and drink yet your own Reason and experience will tell you that ordinarily you should observe a stated time Neither let the fear of customariness and formality deter you from this That Argument hath brought the Lords Supper from once a week to once a quarter or once a yeer and it hath brought family-duties with too many of late from twice a day to once a week or once a moneth and if it were not that man being proud is naturally of a Teaching humor and addicted to works of popularity and ostentation I beleeve it would diminish Preaching as much And will it deal any better with secret duties especially this of Holy Meditation I advise thee therefore if well thou maist to allow this duty a stated time and be as constant in it as in Hearing and Praying Yet be cautious in understanding this I know this will not prove every mans duty some have not themselves and their time at command and therefore cannot set their hours such are most servants and many children of poor or carnal parents and many are so poor that the necessity of their Families wil deny them this freedom I do not think it the duty of such to leave their labors for this work at certain set times no nor for Prayer or other necessary worship No such duty is at all times a duty Affirmatives specially Positives binde not semper ad semper When two duties come together and cannot both be performed it were then a sin to perform the lesser Of two duties we must chuse the greater though of two sins we must chuse neither I think such persons were best to be watchful to redeem time as much as they can and take their vacant opportunities as they fall and especially to joyn Meditation and Prayer as much as they can with the very labors of their callings There is no such enmity between laboring and meditating or praying in the Spirit but that both may conveniently be done together Yet I say as Paul in another case if thou canst be free use it rather Those that have more time a spare from worldly necessaries and are Masters to dispose of themselves and their time I still advise That they keep this duty to a stated time And indeed it were no ill husbandry nor point of folly if we did so by all other duties If we considered of the ordinary works of the day and â—â—ited out a fit season and proportion of time to every work and fixed this in our memory and resolution or wrote it in a Table and kept in our Closets and never brake it but upon unexpected or extraordinary cause If every work of the day had thus its appointed time we should be better skilled both in redeeming time and performing duty SECT II. 2. I Advise thee also concerning thy time for this duty That as it be stated so it be frequent Just how oft it should be I cannot determine because mens several conditions may vary it But in general that it be frequent the Scripture requireth when it mentioneth meditating continually and day and night Circumstances of our condition may much vary the circumstances of our duties It may be one mans duty to hear or pray oftner then anothers and so it may be in this Meditation But for those that can conveniently omit other business I advise That it be once a day at least Though Scripture tell us not how oft in a day we should eat or drink yet prudence and experience will direct us to twice or thrice a day according to the temper and necessities of our bodies Those that think they should not tie themselves to order or number of duties but should then onely meditate or pray when they finde the Spirit provoking them to it do go upon uncertain and unchristian grounds I am sure the Scripture provokes us to frequency and our necessity secondeth the voice of Scripture and if through my own neglect or resistance of the Spirit I do not finde it so to excite and quicken me I dare not therefore disobey the Scripture nor neglect the necessities of my own soul I should suspect that Spirit which would turn my soul from constancy in duty if the Spirit in Scripture bid me meditate or pray I dare not forbear it because I finde not the Spirit within me to second the command if I finde not incitation to duty before yet I may finde assistance while I wait in performance I am afraid of laying my corruptions upon the Spirit or blaming the want of the Spirits assistance when I should blame the backwardness of my own heart nor dare I make one corruption a plea for another nor urge the inward rebellion of my Nature as a Reason for the outward disobedience of my life And for the healing of my natures backwardness I more expect that the Spirit of Christ should do it in a way of duty which I still finde to be his ordinary season of working then in a way of disobedience and neglect of duty Men that fall on duty according to the frame of their spirits onely are like our ignorant vulgar or if you will like the Swine who think their appetite should be the onely rule of their eating When a wise man judgeth both of quantitie and qualitie by Reason and Experience least when his appetite is depraved he should either surfet or famish Our Appetite is no sure rule for our times of duty but the Word of God in general and our Spiritual Reason Experience Necessitie and convenience in particular may truly direct us Three Reasons especially should perswade thee to frequency in this Meditation on Heaven 1. Because seldom conversing with him will breed a strangeness betwixt thy soul and God Frequent society breeds familiarity and familiarity increaseth love and delight and maketh us bold and confident in our addresses This is the main end of this duty that thou maist have acquaintance and fellowship with God therein Therefore if thou come but seldom to it thou wilt keep thy self a stranger still and so miss of the end of the work O when a man feels his need of God and must seek his help in a time of necessity when nothing else can do him any good you would little think what an encouragement it is to go to a God that we know and are acquainted with O saith the heavenly Christian I know both whither I go and to whom I have gone this way many a time before now It is the same God that I daily conversed with it is the same way that was my daily walk God knows me well enough and I have some knowledg of him On the other side What a horror and discouragement to the soul it will be when it is forced to flie to God in streights to think Alas I know not whither to go I never went the way before I have no acquaintance at the Court of Heaven My soul knows not that God that I must speak to and
afford that solid comfort as the converting of a few sinners by our unwearied compassionate exhortations Two men in a frosty season come where a company of people are ready to starve the one of them laps himself and taketh shelter for fear lest he should perish with them the other in pity falls to rub them that he may recover heat in them and while he laboreth hard to help them he getteth far better heat to himself then his unprofitable companion doth 7. With many also pride is a great impediment If it were to speak to a great man they would do it so it would not displease him But to go among the poor multitude and to take pains with a company of ignorant beggars or mean persons and to sit with them in a smoaky nasty cottage and there to instruct them and exhort them from day to day where is the person almost that will do it Many will much rejoyce if they have been instruments of converting a Gentleman and they have good cause But for the common multitude they look not after them As if God were a respecter of the persons of the rich or the souls of all were not alike to him Alas these men little consider how low Christ did stoop to us When the God of Glory comes down in flesh to wormes and goeth Preaching up and down among them from City to City Not the sillyest woman that he thought too low to confer with Few rich and noble and wise are called It is the poor that receive the glad tidings of the Gospel 8. Lastly With some also their Ignorance of the duty doth hinder them from performing it Either they know it not to be a duty or at least not to be their duty Perhaps they have not considered much of it nor been prest to it by their teachers as they have been to hearing and praying and other duties If this be thy case who readest this that meer Ignorance or inconsiderateness hath kept thee from it then I am in hope now thou art acquainted with thy duty thou wilt set upon it Object O but saith one I am of so weak parts and gifts that I am unable to manage an exhortation especially to men of strong natural parts and understanding Answ. First Set those upon the work who are more able Secondly Yet do not think that thou art so excused thy self but use faithfully that ability which thou hast not in teaching those of whom thou shouldst learn but in instructing those that are more ignorant then thy self and in exhorting those that are negligent in the things which they do know If you cannot speak well your self yet you can tell them what God speaketh in his word It is not the excellency of speech that winneth souls but the authority of God manifested by that speech and the power of his word in the mouth of the instructer A weak woman may tell what God saith in the plain passages of the word as well as a learned man If you cannot preach to them yet you can turn to the place in your Bible or at least remember them of it and say Thus it is written One of mean parts may remember the wisest of their duty when they forget it David received seasonable advice from Abigail a woman When a mans eyes are blinded with passion or the deceits of the world or the lusts of the flesh a weak instructer may prove very profitable for in that case he hath as much need to hear of that he knoweth as of that which he doth not know Object It is my superiour that needeth advice and exhortation and is it fit for me to teach or reprove my betters must the wife teach the husband of whom the Scripture biddeth them learn or must the childe teach the parents whose duty it is to teach them Answ. First It is fit that husbands should be able to teach their wives and parents to teach their children and God expecteth they should be so and therefore commandeth the inferiours to learn of them But if they through their own negligence do disable themselves or through their own wickedness do bring their souls into such misery as that they have the greatest need of advice and reproof themselves and are objects of pity to all that know their case then it is themselves and not you that break Gods order by bringing