after all mouldred to dust by death and rottenness but there neither deformity pains nor death shall be their fear nor exercise Our Souls shall quit their prisons clouds and chains our apprehensions shall be clear 1 Cor. 13.12 and Consciences full of peace and joy Oh what an harmony and concord shall there be betwixt God's will and ours what purity order warmth and vigour shall there be in our affections and what subserviency and due prostrations in our passions yea what comfort and constancy shall there be in full and grateful exercises in the whole man No Jars and Discords shall spoil the Melody of our Spheres our Holiness shall need no Crutch but reach the fulness of a perfect stature no broken-winded nor imperfect praises there the pulse of perfect Souls shall know no intermissions nor unequal motions but keep one constant rate of work and joy And what a change of state as well as persons shall we meet with there Phil. 1.23 A vale of tears quit for Rivers of eternal pleasures an element of joys succeeds our bitter Cups our rights can never be invaded there nothing can stain the comforts of that world no blots nor wounds are there contracted nor endured no troubles in that Israel there are no pauses of astonishment through surprisals of afflictions death smites no corners there Providence makes no storms there lies that Ark wherein no vile or wicked Cham shall dwell the glory of that place it knows no eclipse nor cloud no dim discoveries or flat notes shall be the exercise or entertainment of that state How sprightly are the Airs and descants of their Hallelujahs No worm on Conscience or carkass there there Charity knows no breach no male-administrations in that Kingdom nor bad constructions of God's providence or of the Actions of his servants there there are no cuts from Friends nor gripes from Enemies no frailties to report nor Enemies to report them no falls in Israel to grate upon these holy hearts nor fears to be their painful exercises there are no wrinkles on the brows of God nor frowns upon the face of Majesty nor one dejected look amongst those blessed Myriads of Saints and Angels their Ark hath neither shake nor cover nor any startling strokes to terrifie its attendants Souls once arrived at this harbour are entertained with perfection in a morning-blush and everlasting youthfulness Oh who can draw these Breasts of Consolation dry These upper Springs they run clear and freely and all the Fountains of the great Deep shall there be broken up to overflow the Banks of Paradise with everlasting joys and satisfaction With what a torrent shall these clear and pleasant Rivers run Should I attempt a full description of this joyful state I might far sooner set Rhetorick upon the wrack and contract the Character of being one that quaintly did attempt to play the fool and was eloquently mad than think to escape that censure Job 38.2 Who is this that darkneth counsel by words without knowledge Oh it must be Vision and Fruition and not the Flourishes of expression that must reach the excellent perfections of that state 1 Cor. 2 9. See Psal 16.11 And now shall we fear to leave this world and die What! shall we be undone by being happy Is it the misery of man to be with God like him and dear and near unto him What is this state and theatre of woes and sorrows that we are so loth to quit it Methinks I see the Angels overmatcht with strange astonishment at our reluctancies to be gone and our averseness to desert our Dotages and Prisons It might in reason be expected from us that no exercise of our patience should be so sore and pinching as this that we must stay from Heaven so long and shall we after all raise such a false report about the Land of Promise by our averseness to be gone thereto as to insinuate into the thoughts of others that either the trifles of this mortal Life or the pains and terrors of our passage to the Land of Rest are much beyond the Recompences and Reparations that we shall meet with there View then the difference and be free to go Prop. 3. Death is an enemy which Christ hath conquered and God hath given us the victory through Christ 1 Cor. 15.54 57. Heb. 2.14.15 Oh what an emancipation hath Christ here wrought That Christ hath conquered it 't is clear in Acts 2.24 That Prophesie is now accomplisht Hos 13.14 with Rom. 1.4 And blessed are the consequences of this Victory to us John 6.39 40. Why should we fear this King of Terrors who gives his stroke but has no sting the stab is deep but the captivity short for vve shall have our lives again which are hid with Christ in God till Christ appear Col. 3.3 4. And Soul death is escaped for when we are absent from the body we shall be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 Sin bound us over to eternal death by Law and here vvas the strength and sting of Death but this Sentence is reversed through the Law of the Spirit of Life Rom. 8.1 4. And Death it self can neither come from nor end in any want of Love in God to us And how triumphantly doth the Apostle speak when animated with this Meditation Rom. 8.32 39. What an allay is it amidst our pangs and fears of death to think upon those Confidences Encouragements and Consolations before and in and after the shakes and conflicts yea and execution of a dying hour vvhich God allovvs intends and is resolved to give us then 'T is novv consistent vvith the dearest love to die and introductive of the best delights and state and therefore vve have little cause to fear it seeing vve shall be gainers by it 't is but a Moment's blovv and that shall be healed again 1 Pet. 1.3 4. He that is true to his baptismal covenant hath novv the title and shall have the honour and advantages of this victory if God be served and sought and loved as our great end and happiness Psal 73.25.26 if we be freely for Christ Joh. 6.37 faithful to him Rev. 2.10.3.10 Heb. 5.9 and fruitful in him Joh. 15.1.10 2 Pet. 1.5.10 if vve live in the spirit and vvalk by it Gal. 5.25 Rom. 8.9.17 and sovv to it Gal. 6.8 and if vve heartily and prevailingly ansvver the claims and ends of the Gospel of the grace of God Tit. 2.11 15. What need vve perplex our selves vvith fears as if vve served a rigid or unfaithful Master Oh let not our unvoluntary vveakness and surprisals discourage us for God is merciful his goodness is exceeding great and our High priest is sensible of our vveaknesses and true to all our interest Heb. 7.25 9 24. Heb. 2.14 18 4.14.16 And novv having thus prepared the vvay by these preliminary Propositions vvhat novv remains for us to do but to take these follovving Directions vvhich vvill come something closer to the case in hand Direct 1. See that
the pouring out his blood for you now your magnificent feasts were not so fitted for such a Commemoration for they rather would have tended to have clog'd your spirits made them dull and stupid and far less apt to have contemplated such Divine and Heavenly things as those now named are And therefore that this Supper is so mean as it is it is far better than if it were so great and royal as you conceive There are others are well enough satisfied with the wisdom of their Lord and in the nature of the things appointed for the remembrance of him which yet may be and ought to be inquisitive as to the reason of them Which I shall reduce to these 4 Questions 1. Why did the Lord appoint bread rather than any other kind of food 2. Why must it be broken bread 3. Why must it be taken and eaten 4. Why wine as well as bread and why Wine rather than any other drink 1. To the first I say he appointed bread as most apt to signifie the thing thereby to be presented to our Faith and that is himself as he is bread of life to our Souls for so he calleth himself Joh. 6.33 The bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world And 35. Jesus said I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger This is evident that man's natural life doth not more depend on the vertue of the bread that perisheth than the Soul's life of Grace and Glory depends on that vertue that proceedeth from a suffering Jesus I live saith the Apostle Paul yet not I but Christ liveth in me all that life of Faith all the indwellings of Grace in our hearts comes from and is maintained by the vertues and influences of Jesus Christ this bread of life and so likewise doth our eternal life depend on him as he likewise tells us v. 27. Labour for the meat that endureth to eternal life which the Son of man shall give you this meat is the Lord himself who by his sufferings made our peace and purchased the life of grace and glory for us And indeed no other meat as bread could so aptly set forth this Mystery because no food is so suitable to man's nature none for a constancy so pleasant none so strengthning a man can better subsist with bread without other meats than with any other meats without bread thereby the Mystery of conveighing Soul-lâ—fe to the sinner is excellently set forth for as there is other meat for the body besides bread so there is another way of giving life to the Soul besides that of a Saviour and that is an exact obedience to the Law of God but alas the sinner through the weakness of the flesh can never digest that strong meat and so cannot live by it But for a poor weak infirm sinner to be maintained in a life of grace and acceptance with an offended God in and by a Saviour is a way of living so suitable to a sinner that Men and Angels could never have thought of one so suitable and therefore nothing as bread was so fit to set forth this Mystery 2. But why must it be broken bread Christ himself acquaints us with the mystical reason thereof in the verse of the Text it is to set forth the breaking of the body of Christ by breaking his body must be taken to comprehend all the sufferings of his Humane nature as united with the Divine as all his soul-sufferings of which there are 3 Phrases used by the Evangelists very emphatically as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all signifie those dolors of mind he underwent through the dereliction of God and likewise all other sufferings of his body which are by Isaiah set forth with great variety of Phrase speaking of Christ he saith He was despised and rejected of men Isaiah 53. a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and v. 4. He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows and v. 5. He was wounded for our transgressions the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed and v. 7. he was oppressed and he was afflicted Now all these sufferings were consummated in his Crucifixion 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree These are those sufferings that made that one sacrifice of himself by which he put away sin and hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 9.26 Heb. 10.14 Upon this account it is that the bread of this Supper must be broken before it be taken and eaten the broken bread that is the sign and Christ's sufferings that is the mystery signified by it as I have shewed 3. Why must this broken bread be taken and eaten This is not without its Mystery for thereby is meant that these Breakin gs Bruisings Woundings of Christ's Soul and Body was not for any sin of his own for he was a lamb without spot 1 Pet. 1.19 but it was for our sins and for our benefit Our dear Jesus sows in tears and we reap the harvest of his tears in joy he by the meritorious extraction of his bloody sweat and agony in the Garden by his tremendious dolors of Soul and Body on the Cross prepares a Cordial and perfects it by his death which prepared Cordial we by Faith drink up and from a state of sin and death revive he offered himself as good wheat to be ground by the law and justice of God that thereby he might be made bread of life for us by Faith to feed on that we may live for ever So that Christ's breaking and giving the bread in this Sacrament to his Church doth mystically declare that the sole intentions of all his sufferings was for us and therefore he saith this is the bread that was broken for you and likewise taking and eating it doth further signifie that we do profess to believe in him for life and do rely wholly on him for acceptance with God and for the salvation of our souls 4. But why did he add wine also to this supper and commanded us to drink thereof in remembrance of him I Answer this addition was for a very good reason for thereby a further mystery of our Salvation by his bloody death is explained 1. As first if you consider that man's natural life is not maintained by eating only except he drink also for we may dye as well by thirst as by hunger Christ therefore by giving us his blood to drink which is signified by the Cup as well as his body to eat doth thereby declare that his suffering of Death for us is every way compleat and sufficient for the spiritual and eternal life of our souls So that as he that hath bread and drink wants nothing for the sustaining his natural life so he that hath by Faith an interest in a broken bleeding Christ wants nothing to the upholding the Soul in a state of
to us all if God had spared him her or them if your house had been consumed by flames and God had turned you all out of doors before morning would you not have said It would have been a mercy if God had safely preserved us and our dwellings and caused us to rest and sleep and rise in safety Why Sirs will you not acknowledg mercies to be mercies till God hath taken them away from you and if you do should you not give the praise daily unto God Was it not God himself that watched over you while you did sleep and could not did not watch your selves When you all did sleep you knew not where you were nor what dangers you were exposed unto nor how you might prevent them but God then was good unto you and should you not conjunctly acknowledg this when you do wake and rise and see that God hath kept you and do enjoy the comfort and the benefit of his watchful Providence over you Psal 127.1 Except the Lord keep the City the Watchman waketh but in vain 2. for so he giveth his beloved sleep And as you have had many Family mercies in the night to bless God for in the morning so you have many Family mercies in the day to give thanks to God for at night before you go to bed If you see not cause to acknowledg God's goodness towards you you are blind if you do and have not hearts you are worse Methinks you should not quietly sleep till you have been together on your knees least God should say this Family that hath not acknowledged my mercy to them this day nor given me the glory of those benefits of which to them I gave the comfort shall never see the light of another day nor have the mercies of one day more to bless me for When sleep doth close their eyes so shall death too they shall live no longer and rise no more this night they shall go to their beds and the day or two after shall be carried to their graves I wonder Sirs that you do not dream of an angry God because thus slighted by you I wonder that you do not dream of some sore judgment or other that might overtake you before the Sun doth rise What if God should say unto you when you are laid down in your beds THIS NIGHT your Souls shall be required of you you that went to bed before you had given me the praise of the mercies that I had given unto you all the day and before you had prayed for my protection over you in the night and should send some suddain sickness to make you feel that he is offended with you for this neglect might not God say shall I keep and preserve that Family till the morning that would not so much as ask me so to do and if I do will not acknowledg it to be a mercy or a kindness to them Take heed though God be patient do not provoke him Reason 2. You should pray to God daily in your Families because there are sins committed every day in your Families 2. 2. Ad candem à defectibus nostris excitamur Do you indeed sin together and will you not pray together what if you should be damned all together Doth not every member of your Family commit many sins every day How great is the number then of all when considered or put together What! so many sins every day under your roof within your walls committed against the glorious blessed God and not one Prayer one sin should be lamented with a thousand tears but you have not one tear shed by one and another by another in Prayer together for a thousand sins Is this to repent daily when you do not confess them daily Would you have God to pardon all the sins of your Family say would you or no If you would not God might justly let you go to your Graves and Hell too with the guilt of sin upon your Souls If you would is not pardon worth asking for Would you have it and not beg it at the hands of God would not all judg that man worthy of death that being justly condemned might yet have life for asking for and will not How do you how can you quietly go to your beds and sleep with the guilt of so many sins upon your Souls and have not prayed to have them blotted out What do you take to make you sleep What is your pillow made of that your heads can rest upon it under the weight and load of so much guilt Is indeed your bed so soft or your heart so hard that you can rest and sleep when to all the sins of commission in the day you add this sin of omission in the evening Lay to heart your daily Family sins and you will feel a reason why you should pray to God in your Families daily Reason 3. 3. You should pray in your Families daily unto God 3. Ad eandem plerisque tum cerporaelium tum spiritualium bonorum indigentiis premimur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indiget vir viro sed omnes Deo etiam Hercules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Od. lib. 8. Omne bonum Dei donum because you have many daily Family wants which none can supply but God God wants not your Prayers but you and yours want God's mercies and if you will have them should you not pray for them Can you supply your Families wants If they want health can you give it them If they want bread can you give it them except God first give it unto you Why then did Christ direct us to pray Give us this day our daily bread If they want grace can you work it in them or do you not care though they die without it Is not God the giver of every good gift Jam. 1.17 Every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights Mercies are above and good things are from above and prayer is a means appointed by God to fetch them down Jam. 1.5 If any man want wisdom let him ask it of God Do you think you do not want wisdom to discharge your duties to God and man that you do not want wisdom to manage your family for their temporal spiritual and eternal good If you think so you are fools and if you think you want it not by those very thoughts you may discern your want of it If you think you have enough it is plain that you have none and should you not ask it of God if you would have it If you and yours want health in your Family should you not ask it of God Can you live without dependance upon God or can you say you have no need of God's help to supply your wants then you speak contradictions for to be under wants and not to be dependent beings is a contradiction to think you do not live in dependence upon God is to think you are
most just and righteous in all his dealings Isa 45.21 Psal 92.15 Jam. 6.3 Psâ—l 103.14 Mat. 3.17 Mic. 7.18 Exod. 34.6 Psal 25.4 Job 36.22 Isa 28.26 Rom. 8.26 Psal 32.8 Isa 43.2 Dan. 3.25 Psal 23.1 Psal 34.10 Psal 19.11 Psal 31.19 20 who can accuse him of the least unrighteousness who can say he hath done him wrong and that be is a hard Master Come let any testifie against God and make good their charge if they can Is not he full of pity and ready to forgive how ready to moderate his anger when he is highly provoked It is not without good reason that the Prophet saith Who is a God like unto our God and he is ready to teach his servants and to help their infirmities and if their work be hard he doth bear the heavier part of it He is ready to keep them company to succour and encourage and comfort them he provides all things needful for them he delights in the prosperity of his Servants and loves to see his Servants thrive he gives them many a token of his love here But O what great things hath he laid up for them eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive it Their reward is exceeding great sure and eternal O what harm would it do you to be like God do not your Servants deserve more kindness from you than you or any other doth from God Secondly Consider what need your Servants have of your utmost care in the fore-mentioned particulars They are young unexperienced heady nay naturally ignorant proud dead Children of wrath enemies to God every moment in danger of miscarrying and at whose hand will their blood be required think you if you do not your duty to warn reprove correct them Thirdly Consider how much it will be for your honour How high an esteem will all good men have for you how great a value must wise Magistrates set on you what reason hath the City and Corporation to rise up and call such blessed how great and how common a good such are is scarce to be expressed such shall have a good report in spite of wickedness your Servants can't but look upon you as their Counseller Master Father and give you suitable respect and honour Fourthly Consider how pleasing and acceptable this is to God Such the Lord is nigh to his eyes behold with delight It is not he that observes his great Sacrifices it is not he that makes many Prayers it is not he that makes the greatest show of Religion outwardly that is accepted Hierocles Josh 24.15 Psal 1.3 Mat. 25.34 but it is he that gives up his heart first to God as a warm Sacrifice full of love and then his house unto the Lord this this is the man that God will visit comfort bless this is he that ere long shall hear his great Master's commendation and have a welcome to Glory Fifthly Consider how much profit and pleasure you shall have here by your diligence and care you may be enriched there 's God's promise for your security By this your Trade is like to thrive your credit rise greatly Prov. 28.20 Prov. 10.6 your custome increase And when the careless Master makes hast to poverty a wise diligent and faithful is in the most likely way to get improve and keep an estate I might say what pleasure and comfort a man can't but take in his Family when every one acts regularly in their place Sixthly Consider how much good your faithfulness may do others Your Servants may for ought that I know call you their Spiritual Fathers and bless God for ever for your examples exhortations prayers and your Servants may instruct your Children and be frequently instilling one good thing or other into them and influence them more than you are aware of You are a mighty help to poor Ministers you help to plow up the ground and make it fit for the Divine seed you pull out the stones you weed up the roots of bitterness or at least keep them from thriving and growing up you harrow in the good seed you water it with your tears and God will make it fruitful you pluck up the darnel and the tares Of all the persons living we Ministers are most beholding to good Masters and good Parents we beseech you if you have any love for us or our Master either be faithful in this thing Epictâ—tus O make us glad when so many thousands are making us sad with their wickedness I might add your Examples draw others and make bad Citizens good Seventhly Consider the danger of your neglect if you be unfaithful you expose body soul estate wife children servants and all to sin ruine shame and the curse of God for ever you break the rules of equity and humanity you forfeit your reputation you go the likeliest way to work to bring upon you dismal calamities in your life worse at death and worst of all after death Mat. 25.26 Mat. 24.48 49.50 51. O consider this you that forget God and your duty and read that Scripture often you see quoted in the Margent I shall now crave leave to expostulate the case with Masters about their duty for I am loth to leave you till I have prevailed with you to set to your work like Christians Sirs you have heard your duty and what have you to object against it can you prove that that which I have desired of you is not required by God himself Have I not proved what I have said by plain Scriptures and doth not reason and humanity as well as Christianity oblige you to the putting these duties in practice have I not laid down many Motives to press you to your duty have I not told you what a Master God is to his Servants and put you upon being followers of him as dear children Would it be any disparagement to you to follow so perfect and unerring an example Doth not he teach direct help encourage and reward his Servants Is not he faithful to his promise tender pityful and easie to be reconciled and ready to forgive And are you not very well pleased with these properties in God And if this be amiable in God why should it not be lovely in you God humbleth himself to look upon what is done on earth and is it below you to look upon and take care of your Servants What great difference is there I pray between you and them Are they not of the same mould And shortly your bones and skuls will not be distinguished Why did you take them into your Family if you intended to take no more care of them than of a Dog Was it not a piece of base falshood in you to promise and engage what you never intended to perform Methinks I have a mind to debate this matter fairly with you so as to leave you resolved for your duty or without any reason or excuse for the neglect of it Sirs Is
