1. It shall be an incorruptible body freed from all possibility of dying and suffering Luke 20.35 Rev. 17.16 2. It shall be full of beauty shining not onely as the Stars but as the Sun Mat. 13.41 made like to Christs glorious Body Phil. 3. last 3. It shall be a most vigorous Body able to do any thing Etiamsi velit terram movere saith Anselm able to encounter legions of Devils and Reprobates by the almighty power of God dwelling in it 4. A Spiritual Body Not that it shall be turned into a Spirit but endowed with such spiritual qualities as it shall be agile active and nimble in the Service of God like a Spirit 3. To meditate on the glorious employments of Soul and Body both shall be continually exercised in the highest services viz. the singing of the Songs of Moses and the Lamb the singing of continual Hallelujahs to God our Father for Christ our Redeemer by the ever blessed Spirit our Sanctifier and Comforter 4. To meditate on the glorious priviledges of Soul and Body there which are either Primitive or Positive 1. Primitive in a freedom of all evil both of Sin and Punishment 1. Of Sin not only from the power of it but the very being of it not only from sin but from all temptations to it and occasions of it Rev. 21. last 2. Of punishment Bevel 21.4 Rev. 22.3 tryumphing over all 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting c. 2. For the Positive priviledges they are these 1. The continual presence of God 1 Thes 4. last there we shall ever be with the Lord. 2. The beatifical Vision of God 1 John 3.2 O beata visio videre Deum in nobis nos in Deo Deum in se ipso saith Bernard What a blessed sight will this be to see God in us our selves in God and God in himself so far as our finite natures are capable of 3. The nearest Union that can be not only of a Gracious but a Glorious 4. Immediate perfect and everlasting communion with God where there will be no need of Magistrates Ministers Ordinances but God will be all in all Rev. 21.21 22. 5. Perfection of Holiness both in Nature and Life Ephes 5.23 Pure as he is pure 1 John 3.2 And Perfect as he is perfect Mat. 5. last Not onely in parts but in degrees 6. Fulness of Joy and Rivers of Pleasure which are at Gods right hand for evermore Psal 16. last 7. An everlasting Sabbath here we have but a weekly Sabbath there an eternal everlasting Sabbath here we keep a Sabbath with much weatiness there we shall keep it with infinite delight Heb. 4.9 There remains a rest for the People of God and this is a transcendent Rest an uninterrupted Rest an universal Rest a perpetual Rest where we shall rest from all sinning sorrowing suffering and with the whole Quire of Heaven shall be still singing Hallelujahs to God the Father for God the Son by God the Spirit to all Eternity and still following the Lamb with Crowns on our Heads and Palmes in our Hands and tryumphant Songs in our Mouths 2. Meditate on the properties of this Glory 1. It 's a revealed Glory Rom. 8.18 Here it is hid from the eyes of the World and often from the eyes of Christians themselves but there it shall be revealed at the last day before all the World and the wicked World be made to acknowledge it to their shame and confusion of face Col. 3.3 4. 2. A full Glory Psal 16. last so full as the Apostle is not able to express it 2 Cor. 4.17 so full of Glory that if the Saints themselves were not upheld by the almighty power of God they could not stand under it so full of glory that because it cannot enter into them they shall enter into it Well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Masters joy Mat. 25. 3ly An eternal glory such as they shall not only enjoy for millions of years but to all eternity Mat. 25. last 2 Cor. 4.17 3. To meditate on the certainty of this Glory That it is most certain there is such a glorious state for the People of God is evident upon these infallible grounds 1. Because it was prepared for them from before the foundation of the World Mat. 25.34 Heb. 11.16 2. Because they are prepared for it they are said to be Vessels prepared unto Glory Rom. 9.23 3. Because God predestinated his unto it from all eternity Rom. 8.29 2 Thes 2.13 14. 4. That which they are called unto 2 Pet. 1.3 1 Pet. 5.10 5. That which Christ hath purchased with his precious Blood Ephes 1.14 Rev. 5.9 10. 6. That which he made intercession for whilst he was here upon earth John 17.24 and still doth now in Heaven Heb. 7.25 7. That which he hath made many promises of and seconded them with his Oath Heb. 6.17 18. 8. He hath given his Spirit as the earnest of it 9. He hath given the beginnings of it in Grace here which is but glory begun 10thly and lastly He is gone into Heaven to take possession of it in our Name and Nature and hath promised he will come again and take us to himself John 14.3 and accounts not himself fully glorified until his Body and every member of it be in the same glory Ephes 1. the end And Lastly Consider who they are that have a right and title to this Glory what evidences the Scripture holds forth of it As 1. an effectual Vocation 1 Thes 2.12 2. Justification Rom. 5.3 Rom. 8.29 3. Sanctification Matth. 19.28 More particularly the having and exercising these Graces 1. Sanctified Knowledge John 17.3 2. A Justifying Faith John 3.16 3. An Evangelical Repentance Acts 3.19 4. A Gospel Obedience Heb. 5.9 5. An unfeigned love to the Saints 1 John 3.14 Lastly A loving looking and longing for the appearance of Jesus Christ in Glory by all which the Saints are described in the Gospel 2 Tim. 14.8 Titus 2.14 Heb. 9. last Rev. 22. last So much of the fourfold state of Man The Second Head of Meditation about Man is the four last Things or Ends of Man DEATH JUDGEMENT HELL and HEAVEN WE are to meditate on every one of these and that on these grounds 1. On Death because Death were no Death if Judgment did not follow in comparison and Judgement no Judgment or nothing so dreadful if Hell did not follow and Hell no Hell in comparison if it did not deprive men of Heaven 2. Therefore to meditate on these last Ends of Man because it is the Lord himself adviseth his unto and that in a very pathetical manner Deut. 32.29 Oh that men were wise that they understood this that they considered their latter end and the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 5. last he puts this question What will you do in the latter end He would have them know there is an end and to think seriously what will become of them in the end 3. Therefore to meditate on each
Lord. Secondly To meditate on such things as may not only fit and prepare you for death but meditate on such things as may make you willing to die and help you to die comfortably What are they Mind here well for they are of special use to you As first 1. The certainty of another and a better life after this nothing so sure as that by what you have seen already by the testimony of Scripture and many weighty grounds of it in your meditations on the Life of Glory 2. Meditate on the evidences you have of an interest in that better Life of Glory as your interest in God in Christ in the Spirit and in the Graces of the Spirit as your effectual Vocation Justification Adoption Sanctification and those Graces unto which 't is promised as Saving Sanctifying Knowledge Faith Repentance Obedience love to the Saints the Truth sincerity and uprightness of your heart in all to which you may see it frequently promised Psal 84. to the end Psal 37. v. 37. Isa 57.2 Thirdly To meditate on the many and weighty grounds God hath given to encourage your Faith and strengthen your Patience and cause both to have their perfect work 1. To encourage your Faith as 1. his immutable decree 2 Tim. 2.19 2. His unchangeable Love Jer. 31.3 3. His everlasting Covenant Jer. 32.39 4. His continual Intercession Heb. 7.25 5. His almighty Power to keep them through Faith unto Salvation 2 Pet. 1.4 however we should let go our Faith yet he will hold it fast by his Spirit 2. The grounds to strengthen our Patience 1. It 's a Lord whose Will cannot be resisted a Father who ought readily to be obeyed a wise Father who knows what is better for his Children then they do for themselves a pittiful tender-hearted Father that is afflicted in all the afflictions of his that will not afflict his too much because he knows whereof they are made that they are but Dust nor too long lest the Spirit faint and the Soul which he hath made a Father from whom they have received all the good they have had and therefore to be contented to receive a little evil and the rather because it is in order to their spiritual and eternal good Rom. 8.2 Ah! but the pains of my Body are great and the pangs of Death are bitter but to quiet your spirits under these Consider 1. That the pangs of Death are sometimes less then the pains they feel before as to Mr. Bolton who said to his Friend that askt him How it was with him when the pangs of death were upon him He said to him Your cold hand is the greatest pain I feel in his Epistle to the Four last Things 2. You are content to undergoe a great deal of pain here for a little gain how much more should you for an eternal gain These pains are but like the throwes in Travail to bring forth eternal Life 3. Whatsoever your pains and sufferings are they are little or nothing to those your sins made Christ to suffer and that many of his dear and precious Saints have and do suffer and to those eternal sufferings Christ hath redeemed you from and that exceeding excessive and eternal weight of glory that will follow your sufferings 2 Cor. 4.17 Fourthly To meditate on the many and great evils that Death will free you from as 1. from a body of Sin and Death that is still inclining you to evil and indisposing you to good still dulling deading and distracting you in all the services you do 2. From a wicked World wherein continually we see and hear what doth and should more vex our souls 2 Pet. 2. 3. From the dissention of Brethren who are continually undermining the credit and comfort one of another which made Melancton so willing to die when a Friend of his askt him how it was with him and whether he were willing to die He answered Oh yes Not only that he might be freed from a body of Sin and Death and a wicked World but from the dissention of Brethren and go there where all shall be perfected in love 4. From a malicious Devil that is still tempting us to evil and discouraging us from all that is good walking up and down like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5. In a word from all Labours Pains Fears Doubts Sorrows Sufferings Rev. 14.13 Rev. 21.4 Death will perfectly cure you of all Diseases Corporeal and Spiritual at once both an aking Head and an unbelieving Heart a sickly Body and a distemper'd Spirit the best Physitian that ever you met with Fifthly To meditate on the many and great benefits Death will help you to as that glorious Place Company Imployment Priviledges you saw before in the Life of Glory the continual Presence of God the blessed Vision of God the immediate perfect and everlasting communion with God perfection of Holiness fulness of Joy and an everlasting Sabbath Sixthly To consider the evil of being unwilling to die By this Christians manifest too much ignorance unbelief hypocrisie love to the World senslesness of the body of Sin and Death that World of wickedness they live in and hereby procure more disquiet to their Spirits and hasten Death the sooner upon them besides the great unreasonableness of it that when God should be so willing of their company they should be so unwilling of his and when Christ should be content to leave Heaven and to come to Earth for them they should be unwilling to leave Earth to go to Heaven that they might enjoy him and know and profess it to be best of all to be with Jesus Christ Seventhly To meditate on the good of being willing to die Hereby you will make a vertue of necessity seeing you cannot put it off therefore you will voluntarily yeeld to it hereby you will manifest your hatred of sin contempt of the World Faith in God's Promises Love to God desire of immediate Communion with him honour your Christian Profession and make Death the less terrible to you Eighthly and Lastly Consider what the Apostle sayes 1 Cor. 13. to the end Death is yours Yours no way to hurt you but every way to do you good 1. No way to hurt you because however it be a Serpent yet 't is a Serpent without a sting by stinging of Jesus Christ to death it lost its sting so that though it may hiss yet it cannot hurt however the Devil brought Jesus Christ unto the Cross unto Death unto the Grave yet therein Jesus Christ out-shot the Devil in his own Bow spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of it openly tryumphing over them on the Cross Col. 2.15 And that it can no way hurt you appears further by these Particulars 1. In that it is not the destruction or annihilation either of Soul or Body but onely the alteration and change of their condition for the better As for instance 1. In the Body The Body by Death is freed from