themselves into disability and misery Matter of meer order and manners must be dispensed with in cases of flat necessity Though it were your Minister you must teach him in such a case It is the part of parents to provide for the children and not children for the parents and yet if the parents fall into want must not the children relieve them It is the part of the husband to dispose of the affaires of the family and estate and yet if he be sick or besides himself must not the wife do it The rich should relieve the poor but if the rich fall into beggery they must be relieved themselves It is the work of the Physitian to look to the health of others and yet if he fall sick some body must help him and look to him So must the meanest servant admonish his master and the childe his parents and the wife her husband and the people their Minister in cases of necessity Secondly yet let me give you these two cautions here 1. That you do not pretend necessity when there is none out of a meer desire of teaching There is scarce a more certain discovery of a proud heart then to be forwarder and more desirous to Teach then to Learn especially toward those that are fitter to Teach us 2. And when the Necessity of your superiors doth call for your advice yet do it with all possible humility and modesty and meekness Let them discern your reverence and submission to their superiority in the humble maner of your addresses to them Let them perceive that you do it not out of a meer teaching humor or proud self-conceitedness An Elder must be admonished but not rebuked If a wife should tell her husband of his sin in a masterly railing language or if a servant reprove his master or a childe his father in a sawcie disrespective way what good could be expected from such reproof But if they should meekly and humbly open to him his sin and danger and intreat him to bear with them in what God commandeth and his misery requireth and if they could by teares testifie their sense of his case What father or master or husband could take this ill Object But some may say This will make us all Preachers and cause all to break over the bounds of their callings every boy and woman then will turn preacher Ans. 1. This is not taking a Pastoral charge of souls nor making an office or calling of it as Preachers do 2. And in the way of our callings every good Christian is a Teacher and hath a charge of his neighbors soul. Let
one with another and Calvins Exposition which is the summ of all I have said q. d. Danda est vobis opera non tantum ut salsi intus sitis sed etiam ut saliatis alios Quia tamen sal acrimoniâ suâ mordet ideo statim admonet sic temperandam esse condituram ut pax interim salva maneat SECT XI 6. THe last whom I would perswade to this great Work of helping others to the Heavenly Rest is Parents and Masters of Families All you that God hath intrusted with Children or Servants O consider what Duty lyeth on you for the furthering of their Salvation That this Exhortation may be the more effectual with you I will lay down these several Considerations for you seriously to think on 1. What plain and pressing commands of God are there that require this great Duty at your hands Deut. 6.6 7 8. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up So Deut. 11. And how well is God pleased with this in Abraham Gen. 18.19 Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him that they shall keep the way of the Lord c. And it is Joshuaes Resolution That he and his Houshold will serve the Lord. Prov. 22.6 Train up a childe in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Ephes 6.4 Bring up your children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Many the like Precepts especially in the Book of Proverbs you may finde So that you see it is a Work that the Lord of heaven and earth hath laid upon you and how then dare you neglect it and cast it off 2. It is a duty that you ow your children in point of Justice from you they received the defilement and misery of their natures and therefore you ow them all possible help for their recovery If you had but hurt a stranger yea though against your will you would think it duty to help to cure him 3. Consider how neer your children are to you and then you will perceive that from this Natural Relation also they have interest in your utmost help your children are as it were parts of your selves If they prosper when you are dead you take it almost as if you lived and prospered in them If you labor never so much you think it not ill bestowed nor your buildings or purchases too dear so that they may enjoy them when you are dead and should you not be of the same minde for their everlasting Rest 4. You will else be witnesses against your own souls your great care and pains and cost for their bodies will condemn you for your neglect of their pretious souls you can spend your selves in toyling and caring for their bodies and even neglect your own souls and venture them sometimes upon unwarrantable courses and all to provide for your Posterity and have you not as much reason to provide for their souls Do you not believe that your children must be everlastingly happy or miserable when this life is ended and should not that be fore-thought of in the first place 5. Yea All the very bruit creatures may condemn you Which of them is not tender of their young How long will the Hen sit to hatch her Chickens and how busily scrape for them and how carefully shelter and defend them and so will even the most vile and venemous Serpent and will you be more unnatural and hard-hearted then all these will you suffer your children to be ungodly and profane and run on in the undoubted way to damnation and let them alone to destroy themselves without controll 6. Consider God hath made your children to be your charge yea and your servants too Every one will confess they are the Ministers charge and what a dreadful thing it is for them to neglect them when God hath told them That if they tell not the wicked of their sin and danger their blood shall be required at that Ministers hands and is not your charge as great and as dreadful as theirs Have not you a greater charge of your own Families then any Minister hath Yea doubtless and your duty it is to reach and admonish and reprove them and watch over them and at your hands else will God require the bloud of their souls The greatest charge it is that ever you were entrusted with and we to you if you prove unfaithful and betray your trust and suffer them to be ignorant for want of your teaching or wicked for want of your admonition or correction O â—ad account that many parents will make 7. Look into the dispositions and lives of your children and see what a work there is for you to do First It is not one sin that you must help them against but thousands their name is Legion for they are many It is not one weed that must be pulled up but the field is overspread with them Secondly And how hard is it to prevail against any one of them They are Hereditary diseases bred in their Natures Naturam expellâ—s furea c. They are aâ— neer them as the very heart and how tenacious are all things of that which is natural how hard to teach a Hare not to be fearful or a Lyon or Tiger not to be fierce Besides the things you must teach them are quite above them yea clean contrary to the interest and desires of their Flesh how hard is it to teach a man to be willing to be poor and despised and destroyed here for Christ to deny themselves and displease the flesh to forgive an Enemy to love those that hate us to watch against temptations to avoid occasions and appearance of evil to believe in a crucified Saviour to rejoyce in tribulation to trust upon a bare word of Promise and let go all in hand if call'd to it for something in hope that they never saw nor ever spake with man that did see to make God their chief delight and love and to have their hearts in heaven while they live on earth I think none of this is easie they think otherwise let them try and Judg yet all this must be learned or they are undone for ever If you help them not to some Trade they cannot live in the world but if they be destitute of these things they shall not live in heaven If the Marriner be not skilful he may be drowned and if the Souldier be not skilful he may be slain but they that cannot do the things above mentioned will perish for ever For without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 O that the Lord would make all you that are Parents sensible what a work and charge
doth lye upon you You that neglect this important work and talk to your Families of nothing but the world I tell you the bloud of souls lyes on you make as light of it as you will if you repent not and amend the Lord will shortly call you to an account for your guiltiness of your childrens everlasting undoing and then you that could finde in your hearts to neglect the souls of your own children will be judged more barbarous then the Irish or Turks that kill the children of others 8. Consider also what a world of sorrows do you prepare for your selves by the neglect of your children First You can expect no other but that they should be thorns in your very eyes and you may thank your selves if they prove so seeing they are thorns of your own planting Secondly If you should repent of this your negligence and be saved your selves yet is it nothing to you to think of the damnation of your children You know God hath said That except they be born again they shall not enter into the Kingdom of God Methinks then it should be a heart-breaking to all you that have unregenerate children Methinks you should weep over them every time you look them in the face to remember that they are in the way to eternal fire Some people would lament the fate of their children if but a Wizard should foretel them some ill fortune to befall them and do you not regard it when the Living God shall tell you That the wicked shall be turned into hell and all they that forget God Psal. 9.17 Thirdly Yet all this were not so doleful to you if it were a thing that you had no hand in or could do nothing to help but to think that all this is much long of you that ever your negligence should bring your childe to these everlasting torments which the very damned man Luke 16. would have had his brethren been warned to escape if this seem light to thee thou hast the heart of a hellish Fiend in thee and not of a man Fourthly But yet worse then all this will it prove to you if you die in this sin for then you shall be