveth and innobleth them It would be too long to prosecute the methods of Redeeming the Time in the particular relations to all these actions in this sheet of paper therefore in this pursuit of the manner of Redeeming the Time I shall set down only these generals 1. We are to neglect no opportunity that occurs to do good but 1. To watch all opportunities that offer themselves in order thereunto 2. To seek for them if they offer not themselves 3. To use them and not to let them slip 2. In the co-incidence of opportunities of several kinds and suiting to several actions to give those the praelation that correspond to the most worthy actions and in the co-incidence of opportunities for actions of equal moment to prefer such as are most rare and probably of unlikelihood to occur again before those that are under a probability of frequent occurrence 3. We are to be very careful to leave no banks or interspersions of idleness in our lives Those men that have most imployment and of the most constant nature cannot choose but have certain interstitia between tween the varieties of business which may be fitted with imployments suitable to their length or qualities and it becomes a good Husband of his time to have some designations and destinations of businesses that may be suitable to the nature quality seasons and morae of those vacant interstitia An industrious Husband-man Trades-man Scholar will never want business fitted for occasional vacancies and horae subsecivae Gellius his Noctes Atticae have left us an experiment of it And a Christian even as such hath ready imployments for occasional interstices Reading Praying the crums and fragments of time would be furnished with their suitable imployments 't is precious and therefore let none of it be lost 4. Much time might be save dand redeemed in retrenching the unnecessary expences thereof in our ordinary sleep attiring and dressing our selves and the length of our Meals as Breakfasts Dinners Suppers which especially in this latter Age and among people of the better sort are protracted to an immoderate and excessive length There is little less than ten or twelve hours every day spent in these refections and their appendancies which might be fairly reduced to much less 5. Take heed of entertaining vain thoughts which are a very great consumption of time and is very incident to Melancholy and Fanciful persons whom I have known to sit the greatest part of several days in projecting what they would do if they had such Estates Honours or Places and such kind of unprofitable and vain meditations which humour is much improved in them that lie long in bed in a Morning 6. Beware of too much Recreation Some bodily exercise is necessary for sedentary men especially but let it not be too frequent nor too long Gameing Taverns and Plays as they are pernicious and corrupt Youth so if they had no other fault yet they are justly to be declined in respect of their excessive expence of time and habituating men to idleness and vain thoughts and disturbing passions and symptoms when they are past as well as while they are used Let no Recreations of any long continuance be used in the Morning for they hazard the loss or discomposure of the whole day after 7. Visits made or received are for the most part an intollerable consumption of time unless prudently ordered and they are for the most part spent in vain and impertinent discourses 1. Let them not be used in the Morning 2. If the visits be made to or by persons of impertinence let them be short and at such times as may be best spared from what is more useful or necessary viz. at Meals or presently after 3. But if the persons to be visited are men of Wisdom Learning or Eminence of parts the visits may be longer but yet so as the time may be prositably spent in useful discourse which carries with it as well profit and advantage as civility and respect 8. Be obstinately constant to your Devotions at certain set times and be sure to spend the Lords day entirely in those Religious duties proper for it and let nothing but an inevitable necessity divert you from it For 1. It is the best and most prositably spent time it is in order to the great end of your being in this World 2. It is in order to your everlasting happiness in comparison of which all other businesses of this life are idle and vain it is that which will give you the greatest comfort in your Life in your Sickness in your Death and he is a Fool that provides not for that which will most certainly come 3. It is the most reasonable tribute imaginable unto that God that lends you your time and you are bound to pay it under all the obligations of duty and gratitude And 4. It is that which will sanctifie and prosper all the rest of your time and your secular imployments I am not apt to be superstitious but this I have certainly infallibly found true that by my deportment in my duty towards God in the times devoted to his Service especially on the Lords day I could make a certain conjecture of my success in my secular occasions the rest of the week after If I were loose and negligent in the former the latter never succeeded well if strict and conscientious and watchful in the former I was successful and prosperous in the latter 9. Be industrious and faithful in your Calling The merciful God hath not only indulged unto us a far greater portion of time for our ordinary occasions than he hath reserved to himself but also injoyns and requires our industry and diligence in it And remember that you observe that industry and diligence not only as a civil means to acquire a competency for your self and your Family but also as an act of
