I have learned that I have here no abiding City but I seek one to come The benefits of the consideration of this Text are many 1. It will teach a Man a very low esteem of this present World and never to set the heart upon it Wilt thou set thy heart upon that which is not It is not an abiding City Either like the old feigned inchanted Castles it will vanish and come to little while we think we have fast hold of it or else we must leave it we know not how soon It is full of trouble and vexation when we injoy it and very unstable and uncertain is our stay in it 2. But let it be as good as it will or can be yet this Text tells of a City that is better worth our thoughts an abiding City a City that cannot be shaken where there are no Troubles no Thorns no Cares no Fears but Righteousness and Everlasting Peace and Rest 2. Consequently it will teach us to seek that which is most of value first and most and make that our greatest Endeavor which is our greatest Concernment namely to seek that City that is to come Peace with God in Christ Jesus and the Hope of Eternal Life It is true while we are in this City that continues not this Inferior World God Almighty requires a due care for Externals and Industry in our Imployments and Diligence in our Callings It is part of that service we ow to God to our Families to our Relations to our Selves and being done in Contemplation of his Command it is an act of Obedience and Religious Duty to him But this Consideration will add this Benefit even to our Ordinary Imployments in our Calling it will be sure to bring a Blessing upon it Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added unto you It shall be given in as an advantage and over-measure 2. It will add great Chearfulness to the Imployments of your Calling and to those Worldly Imployments that are requisite for your support and subsistence when you shall resign up your endeavors therein to the Good Pleasure of Almighty God 3. It will remove all Vexatious Solicitousness and Anxiety from you when you shall have such Considerations as these Almighty God it is true hath placed me in this World as in a passage to another and requires of me an Honest Imployment for my support and subsistence or else hath lent me a reasonable liberal portion whereby I may comfortably subsist without much pains or labor I will use it Soberly Chearfully Thankfully If he bless me with Increase or greater Plenty I will increase my Humility Sobriety and Thankfulness but if it be not his pleasure to bless me with Plenty and Increase his Will be done I have enough in that I have there is another more abiding City wherein I shall have supplies without Want or Fears or Cares 3. This Consideration will give abundance of Quietness Patience Tranquillity of Mind in all conditions Am I in this World Poor or Despised or Disgraced or in Sickness or Pain yet this Text gives me two great Supports under it 1. It will be but short this lower World the Region of these Troubles and Storms is no continuing no abiding City and consequently the Troubles and Storms of this inferior City are not abiding or long 2. After this flitting perishing City that thus passeth away this sower life which is but the Region of Death there succeeds another City that indureth for ever a City not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens a State of Everlasting Blessedness where are neither Cares nor Tears nor Fears nor Poverty nor Sorrow nor Want nor Reproach I will therefore with all Patience Chearfulness and Contentedness bear whatsoever God pleaseth to exercise me withal in this life for I well know that my light Afflictions which are but for a moment shall be attended with a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory These Considerations will seem but dry and empty to Men that do not deeply and considerately weigh matters Ordinarily young heads think them at least unseasonable for their youth but they must know that Sickness and Death will overtake the youngest in time and that will undeceive People and render the best appearances of this World either Bitter or at least Insipid and without any pleasant relish and then the Hopes and Expectations of this City to come will be more of value to us than the best Conveniencies and Delights this lower World can afford Let us therefore in our health make it our business to secure our Interest in it and it will be our Comfort and Benefit both in Life and Death OF CONTENTEDNESS AND PATIENCE COntentedness and Patience differ in this that the Object of the former is any condition whether it be Good Bad or Indifferent the Object of the latter is any present or incumbent Evil. But though they differ in the Latitude or Extent of their Object yet they both arise from the same Principle which if rightly qualified gives both The Measure and Original of all Passions is Love and the Object of Love is That which is really or apparently Good If our Love be right it regulates all our Passions