miserable as well as they and O what a greeting will there be then between ungodly Parents and children what a hearing will it be to your tormented souls to hear your children cry out against you All this that we suffer was long of you you should have taught us better and did not you should have restrained us from sin and corrected us but you did not what an addition will such out-cries be to your misery 9. On the other side do but think with your selves what a world of comfort you may have if you be faithful in this duty First If you should not succeed yet you have freed your own souls and though it be sad yet not so sad for you may have peace in your own consciences Secondly But if you do succeed the comfort is unexpressible For first Godly children will be truly loving to your selves that are their Parents when a little riches or matters of this world will oft make ungodly children to cast off their very natural affection secondly Godly children will be most obedient to you They dare not disobey and provoke you because of the command of God except you should command them that which is unlawful and then they must obey God rather then men thirdly And if you should fall into want they would be most faithful in relieving you as knowing they are tied by a double bond of Nature and of Grace fourthly And they will also be helpers to your souls and to your spiritual comforts they will be delighting you with the mention of heaven and with all holy conference and actions when wicked children will be grieving you with cursing and swearing or drunkenness or disobedience fifthly Yea when you are in trouble or sickness and at death your godly children will be at hand to advise and to support you they will strive with God in prayers for you O what a comfort is it to a Parent to have a childe that hath the Spirit of Prayer and interest in God how much good may they do you by their importunity with God And what a sadness is it to have children that when you lye sick can do no more but ask you how you do and look on you in your misery sixthly Yea all your Family may fare the better for one childe or servant that feareth God yea perhaps all the Town where he liveth As Josephs case proveth and Jacobs and many the like when one wicked childe may bring a Judgment oâ— your house seventhly And if God make you instruments of your childrens conversion you will have a share in all the good that they do through their lives all the good they do to their brethren or to the Church of God and all the honor they bring to God will redound to your happiness as having been instruments of it eighthly And what a comfort may it be to you all your lives to think that you shall live with them for ever with God ninthly But the greatest joy will be when you come to the possession of this and you shall say Here am I and the children thou hast given me And are not all these comforts enough to perswade you to this duty 10. Consider further That the very welfare of Church and State lyeth mainly on this duty of well educating children and without this all other means are like to be far less successful I seriously profess to you that I verily think all the sins and miseries of the Land may acknowledg this sin for their great Nurse and Propagator O what happy Churches might we have if Parents did their duties to their children then we need not exclude so many for ignorance or scandal nor have our Churches composed of members so rude then might we spare most of the quarrels about Discipline Reformation Toleration and Separation any reasonable government would do better with a well-taught people then the best will do with the ungodly It is not good Laws and Orders that will reform us if the men be not good and Reformation begin not at home when children go wicked from the hands of their Parents thence some come such to the Universities and so we come to have an ungodly Ministry and in every profession they bring this fruit of their Education with them when Gentlemen teach their children onely to Hunt and Hawk and game and deride the godly what Magistrates and what Parliaments and so what Government and what a Commonwealth are we like to have when all must be guided by such as these some perverse inconsiderate persons lay the blame of all this on the Ministers that people of all sorts are so ignorant and profane as if one man can do the work of many hundreds I beseech you that are Masters and Parents do your own duties and free Ministers from these
guilty of all the sin that he committeth in his drunkenness VVill you resolve therefore to set upon this duty and neglect it no longer Remember Eli your children are like Moses in the basket in the water ready to perish if they have not help As ever you would not be charged before God for murderers of their souls and as ever you would not have them cry out against you in everlasting fire see that you teach them how to escape it and bring them up in holiness and the fear of God You have heard that the God of heaven doth flatly command it you I charge every one of you therefore upon your allegiance to him and as you will very shortly answer the contrary at your peril that you neither refuse nor neglect this most necessary work If you are not willing now you know it to be so plain and so great a duty you are flat Rebels and no true subjects of Christ. If you are willing to do it but know not how I will adde a few words of direction to help you 1. Teach them by your own example as well as by your words Be your selves such as you would have them be practice is the most effectual teaching of children who are addicted to imitation especially of their parents Lead them the way to prayer and reading and other duties Be not like base Commanders that will put on their Soldiers but not go on themselves Can you expect your children should be wiser or better then you Let them not hear those words out of your mouths nor see those practices in your lives which you reprove in them No man shall be saved because his children are godly if he be ungodly himself Who should lead the way in holiness but the father and master of the family It is a sad time when he must be accounted a good master or father that will not hinder his family from serving God but will give them leave to go to heaven without him I will but name the rest for your direct dutie for your Family 1. You must help to inform their understandings 2. To store their memories 3. To rectifie their wills 4. To quicken their affections 5. To keep tender their consciences 6. To restrain their tongues and help them to skill in gracious Speech 7. And to reform and watch over their outward conversation To these ends First Be sure to keep them at least so long at School till they can read English It is a thousand pities that a reasonable Creature should look upon a Bible as upon a Stone or a piece of Wood. Secondly Get them Bibles and good Books and see that they read them Thirdly Examine them often what they learn Fourthly Especially bestow the Lords day in this work and see that they spend it not in sports or idleness Fiftly Shew them the meaning of what they read and learn Josh. 4 6 21 22. Psal. 78.4 5 6 34.11 Sixthly Acquaint them with the godly and keep them in good company where they may learn good and keep them out of that company that would teach them evil Seventhly Be sure to cause them to learn some Catechism containing the chief Heads of Divinity as those made by the Assembly of Divines or Master Balls SECT XVII THe Heads of Divinity which you must teach them first are these 1. That there is one onely God who is a Spirit invisible infinite eternal Almighty good merciful true just holy c. 2. That this God is one in three Father Son and holy Ghost 3. That he is the Maker Maintainer and Lord of all 4. That mans happiness consisteth in the enjoying of this God and not in fleshly pleasure profits or honors 5. That God made the first man upright and happy and gave him a Law to keep with Conditions that if he kept it perfectly he should live happy for ever but if he broke it he should die 6. That man broke this Law and so forfeited his welfare and became guilty of death as to himself and all his Posterity 7 That Christ the Son of God did here interpose and prevent the full execution undertaking to die in stead of man and so to Redeem him whereupon all things were delivered into his hands as the Redeemer and he is under that relation the Lord of all 8. That Christ hereupon did make with man a better Covenant or Law which proclaimed pardon of sin to all that did but repent and believe obey sincerely 9. That he revealed this Covenant and Mercy to the world by degrees first in darker Promises Prophecies and Sacrifices then in many Ceremonious Types and then by more plain foretellings by the Prophetâ— 10. That in the fulness of time Christ came and took our Nature into Union with his Godhead being conceived by the holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary 11. That while he was on earth he lived a life of sorrows was crowned with Thorns and bore the pains that our sins deserved at last being Crucified to death and buried and so satisfied the Justice of God 12. That he also Preached himself to the Jews and by constant Miracles did prove the truth of his Doctrine and Mediatorship before thousands of Witnesses That he revealed more fully his New Law or Covenant That whosoever will believe in him and accept him for Saviour and Lord shall be pardoned and saved and have a far greater glory then they lost and they that will not shall lye under the curse and guilt and be condemned to the everlasting fire of hell 13. That he rose again from the dead having conquered death and took fuller possession of his Dominion over all and so ascended up into heaven and there reigneth in glory 14. That before his Ascention he gave charge to his Apostles to go Preach the foresaid Gospel to all Nations and persons and to offer Christ and Mercy and Life to every one without exception and to intreat and perswade them to receive him and that he gave them authority to send forth others on the same Message and to Baptise and to gather Churches and confirm and order them and to settle a course for a succeâ—â—â—on of Ministers and Ordinances to the end of the world 15. That he also gave them power to work frequent and evident Miracles for the confirmation of their Doctrine and the convincing of the world and to annex their writings to the rest of the Scriptures and so to finish and seal them up and deliver them to the world as his infallible Word and Laws which none must dare to alter and which all must observe 16. That for all this free Grace is offered to the world yet the heart is by Nature so desperately wicked that no man will believe and entertain Christ sincerely except by an Almighty power he be changed and born again and therefore doth Christ send forth his Spirâ—t with his Word which secretly and effectually worketh holiness in the hearts of the Elect drawing
