the stain and take away the power of sin to re-imprint the Image of God that was defaced by sin to rescue the heart from the love of sin and consequently from the power of sin to transmit into the Soul new Principles new Affections new Wills Psalm 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power As he came with Light to rectifie the Understanding so he came with Righteousness to rectifie the Will The strength of a King rests in the Love and Will of his People when Christ conquers the Will from the Love and Submission to sin he conquers Man from the Dominion and Kingdom of sin 3. And as thus by Light he conquered the Kingdom of Darkness and by Righteousness the Kingdom of Sin so he comes with Life also and conquers us from the Kingdom of Death When our Saviour died he entred into the Chambers of Death and conquered this King of Terrors took away the malignity and sting of it by taking away Sin the sting of Death healed these bitter waters by his own passing through them and by his Resurrection triumphed over the power of death for us by the vertue of that Resurrection delivering our Souls from the second death and our Bodies from the first death and giving us a most infallible assurance of a final victory over death by an assured and blessed Resurrection Thus Death is swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15.54 2. And as Christ hath purchased him a People by Victory so his Regal Office is considerable in the Government of this people that he hath so acquired He hath given them a Law to Live by the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which makes them free from the Law of sin and of death Rom. 8.2 The Law of God vindicated from the false glosses which the corruption of men had in succession of time put upon it a Law sweetned and strengthned and actuated by the Love of God wrought in the Soul a Law though of the highest Perfection and Purity yet accompanied with the Grace and Assistance of Christ to Enable us to perform it in some measure and accompanied with the Merits of Christ to pardon and the Righteousness of Christ to cover our defects in our performance of it He hath given them a new heart and this Law of his written in this heart He hath given them of his own Spirit a Spirit of Life to Quicken them and of Power to Enable them to Obey And because notwithstanding this conquest of Christ of a People to himself they are still beset with Enemies that would reduce them to their former bondage he watcheth over them and in them by his Grace wasting and weakning and resisting their corruptions by new supplyes and influences from him quickning their hearts by renewed derivations of Life and Spirit from him which otherwise would sink and die under the weight of their own Earth encountering Temptations that like Foggs and Vapours arise out of our own flesh or like storms or snares are raised or placed by the Devil against us either by diverting them or by giving sufficient Grace to oppose them These and the like administrations doth our Saviour use which though they are secret and not easily discerned by us and though they are ordered without any noise or appearance yet they are works of greater Power and of greater Concernment and of equal reality with all the visible administrations of things in this world which are more obvious to our sense and are the effects of that invisible Government of Christ and of that Promise of his Behold I am with you alway even unto the end of the World Matth. 28.20 This is that Kingdom of God within them Luk. 17.21 consisting in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 casting down Imaginations and every high thing that Exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 3. As in his Government so his Regal Office is Evidenced in his Judgment And this Judgment of his being one of the Acts or Administrations of this Kingdom is oftentimes called the Kingdom of God His Judgment of Absolution and Reward to his Subjects and his Judgment of Condemnation and Destruction to the Rebels and Enemies of his Kingdom 2. And as we have the consideration of the King of this Kingdom and consequently of his Subjects Revel 15.3 Just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints So the various Administrations of this Kingdome are frequently called the Kingdome of God and the Mysteries of the Kingdome Matth. 13.11 24 31 44 45 47. Matth. 25.1 14 c. And as the Administrations of this Kingdom are often called the Kingdom so are the Instruments of this administration 1. The Word or Gospel of the Kingdome which must be preached through the whole World Matt. 24.14 and is therefore committed to the ministration of an Angel to dispence it to all Nations Revel 14.6 That great Engin which though seemingly weak and dispensed by weak and despicable Men God hath chosen to confound the things that are mighty 1 Cor. 1.27 to pull down strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 to gather his Elect for the perfecting of the body of Christ the fulness of him that filleth all in all and therefore this publication of the Gospel is oftentimes called the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 3.2 The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Luk. 10.9 The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you and if a Man consider the Mighty and Strange Effects that this everlasting Gospel hath had in the World for these many Hundred Years notwithstanding the many disadvantages upon which it entred and hath continued in the World we may well say that it is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 the Rod of his strength sent out of Sion Psal 110.2 that the Message of a Crucified Christ published by poor despised men to a World that never saw him or if they did saw no beauty or comliness in him to a World full of prejudicies against him prepossessed with an opinion of their own Wisdom with Religions extremely opposite traduced to them from their Ancestors of which Men are naturally tenacious that this Message of Christ not with a promise of Glory or Riches in this World but with a plain prediction of poverty scorns persecutions and Death to those that entertain it and with a promise of future Life that they never saw nor can see till they see this no more should conquer Millions of Souls to the profession and Love of Christ and to an austere self-denying despised Life here doth evidence and convince that there is the strength and Wisdom of God that is ingaged in this wonderful yet most positively predicted conquest of the World 2. The work of the Spirit of God preparing and pre-disposing the Heart to the receiving of the Gospel of the Kingdom convincing the Heart of that Sin and that Death
mind 1. The former part of this Duty is to Know our Creator This is that which aged David commended to his young Son Solomon 1 Chron. 28.9 And thou Solomon my Son Know thou the God of thy Father And we have Two excellent Books wherein the Knowledge of God is discovered to us the Book of his Works the Works of his Creation and Providence and the Book of his Word contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament wherein he is more fully and explicitly and plainly discovered unto us These Books we are often to read and consider And this is the chief reason why Understanding and Reason is given unto Mankind and not unto the Beasts that perish namely that we might improve it to the attaining of the Knowledge of Almighty God in the due consideration of the Works and Word of God and hereby we learn his Eternity his Infiniteness his Wisdom his Power his Goodness his Justice his Mercy his Alsufficiency his Soveraignty his Providence his Will his Purpose concerning Mankind his Care of them his Beneficence towards them And the Nature of this Knowledge is not barely Speculative but it is a knowledge that is Operative that perfects our Nature that conforms it to the Image of that God we thus know that sets Mankind in its due state and station keeps it in its just subordination unto the God we thus know which is our greatest Perfection This Knowledge must necessarily make us love him because he is Good Merciful Bountiful Beneficent and therefore the Wise man chuseth to express him by that Title of Creator from whom we receive our very Being and all the good that can accompany it This Knowledge teacheth us to be thankful unto him as our Greatest Benefactor to depend upon him because of his Power and Goodness to fear him because of his Power and Justice to obey him because of his Power Justice and Soveraignty to walk before him in Sincerity because of his Power Justice and Wisdom In sum the several Attributes of Almighty God do strike upon the choicest parts and faculties and affections and tendencies of our Hearts and Souls and do tune them into that order and harmony that is best suitable to the perfecting of our Nature and the placing of them in a right and just posture both in relation to Almighty God our selves and others 2. The second part of our Duty is To Remember our Creator thus known which is to have the Sense and Exercise of this Knowledge always about us to set Almighty God always before our eyes frequently to think of him to make our application to him For many there are that may have a knowledge of God but yet the exercise of that knowledge is suspended sometimes by Inadvertence and Inconsiderateness sometimes by a wilful Abdication of the exercise of that Knowledge And these are such as forget God that have not God in all their thoughts that say to the Almighty Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways The Benefits of this Remembring our Creator are very great 1. It keeps the Soul and Life in a constant and true and regular frame As the want of the Knowledge so the want of the Remembrance of God is the cause of that disorder and irregularity of our minds and lives 2. And consequently the best Preventive of Sin and Apostacy and Backsliding from God and our Duty to him 3. It keeps the Mind and Soul full of constant Peace and Tranquillity because it maintains a constant humble and comfortable converse of the Soul with the Presence and Favor of God 4. It renders all conditions of life comfortable and full of contentment because it keeps the Soul in the presence of God and communicates unto it continual Influxes of Contentment and Comfort for what can disturb him who by the continual Remembrance of his Creator hath the constant acquaintance with his Power Goodness and Alsufficiency 5. Though no Man hath ground enough to promise to himself an Immunity from Temporal Calamities yet certainly there is no better expedient in the World to secure a Man against them and preserve