For Discontent or Impatience ariseth from the absence of somewhat that we love and value and according to the measure of our love to the thing we want such is the measure of our Discontent or Impatience under the want of it He that sets his love upon that which the more he loves the more he injoys is sure to avoid the danger of Discontent or Impatience because he cannot want that which he loves and though he love something else that may be lost yet under that loss he is not obnoxious to much Impatience or Discontent because he is sure to retain that which he most values and affects which will answer and supply lesser wants with a great advantage The greatest bent and portion of his love is laid out in what he is sure to injoy and it is but a small portion of love that is left for the thing he is deprived of and consequently his discontent but little and cured with the fruition of a more valuable Good He that sets his love upon the Creature or any result from it as Honor Wealth Reputation Power Wife Children Friends cannot possibly avoid Discontent or Impatience for they are mutable uncertain unsatisfactory Goods subject to Casualties and according to the measure of his love to them is the measure of his Discontent and Impatience in the loss of them or disappointment in them He that sets his love upon God the more he loves him the more he injoys of him and the surer hold he hath of him In other things the greatest danger of disappointment and consequently of impatience is when he loves them best but the more love we bear to God the more love he returns to us and Communicates his Goodness the more
and the Forgetfulness of God 3. Because the time of Youth is most Obnoxious to forget God there is great Inadvertency and Inconsiderateness Incogitancy Unstableness Vanity Love of Pleasures Easiness to be corrupted in Youth and therefore necessary in this season to lodge the Remembrance of our Creator in our Youth to be an Antidote against these defects to establish and fix the entrance of our lives with this great Preservative the Remembrance of our Creator 4. When Almighty God lays hold of our Youth by a timely Remembrance of himself and thereby takes the first possession of our Souls commonly it keeps its ground and seasons the whole course of our ensuing Lives it prevents and anticipates the Devil and the World It is true it may possibly be that Natural Corruption and Worldly Temptations may suspend the actings of this Principle but it is rarely extinguished It is like that abiding seed remaining in him spoken of by John 1 Joh. 3.9 Which will recover him again 5. The last reason is because there are Evil Days that will certainly come which will render this work of Remembring our Creator difficult to be first begun and therefore it is the greatest Prudence imaginable to lay in this stock before they come for it will certainly stand us in great stead when they come It is the greatest Imprudence in the World to defer that business which is necessary to be done unto such a time wherein it is very difficult to be done and it is the greatest Prudence in the World to do that work which must be done in such a season wherein it may be easily and safely done He that lays in this store of Remembrance of his Creator before the Evil Day come will find it of the greatest use and service to him in that Evil Day Now those Evil Days are many and all of them befall some but some of them will certainly befall all Mankind 1. An Evil Day of Publick or Private Calamities He that beforehand hath laid in this stock of Remembring his Creator will be easily able to bear any Calamity when it comes but a man that hath not done this before hand will find it a very unseanable time to begin to set about it when Fear and Anguish and Perplexity and Storms and Confusion are round about him and take up all his thoughts 2. The Evil Day of Sickness is an unseasonable time or at least a very difficult time to begin such a business When Sickness and Pain and Disorder and uneasiness shall render a man Impatient and full of Trouble and his Thoughts full of Disorder and Discomposure and Waywardness then it will be found a difficult business to begin the Remembrance of our Creator It is true no time is utterly unacceptable of God for this work but surely it is best to begin before this Evil day come for then it will be a comfort and mitigate the Pains and Discomposure of Sickness when a man can thus reflect upon his life past as Hezekiah did in his Sickness Remember O Lord that I have not failed to remember my Creator in the days of my Health 3. The evil Day of Old and Infirm Age which is a Disease and burthen of it self and yet is ever accompanied with other Sicknesses Pains and Diseases and a Natural frowardness and Morosity and Discontentedness of mind and therefore not so seasonable to begin the undertaking of this work as the flourishing Youth And indeed a man cannot reasonably expect that the Great God who invites the