whilst that you continue in your rebellions and wage War still against Heaven by going on still in your trespasses 5. Make your Supplication unto God and be earnest in Prayer unto him that he would forgive you your sins it is against God that your sins have been committed and it is God's Prerogative to remit and pardon and though he pardon freely for his Name 's sake yet he will be enquired after and sought unto for his high favour Isa 43.25 26. I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Put me in remembrance c. If you would have pardon you must ask it if you would find God's favour you must seek it if you desire the door of Mercy to be opened unto you you must knock at the door by earnest Prayer Mat. 7.7 Hence are David's earnest cryes in Prayer for pardoning Mercy in so many of his Psalms especially Psal 51. in the first verse Have Mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my transgressions v. 9. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out mine iniquities v. 14. Deliver me from Blood-guiltiness O God thou God of my Salvation c. Be earnest in Prayer at the Throne of Grace for this blessedness of forgiveness wrestle with God by importunate Supplications fill your mouths with Arguments plead the gracious disposition of God the multitude of his tender Mercies and the riches of his free Grace plead the Glory of his Name which would greatly be advanced and admired if your great sins might be pardoned plead the merits of Christ and Satisfaction given to his justice by his Son together with his Intercession for you at his right hand plead the promises of the Covenant of Grace and his faithfulness which doth engage him to fulfil them humble believing fervent Prayer will prevail for forgiveness 6. Forgive others if you would that God should forgive you Mat. 6.11 Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors v. 14 15. For if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses If you do not forgive the hundred Pence of smaller offences unto your fellow-servants you will be called to an account and imprisoned in Hell and there tormented for the ten thousand Talents of hainous transgressions which you have committed against your Lord Mat. 18. at the latter end of that Chap. If you bear hatred and malice and revenge in your hearts against others whatever their offences their wrongs or injuries have been you put your selves out of capacity of obtaining pardoning Mercy Do not say I forgive such a one who hath wronged me but I will never forget him for this is a deceit of your hearts whereby you seek to stop the mouth of your consciences that they may not trouble you by these Scriptures for if you do not forget injuries so as to carry it towards such Persons as if they had not wronged you so as to love them cordially and to be ready to shew kindness unto them you do not forgive them and so you cannot be forgiven by God If then you would be pardoned by God you must from the heart forgive others receive the Exhortation of the Apostle Eph. 4.31 32. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice And be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Thus I have finished my Answer unto the two Queries wherein doth appear the blessedness of forgiveness and how this blessedness may be attained and now give me leave to borrow a little room for some Application Application I might speak much here by way of comfort unto pardoned Persons but the most that I have already spoken yea all that I have spoken under the first Query may be turned into a Use of comfort to your selves and therefore referring you thither I shall pass you by and bend my speech only unto you that are unpardoned too many of whom are to be found in every Assembly and therefore I cannot think that this Assembly is free I shall take leave to chide you in a Use of Reproof endeavour to awaken you in a Use of Terror and in the conclusion press you to endeavour after this blessedness of forgiveness in an Use of Exhortation Vse 1. For Reproof Is there such blessedness in forgiveness Whence is it then that so many of you neglect this blessedness in the neglect of your pardon Are not all of you sinners Have not all of you need of forgiveness Will not your own Consciences tell you that forgiveness is a great priviledg And have not Ministers often told you of this priviledg and the way of attaining it Hath not God by them held forth a pardon to you and used many arguments with you that you would accept it Whence is it then that so many of you slight and undervalue it as if it were of no worth Whence is it that so many of you are without pardon when profered when none of you are without sins often committed and those highly aggravated and whereby your Souls are so greatly endangered May not Robbers and Murderers and other notorious Malefactors rise up in judgment against you that are without a pardon When such Persons are apprehended found guilty and condemned though but unto a temporal death they will make all friends and use all means to escape and O! how welcome is a pardon to them And yet though you are all guilty of sin and condemned for it unto eternal death and a pardon is purchased proclaimed and profered unto you there are too many of you that slight and neglect it that have no earnest desire after it and hitherto have not been perswaded by any arguments to make use of the means which God hath appointed with any diligence for the obtaining of it Who is there that to any purpose doth look after a pardon Who do diligently hear for it earnestly pray for it Who do make full and free confession of sin that you may attain remission of it Who do prize Christ and by Faith make application of him that they may have a pardon by him Who do forsake sin which God absolutely requires of all to whom he doth forgive sin Who do when injur'd heartily forgive others as they desire God would forgive them Sinners will not many of your consciences accuse you of unpardoned guilt unto which you have added the neglect of forgiveness And is not your sin hereby doubled and most highly aggravated and the guilt of it fastned upon you Vse 2. Let me tell you by way of Terror for your awakening that God is displeased with all workers of iniquity but he is most highly displeased with you that slight his mercy
conformity with the will of God which is the highest liberty where the x 2 Cor. 3.17 spirit of the Lord is there is liberty It is a poor liberty that consists in an indifferency Do not the Saints in heaven love God freely yet they cannot but love him As the only Efficient cause of our loving God is God himself so the only procuring cause of our loving God is Jesus Christ that Son of the Father's love who by his Spirit implants and actuates this grace of love which he hath merited for us Christ hath a Col. 1.20 made peace through the blood of his Cross Christ hath as well merited this grace of love for us as he hath merited the reward of glory for us Plead therefore Dear Christians the merit of Christ for the inflaming your hearts with the love of God that when I shall direct to rules and means how you may come to love God you may as well address your selves to Christ for the grace of love as for the pardon of your want of love hitherto Bespeak Christ in some such but far more pressing language Lord thou hast purchased the grace of love for those that want and crave it my love to God is chill do thou warm it my love is divided Lord do thou unite it I cannot love God as he deserves O that thou would'st help me to love him more than I can desire Lord make me sick of love and then cure me Lord make me in this as comfortable to thy self as 't is possible for an adopted Son to be like the Natural that I may be a Son of God's love both actively and passively and both as near as it is possible infinitely Let 's therefore address our selves to the use of all those means and helps whereby love to God is b Fovetur augetur excitatur exeritur nourished encreased excited and exerted I will begin with removing the impediments we must clear away the rubbish e're we can so much as lay the Foundation Impediment 1. Self-love Impediments of our love to God this the Apostle names as Captain general of the Devil's Army whereby titular Christians manage their enmity against God in the dregs of the last dayes this will make the times dangerous Men shall be lovers of their own c 2 Tim. 3.1 2. selves When men over-esteem themselves their own endowments of either body or mind when they have a secret reserve for self in all they do self-applause or self-profit this is like an errour in the first concoction get your hearts discharg'd of it or you can never be spiritually healthful the best of you are too prone to this I would therefore commend it to you to be jealous of your selves in this particular for as conjugal-jealousie is the bane of conjugal love so self-jealousie will be the bane of self-love Be suspicious of every thing that may steal away or divert your love from God Imped 2. Love of the world this is so great an obstruction that the most loving and best beloved Disciple that Christ had said (d) 1 Joh. 2.15 love not the world nor the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him and the Apostle James makes use of a Metaphor (e) Jam. 4.4 calling them Adulterers and Adulteresses that keep not their conjugal love to God tight from leaking out toward the world he chargeth them as if they knew nothing in Religion if they knew not this that the friendship with the world is enmity with God and 't is an universal truth without so much as one exception that whosoever will be a friend of the world must needs upon that very account be God's enemy the Apostle Paul adds more weight to those that are e'en press'd to Hell already (f) 1 Tim. 6.9 10 11. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves thorow with many sorrows but thou O man of God flee these things c. when men will be some-body in the world they will have Estates and they will have honours and they will have pleasures what variety of vexatious distractions do unavoidably hinder our love to God when our hearts are hurried with hopes and fears about worldly things and the world hath not wherewithall to satisfie us how doth the heart fret under its disappointments and how can it do otherwise we would have happiness here Sirs I 'le offer you fair name me but one man that ever found a compleat happiness in the world and I dare promise you shall be the second but if you will flatter your self with dreams of impossibilities this your way will be your folly though 't is like your posterity will approve your sayings (g) Psal 49.13 and try experiments while they live as you have done but where 's your love to God all this while 't is excluded by what Law by the Law of Sin and Death by the love of the world and destruction for Christ tells us all that hate him love death (h) Prov. 8.36 Imped 3. Spiritual sloath and carelessness of Spirit when men do not trouble themselves about Religion nor any thing that is serious Love is a busie passion a busie grace love among the passions is like Fire among the Elements Love among the Graces is like the Heart among the Members now that which is most contrary to the nature of love must needs most obstruct the highest actings of it the truth is a careless frame of Spirit is fit for nothing a sluggish lazy slothful careless person never attains to any excellency in any kind what is it you would intrust a lazy person about let me say this and pray think on 't twice e're you censure it once Spiritual sloath doth Christians more mischief than scandalous relapses I grant their grosser falls may be worse as to others the grieving of the Godly and the hardning of the wicked and the Reproach to Religion must needs be so great as may make a gracious heart tremble at the thought of falling but yet as to themselves a sloathful temper is far more prejudicial e. g. those gracious persons that fall into any open sin 't is but once or seldom in their whole life and their repentance is ordinarily as notorious as their sin and they walk more humbly and more watchfully ever after whereas Spiritual sloath runs through the whole course of our life to the marring of every duty to the strengthning of every sin and to the weakning of every grace Sloath I may rather call it unspiritual sloath is a soft moth in our spiritual wardrobe a corroding rust in our spiritual Armory an enfeebling consumption in the very vitals of Religion Sloath and
carelessness without an Epithete bare sloath without any thing to aggravate it ordinarily doth the Soul more hurt than all the Devils in hell yea than all its other sins Shake off this and then you will be more than Conquerors over all other difficulties shake off this and there is but one sin that I can think of at present that you 'l be in danger of and that 's spiritual pride You 'l thrive so fast in all grace you 'l grow up into so much communion with God that unless God sometimes withdraw to keep you humble you will have a very Heaven upon Earth Imped 4. The love of any sin whatsoever the love of God and the love of any Sin can no more mix together than Iron and Clay every Sin strikes at the being of God (i) Deicidium The very best of Saints may possibly fall into the very worst of pardonable Sins but the least of Saints get above the love of the least of Sins we are ready to question Gods love unto us as Dalilah did Sampson's love to her if he do not gratifie us in all we have a mind to but how could Dalilah pretend love to Sampson while she comply'd with his mortal enemy against him how can you pretend to love God while you hide Sin his enemy in your hearts as it was with the grand-child of Athaliah (k) 2 King 11.1 2 c. stoln from among those that were slain and hidden though unable at present to disturb her e're long procures her ruine so any Sin as it were stoln from the other Sins to be preserv'd from Mortification will certainly procure the ruine of that Soul that hides it can you hide your Sin from the search of the Word and forbear your Sin while under the smart of affliction and seem to fall out with Sin when under gripes of Conscience and return to Sin as soon as the storm is over never pretend to love God God sees through your pretences and abhors your hypocrisie (l) Job 34.21 22. His eyes are upon the ways of man and he seeth all his goings there 's no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Come Sirs let me deal plainly with you you are shameful strangers to your own heart if you do not know which is your darling Sin or Sins and you are Traytors to your own Souls if you do not endeavour a through Mortification and you are wilful Rebels against God if you do in the least indulge it never boggle at the Psalmist's counsel (m) Psal 97.10 ye that love the Lord hate evil Imped 5. Inordinate love of things lawful and in some respect here 's our greatest danger here persons have Scripture to plead for their love to several persons and things that it is a duty to bestow some love upon them and the meer stones are not so plainly set as easily to discern the utmost bounds of what is lawful and the first step into what is sinful and here having some plausible pretences for the parcelling out of their love they plead not guilty though they love not God with all their hearts souls and minds whereas they should consider that the best of the world is not for enjoyment but use not our end but means conducing to our chief end Here 's our sin and our misery our foolish transplacing of end and means Men make it their end to eat and drink and get estates and injoy their delights and what respect they have to God I know not whether to call love or Service they shew it but as means to flatter God to gratifie them in their pitiful ends Having warned you of some of the chief Impediments I shall propose some means to engage your hearts in love to God which you may confidently expect to be effectual through the operation of the Holy Ghost and you may likewise expect the operation of the Spirit in the use of such means The means are either Directing Promoting or Conserving Means to attain love to God 1. Directing and that is Spiritual Knowledge this is beyond what can be spoken in its commendation A clear and distinct knowledge of the love and loveliness of God in the amazing yet ravishing methods of its manifestations and the clear understanding of the heavenly priviledge of having our hearts inflam'd with love to God this will do I would fain perswade you to try I am not able to say how much to direct you in this case plainly get and exercise this twofold knowledge 1. The knowledge of Spiritual things did we but perfectly know the Nature of the most contemptible insect nay did we but know the Nature of Atoms this would lead us to admire and love God but then to know those things that no graceless person in the world cares for the knowledge of e. g. the inward workings of Original Sin and how to undermine it the powerful workings of the Spirit of grace and how to improve it what are the joys of the Holy Ghost and how to obtain them would not such things insinuate the love of God into you add then 2. The knowledge of ordinary things in a Spiritual manner so as to make the knowledge of Natural things serve Heavenly designs Thus Christ in all the Metaphors in all the Parables he used To value no knowledge any further than it is reducible to such an use this would lead us into the loving of God Thus I name but one directing means promoting means are various not but that Spiritual knowledge doth singularly promote the love of God but it 's proper work lyes in directing The several things I shall name for inward means your way of managing must make them so 1. Self-denyal this is so necessary that no other grace can supply the want of it It is among the graces of the Soul as among the members of the Body one member may supply the want of another the defect of the Lungs may be supplied by other parts The want of prudence may be supplied with Gospel-simplicity which looks like quite another thing but nothing can supply our want of love to God nor can any thing supply our want of Self-denyal in order to our loving of God We can never have n Fo◠fotidissimus suo 〈◊〉 horribilissimum stercus vermis nequis simus Bonavent stimul Amor. p 153. too low thoughts of ourselves provided we do not neglect our duty and let go our hold of Christ Those very things that not only we may love but we must love 't is our duty to love them and our sin not to love them yet all these must be denyed when they dare to stand in competition with our love to God o Luk. 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple Christ would have us count what Religion will cost us
thing but his displeasure Is not here love and do not these love God for himself 't is true God's love to them all this while is great but they perceive it not 3. The third step is to love nothing but for God's sake in him and for him and to him It is said to be Teresia's Maxime All that is not God is nothing indeed the very word that Solomon uses for (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vanitas quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nâ—n Deuâ— Merc. Pagn vanity which he indorseth upon the best of Creature-happiness in the very notion of it proclaims it It is not God therefore it is vanity 't is a noble employment to try experiments upon every lovely object to reduce our love to them to the love of God To be still musing upon spiritual cases still supplying of spiritual wants still longing for spiritual enjoyments that I may not only love others things in subordination to God but to love nothing but for God e. g. In all outward enjoyments have I an estate I will honour God with my substance because I love him Have I any thing pleasant or delightful in this world I 'le run it up to the fountain O how pure and satisfying are the loving Soul's delights in God Have I any esteem in the world I am no way fond of it but so far as it may make my attempts for the honour of God more successful I 'le improve it and upon all other accounts decline it Nearer yet My Relations are dear unto me I truely love them but yet my love to God shall animate my love to them e.g. I truly love my friend but this shall be my love's exercise to perswade him to love God I dearly love my Parents but Oh no Father like God my Soul is overcome with that expression of Christ's (p) Mat. 12.50 whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my Brother and Sister and Mother My conjugal relation is dearest to me but my heart is passionately set upon this that we may both be infallibly espoused unto Christ my heart yearns towards my children but I had rather have them God's Children than mine Nearer yet as to inward qualifications e. g. for natural parts I bless God that I am not an Idiot that I have any capacity of understanding but I am resolved to the utmost of my capacity to endeavour the convincing of all I converse with that to love and enjoy God is most highly rational and most eminently our interest Have I any acquired endowments of Learning or Wisdom I bless God for them but I count all Wisdom folly and all Learning dotage without the knowledge of God in Christ (q) 1 Cor. 8.2 3. If any man thinks that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know but if any man love God the same is known of him Higher yet for gracious qualifications that capacitate me for glory I love grace the best of any creature wherever I see it but 't is for the sake of the God of all grace without whom my grace is inconsiderable Once more higher yet and higher than this I think we cannot go To love those things that are not lovely meerly for God's sake or out of love to God e.g. How many have you heard complain for want of afflictions for fear God does not love them though by the way those betray their weakness who thus complain for did they but observe their want of evidence of divine love and did they more sympathize with the Church of Christ under the Cross they would find they need not complain for want of afflictions But be it so complain they do and that for want of afflictions Afflictions are no way lovely we are no where bid to pray for them but 't is our duty to pray for preventing and removing them and yet the gracious Soul is through love to God in some respect in love with them Here 's a notable degree of divine love that the Soul would upon any terms experiment the love of God and engage the heart in love to God again and to love nothing but for God 4. The fourth step of our love to God is for our highest love of every thing to be hatred in comparison of our love to God The truth is we can never so plainly know to what a degree we love God as by weighing it against whatever stands in competition with it Why should I so far debase my love to God as to weigh it in the same ballance with love to sin but alas why do besotted Sinners so dote upon sin as if love to God were not worthy to be compar'd with it Methinks I may a little more than allude to that passage of Isaiah (h) Isa 46.6 they lavish Gold out of the bag and weigh Silver in the ballance and hire a Goldsmith and he maketh it a God c. they give out their Gold by handfuls without weighing for matter of their Idols but they will be good Husbands in their expences about the workmanship of them Man cares not at what rate he loves his Idols those lusts upon which they bestow their affections due to God alone though in all other things they are wary enough But why should I wast time in speaking to these they have not yet gone one step towards the love of God and therefore are so far behind that they are not within learning of what is spoken to good proficients in the love of God Let me only leave with them this parting word From a person's first sincere and ardent love to God he can neither speak nor think of sin without abhorrency From the first infusion of grace there 's a graciously natural antipathy against sin Sin receives its death's wound 't is too true it may struggle for life and seem to be upon recovery but grace will wear it out and will never leave the conflict till it has obtain'd the conquest But this is not the thing I intended to speak to in this particular it is other-guess things than Sin that the Soul that loves God is afraid to spill his love upon he prizeth those Ordinances wherein he meets with Communion with God but is afraid his love should terminate there he values them but as Windows to let in the light though something excellent may be written there as with the point of a Diamond yet it is neither writing nor window is prized but the light when that 's gone shut up the window as if it were a dead wall that 's no more regarded till the light returns 'T is the light of God's countenance that is better than life it self Perhaps you 'l say this comes not up to what I asserted that our highest love to every thing is to be hatred in comparison of our love to God Well let this be warily considered one whose love to God is at this height is exactly curious in the