him from them than this For the most part of those sharp Afflictions that befal Men are but to make them Remember their Creator when they have forgotten him that he may open their ears to Discipline and awake them to Remember their Creator Read Job 33. A Man that keeps about him the Remembrance of his Creator prevents in a great measure the necessity of that severe Discipline 6. In short this Remembrance of our Creator is an Antidote against the Allurements of the World the Temptations of Satan the deceitfulness of Sin It renders the best things the World can afford inconsiderable in comparison of him whom we remember it renders the worst the World can do but little and contemptible so long as we Remember our Creator it makes our lives happy our deaths easie and carries us to an everlasting Injoyment of that Creator whom we have here remembred The Injunction of the Duty of Remembring our Creator is the more importantly necessary 1. In regard of the great consequence of the benefit we receive from it as before 2. In regard of the great danger of omitting it The truth is the greatest part of the miscarriages of our lives are occasioned by the want of the remembrance of our Creator then it is that we fail in our Duty when we forget him 3. In regard of the many Temptations this World affords to make us forget our Creator the Pleasures and Profits and Recreations and Preferments and Noise and Business of this Life yea many of them which are in themselves and in their Nature lawful are apt to ingross our Thoughts our Time our Cares and to leave too little room in our memory for this great Duty that most deserves it namely The Remembrance of our Creator Our memory is a noble Cabinet and there cannot be a more excellent Jewel to lodge in it than our Great and Bountiful Creator yet for the most part we fill this noble Cabinet with pebles and straws if not with dung and filth with either sinful or at least with Unprofitable Impertinent Trifling Furniture 2. The Season for this Duty that is here principally commended is The days of our Youth And the Reasons that commend that Season for this Duty are principally these 1. Because this is the most Accepted Time God Almighty was pleased under the Old Law to intimate this in the reservation to himself of the first fruits and the first born And surely the first fruits of our Lives when dedicated to his remembrance are best accepted to him 2. Because this Season is commonly our Turning Season to Good or Evil. And if in Youth we forget our Creator it is very great difficulty to resume our Duty Commonly it requires either very extraordinary Grace or very strong Affliction to reclaim a Man to his Duty whose Youth hath been seasoned with ill Principles
his Lusts And this variety may arise by the difference of stations or degrees that may be but Bread for Solomon's Table which may be Quails for a meaner person the difference of relations and dependencies the difference of tempers and constitutions of body the difference of seasons and occurrences There may be a Season when our Lord gives us a commission to eat whatsoever our Soul desireth so it be done before the Lord and as in his presence Deut. 14.26 And there is a Season when slaying of Oxen and killing Sheep and eating Flesh is an iniquity not to be purged Isa 22.12 13 14. The Wise God that ordereth and disposeth all times and persons and circumstances doth with the same Wisdom fit them with suitable Concomitants and Adjuncts He hath made every thing beautiful in its time Eccles 3.11 But besides this Bread for our Bodies there is Bread for our Souls which comes under this Petition The Bread of Life and the Water of Life John 6.33 this is the Life of our Souls And as much as the Good and Support and Life of our Souls is of more concernment to us than the Life of our Bodies so is the Bread of our Souls of more concernment for us to ask than the Bread of our Bodies this is Christ John 6.34 I am the Bread of Life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Bread like the Widows Barrel of Meal that shall never diminish unto all Eternity This Bread our Lord hath been pleased already to give us Christ and his fulness and nothing is wanting if we have but a hand to receive it And this Bread we eat when we believe the Truth of God concerning him when we often contemplate upon the Mercy of God in giving him and upon that mighty Salvation which in him he hath given us when we have often recourse unto him for Grace and Mercy when we carry unto him all our stock of Love and Admiration and Dependence and Recumbence and Resolution of Spirit And here we find Bread for our Souls in the most comprehensive latitude accommodate to every condition of the Soul Here is Bread to feed and to strengthen it the Grace and Spirit of Christ Physick to cure and recover it the Satisfaction and Merit of Christ Varieties to feast and to refresh it the Promises of God Joy in believing unspeakable and full of Glory Bread that will satisfie yet never satiate but the more we feed upon him the greater is our plenty and the better our stomach To conclude then the whole consideration of this Petition When I pray for my daily Bread my Soul doth or should run out into such thoughts as these O Lord thou did'st at first freely give me my Being I could not deserve it when I was not The same Title that I have to my Being I have to my Preservation and Support of my Being it is still free gift and therefore I come to thee for my Bread upon no other terms than as a poor Beggar to a most bountiful Lord. And because thou hast commanded me to cast my care upon thee therefore I seek my Bread of thee for this day which thou hast hitherto lent me I desire to trust thee with my Portion and it is my happiness that my Portion is not in my own hands but in thine Give therefore I pray thee Bread for this day and when to morrow comes I will beg Bread of thee for to morrow and if thou givest me this day supplies beyond the expence of this day I will use it thankfully and nevertheless dependingly for I will renew my Petition for my daily Bread still It is thy blessing that gives my Bread power to nourish me And that which is Bread to day and sufficient for to morrow may without thy blessing upon it like the Israelites Manna kept beyond thy Command be Worms to morrow And because thou hast promised that verily I shall be fed Psal 37.3 upon that promise of thine I beg food and cloathing convenient for me If thou givest me no more or not so much give me Contentedness and Thankfulness and if thou givest me more give me Thankfulness for it Sobriety in the use of it and Liberality in the dispencing of it In giving me but Enough I am Steward for my self and in giving me more than Enough I am but a Steward of that abundance for others But above all Ever give me of the Bread of Life that whilest my Body is fed my Soul may not be starved either for want of that Everlasting Bread or for want of an appetite to it And forgive us our Debts Matt. 6. Our Sins Luk. 11. Sins We are all under the guilt of sin No man lives and sins not Eccles 7.20 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves 1 John 1.8 God made Man Righteous at first and gave him a Righteous Law and in as much as Man owed an infinite subjection to the Authour of his Being he owed an Exact Obedience to the Law of his Maker yet God was pleased to give him this Law not only as the Rule of his Obedience but as a Covenant of Life and of Death viz. that so long as he and his Seed should observe that Law so long they should enjoy Blessedness and Immortality and if they should break any part of that Law they should die the death The first man made a stipulation for himself and his Posterity and this was but just for he had in himself the Race of all Mankind all succeeding Generations are but pieces of Adam who had not nor could have their Being but from him and so it was but Reasonable and Just for him to contract for all his Posterity And as it was just in respect of the Person contracting so it was just in respect of the Manner of the Contract the Law that was his covenant was a just and righteous Law a Law sutable to the indowments and power of his Nature Again the Blessedness which by his obedience he was to hold was not of his own creating nor obtaining it was the free gift of God and it is but reasonable that the Lord of this gift might give it in what manner he pleased and it could not be unjust that the Lord that gave him this Blessedness should give it him under what Conditions he pleased but he gave it him under most reasonable and just Conditions viz. an Obedience to a most just and reasonable Law which suited with the ability and perfection of his Nature and therefore when upon the breach of Covenant by Man he withdrew that blessedness from him and his posterity he did no more than what was most just for him to do And thus we stand Guilty of that Sin which our first Father committed and are deprived of that Blessedness and Life which our first Father had and the Privation of that Blessedness and Immortality is Death Rom. 5.12 By one Man sin