Remembring our Creator in the Days of our Youth and hath been ungratefully denied should accept the Dreggs of our Age for a Sacrifice when we have neglected the thoughts of him in our strong and flourishing age But on the other side that man that hath spent the time of his Youth and Strength in the remembrance of his Creator may with comfort and contentment in his old and feeble age reflect upon his past life with Hezekiah Remember O Lord I pray thee that I have not failed to remember thee in the days of my Youth and Strength and I pray thee accept of the endeavours of my Old Decayed Age to preserve that Remembrance of thee which I so early began and have constantly continued and pardon the defects that the natural decays of my strength and age have occasioned in that duty 4. The evil day of Death when my Soul fits hovering upon my lips and is ready to take its flight when all the World cannot give my Life any certain truce for a day or for an hour and I am under the cold embraces of Death then to begin to remember my Creator is a difficult and unseasonable time But when I have began that business early and held on the Remembrance of my Creator it will be a Cordial even against Death it self and will carry my Soul unto the Presence of that God which I have thus remembred in and from the days of my Youth with Triumph and Rejoycing Briefly therefore 1. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because thou knowest not whether thou shalt have any other Season to Remember him Death may overtake thee and lay thee in the Land of Forgetfulness thy Spring may be thy Autumn and thy early bud may be the only fruit that Mortality may afford thee 2. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because it is a time of Invitation neglect not this Season because thou knowest not whether ever thou shalt be again invited to it Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth that thy Creator may remember thee in the days of thy Sickness and Old Age and in the Evil Day 4. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth lest thy Creator neglect thee in the Evil Day Neglected Favours especially from thy God may justly provoke him never to lend thee more Because I called and ye refused I also will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear cometh Prov. 1.24 26. 5. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because it will heal the Evil of Evil days when they come it will turn those days that are in themselves Evil to become days of Ease and Comfort it will heal the Evil of the day of Affliction of Sickness of Old Age and of Death it self and make it a passage into a better a more abiding Life OF THE Vncleanness of the Heart and how it is Cleansed Psal 51.10 Cor mundum crea in me Deus THis Prayer imports or leads us into the Consideration of these things 1. What the condition of every mans Heart is by Nature It is a foul and unclean Heart 2. Wherein consists this uncleanness of the Heart 3. What is the ground or cause of this uncleanness of the Heart 4. Whence it is that the condition of the Heart is changed It is an act of Divine Omnipotence 5. What is the condition of a Heart thus cleansed or wherein the cleanness of the Heart consists
that hath learned the Nature of the Soul and thinks that by death it shall attain a better or at least not a worse condition hath a great freedom from fear of Death and no small viaticum to attain Tranquillity of mind in his life And many such instances are given by the Stoicks especially Seneca and by Tully But when the latter came to an exquisite apprehension of his danger from Anthony his Philosophical Notions and Contemplations were too weak to bear up his mind against those fears and therefore in his Sixteenth Epistle Lib. 10. to Atticus he writes to him to this effect If thou hast any thing to comfort me gather it up and write it not out of Learning or Books for I have these here with me Sed nescio quomodo imbecillior est medicina quam morbus But I know not how it comes to pass the Physick is too weak for the Disease And Job though a Wise and Experienced Man and bore up pretty well in his Afflictions yet his friend Eliphaz tells him and that truly Job 4.3 5. Behold thou hast instructed many and thou hast strengthned the weak hands but now it is come upon thee thou faintest c. Men may have excellent Theories to support in Affliction and can apply them to others in that condition with singular dexterity and advantage yet when the case comes to be their own their Spirits sink under them because these Theories many times flote in the Understanding but are not digested deeply and practically in the Heart Secondly What ever you do gain this Habit and Temper of Mind Actuate and Exercise your Faith make even your Reckonings get your Peace and Assurance setled before Sickness comes For a Man in any kind of suffering besides possibly may learn them because his mind is or may be in his intire strength but most certainly