Love to the world is spiritual Adultery and thence incoherent with the Love of God The jealousie of God will not admit of any corrival in the bent of the heart but Oh! how doth love to this world run a whoring after other Lovers so Ezek. 16.17 18 38. and 23.5 11. and Aholah played the harlot when she mas mine c. The like James 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendsh p of the world is enmity with God Which implies that love to and friendship with this whorish world is spiritual Adultery and so hatred against God O! how soon are those that love the world killed by its adulterous imbraces hence 6 Love to the world is a deliberate contrived lust and so habitual enmity and rebellion against God Acts of lust which arise from suddain passions though violent may consist with the love of God but a deliberate Bent of heart towards the world as our supreme interest cannot The single act of a gross sin arising from some prevalent Temptation speaketh not such an inveterate bitter root of enmity against God as predominant love to the world James 4.4 whosoever therefore will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God Oh! how much of contempt rebellion and enmity against God is there in friendship and love to the world 7 Love to the world forms our profession into a subservience unto our worldly interest and so makes Religion to stoop unto yea truckle under lust Now what can be more inconsistent with the Love of God than this This was the case of the carnal Jews Ezech. 33.31 With their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness They shew much love in profession but O how little have they of sincere affection and why because their avaricious hearts made the whole of their profession to conform to their worldly interest Thus also it was with unbelieving Jews in our Lords time John 5.42 But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you I know you There lies a great emphase in that you you who profess so much and yet have so little love in you They had much love to God in their mouth but none in their heart this appeareth by v. 43 44. where our Lord tells them in plain terms that their worldly honour and interest was the only measure of their profession This also was the measure of Judas's Religion John 12.5 6. where he pretends much love to the poor but really intends nothing but the gratifying his avaricious humor The like Hos 10.11 Ephraim loveth to tread out the Corn c. because there was profit liberty and pleasure in that but Ephaim loved not plowing work because that brought her under a yoke and brought in no advantage to her Love to the world brings us under subjection to it and so takes us off from the service of God What we inordinately love and cleave unto we are soon overcome by Now subjection to the world and subjection to God are inconsistent Mat. 6.24 8 Love to the world is the root of all sin and therefore what more inconsistent with the love of God To love God is to hate evil Psal 97.10 therefore to love evil either in the cause or effect is to hate God Now love to the world has not only a love for but also a causal influence on all sin And that 1 As it exposeth men to the violent incursion and assaults of every tentation so 1 Tim. 6.9 But they that will be rich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that have their wills biassed with a violent bent or vehement weight of carnal love towards riches This Solomon expresseth Prov. 28.22 By hasting to be rich What befalls such why saith Paul such fall into tentation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction and then he gives the reason and cause of it v. 10. For the love of money is the root of all evil c. i. e. There is no sin but may call the love of money Father whence Philo calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Metropolis of evil 2 Love to the world is the cause of all sin in that it blinds and darkens the mind which opens the door to all sin It is an observation of the prudent moralist (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch that every lover is blind about that he loves which he himself interprets of love to lower goods And oh how true is this of those that love the world what a black veil of darkness is there on their minds as to what they love hence Paul calls such mens love 1 Tim. 6.9 foolish lusts They are indeed foolish not only eventually but causally as they make men fools and sots 3 Love to the world stifles all convictions breaks all chains and bars of restraining grace and so opens a more effectual door to all sin We find a prodigious example hereof in Balaam Numb 22.22 40. where you see at large how his predominant love to the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2.15 stifled all those powerful convictions of and resolutions against sin he lay under 4 Love to the world is the disease and death of the soul and therefore the life of sin 1 Tim. 5.6 she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth 5 Love to the world (u) Amor est quidam ingressus animi in rem amatam quae si fuerit ipso amante ignobilior polluit Dignitatem ejus Jansen August pollutes our whole Being Animal passions defile the soul inordinate lustings after things lawful pollute the most of professors more or less 6 Love to the world puts the whole soul yea world into Wars Confusion and Disorders so James 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your Members 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of your pleasures i. e. by a Metonymie from your lusts after pleasures and superfluous things that war in your members Hence note that all extern wars and confusions come from the wars and confusions of intern lust in the heart Now all intern wars and disorders are inconsistent with the love of God which is peaceable and orderly In these regards love to the world impedes and hinders the love of God 9 Love to the world is inconsistent with the love of God in that it causeth Apostasie from God The Conversion of the heart to the Creature always implies its Aversion from God He that cannot part with the World will soon part with God The world draws Men from God at Pleasure because it doth engross your best Time Thoughts Affections and Strength in its service How many professors by being bewitched with love to the World have lost many hopeful blossomes and beginnings of love to God How little do Spiritual Suavities savour with Carnal Hearts Yea do not the Flesh-pleasing sweets of this World make all
sufficient for the Salvation of them in their circumstances yet there is a vast difference between the abilities of several persons and therefore men are not to take their measures for their enquiries after Spiritual things merely by the necessariness of the things themselves but likewise by the abilities God hath given them So that upon the whole the better means and advantages in any kind men have for the gaining of knowledge so much the more knowledge is required to be in them Rule 4. By how much the more use men have for their knowledge and by how much the more good they may do with it so much the more knowledge will be expected of them That knowledge which might do well in a private Christian yet is not ordinarily sufficient for a Minister That which would be much in the one might be but little in the other And that which might do well in a Child would not be sufficient in a Parent or Master of a Family They that are to instruct others in the knowledge of God ought themselves to be more abounding in it Prop. 2. Men should in their seeking knowledge first study those truths which are most confessedly necessary to Salvation and before those which are apparently less necessary and so Principles before Controversies things essential before such as are only Circumstantial And indeed by how much the nearer any truth is to the foundation so much the more they should labour after the knowledge of it as for instance men should acquaint themselves 1. With the Being and Attributes of God as the foundation of all service yeilded to him and expectations of rewards from him Psal 14.4 Heb. 11.6 He that knows not God to be holy how can he know that God requires holiness and then how can he himself be holy how can a man trust God if he know him not to be wise powerful faithful or love him if he know him not to be good or fear him if he know him not to be just and it will easily follow that he who knows not God as he can never worship him while he lives so he can never expect that he should save him when he dies 2. With the Doctrine of the Trinity three Persons in the Godhead the Father Son and Spirit John 1.5 7. John 14.16 John 15.26 each Person having his proper part in the Salvation of sinners The Father as the Original and Fountain of it the Son as the Manager and the Holy Ghost as the Applier 3. With their own natural state and condition their being by nature in a state of sin and misery as having sin'd against this Holy Righteous Eph. 2.1 2 3. John 16.8 Powerful God and thereby exposed themselves to his wrath and curse They that would be delivered from the curse must know themselves to be obnoxious to it They that would not perish must know themselves to be in danger of it Men are not like to enjoy God's favour unless they know that they have lost it 4. With the Doctrine of a Redeemer and that both 1. As to the Person Who he is That the Lord Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God the Second Person of the Trinity is the Redeemer of sinners Math. 20.28 and the only one Act. 4.12 That God hath not left all mankind to perish in their sin and misery but hath out of his abundant Mercy and free Grace found out a ransom for them a Saviour to deliver them and that the Lord Jesus Christ is he and none besides him so that it is in vain to seek for Salvation in any else seeing he alone hath the words of Eternal life John 6.6.8 He that knows nothing of a Saviour knows nothing savingly nor can any man partake of Redemption without some knowledge of the Redeemer They can never come to God that know not by whom to come 2. And as to the way of his working that Redemption 1. That he did in order to the Salvation of sinners John 1.14 and 3.13 take the nature of man upon him was both God and Man in one person and still continues so to be He had those natures united in himself which he was to reconcile to each other 2. That not only he was able as being God fit as being man Rom. 3.24 25 26. Rom. 5.10 1 Tim. 2.6 to satisfie Divine justice for the injury sin had done it but that by his obedience and death he did it to the full He that knows God to be infinitely just and himself to be a sinner had need know something of a Sacrifice for sin or he can never have any well-grounded hopes of escaping the hands of such a God 3. That Christ being raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven sits at the Father's right hand Rom. 8.34 Mark 16.19 and by his intercession there is now making application of the redemption he wrought on Earth He ever lives to make intercession Heb. 7.25 Men would be in an ill condition if redemption were wrought and there were none to apply it if Christ had died for them and left them to intercede for themselves 5. Men should acquaint themselves with the Doctrine of Justification by Christ that sinners must be justified by the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus imputed to them if ever they be justified at all He is the Lord their Righteousness Jer. 23.6 They are accepted in the beloved Eph. 1.6 Found in Christ not having their own Righteousness c. but that which is through the faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 All their own Righteousness inherent in them and wrought by them even after regeneration and by the help of the Spirit of grace being finite imperfect short of the Law and due to it 6. With the way of their being made partakers of this Righteousness that it should be received by Faith alone as the means God hath appointed for their being interested in it God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 and therefore they that are justified must be justified by Faith Rom. 5.1 All the holiness any Saint could ever arrive unto in this life would never entitle him to Christ's Righteousness if faith were wanting 7. With the nature properties and fruit of that faith that it must be an effectual lively Faith not only an assent of their minds to the truth of the Scripture Jam. 2.17 John 1.12 but the consent of their hearts to the terms of the Covenant a receiving whole Christ with an eye to all rhe good things he offers there and for all those holy ends and purposes for which he is propounded to them In a word they are to look upon Faith as the Principle of their Obedience and walking with God according to that rule of Righteousness God hath given them 8. With the Doctrine of sanctification that God is wont to fit and frame mens hearts at first to the duties of
premised my work shall be to shew what use and respect Baptism has unto this benefit of obtaining remission of Sins by Jesus Christ I shall do it in these considerations 1. First that God hath ever delighted to deal with his Creatures in the way of a Covenant that we might know what to expect from him and might look upon our selves as under the firmer Bonds of obedience to his blessed Majesty In a Covenant which is the most solemn transaction between Man and Man both parties are engaged God to us and we to God It is not meet that one party should be bound and the other free therefore both are bound to each other God to Bless and we to Obey Indeed in the first Covenant the debitum poenae is only mentioned because that only took place Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye But the other part is implied and it doth in effect speak thus much Do and Live Sin and Dye 2. Secondly because the first Covenant was broken on our part God was pleased to enter into a second wherein he would manifest the glory of his Redeeming grace and pardoning Mercy to fallen Man this was brought about in Christ 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and therefore this second Covenant is called a Covenant of Peace as being made with us after the breach and when Man was obnoxious to the wrath of God Isa 54.10 The Covenant of my Peace shall not be removed Man needeth such a Covenant and God appeased by Christ offereth it to us 3. Thirdly In this Covenant of Peace the Priviledges and Duties are suited to the State in which man was when God invited him into Covenant with himself Man was fallen from his Duty and obnoxious to the wrath and displeasure of God and therefore the new Covenant is a Doctrine of Repentance and Remission of Sins What is Preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16.16 is in Luk. 24.47 That Repentance and Remission of sins should be Preached in his Name among all Nations for that is the Gospel or the new Remedial Law of our Lord Jesus Repentance to heal us and set us in joint again as to our Duty Remission of Sins to recover us into God's favour both these benefits we have by the Redeemer Acts 5.31 Him hath God exalted to give Repentance and Remission of Sins to Israel he giveth the one simply and both giveth and requireth the other so that by the New Covenant Remission of Sins is conveyed to all true Penitents Fourthly More distinctly to understand the tenour of this New and second Covenant we must consider both the Duties and the Priviledges thereof for in every Covenant there is ratio dati accepti there is something promised and given and something required and usually the Promise consists of somewhat which the Party is willing of and the Duty or Condition required of that to which he is more backward and loath to submit so in the Covenant of Grace in the Promise God respects man's want in the Duty his own Honour Every man would have pardon and be saved from Hell but God will have subjection even corrupt Nature is not against desires of Happiness these God makes use of to gain us to Holiness All men readily catch at Felicity and would have Impunity Peace Comfort Glory but are unwilling to deny the Flesh to renounce the credit profit or pleasure of Sin or to grow dead to the World and worldly things Now God promiseth what we desire on condition that we will submit to those things that we are against as we sweeten bitter Pills to Children that they may swallow them the better they love the Sugar though they loath the Alloes so doth God invite us to our Duty by our Interest Therefore whosoever would enter into the Gospel-state must resolve to take the Blessings and Benefits offered for his Happiness and the Duties required for his Work Indeed accepting of the Benefits is a part of the Condition because we treat with an invisible God about a happiness that lieth in another World but 't is but part there are other terms and therefore we must draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of Faith Heb. 10.22 With a true heart resolving upon the Duties of the Covenant in full assurance of Faith depending upon God's Word that he will give us the blessings Fifthly The Priviledges are two Pardon and Life these are the great Blessings offered in the New Covenant you have them both together Acts 26.18 To turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith These two Benefits are most necessary the one to allay the Fears of the guilty Creature and the other to gratifie Desires of Happiness which are natural to us the one to remedy the misery incurr'd by Sin and the Fall of Man the other to establish our true and proper Felicity in the everlasting enjoyment of God the one to ease our Consciences and support us against troubles of mind the other to comfort us against the outward troubles and afflictions which sin hath introduced into the World In short the one to free us from deserved Punishment the other to assure us of undeserved Blessedness the one importeth Deliverance from Eternal Death and the other Entrance into Eternal Life Sixthly The Duties thereof do either concern our first entrance into the Christian state or our Progress therein Our Lord representeth it under the Notions of the Gate and the Way Mat. 7.14 Strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way which leadeth into Life Other Scriptures deliver it under the notions of making Covenant and keeping Covenant with God making Covenant Psal 50.5 keeping Covenant Psal 25.10 Psal 103.18 The Covenant must not only be made but kept I. As to entring into Covenant with God there is required true Repentance and Faith Mark 1.15 Repent and believe the Gospel Repentance respects God as our end Faith respects Christ as the great means or way to the Father Acts 20.21 Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ God is our end for Christ died to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 and Christ is our way John 14.6 and whole Christiany is a coming to God by Christ Heb. 7.25 Now in our first entrance Faith and Repentance are both mixt and it is hard to sever them and show what belongs to the one and what to the other at least it would perplex the Discourse Both together imply that a man be turn'd from a life of Sin to God by Faith in Christ or a renouncing the Devil the World and the Flesh and devoting and dedicating our selves to God 1. A Renouncing of the Devil the World and the Flesh for these are the three great Enemies of God and our Salvation Eph. 2.2 3. In time past ye walked according to