are attaining we cannot secure to be of any long or certain continuance and vanisheth or proves utterly unuseful when we die Of what use will then the knowledg of Municipal Laws of History of Natural Philosophy of Politicks of Mathematicks be in the next World although our Souls Survive us As to the 2. Namely Moral Virtues It is true Aristotle 1. Ethicor. Cap. 7. Tells us that Happiness or Blessedness is the Exercise or Operation of the Reasonable Soul according to the best and most perfect Virtue in vita perfecta in a perfect Life But he tells us not what that vita perfecta is nor where to be found and yet without it there is no Happiness But even this exercise of Virtue though much more noble than the bare habit of Virtue which is but in order to Action or Exercise if considered singly and apart and abstractively from the reward of it is not enough to constitute a Happiness suitable to the Humane Nature 1. The Actions of Virtue for the most part respect the good and benefit of others more than of the party that exerciseth them as Justice Righteousness Charity Liberality Fortitude and principally if not only Religion Temperance Patience and Contentation are those Virtues that advantage the party himself the rest most respect the good of others 2. We find it too often true that most good men have the least share of the comforts and conveniencies of this Life but are exposed many times even upon the account of their very Virtues to Poverty Want Reproach Neglect so that their very Virtues are occasions oftentimes of such Calamities which must needs abate the perfection of Life which is a necessary ingredient into Happiness 3. But if their life be not rendred grievous upon the account of their Virtues yet they are not thereby priviledged from many Calamities which render their lives unhappy and oftentimes renders them uncapable of the exercise of those Virtues which must make up their Happiness Poverty disables them from acts of Liberality Neglect and Scorn by great Men and Governors renders them uncapable of acts of distributive Justice Sickness and tormenting bodily Diseases many times attack them and render their lives miserable and many times disables even their very intellectuals and to these disasters they are at least equally lyable with others and if all these Calamities were absent yet there are two states of life which they must necessarily go through if they live that in a great measure renders them necessarily uncapable of these actions of Virtue namely the Passions and Perturbations of Youth and the decays and infirmities of Old Age. 4. The highest Good attainable by the exercise of Virtue in the party himself is Tranquillity of Mind and indeed it is a noble and excellent portion but as the case stands with us in this life without a farther prospect to a life to come even such a Tranquillity of mind is not perfectly attainable by us and hath certain appendances to it that abate that sincereness of Happiness that is requirable in it to compleat the Happiness of the Humane Nature and these are principally these two 1. The necessity that we are under considering the weakness of our nature by our daily failings Errors and Sins to turn aside from the perfect rule of Virtue whereby we are under a kind of moral necessity of violating or abating that Tranquillity of mind so that it seems in it self morally impossible either fully to attain or constantly and uniformly to hold that Tranquillity of mind 2. Still Mortality Mortality Death and the Grave terminates this Felicity if it only respect this life and the fear and pre-apprehension of such a termination sowers and allays even that Felicity which Tranquillity of mind otherwise offers This fear and anticipation of death as the Apostle says Heb. 2. detains men Captive all the days of their life and in a great measure breaks that Tranquillity of mind which is the constituent of this Happiness Again though Virtue and Virtuous actions have had their Elogia by excellent Philosophers Orators Poets and we are told by them that Si Virtus oculis cerneretur it would appear the most beautiful thing in the World yet it hath had but few followers in respect of the rest of the World and possibly would find a much colder entertainment if the recompence of Reward were not also propounded with it and believed Therefore there is and must be somewhat else besides bare Platonick Notions of Virtue and naked proposals of it that must give it a conquest over the satisfaction of our Lusts and Pleasures especially in the time of our Youth and Strength and before old age overtake us And hence it is that in all ages wise Rulers and Governors have annexed sensible Rewards and Honours and such things as have a lively and quick relish with them unto the exercise of Virtue And hence it is that the most wise God himself hath not propounded Virtue and Goodness to the children of men singly as its own and only Reward but hath also promised and really and effectually provided a Recompence of Reward for it that Happiness which I have been all this while in quest after and hath made Virtue and Goodness the way the method to attain that happiness which is in truth the end of it Upon the whole matter I therefore conclude that the Happiness of Mankind is not to be found in this life but it is a flower that grows in the Garden of Eternity and to be expected only in its full complement and fruition in that life which is to succeed after our bodily dissolution that although Peace of Conscience Tranquillity of mind and the sense of the favour of God that we enjoy in this Life like the bunches of Grapes brought by the Spies from Canaan are the prelibations and anticipations of our Happiness yet the complement of our Happiness consists in the Beatifical Vision of the ever blessed God to all Eternity where there is a vita perfecta a perfect life free from Pain from Sorrow from Cares from Fears vita perfecta a perfect life of Glory and Immortality out of the reach or danger of Death or the loss of that Happiness which we shall then enjoy in the presence of the ever Glorious God in whose presence is fulness of Joy and at whose right hand are Pleasures for evermore Amen OF THE Chief End of Man what it is AND The Means to attain it Thesis I. The Chief End of Man is to Glorifie God and everlastingly to enjoy him WHen we come to any reasonable measure of understanding the first question we propound concerning the actions of our selves or others is to enquire concerning the End why this or that is done and the propounding of an End to what we do is one thing that gives us Reasonable Creatures a priviledg above the Beasts And the wiser we grow the more we enquire after and propound to our selves more excellent Ends and of
and the Forgetfulness of God 3. Because the time of Youth is most Obnoxious to forget God there is great Inadvertency and Inconsiderateness Incogitancy Unstableness Vanity Love of Pleasures Easiness to be corrupted in Youth and therefore necessary in this season to lodge the Remembrance of our Creator in our Youth to be an Antidote against these defects to establish and fix the entrance of our lives with this great Preservative the Remembrance of our Creator 4. When Almighty God lays hold of our Youth by a timely Remembrance of himself and thereby takes the first possession of our Souls commonly it keeps its ground and seasons the whole course of our ensuing Lives it prevents and anticipates the Devil and the World It is true it may possibly be that Natural Corruption and Worldly Temptations may suspend the actings of this Principle but it is rarely extinguished It is like that abiding seed remaining in him spoken of by John 1 Joh. 3.9 Which will recover him again 5. The last reason is because there are Evil Days that will certainly come which will render this work of Remembring our Creator difficult to be first begun and therefore it is the greatest Prudence imaginable to lay in this stock before they come for it will certainly stand us in great stead when they come It is the greatest Imprudence in the World to defer that business which is necessary to be done unto such a time wherein it is very difficult to be done and it is the greatest Prudence in the World to do that work which must be done in such a season wherein it may be easily and safely done He that lays in this store of Remembrance of his Creator before the Evil Day come will find it of the greatest use and service to him in that Evil Day Now those Evil Days are many and all of them befall some but some of them will certainly befall all Mankind 1. An Evil Day of Publick or Private Calamities He that beforehand hath laid in this stock of Remembring his Creator will be easily able to bear any Calamity when it comes but a man that hath not done this before hand will find it a very unseanable time to begin to set about it when Fear and Anguish and Perplexity and Storms and Confusion are round about him and take up all his thoughts 2. The Evil Day of Sickness is an unseasonable time or at least a very difficult time to begin such a business When Sickness and Pain and Disorder and uneasiness shall render a man Impatient and full of Trouble and his Thoughts full of Disorder and Discomposure and Waywardness then it will be found a difficult business to begin the Remembrance of our Creator It is true no time is utterly unacceptable of God for this work but surely it is best to begin before this Evil day come for then it will be a comfort and mitigate the Pains and Discomposure of Sickness when a man can thus reflect upon his life past as Hezekiah did in his Sickness Remember O Lord that I have not failed to remember my Creator in the days of my Health 3. The evil Day of Old and Infirm Age which is a Disease and burthen of it self and yet is ever accompanied with other Sicknesses Pains and Diseases and a Natural frowardness and Morosity and Discontentedness of mind and therefore not so seasonable to begin the undertaking of this work as the flourishing Youth And indeed a man cannot reasonably expect that the Great God who invites the Remembring our Creator in the Days of our Youth and hath been ungratefully denied should accept the Dreggs of our Age for a Sacrifice when we have neglected the thoughts of him in our strong and flourishing age But on the other side that man that hath spent the time of his Youth and Strength in the remembrance of his Creator may with comfort and contentment in his old and feeble age reflect upon his past life with Hezekiah Remember O Lord I pray thee that I have not failed to remember thee in the days of my Youth and Strength and I pray thee accept of the endeavours of my Old Decayed Age to preserve that Remembrance of thee which I so early began and have constantly continued and pardon the defects that the natural decays of my strength and age have occasioned in that duty 4. The evil day of Death when my Soul fits hovering upon my lips and is ready to take its flight when all the World cannot give my Life any certain truce for a day or for an hour and I am under the cold embraces of Death then to begin to remember my Creator is a difficult and unseasonable time But when I have began that business early and held on the Remembrance of my Creator it will be a Cordial even against Death it self and will carry my Soul unto the Presence of that God which I have thus remembred in and from the days of my Youth with Triumph and Rejoycing Briefly therefore 1. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because thou knowest not whether thou shalt have any other Season to Remember him Death may overtake thee and lay thee in the Land of Forgetfulness thy Spring may be thy Autumn and thy early bud may be the only fruit that Mortality may afford thee 2. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because it is a time of Invitation neglect not this Season because thou knowest not whether ever thou shalt be again invited to it Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth that thy Creator may remember thee in the days of thy Sickness and Old Age and in the Evil Day 4. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth lest thy Creator neglect thee in the Evil Day Neglected Favours especially from thy God may justly provoke him never to lend thee more Because I called and ye refused I also will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear cometh Prov. 1.24 26. 5. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because it will heal the Evil of Evil days when they come it will turn those days that are in themselves Evil to become days of Ease and Comfort it will heal the Evil of the day of Affliction of Sickness of Old Age and of Death it self and make it a passage into a better a more abiding Life OF THE Vncleanness of the Heart and how it is Cleansed Psal 51.10 Cor mundum crea in me Deus THis Prayer imports or leads us into the Consideration of these things 1. What the condition of every mans Heart is by Nature It is a foul and unclean Heart 2. Wherein consists this uncleanness of the Heart 3. What is the ground or cause of this uncleanness of the Heart 4. Whence it is that the condition of the Heart is changed It is an act of Divine Omnipotence 5. What is the condition of a Heart thus cleansed or wherein the cleanness of the Heart consists