Sickness is an ill time to begin to learn these Contemplations unless they are learned before the Distempers of the Body discompose the Mind and make it unfit to begin to learn It is a time when that which hath been before fitted and laid up in store in the Soul must be drawn out and exercised but it will be a most difficult business then to begin that Lesson which should be learned in Health though practised in Sickness II. Thus much for our Preparation to meet Afflictions Now concerning our carriage under them First In the beginning and first Onset of any Affliction be very careful to keep the Mind in a due temper Call in all your Aids of Reason Religion and Duty to keep you in a right frame and temper of Moderation for Affliction of any kind when it hath lain a while upon a Man will probably bring him into order but at the first Onset the Passions begin to flie out and play reaks and disorder the Soul and fill it with Perturbation Then immoderate Anger or Murmuring or immoderate Sorrow or Fear flie out and Men thereby become less able to bear for the future and many times flie out into that Immoderation and Distemper at first either in Thoughts or Words or Actions that they are sorry for after and so draw upon themselves a double trouble First to Repent of their folly and immoderation and then to fit themselves for sufferings it throws more grains of Sin into the Scale of Afflictions and makes it heavier and many times longer than otherwise it would be And after such Perturbation and Exorbitancy of Passion upon the first inroads of Affliction a Man hath much ado to bring himself into a right and due temper This was Jobs case in the beginning of his Affliction he flies out into more Impatience and Disorder than all the rest of the time therefore beware and see thou keep thy mind in temper and check Perturbation at the first Onset call together all thy Grace and Resolutions and Reason to keep thy mind in due temper at first Secondly On the first Onset of any Affliction Lift up thy heart to God desire his Assistance and Grace to inable thee to carry a due temper and frame of Heart This is not only thy Duty and expected from thee by God but it is a singular help to inable thee to avoid any present Distemper For first it is a means to supply thee with more strength from Heaven to order thy self aright 2. It brings thy Soul into the Presence of God before whom it were a shame to bring any Perturbation the Passions and Distempers of our Minds are under an aw in his Presence 3. It is a diversion of the present bustle and stir that Passions are apt to make and being diverted at first they do not so suddenly nor so easily fall into a disorder Commonly Passions are most disorderly and impetuous upon the first occasion And if they be then interrupted or diverted the succors even of common Reason much more of Grace have opportunity to rally themselves and prevent Immoderate Perturbation Thirdly Make as speedy an Inquisition as thou canst into thy own state and what the cause of this Affliction may be Let us search and try our ways is the voice of every Affliction and commonly every Affliction upon any person that lies under any Sin unrepented of and not forsaken soon leads the Conscience to point out that Sin and indeed most Afflictions in such a case carry upon them the very Inscription of the Sin and bear some Analogy or Proportion with it Adonibezeks Cruelty and Davids Adultery were as it were written in the Punishments they suffered and might easily bring them to their remembrance If thou sufferest in thy Estate consider whether either Immoderate Worldliness and Covetousness or Confidence and Glory in thy Wealth went not before If thou sufferest in thy Name consider whether thy Reputation hath not been thy Idol or whether thou hast not born thy self too high upon thy Reputation and so of other Crosses Fourthly If upon this inquiry thou findest Sin written upon thy Sufferings or in the bottom of them speedily Repent of that sin Humble thy self in the sight of God for it take up Resolution against it This is the voice the injunction that this Rod gives thee and here thy special duty is Humiliation Fifthly If upon search thou findest thy Heart and Conscience clear look upon this Affliction as a Dispensation sent from God and with all Humility submit to his hand and know that the most Wise God sends it for most wise ends though thou seest not any Enormity in thy self that might deserve it It may be it is to exercise thy Patience thy Faith thy Dependance upon him It may be he discerns that some Temptation is like to meet with thee or some Corruption is growing in thee that thou dost not perceive and he sends this Messenger to divert the one and to prevent the other study to improve this Affliction to that end and here thy special duty is Patience and Vigilance Sixthly But it may be upon this search