Duties of the Covenant a Badge of the profession and a Bond to engage us to the Duties which that Profession calls for As the Apostle speaks of Circumcision That whosoever is circumcised is a debtor to the whole Law Gal. 5.3 binds himself to the observances of Moses So a Christian by being baptized becomes a Debtor not to the Flesh to live after the flesh c. Rom. 8.12 And 't is called an Answer towards God 1 Pet. 3.21 the answer supposes the demands of the Covenant and so 't is an undertaking faithfully to perform the Conditions required of us a Vow or an Obligation whereby we reckon our selves bound to dye unto Sin and to live unto Righteousness through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 It bindeth us chiefly to the Duties that belong to our entrance as the Lord's Supper doth more directly to the Duties which belong to our progress it bindeth us to a true belief of the Gospel or an acceptance of Christ and consent to the Covenant of Grace to renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh and to give up our selves unto God and therefore the Baptismal Covenant by which we are initiated into Christianity is exprest by our being Baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Matth. 28.19 which implies a giving up our selves to them in their distinct personal Relations To the Father that we may return to him and obey him as our rightful Lord that we may love him and depend upon him as the Fountain of all our good and all-sufficient happiness and prefer his favour before all the sensual pleasures of the World We are Baptized in the Name of Christ that we may believe in him accept him as our Saviour and Redeemer expecting to be saved by his Merits Righteousness and Intercession from the Wrath of God and Guilt of Sin and eternal Death To the Holy Ghost as our Guide Sanctifier and Comforter that he may free us from Sin change us into the image and likeness of Christ and lead us into all truth and godliness and comfort us with the sense of our present interest in God's love and the hopes of future glory Eighthly These visible confirming Ordinances give us great advantages above the Word and bare proposal of the Covenant 1. As these sealing Signs are an expression of God's earnest and sincere respect to our Salvation God hath opened his mind in his Word concerning his love and good will to Sinners in Christ and he hath also added his Seal that the Charter of his Grace might be more valid and authentick It argueth the goodness and communicativeness of God to give notice in his Word but his solicitousness and anxious care for our good to give visible assurance in the Sacraments as being willing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over and above to satisfie the Heirs of Promise If a man be more than ordinarily cautious to make all sure it is a sign his heart is upon the thing Surely 't is a great condescension that God would dispose his grace into a Covenant-form but 't is a further condescension that he would add Seals which needed not on his part but he added them to give us the more strong consolation Nudum pactum a naked Promise is not so valid and authentick as when Articles of Agreement are put into a formal Instrument and Deed of Law and that sign'd and seal'd and interchangeably delivered this breeds more confidence and security on both sides God's Word certifieth us of his good will but when he is pleased to make a formal Indenture of it and to sign it and seal it it doth breed more assurance in our minds that his Promises are made with a real intent to perform them and bindeth us the more firmly to God when besides our naked Promise there is a kind of Vow and Oath on our part solemnly entered into by Baptism 2. There is this Advantage in the Sacraments above the Word that they are a closer Application The Word speaks to all promisâ—uously as inviting the Sacraments to every one in particular as obliging By the Word none are excluded from the Grace offered upon God's terms Go preach the Gospel to every Creature but by the Sacraments every one is expresly admonished of his Duty The Object revealed in the Word is like the Brazen Serpent which without difference was exposed to the Eye of all that whosoever looked upon it might be healed but the same Object offered in the Sacraments is like the blood sprinkled on the Door-posts that every man might be assured that his Family should be in safety Now the reason of this difference is because things propounded in the Word are like a Treaty between God and us or an offer and a debating of matters till the parties do agree But Sacraments are not of use till both sides have agreed upon the Conditions of the Covenant In Adults at least the Word conduceth to the making of the Covenant but Sacraments suppose it made therefore the Word universally propoundeth that which in the Seals is particularly applied Now those things do not affect us so much which are spoken indifferently to all as those that are particularly applied to our selves because they stir us up to a more accurate care and endeavour to fulfil the Duty incumbent upon us The Conditions are propounded in the Word Repent and believe and I will pardon and give thee eternal life But the Sacraments suppose an Actual consent that thou hast done or undertaken so to do and then God comes and saith Take this as an undoubted pledge that thou shalt have what I have promised which doth more encrease our Hope and perswade our Duty 3. By these Sealing Signs we are solemnly invested into a right to the things promised as when we are put in possession of what we have bargained for by due formalities of Law This is my Body that is our solemn Investiture into the Priviledges purchased by Christ's Crucified Body A Believer receiveth Christ in the Word John 1.12 and he receiveth Christ in the Lord's Supper What 's the difference There his right is solemnly owned and confirmed in the way which God hath appointed As soon as a man consents to a Bargain he hath an Interest in the thing bargained for but the right is made more explicite when 't is delivered to him by some formalities of Law as an House by a Key a Field by a Turf or Twig in such delivery we say This Key is my House this Turf or Twig is my Field So are we put in possession of Christ by these words This is my Body Every peninent and believing Sinner hath a right to Christ and Pardon but his solemn Enfeoffment is by the Sacraments Repent and be Baptized every one of you for the Remission of Sins or as it is Acts 22.14 Arise and be Baptized for the washing away of thy Sins God gave Abraham the Land of Promise by word of mouth but Gen. 13. he bids him go
through the Land and view it and build an Altar and offer Sacrifice there then was he actually invested in the Gift God gave Israel a grant of Canaan but the Clusters of Eschol were as it were the Livery and Seisin of it Though the Gift be sufficiently made over by the Promise yet 't is further ratified and more solemnly conveyed and delivered by the Sacraments 4. This is one Advantage more That the great Mysteries of godliness are laid before our Eyes in some visible Rites and so have greater force to excite the mind to serious Consideration When God will condescend to give us help against our Infirmities it must be by the Senses by which all knowledg comes into the Soul Now Feeling Smelling Tasting seem not so fit for this as being more gross and conducing to the welfare of the Body but Seeing and Hearing convey Objects to the Understanding and therefore are called the Senses of Discipline and Learning Now the Covenant is made by words which strike the Ear but the Seals by visible things set it before our Eyes and as the Apostle saith Christ is Crucified among us and evidently set forth Gal. 3.1 The sight doth in a more lively manner stir up the mind than the bare Hearing Washing from Sin doth fitly represent to us and raise thoughts in us about the Sanctification of the Spirit and so in a lively manner excite us to expect this benefit Vse Let us not be slight in the use and improvement of Baptism for itimplieth a solemn covenanting with God that we may obtain Remission of Sins and eternal Life John the Baptist calleth it Mark 1.4 The Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of Sins Therefore let us reflect upon our selves We are all Baptized but what are we the better have we the more confidence of the pardon of our Sins and a greater sense of our Covenant-Vow to dye unto Sin and live unto God we cannot have the former without the latter both must be regarded by us Volateranus reporteth of Lucian that scoffing Atheist that when he revolted from the Profession of Christianity he scoffed at his Baptism saying Se nihil ex eo consecutum quam quod nomen ipsius esset corruptum ex Lucio Lucianus factum That he got nothing by his Baptism but a syllable to his Name it being changed from Lucius to Lucianus Alas what do most get by their Baptism but a Name It should not be so with you you may have great advantage by it if you improve it to the ends for which it was appointed To quicken you consider 1. Baptism is a perpetual Bond upon us obliging us to Repentance and an holy life Rom. 6.4 therefore the Scripture often reasoneth from it as Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to Sin live any longer therein He argueth not ab impossibili but ab incongruo not from what is impossible but what will misbecome our renewed estate which we profess to enter into by Baptism which is a Vowed Death to Sin and a Bond wherewith we bind our Souls to New Obedience So elsewhere Col. 3.1 Ye are risen with Christ in the import and signification of Baptism therefore seek the things which are above And again Ye are dead therefore mortifie c. verse 3 5. Once more verse 8 9. Put off all these seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds And in many other places the Apostle argueth from the Baptismal Ingagement to the effect intended and signified thereby 2. The Improvement of Baptism is the best Preparation for the Lord's Supper John 13.8 If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me That washing had a spiritual meaning and presently after it the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood was instituted to the participation of which this spiritual washing was necessary In the Supposition If I wash thee not is implied Baptism in the Commination thou hast no part with me is implied the Lord's Supper which Christ was then about to institute In foro Ecclesiae before the Church none but Baptized Persons have a right to the Lord's Table in foro Coeli before God none but those who have the fruit of Baptism have right to the benefits thereof they that are sanctified by the Spirit of Christ have only right to the Benefits purchased by his Blood Our Lord would mind his Disciples of this before he would admit them to his Table 3. If we improve it not our Baptism will be a Witness to sollicite Vengeance against us as the Gospel it self is preached either for a Witness to us Matth. 24.14 or for a Witness against us if we obey it not Mark 14.9 So Baptism instead of being a Witness to us will be a Witness against us if we mind it not and in the Judgment we shall fare no better than the Heathen for all the difference between us is that they are uncircumcised in flesh and we in heart Jer. 9.25 26. they are not washed in Water and we are not cleansed from our sins I remember a passage in Victor Vticensis concerning one Elpidophorus who had revolted from Catholicism to the Vandal Arrians the Deacon who had Baptized him shewed him the Stole or Linnen Clothes in which he was Baptized saying Hae te accusabunt cum Majestas venerit Judicantis c. O Elpidophorus these shall be a Witness against thee to all eternity for thy just perdition when the Judge cometh what wilt thou do Wretch when the people of God shall be admitted to the Joys of Heaven and thy self thrust out c. If we have been Baptized and lived directly contrary to our Baptismal Vow as if we were in Covenant with the Devil the World and the Flesh rather than with Father Son and Holy Ghost what will become of us in the Judgment But how shall we improve it First We must personally and solemnly own the Covenant made with God in Infancy every one of us should chuse the Lord for our Soveraign Lord and Portion and Christ Jesus for our Redeemer and Saviour and the Holy Ghost for our Guide Sanctifier and Comforter Every one must personally thus engage himself to God 't is not enough that Christ engage for us as the common surety of all the Elect Heb. 7.22 Something he did for us and in our Names but every one must take a Bond upon himself before he can have the benefit of it You must yield up your selves to the Lord 2 Chron. 30.8 'T is not enough that the Church ingage for us as a visible Political Body or a Community and Society of men who are in visible Covenant with God and Christ Ezek. 16.8 Thou entredst into Covenant with me and becamest mine meaning it of the Body of the Church but every individual person must also enter into Covenant with God and become his Ezek. 20.37 I will cause you to pass under the Rod and I will bring you into the Bond of the Covenant Where there is an Allusion
L. Vives value upon them and not to think meanly of every thing in her husband Thus when the wife of Tigranes was asked by her husband after a great solemnity what she thought of Cyrus whom every one did commend as the most excellent person in all that company she answer'd roundly (p) Ita me dii ament ut toto convivio nunquam abs te ad alium vi uâ— deflexerim oculos Truly I look't at no body there but at you my husband And if the husband be but meanly accomplisht yet she ought highly to value the excellency of his Place seeing the Holy Ghost hath in this very respect styl'd him the Image and Glory of God 1 Cor. 11.7 So that whatever he is in himself or to others yet to the wife he is a None-such Such you esteem'd him when you (q) Sed horridus incultus est Semel placuit Nunquid vir frâ—quenter cligendus comparem suam bos elâ—git equus diligit si mutetur alius trahere jugum nescit compar alterius se non totum putat Ambr. tom 4. p. 55. chose him and so you ought still to esteem him And you are to remember the sin and punishment of Michal 2 Sam. 6.16 She despised her husband in her heart and ver 23. she had no child to the day of her death The wife ought to consider that her honour and respect among her family and neighbours doth very much rise and fall according to that which she bears to her husband so that in honouring him she honours her self 2. This Reverence is made up of (r) Timet virum suum adultera verùm non ideò quod illum amet sed quod sibi ipsi conscia est admissi delicti timet verum uxor virum suum fidelis honesta non ex mala conscientia sed ex conjugali dâ—lectione Musc in loc Love Which though it be most prest upon the Husband yet is also the Duty of the Wife Tit. 2.4 Teach the young women to be sober to love their husbands to love their children Thus Sarah Rebecca and Rachel left Parents Friends and Country out of their intire love to their husbands Thus those excellent women being besieg'd together with their husbands in the Castle of Winsberg having liberty for themselves to go out and carry what they could with them took up each their husband and so delivered them But above all comparisons is the Instance that L. Vives gives us of a generous (s) Si deformis est maritus amandus animus cui nupsisti L. Vives who gives a large narration hereof p. 706. de Chr. foem young woman by name Clara Cerventa well known to him that was married to one Valdaura that proved to be full of diseases and lothsom sores whom yet she attended with that care cost and love dressing his sores which no body else would touch selling all her attire and jewels to maintain him and after ten long years of languishment when he was dead and her friends came rather to congratulate than condole her loss she with great trouble told them that she could be willing to purchase her dear Valdaura again with the loss of her five Children It is not fond doting love but such love as this vvhich begets reverence in the heart of the wife to her own husband And indeed there is no better means to increase the husband's love than the (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Col. hom 10. wife's reverence and that alone will make this sweet and easie 3. Fear is the third ingredient into the reverence which the wife owes unto her husband And this I told you was the proper import of this (u) Quo verbo talem intelligit timorem qui ex amore reverentia erga mariâ—um prâ—ficiscitur Zanch. in loc word in my Text. And this is requir'd 1 Pet. 3.2 a chast conversation coupled with fear the one is not sufficient without the other And this the (x) Vxor autem honesta suum virum ita ut aequum est pudicè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debet Arist ubi supra Philosopher saw and acknowledged and thereupon distinguisheth between a servile dread and an ingenuous fear exploding the former as unsuitable to the nearness and dearness of that Relation and exacting the latter which is no more than a (y) Subjectiâ— ista consistit in hoc ut mulier tanquam inferior virum tanquam caput revereatur observet caveat ne offâ—ndat sed ejus mandata laeto animo praestet Zanch. in loc cautious diligence to please him and care lest she should offend him A wife must not sit down and say If he be pleased so it is if not let him help himself how he can No but I will do my utmost to give my husband contentment For though I do not fear his hand yet I fear his frown Better I should displease all the world than my own husband She ought rather to deny her self than make her Head her dear Head to ake 2. And now let us trace this Reverence of the wife to her husband in its Pattern laid before her in the Context of these words And here I affirm these two things 1. That the wife ought to Reverence her husband as the Church doth Jesus Christ So ver 22. Wives submit your selves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord and ver 24. Therefore as the Church is subject to Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing Examples are prevalent especially of wise and good people here 's the example of all the wise and godly people in the world to perswade the wife to reverence her husband and the Apostle seems to say that it is as much a duty in the wife to be (z) Truncus est vir planc mortuus cujus caput non est Christus demens temeraria est mulier cui vir non praeâ—st L. Vives de Chr. f. p. 704. subject to the husband as it is in the Church to be subject to Christ In pursuance of this I shall not expatiate but keep near my Text. Two things proclaim the Reverence that the Church bears to Christ 1. The Matter of her Subjection and that is in every thing she doth not yield in great matters and stick at small nor yield in small things and deny in great she doth not yield to him only so far as her Interest or Appetite permits her but when he requires it denies them both So saith the Apostle vers 24. Let the wives be subject to their own husbands in every thing that is in every thing that is not forbidden by an higher power even the Law of God Indeed if a thing be only inconvenient the wife may mildly reason and shew the inexpediency of it but if she cannot convince and satisfie her Husband she must if there be no sin in the case submit her reason and her will to his 2. The
there any thing of dishonesty in what I have been perswading you to Is it a dishonest thing to pray in your Families to instruct them in the things of God to be holy diligent and faithful What harm is there in all this Would it do you or yours any injury Would it hinder either your profit or pleasure Can godliness which hath the promise of this life and that which is to come undo you Should that which pleaseth God displease you Is it an unpleasant thing to see the beauty of holiness in your Family and to have yours serving God and you faithfully Is it an unpleasant thing to have God's commendation and peace and to have good hopes that all yours are God's and shall be delivered from the wrath to come and be heirs of a Crown of glory If you talk of pleasure no pleasure like them that are in duty and at the end of duty Well now What have you to say against your duty You cry pish this is the way to be a slave a mope a fool Is it true indeed that to be enlarged for God in ones place is a slavery how come such to be so full of peace and joy Is that the state of slaves no body is about to debar you of moderate liberty and recreation But will you call nothing liberty and recreation but that which exposes you and yours to ruine But if you take this course you shall be poor if you and your Servants may not lye cheat break Sabbaths you shall never be able to live How then come so many honest men that would not do any of all these things for a world to live so well Were Abraham Joshua David Cornelius all such poor men If diligence honesty and holiness undo men what will make them I hope you will not say that cursing lying fraud idleness sensuality and carelesness are better ways of thriving Well once more what have you yet to say against what I have been perswading you to Will you now without delay bewail your former neglect and in good earnest set to your work like a man that in some measure knows the power of divine precepts the worth of souls and the greatness of that charge that lyeth upon you O that there were in you such a heart O that all Masters of Families were resolved for that which humanity reason interest reputation and their comfort call for as well as the law of God and men oblige them to What blessed Families then should we have What noble Corporations what glorious Cities Might not Jehovah-Shammah be written then upon our Gates and holiness to the Lord upon every door O when shall it once be Now in hopes that some honest hearts are affected with what hath been spoken and are desirous to engage with all their might in their duties I shall briefly add a few Helps for the better performance of their duty First Get a heart inflamed with love to God This will make you much more concerned for his honour than your own this will cause you to promote his interest with vigor and remove whatsoever may be prejudicial to it love will break thorow difficulties and make duty easie love will engage you body soul estate head tongue hand heart all for God then you can't live without prayer and instructing your Servants If the love of God dwell in you I never fear the disputing your duty Secondly Get a deep sense of the worth of souls upon your spirits Remember he that made them values them highly he that bought them and paid dearly for them judged them worth his heart-blood they that are wise believe that their utmost care for them is not too much their loss is an irreparable loss and if they are saved and secured all losses are tolerable light inconsiderable A due sense of the worth of a soul would make you wonderful careful to prevent its miscarriage greatly solicitous to make sure its happiness Thirdly Beg of God a spirit of wisdom and government that you may know how to go in and out before your house like a man of prudence and Religion 1 Kings 3.9 Jam. 1.17 You know whence every good and perfect gift comes and if any man lack wisdom they must ask of him that is ready to answer such requests who will give liberally and not upbraid Beg of God the gift and grace of prayer and utterance beg experience and knowledg and use and improve fruitfully what talent God hath given you already Hierocles A wise man instructed of God is a Priest of God and the only man fit to do his work Fourthly Study the Scriptures much Attend upon a conscientious powerful Ministry and read some practical Books there you will find the most excellent precepts there you will meet with the most commendable presidents there you have the most powerful motives to your duty the most successful helps In a word there you will meet with the assistance of God's Spirit Psal 119.11 by them you will be kept from any unrighteous thing Fifthly Do as you would be done by remember what measure you mete to another Mat. 7.12 shall be measured to you again I believe David would scarce have been so ready to pass such a sentence as he did if he had well considered who was at the bar and it 's likely a less punishment than burning might have been pronounced against Tamar if Judah had remembred who was the Father of her Child Sixthly Take heed of pride selfishness and sensuality These are the great make-bates these make the world so full of confusion and trouble from hence come war and fightings Jam 4.1 this brings such disorder misery and sorrow unto Kingdoms Cities Houses if instead of these we had humility publick-spiritedness Prov. 3.10 temperance the world would be quickly well mended with us Seventhly Think much upon your account Death Judgment Heaven Hell and Eternity I had almost said believe this truly and think of it frequently and be unfaithful if you can I am perswaded that every wilful omission of a known duty and commission of known sin hath much of atheism and unbelief in it it is but yet a little while and Master and Servant must be equal death knows no difference the worms and rottenness will seize as soon on the one as the other and this might a little teach us humanity and moderation Consider that account that must be given of our opportunities of service and every talent we are intrusted with Suppose God's Messenger were just ready to knock at your door and you were surely to appear before God before to morrow morning what meekness diligence faithfulness would you then exercise and how hardly brought to do any thing to hazard God's displeasure how full of good counsel to every body why Luke 16.2 Heb. 9.27 Job 31.14 how knowest thou O man but this hour may be thy last This was that which did not a little prevail with Job to do his