all pains and miseries and calamities and all sin which is the cause of them as sin brought Death into our bodies so Death carries sin out of the body and however these vile bodies be dissolved into dust yet they shall be raised up again at the last day and be made like unto Christ's Glorious Body Phil. 3. last 2. For the Soul It shall be no loser but a great gainer by Death and that three wayes 1. In the place it goes unto viz. from Earth unto Heaven 2. In the excellent qualities it shall be endowed withall viz. perfection in all the faculties of it as it goes to the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12. 3. In the excellent company it goes to enjoy leaving the company of sinners here and going to enjoy the company of Saints and Angels and the ever blessed Unity in Trinity 2dly In that it cannot hurt us appears in that it can never dissolve the Union between Christ and a believing Soul but brings it to a nearer sweeter and fuller Union of a Gracious makes it a Glorious Union however it separates Soul and Body one from the other yet it cannot separate either from Jesus Christ the Soul upon Death goes immediately unto Christ in Paradise and Christ goes down with the Body into the Grave where it sweetly rests as in its Bed in the Arms of Jesus Christ until the morning of the Resurrection of the Just Isa 57.2 1. It can never break the Covenant of Grace between God and the Soul for it 's an everlasting Covenant Gen. 17. And he hath not only promised to be their God unto Death but after Death and to all eternity 2. It can never untie the Marriage-Knot between Christ and his Spouse for he hath betrothed her unto himself for ever Hos 2. And whom he loves he loves to the end John 13.1 even with an everlasting love Jeremiah 31.3 3. It can never reverse those grants of Grace that God hath vouchsafed his as the grants of Reconciliation Justification Adoption Sanctification Salvation for the Gifts and Callings of God are without repentance Rev. 11.29 3dly As it is no way able to hurt you so it will every way do you good Though it be the last enemy that shall be destroyed yet of an enemy it shall be made a friend and the best friend that ever you had How so Why because Jesus Christ by undergoing Death and lying in the Grave he hath altered the nature both of Death and the Grave Death of a King of Terrors it made a Prince of Peace of a passage to eternal Death made a passage to eternal Life unto all that do believe the Grave that is a loathsome Dungeon to the wicked is made a sweet resting-place to the Saints That you may the more clearly and fully see the good will come to you by Death and so be made the more willing to it and chearfully resign your Spirit into the hands of God when he calls for it take serious notice of these ten following Particulars 1. Death is no Death to a true Believer It 's not his last day but the beginning of an everlasting day 2. Your dying day will not be your worst day but your best day better is the day of a mans Death then the day of his Birth saith Solomon Eccles 7.1 it being the egress of all misery and the ingress of eternal felicity 3. A Christians dying day it will be his enlarging day when he shall be set at liberty out of the Prison of the Body and brought home to his Fathers House 2 Cor. 5.8 It is but as Christ stiles it His departing and going to the Father John 13.1 4. A Christians dying day will be his resting day wherein he shall rest from all sinning sorrowing suffering from all temptations corruptions vexations Job 3.17 And who desires not rest 5. His dying day will be his reaping day having sown here in Tears he shall reap in Joy reap the fruit of all the Sermons they have heard all the Prayers they have made all the Tears they have shed all the Sighs and Groans they have uttered all the good Thoughts they have had all the good Words they have spoken all the good Works they have done all the Evils they have suffered and all they have forgotten to do and suffer Mat. 25.34 When saw we thee an hungry and fed thee not c. Then Christ will remember them and say In that you did it unto them ye did it unto me Yea there is not the least good work that any have done for any of his but it shall be remembred and rewarded even to a cup of cold Water Mat. 10. last 6. A Christians dying day will be his conquering and tryumphing day over all his Enemies Sin Satan and the World Death and Hell here we are in a continual warfare there 's not a day hour or moment wherein we can rest either from corruption within or temptation without but then there shall be an end of all then we shall tryumph over all in the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.55 Oh Death where 's now thy sting c. 7. A Christians dying day will be his transplanting day from Earth to Heaven from Misery to Glory from a Valley of Tears to a Valley of blessed Visions from a howling Wilderness to a heavenly Paradise It is no other then a straight Gate to a Pallace of Glory a dark Entry to the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And oh Who would not be willing to exchange a Sodom for Sion an Egypt for Canaan Misery for Glory 8. A Christians dying day it 's his uncloathing day of a body of Sin and Death and the cloathing him with his House from Heaven his putting off his old Rags of Sin and Corruption and his putting on of the White Robe of Christ's Righteousness and with it the Robe of Glory 9. A Christians dying day it 's his marriage day with the Lamb the King of Saints and if the day of a Believers espousals be so sweet how sweet will the marriage day be Rev. 19.7 10. A Christians dying day will be his corronation day wherein Christ will crown all those that love his appearance with the Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 where they shall be still following the Lamb with Crowns on their Heads and Palms in their Hands and tryumphant Songs in their Mouths Rev. 5.11 12 13. Mix these Meditations with Faith and Prayer and you will find them mighty through God not only to make you willing but even long with the Apostle to be dissolv'd and be with Christ which is best of all Phil. 1.23 Amen and Amen Secondly That which follows DEATH is JUDGMENT Sect. 6. In and about the Judgment Day to take notice of and meditate seriously on these things 1. The Certainty 2. The Uncertainty 3. The near approach of it 4. The great solemnity of it 5. The universality of the Persons to be judged 6. The impartiality of it
over the Creatures he that was Superiour to all was made inferiour to all Psal 49.20 Isai 1.3 Jer. 8.7 The Prophet puts them to School to all to learn of the Creatures 4. As Man lost his preheminence so his authority over all he that was Lord over all became a Slave to all who instead of serving Man rebels against Man labours to pick out his Eys Pro. 30.17 to eat his Flesh and lap up his Blood 2 King 9.36 Sixthly Man lost his liberty by Creation he was a free Denizen and Citizen of the World all at his command but presently after the Fall became a Slave and was in Bondage to all the Devil the World and the Flesh 1. To the Devil taken and carried Captive by him to do his pleasure 2 Tim. 2 last Eph. 2.2 2. To the World so as to be drawn aside from that which is good and drawn into evil by the baits and allurements of it on the one hand and the menaces and persecutions of it on the other 1 Epist Joh. 4.5 whence that of James 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses c. and 1 John 2.15 3. To the Flesh to do whatsoever it shall suggest for the gaining and retaining of honour and profit and pleasure Rom. 6.16 John 8.34 2 Pet. 2.19 and in this slavery and bondage all Men and Women are by nature and that not unwillingly and grudgingly but readily and cheerfully and with the greatest delight so far from being desirous to be brought out of it as they account those their greatest Enemies that would endeavour to bring them out of it Jer. 18. There is no hope but we will walk every â—ne after the imagination of our own hearts Jer. 43.1 2 3. Jer. 44.16 17. Thus you see the greatness of the punishment of loss Et heu quantum mutatus ab illo How much is Man alter'd from his first estate Tristis Lacrymosa commutatio a most sad and lamentable change you see from favour to wrath from fellowship to banishment instead of the Image of God the image of sin and Satan for glory misery for dignity infamy for dominion subjection for liberty slavery Secondly For the Positive part of punishment or the punishment of Sense that followed the fall upon every Son and Daughter of Adam and that was the curse of God Gal. 3.10 and what is this curse but the infinite and unsupportable wrath of God and all manner of Plagues Judgments and Miseries in Life at Death and after Death 1. In this life in Soul and Body in Name and Estate 1. In Soul blindness of mind hardness of heart Isai 6.9 a reprobate sense Rom. 1.23.26 strong delusions 2 Thes 2.11 horrors of conscience Isai 65.13 seconded with Hellish despair and blasphemy as in Cain Saul Judas 2. In Body all manner of aches sicknesses diseases Deut. 28.21 to the end 3. In name infamy shame reproach Deut. 28. â—â— 37. 4. In Estate losses crosses curses in getting cares in keeping fears in losing sorrows and that many times unto death Deut 28.16 Jer. 12.13 Mal. 2.2 I will curse your blessings yea I have curst them already Secondly In the end of this life death the King of terrors Rom. 5.12 Rom. 6. last Job 18.14 Thirdly After this life if men die in their sins impenitentâ—â— 1. As soon as the Soul is separated from the Body it is immediately carried by the Devil into Hell Luke 12.20 and there kept in Prison till the Day of Judgment 1 Pet. 3.19 the Body thrown into the Grave where Death gnaws upon it as upon Carrion in a ditch with the mouth full of Earth and the Belly full of Worms and the Carkass full of stinch 2. At the Day of Judgment by the Almighty Power of the Lord Jesus Christ the Supream Judg of Heaven and Earth the Soul is brought out of Hell and the Body out of the Grave out of which as soon as it begins to peep it shall behold the whole World on Fire about its Ears Christ on his Throne of Glory the Saints whom they derided and persecuted taken up into the Clouds to be assessors with Christ in Judgment upon the wicked World whil'st they with the Devils are left below to stand forth before the Tribunal of Christ and hear that dreadful Sentence Depart ye cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels wherein every word is a Hell before they come to Hell 3. After the Sentence is past all wicked Reprobates shall be thrust away from the Judgment Seat of Christ and thrown into Hell with the Devils there to lie and fry and cry under easless endless and remediless torments And thus much of the cursed state of man by transgression and the things to be meditated on in it That your meditation on them may be the more effectual to cause you speedily to hye out of it 1. Beg the Spirit of God to convince you thorowly of the truth of it it being no other than what God hath spoken in his Word and we find by bitter experience 2. Labour to be truly sensible of and deeply humbled under the fight and sense of it so as to give no rest to your selves until that you are brought out of it for the promises of mercy run only unto such Mat. 9.13 Luke 19.10 Mat. 11.29 And that you may be truly sensible of and effectually humbled under it beg the Spirit of God to prick your hearts with the consideration of it as he did those Converts Acts 2.37 and tremble to stay a moment in your unregenerate estate as the Jaylor Acts 16. when Paul had preacht unto him 4. Be willing to receive Jesus Christ on his own terms not only as your Jesus but your Lord and Christ John 1.12 Rom. 13. end Lastly Hearken to that Counsel of your Lord and Saviour Mark 1.15 Repent and believe the Gospel and then his promise is to receive all and cast away no one Soul that comes to him and rests upon him for Conversion and Salvation Joh 6 37. Amen Sect. 3. The third state of Man is his gracious state by Regeneration and here to take notice of and meditate on these things First The free and unsearchable love of God to us in it 2. The nature of it what it is and wherein it consists 3. The differences of true grace from false grace from restraining grace 4. Degrees of true sanctifying grace 5. The signs of it 6. The priviledges of such as have it 7. The motives to it 8. The means for the maintaining encreasing and persevering in it First For the free unsearchable love and grace of God to his in not leaving his Elect in their fallen cursed condition but in his appointed time effectually calling all such as belong unto his Election of grace out of a state of nature into a state of grace God might have for ever passed by fallen Man-kind as well as he did the fallen Angels though he lookt in mercy upon some he might have passed