this Uncourteous dealing with our Lusts and Temptations will much countervail the unpleasingness of the Duty A man is tempted to a Sin he holds conference with it and is inticed to treat with it and to think of it and it pleaseth him but it is a Thousand to one if it stay there but unless some great diversion by the Grace of God or some External restraint by Shame or Punishment prevent him he commits the Sin and so Lust when it hath Conceived will bring forth Sin and Sin when finished will bring forth Shame and Death or at the best Shame and Sorrow How will a Man reckon with himself What am I the better for that Contentment that I took in this Sin the Contentment is past and that which it hath left me is nothing else but a mis-giving Conscience a sense of a displeased God ashamed to bring my mind in his presence a pre-apprehension of some mischief or inconvenience to follow me a despondency of mind to draw near to God under it and either a great deal of Sorrow and Vexation or Affliction under it or which is the usual gratification of Satan after Sin committed to put away the remembrance of a Sin past with the committing of another till at last the Guilt grows to such a moles that a Man is desperately given over to all kind of Villany and as his Sins increase his Guilt and Shame increaseth On the other side I have denyed my Lust or my Temptation and it is gone First I am as well without it as if I had committed it for it may be the Sin had been past and the contentment that I took in it and I had been as well without it but besides all this I have no Guilt cleaving to my Soul no sting in my Conscience no dispondent nor mis-giving Mind no Interruption of my Peace with God or my self I enjoy my Innocence my Peace my Access to God with Comfort nay more than all this I have a secret Attestation of the Spirit of God in my Conscience that I have obeyed him and have pleased him and have rejected the Enemy of his Glory and my Happiness I have a secret advance of my Interest and Confidence in him and Dependance upon him and Favour with him and Liberty and Access to him which doth Infinitely more than counter vail the satisfaction of an impure and unprofitable and vexing Lust which leaves no footsteps behind it but shame and Sorrow and Guilt 15. As Resolution and Severity to a mans self is one of the best remedies against the flatttery and deceit of Lust so there are certain Expedients that are subservient to that Resolution as namely First Avoiding of Idleness for the Soul in the Body is like a flame that as it were feeds upon that oily substance of the Body which according to the various qualifications or temper of the Body gives it a tincture somewhat like it self and unless the Soul be kept in action it will dwell too much upon that tincture that it receives from it and be too intent and pleased or at least too much tainted and transported and delighted with those fuliginous foul Vapors that arise from the Flesh and natural Constitution Keep it therefore busied about somewhat that is fitter for it that may divert that Intention and Complacency in those fumes that the inferiour part of the Soul is apt to take in them and so be tempted transported or abused by them Secondly A frequent and constant Consideration of the Presence of God and his Holy Angels Luke 15.7 10. 1 Cor. 4.9 who are Spectators of thy Constancy to God and his party and delighted in it or of thy Apostasie Bruitishness and Baseness of mind and grieved at it If a good Man were but acquainted with all my Actions and Motions of my mind upon the Advance of Lusts and Temptations it would make me ashamed to offend in his sight but much more if a pure and glorious Angel did in my view attend observe and behold me but when the Eternal God doth behold me who hath given me this Command to deny my Lusts and hath told me the danger of yielding to them that they bring forth Sin and Death and Hell offers his Grace to assist me promiseth Reward to my Obedience and Constancy how shall I then dare to offend with so much presumption Thirdly A frequent Consideration of Christ's Satisfaction Sufferings and Intercession These Lusts that now solicit me to their observance were those that Crucified my Saviour it was the end of his Passion to Redeem me not only from the Guilt but from the subjection to them It is he that beholds me how shall I trample his Blood under foot If I prostitute my self to them how shall I despise and as much as in me lies disappoint him in the very end of his Incarnation How shall I shame his Gospel before men and as much as in me lies put him to shame in the presence of the Father and all the Holy Angels when they shall be witnesses of my preferring a base Lust before him How can I expect the Intercession of my Saviour for me at the right hand of God who beholds me thus unworthily to serve a Lust though to my Damnation rather than obey my Redeemer to my Salvation 4. Frequent Consideration of Death and Judgment A base Lust solicites me to obey it Shall I accept or deny it It may be this may be the last action of my Life and possibly Death that might have been respited if I shall deny my Lust may be my next event if I obey it and as Death finds me so will Judgment find me Would I be content that such an act as this should be the Amen of my Life and it may be seal me up to eternal rejection Would I be content that my Soul should be presently carried into the presence of God under the last act of my Life to his dishonor Or on the other side if I deny this base importunate Messenger of Hell and it should please God to strike me presently after with Sickness or Death would it not be a more comfortable entrance into that black Valley with a clear Conscience and an Innocent Heart that could with Comfort say as once Hezekiah did upon the like occasion Isai 38.3 Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Fifthly A due Consideration of the Issue of those solicitations of Lust if assented unto the end of it is Death it will be bitterness in the end it cannot with all its pleasures countervail that bitterness that will most certainly attend it nor can it give any security against it Suppose thou art solicited to a thought or act of Injustice Impurity or Intemperance if thou wilt needs be talking with the Temptation ask it whether it be not a Sin against that God in whose hands thy Soul is and if it be whether his Anger and
Displeasure be not a necessary consequence of that Sin and if it be may not he inflict the issues of that wrath of his when and in what measure he pleaseth and if he may what security can this Temptation give against it hath it an Arm of Omnipotence to secure me against the power of him that is Omnipotent and if it cannot what Compensation or amends can it make me to countervail the Damage of his Wrath or the very Danger of it Can the Pleasure or Contentment of the Sin do it alas the Pleasure will pass away in it may be a Life a Day a moment but the Guilt and Torment continues to Eternity Motives to Watchfulness In reference to the Good and Evil ANGELS AS we see Plants in a Nursery when they come to a due growth are Transplanted into Orchards and those that are unuseful are pulled up and cast into the Fire or as we see Boys in a Free-School such as are undisciplineable are after some years of probation sent away to Mechanical Imployments and those that are Ingenious and Diligent are Transplanted to the Universities So among the Children of Men in this Life those that are Vitious and Incorrigible are by Death rooted out and cast into a suitable Condition and those that are Vessels fit for their Masters use Towardly Plants are by Death Transplanted into another Region a Garden of Happiness and Comfort And possibly as by continuance of time they received Improvement and Perfection here So in that other Region they add to their Degrees of Perfection and are promoted to further Accessions and Degrees and Stations of Happiness and Glory till they come to the state of Spirits of just Men made perfect Could we see the Invisible Regiment of the World by the subordinate Government of Good and Evil Angels as once Elisha's servant saw the Fiery Chariots and Horsmen in the Mount it would give us another kind of representation of things than now they appear to us We have just reason to believe that there are infinite numbers of Spirits of both kinds that have their passings to and fro and Negotiations as well among themselves as among the Children of Men and as Ravens Kites and other unclean Birds haunt Carrion and as Vermine haunt after Putrefaction and are busie about it or as disorderly debauched Companions and Ruffians ever haunt out and hang upon a dissolute and foolish Heir till they have sucked out all his Substance and Wealth So the Impure and corrupted Angels haunt and flock about a Man given over to Vice till they have wholly corrupted and putrified his Soul and those Good Men whom they cannot win over to them they pursue with as much Malice and Envy as is possible and though they cannot come within them yet as far as they can they raise up External Mischiefs against them watch opportunities to insnare or blemish them though the Vigilancy of a better Guard and their own Prudence and Circumspection do for the most part disappoint and prevent them Besides the displeasure of the great God there be some Considerations even in reference to these Good and Evil Angels to make Good Men very Watchful that they fall not into presumptuous or foul Sins 1. It cannot chuse but be a Grief to the Good Angels Luk. 15.10 to be present and Spectators of the Enormities of those Matth. 