of perturbation but like himself gentle and dove-like solicitings Gal 5 22. warm and holy impulses and when cherished leave the soul in a more humble heavenly pure and believing temper than they found it 'T is a high aggravation of sin to resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 Yet we may quench his motions by neglect as well as by opposition and by that means lose both the profit and pleasure which would have attended the entertainment Salvation came both to Zacheus his house and heart upon embracing the first motion our Saviour was pleased to make him Had he sleighted that 't is uncertain whether another should have been bestowed upon him The more such sprouts are planted and nourished in us the less room will stinking weeds have to root themselves and disperse their influence And for thy own good thoughts feed them and keep them alive that they may not be like a blaze of straw which takes birth and expires the same minute Brood upon them and kill them not as some birds do their young ones Psal 139.23 Try me and know my thoughts by too often flying from their nests David kept up a staple of sound and good thoughts he would scarce else have desired God to try and know them had they been only some few weak flashes at uncertain times 2. Improve them for those ends to which they naturally tend 'T is not enough to give them a bare reception and forbear the smothering of them but we must consider what affections are proper to be rais'd by them either in the search of some truth or performance of some duty Those gleams which shoot into us on the sudden have some lesson seal'd up in them to be opened and learned by us When Peter upon the crowing of the cock call'd to mind his Master's admonition he thought thereon and wept †Mark 14 72. he did not only receive the spark but kindled a suitable affection A choice graff though kept very carefully by us yet if not presently set will wither and disappoint our expectation of the desired fruit No man is without some secret whispers to disswade him from some alluring and busie sin †Job 33.14 17. God speaks once yea twice that he may withdraw man from his purpose as Cain had by an audible voice Gen. 4.7 which had he observed to the damping the revengeful motion against his brother he had prevented his brother's death his own despair and eternal ruin Have you any motion to seek God's face as David had Let your hearts reply Thy face Lord will I seek * Psal 27.8 The address will be most acceptable at such a time when your heart is tuned by One that searcheth the deep things of God †1 Cor. 2.10 and knows his mind and what ayres are most delightful to Him Let our motion be quick in any duty which the Spirit doth suggest and while he heaves our hearts and oyls our wheels we shall do more in any religious service and that more pleasantly and successfully than at another time with all our own art and industry for his injections are like water poured into a pump to raise up more and as Satan's motions are not without a main body to second them so neither do the Spirit 's go unattended without a sufficient strength to assist the entertainers of them Well then lye not at anchor when a fresh gale would fill thy sails but lay hold of the present opportunity These seasons are often like those influences from certain conjunctions of the Planets which if not according to the Astrologer's opinion presently applied pass away and return not again in many ages So the Spirit 's breathings are often determined that if they be not entertained with suitable affections the time will be unregainable and the same gracious opportunities of a sweet entercourse may be for ever losts for God will not have his holy Spirit dishonoured in always striving with wilful man Gen. 6.3 When Judas neglected our Saviour's advertisement John 13.21 the Devil quickly enters and hurries him to the execution of his traiterous project v. 27. and he never meets with any motion afterwards but from his new Master and that eternally fatal both to his body and soul 3. Refer them if possible to assist your Morning meditation that like little brooks arising from several springs they may meet in one channel and compose a more useful stream What stragling good thoughts arise though they may owe their birth to several occasions and tend divers ways yet list them in the service of that truth to which you have committed the government of your mind that day As Constables in a time of necessary business for the King take up men that are going about their honest and lawful occasions and force them to joyn in one employ for the publick service Many accidental glances as was observed before will serve both to fix and illustrate your Morning proposition But if it be an extraordinary injection and cannot be referred to your standing Thesis follow it and let your thoughts run whither it will lead you a Theme of the Spirit 's setting is better than one of our own choosing 4. Record the choicer of them We may have occasion to look back upon them another time either as grounds of comfort in some hour of temptation or directions in some sudden emergency but constantly as perswasive engagements to our necessary duty Thus they may lye by us for further use as money in our purse Since Mary kept and ponder'd the short sayings of our Saviour in her heart †Luke 2.17 51. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesych committing and fitting them as it were in her common-place book why should not we also preserve the whispers of that Spirit who receives from the same mouth and hand what he both speaks and shews to us It is pity the dust and filings of choicer metals which may one time be melted down into a mass should be lost in a heap of drossy thoughts If we do not remember them but like children are taken with their novelty more than their substance and like John Baptist's hearers rejoyce in their light only for a season †Joh. 5.35 it will discourage the Spirit from sending any more and then our hearts will be empty and we know who stands ready to clap in his hellish swarms and legions But howsoever we do God will record our good thoughts as our excusers if we improve them as our accusers if we reject them and as He took notice how often He had appear'd to Solomon †1 Kings 11.9 so He will take notice how often His Spirit hath appeared to us and write down every motion whereby we have been solicited that they may be witnesses of his endeavours for our good and our own wilfulness 5. Back them with ejaculations Let our hearts be ready to attend every injection from heaven with a motion to it since 't is
to take up a Reproach against a man's Neighbour I answer It is a defective manner of expression and therefore is diversly supplied but especially and most reasonably two ways and accordingly a man may be guilty of taking up a reproach against his Neighbour two ways 1. When he takes it up into his mouth The Hebrew word is often so used As Exod. 20.7 Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain Not take it that is not lift it up upon thy Tongue or not take it into thy Mouth So Isa 14.4 Thou shalt take up this Proverb against the King of Babylon that is thou shalt take it up into thy lips thou shalt utter and publish it Thus Ezek. 26.17 They shall take up a lamentation for thee which is explained in the following words and say to thee how art thou destroyed And therefore elsewhere the word Lips or mouth is added as Psal 16.4 Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer nor take up their names into my lips Psal 50.16 What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant into thy mouth And this phrase of taking up may possibly respect the scituation of the Mouth above the Heart which according to the Opinion of the Hebrews is the seat of the Understanding As if he had said If there should rise in thy heart any evil thought or device against thy Brother let it die there let it never come up into thy mouth Now in this respect a man may be guilty of this sin of taking up a reproach against his Neighbour two ways 1. When he is the Author and first raiser of a reproach Such as Sanballat was Neh. 6.8 There are no such things as thou sayest but thou feignest them of thy own heart 2. When a man is the Spreader or Promoter of it Suppose it comes from another Fountain if thou art the Conduit-pipe by whom it is conveyed to others thou art guilty of it Lev. 19.16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a Tale-bearer among thy people 2. When a man takes it into his Ear So some expound these words thou shalt not receive not admit not endure a reproach against thy Neighbour You know the Receiver of stoln goods is as obnoxious to the Law as he that takes them away So then a man may be guilty of this sin not only by speaking but also by the hearing of a reproach against his Neighbour and so he may be three ways 1. When a man quietly permits it and gives no check to it This is certain the great Law of Charity commands me not only to do no hurt to my Neighbour but also to suffer no hurt to be done to him which it lyes in my power to prevent or remove If another set his house on fire I must lend my help to quench it I must pull my Neighbour's Ox out of the Pit though another man hath cast him in and consequently when the good name of my Neighbour is invaded by another if I patiently bear the reproach I make my self guilty 2. When a man hears a reproach against his Neighbour greedily and with delight It is a sin and that of no small size for a man to take pleasure in the sins of others and therefore the Apostle makes it an aggravation of sin Rom. 1.32 Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but also have pleasure in them that do them 1 Cor. 13.6 Charity rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth Consider I beseech you the commonness of this sin if a reproach be fastned upon one who is a man's Enemy or of another Party men commonly hear such reproaches with delight not considering that this is not only a blemish to his own Party but also a blot to Christianity a reproach to the Protestant Religion a sin against God and against the Gospel a scandal to men and these things should rather call for tears than laughter and approbation And therefore when a man seems to approve another man's reproach and encourage the reproacher he involves himself in the guilt of it It is the saying of a very Learned Man upon the Proverbs That it is not easie to know whether is a greater sinner or whether is the greater plague to a Commonwealth he that spreads a reproach or he that willingly receives it 3. When a man easily believes a reproach It is said indeed 1 Cor. 13.7 Charity believeth all things but the object of this belief is the good of my Neighbour and not his evil Charity readily believes well concerning its Neighbour where there is the least colour or foundation for it but it is slow to believe evil concerning him and when a man is prone to believe evil concerning another man it is a great sign of an uncharitable disposition the reason is because men do most readily believe those things which comply with their own desires and inclinations as in Wars and differing Factions every man is apt to believe good tidings concerning his own Party Good men are the least suspitious and slowest to believe evil of others of which you have a remarkable instance in Gedaliah when Johanan told him of Ismael's design to murther him it is said he believed him not Jer. 40.14 And when it was pressed upon him a second time and Johanan offered to punish the Conspirator and to prevent the Execution of the Treason he said Thou shalt not do this thing for thou speakest falsly concerning Ismael verse 16. You may observe how backward fond Parents are to believe any ill report concerning their Children and whence doth this proceed even from an inordinate love and kindness to them and therefore on the contrary men's credulity unto evil reports concerning their Neighbours doth proceed from want of love and affection to them So much for the Explication 2. The Proof of the Doctrine shall consist in the representation of the sinfulness and injury of this practice of censuring back-biting and reproaching of others And that I may more effectually disswade and affright my self and you from it I shall discover to you how pregnant a sin this is There is a complication of injuries in it It is injurious First to God Secondly to your selves Thirdly to the Party censured or reproached Fourthly to other men 1. To God and Christ in divers particulars 1. It is an invasion of God's Prerogative You know how dangerous a Crime this is when it is committed against an Earthly Prince nor can you in reason think it less criminal and hazardous when it is committed against him who accepteth not the persons of Princes and who is greater than the Kings of the Earth And therefore observe how severely God rebukes this sin in the Epistle to the Romans Chap. 14. when men did censure and Reproach one another either for the Observation of dayes and meats as guilty of Superstition or for
preparation and introduction to it a valley never to be fill'd up the Gospel doth by no means allow of Self-Exaltation no flesh must glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1.29 we must still seem vile in our own eyes 2. Of God and of his mercy which is two-fold 1. Privative which is a total privation of the habit root or principle of true saving hope as in all unbelievers 2. Negative a cessation of the acts of hope which is twofold A total cessation at least as to our sense and discerning of the actings of Hope for a time this is temporary Despair Gradual arising from a weakness in the actings of Hope which is Despair in opinion counted so by weak doubting Christians both these last mentioned are incident to true Believers and occasion much sorrow and sadness to them But this Privation or negation of hope doth not fully set forth the nature of despair in which there seems to be somewhat positive recessus a re desiderata as the Schools speak an actual with-drawing from Christ the heart falls off from the Promises doth act against them puts them from us despair argues and reasons the soul out of its hope puts in a caveat against it self cannot think that a person under such circumstances can be within the meaning of the promise and so sinks and faints away Job 17.15 This is more than meer privation or negation there is an evil disposition wrought in the heart by unbelief which fills the soul with many prejudices against the truth makes it pertinaciously to adhere unto its own erroneous judgment so that it can do nothing now but quarrel dispute and except against all that may be said on t'other side These things premis'd I now come to shew the difference between Despair and Hope 1. Despair is the result of strong legal convictions urging the sentence of the Law against us without any consideration of Gospel-Grace for our relief and succour This works great consternation fills the soul with amazing fears shuts it up in a dark dungeon claps it in irons binds it hand and foot and so leaves it under a fearful expectation of fiery indignation to devour it But Hope deals in the promises is begotten by them and bears up the soul under the condemnation of the Law 2. Despair indisposes the soul from hearkning to the free grace of the Gospel when 't is offered because it still retains those strong impressions and dreadful apprehensions which the Law hath wrought and will not be comforted But Hope allayes these fears makes the soul willing to debate the matter to hear what the Gospel sayes to see what may be done in so dangerous a cause 3. Despair sees more in sin than in Christ and supposes the wound incurable my sin is greater than can be forgiven But Hope sees Grace superabounding large enough to cover all our sins 4. Despair is very peremptory and positive in concluding against it self 't is resolv'd upon nothing but death greater than can be forgiven a lost undone creature to all eternity it cannot be otherwise As in the highest decree of faith and hope there is assurance of salvation so here there is a dismal uncomfortable assurance of damnation But Hope though it may be accompanied with many fears and doubts yet there is some expectation of good a patient looking for and sollicitous waiting though sometimes with trembling for salvation the soul doth not give over its pursuit after life and pardon but when 't is at the lowest ebb doth apprehend some possibility of escape through Christ it may be for all this we shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger Zeph. 2.3 it may be we shall be delivered from the wrath to come Thus Hope draws on the soul to Christ encouraging it to come forward Directions how to avoid both extreams 1. Against Presumption whether of our selves or of God 1. Against that Presumption that is of our selves take these following Directions 1. Take up so much of a sense of sin into the mount of Hope as may keep thy hope from swelling into presumption or from feeding upon any thing in thy self 2. Be much in proving thy hope in giving thy self and others a reason of it 1 Pet. 3.15 this is the way to keep it right consider what that reason is whether it be a true Gospel-ground of hope as natural affections in a man must be guided by reason so spiritual affections in a Christian must be regulated and influenced by Faith I believed and therefore have I spoken 2 Cor. 4.13 so it holds here I believe and therefore do I hope 3. Suspect those acts of Hope that have their rise from any thing else but Christ and the promises the heart of man is deep and very deceitful 't is no easie matter to understand our hope at all times and to manage it aright we are apt to forget our selves flesh will be putting in and contributing something from its self towards the support of our hope it will be casting in something into the scale with Christ to make better weight This we must carefully watch against keeping our eye only upon Christ as David Psal 62.5 6. When we find our hearts pleasing themselves with any self-reflections upon our own personal worth in any kind we should fear lest those thoughts should gather too fast and puff us up in a vain conceit of our selves we should see nothing but meanness vileness and unworthyness in our selves under the highest actings of our hope in Christ Though I were perfect yet would I not know my soul Job 8.21 4. Begin thy Hope with an act of humble holy despair of thy self that thy hope may be discharged on that hand forc't to quit all expectations from thence and not be tempted to any sinister aspect that way upon so poor empty insufficient a thing as thou knowest thy self to be We know not what to do but our eyes are upon thee 2 Chron. 20.12 Our hope though it look never so directly upon Christ yet it is too too apt to take in some collateral encouragements from self which do cause a further dilation in the heart and make some secret and if we observe our own spirit some sensible additions to the joy and complacency we have in our hope we bless our selves the more and though we are pleased with Christ yet we are pleased with something besides Christ and this spoils all it poysons our hope is like a Canker eats like a Gangrene and is a great blemish to our hope 5. If all this will not do but still thy proud heart is big with expectation of something from God upon its own account and thou canst not separate self from Christ in the out-goings of thy hope then my advice is Answer thy foolish heart for once in its folly and take its supposed worth into thy serious consideration weigh it well prove it examine all its pretences that the truth may appear and that you may do this
with the horror and darkness of thy miserable estate dwell not too long at the gates of hell lest the devil pull thee in but wind thy self up again by renewed acts of faith and fly for refuge unto the hope that is set before thee Heb. 6.18 And all the way thou goest admire the infinite grace and love of God to thee in delivering thee from so great a death My brethren there 's no entring into the maze and labyrinth of sin without this clew in your hands Solitary considerations of sin if we dwell too long upon them will work too violently therefore we should make frequent transitions from sin to free grace from the Law to the Gospel from our miserable and wretched selves to our merciful and mighty Redeemer But you 'l say how can this be to pass from one contrary passion to another who can make such transitions The Schools tell us it must be per magnum conatum by some great endeavour that is a strain beyond ordinary and such endeavours we must put forth counting it as much our duty to rejoyce in mercy as to mourn for sin and we cannot do both at once though there be a connexion of divine Graces as well as moral vertues yet this implies rather a successive continuation than any simultaneousness at least as to the intense actings of different graces 't is true where there is one grace there is every grace that is in semine in the seed or root of it and it may be also as to some weaker latent actual influences yet those particular graces which upon different distinct considerations do work contrary passions in us they cannot be both intensely acted at the same time sed per vices intervalla there is a time to mourn and a time to rejoyce a time to fear and a time to hope particular graces do take their turns in the soul and act sutably unto the present occasion 2. Direction against despair for unbelievers convinced of sin but unacquainted with Christ and free Grace The distraction fear and amazement of spirit that seizes upon such is unexpressible till God break in upon them and begin with them speaking peace to them man can do little yet means must be used I shall name a few things 1. Look upon this conviction of sin thou lyest under rather as a mercy than a judgement as a token for good in as much as God hath given thee timely notice of thy danger and fair warning to flee from the wrath to come 2. Look upon thy self now in a far greater capacity for grace and pardon than ever heretofore 3. Set thy self with all seriousness to study the doctrine of free grace in Christ never more need than now meditate much upon the great goodness of God and his excellent loving kindness Psal 31.19 Psal 36.6 Intense thoughts of sin and slight perfunctory thoughts of mercy drive us to despair 4. Be perswaded to come to Christ under all thy fears Hast thou been as a Dove of the valley mourning on the mountains for thy iniquity Ezek. 7.16 come down from those mountains those solitary places and go weeping to the Lord Jer. 50.4 Bemoan thy self at the feet of Christ he will hear thee Jer. 31.18 19. tell God all thou hast to say of thy miserable condition complaining to thy self and to men signifies little it heightens thy fear but God sympathizes with thee Jer. 31.20 put thy self into his hands he will lead thee ver 9. refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord Acts 3.19 there will be a lifting up Job 22.29 what ever the issue be thou canst be no worse than thou art in thy own judgement to sin is mors animae but to despair is descendere in infernum sin is death and despair is hell cry out of the belly of that hell to Christ and see if he do not bring thee forth But alas those who are under a spirit of bondage and fear have a thousand objections against this I have been pressing them to I shall go over some of these and answer them as I go they come to Christ they 'l tell us They cannot come Tell the Lord then thou art willing to come but canst not be perswaded to come as thou canst canst thou not go into thy chamber into thy closet and shut thy door and throw thy self down in the dust before the Lord this is coming and this thou canst do I am sure do it then and call upon the name of the Lord. But Object 2 I cannot pray Answ It may be not now at this time but how canst thou tell what thou maist do at such a time when in obedience to an Ordinance of God thou hast put thy self into a praying posture in that very hour it may be given and hath been I am perswaded to thousands of God's children he will prepare thy heart Psal 10.17 if thou canst not utter thy mind as thou wouldest pray as thou canst and if thou hast nothing to say if no one savoury expression drops from thee it may be it is because the inward sense thou hast of sin is too big for utterance it may be so sometimes and 't is best when it is so and then out of the abundance of thy heart weep and mourn out thy inward meaning Lacrymae pondera vocis hahent groan and sigh and look wishfully towards heaven and believe that God sees thee when thou hast no sight of him this is prayer But Object 3 I have lived hitherto as without God in the world neglecting prayer altogether I am a mere stranger unto Christ and will he hear such a one as I who come upon this pinch just when necessity drives me certainly no he will tell me to my face as well he may he knows me not and bid me go to those empty creatures I formerly trusted in Answ Don't you take upon you to personate Christ in his dealings with sinners his thoughts are not as your thoughts what if you would do thus and thus if you were in Christs stead does it therefore follow that he must do so too O no as the heavens are higher than the earth so are his thoughts above thy thoughts Isa 55.8 9. do you think and say what you will Christ will act like himself and do that for thee that never entred into thy heart to conceive of his wayes are unsearchable and past our finding out his love passeth knowledge thou dost not know thou canst not tell before-hand what infinite rich grace is able to do for thee O come then and make a tryal and know for thy further encouragement that poor humble sinners are alwayes welcome to Christ but never more welcome than at their first coming Luke 15.22 c. There are two jubilees kept in heaven one at the conversion of a sinner here on earth Luke 15.7 the other at his glorification in heaven Jude 24. Christ does then present us to glory with exceeding joy how glad is Christ