of these as 1. on Death because it will be a notable means 1. to make us apply our hearts unto Spiritual Wisdom Psal 90.12 2. To restrain us from sin lest Death should find us in it or presently after it As a Copy of Writing is safest from blotting when dust is cast on it so we are safest from sinning when we remember that we are but Dust Callamy 3. A notable means to quicken us to repentance an instance you have in Waldus A rich Merchant of Lyons in France who seeing one drop down dead in the streets went home repented and changed his life studied the Scriptures became a Teacher and Father of those Christians called the Waldenses or the poor Men of Lyons Therefore 2. To meditate on the great and terrible day of Judgment because it will be as a curb to restrain from sinning so a spur to quicken to duty 2 Cor. 15.9.10 11. 3. Therefore to meditate on Hell because it will be a notable means to keep us out of Hell whence one adviseth thus Descendamus viventes ut non descendamus morientes Bernard Let us often look down into it that we may never fall into it 4. Therefore to meditate on Heaven because it will make us more willing to leave Earth to go to Heaven whensoever God calls for us the reason why so few go to Heaven when they die is because they never thought of Heaven until they came to die Calamy First On DEATH In it to meditate on those things that may fit you for Death and those things that may make you willing to die First On those things that may fit you for Death as 1. that it is one of the chiefest parts of Wisdom that which God you saw wisheth to Man in a most pathettical manner Deut. 22.29 Oh that men were wise c. 2. The original procreant cause of it viz. Sin Rom. 6. last The wages of sin is death therefore as often as you are tempted to sin by the present credit profit and pleasure of it to think on the fruit of it Rom. 6.21 What fruit had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed 3. On the certainty of it In the day that thou eatest of it in dying thou shalt die that is thou shalt most certainly die Gen. 2. Heb. 9.27 It 's appointed for all to die 4. The uncertainty of it as nothing more certain so nothing more uncertain Ut morior scio sed nescio ubi quomodo quando That I shall die I know but where how and when I know not It 's a Proverb When Health is highest Death is many times nighest 1 Thess 5.3 When men cry peace then comes sudden destruction To day the Sermon-Bell tolls to call you to Church to morrow it may be the Passing-Bell to summon you to the Grave and therfore to wait for it at all times and in all places in all manner of wayes because all things come alike to all Eccles 9.1 5. To consider to die is but once to be done and that which is but once to be done had need to be well done or we are for ever undone if this work be not done or but half done at the time of dying there 's no doing or finishing it afterwards Eccles 9.10 As the Tree falleth so it lyeth as Death leaves men so Judgment finds them Heb. 9.27 6. To meditate on the terribleness of Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King of Terrors Job 18.14 and needs must seeing it separates those two friends Soul and Body delivers up the Soul immediately to stand forth before the Tribunal of Christ to receive his peculiar Sentence of Damnation before the Judgment Day comes and after the Sentence to be carried by the Devils into Hell and throwes the body of the wicked into the Grave where Death gnaws upon it as upon Carrion in a Ditch puts an end to all his temporal felicity and begins his eternal misery strips him of all the comforts of this life and brings him to eternal torments 5. To meditate on the means you are to use to use to fit you for Death and they are amongst others these 1. To acquaint your selves with God and make your peace with him by Jesus Christ as Eliphas counsels Job Job 21.22 2. To get and clear up your interest in Jesus Christ who hath destroyed Death and him that had the power of Death Heb. 2.14 3. To pull out the sting of Death by Faith in the Blood of Christ and repentance for every known sin 1 John 1.7 Acts 3.19 to see that Sin die ere you die for it 's one of the terriblest threatnings in the Book of God John 8.21 If you believe not that I am He you shall die in your sins and Luke 13. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And therefore Antequam moriaris moriantur in te vitia before thou dyest be careful to see that sin die 4. Labour to die daily as unto sin so unto the World 1 Cor. 7.29 The time is but short and the fashion of this World passeth away it 's the worst husbandry in the World to have Grace to seek when men should make use of it and the sick Bed is the worst time of all others to seek it in being then scarce able to think on any thing but Pain and Death and Hell 5. To get and clear up a Work of Grace that may entitle you to Glory or there will be nothing else able to stand by you and comfort you all things in the World without a Work of Grace will like Job's Friends prove miserable Comforters 3 John 3. Except a man be born again c. Flesh and Blood shall never inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15. 6. Not only look to this that you have Grace but that you keep it in exercise not only that you have Lamps and Oyl in them but that you trim them against your Lord's coming Mat. 25. that is that you act and exercise your Graces especially these your Faith and Patience Heb. 6.12 your heavenly-mindedness and contempt of the World Phil. 3.20 7. That you get and keep good Consciences this will be light in darkness and life in death Prov. 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his death 2 Cor. 1.12 This is our rejoycing in the testimony of our Consciences c. Isa 38.2 Remember how I have walkt before thee in Truth c. Lastly It was Moses's Prayer and let it be yours daily Teach us Lord so to number our dayes as we may apply our hearts unto Wisdom Psal 90. In a word Let the ends of all your thoughts be the thought of your latter end that so when you come to die you may have nothing else left to do but to die and whensoever Death comes you may bid it wellcome in the Name of Christ and when you are to die to die in charity with all in obedience to God's Call and in Faith to go to and be for ever with the
precious promises of Pardon and Peace with which you are to arm your selves against all temptations to despondency under the persecutions and afflictions you meet with in the way of Holiness 4. By the Shield of Faith you are to understand a true and lively Faith in Christ and those Promises which are all Yea and Amen in him with which you are to arm your selves against all temptations to unbelief that so those darts of Satan may not fire and trouble your spirits 5. By the Helmet of Salvation you are to understand a well-grounded hope of Salvation with which you are to arm your selves against all temptations to despair 1 Thess 5.8 These are the several pieces of Defensive Armour 2ly For the Offensive Armour or the Weapons you are to use they are two the Sword of the Spirit and Prayer 1. The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God you must not suffer this to sleep in the Scabbard but weld it against Satan as Christ did Mat. 4. Thus it is written c. 2. To take the other Weapon Prayer without which the Sword of the Spirit will do little good for as it was said of Scanderbegs Sword it would do little without Scanderbegs Arm is much more true of this it will do us but little good without the Lord's Arm and therefore still to ply the Throne of Grace for his Spirit to go along with his Word and by it to give you power and victory over Satan Having thus furnished your selves with Armour and Weapons you must stand upon your Watch. Had you an Enemy that were potent and politick that watched every opportunity to do you mischief you would heedfully keep your watch against him would you not how much more against Satan the Adversary an Enemy so full of Power and Policy and that continually walks up and down like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour And here that you may keep your Watch 1. You must be careful to avoid all those things which may give him an occasion to tempt you especially these two Idleness and Evil Company for your own as well as others experience will tell you by these the Devil most prevails and therefore to watch against them as the wise Man exhorts you Prov. 5.8 23.31 2. You are to hearken to the counsel of Peter 1 Pet. 5.8 Be sober and watch without sobriety no watchfulness Intemperancy in the use of the creature exposeth men to sleep rather then to watch and therefore if you would be able to keep your Watch you must be sober that is moderate in your desires to and in the use of all Creature-comforts Honours Riches Pleasures because these are the Baits under which he hides his Hooks of Temptation that they may not be discerned and therefore Phil. 4.5 Let your moderation be known in all things The third direction You must resist him in all his temptations especially unto those sins you are most inclin'd to by your particular Constitutions Places and Callings and then the Promise is he shall fly James 4.7 That you may do this the more effectually have an eye to two things 1st The right manner of resisting him that is thus Speedily Universally Couragiously Self-denyingly Wisely and Constantly 1. Speedily in the first injection of any evil motion Ephes 4.26 Give no place to the Devil no lodging to any evil thought Jer. 4.14 For if this old Serpent get in his head he will soon draw in his body after therefore to break his head by withstanding the first motion 2. Resist him Universally in every temptation the least as well as the greatest take heed you do not slight him because it is a small one a small leak may sink a Ship as well as a great and a little sin sink a Soul to Hell as well as a great where it is allowed of and liv'd in Mat. 5.19 3. Resist him Couragiously seeing your Captain the Lord Jesus Christ hath given him his deaths wound spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of it openly tryumphing over them on the Cross Col. 2.15 4. Do it Self-denyingly going out of your selves and labouring to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Ephes 6.10 5. Do it Wisely so as to observe what he most aims at for he useth to fit his temptation to every ones disposition and observes what every one most loves and delights in Lastly Do it Constantly not giving over until you have got the victory for the promise of reward is only to those that overcome Rev. 3.21 There is no safety in flying no piece of Armour for the back and therefore to chuse rather to die manfully then fly cowardly Heb. 10. last If any draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him 2dly To furnish your selves with Arguments whereby you may be enabled to resist all his temptations to sin such as these the purity of God's Nature the severity of God's Justice the ugly hateful hurtful nature of sin the dear price that was paid for the expiating of it the terrible threatnings of God against sin the many precious promises God hath made to such as deny themselves in it and the certainty of victory if we continue to fight against it Rom. 6.14 Mich. 7. to the end And thus of the Remedies against the Temptations of Satan in general Secondly I shall give you a few directions against his hideous and hellish temptations to Atheism Blasphemy Self-murder c. and so conclude this Subject And here 1. Take notice that there is no temptation that befals any but is common to all 1 Cor. 10.13 and therefore let not the Devil perswade you none have such wicked thoughts as you for Prov. 27.19 As in Water face answers to face so doth the heart of one man unto another even the vilest every one being equally corrupted by nature 2. It 's God's usuall manner when he is about to convert any and pull them out of the snare of the Devil to let loose Satan upon them to exercise and afflict them with the injection of such hideous hellish thoughts of Atheism Blasphemy Self-murder c. that so he may humble them the more thorowly and work them to a serious consideration of their spiritual and eternal condition 3. Consider Christ was assaulted with such Atheistical blasphemous self-murdering thoughts as you may see Mat. 4. from 1 to 11. and he was tempted with them that he might have a fellow-feeling of your infirmities and know how to succor you under your temptations Heb. 2. end and here is our comfort he hath vanquisht him for us Col. 2.15 Heb. 2.14 therefore to reject him stedfastly in the Faith the promise is He shall fly and fall 4. When Satan would tempt you to despair because of the hideousness and hellishness of these thoughts remember him of what Christ told him that he was a lyar and a murderer in it John 8.44 For it is not the multitude or greatness of sin can