that such a Latine or Greek word hath such a signification when will he learn or how will he know Nay how do the most learned linguists know the signification of words in any language and so in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures but only upon the credit of their Teachers and Authors And yet certaine enough too in the maine Tradition is not so useles to the world or the Church as some would have it Though the Papists do sinfully plead it against the sufficiency of Scripture yet Scriptures sufficiency or perfection is only in suo genere in its owne kind and not in omni genere not sufficient for every purpose Scripture is a sufficient rule of Faith and life but not a sufficient means of conveying it self to all generations and persons If humane Testimony had not been necessary why should Christ have men to be witnesses in the beginning And also still instruments of perswading others and attesting the verity of these sacred records to those that cannot otherwise come to know them And doubtles this is a chief use of Ministers in the Church and the great end of God in the stating and continuing that function that what men are uncapable of believing explicitly with a faith properly Divine that they might receive implicitly and upon the word of their Teachers with a humane faith Every man should labor indeed to see with his own eyes and to know all that God hath revealed and to be wiser eâ—en his Teachers but every man cannot bestow that time and pains in the study of Languages and Sciences without which that knowledg is not now attained We may rather wish then hope that all the Lords people were Prophets The Church of Christ hath been long in a very doleful plight betwixt these two extreams taking all things upon trust from our teachers and taking nothing upon trust And yet those very men who so disclaime taking upon trust do themselves take as much upon trust as others Why els are Ministers called the eyes and the hands of the body Stewards of the mysteries and of the house of God Overseers Rulers and Governers of the Church And such as must give the children their meat in due season Fathers of their people c. Surely the clearly known Truth and Duty must be received from any one though but a childe and known errror and iniquity must be received from none though an Angel from Heaven What then is that we are so often required to obey our Teaching Rulers in Surely it is not so much in the receiving of new instituted Ceremonies from them which they call things indifferent But as in all professions the Scholar must take his masters Word in learning till he can grow up to know the things in their own evidence and as men will take the words of any aâ—tificers in the matters that concern their own trade and as every wise patient will trust the judgement of his Physitian except he know as much himself and the Client will take the word of his Lawyer so also Christ hath ordered that the more strong and knowing should be teachers in his school and the young and ignorant should believe them and obey them till they can reach to understand the things themselves So that the matters which we must receive upon trust from our teachers are those which we cannot reach to know our selves and therefore must either take them upon the word of others or not receive them at all so that if these Rulers and Stewards do require us to believe when we know not our selves whether it be truth or not or if they require us to obey when we know not our selves whether it be a duty commanded by God or not here it is that we ought to obey them For though we know not whether God hath revealed such a point or commanded such an action yet that he hath commanded us to obey them that Rule over us who preach to us the word of God this we certainly know Heb. 13.7 Yet I think not we are so strictly tyed to the judgement of a weak Minister of our own as to take his word before anothers that is more Judicious in a neighbour congregation Nor do I think if we see but an appearance of his erring that we should carelessely go on in believing and obeying him without a diligent searching after the Truth even a liklyhood of his mistake must quicken us to further enquiry and may during that enquiry suspend our belief and obedience For where we are able to reach to know probabilities in divine things we may with diligence lightly reach to that degree of certainty which our Teachers themselves have attained or at least to understand the Reason of their Doctrine But still remember what I said before that fundamentals must be believed with a Faith explicit Absolute and Divine And thus I have shewed you the flat necessity of taking much upon the Testimony of man And that some of these humane Testimonies are so certaine that they may well be called Divine I conclude all with this intimation You may see by this of what singular use are the monuments of Antiquity and the knowledg thereof for the breeding and strengthening of the Christian faith especially the Histories of those times I would not perswade you to bestow much time in the reading of the Fathers in reference to their judgement in matter of Doctrine Gods word is a sufficient Rule and latter times have afforded far better Expositors But in reference to matters of fact for confirming the Miracles mentioned in Scripture and relating the wonderfull providence since I would they were read an hundred times more Not onely the writers of the Church but even the Histories of the enemies and all other antiquities Little do most consider how usefull these are to the Christian faith CHAP. V. The second Argument SECT I. I Come now to my second Argument to prove Scripture to be the word of God And it is this If the Scriptures be neither the invention of Devils nor of men then it can be from none but God But that it is neither of Divels nor meerly of men I shall now prove for I suppose none will question the major proposition First Not from Divels for first they cannot work Miracles to confirm them Secondly It would not stand with Gods Soveraignity over them or with his goodness Wisdome and Faithfulness in governing the world to suffer Satan to make Laws and confirm them with wonders and obtrude them upon the world in the name of God and all this without his disclaiming them or giving the world any notice of the forgery Thirdly Would Satan speak so much for God So seek his Glory as the Scripture doth would he so vilifie and reproach himself and make known himself to be the hatefullest and most miserable of all creatures would he so fully discover his own wiles his Temptations his methods of deceiving and
yet if this be not palpable enough The frequent Apparitions of Satan in several shapes drawing men or frighting them into sin is a discovery undeniable I know many are very incredulous herein and will hardly believe that there have been such apparitions For my own part though I am as suspitious as most in such reports and do believe that most of them are conceits or delusions yet having been very diligently inquisitive in such cases I have received undoubted Testimony of the Truth of such Apparitions some from the mouths of men of undoubted honesty and godliness and some from the report of multitudes of persons who heard or saw Were it fit here to name the persons I could send you to them yet living by whom you would be as fully satisfied as I Houses that have been so frequently haunted with such terrors that the Inhabitants successively have been witnesses of it Luther affirmed of himself that at Coburge he oft times had an apparition of burning Torches the sight whereof did so affright him that he was neer swooning also in his own Garden the devil appeared to him in the likeness of a black Boar but then he made light of it Zozomen in his Ecclesiastical History writes of Appelles a Smith famous in Egypt for working Miracles who in the night while he was at workwas tempted to uncleanness by the devil appearing in the shape of a beautiful woman The like he tels of a strange apparition in Antioch the night before the Sedition against Theodosius Theodorus mentions a fearful sight that appeared to Gennadius Patriarch of Constantinople and the threatning words which it uttered The Writings of Gregory Ambrose Austin Chrysostome Nicephorus c. make frequent mention of apparitions and relate the several stories at large You may read in Lavater de Spectris several other relations of apparitions out of Alexander ab Alexandro Baptista Fulgosius and others Ludovicus Vives lib. 1. de Veritate fidei saith That among the Savages in America nothing is more common then to hear and see Spirits in such shapes both day and night The like do other Writers testifie of those Indians So saith Olaus Magnus of the Islanders Cardanus de Subtilit hath many such Stories So Joh. Manlius in locor Commun collectan cap. de malis spiritibus de satisfactione Yea godly sober Melanchton affirms that he had seen some such Sights or Apparritions himself and many credible persons of his acquaintance have told him that they have not onely seen them but had much talk with Spirits Among the rest he mentions one of his own Aunt who sitting sad at the fire after the death of her husband there appeared to her one in the likeness of her husband and another like a Franciscan Frier the former told her that he was her husband and came to tell her somewhat which was that she must hire some Priests to say certain Masses for him which he earnestly besought her then he took her by the hand promising to do her no harm yet his hand so burned hers that it remained black ever after and so they vanished away Thus writes Melanchton Lavater also himself who hath writ a Book wholly of Apparitions a Learned Godly Protestant Divine tels us that it was then an undeniable thing confirmed by the Testimonies of many honest and credible persons both men and women some alive and some dead that sometime by night and sometime by day have both seen and heard such things some that going to bed had the cloathes plucked off them others had somewhat lying down in the bed with them others hear it walking in the Chamber by them spiting groaning saying they were the souls of such or such persons lately departed that they were in grievous torments and if so many Masses were but said for them or so many Pilgrimages undertaken to the shrine of some Saint they should be delivered These things with meny such more saith Lavater were then frequently and undoubtedly done and that where the doors were fast locked and the room searched that there could be no deceit So Sleidan relates the Story of Crescentius the Popes Legate feared into a deadly sickness by a fearful Apparition in his Chamber Most credible and godly Writers tell us That on June 20. 