inordinate desires after more wealth do proceed 2. By a deep conviction of the greatness of the sin of Covetousness as also of the greatness of the folly that accompanieth that sin 3. By frequent and serious meditation upon death and the eternity which follows upon it 4. By the getting true notions of the vanity of riches and all things here be low 5. By the turning the desires into the right channel and the placing of them upon their proper Objects God and Christ and Spiritual things 6. By Considering how well others do who have but a slender proportion of these things and how thankful they are for that little which God measures out to them I do not at all enlarge on these things both because this is not that notion of Contentment which I most design as also because I shall have cccasion to speak more to them in what will follow How as it lies in the quietness of the mind c. 3. Therefore we are to consider Contentment as it imports a calmness and composedness of mind in every condition stilness and sedateness of spirit under all occurrences of Providence When a man likes whatsoever God doth to him or with him doth quietly submit unto and acquiesce in God's dispose of him this is contentment And so there is a great affinity though not a perfect identity 'twixt it and Patience so 't is opposed to all vexing fretting and murmuring to all undue perturbations of mind under God's dispensations towards us though they be never so cross to our natural desires Unquestionably this was one thing if not the main intended by our Apostle when he saith I have learned in every state to be content 'T is as if he had said I am brought to this alwaies to think well of God and of every state into which he is pleased to bring me whatever pleases him pleaseth me be it imprisonment poverty sickness reproach death it self let but God's will be done and I am content I am taught to bear all things with great * A. Christo omnia aequanimiter ferre Sum edoctus Hieron equanimity or eavenness of Spirit The Question then will come to this How may we and Others get this excellent frame to have the heart in every state calm and quiet without being disturbed and discontented under any thing that doth befall us the resolving of this Question will be my present work Three Helps to Contentment For answer to it I will reduce all to these three Helps or Means Consideration Grace or Godliness Prayer He that would learn and live Contentment must be a Considering man a godly man a praying man Consideration will do much Godliness will do more Prayer will do most of all In the former we have what Reason and Judgment can do In the second we have what a Divine Principle can do in the third we have what God himself can do In consideration we have the strength of the Man In grace the strength of the Christian In prayer the strength of God all of which being united they must needs do the work effectually Now as to these three Directions it is with me as it sometimes is at the head of a spring where the stream at first is so narrow that with ease any may stride over it but afterwards it doth very much widen and dilate it self in so much that the little stream is turned into a vast river So here take these three Heads in the General and at the first naming of them so my work seems to lie in a very small compass but when I come to make a further and more distinct inquiry into them truly there is a vast sea before me where 't is hard to find any bounds or limits I shall go over them with as much brevity as the Subject will admit of and as may best conduce to the great end the furtherance of Contentment The first means is Consideration By which I understand Of the past help viz. Consideration not only that which is rational and proper to a Man as a Man but that which is religious and divine both together but especially the latter have a great influence upon contentment Few do live Contentation because few do act consideration we are passionate because we are inconsiderate Were there but more considering doubtless there would be less murmuring David said in his haste All Men are liers Men are hasty and sudden and indeliberate Psal 116.11 they do not duly weigh and ponder things and thereupon passion and discontent prevail over them 'T Is good advice that in Eccles 7.14 In the Day of adversity consider when we meet with any thing which runs cross to our desires which makes it a day of adversity did we but sit down and consider about the matter this vvould much tend to the quieting of our spirits Consideration is an excellent help to Contentation He who is not thoughtful vvill never learn the lesson of the Text. Discomposures of mind are not to be kept off by any Spells or Charms but by solid and judicious consideration But vve must leave the General and come to Particulars and novv I am going out of the Straits and lanching out into the main Ocean The enquiry is How is a Christian to manage consideration in order to his attaining of contentment For your direction in this I vvill 1. Set before you that special Matter Directions how to manage Consideration in order to Contentment which you are to consider upon for this end 2. Instance in some of those common Cases wherein Contentment or Discontent are usually acted and shew what those considerations are which are proper to each for the promoting of the one and the preventing of the other 3. Speak a little to the Manner wherein Consideraion is to be managed For the first Of the special matter of it Would you knovv vvhat is that special and proper Matter which your Consideration is to work upon to further contentment in every state then bring it to to these three Heads Consider 1. Who it is that orders the State 2. What there is in the State it self 3. The excellency of a contented frame Who orders the state and how 't is ordered 1. Who it is that orders the estate surely the Supreme Sovereign all disposing God My times are in thy hands Psal 31.15 'T is so with every man in the world and with every thing about every man all is in God's hands There is an hand above which directs all Events here below He that numbers our hairs orders our state Good and Evil do not come by chance or happen in a casual and fortuitous way but both are disposed by God's Providence and according to his Will This we seem to give a full assent unto and yet in practice we do either wholly forget it or flatly deny it My advice therefore is this when at any time your hearts begin to storm and fret at your condition pray
Saints but 't is by the permission of the universal Soveraign who hath the hearts of all in his hands and suffers their rage for holy ends The enemy designes against their Faith but God's aim is to make them change their lives Now if either through strong fears or the stinging sense of troubles upon the account of Religion our Courage fails we are presently in danger of falling away and denying our Master The faint-hearted person is usually false-hearted and for want of resolution being frighted out of his Conscience and duty chooses sin rather than suffering and thereby justly deprives himself of the Crown of life that is promised only to those who are Faithful unto the death Besides not only the loss of heaven but the torments of hell are threaten'd against those who withdraw from the service of God to avoid temporal evils Rev. 21.8 The fearful and unbelieving are in the front of those that shall have part in the lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death Now what folly is it when two evils are propounded to choose the greatest that is eternal death rather than temporal and of two goods to prefer the less a short life with its Conveniencies on earth before that which is eternally glorious in heaven By which it appears how much it concerns us to fortifie and fix our minds by a stedfast belief of God's supporting presence with us in all troubles and of his gracious promise that in due time we shall reap if we faint not in well-doing 2. They are incapable of the Comforts proper to an afflicted state Those arise from the apprehension that God loves whom he chastens Rev. 3. for the least sin is a greater evil than the greatest trouble and his design is to take that away and from the expectation of a happy issue Hope is the anchor within the vail that in the midst of storms and the roughest seas preserves from shipwrack The character of Christians is Rom. 12.12 that they are rejoycing in hope But when the afflicted are under fearful impressions that God is an irreconcileable enemy and sadly conclude their miseries are past redress those divine Comforts that are able to sweeten the most bitter sufferings to believers are of no efficacy their deep sorrows are not like the pains of a travelling woman that end in a joyful birth but the killing tortures of the stone that are fruitless to the patient An obstinate grief and rejecting the Consolations of God is the beginning of sorrows the first payment of that sad arrear of mourning that shall be exacted in another world The Use shall be to excite us to those duties that are directly contrary to the extremes forbidden viz. to demean our selves under the chastenings of the Lord with a deep reverence and humble fear of his displeasure and with a firm hope and dependance upon him for a blessed issue upon our complying with his holy Will 1. With a humble reverence of his hand This temper is absolutely necessary and most congruous with respect to God upon the account of his Soveraignty Justice and Goodness declar'd in his chastenings and with respect to our frailty our dependance upon him our obnoxiousness to his Law and our obligations to him that he will please to afflict us for our good This is the reason of that expostulation Will the Lion roar in the forrest when he hath no prey Shall God's threatenings and judgments have no effect Who ever hardened himself against him and prospered Amos 3.4 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie the most sensible and severe attribute when it is incens'd Are we stronger than he Can we encounter offended Omnipotency Can we with an army of lusts oppose myriads of mighty Angels 'T is not courage but such a prodigious degree of folly and fury that one would think 't were impossible a reasonable creature were capable of it Yet every sinner unreformed by afflictions is thus desperate Job 15.25 26 He stretches out his hand against God and strengthens himself against the Almighty he runneth upon him even on his neck upon the thick bosses of his bucklers Such a furious rebel was Ahaz who in the time of his distress did trespass more against the Lord This is that King Ahaz But God hath most solemnly declared that he will be victorious at last over the most fierce obdurate enemies 2 Chron. 28. As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me His power is infinite and anger puts an edge upon his power and makes it more terrible If our subjection be not voluntary it must be violent 'T is our wisdom to prevent acts of vengeance by humble submissions The duty of the afflicted is excellently exprest by Elihu Job 34.31 32 Surely it is meet to be said to God I have born chastisements I will not offend any more that I know not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do so no more Add further upon another account reverence is due to God's chastenings for when love is the motive that incites one to give us counsel though it be mixt with reproofs and his prudence is not great yet a respect is due to the affection Now God who is only wise chastises men from a desire to make them better and happy he intends primarily to refine not to consume them by afflictions so that a serious regard to his hand is the most just and necessary duty of the creature Briefly every chastisement should leave deep and permanent impressions upon us the sense of God's displeasure should make our hearts mournful and mollified broken and contrite that his will may be done by us on earth as 't is in heaven 2. Let us alway preserve an humble dependance and firm hope on God for a blessed issue out of all our troubles The support and tranquillity of the soul ariseth from hence Christian patience suffers all things as well as charity being encouraged by a continual expectation of good from him Patience confirms all other graces and is to the whole armour of God what the temper is to material weapons that keeps them from breaking in the combat Now to maintain a constant hope in affliction 't is necessary to consider the reason of the Exhortation as 't is admirably amplified by the Apostle 1. The relation God sustains when he afflicts believers He is a Judge invested with the quality of a Father The Covenant of grace between God and Jesus Christ our true David contains this observable cause If thy children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments if they break my statutes Psal 89.30 31 32. and keep not my commandements then will I visit their transgressions with a rod and their iniquity with stripes The love that ariseth from this relation though it cannot hate yet it may be displeased and chastise them for their follies Moses tells the Israelites Thou shalt consider in thy heart Deut. 8.5 that as
are in a better state than Adam was in his first Creation None will deny who read and believe the Scriptures that Adam was Blessed before he sinned there was no Curse of the Law upon man until the Law was broken by him and as God made all other things good so man as he came out of God's hand was made both Good and Happy The primitive Blessedness of Adam consisted chiefly in two things First In the Innocency which was in him Secondly In the Image of God which was upon him whereby he was capacitated for and had a nearness of Communion and fellowship with God In both respects pardoned Persons are in a better estate than Adam 1. In respect of Innocency although they cannot so properly be called Innocent in themselves doubtless they are not so Innocent as Adam before his fall yet upon their pardon they are guiltless they are reputed Innocent in the sight of God and however God may chastise them for sin here they shall no more be punished for any sin in the other World than if they had never offended than if they had never committed any the least sin from their Birth unto their Death but had been as white and clean as pure and Innocent as the first Adam before his fall or the second Adam who never fell and herein their condition is better than that of Adam in Innocency because no guilt shall be charged upon them unto their Condemnation whereas Adam had no such security against Condemnation for afterward he falling into sin would certainly have fallen into Hell had not pardoning mercy prevented it 2. In regard of the Image of God that is repaired in all those that are pardoned when God forgiveth their sin he changeth their nature and that Faith which justifieth the Person doth also purifie the heart Acts 15.9 Indeed pardoned Persons are renewed but in part and the inherent Righteousness and Holiness which they attain unto in this life is but imperfect yet in this they are in a better condition than Adam was at first because although Adam's inherent Righteousness were perfect yet it was left to his own keeping and he quickly lost it and fell quite off from God putting himself out of God's favour and out of Covenant together and there was no Salvation attainable by him until God had promised Christ and made a New Covenant of Grace with him But the inherent Righteousness of pardoned Persons although it be far short many degrees of absolute perfection yet it is committed to the keeping of Christ by the Spirit in them who is both able and hath promised to bring it unto perfection so that they shall never totally fall from Grace but grow up from one degree of Grace unto another until they arrive unto Heaven where they shall be absolutely perfect both in Holiness and happiness and in the mean time they are accepted as compleat and perfect in their head the Lord Jesus Christ whose perfect Righteousness is through Faith imputed unto them whereby the defects of their righteousness are supplyed and they adopted to eternal Life Pardoned persons are in a better state than Adam therefore they are blessed Reas 5. Such whose iniquities are forgiven are blessed because they shall be blessed the blessedness of pardoned persons is chiefly in hope of future blessedness without which hope in some circumstance of time they would be as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15.19 of all Men most miserable and therefore I shall chiefly speak of the future blessedness of the pardoned and here 1. Shew what the future blessedness is which pardoned persons shall have 2. Prove that pardoned persons shall most assuredly attain this blessedness 3. Shew how this future blessedness doth render them blessed at the present and this will be a full proof that pardoned persons are blessed 1. The first thing is to shew what the future blessedness is which pardoned persons shall have and here I must premise that there is but little of this future blessedness revealed in comparison of what it really is and what pardoned persons will find it to be Ministers have preached and written much concerning it but they have not told one half no nor the thousand part of the Glory and excellency thereof and it must be but little then that I have time or room to speak of it in this discourse yet something I must say and it is no difficult thing to set it forth by Scripture-light and in a few words as far exceeding all outward happiness and earthly felicity The blessedness which pardoned persons shall have doth lye in three things 1. In the blessed and glorious place where they shall live 2. In the blessed and glorious company which they shall converse withal 3. In the blessed and glorious state which they shall attain to 1. Pardoned persons shall live and take up their eternal abode in a most blessed and glorious place Here they have no continuing City but they seek one to come Heb. 13.14 The most strong and flourishing Cities in the World may be demolished by the hands of Men or overthrown by Earthquakes or consumed and turned into ashes by the devouring flames of fire but the City they shall dwell in cannot be demolished overthrown or consumed that City will abide and continue so long as God shall abide the Maker of it They look for a City which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God Heb. 11.10 The Foundations of this City are sure and strong such as shall never be moved the Cities and Houses they now dwell in are made by man and therefore are but mean but the City they shall dwell in is of God's Building and Making and therefore is very glorious It is the New Jerusalem which they shall hereafter inhabit the Jerusalem which is above the Walls and Gates thereof are Pearls and the Streets thereof pure Gold as it is described Rev. 21. at the latter end of that Chapter But the place is beyond all comparison and doth exceed in glory whatever description may be made of it 2. Pardoned persons shall have most blessed and glorious company to converse withal in Heaven 1. In Heaven pardoned persons vvill have the company of all the Saints there they vvill find all their godly friends and acquaintance and that both such as die before them and those that die after them in vvhose Society they vvill have a mutual sweet complacency and their joy one in another vvill exceed vvhat tongues can express There they shall have the company of all those Godly Ministers either vvhom they have known and heard or vvhose Writings only they have seen and read and how vvill the spiritual children delight to see the glory and live always in the company of their spiritual Fathers vvhom God hath made instrumental for their conversion then they vvill rejoyce indeed that ever they saw their face that ever they heard their voice that ever they believed their report that ever they vvere perswaded by them to