18.10 for whose Preservation they are imployed 2. It must in all probability work in them a nauseousness and retiring themselves from such Offenders at least till they have renewed and washed themselves by Repentance and made their Peace with God in Christ For there is no greater Antipathy than between these Pure and Chast Spirits and any Sin or Foulness 3. It cannot chuse but be a most grateful Spectacle to these Envious and Malignant Evil Spirits who upon the discovery of such a fall of a Good Man call their impure Company together and make pastime about such an object as Boys do about a Drunken Man and upbraid the Sacred and Pure Angels Look here is your Pious Man your Professor Come see in what a condition he is and what he is about 4. It lays open such a Man to the Power and Malice of those envious Spirits they have gotten him within their Territories and Dominions and unless God in great Mercy restrain them renders a Good Man obnoxious to their Mischief And as the contagion and noysomness of Sin drives away the Pure and Holy Spirits so it attracts and draws together those Impure and Malignant Spirits as the smell of Carrion doth Birds and Beasts of prey It concerns us therefore to be very vigilant against all Sin and if through Inadvertence Infirmity or Temptation we fall into it to be diligent to make our Peace and wash our selves as soon as we can in the Blood of Christ and Water of Repentance OF THE MODERATION OF THE AFFECTIONS Phil. 4.5 Let your Moderation be known unto all Men. MOderation is that Grace or Vertue whereby a Man governs his sensual Appetite his Passions and Affections his Words and Actions from all Excess and Exorbitancy It refers 1. To the sensual Appetite 2. To the Passions of the Mind 3. To Speech and Words 4. To the Actions of our Life 1. Moderation in the sensual Appetite and this is properly Temperance which is a Prudent Restraint of our Appetite from all Excess in Eating Drinking and those other inclinations that gratifie our senses And certainly this becomes us not only as Christians but as Reasonable Creatures for the sensual Appetite and those inclinations that tend to the gratification of our External senses are in a great measure the same in Men and in Brutes and they are in the due order and use Good and Convenient for both we cannot live without them But Almighty God hath given to Mankind a Higher and a Nobler Nature namely Understanding and Reason which in the right posture and constitution of the Humane Nature is to Govern Guide Moderate and Order that inferiour Faculty that is common to the Brutes as well as to Man And that Man that keeps not this Regiment and Superintendency of his Nobler Faculty degrades himself into the condition of a Brute and indeed into somewhat worse for even the Instincts of Brutes do for the most part regulate their sensual Appetite from Excess and Immoderation But because this belongs to that distinct vertue of Temperance I forbear further Instances herein 2. Moderation of our Passions and Affections and these are here principally intended namely Love Hatred or Anger Joy Grief Hope Fear and those other mixt or derivative Passions that arise in Man upon the presentment of their several Objects And although the Passions of the Mind considered simply in themselves are a part of our Nature and not Evil but when duely regulated and ordered are of excellent Use to us yet if they once become unruly mis-placed or over-acted they occasion the greatest troubles in the World both to the
and Pilgrimage not of my Repose and Rest but must look further for that Happiness And truly when I consider that it hath been the Wisdom of God Almighty to exercise those Worthies which he left as Patterns to the rest of Mankind with this kind of Discipline in this World I have reason not to complain of it as a Difficulty or an Inconvenience but to be thankful to him for it as an Instruction and Document to put me in remembrance of a better Home and to incite me to make a due provision for it even that Everlasting Rest which he hath provided for them that love him and by pouring me thus from Vessel to Vessel to keep me from fixing my self too much upon this World below But the truth is did we consider this World as becomes us even as Wise Men we may easily find without the help of any such particular Discipline of this Nature that this World below neither was intended nor indeed can be a place of Rest but only a kind of Laboratory to fit and prepare the Souls of the Children of Men for a better and more abiding State a School to exercise and train us up into habits of Patience and Obedience till we are fitted to another Station a little narrow Nursery wherein we may be dressed and pruned till transplanted into a better Paradise The continual Troubles and Discomposures and Sicknesses and Weaknesses and Calamities that attend our lives the shortness and continued Vexations occurring in them and finally the common examples of Death and Mortality of all Ages Sexes Conditions of Mankind are a sufficient instruction to convince reasonable Men that have the Seriousness and Patience to consider and observe That we have no abiding City here And on the other side if we will give our selves but the leasure to consider the Great Wisdom of Almighty God that orders every thing in the World to ends suitable and proportionable the excellence of the Soul and Mind of Man the great Advances and Improvements his Nature is capable of the admirable means the Merciful and Wise God hath afforded unto Mankind by his Works of Nature and Providence by his Word and Instructions to inable him for a Nobler Life than this World below can yield will easily confess that there is another State another City to come which becomes every Good and Wise and Considerate Man to look after and fit himself for And yet let a Man look upon the generality of Mankind with a due and severe consideration they will appear to be like a company of mad or distempered People The generality of the World make it their whole business to provide for a Rest and Happiness in this World to make these vain acquests of Wealth and Honor and Preferments and Pleasures of this World their great if not only Business and Happiness and which is yet a higher degree of frensie to esteem this the only Wisdom and to esteem the careful Provision for Eternity the Folly of a few weak melancholy fanciful Men Whereas it is in truth and in due time it will most evidently appear that those Men that are most sedulous and solicitous touching the attaining of their Everlasting Rest are the only true Wise Men and so shall be acknowledged by those that now despise them Wisd 5.4 We Fools accounted his life Madness and his end to be without Honor How is he numbred among the Children of God and his Lot is among the Saints When I come to my Inn I have this consideration presently occurs to me If my Lodging be good and fair the Furniture splendid the Attendance great the Provisions good and well ordered yet I streight consider this is not the place of my Rest I must leave it to morrow and therefore I set not my Heart upon it And again if my Inn be but poor my Entertainment mean my Lodging decayed I do not presently send for Painters Carpenters and Masons to Repair or Beautifie it but I content my self with it and will bear with the inconveniencies because I consider it will be but for a night and to morrow I shall be gone and possibly come to my home where I shall be better convenienced And although the truth is that this World is little other than our Inn to entertain us in our Journey to another Life and our stay in it is many times very short yea our longest stay here in comparison of Eternity is infinitely more short than a nights lodging at an Inn in comparison to the longest life here yet it is a wonderful thing to observe how much we are taken up with the concerns of this our Inn what a stir we keep about it what pains and cost we imploy in it how much of our time is laid out upon it as if it were our only home If our Lot cast us upon a handsome Lodging as it were and in it furnished with Wealth or Glory or Honor How we pride our selves in it how goodly we look upon our selves how happy we think our selves what care we have to make it more Rich Glorious and Splendid And on the other side if our Lot cast us upon a lower meaner Station if we are Poor or Sickly or Neglected or under Hatches what a deal of Impatience and Discontent and Unquietness appears Nay though our Lodging and Entertainment in this Inn of the World be pretty well and will serve till we take our Journey yet if it be not so Fine and Splendid and Rich and Comely as anothers if our Meat be enough to suffice nature if our Cloaths enough to protect us from cold if our House good enough to keep off the Storms and defend us from Injuries yet if these be not so good as such a Mans or such a Neighbors not so good as my Ancestors or Relations Lord What a deal of Unquietness and Complaining and Envy and Impatience and Turbulency of mind there is in Men What Designs and Frauds and Plots and Underminings and Undue Means Men take to advance their own condition and to depress others and all this while never consider that which would easily cure the extravagance as well of one hand as of the other Namely This is not my home it is but my Inn if it be Beautiful Splendid Convenient if my condition in it be Wealthy Honorable Prosperous I will not set my heart upon it nor think any better of my self for it nor set up my Rest in it It is but my Inn I must leave it it may be to morrow On the other side if it be but Poor Weak Infirm Ignoble Low I will content my self it is but my Inn it may serve for my passage I shall it may be leave it to morrow and then if I have taken that due care that becomes me in my provision for my Eternal State I am certain the case will be mended with me however my Inn be Poor Mean Inconvenient Troublesome it is but for a night my home will be better