1484 at a Town called Hammell in Germany the devil took away one hundred and thirty children that were never seen again But I need to say no more of this there is enough written already not onely by Cicogna Delrio Paracelsus c. and others of suspected credit but also by godly and faithful Writers as Lavater Geor. Agricola Olaus Magnus Zanchius Pictorius and many more But you will say Though this prove that there are Devils and that they are enemies to our Happiness yet how doth it prove that there is a future Happiness or Misery for man Answ. Why plainly thus What need Satan by these Apparitions to set up Superstition to draw men to sin if there were no difference between sinners and others hereafter Surely in this life it would be no great displeasure to them for usually the wicked have the most prosperous lives therefore his delusions must needs have respect to another life And that the end of his Apparitions is either to drive men to despaire or to superstition or some sin is evident to all Most of the Papists Idolatry and Wil worship hath either been caused or confirmed by such Apparitions For in former days of darkness they were more common then now How the Order of the Carthusian Friers was founded by Bruno upon the terrible speeches and cries of a dead man you may read in the life of Bruno before his Exposition on Pauls Epistles Such was the Original of All Souls Day and other Holidays as Tritenhemius Petrus de Natalibus l. 10. c. 1. Polyd. Virg. de inv l. 6. c 9. do declare Also praying for the dead praying to Saints Purgatory Merits of good Works Satisfaction Pilgrimages Masses Images Reliques Monastical Vows Auricular Confession and most of the Popish Ceremonies have had their life and strength from these Apparitions and Delusions of the Devil But especially the Cross hath been so magnified hereby that it is grown the commonest remedy to drive away devils of any in the world for many hundred years The Churchyard must have one to keep the devil from the graves of the dead and the Church and almost every Pinacle Window and part of it to keep him thence the childe Baptized must have one to keep him thence the High ways also must have them that he molest not the Traveller yea when morning and evening and in times of danger and in the beginning of any work or duty men must sign themselves with the Cross to keep away devils Insomuch that the learned Doctors do handle it among their profound Questions which makes the devil so afraid of the Cross that he shuns it above all things else So that
the Gospel or our disobeying it upon the Painfulness or the Slothfulness of our present Endeavors I think it is time for us to bestir our selves and to leave our trifling and complementing with God SECT III. 2. COnsider Our diligence should be somewhat answerable to the Greatness of the work which we have to do as well as to the Ends of it Now the Works of a Christian here are very Many and very Great The Soul must be renewed Many and great Corruptions must be mortified Custom and Temptations and worldly Interests must be conquered Flesh must be mastered Self must be denyed Life and friends and credit and all must be slighted Conscience must be upon good grounds quieted Assurance of Pardon and Salvation must be attained And though it is God that must give us these and that freely without our own merit yet will he not give them so freely as without our earnest Seeking and Labour Besides there is a deal of knowledg to be got for the guiding of our selves for the defending of the Truth for the direction of others and a deal of skill for the right managing of our parts Many Ordinances are to be used and duties performed ordinary and extraordinary Every Age and year and day doth require fresh succession of duty Every place we come in every person that we have to deal with every change of our own Condition doth still require the renewing of our labour and bringeth duty along with it Wives Children Servants Neighbours Friends Enemies all of them call for duty from us And all this of great importance too so that for the most of it if we miscarry in it it would prove our undoing Judg then your selves whether men that have so much business lying upon their hands should not bestir them and whether it be their Wisdom either to Delay or to Loiter SECT IV. 3. COnsider Our diligence should be somewhat quickned because of the shortness and uncertainty of the Time allotted us for the performing of all this work and the many and great impediments which we meet with Yet a few days and we shall be here no more Time passeth on Many hundred diseases are ready to assault us We that now are preaching and hearing and talking and walking must very shortly be carryed on mens backs and laid in the dust and there left to the worms in darkness and corruption we are almost there already It is but a few days or moneths or years and what is that when once they are past We know not whether we shall have another Sermon or Sabbath or hour How then should those men bestir them for their Everlasting Rest who know they have so short a space for so great a work Besides every step in the way hath its difficulties the gate is straight and the way narrow The righteous themselves are scarcely saved Scandals and discouragements will be still cast before us And can all these be overcome by slothful Endeavors SECT V. 4. MOreover Our diligence should be somewhat answerable to the diligence of our Enemies in seeking our destruction For if we sit still while they are plotting and labouring or if we be lazy in our defence while they are diligent in assaulting us you may easily conceive how we are likely to speed How diligent is Satan in all kind of temptations Therefore be sober and vigilant saith 1 Pet. 5.8 because your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist stedfast in the Faith How diligent are all the Ministers of Satan False Teachers scorners at godliness malicious persecutors all unwearied And our inward Corruption the most busie and diligent of all Whatever we are about it is still resisting us depraving our duties perverting our thoughts dulling our Affections to good exciting them to evil And will a feeble resistance then serve our turn Should not we be more active for our own preservation then our Enemies for our ruine SECT VI. 5. OUr Affections and Endeavors should bear some proportion with the Talents which we have received and means which we have enjoyed It may well be expected that a horseman should go faster then a footman and he that hath a swift horse faster then he that hath a slow one More work will be expected from a sound man then from the sick and from a man at age then from a Child And to whom men commit much from them they will expect the more Now the Talents which we have received are many and great The means which we have enjoyed are very much and very precious What people breathing on earth have had plainer Instructions or more forcible Perswasions or more constant Admonitions in season and out of season Sermons till we have been weary of them and Sabbaths till we prophaned them Excellent Books in such plenty that we knew not which to read but loathing them through abundance have thrown by all What people have had God so near them as we have had or have seen Christ as it were crucified before their eyes as we have done What people have had Heaven and Hell as it were opened unto them as we Scarce a day wherein we have not had some spur to put us on What speed then should such a people make for Heaven And how should they fly that are thus winged and how swiftly should they sail that have wind and tyde to help them Believe it Brethren God looks for more from England then from most Nations in the World and for more from you that enjoy these helps then from the dark untaught Congregations of the Land A small measure of grace beseems not such a people nor will an ordinary diligence in the work of God excuse them SECT VII 6. THe Vigour of our Affections and Actions should be somewhat answerable to the great cost bestowed upon us and to the deep engaging mercies which we have received from God Surely we owe more service to our Master from whom we have our maintenance then we do to a stranger to whom we never were beholden Oh the cost that God hath been at for our sakes The riches of Sea and Land of Heaven and Earth hath he powred out unto us All our lives have been filled up with Mercies We cannot look back upon one hour of it or one passage in it but we may behold Mercy We feed upon Mercy we wear Mercy on our backs we tread upon Mercy Mercy within us common and special Mercy without us for this life and for that to come Oh the rare Deliverances that we have partaked of both national and personal How oft how seasonably how fully have our prayers been heard and our fears removed What large Catalogues of particular Mercies can every Christian draw forth and reherse To offer to number them would be an endless task as to number the stars or the sands of the shore If there be any difference betwixt Hell where we should have been