any onâ—â— leave every one as he findes the temper of his body and spirit most inclin'd and disposed to Thirdly Though none strictly bound to any part of the Day yet none to leave themselves at random and at large to do it at any time of the Day but appoint some set-time for it either the Morning or Evening either before or after Supper or a little before we compose our selves to rest The reason is because if we should leave our selves at randome we should never be constant in this Exercise but shift it off from one time to another Fourthly When you have set the time then be careful to observe it constantly unless some urgent necessity prevent because otherwise fickleness and unconstancy will keep us from profiting by it and soon make us weary of it Secondly For extraordinary Seasons they are amongst others these First When the spirit of God doth in a more than ordinary manner move and incline to it when the Spirit lifts up the heart to Heaven then to lift up with him to nourish and cherish those motions Secondly When you are under more than ordinary trouble of Spirit then to apply your selves to this duty for Cordials are never more seasonable than in times of fainting Psal 94.19 2 Cor. 4. 2 last verses Thirdly When either Age or sickness do summon us to death then is a fit season to meditate on God and the things of God when all other things in the World begin to leave us then to think on those things will never leave us for it 's observable in the Saints they have been most heavenly in their mediations affections and expressions towards their end as Jacob Genes last Moses Deut. 33. 33. chap. our Saviour in the 14 15 16 17. chap. of John we should follow them in the same practise As the pulling down of one Ballance is the lifting up of another so the drawing down of the body to Earth should be the lifting up of the Soul to Heaven As the Soul here is usually at the worst when the Body is at the best so the Soul should be at the best when the Body is at the worst The fifth Circumstance is the Manner how we are to perform this duty and that is thus Cordially reverently seriously affectionately constantly and orderly First Cordially because it 's not the meditation of the head but the heart God looks unto Prov. 4. My Son give me thy heart Luke 2.19 Mary ponder'd Christ's sayings in her heart Psalm 19. last and 49.3 Secondly To do it reverently remembering and considering he is a great King and his Name is dreadful amongst the Heathen Malachy 1. ult therefore to take heed of any unreverent or careless behaviour in his presence and worship as being a great dishonour to him and that which he sharply reproves in those formal and lazie Priests Mal. 1. about the end Thirdly Seriously so as to keep the mind intent upon the business in hand and not to give way to any other thoughts though they be good thoughts because they are unseasonable at that time and will thrust out the other and so make both useless to keep also a narrow watch over our hearts and senses that they be not avocated or drawn aside by other objects Fourthly Affectionately so as to have our affections stirred and warmed and wrought upon by those things we meditate on as David here in the Text My Meditation of him shall be sweet and I will be glad in the Lord so to think on spiritual and heavenly things as they may leave an impression upon the Soul as the Seal doth on the Wax that so your affections may answer your cogitations as the Wax doth the Seal and the Eccho the voice As for Example when you think on the glorious Majesty of God to make your hearts stand in aw of Him when on his Love Grace Mercy to have your Hearts thereby indear'd to him Secondly When on Christ the amiableness and fulness that is in him and in him for you to have your desires drawn out the more after nearer sweeter fuller communion with him when on the Holy Ghost his sweet motions and invitations to have your Hearts opened to receive Him and obey Him in them Fourthly When on the Word to do it with a particular Application Fifthly When on God's Works of Mercy and Justice to have your Hearts melt with the one and tremble at the other Sixthly When on your selves your sins and corruptions to be humbled under them when on the Evidences of God's love and grace to rejoice in them Seventhly When on the World and the things of it to have your hearts disingag'd from them and hang loose to them Lastly When on Death to live in a continual expectation and a religious preparation for it when on the Judgment-Day to cast up your accounts sit in judgment on your selves that you may not be condemn'd with the World so think on Hell as your Hearts may tremble at sin that made it and so think on Heaven that your conversation may be there where you hope e're long to have your Habitation to all Eternity Fifthly To do it constantly so as to observe the due and the appointed time or otherwise omission and intermission may soon cause amission and so dead the affection as to become weary of it and cast off the duty and therefore to be constant in it and continue so long in it until our hearts be affected with what we think and we receive some benefit by it Sixthly To do it orderly for God being a God of Order he loves Order in us to this end to have an eye to three things the Ingress the Progress and the Egress As for Example to begin with Hearing or Reading and then go on with Meditation or thinking on it and then end all with Prayer for as Mr. Greenham well said Hearing and reading without Meditation is useless Meditation without reading and hearing fruitless and both without prayer will be successless miss a blessing More distinctly and fully First for the Ingress or Entrance upon it we are to prepare for it by making choice of some particular subject most sutable to your present condition and then lift up an Ejaculation for the Lord direction assistance and blessing on it Secondly For the Progress in it to observe a Method in it either such as Scholars use to do in Meditation on a subject as First The Definition or Description Secondly The Division or kind or parts Thirdly The Causes efficient material formal final Fourthly The fruits and the effects and the like Logical heads all which you may see exemplified in Bishop Hall's and Mr. Roger's Seven Treatises or thus which I conceive a more profitable way for our more ordinary sort of hearers being not acquainted with this art to proceed in your Meditations as you are taught First On the Doctrine then the Proofs then the Reasons then the Uses and in them the signs motives means You
expresly required 1 Cor. 11.28 Let a man examine himself and so let him eat c. Because otherwise without grace it will be a Seal to a Blank Secondly To stir up and exercise those graces before you come 2 Tim. 1.6 Otherwise you will receive unworthily as the Corinthians did because they did not renew their repentance before they came 1 Cor. 11.30 31. Thirdly To draw nigh to God in it to those ends he instituted it and appointed it as the commemorating of Christ's love in dying for us the expressing of our thankfulness the strengthning of our faith the weakning of our corruptions and the getting of more grace to walk with God and work for God and live to God Secondly In the time of Receiving First To fix your eyes on the Sacramental actions in and about the Elements Secondly To meditate seriously on those things signified by every action about them Thirdly To get your hearts affected with godly sorrow for your sins which were the principals in the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus and a spiritual rejoycing in his love that was content to die that we might live and to be made a curse that we might have a blessing through him Fourthly To pray unto the Lord that he would bless his Ordinance unto you to all those holy ends he did appoint it and you receive it viz. the Mortification of your lusts the Vivification of your graces your perfect Justification further Sanctification and future Salvation by Jesus Christ Thirdly After the Sacrament to make Conscience of an answerable carriage in the observance of all those religious duties requir'd of you in publick and private as First Thankfulness for Jesus Christ given to you and for you for his instituting this Ordinance to put you and keep you in remembrance of him the liberty and opportunity you have had to partake in it Secondly Examination what benefit we have sound by being at the Table of the Lord. Thirdly A careful endeavour to express and hold forth the Virtue and the Efficacy of it in a more humble holy spiritual and heavenly walking and a more faithful cheerful fruitful service of God in our several places The Sixth Duty is Singing of Psalms First Before it to make a wise choice of such Psalms as may be most seasonable and suitable to the present occasion Secondly In singing remember to sing First with understanding Ps 47.7 1 Cor. 14.14 Secondly With the Spirit Vers 15. that is see that our Spirit go a long with our voice because Non vox sed votum c. It 's not so much the voice as the heart God looks to Thirdly With grace in the heart Col. 3.16 that is from an inward gracious frame of heart and with the actings of our graces in singing as faith fear love joy c. Fourthly To sing unto the Lord Eph. 5.19 that is unto the praise and glory of the Lord Psal 101.1 Isai 5.1 Thirdly After singing to set about the service of the Lord with more cheerfulness for the abundance of all his goodness Deut. 28.47 To discourse together also of the matter you have sung and quicken one the other unto duty as you are required Col. 3.16 The Seventh Duty is Religious Fasting First Before it to lay aside all servile work the Night before that you may mind the weighty service of the Day following Secondly To rise earlier on that day than other days having such an occasion of humbling your selves Secondly On the Day of your Fast the duties required of you are either outward or inward First The outward as the forbearing of those things which at other times are lawful and convenient as First All Worldly imployment and labours of our calling Joel 1.14 Levit. 16.29 31. Levit. 