whose person is of infinite dignity that thence may arise an equivalency of merit in his sufferings as may prove satisfactory to God's infinite justice and because no mere man being a finite creature hath this dignity and God cannot suffer because this would argue weakness and infirmity which is infinitely removed from him therefore it is requisite that the person who can satisfie should be God-man that as in one nature he may be capable of suffering so the other nature may put a vertue and efficacy upon it and such a person was Jesus Christ 3. That Jesus Christ hath done that which is sufficient to satisfie God's justice for the sins of men is evident from his Death and other sufferings which we have upon record in the Gospel which sufferings were not for himself he being an innocent person and it would have argued injustice in God had he permitted such sufferings to have been laid on his body especially had he himself inflicted such dreadful inward sufferings on his Soul were it not that he stood in the room of sinners and endured all these sufferings for their sins that he might give satisfaction to his justice hereby 4. That Christ's sufferings have given to God satisfaction and that he hath accepted of this satisfaction in the behalf of sinners is evident from the Compact and Covenant which he made with Christ that if he would offer up this sacrifice of himself he would be well pleased and sinners should hereby be justified from his sending his Son into the world for this very end and anointing him to the office of High-Priest that he might first make satisfaction and then Intercession for the people from his owning him when here raising him when dead receiving him to glory when raised which he would not have done had not he accepted his satisfaction from his Covenant he hath through him made with man and promises therein of remission of sins through his blood which he would never have made had not Christ's death given him satisfaction Moreover all those places of Scripture which speak of Christ's death as a sacrifice as a ransom as a punishment which he endured that sinners might be and whereby believers are actually reconciled unto God do clearly and abundantly prove that Christ hath given satisfaction to God's justice and which God is well pleased withal 5. That all sinners must know and believe this Doctrine of Christ's satisfaction that they may attain remission of sins is evident because God never did never will forgive any sin without respect unto it this way of remission is the chief thing which he hath revealed in the Scriptures In the Old Testament it was shadowed under the sacrifices for sin which were offered in the New Testament it is the end of the Revelation of Christ this being the chief design of his sufferings and death to give satisfaction to God's justice in order to the forgiveness of man's sin And they that are ignorant hereof or do not believe this do not know nor believe in Jesus Christ and him crucified and therefore cannot obtain forgiveness by his death 2. Sinners must know and believe the doctrine of Justification by Christ's Righteousness that they may attain remission of sins 1. They must know the nature of Justification it self that it doth consist in the remission of our sins and the acceptation of our Persons as perfectly Righteous in God's sight they must know that they have no Righteousness of their own to present God withal because guilty of sin and the least guilt is inconsistent with a perfect Righteousness and therefore if they were as some are really Holy yet that they could not be accepted as perfectly Righteous in God's sight upon the account of a perfect Righteousness of their own which none here do attain unto much less when they are naturally void and empty of all good and real Holiness and polluted all over with Sin 3. They must know that the Righteousness of Christ is perfect and was intended for them and held forth to them which they must submit unto and accept of if they would be justified in God's sight 4. That the Righteousness of Christ is made theirs by Faith God imputing it and accounting it unto believers as if it were their own and they had wrought it out in their own persons This way of Justification by Christ all must know and be perswaded of that would obtain Justification which doth include forgiveness of sin 2. Some things must be done and practised by sinners that they may attain this blessedness of forgiveness 1. They must get conviction of sin 2. They must make confession of sin 3. They must by Faith make Application of Jesus Christ 4. They must forsake sin 5. They must make Supplication and earnest Prayer unto God for pardoning Mercy 6. They must forgive others 1. Sinners would you attain the blessedness of forgiveness Labour to get conviction of sin get conviction of your Original sin the guilt of Adam's first sin in which you are involv'd your present emptiness of all Spiritual good and the Universal depravation of all the powers and faculties of your Souls with inherent pollution which renders you opposite unto all real good and naturally prone unto nothing but evil get conviction of your actual sins of all your hainous breaches of God's Law whether the first or second Table of it whether sins against God more immediately his Nature his Worship his Name his Day or against your Neighbour whether relative sins or sins against the life or chastity or estate or good name of any and get conviction that all inordinate motions that have not the consent of the will and much more inordinate affections which are influenced by it are sinful and provoking unto God Get also convictions of your more hainous disobedience to the Gospel what an aggravation it is of all your other sins that you have repented of none when you have so much need and have been so often called hereunto what an affront is it unto God a disparagement unto Christ that you have neglected your Salvation by him and have been guilty of unbelief in not receiving yea refusing Christ so able and willing to save you and when you have had such frequent and earnest as well as gracious and free tenders of him Get conviction of the guilt of your sins and what an Obligation you are under hereby to undergo eternal Destruction in the flames of Hell fire for it and let this awaken you out of your security let the thoughts of this pierce and wound your consciences and make you cry out with those Sinners which were convinced by Peter's Sermon Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we do Get conviction also of the horrid baseness and ungratefulness of sin as it dishonours and displeases that God by whom you were at first created are continually
Your sins are inexcusable your condemnation is unavoidable and your punishment hereafter in Hell will be most dreadful and intolerable Possibly now you are careless and secure sin is sweet and conscience is quiet you are at ease and conscience asleep but will this ease and sleep always continue Is there not a time coming when you shall be awakened If you are not awakened under God's Word may not God awaken you under his Rod If you are not awakened under God's threatnings will you not awake when he cometh to execution If you are secure in the midst of outward peace and prosperity can you be secure in the midst of trouble and adversity Think what you will do when death doth approach Think what a dreadful aspect unpardoned sin will have when you are brought down unto the sides of the pit to the brink and border of eternity and when you are summoned to make your appearance before the highest Majesty O the horrour that then will seize you O the fearfulness that then will surprise you To have the black guilt of drunkenness or swearing of uncleanness or deceiving or any other iniquity to stare you then in the face O how dismal will it be and affrighting And think with what rage and fury your consciences will then reflect upon your fore-past sins especially your neglect of a pardon then unattainable and how tormenting will this be unto you You may then cry out Lord have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us But will God then hear you who have refused to hearken unto him Will Christ regard you who have neglected refused and shut the door of your hearts against him all your days But sinners what will you do at the day of judgment when the Lord Jesus shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance upon you for unpardoned sins That great day will certainly come and it will quickly be here Time runs away swiftly and it will quickly be run out yet a little while and the Angel will lift up his hand and cry with a loud voice and swear by him that liveth for ever and ever that time shall be no longer Rev. 10.5 6. Then the mystery will be finished the prophesie accomplished and the whole frame of this visible world dissolved the Sun then and the Moon will be darkened and the Stars will fall unto the earth as the fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind and the heavens themselves then shall be rolled together as a great scroll and so pass away with a great noise the earth and all the elements shall be on fire and consume away on that day when the Lord Jesus Christ shall appear from Heaven with Millions of mighty Angels in power and brightness of majesty and then you must come out of your graves and will stand trembling before Christ's great Tribunal and none of you will be able to hide your selves under any Rock or Mountain from his angry face Then then you will fully know what a priviledg it is to be pardoned when you see where pardoned persons are placed when you see them gathered to the right hand of the great Judg and there acquitted openly owned graciously and crowned by him with honour and glory and invited by him to take possession of those eternal habitations of rest and joy in his Kingdom prepared for them by his Father But O the tearings of spirit and heart-vexing tormenting grief which you will have that no place is found for you amongst them that through your neglect of pardoning mercy you have forfeited and eternally lost a share in eternal glory and not only so but have by sin also plunged your selves into a bottomless gulf of endless misery Think how dreadful the irreversible sentence of condemnation will be unto you Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Alas Alas sinners what will you do no thought can conceive what your horror will be when you come to reap the bitter fruit of all your unpardoned sins It is the punishment of Hell Sinners which the guilt of sin unremoved doth oblige you to undergo And therefore I am sent this day to forewarn you and in the name of my Master to foretel you that if you do not now sue out for and obtain this forgiveness of sin your sin hereafter will bring eternal ruine and destruction of soul and body in Hell Without a pardon profaneness will be your ruine Some of you it may be can swear and curse and blaspheme the Name of God hereafter God will swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his rest and you shall be banished out of Christ's presence with a curse Depart from me ye cursed c. Those tongues which have been so liberal of oaths and blasphemies must be tormented in flames of fire without one drop of water to cool them Without a pardon drunkenness will be your ruine you that have so often enflamed your selves with wine and strong drink God will enflame you with the wine of his vengeance he will make you to drink the dregs of his wrath which is at the bottom of the cup of his indignation Without a pardon uncleanness will be your ruine your pleasures are empty and of short continuance but your pains will be full hereafter and they will abide for ever Without a pardon unrighteousness will be your ruine your unrighteous gains one day will prove your unspeakable loss and God will be the avenger of all such upon you as have been wronged and defrauded by you Without a pardon your neglect of Christ and Salvation will be your ruine and if you persevere in this neglect it is impossible that you should escape Sinners think seriously and think frequently of your unpardoned iniquities and withal think of the dreadful punishment they will bring upon you think of your eternal damnation unto the most exquisite torments of Hell and then drink on swear on and scoff your fill be unholy and profane unjust and unclean if you think good but know that for all these sins God will bring you to judgment know that these iniquities unpardoned will be your ruine Should I tell you of one that were condemned for some vile fact to be slay'd alive or burnt alive or sawn asunder or dragg'd to pieces with wild horses or starv'd with hunger and cold or any other ways cruelly tortured to death but that he might escape all this misery if he would accept of a pardon ready provided for him and withal leave off such vile facts for the future you would count him worse than mad should he neglect his pardon and expose himself to ruine and misery through his carelesness and obstinacy And yet though you are condemned for sin to far worse torment and misery that which is more dreadful than ten thousand painful deaths and all this mischief and punishment may be avoided and escaped if you will accept of the pardon
they know and they have great jealousies and suspicions of it in sober thoughts and cool blood to their eternal sorrow cost and shame 'T is terrible to those that never valued the joys and hopes and work of Godliness and cannot then expect the recompences of that Godliness which they declined and hated And it is terrible to those that are uncertain as to their spiritual state dark in their evidences low in their hopes and disturbed with melancholick or other fears about their interest in God and Christ and everlasting welfare of their immortal Souls So that where all or any of these things prevail men dread to leave this Life and to be transmitted to another state by Death be it natural or violent And the same Reasons Helps and Motives that may be useful for the one may be also useful for the other and therefore before the Case can be resolved something must be premised to prepare the way and that is this viz. The Argument of the Text is a successful proper Antidote against a double evil and it is the ground and measure of a necessary Duty 1. The Evils are the inordinate love of Life and the fear of Bonds Afflictions Death 2. The Argument imports 1. A prospect of something better than what we are called to mortifie feel or quit and that is joy resulting from a Course well finished and a state if I may call it so of meer non-existence cannot deserve or claim the name of Joy 1 Cor. 15.17 29 32. And nothing but this prospect could necessitate his sufferings or his disregard of Life nor could this do it had he not sure foundations for his Confidence Heb. 11.6 Tit. 1.2 2 Tim 1.10 2 Cor. 4.17 18. And therefore the Prospect mortifies the inordinate fear of Death Now 2. The Argument imports a Project too and that is this viz. so to manage and compleat the Course as to secure the Joy which cannot be if Life or any thing have an equal or transcendent interest in us or influence upon us and therefore the necessary Duty is the Conquest of the Love of Life and Fear of Death The measure of our necessary Conquest is fetcht from its relation and subserviency to the Prize So far as Love of Life and Fear of Death are opposed to and inconsistent with our better hopes and work so far they must be overcome And the ground of the Duty is in the Text because otherwise our Course cannot be finished with joy it can be neither regular nor successful without the conquest and attainment of my Text And therefore my Answer to the Case before us shall lie in these few following Directions Direct 2. Be throughly perswaded of and heartily affected with a Life to come 2 Cor. 4.17 18. This is the poyse and pondus of Religion Heb. 11.6 This is the heart and strength of Godliness Acts 24.14 26. 'T is this that strips that King of Terrors Death of all his frightful looks and strength This spoils his fatal Conquest Gripe and Sting 2 Tim. 4.6 8. 2 Cor. 5.1 10. and 1 Cor. 15.51 58. It was this that did invigorate the confidence and courage of that Noble Army of Martyrs Heb. 11. throughout This cloaths the Brow with Confidence to face the storms and entertain the challenges of Earth and Hell Rom. 8.35 39 This startles hearty Resolutions into awakened Exercises forceth such expressions of inward strength and fixedness as shall amaze the world and shame the daring stupid Infidel into strange Convictions of the transcendent joys gain of godliness and its approaching triumphs This makes the heart indifferent to live or dye so that by either the great concernment may be prosperous and successful and need I furnish you with arguments to perswade you to believe another state doth not the word of God the soul of man the course and consequence of moral government pass into arguments to prove this thing would God create capacity in the soul of man to render him proper for another state and do this as the result of his remarkable love and wisdom and make him capable of being influenced by motives drawn from hence and after all turn his capacity into his wrack and abuse and rule him by mistakes and errours and shame those hope and confidences in the Soul and strip it of those proper ends and exercises which God himself ordained enjoined and started Moreover will not the state and element of everlasting retributions be more significant than a probationary state and theatre and if so no way more proper to conquer the inordinacy in our case than right perswasions and resentments of another state of life It is no wonder that an Infidel should be inordinate in his love of life for he that looks for nothing when he is dead cannot attempt divorcement from his Idols interest and consolations here for now he must conclude that a living dog is better then a dead man and if the smart conviction will not suffer him to remain an Infidel for Atheists and Infidels cannot be such without his permission if not judicial stupefaction and desertion by whom they were created yet if he relish not the joys and exercises of another state hereafter he cannot but be wanton and imposed upon by his ensnaring dreams and shadows and parcel out his heart till he have lost himself amongst the incoherent transient vanities of sense and fancy The world and present life are this mans all and 't is no wonder if when he hath nothing else on which he can place his heart he fix it here but oh when better things appear in chase and view when things commensurate with his capacity and duration strike his concerned eye with close and smart appulses and so affects his heart shadows must fly away and the Sons of the Morning must suit their exercises and attempts to the discoveries of their day and alienate their hearts from what will be abusive of their souls and hopes as their discoveries will make them then conclude Direct 2. Look upon life and comforts as they are not as they seem to be under their present circumstances and make your choice and value sutable thereunto Your life is but a shadow which must disappear a cloud that must be scattered more easily passed through than embraced and all the glory of this World is easily winked into blackness and distaste and all the lower comforts of our lives are but the crums we gather from the broken world The world it self is but an Element of Sin and Sorrow and through that curse upon it which was derived by our first apostacy it is become a stormy and disturbed Region There is nothing suitable to our better part therein when separate from God and set against him Our Souls the noblest part of Man are entertained with nothing but burthens stints and snares A chain of Gold may pinch as hard as one of Iron There is nothing here that can endure those warm affections and close
from things below and wedding them to things above and managing all our Duties with all diligence and resolution the very oppositions and difficulties of the way and of our work in this world would make us weary of our entertainment here and full of vehement longings and desires to be gone We should have little heart to wish for long continuance where we can have neither welcom nor satisfaction Our very works and sufferings would abate our love to Life and our incumbrances about many things and from them when they are apprehended as prejudicial to the one thing needful would be rejected by us because distastful to us Direct 4. Keep up your ordinate fear of Death as the Corrective of your inordinate love to Life and see that this be well improved Psal 49.6 14. Why should our hearts be where we must not stay Had Eve but thought more upon Death the forbidden Fruit had never been betwixt her teeth We fancy Immortality in a maze of Vanity and our imagined continuance here inflames our hearts and did we more consider how short a time we have to stay and how much work to do how sure we are to die and why Death came into the world and how suddenly yea and surprizingly the King of Terrors who receives not Bribes may make dispatches of his sharp and hasty Arrows into our sides and hearts the enamouring influences of this mortal Life vvould more effectually be mortified and obstructed Why should I doat on that to day from vvhich I may be gone to morrovv The fear of Death hath its ordained place and use and calls upon us to prepare Job 14.14 He that is sensible of his ovvn vanity here belovv and capable of Immortality above ought to be ready for his change and call If vve be negligent in the Discipline of our Affections vvithin the prospect of our dying day our misery becomes our choice and we betray our souls to startling sorrows and surprizals and give our hearts avvay for trifles in the very face of danger Security makes us prodigals and vvantons and exposes us to the povverful charms of fearful fascinations Extinguished Lamps and empty vessels are only in the hands of slumbring Virgins by vvhom the Midnight-cry is clear forgotten Treasures and Goods laid up for many years and then the heart is gone and sold to empty confidences and vain delights until that Cry Thou Fool this night thy Soul must go correct the Cheat and shame the dreaming vvanton Methinks the avvful thoughts and looks of Death should quench those flames of Love vvhich have no other Fewel but a Vapour or thin exhalation vvhich hath no light and glory but in its ovvn destruction and they should rather make us careful to secure that Treasure in the Heavens vvhich remains to be possess'd vvhen our Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life Our daily instances of Mortality should start such fresh remembrances in us of our ovvn approaching dissolution and that amazing alteration of our comforts and employments which vvill ensue thereon as should irresistibly prevail upon us to guard and fortifie our hearts against the inrodes and invasions of such addresses as the corrupting flatteries and pretences of Life and Comforts here below are apt to make upon our hearts for this inordinacy of love to Life gives Death a fatal sting to strike us with Direct 5. As to the inordinate fear of Death labour to get a perfect understanding of its Grounds and Cure for our mistake herein may make the application of the Medicine both dangerous and successless And therefore let us first enquire into what it is that makes us loath or afraid to die and then what Antidotes are expedient for this Cure of such inordinate Fears and then direct your Application 1. That which makes Death terrible to us is either relating to 1. What we leave behind us as Life Comforts or Advantages here for getting and exercising Grace in order to eternal Glory Or 2. The state we are going to as to which we either 1. Doubt of its existence as to eternal comforts Or 2. Want a Title to them and so fear the loss of them and pains of Hell for ever Or. 3. A value for them Or 3. The passage from one state to another and that either 1. As to its pains or 2. Its conflicts or 3. It s separation of Soul and Body and 4. A remaining in that state of separation of Soul and Body through a defect of Divine Power or Faithfulness to and Mercy for us 2. The proper Antidotes and Expedients for the Cure of these excessive Fears vvhich I shall briefly give you are in these following Propositions Propos 1. There is a state of Life and Immortality designed and prepared for holy persons It is prepared Mat. 25 34. Discovered 2 Tim. 1.10 Purchased by Christ and proposed by God Eph. 1.11.14 Promised Tit. 1.2 And reserved in Heaven for such 1 Pet. 1.4 We have all the imaginable proofs demonstrations of it that things invisible and at a distance from us can be capable of God hath made us capable thereof and hath implanted in us a desire of and longing for it though some through sin have rotted these desires at the roots And further on these desires capacity and inclinations God hath grounded Laws for Moral Government and rules the world by hopes and fear whose vital influences are derived from this future state And further still God hath sent his Son to tell us of these preparations who in the humane nature publish'd such reports which God attested by frequent apparent uncontroulable Miracles and sealed them with his blood and rose again as the first fruits of them that sleep and after taught this Doctrine and went to Heaven to take possession and make necessary preparations for our conduct thither and title and possession there and sent the Spirit down for the repeated Seals and Publication of this Doctrine of a Life to come who did inspire Apostles to write and preach it and urge it upon the Consciences of men and to prepare the heart of man for this Inheritance to urge it as an Argument of weight upon them and start joys and sorrows in them as they carry in relation hereunto And he hath declared that he will judge the world by Christ in order to their legal settlement in this state Prop. 2. Our present state of life and comforts is no way comparable to what is designed hereafter It is a State and City in respect whereof God is not ashamed to be called our God Heb. 11.16 with Luke 20.34.38 Oh what a change of persons shall we meet with there Phil. 3.21 1 John 3.2 1 Cor. 15.49 54. Our bodies shall not be what they now are even the wracks and loads and chains of souls What are they now but foul unactive lumps of Clay they are pierced with cold and worn with labours appaled with griefs and dangers and griped with pains and macerated with keen and envious passions and