Relapses into them Remember the mischiefs they then did thee and let them know they shall do thee no more be most severe and strict against them 5. Make a frequent Vse of thy Deliverance as a singular Preservative against the Power of thy Temptations and Corruptions Deliverance carries in the very apprehension of it these two things 1. A supposition of a former Misery or Visitation 2. A present injoyment of a freedom from that Misery Therefore if any Corruption or Temptation unto Sin sollicite thee improve this consideration to this or the like effect I was lately under the Rack under the Rod under extream Want Imprisonment Disgrace Losses Sickness Sorrows Fears and an imminent expectation of the worst of Evils and though these were sore and sharp Afflictions yet the sense of my former Sins and the importunate restlesness of that Guilt that was contracted from them were more bitter and tormenting than all the rest of my sufferings it was that which was the sting and venome of all my Afflictions and it hath pleased Almighty God to accept of my Humiliation and to remove my Afflictions and to give me Beauty for Ashes and shall I be so very a fool as by committing of a new sin to run the hazard of another plunge another scourge which in all probability must be much more severe than the former because it would be the Issue not only of Sin but of Presumption a Sin committed against the experience that I have had of the bitterness of Sin and with what face or hope could I expect any possibility of Deliverance from a second Relapse into Misery occasioned by so Desperate a presumptuous relapse into Sin But suppose it were possible that notwithstanding my yielding to this Temptation I might escape the Vengeance yet can I be so false so ungrateful to that God that hath delivered me from my Sufferings and from my Fears as to recompence his Love and Mercy and Goodness with a Presumptuous Apostacy from him shall I thus requite his Mercy and Goodness that heard me in my Anguish and Sadness of Soul in my Extremity and Misery and so heard me that he hath delivered me out of all my Troubles and Miseries Certainly if either common Prudence or common Ingenuity be left in a Man the sense of a former Calamity and the sense of so great a Mercy will make a Man abhor the least submission to that Temptation that may at once hazard the continuance of his present Comfort and cannot be entertained without the Presumptuous rejection of him that thus Mercifully sent Deliverance 6. Let the remembrance of thy Misery and thy present Mercy make thee most jealously and passionately careful to keep thy Interest and if it be not too bold a word thy Friendship with God Remember he was thy support in thy Affliction and he was thy Deliverer out of thy Affliction let Gratitude bind thee to it as he was thy Benefactor and let Prudence bind thee to it thou knowest not how soon thou mayst have the same necessity again and where canst thou find such a friend The truth is when we are in extremity and have no whither else to fly O then we run to God and we pray unto him and promise him fair but when once our turn is served and we have gotten our ends and think our selves out of Gun-shot we are like Mariners after a Storm and God hears no more of us but this is as extream Ingratitude so extream Folly Oh keep thy God thy Friend for most certain it is thou wilt have occasion to use him again and thou knowest not how soon keep thine interest in him and estrange not thy self from him in thy Recovery whom thou canst not be without in thy Affliction 7. As I would have thee recollect what were the things in thy life past that most troubled thee in thy Affliction that so thou mayst avoid them so think what things or practices or expence of time in thy life past was most Acceptable and Comfortable to thee in thy Affliction that so thou mayst practise them after thy restitution Consider whether in thy Affliction thou didst remember thy past Recreations thy Merriments thy Feastings thy Lusts thy Honours thy Greatness with any Comfort or Contentment or whether the remembrance of the Hours thou hast formerly spent in Prayer Reading the Scriptures Hearing Sermons Relieving the Poor Visiting the Sick Relieving the Oppressed Harbouring the Persecuted Members of Christ gave thee more contentment And I dare appeal to any Mans Experience under Heaven that when the former sort of Transactions of our lives were either extreamly bitter or at best very insipid to his remembrance yet the remembrance of these of the latter sort were most Comfortable and Contenting Thou art now recovered it is true but as sure as thou shalt dye so sure thou shalt pass through new Afflictions though it may be not of the same kind yet of some kind let it be thy care after God hath thus delivered thee from thy former Affliction to lay up a stock of Good Works against another Evil day such Cordials will lie warm at thy Heart even when the cold pangs of Death it self shall be ready to invade and seize upon it and the Comfort of them shall pass into the