I have learned that I have here no abiding City but I seek one to come The benefits of the consideration of this Text are many 1. It will teach a Man a very low esteem of this present World and never to set the heart upon it Wilt thou set thy heart upon that which is not It is not an abiding City Either like the old feigned inchanted Castles it will vanish and come to little while we think we have fast hold of it or else we must leave it we know not how soon It is full of trouble and vexation when we injoy it and very unstable and uncertain is our stay in it 2. But let it be as good as it will or can be yet this Text tells of a City that is better worth our thoughts an abiding City a City that cannot be shaken where there are no Troubles no Thorns no Cares no Fears but Righteousness and Everlasting Peace and Rest 2. Consequently it will teach us to seek that which is most of value first and most and make that our greatest Endeavor which is our greatest Concernment namely to seek that City that is to come Peace with God in Christ Jesus and the Hope of Eternal Life It is true while we are in this City that continues not this Inferior World God Almighty requires a due care for Externals and Industry in our Imployments and Diligence in our Callings It is part of that service we ow to God to our Families to our Relations to our Selves and being done in Contemplation of his Command it is an act of Obedience and Religious Duty to him But this Consideration will add this Benefit even to our Ordinary Imployments in our Calling it will be sure to bring a Blessing upon it Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added unto you It shall be given in as an advantage and over-measure 2. It will add great Chearfulness to the Imployments of your Calling and to those Worldly Imployments that are requisite for your support and subsistence when you shall resign up your endeavors therein to the Good Pleasure of Almighty God 3. It will remove all Vexatious Solicitousness and Anxiety from you when you shall have such Considerations as these Almighty God it is true hath placed me in this World as in a passage to another and requires of me an Honest Imployment for my support and subsistence or else hath lent me a reasonable liberal portion whereby I may comfortably subsist without much pains or labor I will use it Soberly Chearfully Thankfully If he bless me with Increase or greater Plenty I will increase my Humility Sobriety and Thankfulness but if it be not his pleasure to bless me with Plenty and Increase his Will be done I have enough in that I have there is another more abiding City wherein I shall have supplies without Want or Fears or Cares 3. This Consideration will give abundance of Quietness Patience Tranquillity of Mind in all conditions Am I in this World Poor or Despised or Disgraced or in Sickness or Pain yet this Text gives me two great Supports under it 1. It will be but short this lower World the Region of these Troubles and Storms is no continuing no abiding City and consequently the Troubles and Storms of this inferior City are not abiding or long 2. After this flitting perishing City that thus passeth away this sower life which is but the Region of Death there succeeds another City that indureth for ever a City not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens a State of Everlasting Blessedness where are neither Cares nor Tears nor Fears nor Poverty nor Sorrow nor Want nor Reproach I will therefore with all Patience Chearfulness and Contentedness bear whatsoever God pleaseth to exercise me withal in this life for I well know that my light Afflictions which are but for a moment shall be attended with a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory These Considerations will seem but dry and empty to Men that do not deeply and considerately weigh matters Ordinarily young heads think them at least unseasonable for their youth but they must know that Sickness and Death will overtake the youngest in time and that will undeceive People and render the best appearances of this World either Bitter or at least Insipid and without any pleasant relish and then the Hopes and Expectations of this City to come will be more of value to us than the best Conveniencies and Delights this lower World can afford Let us therefore in our health make it our business to secure our Interest in it and it will be our Comfort and Benefit both in Life and Death OF CONTENTEDNESS AND PATIENCE COntentedness and Patience differ in this that the Object of the former is any condition whether it be Good Bad or Indifferent the Object of the latter is any present or incumbent Evil. But though they differ in the Latitude or Extent of their Object yet they both arise from the same Principle which if rightly qualified gives both The Measure and Original of all Passions is Love and the Object of Love is That which is really or apparently Good If our Love be right it regulates all our Passions For Discontent or Impatience ariseth from the absence of somewhat that we love and value and according to the measure of our love to the thing we want such is the measure of our Discontent or Impatience under the want of it He that sets his love upon that which the more he loves the more he injoys is sure to avoid the danger of Discontent or Impatience because he cannot want that which he loves and though he love something else that may be lost yet under that loss he is not obnoxious to much Impatience or Discontent because he is sure to retain that which he most values and affects which will answer and supply lesser wants with a great advantage The greatest bent and portion of his love is laid out in what he is sure to injoy and it is but a small portion of love that is left for the thing he is deprived of and consequently his discontent but little and cured with the fruition of a more valuable Good He that sets his love upon the Creature or any result from it as Honor Wealth Reputation Power Wife Children Friends cannot possibly avoid Discontent or Impatience for they are mutable uncertain unsatisfactory Goods subject to Casualties and according to the measure of his love to them is the measure of his Discontent and Impatience in the loss of them or disappointment in them He that sets his love upon God the more he loves him the more he injoys of him and the surer hold he hath of him In other things the greatest danger of disappointment and consequently of impatience is when he loves them best but the more love we bear to God the more love he returns to us and Communicates his Goodness the more
me take no contentment or satisfaction at all in all or any of these enjoyments the truth is they are but Provisions for the Flesh and in order to the Body and when the Body is under a distemper they become but insignificant useless things He that is under a strong Pain or Disease finds as little contentment though he lie on a soft Bed richly furnished in a Chamber richly hanged in it a Cupboard furnished with massie Plate as if he lay in a Cottage 3. They are but for a time Death will at last overtake me and as all my Riches and Pleasures and Honours and Worldly Accommodations cannot prevent or buy it off so neither will they be of any comfort or value to me in that hour Indeed they may make death more troublesom and unwelcome to me but they cannot at all secure me against it The plain truth is Death doth undeceive and open the eyes of the Children of Men it teacheth us to put the true value upon every thing as it deserves My Riches and my Honour my Pleasures and my Profits my Gallantry and my Policy which I made much reckoning of in my life time when Death comes I shall perceive them to be but Vanity at the best and set no Esteem upon them but Piety and Prayers and Charity and Interest in God and in the Merits of Christ and the Promises of the Gospel that perchance in my life time I esteemed as dry and useless things I shall then see to be of greatest value and accordingly prize them These I shall carry with me into the succeeding World but all my Worldly Comforts when I pass through this strait Gate of Death I shall leave behind me as a Snake leaves behind his antiquated Skin when he passeth through a brake and never make use of them or take comfort in them more And when I come unto the other side of this dead Lake the Fruitions of all my life past will be forgotten or at least remembred as a Man remembers a Dream when he awakes only the Good or Evil of my past life will stick upon me unto all Eternity Why then should I set my Heart upon that which is of so small a value so little use so short and so uncertain a continuance they are things which I may lose while I live but I am sure I cannot keep them when I die and if they take their farewel sooner they do but their kind and at best do but a little anticipate their last and necessary valediction I resolve therefore I will not set my Heart upon them but carry a loose and flaccid Affection towards them And if I lose them I will not over-much afflict my Soul for the loss of that which I had not much reason to value while I had it And as thus a Man should tutor himself to a just Estimate of the Good things of the World so a Man should bring himself to a just and due Esteem of the Evil things of the World such as Sickness and Pain and Imprisonments and Reproach and Want and the like There are these two things that do much allay the severity of those Evils 1. They are but Corporal they reach no farther than the Body the Husk the outward Man the Cottage they cannot at all get so deep as the Soul 2. They are but Temporal It is most certain that Death will cure and heal these Evils and possibly these Distempers and Sufferings the less severe they are the more tolerable the more severe the more in probability they will hasten and advance the cure As nothing that hath an end can make a Man truly Happy so nothing that hath an end can make a Man truly Miserable because he hath under his greatest Misery the Lenitive of Hope and Expectation of a Deliverance 6. But yet farther Gain Assurance of thy Peace with God in Christ and consequently of thy future Happiness and be frequent in the Contemplation and Improvement of it This is the great Engine of a Christian a Magistery that was never attained by the most exquisite Philosopher nor is attainable but in and by the knowledge of Christ who brought Life and Immortality to Light It is the great expedient whereby a Man attains Victory over the World whereby he is able to injoy Prosperity with Moderation and undergo Affliction with Patience 1 Joh. 5.4 This is the Victory which overcometh the World even your Faith When a Man under the severest Afflictions shall have this Assurance and these Contemplations It is true I am in as low a condition as the World can cast me my Estate torn from me by the basest of Men and I and my Children exposed to extream Want and Necessity so that I am become little better than a Vagabond upon the Earth for the very attaining of Bread or at best am driven to the hardest and most sordid imployment that can be consistent with honesty for my supplies of Necessaries and if by chance my own sweat or others charity supply me to day I cannot imagine what shift to make for to morrow and if this were a condition to which I had been born or in which I had been bred use might have made it easie and familiar but it is not so