in some measure sure that he is the Child of God 7. There are some duties that either the Saints only or chiefly are commanded to perform And how shall that be done if we cannot know that we are Saints Psal. 144.5 132.9 30.4 31.23 c. Thus I have proved that a Certainty may be attained an Infallible though not a perfect Certainty such as excludeth deceit though it exclude not all degree of doubting If Bellarmine by his Conjectural Certainty do mean this Infallible though imperfect Certainty as I doubt he doth not then I would not much contend with him And I acknowledg that it is not properly a Certainty of meer Faith but mixt SECT VI. 3. THe third thing that I promised is to shew you what are the Hinderances which keep men from Examination and Assurance I shall 1. Shew you what hinders them from Trying and 2. What hindereth them from Knowing when they do Try That so when you see the Impediments you may avoyd them And 1. We cannot doubt but Satan will do his part to hinder us from such a necessary duty as this If all the power he hath can do it or all the means and Instruments which he can raise up he will be sure above all duties to keep you off from this He is loath the Godly should have that Joy and Assurance and Advantage against Corruption which the faithful performance of Self-Examination would procure them And for the Ungodly he knows if they should once fall close to this Examining task they would find out his deceits and their own danger and so be very likely to escape him If they did but faithfully perform this duty he were likely to lose most of the Subjects of his Kingdom How could he get so many millions to Hell willingly if they knew they went thither And how could they chuse but know if they did throughly try having such a clear light and sure rule in the Scripture to discover it If the beast did know that he is going to the slaughter he would not be driven so easily to it but would strive for his life before he comes to dye as well as he doth at the time of his death If Balaam had seen as much of the danger as his Ass instead of his driving on so furiously he would have been as loath to proceed as he If the Syrians had known whither they were going as well as Elisha did they would have stopt before they had found themselves in the hand of their Enemies 2 King 6.19 20. So if sinners did but know whither they are hasting they would stop before they are engulfed in damnation If every swearer drunkard whoremonger lover of the world or unregenerate person whatsoever did certainly know that the way he is in will never bring him to Heaven and that if he dye in it he shall undoubtedly perish Satan could never get him to proceed so resolvedly Alas he would then think every day a year till he were out of the danger and whether he were eating drinking working or what ever he were doing the thoughts of his danger would be still in his mind and this voyce would be stil in his ears Except thou Repent and be converted thou shalt surely perish The Devil knows well enough that if he cannot keep men from trying their states and knowing their misery he shal hardly be able to keep them from Repentance and Salvation And therefore he deals with them as Jael with Sisera she gives him fair words and food and layeth him to sleep and covereth his face and then she comes upon him softly and strikes the nail into his temples And as the Philistines with Sampson who first put out his eyes and then made him grind in their mills If the pit be not covered who but the blind will fall into it If the snare be not hid the bird will escape it Satan knows how to angle for Souls better then to shew them the hook and the line and to fright them away with a noise or with his own appearance Therefore he labours to keep them from a searching Ministry or to keep the Minister from helping them to search or to take off the edg of the Word that it may not pierce and divide or to turn away their thoughts or to possess them with prejudice Satan is acquainted with all the Preparations and Studies of the Minister he knows when he hath provided a searching Sermon fitted to the state and necessity of a hearer and therefore he will keep him away that day if it be possible above all or else cast him asleep or steal a way the Word by the cares and talk of the world or some way prevent its operation and the sinners obedience This is the first Hinderance SECT VII 2. WIcked men also are great impediments to poor sinners when they should examine and discover their estates 1. Their Examples hinder much When an ignorant sinner seeth all his friends and neighbors do as he doth and live quietly in the same state with himself yea the Rich and Learned as well as others this is an exceeding great temptation to him to proceed in his security 2. Also the merry company and pleasant discourse of these men doth take away the thoughts of his Spiritual State and doth make the understanding drunk with their sensual delight so that if the Spirit had before put into them any jealousie of themselves or any purpose to Try themselves this Jovial company doth soon quench them all 3. Also their continual discourse of nothing but matters of the world doâ—h damp all these purposes for self-trying and make them foâ—gotten 4. Their railings also and scorning at godly persons is a very great impediment to multitudes of Souls and possesseth them with such a prejudice and dislike of the way to Heaven that they settle resolvedly in the way they are in 5. Also their constant perswasions allurements threats c. hinder much God doth scarce ever open the eyes of a poor sinner to see that â—ll is naught with him and his way is wrong but presently there is a multitude of Satans Apostles ready to flatter him and dawb and deceive and settle him again in the quiet possession of his former Master What say they do you make a doubt of your Salvation who have lived so well and done no body harm and been beloved of all God is merciful and if such as you shall not be saved God help a great many What do you think is become of all your forefathers and what will become of all your friends and neighbours that live as you do Will they all be damned Shall none be sâ—ved think you but a few strict precisians Come come if ye hearken to these Puritan books or Preachers they will drive you to despair shortly or drive you out of your wits they must have something to say they would have all lâ—ke themselves Are not all men sinners and
would fill mens ears with the constant lamentations of their miserable state and despairing accusations against themselves as if they had been the most humble people in the world and yet be as passionate in the maintaining their innocency when another accuseth them and as intolerably peevish and tender of their own reputation in any thing they are blamed for as if they were the proudest persons on earth still denying or extenuating every disgraceful fault that they are charged with This cherishing of sin doth hinder Assurance these four ways 1. It doth abate the degree of our Graces and so makes them more undiscernable 2. It obscureth that which it destroyeth not for it beareth such sway that Grace is not in Action nor seen to stir nor scarce heard speak for the noise of this Corruption 3. It puteth out or dimmeth the eye of the Soul that it cannot see its own condition and it benummeth and stupifieth that he cannot feel its own case 4. But especially it provoketh God to withdraw himself his Comforts and the Assistance of the Spirit without which we may search long enough before we have Assurance God hath made a separation betwixt Sin and Peace Though they may consist together in remiss degrees yet so much as Sin prevaileth in the Soul so much will the Peace of that Soul be defective As long as thou dost favour or cherish thy Pride and Self-esteem thy aspiring projects and love of the world thy secret lusts and pleasing the desires of the flesh or any the like unchristian practise thou expectest Assurance and Comfort in Vain God will not encourage thee by his precious gifts in a course of sinning This worm will be crawling and gnawing upon thy Conscience It will be a freting devouring canker to thy Consolations Thou mayst steal a spark of false comfort from thy worldly prosperity or delights or thou mayst have it from some false Opinions or from the delusions of Satan But from God thou wilt have no more Comfort then thou makest Conscience of sinning However an Antinomian may tell thee That thy Comforts have no such dependance upon thy Obedience nor thy discomforts upon thy disobedience and therefore may speak as much Peace to thee in the course of thy sinning as in thy most conscionable walking yet thou shalt find by experience that God will not do so If any man set up his Idols in his Heart and put the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to a Minister or to God to enquire for Assurance and Comfort God will Answer that man by himself and in stead of comforting him he will set his Face against him he will Answer him According to the multitude of his Idols Read Ezek. 14.3 4 5 6 7 8 9. SECT XVIII 9. ANother very great and common Cause of want of Assurance and Comfort is When men grow Lazy in the spiritual part of duty and keep not up their Graces in constant and lively Action As Dr Sibbs saith truly It is the lazy Christian commonly that lacketh Assurance The way of painful duty is the way of fullest Comfort Christ carryeth all our Comforts in his hand If we are out of that way where Christ is to be met we are out of the way where Comfort is to be had These three ways doth this Laziness debar us of our Comforts 1. By stopping the Fountain and causing Christ to withhold this blessing from us Parents use not to smile upon children in their neglects and disobedience So far as the Spirit is Grieved he will suspend his Consolations Assurance and Peace are Christ's great Encouragements to faithfulness and obedience And therefore though our Obedience do not Merit them yet they usually rise and fall with our Diligence in duty They that have entertained the Antinomian dotages to cover their Idleness and Viciousness may talk their non-sence against this at pleasure but the laborious Christian knows it by experience As prayer must have Faith and Fervency to procure its success besides the Bloodshed and Intercession of Christ Jam. 5.15 16. so must all other parts of our Obedience He that will say to us in that Triumphing day Well Done Good and Faithful Servant c. Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord Will also clap his Servants upon the back in their most Affectionate and Spiritual Duties and say Well Done Good and Faithful Servant take this Fore-taste of thy Everlasting Joy If thou grow seldom and customary and cold in Duty especially in thy secret Prayers to God and yet findest no abatement in thy Joys I cannot but fear that thy Joys are either Carnal or Diabolical 2. Grace is never apparent and sensible to the Soul but while it is in Action Therefore want of Action must needs cause want of Assurance Habits are not felt immediately but by the freeness and facility of their Acts Of the very Being of the Soul it self nothing is felt or perceived if any more Be but only its Acts. The fire that lyeth still in the flint is neither seen nor felt but when you smite it and force it into Act it is easily discerned The greatest Action doth force the greatest Observation whereas the dead or unactive are not remembred or taken notice of Those that have long lain still in their graves are out of mens thoughts as well as their sight but those that walk their streets and bear Rule among them are noted by all It is so with our Graces That you have a Habit of Love or Faith you can no otherwise know but as a consequence by reasoning but that you may have the Acts you may know by Feeling If you see a man lie still in the way what will you do to know whether he be drunk or in a swoun or dead Will you not stir him or speak to him to see whether he can go Or feel his pulse or observe his breath Knowing that where there is life their is some kind of motion I earnestly beseech thee Christian observe and practise this excellent Rule Thou now knowest not whether thou have Repentance or Faith or Love or joy Why be more in the Acting of these and thou wilt easily know it Draw forth an Object for Godly sorrow or Faith or Love or Joy and lay thy heart flat unto it and take pains to provoke it into suitable action and then see whether thou have these Graces or no. As Doctor Sibbs observeth There is somtimes Griefe for sin in us when we think there is none it wants but stirâ—ing up by some quickening word The like he saith of Love and may be said of every other Grace You may go seeking for the Hare or Partridge many hours and never find them while they lie close and stir not but when once the Hare betakes him self to his legges and the bird to her wings then you see them presently So long as a Christian hath his Graces in lively Action so long for the most
souls Peter reasons the clean contrary way If the righteous be scarcely saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear 1 Pet. 4.18 And so doth Christ Luk. 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many shall seek to enter and not be able Other mens miscariages should quicken our diligence and not make us cast away all VVhat would you think of that man that should look over into his neighbors garden and because he sees here and there a nettle or weed among much better stuffe should say Why you may see these men that bestow so much pains in digging and weeding have weeds in their garden as well as I that do nothing and therefore who would be at so much pains Just thus doth the mad world talk You may see now those that pray and read and follow Sermons have their faults as well as we and have wicked persons among them as well as we Yea but that is not the whole garden as yours is it is but here and there a weed and as soon as they spy it they pluck it up and cast it away 4. But however if such men be as wicked as you imagine can you for shame lay the fault upon the Scripture or Ordinances of God Do they finde any thing in the Scriptures to encourage them to sin You may far better say It is long of the Judg and the Law which hangs them that there are so many Theeves Did you ever read a word for sin in the Scripture Or ever hear a Minister or godly man perswade people to sin or from it rather I speak not of Sectaries who usually grow to be enemies to Scripture Lord what horrible impudence is in the faces of ungodly men When a Minister hath spent himself in studying and perswading his people from sin or when Parents have done all they can to reform their children yet people will say it is long of this that they are so bad What will reproving and correcting for sin bring them soonest to it I dare challenge any man breathing to name any one Ruler that ever was in the world that was so severe against sin as Jesus Christ or to shew me any Law that ever was made in the world so severe against sin as the Laws of God! And yet must it be long of Christ and Scripture that men are evil When he threatneth damnation against impenitent sinners is it yet long of him Yea see how these wicked men contradict themselves What is it that they hate the Scripture for but that it is so strict and precise and forbids them their pleasures and fleshly liberties that is their sins And yet if any fall into sin they will blame the Scripture that forbids it I know in these late yeers of licenciousness and Apostacy many that talk much of Religion prove guilty of grievous crimes But then they turn away so far from Christ and Scripture As bad as the godly are I dare yet challenge you to shew me any society under Heaven like them that most study and delight in the Scriptures or any School like the Scholars of Christ. Because parents cannot by all their diligence get their children to be as good as they should be shall they therefore leave them to be as bad as they will Because they cannot get them to be perfect Saints shall they therefore leave them to be as incarnate divels Certainly your children untaught will be little better SECT XIII 2. SOme will further object and say It is the Work of Ministers to teach both us and our children and therefore we may be excused Answ. 1. It is first your duty and then the Ministers It will be no excuse for you because it is their Work except you could prove it were onely theirs Magistrates must govern both you and your children doth it therefore follow that you must not govern them It belongs to the Schoolmaster to correct them and doth it not belong also to you There must go many hands to this great Work as to the building of a house there must be many Workmen one to one part and another to another and as your corn must go through many hands before it be bread the Reapers the Threshers the Millers the Bakers and one must not leave their part and say it belongs to the other so it it is here in the instructing of your children first you must do your work and then the Minister must do his you must be doing it privately night and day the Minister must do it publikely and privately as oft as he can 2. But as the case now stands with the Ministers of England they are disabled from doing that which belongs to their Office and therefore you cannot now cast your work on them I will instance but in two things First It belongs to their Office to govern the Church and to teach with authority and great and small are commanded to obey them Heb. 3.7.17 c. But now this is unknown and Hearers look on themselves as free men that may obey or not at their own pleasure A Parents teaching which is with authority wil take more then ones that is taken to have none People think we have authority to speak to them when they please to hear and no more Nay few of the godly themselves do understand the authority that their Teachers have over them from Christ They know how to value a Ministers gifts but not how they are bound to learn of him and obey him because of his Office Not that they should obey him in evil nor that he should be a final decider of all controversies nor should exercise his authority in things of no moment But as a Schoolmaster may command his Scholars when to come to School and what Book to read and what form to be of and as they ought to obey him and to learn of him and not to set their wits against his but to take his word and beleeve him as their Teacher till they understand as well as he and are ready to leave his School Just so are people bound to obey and learn of their Teachers and to take their words while they are learners in that which is beyond their present capacity till they are able to see things in their proper evidence Now this Ministerial Authoritie is unknown and so Ministers are the less capable of doing their Work which comes to pass first From the pride of mans nature especially Novices which makes men impatient of the Reins of Guidance and Command secondly From the Popish error of implicite Faith to avoid which we are driven as far into the contrary extream thirdly From the usurpation of the late Prelates who took almost all the Government from the Ministers and thereby overthrew the very essence of the Office by robbing it of that part which is as essential at least as preaching fourthly And from the modesty of Ministers that are loth to shew their Commission and make known their Authoritie
be to be Catechized but be ashamed that you had not learned sooneâ— God forbid you should be so mad as to say I am now too old to learn Except you be too old to serve God and be saved how can you be too old to learn to be saved Why not rather I am too old to serve the Devil and the world I have tryed them too long to trust them any more What if your parents had not taught you any trade to live by or what if they had never taught you to speak would not you have set your selves to learn when you had come to age Remember that you have souls to care for as well as your children and therefore first begin with your selves 4. In the mean time while you are learnâ—ng your selves teach your children what do you know and what you cannot teach them your selves put them on to learn it of others that can perswade them into the company of the godly who will be glad to instruct them If French men or Welsh men lived in the Town among us that could not understand our language would they not converse with those that do understand it and would they not daily send their children to learn it by being in the company of those that speak it so do you that you may learn the heavenly language Get among those that use it and encourage your children to do so to Have you no godly neighbours that will be helpful to you herein O do not keep your selves strange to them but go among them and desire their help and be thankful to them that they will entertain you into their company God forbid you should be like those that Christ speakes of Luke 11.52 that would neither enter into the Kingdom of God themselves nor suffer those that would to enter God forbid you should be such cruel barbarous wretches as to hinder your children from being godly and to teach them to to be wicked And yet alas how many such are there swarming every where among us If God do but touch the hearts of their children or servants and cause them to heare and read the Word and call upon him and accompany with the godly who will sooner scorn them and revile them and discourage them then an ungodly parent What say they you will now be one of the holy brethren You will be wiser then your parents c. Just such as Pharaoh was to the Israelites such are these wicked wretches to their own children Exod. 5.3 8 9. When Moses said Let us go sacrifâ—ce to the Lord lest â—e fall upon us with