other World with thee 8. Though the portion of thy life before thy Affliction and under it were very well spent yet remember that the Mercy of God in thy Deliverance doth call upon thee for a farther degree of Goodness and Perfection than thou hadst before it calls for more Humility and more Thankfulness and more Heavenly Mindedness and more Charity and more Devotion and more Self-Denial and more Sanctity and more Jealousie for the Honour of God For 1. On Gods part thou hast more Ingagements and Obligations put upon thee than before Every increase of Mercy calls for an increase of Duty 2. On thy own part thy Experiences are greater thou hast past through the School of Afflictions and that is a season wherein God opens the Ear to Discipline the Rod hath a voice and a lesson to teach and thou hast past through the experience of Gods Goodness Tenderness and Faithfulness in thy Deliverance and that tutors thee to more Dependance upon him Thankfulness to him and Love of him and these affections carry out the Heart to Duty and Obedience 9. Beware that after Deliverance from Afflictions thou be not secure think not with Agag surely the bitterness of death is past that now thou hast escaped this brunt all is safe and the danger past still be Watchful and stand upon thy Guard 1. Thou hast Sins and Corruptions within thee that if thou art not watchful may surprize thee and raise new storms 2. Thou hast watchful and vigilant Enemies without thee Evil Men and Evil Angels that envy thee the more because thou hast escaped 3. As long as thou livest in the World thy condition is uncertain and unstable in Externals and though
better Thoughts or Imployments 4. Take heed to thy Heart it is a deceitful Heart a treacherous and a false Heart that will side with the Enemy of thy God and of thy Soul and of thy Peace an Hypocritical and a false heart that will turn into a thousand shapes so that thou canst not know what it is It is the fountain of all those bitter waters that stream through the faculties and actions a box full of the Spirits of poyson which will infect all thou dost and over-spread the World with villany and furies a foul impure impostumated principle that nothing can cure or change but the great Lord of the World the God of the Spirits of all flesh and yet when God is pleased to set up his Rule and Scepter there there is never a minute but this heart of thine is practising Rebellion or Treachery or Apostacy against it therefore Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of thy life Prov. 4.23 the Objects upon which thy Heart fixeth though they are innocent and harmless for the most part yet the ill constitution of thy heart turns them to the poyson of thy Soul Riches and Power and Honour and Creatures are in themselves good but it is the heart that turns them into Temptations and into sins In the Pursuit of them it begets Covetousness Ambition unlawful Means In the Fruition of them it begets Pride and Insolence and carnal Confidence In the Want of them it begets Murmuring and Discontent and Envy In the Use of things lawful it begets excess and immoderation and unseasonableness In the Performance of things commendable and commanded it begets Arrogance Self-attribution Vain-Glory Overprizing of them and of it self for them opinion of Merit a supposition of Priviledge to offend in other things because of the due performance of these And thus we cannot want a Temptation so long as we carry about us a heart so full of corruption Therefore carry a strict and diligent hand over thy heart for it hath in it a fountain a seed a stock of Temptations 5. Set a Watch over all the Actions of thy Life of what kind soever 1. In matters Indifferent or that are so represented to thee suspect thy Judgment in them and know that thou art apt to judge partially and to put a face of indifferency upon things that it may be are evil and therefore rather be content to deny thy self the use of things indifferent than to hazard thy self upon that which may prove a sin If thy carnal heart judge a thing indifferent it is ten to one but that thing hath somewhat of sin in it if thy heart dare only say it is indifferent and may be done thou mayst certainly conclude that it may certainly be let alone In matters presented to thee as indifferent to be done or not to be done be content to refuse that part which thy sinful heart most inclines thee to When thou denyest thy self in that which thou art sure is sinful It is the duty of thy Obedience when thou denyest thy self in that which seems Indifferent it is the duty of thy Watchfulness 2. In matters that are certainly Lawful yet take heed of any mixture of any unlawful circumstance for that makes thy very lawful action a snare to thee to draw thee into sin Any one defect is enough to make the whole action sinful as in the use of the creatures if it be accompanied with the circumstances of Immoderation Unseasonableness or Unsuitableness in the acquiring of