obedience to his Command and Ordinance by means whereof you make it not only an act of civil conversation but of obedience to Almighty God and so it becomes in a manner spiritualized into an act Religion 10. Whatever you do be very careful to retain in your heart a habit of Religion that may be always about you and keep your heart and your life always as in his presence and tending towards him This will be continually with you and put it self into acts even although you are not in a solemn posture of Religious worship and will lend you multitudes of Religious Applications to Almighty God upon all occasions and interventions which will not at all hinder you in any measure in your secular occasions but better and further you it will make you faithful in your Calling even upon the account of an actual reflexion of your mind upon the presence and command of the God you fear and love It will make you actually thankful for all successes and supplies temperate and sober in all your natural actions just and faithful in all your dealings patient and contented in all your disappointments and crosses and actually consider and intend his Honour in all you do and will give a tincture of Religion and Devotion upon all your secular imployments and turn those very actions which are materially civil or natural into the very true and formal nature of Religion and make your whole life to be an unintermitted life of Religion and Duty to God For this habit of piety in your soul will not only not lie sleeping and unactive but almost in every hour of the day will put forth actual exertings of it self in applications of short occasional Prayers Thanksgivings Dependance resort unto that God that is always near you and lodgeth in a manner in your heart by his fear and love and habitual Religion towards him And by this means you do effeually and in the best and readiest manner imaginable doubly Redeem your Time 1. In the lawful exercise of those natural and civil concerns which are not only permitted but in a great measure injoyned by Almighty God 2. At the same time exercising acts of Religious duties observance and Vencration unto Almighty God by perpetuated or at least frequently reiterated though short acts of devotion to him And this is the great act of Christian Chymistry to convert those acts that are materially natural or civil into acts truly and formally Religious whereby the whole course of this life is both truly and interpretatively a Service to Almighty God and an uninterrupted state of Religion which is the best and noblest and most universal redemption of his Time 11. Be very careful to prefer those actions of your life that most concern you be sure to do them first to do them chiefest to do them most Let those things that are of less moment give place to those things that are of greatest moment Every man of the most ordinary prudence having many things to do will be sure to be doing of that first and chiefest which most concerns him and which being omitted and possibly wholly disappointed might occasion his most irreparable loss We have it is true many things to be done in this life Ars longa vita brevis and we have seasons and opportunities for them but of these many things some are barely conveniencies for this life Some though they seem more necessary yet still they rise no higher nor look no surther nor serve no longer but only for the Meridian of this life and are of no possible use in the next moment after death The Pleasures the Prosits the Honours the most florid accommodations of great humane Learning stately Houses and Palaces goodly Possessions greatest Honours highest Reputation deepest Policy they are fitted only to this life when death comes they are insignisicant pittiful things and serve nothing at all to the very next moment after death nay the diseases and pains and languishings that are the praeludia of death render them perfectly vain if not vexatious and torturing But there are certain businesses that are not only excellently useful in this life but such as abide by us in sickness in death nay go along with us with singular comfort into the next life and never leave us but state us in an eternal state of rest and happiness such as may be with much ease acquired in the times of health and life but very difficult to be attained in the time of Sickness and the hour of death but never to be gotten after death such as are of that necessity that in comparison of them all other things are impertinent and vain if not desperately noxious and hurtful There is no necessity for me to be Rich and to be great in the World to have such a title of Honour such a place of Dignity or Profit to leave such an Inheritance or titular Dignity to my Son or to have so many thousand pounds in my Inventory when I die but certain matters of absolute necessity to me such as if I am without