I am fallen into this low condition from a plentiful and liberal condition wherein I had my Table crowned with plenty and as I wanted not Charity to imploy my Plenty so I wanted not Plenty to supply my Charity Again I was in the greatest Reputation and Esteem among Men that may be but now I am fallen under the saddest the basest Scorn and Obloquy and Reproach and Imputation that can be and all this without any cause my Enemies Triumph over me with Scorns Derisions and Exprobrations my former Friends bestow upon me a kind of Scornful Pity that is more bitter than the upbraidings of my Enemies the abjects and dregs of the people make me their by-word and the Calumnies under which I suffer are of such a nature that none dares be my Advocate but the silent Testimony of my own Conscience and Innocence Again under all these pressures it had been some allay if I were but a Citizen of the World that I had but the liberty to forsake the place of my suffering and go to some more auspicious or tolerable corner of the World but in that I am also prevented my liberty is taken from me and I am penned up in the narrow dark loathsome stinking confines of a most odious Prison without the benefit of Light or Friends or indeed of any other Company than such as make my Imprisonment the more intolerable Chains and Vermine and the most accursed Malefactors Again I suffer not only under restraint of a loathsome Goal but I am exposed to lingring Torments Racks and Whips and Famine and Nakedness and Cold and continual Threats and sad Expectations of worse to follow if worse there may be Again dismal and painful and tormenting Diseases
entered into the World and death by Sin and Vers 19. By one Mans Disobedience many were made Sinners 1 Cor. 15.22 In Adam all die And by this Sin of Adam all were made Sinners by these two wayes 1. By actual participation of his disobedience for we were then in him but that is not all for upon that reason every Man should stand guilty of all the Sins committed by any of his Progenitors since Adam which seems not to agree with the profession of Almighty God Ezek. 18.20 The Son shall not bear the Iniquity of the Father But the case is not alike for Adam was created in integrity and perfection in an ability to perform the Law and so was a fit person to stipulate for his posterity 2 And as he was a person so qualified so the Covenant was made between God and him both for him and his posterity and 3 As we suffer in the penalty of his Disobedience so we had enjoyed the benefit of his Obedience we had come into the World with the same Liberty of Will and Integrity and Perfection of Nature that he had But all these are wanting in any other person in the World 1. A defect of Nature is gone over all that none is fit to stipulate for himself and his posterity 2. No such contract hath been at any time made between God and any other Man 2. By a necessary Consequence for God having justly withdrawn from Man his Blessedness and Perfection and Sin having corrupted and imbased his Nature we by propagation from him derive a corrupted depraved Nature full of impotence and rebellion and disorder Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean God was pleased to communicate to Man a being in the Essence of a Man and to communicate unto him a degree of Purity Immortality Wisdom and Perfection beyond the compass of his Natural subsistence but this latter was communicated to him under a covenant which when he broke he lost and not only lost that but even stained and corrupted and imbased that very being that after he had sinned he retained And this is the old Man corrupt according to the deceivable Lusts Ephes 4.22 A body of death Rom. 7.24 And this Depravation of our Nature was followed with the continual Corruption and at last with the dissolution of Nature and that not only in those who had sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression by an actual breach of an express Law Rom. 5.14 But in all that were partakers of Adams corrupted Nature even Infants and so Death passed over all And as thus we partake of Original Sin as well by being virtually actors in it as also by derivation of a corrupted Nature so this corruption of our Nature produceth in all our Lives continued and renewed Actual Sins the conceptions of Lust Jam. 1.15 And these Actual Sins according to the difference of those commands of God which are violated are either Sins of Omission or of Commission and both come under the extent of this Petition by the name of Sins or Trespasses Luk. 11. by the Name of Debts Matt. 6. For we owe unto God Duty and Obedience and every Violation of that duty leaves us so much indebted unto God the least of which is impossible to be paid when once incurred because it is impossible for us to make that not to have been which hath already been and impossible for us by all our future Obedience were it as exact as the will of God requires to expiate a Sin past for still that perfect obedience is no more then we owe we have therein but done our duty and are but unprofitable Servants but if it were possible to think that one act of perfect obedience to God would expiate for any Sin past yet such is the Corruption of our Nature that not one such act can be found there is in our best actions a mixture and adherence of some defect or other that makes it become the subject still of this Petition that which needs Mercy to Pardon and therefore cannot contain Merit to Deserve So then all are concluded under Sin Gal. 3.22 and consequently under Guilt the effect of Sin and consequently under death and a curse the wages of Sin And this Sin guilt and curse is so closely bound to every one of Adams posterity that there is no possibility in the best of them to deliver themselves from it therefore O Lord teach us to pray Forgive us Forgiveness is an act of Free Grace whereby our offended God freely and without any Merit of ours remits the Sin the Guilt and Punishment the Person offended is he only that can forgive the rule was true though misapplyed Mar. 2.7 Who can forgive Sins but God only and Forgiveness is an act of most free Mercy and nothing of Merit in the person forgiven Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy Sins Misery which is the effect of Sin is the Object of Mercy but it is not the Desert of it especially when that very Misery under which we are brought by Sin is a Misery wilfully contracted by our selves and not only so but is still a sinning Misery a Misery accompanied with stupidity and senslessness with aversion opposition against that God and that very Mercy that should deliver us God commends the freeness and fulness of his Goodness to us by taking that season to be Merciful when our condition is most Miserable not because our misery deserves his pity Ezek. 16.6 I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live Yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live This Forgiveness is thus wrought Man that was infinitely bound to love and obey the Author of his Being most unrgatefully and unnecessarily sinned against him and thereby deservedly incurred the everlasting curse of the most Just and True God and forfeited his being yet though Man had destroyed himself Almighty God of his own Free Will and without any other Motive and by his own Infinite Wisdom contrived a way whereby his most exact Truth and Justice might be satisfied and yet his creature saved and his Mercy and Goodness might be infinitely evidenced unto Men and Angels By an Everlasting Covenant between the Father and the Son the Son he must assume our Nature and offer it up as One Sacrifice for Sin for ever Heb. 10.12 This was that Mystery hid from Ages and Generations the Mystery that the Angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 The Great Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 The great End of the Creation of Man And by this Sacrifice thus freely given by our offended Lord we have Redemption even the Remission of our sins Ephes 1.7 Colos 1.14 And Pardon thus freely given by the Father and yet thus dearly bought by the Son is with abundance of Love and Grace proclaimed and tendred unto all in all the World
only Will is a sufficient rule of his Justice thou owest an infinite subjection to him from whom thou hast received thy Being His Soveraignty over his Creature is even by the very right of Nature Infinite and Boundless Be contented therefore to bear whatsoever he inflicts without the least disputing of the Justice or Injustice of it This was that Excellent Contemplation of old Eli under the most severe denuntiation of Gods judgment It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good And it was that great Lesson that Jobs Afflictions was sent to teach him though he could not learn it till God himself as well for our Instruction as His taught him out of the Whirlwind but then he learned it and abhorred himself in Dust and Ashes for his former Ignorance and Frowardness 8. Yet further bear it patiently for that God that sent thee this Messenger doth behold and observe how thou entertainest it wherein we may with all due Reverence suppose the Lord of Heaven thus resolving Yonder is such a Man that professeth to Know and Fear and Love me and I see him nevertheless fond of his Wealth or Honor or some other Blessing I will give leave to Evil Men or Evil Angels as once in the case of my Servant Job to spoil him of Wealth and to cast him into Disgrace and I will observe his carriage and deportment under it and though I know what it will be yet I will make it now conspicuous both to Himself and Men and Angels And if his Deportment be not answerable to his Profession if he storm against my Providence or use unworthy Means to free himself or grow Impatient and Disorderly under it I will make his folly conspicuous and send more and sharper Visitations unto him till this fire of Afflictions hath brought him to his due temper of Patience Humility Submission to my Will Dependance upon my Power Subjection to my Soveraignty But if on the other side I see him humble himself under my hand Submit to my will Justifie me in his Sufferings Patient under them and Waiting my time to be delivered from them I will exhibit him before Men and Angels as a Patern of Patience and I will make him as Signal in his Deliverance as he is Eminent in his Patience Suppose thou couldst hear such a Deliberation and see and behold such Spectators of thy Deportment how wouldst thou indeavor to compose thy self with all Patience and Contentedness and Quietness and Resignation of thy self under the most severe Affliction And how little wouldst thou dare in such a Presence to discover or so much