Conveniences for life if it be accompanied with any unlawful means Anxiety robbing God of the Heart unseasonable robbing God of his Time these make the things that are in themselves lawful to become sins And not only is it so in case of things lawful but in case of things Necessary and Commendable to glorifie God is our most universal and indispensable duty yet to talk deceitfully for him becomes a sin Job 13.7 to offer Sacrifice was a duty enjoyned under the old law yet to commit Robbery for burnt offerings or to offer Sacrifice with hands full of blood turns the Sacrifice into an Abomination Isa 1.13 To Pray to give Alms to Fast are duties injoyned by God but to do them for Pride or Vain-Glory turns them into a sin Matt. 6.1 The mixing of an ill Means or an ill End spoils the whole Service 6. Especially have an Eye to that Temptation that is most suitable to thy Age Complexion Constitution or Condition for that is thy most dangerous Temptation because it hath the greatest Power over thee The temptations of Youth are commonly Lightness Pride of Apparel Rashness Lust Excess the temptations of Riper Age are commonly Vain-glory Ambition Revenge Violence the temptations of Old Age Covetousness Morosity c. So the temptations incident to the several Constitutions or Complexions Anger Lust Immoderate eating Sluggishness Unquietness Fearfulness Vanity of Thoughts c. So the Temptations incident to the several Conditions of a Man those that border upon his Trade or Profession Lying Cosening c. Upon his Estate in this World Poverty is apt to incline to Murmuring Repining Envy at others that seem of less Merit yet more Wealth use of unlawful means either to supply or to cover our wants Power and Greatness are apt to tempt to Revenge of past injuries or present neglects to scorn and despise others to Pride and Arrogance to love to be Flattered and to hunt for Applause to Boasting Threatning Superciliousness Forgetting of Relations using undue Means to support it c. Wealth is apt to tempt to Confidence in it to set up our rest here to be loth to think of death or change to forget God to undervalue or not to think upon our everlasting future condition vexing and tormenting cares an imagination that we are out of the need or reach of the Divine Providence 1 Tim. 6.9 Those that will be rich fall into many Temptations Pleasures expected or enjoyed are apt to thrust out of the heart the thought of the Presence of God and the thought of Death and Judgment that so they may be the more freely and uncontrolably enjoyed they are apt to estrange a man from access to God or confidence in him c. These and the like temptations every man may find by a small observation of himself and others are apt to follow the several conditions of men and prevail upon them and therefore especially upon any great change of our condition foreseen we are to fence our selves strongest against those temptations which are indeed nothing else but the Issues and Productions of the heart upon such Conjunctions and are as natural to it in that state of corruption wherein she is as vermine are to be produced from heat and putrefaction and therefore expect such temptations upon any great change of thy condition and fortify thy self against them with Resolution with Watchfulness with often thoughts of thy Mortality with Remembrance of the Presence
Power and All-sufficiency of God and lastly with Recourse to God by Prayer against them for Except the Lord keep the City the Watchmen wake but in vain Psal 127.1 2. The second means is that which our Saviour teacheth us in this Petition Prayer unto God the Father who is faithful and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able 1 Cor. 10.13 Through our Lord Jesus Christ who hath suffered himself being tempted and therefore is able to succour those that are tempted Heb. 2.18 By the Eternal Spirit who hath promised to guide us into all truth John 16.13 That the Almighty and Eternal God who so far condescends unto us as to offer us his Hand to lead us and his Strength to support us that sees all our wayes and our wandrings and the snares that are spread for our feet would be pleased to guide us by his Hand and by his Eye that we may keep the true and old way and if any snares be laid there for us by the Enemy of our Peace that he would either remove or break the snare or lead us about by them or lift us over them That he would be pleased to cleanse our Hearts from our corruptions the nursery of our Temptations that he would prepare us and instruct and strengthen us by his Mighty Spirit to discern and to oppose and to overcome the deceits and seductions of our own Hearts To conclude therefore this part of this Petition O Lord God Almighty that beholdest all my ways I find that I walk in the midst of Snares and Temptations the great Enemy of my Salvation and his Retinue are continually about me and watch for my halting secretly and undiscoverably soliciting my Soul to sin against thee