23.32 Secondly The use of all Food unless in case of weakness and hazard of our health for God will have Mercy rather than Sacrifice Hosea 6.6 Mat. 12.7 Otherwise there must be an abstinence from all Meat Joel 3.7 Thirdly Costly Apparel and Ornaments Exod. 33.4 5. Jonah 3.6 Fourthly Matrimonial benevolence 1 Cor. 7.5 Joel 2.16 Fifthly All carnal delights and pleasures Joel 2.16 1 Sam. 12.20 Secondly The inward duties are First Fasting from sin Isaiah 58.4 Secondly Humiliation of Soul under sin Joel 2. Thirdly Earnest Supplication for the pardon of sin Joel 3.8 Fourthly Personal reformation or turning from all sin Joel 3.8 Thirdly After Fasting to conclude all with works of mercy Isai 58.6 Secondly Take heed of resting in the Work done remembring the chief part is yet behind viz. the reformation of our ways Thirdly Be careful to make good your Vows and Covenants of more circumspect walking Fifthly To wait upon God for a gracious answer as David did Psal 85. I will hearken what God will speak The Eighth Duty is Religious Feasting or Thanksgiving First Before it to remember and consider It 's the Homage and Rent we owe to him for all he hath and doth for us and which he expresly commands and we promised to him in the times of our troubles and distress fasting and humiliation Psalm 15.15 Psalm 22.25 1 Thes 5.18 Secondly It 's all the return that we can make to him and that which he is pleas'd to accept though his Name be above all thanks-giving Neh. 9.6 Psal 50. last Therefore as we have the sweet of any mercy still remember to give him his glory Thirdly To see that your Persons be fit for it to be godly and righteous Persons Psal 33.1 Ungodly and unrighteous ones are altogether unfit Psal 50.18 Prov. 17.7 Jam. 3.10.11 Fourthly To present all your praises and thanksgiving in the Name of Christ to beg your acceptance of it in and through his Mediation and Worthiness 1 Thes 5.10 Eph. 5.20 Heb. 13.15 Rev. 8.34 Secondly In the time of thanksgiving First To see that it be with the soul and the heart Ps 57.74 and with every faculty of our Souls as our understanding 1 Cor. 14.15 with our Judgment prizing it according to it's worth Psal 31.19 the memory treasuring up God's mercies there to think upon them Psal 103. My Soul forget not all his benefits With our affections especially these two 1. Love Psal 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and Joy Psal 33.1 Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous for it becomes the just to be thankful and Psal 92.4 Secondly As inwardly with the Heart so outwardly with the Tongue Psal 63.7 Psal 66.16 Whence the tongue is call'd our glory because we are to glorifie him with the tongue Psal 108. And to do it with our tongues thus First By acknowledging God is worthy to receive all praise Rev. 5. about the end Secondly By lifting up of God's Name and speaking of those glorious Attributes which shine forth in God's mercies as Revel 11.16 17. Thirdly By telling it to others what God hath done for us and ours Psal 22.22 and Psal 66.16 17. Fourthly By exciting and stirring up others to praise God as
he did Lament 1.12 Behold and see if there were ever sorrow like to my sorrow c. Lastly He is altogether lovely in the benefits he purchased which are either Fundamental or Consequential First For the Fundamental they are theâ—e First Reconciliation Colos 1.21 Adoption John 1.12 Justification Rom. 5.1 2 Cor. 5.21 Sanctification Eph. 2.1 Acts. 26.18 Glorification John 17.21 Secondly For the Consequential benefits these you have Rom 5.1 2 3 1 Cor. 3. the two last Sixthly You are to meditate on the great Work of ouâ— Redemption by Jesus Christ and in it of these particulars The greatness of the Person that redeem'd us the greatness of the Price wherewith the greatness of the misery from which the greatness of the happiness to which he redeem'd us the compleatness of this Redemption and the Evidences you have of your interest in this Redemption First On the greatness of the Person that redeemed us No other but the Eternal Son of God every way Coequal with his Father and whoever heard of a King that gave his Son or a Prince that ever offer'd voluntarily to lay down his life for Enemies Rebels and Traytors and yet behold God and Christ hath done this for us Gal. 4.4 Secondly On the greatness of the Price wherewith he redeemed us with no other than his precious Blood 1 Pet. 1.18 Thirdly The greatness of the misery from which he hath redeemed us Vers 13. from that Vassall age and slavery we were in to sin Satan and the World Death Judgment and Hell 1 Thes 1.10 Psal 103.1 2 3. Fourthly On the greatness of the happiness unto which he hath redeemed us viz. To be Heirs and Co-heirs with himself Rom. 8.17 1 Pet. 1.10 Fifthly On the compleatness of this Redemption as he hath compleated it for us Heb. 9.12 26. So he makes us stand compleat in himself 2 Col. 10.16 Sixthly On the evidences you have of your interest in this Redemption Three whereof you have 1 Cor. 1.30 to whom Christ is made Redemption to them he is also made wisdom to enlighten them and righteousness to justifie them and holiness to sanctifie them A fourth Evidence you have 1 Pet. 1.18 They are redeemed from their vain Conversation and made new Creatures 2 Cor. 5.17 Fifthly They are redeemed from all iniquity Tit. 2.14 Not only from the condemning but the commanding power of it Rom 6.14 Sixthly They are made a People Zealous of good works Titus 2.14 and are redeemed out of the hands of their Enemies that they may serve the Lord without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of their life Luke 1.74 Seventhly To meditate on the ways and means of his effecting this our Redemption as these his Incarnation Conversation Passion Resurrection Ascension Session and Intercession at the right hand of God First About his Incarnation to consider and take notice that the Word was made Flesh Joh. 1.14 And the End wherefore he took our Nature was that he might make us partakers of his Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 He the Son of God became the Son of Man that we the Sons of Men might be made the Sons and Daughters of the great and ever-living God John 1.12 Isaiah 56.5 In the Incarnation of Christ to take notice of these two Branches of it viz. his Conception and Nativity First For his Conceptiont herein to meditate First On the wonderful manner of it it being not after the manner of other Men but by the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost Luke 1.35 Secondly The Reason of it that He might be pure and free from Original sin wherein all others are conceiv'd and born Psal 51.5 Joh. 3.6 Thirdly The End of it that He might by the purity of his Conception cover the impurity of our Conception Secondly In the Nativity of Christ First Take notice of whom it was He was born And why so First That he was born of a Virgin to fulfill the Scripture Isaiah 7 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive c. And so born that he might be without the least spot and contagion of sin wherein all others are both conceiv'd and born Psal 51. Secondly Of the Virgin Mary because the Messiah was to come of the Tribe of Judah Heb. 7.14 and the Seed of David of which stock Mary came as you may see in the Genealogy Luk. 3. Secondly To meditate on the use we are to make of it namely this That as Christ was conceiv'd and born for us so we be careful to look to this that He be conceiv'd and born in us or we can never expect to receive any benefit by his Conception and Birth for us Secondly To meditate on the Conversation of Christ and consider how He walkt and liv'd in the World which you may find in the Gospel to have been Very wisely inoffensively humbly holily spiritually heavenly and actively for the glory of God and the good of Souls such must our Conversations be conformable to the pattern set before us that so having good Consciences they may be asham'd who have and would slander our good conversation in Christ 1 Pet. 3 16. 1 Epist John 2.6 Thirdly In the Passion of Christ to meditate on these Particulars the Matter of his sufferings the Causes of his sufferings the Manner of his sufferings and the Use we are to make of his sufferings First The Matter of his sufferings what it was that He suffered which was First The Vailing of His glory under our Flesh Secondly The imputation of the sins of the whole World 1 Pet. 2.24 Thirdly The fierceness of his Father's wratâ— Lam. 1.12 and the Curse due to all our sins Gal. 3.13 Fourthly The rage of Men and Devils in the prosecution and persecution of him unto death Even the shameful cursed death of the Cross Secondly The Causes of his sufferings First The efficient Cause that was God Isaiah 53.10 Acts 2.23 Secondly The instrumental cause was the Devil and his Instruments Judas and the Jews Luk. 22.53 Thirdly The meritorious cause our sins Isaiah 53.3 4. 1 Pet. 2.24 Fourthly The final cause that He might bring us back again to God 1 Pet. 3.18 and Redeem us from Eternal sufferings and sweeten and sanctifie all our temporal sufferings Thirdly For the manner of his sufferings that was First Willingly without compulsion Secondly Patiently so as he was as a Sheep dumb before the Shearer Isaiah 53. Thirdly Constantly unto Death Fourthly For the use you are to make of his sufferings which is this To be willing to suffer a little from him and for him who hath suffered so much from us and for us and the rather First Because by his sufferings he hath freed us from Eternal sufferings sweetned and sanctified all our temporal sufferings Secondly Because he hath promised if we suffer with Him we shall Reign with Him 2 Tim. 2.12 Thirdly Because if we chuse rather to sin than suffer for him we must expect to suffer for ever in Hell Mark 8. last Fourthly Because
Heb. 9.14 Omnisciency 1 Cor. 2.10 Omnipresency Psal 139.17 Omnipotency 2 Tim. 2.7 Isaiah 11.2 Thirdly Because those works are applied to him which are proper to God as Creation Gen. 1.2 and Conservation Job 33.4 Psal 33.6 Regeneration and Sanctification John 3.6 1 Cor. 12.6 Fourthly Because the divine worship is given to him as Mat. 28.19 Go Baptize them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Therefore true and very God Thirdly That he proceeds from the Father and the Son is evident John 15.26 and hence he is call'd the Spirit of God Rom. 8.11 and the Spirit of the Son Rom. 8.9 and so much the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies because he is spired or breathed from them as you may see further John 16.14 15. Secondly To meditate on the Offices of the Spirit and these either respect Christ his Word or his Church First For those respecting Christ they are these First The Spirit formed Christ's humane nature in the Womb of the Virgin Mary Luke 1.35 36. Secondly The Holy Ghost anointed Jesus Christ as he was Man with gifts and graces and that without measure and having thus consecrated him and furnished him with gifts for the great office and work of a Mediator he with God the Father sent him into the World for the accomplishing that work Isai 61.1 and 11.2 Acts 10.38 John 3.34 John 1.32 Thirdly The Holy Ghost descending from Heaven and resting upon him visibly in the shape of a Dove did publickly shew him and Seal him in his Baptism Mat. 3.16 Fourthly The Holy Ghost witnesseth that Jesus Christ who was crucified was the Son of God the true Messiah Act. 5.31.32 He witnesseth also to the Doctrin of Christ's Resurrection in which he was declared mightily to be the Son of God Rom. 1.4 Secondly For the Offices of the Spirit in and about the Word of God take notice first 't was He inspir'd holy Men of God with the mind and will of God infallibly dictated it unto them and guided them in the penning or writing of it 2 Pet. 1.20 Acts 1.16 Mark 12 36. Heb. 9.8 Fourthly He quickens the Word so as to make it effectual to quicken dead Souls without Him 't is but a dead and a killing Letter John 6.63 He makes it quick and lively in operation to the dividing between the Soul and the Spirit the Joynts and the Marrow the searching-out and discovering the secrets of the heart Heb. 4.12 1 Cor. 2.4 2 Cor. 10.4 5. It is he that speaketh by it to the Churches Revel 2.7 Revel 3.22 Rev 14 13. Thirdly His Offices in respect of the Church and People of God these are either common to all or peculiar to the Elect First For those common to all they are such as these First To give life and preserve life in all Job 33.4 Ps 139.14 15. Secondly To bestow gifts and abilities on men for their particular callings and functions both sacred and civil as 1 Sam. 11.6 Judges 11.29 1 Cor. 12.9 10. Mat. 7.22 Thirdly Restraining-grace whereby they are kept from many evils which they