as entertain any Murmuring or Impatient thought Assure thy self though thou canst not with a bodily eye behold this Great Lord of the World beholding thee while thou art in this Scene of Affliction yet he beholds and observes thee and the very motion of thy Soul and the Glorious Angels though they cannot look into the secret retirements of thy Thoughts yet they behold thy external Deportment and are grieved if it be unseemly and unsuitable to the Honor of their and thy Lord and are glad to behold a Deportment suitable to the Ends and Glory of their Lord And the Evil Angels which irritate and provoke thee to Impatience are pleased and gratified if they effect it and ashamed and vexed if they are disappointed in it Believe it in a signal and eminent degree of Prosperity or Adversity thou art like a Man upon a Stage a spectacle exposed to the view of God and Men and Angels and Devils let thy carriage therefore be such as if thou didst as visibly behold thy Spectators as they most certainly do see thee Tenthly As thus thou art to bear thy Affliction patiently so indeavor to use it profitably and besides these advices before mentioned add to them these insuing 1. Learn by them to have a just Estimate of the World Affliction pulls of those fine gay Cloaths from the World by which in Prosperity it deceives us and renders it as it is a Vain Empty Vexing World 2. From that sound and just Estimate of the World Discipline thy Affections to a moderate and loose application to it It is true Afflictions do ordinarily imbitter the World to us and so for the present our Affections may be dull towards it but this arising meerly from Sense without a sound practical established Judgment it ordinarily lasts no longer than the Afflictions last and as they wear away and worldly comforts begin to grow up and increase so our love to the World comes on and grows up again But when a Man by the advantage of Afflictions digests this principle into his Judgment commonly it abides and moderates the love of the World notwithstanding the return of the Comforts and Advantages of the World 3. Keep up thy heart in a dependance upon Gods Power and Alsufficiency to deliver thee from Affliction or to support thee under it and labor by Observation and Experience to rivet this Dependance into thy Judgment and Choice It is most certain that almost every Man as long as he can have any thing to lay hold of besides will make that his Dependance The Sick Man will depend upon his Physician the Impoverished Man upon his Friends and the like but when there is nothing else to rest upon then Men will to their Prayers with the Mariners in the Storm but this being but an Act of Necessity as it riseth upon Necessity so it vanisheth with it When the Necessity is over and other Dependances come to hand we are apt to throw off our Dependance upon God Labor therefore for an Experimental and Judicious Dependance upon God Sometimes in Afflictions we begin to attain it but the best way is to begin to entertain such a Dependance before we are driven to it and then the Necessity of our Afflictions will fasten and improve it that it will stick with us after 4. By thy Afflictions learn to value and improve thy Hope and Assurance of Everlasting Life And indeed thy Necessity now doth in a special manner drive thee to it and it is a great End of Gods sending Afflictions that it may drive us off from the clasping of this present World and thereby carry us over to the valuation of our Eternal Condition Thy Wealth is gone and thy Honor and Reputation is sunk and blasted and thy Friends have forsaken thee and thy Body is mouldering to dust and rottenness and thy Soul sits hovering upon thy Lips ready to take her flight and all thy hold of this present life is broken and gone so that thou hast nothing now to lodge and fasten thy Hopes upon but the Promises of Everlasting Life thy interest in Christ the Hope of Everlasting Life and now if ever these things will be welcome to thee God hath scattered and broken all other Confidences improve this Vnum Magnum this one thing necessary that alone doth stand by thee when all things else forsake thee and
will accompany thee in and through Death it self and fix in thy Heart such a value upon this that hath been thy only Comfort when all others forsake thee as not to let go thy valuation of it though thy Temporal Prosperity should return unto thee Eleventhly Wait Gods leisure for thy Deliverance out of Afflictions and use no Vnlawful Means to be delivered from it Use no base or unworthy Compliances with the World either by dissimulation or flattery or violence or falsity to extricate thy self for that will either intangle thee worse or at least and Guilt to thy Sufferings And above all avoid that accursed temptation of ridding thy self from thy Troubles by putting an End to thy own life for thereby thou dost at once two great Evils an Evil of extream Folly and Madness to exchange a Temporal Inconvenience by running the hazard of an Eternal Misery for the very same Impatience and Perturbation and Anxiety of Soul that puts thee upon such an accursed Resolution goes with thee into the other World with a great improvement of it and makes thy Soul in its Separation infinitely more vexed and tormented than it was before in the Body and an Evil of Rebellion against God who hath sent thee these Afflictions and hath made it thy Province and thy Task and thy Service that he injoyns thee to bear with Patience and to his Honor till he deliver thee Thou art just like an hired Servant who art set on work by a most righteous Lord and thy labor set out to thee and thy Reward appointed in the end of thy day and thou wilt run away before the day be ended whereby thou dost not only lose thy Wages but art justly obnoxious to be pursued and cast into Prison for thy Disobedience and Rebellion Be contented wait Gods time with Prayers and Patience and thou mayest be sure to find his Mercy in moderating thy Afflictions his Power to support thee under them his Goodness in his time which is always the best time to deliver thee from them and his Bounty to reward thee for thy Patience and Obedient bearing of them Twelfthly Take this for a most certain expedient to be prevented from many Afflictions and to be delivered from them Meddle as little with the World and the Honor Places and Advantages of them as you can and extricate thy self from them as much and as soon as thou canst Although the Divine Wisdom and Providence governs the World in a most infallible and unerring method yet in the External Administration of it it seems to be full of confusion and uncertainty When I have seen a Lottery with a goodly show of fine Plate and a great many persons parting with certain money for an uncertain Lot and though possibly one or two may gain a fair prize yet a Hundred for one drawing nothing but blanks and when they have opened their Papers vexing and tormenting themselves with their Loss and Disappointment or when I have seen at Christmas time a few Apples thrown among a Room full of Boys and one scrambling and another catching some getting nothing but a fall or bruise or a broken Shin or a broken Limb and another getting it may be two or three and those that miss falling upon him that hath gotten so the company fall together by the Ears Or when I have seen a match at Footbal one while one getting the Ball and then another kicking up his heels and getting it from him and then another doing the like by him These give me a kind of Resemblance of the World wherein though by the help of Civil Government there are certain Rules put to the Game yet they are not always kept and when they are yet it is not without a mixture of Irremediable Deceit and Violence though it be of a finer sort If now my Child should run among this Company and in the scuffle should receive a knock or a fall or a bruise or be tumbled in the dirt and then should come running to me and complain of his usage my answer would be to him What made you there What made you in such boisterous and unruly Company If you mingle with such Company you must be contented to share in the prejudice and to take your Lot it is the Play if you dislike with your success come no more among them And indeed this is in a great measure the case of many of the true Children of God they see fine gay things in the World as Wealth and Honor and Place and External Advantages scattered among the Children of Men and gotten by scrambling for them and sometimes are apt to flatter themselves into the pursuit of them with a pretence that if they could come by their share of them they would do more Good with them than those do that get them or at least they think it as lawful and as fit for them to have them as others and thereupon they thrust themselves into the Crowd and Scramble for them or are at least cousened into an affectation of them and possibly they are rolled and tumbled into the dirt in their undertakings and it may be miss of them when they have all done But suppose they gain them then they think they may keep them and yet keep their Conscience and Integrity and Religion too and many times in that indeavor they lose somewhat of their Integrity and then God visits them with some Loss or Reproach or in case they stand to their Integrity and will not part with it but will make a scruple of things that others down with then commonly they are exposed and pillaged and lose all that they have thus gotten and the Evil one and Evil Men tell them Nay Sir if you come into our ground if you will hold the World pray be contented to hold it upon our term and as we do or else leave it it is part of the game And then the Man complains of his Affliction and his hard Usage in the World and that he suffers for keeping a Good Conscience and if he would have done as the rest of the World do it had been better with him But Sir what made you in that Company What made you to be tampering with great Places and Preferments Do not you know that if you will be dealing and trafficking with these kind of matters you must take them upon those conditions the World doth usually afford them Do not you know that by medling with them you list your self in a manner under the Worlds command put your self into that Corporation And therefore if you are minded to hold these Temporal Advantages you must observe the Orders of your Commander and so hazard your Conscience and Peace with God And if you will not observe the Orders of your Commander you must be contented to be subject to the Discipline and Frowns and Scorns and Rejections of the World for you cannot serve God and Mammon Therefore if thou wouldst prevent or avoid very many Afflictions