and perfect Love because our Souls find rest in God only St. Bernard makes four degrees of our Love to God 1. When a man loves Himself for himself but herein he can have no rest nor content for it is not to be found in him 2. When he loves God for himself and not for God when he would have God make him happy 3. When he loves God for God himself as judging him most worthy of all love 4. When he loves himself and all things else for God only and is therein satisfied desiring nothing more This is indeed to love God when we love him for himself and our selves and all other things subordinately unto God in him and for him only Our Soul as Noahs Dove hath no rest till it return to this Ark. This Injoyment satisfies Psal 17. ult ye shall be abundantly satisfied Psal 36.8 9. because it is the water of life which being once drunk of quencheth thirst for ever I conclude all with this that considering the Circumstances into which we are cast it is our Duty Wisdom and Priviledge to keep our selves in the Love of God from the transcendent Advantages we have by it above the love and favour of men which is hard to get and yet not worth the pains when gotten yea when gotten it is as hard to keep and yet not worth the keeping yea it is easily lost and better lost than kept Therefore never labour to keep thy self in the Love of Men by which thou mayst lose the love of God but keep your selves in the Love of God and that will keep you safe here and for ever The Lord gives it as a Reason why he would not cast off his People though he threatned them as if he would do it Hos 11.8 9. Because saith he I am God and not Man It is not after the manner of men to be constant in their Love but is like Himself and never breaks off or keeps in his Love Ezek. 16.5 6 7 8. The Lord will be called Husband of his People and is he not the best and dearest in the World Doth he take any People or Soul to Wife for rare Beauty or rich Dowry Alas there is none Did he not find us in our gore-blood and yet loved us when such vers 8. Now whom he loves he cleaves to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2.24 Ephes 5.31 Thus he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.16 The word is glued to shew the close Union of divine Love Pray then to God for the Holy Ghost which he hath promised to give to them that ask that he may shed abroad the love of God in your hearts 2 Thess 3.5 Rom. 5.5 for hereby you will keep your selves in the love of God Quest What may gracious Parents best do for the Conversion of those Children whose wickedness is occasion'd by their sinful Severity or Indulgence SERMON VII MAL. IV. 6. He shall turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children and the hearts of the Children to their Fathers THis intricate Text propos'd to me on which I preacht speaking but indirectly and by consequence only as I then said to the Question propos'd upon mature deliberation I have thought good to adjoin Another which I conceive looks with a more direct aspect on both the parts of our Bipartite Question Viz. EPH. VI. 4. Ye Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath but bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. AS Malapertness frowardness sauciness self-will stubbornness sullenness disobedience yea contempt and scorning of Parents specially the more indulgent and weak are Vices too common with Children and Youth So on the other side Parents unless modell'd and confirm'd by the Word and Spirit of God are very prone to fall into one of these two extreams either immoderate severity and rigid abuse of the Parental Authority or fond indulgence and sinful neglect of just and discreet discipline Against Both these extreams our Apostle doth here Arm and fortifie gracious Parents by instructing them how equally to hold the Ballance and Discreetly to manage the reins and rudder of their Parental Power and Discipline so as they may not provoke their Children to a just disgust and wrath on the one side nor expose themselves to a base contempt and scorn on the other And this he doth 1. By forbidding a Vice Ye Fathers provoke not your Children to Wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad iram ad irae exuberantiam ne provocate ne irritate q. d. Fathers I know your Children are apt to be Vain rash foolish disobedient stubborn able to roil the most sedate Spirit to try the patience of a Job and 't is fit yea necessary that you admonish reprove rebuke chastize them but yet take heed that while though they provoke you to a just displeasure you by an unjust abuse of your just authority in a too strict rigid immoderate severity against them give your offending Children any just occasion of or urgent temptation to any sinful anger or inveterate wrath against you whilst you are correcting for one sin do not provoke them to commit another Whilst you are plucking them out of a gulph do not dash them against a Rock Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath But Observe we here the Apostles prudence Having vers 1 2 3. allotted to Children their share viz. Obedience Children obey your Parents in the Lord and backt it both with divine Precept and Promise the just consequence seems to require that he should have invested the Parents with Command and Government for their Portion but he fairly waves that and as supposing he had sufficiently fixt the Parents Authority by putting their Children under the yoke of Obedience he now consults the childs interest or rather the mutual comfort both of Parent and Child by advising Parents to use the Power that God had given them moderately and tenderly on the one hand he sweetens the Obedience of the Child on the other tempers the Authority of the Parent That the precept of Obedience may not fright the Child nor the Prerogative of Power swell the Parent let them both know The child that he is in subjection and must obey but then 't is his Father who either doth or should love him and the Father that he hath Authority and may command but whom 'T is his Child whom he must govern with that tenderness as not in the least to provoke Thus by forbidding a Vice 2. By enjoining them the contrary Grace or duty But bring them up in the Nurture and admonition of the Lord. Children as they must not be provoked to wrath so they must not be indulged in folly As they must not be discouraged so they may not be cocker'd Our Children naturally are too too like the wild Horse or Asses colt who if they once begin to know their strength and get the bit between their Teeth will first cast their Rider and then run in a full