I am undone and lost and yet such as if not attained here in this life can never be attained and therefore as it concerns me in the highest degree to attain them so it concerns me in the highest degree to attain them in this life and to take all opportunities imaginable in order thereunto and to redeem every minute of time for that purpose lest I should be for ever disappointed and not to be like the foolish Virgin to be getting of Oyl when the door is ready to be shut and with the Truant-Scholar to trifle away my time allotted me for my lesson and then to begin to learn it when my Master calls for me to repeat it and those businesses are such as these the Knowledg of Christ Jesus and him Crucified the attainment of Faith in God through him the acquaintance of my self with the will God the comparing of my self with that will the exercise of true and serious Repentance for sins past the steady resolution of Obedience to his will for the time to come the attaining of the pardon of my sins and peace with God through Christ our Lord the subduing of my Lusts and Corruptions the conformation of my will and life to the holy will of God and the perfect pattern of Holiness Christ Jesus the working out my salvation with fear and trembling the giving all diligence to make my Calling and Election sure the fitting and purging of my self to be a Vessel of Glory and Immortality and fitted for the use of my great Lord and Master the casting of my self into such a frame and posture of mind and life that I may be fitted and ready to die and give up my account to my Lord with peace and chearfulness and comfort so that if I should either by the hand of some disease or casualty or other providence receive this solemn message Set thy House in order for thou shalt die I
might receive it with as much readiness willingness and chearfulness as a faithful and diligent Servant would receive this command from his Master You must take such a Journey for me to morrow These and such like businesses as these besides the constant tenor of a just virtuous and piou◠life are the most important businesses of 〈◊〉 Christian First such as are of absolute necessity to him he may not he cannot be without them Secondly such as cannot be done else-where than in this life this world is the great Elaboratory for perfecting of souls for the next if they are not done here they cease to be done for ever death shuts the door and everlastingly seals us up in that state it finds us Thirdly And every season of this life is not at least so suitable for it sickness and pain and wearisome and froward old Age have business enough of themselves to entertain us and any man that hath had experience of either will find he hath enough to do to bear them or to struggle with them And fourthly We know not whether the grace and opportunities that God hath lent us and we have neglected in our lives shall ever be afforded again to us in the times of our Sicknesses or upon our Death-beds but a little portion of time in our lives and healths are furnished with thousands of invitations and golden opportunities for these great works Let us therefore redeem those portions of time that our life and health lends us for this great and one thing necessary And now if a man shall take a survey of the common course even of the Christian world we shall find the generality of Man-kind the veriest Children Fools and Mad-men that ever Nature yielded The very folly of Children in spending their time in Rattles and Hobby-horses is more excusable than theirs whose reason and experience should better instruct them There is not any man so senseless but he knows he must die and he knows not how soon he shall hear of that sad Summons and if he were so brutish as not to think of it or believe it yet the weekly Bills of Mortality gives him daily instances of it and yet if we do but observe the world of men they do for the most part wholly trifle away their time in doing that which is evil or in doing nothing or in doing nothing to any purpose or becoming a reasonable Nature One man trifles away his time in Feasting and Jollity another in Gaming or vain and unnecessary Recreations in Hunting Hawking Bowling and other wastful expences of time another in fine Cloaths Powderings and Painting and Dressing another in hunting after Honours and Preferments or heaping up of Wealth and Riches and lading himself with thick clay another in trivial speculations possibly touching some criticisme or Grammatical nicety and all these men wonderfully pride themselves as the only wise men look big and goodly and when they come to die all these prove either vexations and tortures of a mis-spent time or at least by the very appearance of sickness and death are rendred poor empty insipid and insignificant things and then the Minister is sent for and Sacraments and nothing but penitence and complaints of the vanity of the world the unhappy expences of time and all the Wealth and Honour would be presently Sacrificed for the Redemption of those mis-spent hours and days and years that cannot be recalled nor redeemed by the price of a world But the great misery of man-kind is this they cannot or will not in the times of health anticipate the consideration of death and judgment