you lay foundations right and deep How can it be imagined much less expected that unprepared and estranged Souls from God and Christ should face the challenges and terrors or escape the dangers of a dying day vvhat can support the confidence of that man vvho is dispirited by the deserved rebuke buffettings of an exasperated because a guilty conscience for conscience is the mouth of God and speaks his mind and vvhat speaks othervvise in point of charge or censure is rather ignorance than conscience and by his order and commission and in his name and Majesty vvhips the careless soul It is impossible to still the cryes of guilt and vvrath It is far more easie for us to charm and stupifie the man than truely cure him He that is negligent of the main affair is like to bear the smartings of his ovvn voluntary vvounds and the more voluntary our negligence appears to be to our awakened consciences when startled by gripes and fears of death the less cause will there be for help and pity All fears arising from an unconverted state have God to back and sharpen them because they are truly grounded on God's professed resolution and legal comminations to bring those fears on them by vvhom they are deserved So that our only vvay to cure and quell these fears is to remove their Cause by giving up our selves to God the Father to knovv him love him and live to him and to delight our selves in God's Image Presence and Favour in his Son Jesus Christ more than in all the treasures and delights of lovver things to knovv the Lord that bought us and to serve him in righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost vvith confidence to commit our selves to his tendred conduct government and protection and entertain him vvith all sutableness of apprehension affection and conversation to all his excellencies offices and appearances to ansvver all his kindnesses cost and care with all such faithful fruitful chearful conversations as God Christ determined and designed in man's Redemption Eph. 1.4 Yea to be ruled assisted and refreshed by vvhat the Spirit of Grace and Holiness and Wisdom hath done for us and is sent from the Father and the Son to perfect and compleat in us to live the Life of Faith and Holiness and endeavour to spend our daies in the delightful hopes and fore-tasts of and ripenings for and hasting to or hastning as the vvord imports * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 3.12 your everlasting state of Joys and Glory to make the unseen vvorld the exercise poise and spring of your most vehement desires most vigorous pursuit and most inviolable satisfaction and in a vvord to vvalk in all due conscience of your trust and charge to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit to others and your selves in all things to think and speak and do as in the sight of God relation to him and special interest and delight in him and not through ignorance enmity and sloth to let the Devil Flesh or World mortifie your delight in God your motions tovvards affections to and resolutions for God And hearken not to those discouraging thoughts and jealousies of God and Christ vvhich your grand enemy the Prince of lies and darkness is ready to abuse you vvith Where hath God told you that the vvilling thoughtful painful Soul though much distemper'd and imperfect shall be rejected by him For vvhen the Son protests so solemnly against rejecting such as come he speaks his Father's heart Jo. 6.37 40. And I profess vvhen I most seriously consider the terms tenour of the covenant of Grace I am much confirmed in this that all grounded jealousies suspitions discouragements as to our hopes of everlasting happiness can only fix upon our voluntary rejecting of God and Christ and holiness and Heaven And though many things may humble us and ought to do it yet nothing can implead our Title to the purchased possession nor our comfortable hopes at death vvhen once our vvills are sixt on Christ and vvell resolved for him and prevail upon our lives for vvalking vvorthy of our great Vocation We have no impossible conditions imposed on us especially if vve consider Gospel-assistances indulgence and encouragements for vvhen vve knovv our vvay as God hath shevved it us in Christ and have our hearts inclined and fixt for God vve are but to exert vvhat strength and povver vve have to serve and please our God and proportionably to our abilities and advantages to vvait upon God for more according to his instituted vvays and methods Improvements are but required to be proportionable to our Talents and he that brought ten Talents to his Lord had more than one or tvvo at first to make improvement of I do indeed believe the Lavv * By the Law of the Nature I â— ean God's revealed will as Ruler objectively signified in the nature of things within us and without us concerning our Duty and Rewards or Punishments and this Law is written upon and discovered by our own capacity constitution our relations to God and others and our fâ—rniture and advantages from what we are encompâ—ssed and intrusted with in the whole firme of Nature of Nature yet in force though novv incorporated into the Lavv of Christ and that the Decalogue is yet in force to bind and rule us and never look to see its abrogation proved till they that hold this abrogation can demonstrate that the Father lost his Right Throne of Government by the appearance of his Son and that Christ acted not as his Fathers Delegate and for his Glory and that Grace vvas not designed and directed to the reparation of declined Religion in the vvorld but that God was so prodigal of his Pardon and Indulgence as to grow regardless of his Government But yet that Law is one thing and this Covenant another thing For the Covenant of Grace respected those distempers perplexities disadvantages and supposed them and was suited to them in its Tenders and Provisions for which it did design Relief And now our terms of Life are not so strict as those on vvhich God dealt vvith healthful sound and innocent Adam for novv sincere and prevalent Faith and Love and Holiness shall reach those Consolations after Death vvhich once viz. antecedently to Christ's undertaking and compleating satisfaction they could not do and therefore if your insincerity and fundamental unpreparedness for your change be that which starts and feeds your fears labour to be sincere and faithful in Covenant-making and Covenant-keeping and you may be sure of this that Death will lose its sting and victory and thereupon its fearful looks when Sin hath lost its Throne and when God and Christ have got your hearts and life-to come concernments influence and rule your purposes projects and pursuits It is with relation to our manifold temptations wants and weaknesses and all despondencies and discouragements consequent thereupon that Christ hath undertaken to be our great High
and therefore the Blessing is null and moreover what the meaning of this Providence is that my Brother should come forth against me in this hostile manner I knovv not Wherefore I humbly beg thy Blessing and the confirmation of that Title vvhich hath so great an error in it Thus God brought an old reckoning to his remembrance in an evil day and set it on his conscience and put him to repent and mourn for he wept and made supplication to the Angel Hos 12.4 He came not off so easily but was fain to vvrestle hard all night to lose his rest and to struggle and sweat and pray and vveep and shed many a tear and to go halting aftervvard upon his Thigh unto his dying day Take heed therefore of old Reckonings undischarged look back and consider hovv it hath been and omit not a day vvithout revievving your Actions and Repentings I say as duly as the day determineth let not the Sun go dovvn upon any guilt contracted that so your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and exercise your self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and men and this vvill the better prepare you for the coming of Jesus Christ both by Death and Judgment Fifthly Be much in the exercise of Goodness Mercy and works of Liberality towards Christ in his needy Members according to your opportunity and power For though you shall be saved by your Faith yet you shall be judged according to your Works And it greatly concerneth us to be laborious in that Service upon vvhich the judgment shall pass at Christ's appearance Mat. 25.35 36. Call your self therefore to an account what you have done in this way for Christ as how you have fed cloathed visited relieved him in his Members here on earth And if this were more considered such as profess to Christ would be more active for him in ought wherein they might be more serviceable to him but when we see but little activity in the exercise of this Grace we may well fear there is but little Oil in the Vessel for rich anointings will make men agile and ready for every good work inasmuch as the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and they that hope for eternal Life when Christ shall come by Death and Judgment must seek for Glory Honour and Immortality not only in well-doing but in continuance in it Beware of Omissions and among others of this great duty The Judgment will reach unto all sins In the Narrative of his Life and Death and to omissions in a special manner Mat. 25.37 38. For which that learned and holy Vsher was humbled upon his death-bed The Nobleman hath put a Pound into your hand saying Occupy till I come yea he hath given you many Pounds in a literal sense with which you must trade as well as with the Talents of your Parts and Gifts of Grace And I know you would be glad to find Mercy with Onesiphorus in the day of Christ Remember therefore Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Mat. 5.7 But He shall have judgment without mercy who hath shewed no mercy whereas mercy rejoyceth against judgment A merciful man is so far from fearing judgment at Christ's coming that he rather rejoyceth at the thoughts of it Sixthly Exercise diligence and faithfulness in your particular Calling For when Christ speaketh of his Coming saith he Be ye ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh What followeth Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his houshold to give them meat in due season Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Mat. 24.44 45 46. When Christ was speaking to this Point saith Peter Lord speakest thou this Parable to us or even unto all Luke 12.41 Truly Christ spake it unto all though in a special manner to such as Peter for Christ will have an account how every one of us have managed our particular Callings But they that are Stewards in the House of God which is his Church have a very great account to give and it is required of them in a special manner that a man be found faithful and of all Christ's servants his Stewards have most to answer for that if a dispensation of the Gospel and the care of souls were not committed to them he that understandeth the weight of Stewardship would dread to undertake it but a necessity is laid upon them and wo unto them if they Preach not the Gospel It is said of Calvin that when Nature began to decline in him Melch. Adam in vit Calv. and the symptoms of a dying man appeared on him he would be diligent at his Studies from which his friends disswading him saith he Nunquid me Dominus inveniet otiosum Shall my Master find me idle Let such therefore and all be diligent and faithful in their respective place and employments And indeed every man is a Steward more or less You know what the Master saith of the slothful Servant Take him and cast him into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Such slothful servants shall be under the tribute of eternal pains Prov. 12.24 when the good and faithful Servant shall be made ruler over many things and enter into the joy of his Lord Mat. 25.23 Would you stand before Christ at his coming Oh dread Idleness and unfaithfulness in your Callings as you desire to be sound of him in peace at his appearance Fill up your days with Duty and give your time to him who gave it to you Paul was a great lover of Christ and his Appearance and who more abundant in his Labours for him For he had the Conscience of his indefatigable industry and fidelity in his work for his Master Saith he I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith 2 Tim 4.7 8. He meaneth especially his military faith and oath in fighting a good fight for Christ And wherefore do we hear him groaning so earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with his house which is from Heaven It was because he laboured ambitiously that whether present or absent he might be accepted of him For saith he We must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ that every one might receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5 2. with 9.10 Lastly That I might not multiply particulars let me add what Christ hath joined together Sobriety Watchfulness and Prayer Luk. 21 34.36 And therefore take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkenness and cares of this Life and that Day come upon you unawares Gird up therefore the loins of your minds be sober and hope to the end for the Grace that is to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ for we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall we appear in Glory with him Mortifie therefore your earthly Members Fornication Vncleanness inordinate Affections evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry You must not only deny all visible gross ungodliness which even the very Sons of Morality will decline and decay but also all worldly lusts and their secret operations living soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Take heed of slumbring in these secret lusts for ye are children of the light and of the day and therefore take heed that you sleep not as others do but watch and be sober for they that sleep sleep in the night and they that are drunk are drunk in the night but let us who are of the day be sober putting on the Breast plate of Faith and Love and for an Helmet the hope of salvation watching and praying always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape those things which shall befall the foolish Virgins and that ye may stand before the Son of man who is coming with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and therefore be sober and watch unto Prayer seeing the end of all things is at hand and look well to your Lamps which are your Watch-lights that they burn brightly in this World's Midnight and pray particularly for daily supplies of Oil and sincerity in all your Actions and Duties both to God and man never omitting to beg for Death-bed-Grace that so you may live and die to the honour of your Bridegroom And as for this present World use it as if you used it not and have no more to do with it than bare need requireth And set your Hearts and Houses and all your civil secular Affairs in order having your conversations in Heaven whence you look for Christ the Saviour And thus walking with God in the exercise of these gifts of Grace when we come to dye we shall change our places only but not our company And let none of you behold Death at a distance nor have it seldom in your thoughts but daily in your eye that you may not fear it when it cometh A Lion is not terrible to his Keeper that seeth him every day You must frequently converse with God Christ Death and Judgment For when Christ speaketh of his coming to Judgment he so expresseth it as if he were to come in their time to whom he spake it Matth. 24 42. Mark 13.33.35 36 37. Luke 21.34 35 36. And so indeed he did for he comes to every man at the hour of his Dissolution And we are his Agents or Factors in a foreign Land and how soon he may remind us home and call us to an Account we know not Say not therefore My Lord delayeth his coming lest we are thereby rocked into a midnight sleep and scared with a midnight-cry of Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him I shall not detain you much longer You have heard what those Graces are which are chiefly to be exercised in order to an actual preparation for the coming of Christ by Death and Judgment I now commend them to your daily exercise and for your encouragement therein shall leave a few Considerations with you and conclude First That the Door of eternal Rest and Glory shall stand open for you at Christ's coming to you by Death Why 1. Because you are ready and they that are ready go in with the Bridegroom God hath made you meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the Saints in light Col. 1.12 and hath wrought you for the self same thing 2 Cor. 5.5 You are a Vessel of Mercy prepared for Glory Rom. 9.23 2. You admitted Christ into the door of your hearts when there he stood and knocked Rev. 3.20 3. You had your conversation in Heaven whilst you lived here on earth It was your Father's house where you used daily to converse the doors whereof shall open to you at your Death Secondly Consider the place into which you shall be admitted for the wise Virgins shall enter into the King's Palace Psal 45.14 15. into Paradise the third Heavens your Father's House a City that hath foundations whose Builder and Maker is God Heb. 11.10 A magnificent Structure surely that hath such a Builder and Maker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that hath built the City most artificially and curiously and for publick shew as the original words do import Such a City it is yea a Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Mat. 25 34. The first hansel of God's workmanship Gen. 1.1 This is the place whither you shall enter Thirdly You shall enter thither with the Bridegroom even our Lord Jesus Christ and this is heaven enough viz. to be where Christ is Luke 23.42 43. John 14.3 17.24 Phil. 1.23 1 Thess 4.17 Heaven is described by being with Christ And when Christ shall descend from heaven with a shout to judge the world if all the Saints suppose should not descend with him but any of them be left behind what an alteration would they find in heaven whereas all of them going with Christ it is all one as if they were still in heaven with him You know Paul was caught up into the third heavens and yet when he comes to describe heaven and the Saints everlasting happiness there he calls it being for ever with Christ for this is a comprehensive expression How so 1. If the Saints shall be with Christ then shall they be exempt from all troubles and trials these fall off from them like Elijah's Mantle when he went to heaven There is now a glorious door of partition between these and them they are all excluded viz. Sin Sorrow Afflictions Reproaches Necessities Persecutions Poverty Sickness Pain Death Curse wicked men and Devils you shall never be troubled with these any more 2. If they enter in with Christ they shall enjoy the Father in him John 20.17 and be filled with the Holy Ghost from them both and thereby with unspeakable consolations and the fulness of God and they shall live for ever in the immediate contemplation and vision and fruition of one God in three persons and be replenished to the brim with eternal love from them and to them 3. You shall enjoy the fellowship of an innumerable company of Angels and shall then know who they are and love them entirely and be as intimately beloved of them though now in your present state you cannot bear the presence of one of them 4. You shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and enjoy communion with the Spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 All this followeth from your entrance into Heaven with Christ Fourthly Consider that you shall enter into Heaven with Christ the Bridegroom and therefore to be married to him And hence again it will follow 1. That there will be the nearest relation possible between Christ and you for you shall be one conjugally for ever with him You are one with him mystically and matrimonially who is one with the Father essentially 2. You shall be invested with unutterable Glory seeing it is a Marriage-time wherein the Bridegroom and Bride shall shine in the richest Attire and Embroidery that is in all the Wardrobe of Heaven Christ and the Saints shall wear the very same Glory John 17.22 3. There shall be unconceivable Love Joy Delight and Complacency between the Bridegrom and the Bride and as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall the Lord Jesus rejoyce over his Spouse O there will be a most glorious delightful loving sweet familiarity and conjugal rejoycing between Christ Jesus and the Saints Marriage-joy upon earth is usually great what then will that be in heaven when shall be fulfilled thâ—â— which Christ spake at his last Supper I will not drink of the fruit of the Vine until the day that I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom Mat. 26.29 Where by fruit of the Vine we understand Wine which maketh glad the heart of man Psal 104 15. and causeth it to rejoyce and shadoweth out the Love of Christ and Joys of Heaven to us Cant. 1.2 4. And by New we understand other Mark 16.17 with Acts 2.4 in the Original So that in this Marriage there shall be new i. e. other yea othergess wine viz. Love Joy and Rejoycing than there is in the Lord's Supper For Christ who kept the best wine to the last at the Marriage in Cana in Galilee will surely do so at his own Marriage at the last day 4. This Marriage is not on Earth but in Heaven and therefore it shall never dissolve as Marriages on Earth do but continue unto Eternity O how will the Holy Angels rejoice and sing at this Marriage For they that sang at the Birth of Christ when he lay in the Manger will sing to the purpose at his Marriage when he sitteth upon his Throne in the highest Glory Now the consideration of these things is greatly inducing to be very studious in actual preparations for the coming of Christ Be ye therefore much in the exercise of Faith Hope Love Repentance Goodness Mercy and works of Bounty Diligence and Faithfulness in your Callings Sobriety Watchfulness and Prayer that so at last you may have an entrance ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And now Brethren Abide in him that when he shall appear you may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming but lift up your heads with joy unspeakable and full of Glory Hear wisdom therefore and receive instruction that you may be wise in the latter end And God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ make you to encrease in all these Preparatory Graces to the end that he may establish your hearts unblameable in Holiness before God even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints And now Grace be with all them that love him in sincerity Amen FINIS