would otherwise run into as Abimelech Gen. 20.6 Fourthly To act and over-act all the gifts and parts and power of men to his own glory and the good of his Church and People Zach. 4.6 Secondly For those that are peculiar to the Elect they are such as these First To unite them unto Christ their head and the mystical Body of Christ the Church 1 Cor. 12.13 1 Cor. 6.17 Secondly To inhabit or dwell in them as his House and â—emple Rom 8.11 1 Pet. 4.17 Thirdly To illuminate them with the saving sancâ—iâ—â—ing experimental knowledge of God in Christ John 16.13 Fourthly To convince them of sin righteousness and judgment John 16.8 First Of Sin particularly the sins of unbelief and disobedience to the Gospel that This is 〈◊〉 which lays them open to the wrath of God in Life and Death and after Death John 3. last Mark 16.16 Secondly Of righteousness how that there is none in them to make them stand acceptable in the sight of God the Garment of their own righteousness and good works is a Garment too short to cover their nakedness their own righteousness is but as a filthy Rag but the righteousness of Christ that is a perfect righteousness such as God accepts for poor sinners and makes them stand so righteous in God's sight as if they had never sinned this appears in that Christ is gone to the Father which he could not have done if he had not fulfilled all righteousness Thirdly Of Judgment how that he has judged and condemned the Serpent and his Seed the Devil and the wicked World so as they shall never prevail against his Elect Mat. 16.18 The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and that there is true and sound judgment to be found only in the Christian Religion and not in any Idolatrous and false Religion and that Christ hath the government of his Church upon his own Shoulders and all that subject and submit unto his Government shall by it judg and condemn at last the wicked World 1 Cor. 6.1 Fifthly To humble them under and mortifie in them the deeds of the Flesh Rom. 8.13 Sixthly To quicken them with spiritual Life Rom. 8.11 Regenerate and sanctifie them John 3.5 and Evidence it to them 1 Cor. 6.11 Seventhly To help them in and under all their infirmities in duty Rom. 8.26 John 14.26 Eighthly To direct and guide them in all their ways Rom. 8.14 Psal 143.10 Ninthly To support and comfort them in all their sorrows and sufferings Rom. 5.5 John 4.26 Tenthly To witness to their Spirits that they are the Children of God Rom. 8.16 Eleventhly To Seal them up to the Day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 Eph. 1.13 Twelfthly To be the earnest and first fruits of their Eternal Salvation Eph. 1.14 Rom. 8.23 Lastly To confirm strengthen and establish them in every good word and work to the end Eph. 1.13 Eph. 4.12 13. Again Thirdly To take notice of and meditate on the Evidences you have of the receiving and indwelling of the Spirit of God in you because If any have not the Spirit he is none of Christ's Rom. 8.9 1 Ep. John 4.13 Hereby we know he dwells in us and we in him by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3.24 Q. But how may we know that we have receiv'd the Spirit and that he dwells in us A. Thus 1. By the way and means in and by which he is given and receiv'd and that is the Ministry of the Word Acts 10.44 Whilst Peter spake the Holy Ghost fell on those that heard him and hence the Ministry of the Gospel is call'd the Ministry of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 and Men are said to receive the Spirit by the hearing of Faith Gal. 3.2 Secondly You may know you have the Spirit by this if you can finde the foregoing acts and operations of the Spirit upon the hearts of the Elect If he be
Lord under the consideration of it Secondly As there followed guilt so filth or the defilement of the whole Man with sin original and actual and here to meditate what these are and what special things in them are to be meditated on for the humbling of our Souls and the keeping us from closing with Temptations to them First What sin is viz. The transgression of the Law of God either revealed in the Word 1 Ep. Joh. 3.4 or written in the heart Rom. 2.14 15. and here about sin to take notice and meditate on the ugly filthy hurtful hateful nature of it 1. For the ugly nature of sin it is not only evil but the worst of all evils and the cause of all other evils that it is most contrary to God's most Holy Nature that which made the Devil a Devil and Hell to be Hell without which the Devil would be a blessed Angel and Hell would be Heaven that also that could not be expiated and done away by the death and blood-shed of all the Creatures but only by the precious heart-blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Secondly Meditate on the filthy nature of it as it is compar'd to the Excrements of Man Isai 4.4 and called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Excrement of Excrements or superfluity of naughtiness James 1.21 yea not only filthy in the concrete but filthiness it self in the abstract 2 Cor. 7.1 Q. But how doth this appear A. In that it defiles a man in all and all to him 1. It defiles him in all every faculty of Soul every power of Body Mat. 15.19 20. whence Solomon calls the sinner a loathsome Person Prov. 15.3 because sin is that which makes him loathsome to all to God and Man and Himself 1. To God Zach. 11.8 my Soul loatheth them 2. Loathsome to Men especially good Men Psal 15.4 Prov. 29. last Isai 66.24 3dly That which makes men loathsome to themselves when God once opens their Eyes to see it and brings them home to himself by Repentance Ezek. 36.31 Job 42.6 Rom. 6.21 Secondly As it defiles a Man in all so all to him all his Relations all his Enjoyments all his Actions natural civil religious Titus 1.15 To the impure all things are impure the Word is a killing Letter the Sacraments Seal up Damnation in short of so defiling a nature as all the Water of the old World could not wash away the stain of it nor all the Fire of the last Judgment and of Hell will be able to burn up the dross of it Thirdly Meditate on the hateful nature of sin how hateful it is to God and good men 1. To God it is the only object of his hatred he hates nothing but as it is sinful not the Devil but only as sin made him a Devil 2. That it is so hateful to God appears in that he hates it where-ever he sees it Even in his own Son who knew no sin yet because he took our sin upon him he so manifested his hatred of it as he would not spare the severe punishment of it in him because the Creatures could not strike a stroke hard enough he was pleas'd to bruise him Isai 53.16 and to lay upon him the fierceness of his wrath Lament 1.12 Secondly As hateful to God so to all good men Psal 139.21 Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee search me and try me c. Psal 119.128 I hate every false way the Martyrs so hated sin as they chose rather to burn at the Stake and undergo any torment than give way to any sin Anselm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was wont to say that if he saw Hell on one side and sin on the other and he must of necessity choose one he would rather choose Hell without sin and no wonder for where there is no Sin there is no Hell Fourthly On the hurtful nature of sin this appears 1. In that it is the greatest Enemy to God to Christ to the Spirit to Us 1. To God it 's that which seeks to un-Throne Him and un-God Him and there is no true and loyal Subject but will endeavour the death of him that seeks the death of his Soveraign Lord and King Secondly The greatest Enemy to Christ that which brought him from Heaven to the Cross made Him sweat Blood under the apprehension of his Father's wrath due to him and to cry out on the Cross to the amazement of Heaven and Earth My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Thirdly The greatest Enemy to the Spirit of God that which quencheth and grieveth and vexeth and resists him makes him to leave his Habitation and when he goes out the Devil comes in with seven worse Spirits than ever Mat. 12.45 Fourthly The greatest Enemy to Us that which deprives us of all good Isai 59.2 and exposeth us to all evil Rom. 2.8 9 10. pulls down all manner of Judgments on Persons Families Towns Cities Kingdoms Countreys Prov. 8. last Rom. 1.16 Eph. 5.5 That which makes every man to come in with a Cry and go out of the World with a Groan So much of Sin in general Secondly For Original sin that you may be effectually humbled under it to take notice of and meditate on these things 1. What it is 2. The several Titles given to it with the Reasons of them 3. The Parts of it 4 The extent of it And 5. The fruits of it First What it is for the understanding of this you are to Note that Original sin is taken either actively or passively First Actively for the sin of Adam in eating the forbidden fruit and is call'd by Divines Peccatum Originans the beginning-sin or the sin giving a beginning to all other sins Secondly Passively for the corruption of nature flowing from that first sin of Adam and is call'd Peccatum Originatum or sin taking a beginning from that first sin of Adam and this is that which we are to speak unto and may be described thus A privation of Original righteousness and a depravation of the whole Man with unrighteousness Justly deriv'd from the loins of our first Parents unto all their Posterity by reason whereof every Man and Woman is conceiv'd and born in sin brings into the World with them the Seeds of all sin is inclin'd to all evil and averse to all that is good 1. There is a deprivation of Original righteousness wherein Man was created Rom. 3.10 There 's none righteous no not one Secondly A depravation of the whole man with unrighteousness Gal. 3.22 The Scripture hath concluded all under sin not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Men but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things in man for the word is in the Neuter Gender and it is further evident by the Apostle's Prayer for Universal Sanctification 1 Thes 5.23 Implying an Universal Corruption Thirdly I say justly deriv'd from the Loins of our first Parents to all their Posterity as you may see Gen. 5.3 Adam begot a Son in his own likeness that is
a sinner like himself Job gives the reason Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean and so doth our Saviour Joh. 3.6 Mat. 7.18 and Jam. 3.11 12. Fourthly I add by reason whereof every one is conceiv'd born in sin this David acknowledgeth Psal 51.5 and Isai 48.8 The Lord stiles Israel a Transgressor from the Womb. Fifthly He brings in with him the Seeds of all sin even the vilest that ever were conceiv'd or acted by Men or Devils as the Chaos contain'd in it the Seed of all Creatures so the corruption of our nature the Seeds of all sin Prov. 27.19 as in Water Face answers to Face so doth the heart of Man to Man Sixthly Are inclin'd to all evil Psal 36.4 Jer. 8.6 Isai 5.18 Nitimur invetitum c. as the very Heathen could observe and say Lastly I add and averse to all that is good Rom. 8.7 Gal. 5.17 Jer. 18.12 Secondly For your further humiliation under it take notice of the odious Titles given to it with the Reasons of them 1. It 's call'd Original sin 1. Because it was ab origine from the beginning of Man's Fall Secondly Because it is cum origine with the beginning of every man Thirdly Because it is Origo the Beginning Root and Fountain of all actual sin Secondly It 's call'd the sin that dwells in us Rom. 7.17 because it remains in all unto death Thirdly It 's call'd the sin that easily encompasseth us Heb. 12.1 or that soon overtakes us and keep us from running the Race set before us Fourthly It 's call'd concupiscence or lust Jam. 1.14 15. Rom. 7.7 Because it 's the Mother of all unclean lusts motions and desires Fifthly It 's call'd the old man Rom. 6.6 because it came from the old Adam Sixthly It 's call'd the Flesh Joh. 3.6 Gal. 5.17 because it acts and discovers it self in and by the Flesh Seventhly It 's call'd the Law in the Members Rom. 7.23 because it Rules as a Law Eighthly It 's call'd the work of the Devil 1 Joh. 3.8 And Hell that sets on Fire the whole course of nature Jam. 3.6 because it came from the Devil and from Hell and leads to the Devil and Hell without repentance Thirdly To Meditate on the parts of it to wit an absence of all