to come nor put on any apprehensions or thoughts that the time will come when things will be otherwise with them than now is or that they will be driven into another kind of estimate of things than now they have and this their way is their Folly Man being in Honour in Health in Life understandeth not but becomes like the Beasts that perish 4. I come to the Reasons why we ought thus to Redeem our Time which may be these 1. Our time is a Talent put into our hands by the great Lord of the whole Family of Heaven and Earth and such whereof we are to give an account when our Master calls and it will be a lamentable Account when it shall consist only of such Items as these Item So much of it spent in Plays and Taverns and Gaming Item So much of it spent in Sleeping Eating Drinking Item So much spent in Recreations and Pastimes Item So much spent in getting Wealth and Honour c. and there remains so much which was spent in doing nothing 2. Our time is a Universal Talent that every man that lives to discretion hath Every man hath not a Talent of Learning or of Wealth or Honour or Subtilty of Wit to account for but every man that lives to the Age of Discretion hath time to account for 3. Every man hath not only a Talent of Time but every man hath a Talent of Opportunity to improve this Talent in some measure put into his hand The very works and light of Nature the very principles of natural Religion are lodged in the hearts of all men which by the help of his natural reason he might exercise to some acts of Service Duty and Religion towards God But the Christian hath much more 4. The Redemption and Improvement of our Time is the next and immediate End why it is given or lent us and why we are placed in this life and the wasting of our time is a disappointment of this very end of our being for thereby we consequently disappoint God of his Glory and our selves of our happiness 5. Upon the management and disposal of our time depends the everlasting concernment of our Souls Ex hoc momento depende◠〈◊〉 If it be redeemed improved imploved as it ought to be we shall in the next moment after death enter into an immutable eternal and perfect state of glory 〈◊〉 be either sinfully or idly spent we fall into an everlasting irrecoverable and unchangeable state of misery 6. The business we have to do in this life in order to the cleansing of our souls and fitting them for glory is a great and important business and the time we have to live hath two most dangerous qualities in reference to that business 1. It is short our longest period is not above 80. years and few there be that arrive to that Age. 2. It is very casual and incertain there be infinite accidents diseases and distempers that cut us off suddenly as acute diseases such as scarce give us any warning and considering how many strings as it were thereare to hold us up and how small and inconsiderable they are and how easily broken and the breach or disorder of any of the least of them may be an in-let to death it is a kind of Miracle that we live a month Again there be many diseases that render us in a manner dead while we live as Apoplexies Palsies Frenzies Stone Gout which render our time either grievous or very unuseful to us 7. Time once lost is lost for ever It is never to be recovered all the Wealth of both the Indies will not redeem nor recall the last hour I spent it ceaseth for ever 8. As our time is short so there be many things that corrode and wast that short time so that there remains but little that is serviceaable to our best imployment Let us take but out of our longest lives the weakness and folly of Childhood and Youth the impotency and morosity of our old Age the times for eating drinking sleeping though with moderation the times of sickness and indisposedness of health the times of Cares Journeys and Travel the times for necessary Recreations interview of Friends and Relations and a thousand such expences of time the residue will be but a small pittance for our business of greatest moment the business I mean of fitting our souls for glory and if that be mis-spent or idely spent we have lost our treasure and the very flower and jewel of our time 9. Let us but remember that when we shall come to Die and our Souls sit as it were hovering upon our lips ready to take their flight at how great a rate we would then be willing to purchase some of these hours we once trifled away but we cannot 10. Remember that this is the very Elixir the very Hell of Hell to the damned Spirits that they had once a time wherein they might upon easie terms have procured everlasting rest and Glory but they foolishly and vainly mispent that time and season which is now not to be recovered FINIS THE Great Audit WITH THE ACCOUNT OF THE Good Steward Rom. 8.28 2 Cor. 4.17 Rom. 8.18 Lu. 13.1 2 v. Jos 9.2 3. 〈◊〉 Act. 28.4 Isa 51.20 Lam. 3.39 Rom. 8.28 Heb. 12.28 Psal 119.75 1 Cor. 10.13 2 Cor. 4.17 2 Kings 6.17 Heb. 5.9 Isa 53.7 Heb 12.24 v. Rom. 8.32 * By Adoption and participation of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 v. Antonin 1.8 se 45. Hand minw vis Intellectrix ubique circumfusa est omni qui trahere potest se ingerit quam communis hic aer omni spirare volenii Effles 10.4 v. Prov. 25.15 A sofi tongue breaketh the bone