almost in every occurrence of my life and every motion of my mind and having in any thing prevailed against me either he quiets my Soul in my sin or disorders my Soul for it and by both prevents or diverts me from coming to thee to seek my Pardon as a thing not necessary to be asked or impossible to be gained Again the Men among whom I live scatter their temptations for me by Perswasions to sin by evil Examples by success in sinful practices And if there were no Devil or Man to tempt me yet I find in my self an everlasting seed of Temptations a stock of corruptions that forms all I am and all I have or do even thy very Mercies into Temptations when I consider thy Patience and Goodness to me I am tempted to Presumption to Supineness to an Opinion of my own worth when I consider or find thy Justice I am tempted to Murmuring to despair to think the most Soveraign Lord a hard Master In my Understanding I am tempted to secret Argumentation to Atheism to Infidelity to dispute thy Truth to curiosity to impertinent or forbidden enquiries If I have Learning it makes me Proud apt to despise the purity and simplicity of thy Truth to contend for Mastery not for Truth to use my Wit to reason my self or others into Errors or Sins to spend my time in those discoveries that do not countervail the expence nor are of any value or use to my Soul after death In my Will I find much averseness to what is good a ready motion to every thing that is evil or at least an incertain fluctuation between both In all my Thoughts I find abundance of Vanity when imployed to any thoughts of most concernment to my Soul full of inconsistency unfixt unsetled easily interrupted mingled with gross apprehensions When I look into my Conscience I find her easily bribed and brought over to the wrong party allayed with self-love if not wholly silent unprofitable and dead In my Affections I find continued disorder easily misplaced and more easily over-acted beyond the bounds of Moderation Reason and Wisdom much more of Christianity and thy Fear In my sensual Appetite I find a continual fog and vapour rising from it disordering my Soul in all I am about with unseasonable importunate and foul exhalations that darken and pollute it that divert and disturb it in all that is good that continually solicit it to all sensual Evils unto all immoderation and excess In my Senses I have an Eye full of Wantonness full of Covetousness full of Haughtiness an Ear full of Itching after novelties impertinencies vanities a Palate full of Intemperance studious for curiosities a Hand full of violence when it is in my power a Tongue full of unnecessary vain words apt to slander to whisper full of vain-glory and self-flattery If thou givest me a healthy strong Body I am ready to be proud of it apt to think my self out of the reach of sickness or death It keeps me from thinking of my latter end or providing for it I am ready to use that strength to the service of sin with better advantage more excess and less remorse If thou visitest me with sickness I am surprised with Peevishness Impatience with solicitous care touching my Estate and Posterity and Recovery and my thoughts concerning thee less frequent less profitable than before though my necessity be greater If thou givest me Plenty I am apt to be Proud Insolent Confident in my Wealth reckoning upon it as my Treasure think every thought lost that is not imployed upon it or in order to increase it loth to think of Death or Judgment If thou visitest me with Poverty I am apt to murmur to count the Rich happy to cast off thy service as unprofitable to look upon my everlasting hopes as things at a distance Imaginary Comforts under Real wants If thou givest me Reputation and Esteem in the World I am apt to make use of it to bear me out at a pinch in some unlawful action to use it to mislead others to use any base shift to support it If thou cast me into Reproach and Ignominy my heart is apt to swell against the means to study Revenge and to die with my Reputation though it may causelesly be lost and to have the thoughts and remembrance of it to interfere and grate upon my Soul even in my immediate service to thee any Cross sowers at my blessings and carries my heart so violently into discontent for it may be all single affliction which I deservedly suffer that I forget to be thankful for a multitude of other Mercies which I undeservedly enjoy If I am about a good Duty I find my heart tempted to perform them Carelesly Formally Negligently Hypocritically Vain-gloriously for false or by-Ends and when I have done them my heart is puft up with Pride opinion of Merit looking upon my Maker as my Debtor for the Duty I owe him and yet but slightly and defectively performed to him How then can I expect Power from my self to resist a Temptation without when I find so much treachery within me I therefore beseech thee most Merciful and Powerful Father to send into my heart the Grace and strength of thy blessed