good and a presence of all evil an emptiness of all righteousness and a fulness of all unrighteousness Fourthly That you may be the more throughly humbled meditate on the extent of it How doth this corruption of nature like a Leprosie over-spread the whole man Soul and Body every faculty and power of both 1. For the faculties of the Soul it fills the mind with blindness the will with perversness the conscience with deadness the memory with unfaithfulness the heart and affections with deceitfulness and sensualness which every one's experience too sadly evidenceth Secondly For the parts and powers of the Body they are all naturally instruments of unrighteousness and unholiness Rom. 6.13.19 And all the Senses in-lets and out-lets of sin and vanity 1 Ep. Joh. 3.16 So as in the flesh there dwells no good thing Rom. 7.18 Fifthly To meditate on the fruits and effects of it how that by reason of it you were conceiv'd and born in sin having in your natures the Seed of all sin a proneness to all evil and an aversness to all good so that you see if you had no other sin to bewail this were enough to humble you all your days and to make you miserable to all Eternity and therefore to be much in meditation on it and walk humbly before God and Man continually under the consideration of it and that for these Reasons 1. Because it is the mother-Mother-sin Jam. 1.14 Mat. 15.19 Secondly Because though all actual sins be repented of and done away yet this Root of bitterness remains still and will until it be quite pluckt up by death 3. Because to bewail actual transgressions and not the corruption of nature is that which the Lord complains of Ezek. 16.22 4. Because a Man is never truly humbled under his actual sins unless he bewail also his original sins seeing it is the corruption of nature that inclin'd and carried him into actual sin and therefore if you look into the humiliations of God's People you shall find them to bewail as their actual so their original sin as Job Job 40.4 Isai 6.5 David Psal 51.5 Paul Rom. 7.24 and Mr. Bradford the Martyr that when he saw any break out into any Enormity would smite upon his Breast and say Lord what a wicked heart have I and what cause have I to give glory to distinguishing grace that I am not as vile as the vilest and therefore if you would have any evidence of the truth and soundness of your humiliation under your actual sins be sure always to take to heart and bewail original sin the Fountain and rice of all and to this end remember to meditate frequently and seriously of what I have briefly open'd to you in and about it Thirdly To take notice and meditate on your actual sins and that you may be the more thorowly humbled under them to mind well What it is the Kinds of it the multitude and greatness of them First What actual sin is to wit Every evil act or motion arising out of the corruption of nature in thought or affection word or action contrary to the revealed will of God in the Word or the Conscience binding over a man to the curse of the Law Deut. 27. last Secondly For the Kinds of it First It is either by way of Commission or Omission when any thing is added to or taken from the Word both condemned Deut. 4.11 12. Revel 22.18 19. Secondly It is either of ignorance or knowledge both damnable but especially the latter Luke 12.47 48. Thirdly It is either a sin of infirmity or a reigning sin First A sin of infirmity is such a sin as a Man falls into but seldom and besides his purpose and with reluctance also when he sees it doth mourn for it prays for pardon of it and power over it and watcheth more against it Psal 17.3 I have purposed my Mouth shall not offend Rom. 7.15 The evil which I do I allow not Secondly A reigning sin is when a Man commits any evil and omits any good wittingly or wilfully makes a Trade or a Custome of it lives and lies impenitently in it expresly forbid Rom. 6.12 The former is the sin of the regenerate the latter of the unregenerate Fourthly It is either pardonable or unpardonable First Pardonable sin is every sin even the greatest that a man is willing to repent of Isaiah 1.18 Isai 55.7 8. Secondly Unpardonable sin is not only that against the Holy Ghost but every sin even the least that a man is unwilling to see and to leave and resolves to persist impenitently in it Mat. 5.19 James 2.10 Thirdly The degrees of actual sin all sins are not alike but some
a man to win the World and lose his Soul Or what will he give in exchange for his Soul Suppose a Man had all the Honours Riches Pleasures the World could afford him what will it avail him in the day of death when he must part with all and his Soul too and never recover them more Men may lose these things of the World and recover them again if God seeth good as you may see in Job's Case to whom God restored all that he had taken from him and doubled all to him in the latter end Job 42. But now for a Soul that being lost can never be recovered it 's not a World nor ten thousand Worlds can recover the loss of a Soul it cost more to redeem a Soul Psal 49. Whereas you see the great folly of men in selling and losing of their Souls What do they get by their sin but the Curse and Wrath of God with the loss of their precious Souls Fourthly To meditate on the greatness of the salvation of a Soul and the means to procure the salvation thereof 1st The greatness of the salvation of the Soul this appears by the greatness of the Author of it no other then the great God Titus 3.5 2dly The greatness of the price paid for it no other then the precious Blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 3dly The greatness of the evil we are saved from As 1. The Curse of the Law Gal. 3.10 13. and the rigour of the Law Rom. 7.5 6. 2ly From the reign and dominion of sin Rom. 6.14 3. From the tyranny of Satan Col. 1.13 Col. 2.15 4. From the evil of the World John 16. last 5. The sting of Death and the slavish fear of it Heb. 2.14 15. 6. The wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 4thly The greatness of the good things we are saved and brought unto viz. The Life of Grace here Ephes 2.1 and the Life of Glory hereafter Col. 3.4 Fifthly To meditate on the means To make sure and procure the means of Salvation to you which are briefly these 1. To see and acknowledge your selves lost in your selves Luke 19.10 2. To humble your selves under the consideration of it James 4.9 Luke 13.31 3. To turn every one from the evil of his wayes Ezek. 18.30 Isa 55.7 8. 4. To lay hold on Jesus Christ by a lively Faith John 3.16 Acts 10.43 5. To get a new Nature 2 Cor. 5.17 2 Pet. 1.4 6. To lead a new Life a Life of Holiness 1 Pet. 1.15 and to order your Conversation according to the rules of the Word Psal 50. last To him that orders his Conversation aright I will shew the Salvation of God Now here to take notice what it is to order our Conversation aright I shall stay a little the longer because the Conversation of most are such an open contradiction to their Profession Now by ordering our Conversation aright is meant a putting of our Life in a method and order a Saint must not walk at random or at large but in a regular and orderly way Col. 2.5 that is According to those rules laid down in the Scripture the Law and the Gospel and these Rules according to which we are to order our Conversation they are either more general or more particular First For the General Rules You have them laid down in two places the first in the Old Testament Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good Q. Where hath he shewed Man his duty A. Why in his Word there God hath laid down plainly what the Duty of every Man is to God and others and himself so as there is no Man or Woman can plead ignorance and say he knew it not to be his duty for God hath plainly revealed it in his Word what is good how that all in his Word is good and will do good to him that doth it Micah 2.7 Do not my Words do good to him that walks uprightly And what the Lord requires of thee What is that 1. To do justly i. e. To make Conscience of all the Duties of Justice and Righteousness required in the second Table to render to every one his due and do unto others as you would have others do unto you which is the Law and the Prophets 2. To love Mercy that is To shew mercy to the Bodies and to the Souls of others as you have opportunity Gal. 6.10 Heb. 13.16 3. To walk humbly with thy God This comprehends all the Duties of the first Table as the two former of the second Table So as the meaning in short is this Thou shalt set God alwayes before thee give him the Homage Worship and Service that is due to him approve thy heart to him in all the service thou tenderest to him humble thy self under thy fallings and failings acknowledge when thou hast done all thou art but an unprofitable Servant and desire only to be found in the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ More clearly and fully you have these Duties laid down Titus 2.11 12. The Grace of God bringing Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Soberly in respect of our selves Righteously in respect of others Godlily in respect of God Haec tria perpetuo meditare adverbia Pauli Haec tria sunt vitae regula sancta tuae Make these three Adverbs the subject of your continual Meditation and the proposed Rule of your daily Conversation Your duty here is as every day 1. To watch against and deny ungodliness that is Those sins forbidden in the first Table so called because they are immediately against God And worldly lusts that is all sins forbid in the second Table called Worldly because they have the World for their Object and Subject 2. It follows and that we should live soberly the former contain'd the negative commands of the Law these latter the affirmative commands of the Law to note unto us it is not enough to be negative Christians but we must be also affirmative Christians Isa 1.16 17. Cease to do evil learn to do well 1. Your duty is to live soberly in respect of your selves that is to be moderate in your desires and use of all Creature Comforts as Meat Drink Apparel Recreation Phil. 4.5 1 Cor. 7.30 2. Righteously in respect of your Neighbours that is To act and exercise Righteousness in all your Thoughts Affections Words Actions Tradings and Dealings with others made a sign of one that shall dwell in God's Holy Hill Psal 15. 3. In respect of God to carry your selves Godly or God-like to be Holy as he is Holy in all manner of Conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 that is Publickly Privately Secretly Daily Hourly Continually 2 Cor. 7.1 Rev. 2.10 To quicken you to this godliness to meditate on that place 1 Tim. 4.8 Godliness is profitable to all things and hath the promise of this life and that to come that is Hath all the blessings of Heaven