pestilence or sword c Pharaoh answers They are idle therefore they say let us go sacrifice lay more work upon them c. Just so do these people say to their children You know Pharaoh was the representer of the divel and yet let me tell you These ungodly parents are far worse then Pharaoh For the children of Israel were many thousands and were to go three dayes journey out of the land but these men hinder their children from serving God at home Pharaoh was not their father but their King but these men are enemies to the children of their bodies Nay more let me teâ—l you I know none on earth that play the part of the divel himself more truly then these men And if any thing that walks in flesh may be called a divel I think it is a parent that thus hinderech his children from salvation I solemnly professe I do not speak one jot worse of these men then I do think and verily believe in my soul Nay take it how you will I will say thus much more I verily think that in this they are far worse then the divel God is a righteous Judg and will not make the Divel himself worse then he is I pray you â—e patient while you consider it and then judg your selves They are the parents of their children and so is not the divel Do you think then that it is as great a fault in him to seek their destruction as in them Is it as great a fault for the VVoolf to kill the Lambs as for their own dams to do it Is it so horrid a fault for an enemy in war to kill a childe Or for a bear or a mad dog to kill it as for the mother to dash iâ— bâ—ains against the wall You know it is not Do not you think then that it is so hateful a thing in Satan to entice your children to sin and hell and to discourage and disswade them from holiness and from heaven as it is in you You are bound to love them by nature more then Satan is O then what people are those that will teach their children in stead of holiness to curse and swear and raile and backbite to be proud and revengeful to break the Lords day and to despise his wayes to speak wantonly and filthily to scorn at holiness and glory in sin O when God shall ask these children Where learned you this language and practice and they shall say I learned it of my father or mother I would not be in the case of those parents for all the world Alas is it a work that 's worth the teaching to undo themselves for ever Or can they not without teaching learn it too easily of themselves Do you need to teach a Serpent to sting or a Lyon to be fierce Do you need to sow weeds in your garden will they not grow of themselves To build a house requires skill and teaching but a little may serve to set a town on fire To heal the wounded or the sick requireth skill but to make a man sick or to kill him requireth but little You may sooner teach your children to swear then to pray and to mock at godliness then to be true godly If these parents were sworn enemies to their children and should study seven yeers how to do them the greatest mischief they could not possibly finde out a surer way then by drawing them to sin and withdrawing them from God SECT XVI I Shall therefore conclude with this earnest request to all Christian parents that read these lines that they would have compassion on the souls of their poor children and be faithful to the great trust that God hath put on them O Sirs if you cannot do what you would do for them yet do what you can Both Church and State Cities and Countrey do groan under the neglect of this weighty duty your children know not God nor his Laws but take his name in vain and slieght his worship and you do neither instruct them nor correct them and therefore doth God correct both them and you You are so tender of them that God is the leâ—â— tender both of them and you Wonder not if God make you smart for your childrens sins for you are guilty of all they commit by your neglect of doing your duty to reform them even as he that maketh a man drunk is
chiefly pressed those Duties which must be used for the attainment of this Everlasting Rest. In this I shall chiefly handle those which are necessary to raise the heart to God and to our Heavenly and comfortable life on Earth It is a Truth too evident which an inconsiderate Zealot reprehended in Master CULVERWELL as an Error That many of Gods Children do not enjoy that sweet Life and blessed Estate in this World which God their Father hath provided for them That is Which he offereth them in his Promises and chargeth upon them as their duty in his Precepts and bringeth even to their hands in all his Means and Mercies God hath set open Heaven to us in his Word and told every humble sincere Christian That they shall shortly there live with himself in unconceiveable Glory and yet where is the person that is affected with this Promise whose heart leaps for joy at the hearing of the news or that is willing in hopes of Heaven to leave this World But even the godly have as strange unsavory thoughts of it as if God did but delude us and there were no such Glory and are almost as loath to die as men without hope The consideration of this strange disagreement between our Professions and Affections caused me to suspect that there was some secret lurking unbelief in all our hearts and therefore I wrote those Arguments in the second Part for the Divine Authority of the Scripture And because I finde another cause to be the carelesness forgetfulness and idleness of the Soul and not keeping in action that Faith which we have I have here attempted the removal of that cause by prescribing a course for the daily acting of those Graces which must fetch in the Celestial Delights into the heart O the Princely joyful blessed Life that the godly lose through meer idleness As the Papists have wronged the merits of Christ by their ascribing too much to our own Works so it is almost incredible how much they on the other extream have wronged the safety and consolation of mens Souls by telling them that their own endevors are onely for Obedience and Gratitude but are not so much as Conditions of their Salvation or Means of their increased Sanctification or Consolation And while some tell them That they must look at nothing in themselves for Acceptation with God or Comfort and so make that Acceptance and Comfort to be equally belonging to a Christian and a Turk And others tell them That they must look at nothing in themselves but onely as signes of their good Estate This hath caused some to expect onely Enthusiastick Consâ—lations and others to spend their days in enquiring after signes of their sincerity Had these poor Souls well understood that Gods way to perswade their wills and to excite and actuate their Affections is by the Discourse Reasoning or Consideration of their Vnderstandings upon the Nature and Qualifications of the Objects which are presented to them And had they bestowed but that time in exercising holy Affections and in serious Thoughts of the promised Happiness which they have spent in enquiring onely after Signes I am confident according to the ordinary Workings of God they would have been better provided both with Assurance and with Joyes How should the Heir of a Kingdom have the comfort of his Title but by fore-thinking on it It s true God must give us our Comforts by his Spirit But how by quickening up our souls to beleeve and consider of the promised Glory and not by comforting us we know not how nor why or by giving men the foretasts of Heaven when they never think of it I have here prescribed thee Reader the delightfullest task to the Spirit and the most tedâ—ous to the Flesh that ever men on Earth were imployed in I did it first onely for my self but am loath to conceal the means that I have found so consolaâ—ory If thou be one that wilt not be perswaded to a course so laborious but wilt onely go on in thy task of common formal duties thou mayest let it alone and so be destitute of delights except such as the World and thy Forms can afford thee but then do not for shame complain for want of comfort when thou dost wilfully reject it And be not such an Hypocrite as to pray for it while thou dost refuse to labor for it If thou say Thy comfort is all in Christ I must tell thee it is a Christ remembred and loved and not a Christ forgotten or onely talked of that will solidly comfort Though the Directory for Contemplation was onely intended for this Part yet I have now premised two other Uses The heart must be taken off from Resting on Earth before it will be fit to converse above The first Part of saving Religion is the taking God onely for our End and Rest. CHAP. I. USE VI. Reproving our Expectations of Rest on Earth SECT I. DOth this Rest remain How great then is our sin and folly to seek and expect it here Where shall we finde the Christian that deserves not this Reproof Surely we may all cry guilty to this accusation We know not how to enjoy convenient Houses Goods Lands and Revenues but we seek Rest in these enjoyments We seldom I fear have such sweet and heart contenting thoughts of God and Glory as we have of our earthly delights How much Rest do the voluptuous seek in Buildings Walks Apparel Ease Recreations Sleep pleasing Meats and Drinks merry Company Health and Strength and long Life Nay we can scarce enjoy the necessary Means that God hath appointed for our Spiritual good but we are seeking Rest in them Do we want Minister Godly Society or the like helps O think we if it were but thus and thus with us we were well Do we enjoy them O how we settle upon them and bless our selves in them as the rich fool in his wealth Our Books our Preachers Sermons Friends Abilities for Duty do not our hearts hug them and quiet themselves in them even more then in God Indeed in words we disclaim it and God hath usually the preheminence in our tongues and professions but it s too apparent that it s otherwise in our hearts by these Discoveries First Do we not desire these more violently when we want them then we do the Lord himself Do we not cry out more sensibly O my Friend my Goods my Health then O my God! Do we not miss Ministry and Means more passionately then we miss our God Do we not bestir our selves more to obtain and enjoy these then we do to recover our communion with God Secondly Do we not delight more in the Possession of these then we do in the fruition of God himself Nay be not those mercies and duties most pleasant to us wherein we stand at greatest distance from God We can read and study and confer preach and hear day after day without much weariness because in these we have to do with