take heed of all sin especially those sins which resemble men to the Devil as Pride Envy Malice Lying Slandering false Accusing of others tempting others to sin and hindering others from Good for these you may find in the Scripture to be the sins of the Devil especially the last Acts 13.10 Thou Child of the Devil thou enemy of all Righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord said Paul to Elymas 3. To search and see whether you are under his Power and Dominion yea or no for all Men and Women are so by Nature as you may see Eph. 2.2 2 Tim. 2. last whence he is called the Prince of the Air John 14.30 and the God of this World 2 Cor. 4.4 because he rules like a Prince or rather like a Tyrant and governs like a God or rather like a Devil as he is in all wicked men holding them and leading them like Bears by the Snout like Dogs in a Chain and hath them as the Centurion had his Servants at his beck and command to commit any wickedness for Honour Profit and Pleasure in the World Now for the signs and characters of such as are under his power the Scripture gives amongst others these 1. Wilful blindness when men shut their eyes against the Light and refuse to see sin to be sin and duty to be duty because they are loth to leave the one and do the other John 3.19 2 Cor. 4.4 5. 2. Impenitency in a course of sinning 2 Tim. 2.24 25. when men give up themselves to the service of Sin and Satan and will not be reclaimed from it Rom. 6.16 John 8.34 3ly Security and senslesness of God's displeasure because he lets them alone in their evil courses and does not presently punish them Luke 11.21 where all things are at peace there the strong man keeps possession Psalm 50. ver 18. to the end 4. And principally Derision Opposition and Persecution of Righteousness and Holiness in others Acts 13.10 These are the black marks of Satans dominions in men 4th Duty Be perswaded speedily in the use of the means to get out of his Dominions because so long as you are under the power of Satan you are under the power of Sin and the power of the Law and the power of the World and the power of Death Judgement and Hell 1. Of Sin Rom. 6.12 2 Tim. 2. last 2. The power of the Law both the rigour and the curse of it Deut. 27. last 3. The power of the World 1 John 4 5. 4. The power of Death and Judgement and Hell Rom. 6. last Eccles 12. end Heb. 9.27 Psal 11. end Psal 9.17 The wicked shall be turned into Hell and therefore in all these respects to labour speedily to get out of his Dominions To this end 1. Be willing to be convinced of this truth That all men naturally are under the power of Sin and Satan for it 's that which the Scripture speaks expresly Ephes 2.2 and this is the first work of the Spirit in the conversion of a sinner John 16.8 2. Labour to be sensible of and humbled under the sad condition of being in vassallage and slavery to Sin and Satan thus those Converts were Acts 2.37 They were pricked in their hearts and cryed out Men and Brethren c. That you may be the more sensible of it and humbled under it consider it 's the saddest of all other conditions so as the condition of the Israelites under Pharaoh and Gally-slaves under the Turk or Pope is little or nothing to this that being only of the Body this of the Soul that a sensible slavery this an insensible until God make them sensible that an unwilling slavery but this men are most forward to and delight in until the Lord come in and over-power their wills and of unwilling make them a willing people in the day of his power Psalm 110. as he did them Acts 2.37 3. Take notice of him who was appointed and annointed by God the Father to rescue you out of his power viz. the Lord Jesus Christ Isa 61.1 He hath destroyed Death and him that had the power of Death Heb. 2.14 and hath destroyed the works of the Devil 1 John 3.8 to lay hold on him by a lively Faith and that Ransom he hath paid for your Redemption Ephes 1.7 1 Joh. 1.7 Acts 16.31 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved 4. Be willing to cast off the service of Sin and Satan for the future and to give your selves only and wholly to the service of Jesus Christ Rom. 6.16 17. Sin is the snare and the chain by which the Devil holds men in his power and repentance breaks that snare and chain and sets them at liberty 2 Tim. 2. last Acts 3.19 Repent that your sins may be blotted out c. 5. Wait constantly on the Ministry of the Word the means he hath appointed to turn men from Darkness to Light and the Power of Satan to God Lastly Go unto God by earnest and constant Prayer for his Spirit to make his Word effectual for the translating you out of the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of his dear Son Col. 1.13 5th Duty If you find that you are such as have been rescued and redeemed by Jesus Christ out of the power of Satan which you may know farther by this if you are such as truly believe in Christ and are sanctified by Christ Acts 26.18 and labour to crucifie the flesh with the corruptions and the lusts Gal. 5.24 and are not conformed to the World Rom. 12.2 but walk in a contradiction to it get victory over it 1 John 5.4 then your duties are such as these Continue to bless God for it and rejoyce in it above all your rejoycings not slavishly to fear his Power Malice Rage for the future and to carry your selves so as still to be preserved from being hurt by him 1. To be continually blessing the Lord Jesus Christ for rescuing us out of the power of Satan as the Saints have done before us Psal 86.12 13. Psal 103.1 the Apostle Rom. 7. last 1 Cor. 15.55 and to bless him not only for our selves but others Rom. 6.17 18. and the rather considering we were by nature under the power of Satan as well as others and nothing but his own Grace that rescued us and pluckt us out of his snares to bless God that hath and doth so wonderfully preserve us from the power malice and rage of Satan and his Instruments Is it not wonderful that we should lie down in peace and sleep in peace and arise in peace and walk up and down in peace and injoy so much peace and quiet in the midst of so many Devils and devilish minded men the safety and preservation of the three Children in the Fiery Furnace of Daniel in the Lions Den of Jonah in the Whales Belly was wonderful and truly no less wonderful is it that we injoy our lives and the comforts of
will teach you sayes Job to trust in God for a livelyhood Mat. 6.26 and to know your times and seasons for every work Jer. 8.7 The Dove will teach you Innocency and Sympathy the little Birds to sound forth praises to God every morning and evening Cantat a lauda Deo laudes gratissima summo Hinc vos in gratâ—s gratu lacessit avis 3. Ask the Fishes of the Sea and they will teach you sayes Job The Sea by her continual fluctuating and foaming will mind you of the continual unquietness and resâ—lesness of wicked men Isa 5â— 20 They are like the troubled Sea c. The Fish of the Sea they will shew you the misery of want of Government they being every one without a Ruler so as the lesser are still devoured of the greater Hab. 1. Why hast thou made mâ—n like the Fishes of the Sea c. XX. When you are to go to wait an God in the use of his Ordinance think what a mercy it is to have the Doors of God's Sanctuary open when they are shut to others to see Souls flock to the Ordinances as the Doves to the Windows that some Souls might still be added to the Church and brought into Christ and built up further in Grace and gracious practices When you are to hear the Word remember you are not only to hear a Man but God who speaks in and by Man who hath said His Word shall not return in vain but surely prosper to the end he sends it Isa 55. last And if it be not the savour of Life it will of Death 2 Cor. 1. end When the Sermon is ended remember though the Minister have done the Sermon is not done until you have done and practised it if it be not practised it will be preached over with more terror another day when you will not be able to hear it XXI When you are walking abroad and meet with any Christian Friend think if it be sweet with a dear Christian Friend upon Earth Oh how sweet will it be to meet with all in Heaven When you hear of any good news from them then think Oh what good news hath Christ brought from Heaven and did the Angel sing at the time of his Birth and hath the Spirit of God brought home and spoken unto my heart if it be bad news that you have heard yet think and comfort your hearts with this However you have sad expectations from Earth yet you have comfortable expectations from Heaven God and Christ and the Spirit is yours and will be for ever yours 1 Cor. 3. last Psal 112.7 When you hear of any Prodigies or dreadful appearances of God in the Heaven or the Earth or the Sea then think and say How terrible O Lord art thou in all thy wayes Who knows the power of thy anger what mean these dreadful tokens of thy displeasure make me and all to fear and tremble before thee When you see or hear the corruption of men to break out into Drunkenness Uncleanness Blasphemy Persecution c. then think and say as Bradford the Martyr Lord what a wicked heart have I what cause have I to give glory to Grace that keeps under corruption in me that does not break out in me as in others When any cross or affliction befals you on the day in Body Soul Name Estate think say Lord what sin is it that thou correctest shew me my sin sanctifie this affliction and do me good by it When any mercy is renewed upon you and yours think and say Oh how great is that goodness thou hast laid up for them that fear thee and that thou workest daily for the Children of men Psal 31. XXII When the day draweth towards an end remember you are nearer to your end by one day then you were in the morning as the night approacheth towards you so do you to the Grave and for ought you know may be your last day When you look up and see the Stars appear in the Heaven think thus Though your life here be hid with Christ in God yet when he shall appear you shall appear with him in glory Col. 3.4 and then your bodies shall shine as the Stars Dan. 12. When you see the dark night to come upon you and you begin to light Candles then think if outward darkness be so uncomfortable how much more is the inward darkness of the Soul and utter darkness in Hell if the light of a Candle be so comfortable how comfortable is the Life of Grace here and will be the Life of Glory hereafter When you are about to put off your Cloaths think thus It will not be long ere I must be uncloathed of this body of Sin and Death and if I be so willing to the one why not to the other that I might be cloathed with my House from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 And if I be so willing to go into Bed to take my rest that I may have renewed strength for Body and Spirit to fit me for the service of the next day why should I not be as willing and more willing at God's call to lay down my body in the Grave there to rest from all sinning sorrowing suffering and to be raised up at the last day with renewed and perfect strength both in Soul and Body to be still serving and glorifying God to all Eternity Remember still O my Soul thy sleep is but the Image of Death the Bed the Image of thy Grave and the Sheets of thy Winding Sheets the biting of the Fleas but the gnawing of the Worms on the Body the crowing of the Cock in the morning the sounding of the Trump of God at the last day by the Voice of the Arch-Angel Awake ye dead and come to Judgment Isa 57.2 1 Thess 4.16 Lastly When you are about to sleep labour to sleep with precious thoughts of God for such as your thoughts are when you are about to sleep such will your thoughts be when you awake When we rake up fire in the Ashes at night so we usually find it in the morning and such I say as our thoughts are of God when we sleep will be when we awake In a word Think of your sleeping in Jesus and your awaking and appearing with him in glory in the morning of the Resurrection And thus I have as briefly as I could with any profit to you directed you how to make a Spiritual use of whatsoever presents it self to your senses from morning to evening at home and abroad What remains but that we put in practice what we see to be our duty motives to iâ— and directions for it you have had before I need not add any more onely this consideration there 's a double use God expects we should make of every Creature a natural and a spiritual and if we should content our selves only with the natural use without the Spiritual we should lose the one half and the best half of that comfort in the Creature which God gave it for and we shall do no more then natural carnal sensual men yea the very Beasts do and therefore if we will evidence our selves to be Christians indeed that mind the wellfare of our Souls as well as our Bodies then to apply our selves more then ever we have done to the practice of this sweet weighty and profitable duty of Meditation both Solemn and Occasional Which that we may blessed Lord thou who hast put it into the heart of thy weak and unworthy Servant to study and write these things for the good and comfort of thy People be thou graciously pleased by the effectual working of thy Holy Spirit to make them useful to all into whose hands they shall come for the promoting and carrying on the Work of Grace in their hearts and lives and the furthering of their everlasting Salvation Oh Lord I pray thee let it not be in vain that this or any other help is afforded them but do thou give success to the weak endeavours of thy unworthy Servant so as there may be glory to thee profit to them and comfort to him who hath found that grace in thy sight to be accepted and enabled to be any way instrumental for their help and comfort in the way homeward to everlasting life This is and shall be the Prayer of Your Affectionate and Antient Pastor J. B. FINIS