Much more joy will flow in upon you if you go farther and overcome evil with good You will bless God heartily who hath enabled you against all temptations and your own natural inclinations to the contrary to perform this excellent and most Christian duty when you find in your selves the joy that will attend it Quest How may the well discharge of our present duty give us assurance of help from God for the well discharge of all future duties SERMON XX. 1 Sam. 17.34 35 36 37. Psal 27.14 Prov. 10.29 2 Chron. 15.2 OUR Reverend and Worthy Brother who hath the ordering of the Morning-Lectures in this place hath both now and heretofore in great wisdom singled out many choice select cases relating to the mystery of practical godliness and of singular use to all those who desire to know and feel more in themselves of the power of inward experimental Christianity Surely 't is not for nothing that God should send to this Auditority so many of his Messengers one after another Morning by Morning rising early and sending To whom much is given of them much will be required See that you improve these extraordinary means of grace The case that is fallen to my lot this Morning is this viz. How may the well discharge of our present duty give us assurance of help from God for the well discharge of all future duties This Question hath Two parts in it and cannot be so well grounded upon a single Text therefore I shall name Three or Four you may have your eye upon all viz. 1 Sam. 17.34 35 36 37. And David said unto Saul Thy servant kept his fathers sheep and there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock And I went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth and when he arose against me I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God David said moreover the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine And Saul said unto David Go and the Lord be with thee Psal 27.14 Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. Prov. 10.29 The way of the Lord is strength to the upright but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity 2 Chron. 15.2 And he went out to meet Asa and said unto him Hear ye me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin The Lord is with you while ye be with him and if ye seek him he will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you I do not name these several Scriptures as so many Texts which I intend to preach upon but as so many Proofs of the truth of the Point That it is a Case very agreeable to the Scriptures and to the Analogy of Faith and so I shall take it up and for once preach common place wise upon it which was a way of preaching much in use in the last Century and upwards by many eminent Divines and not without great success Now we tie our selves to single Texts Then they preached upon such and such Subjects proving what they said by Scripture and in this good old way I shall walk for once Pray follow me with due attention This Case or Question may be resolved into two 1. What our present duty is 2. How the well discharge of that may encourage us to hope in God for his help and assistance in all future duties First What is our present duty Before I define this it will be necessary to speak something previous to it which may help us much in this Enquiry and lead us as it were by the hand into a right understanding of our present duty The steps I shall go by are these shewing you 1. What Duty is in the general nature and notion of it 'T is an Act of Obedience to the will of our Superiors God being our Soveraign Supreme Lord Master and Lawgiver our duty lies in subjecting our selves in all things to his will Duty is that which is due from Man to God 'T is Justitia ergâ—â— Deum Gic. de Nat. de lib. 1. 'T is Justice towards God We don't do God right we rob him of his glory if we don't do our duty God knows indeed how to recover his right and the wrong we do in sinning against him will in the end redound to our own souls Prov. 8.36 Every sinner deals injuriously with God he does not give unto God the things that are Gods he withholds the obedience that is due unto God he will not be subject to his Law he does not do his duty 2. Something is our present duty God hath filled up all our time with duty not one Moment left at our own disposal We must give an account to him of every thing we do in the body from first to last every day hath its proper works the things of it self Mat. 6.34 3. Nothing that is sinful and in it self unlawful can be our duty at any time and therefore to be sure not our present duty This needs no proof 4. Every thing that is in it self-lawful is not therefore our duty All things are lawful but all things are not expedient 1 Cor. 6.12 Whatsoever is not forbidden under a penalty is lawful i. e. whatsoever is not contrary to the rectitude of the Law and in the doing of which we incur no penalty from the Law that is lawful but nothing properly is our duty but what is commanded What we have a command to do or not to do the doing or not doing of that is our duty as the command runs in the Affirmative or Negative The Law strictly injoyns some things does tollerate and allow of some others of a more indifferent nature which in intimo gradu-juris in the lowest degree of legality may be called lawful and yet Circumstances may render our doing these things unlawful when God is not glorified nor our Neighbour edified All things edifie not 1 Cor. 10.23 5. Every thing that is commanded and is in its time and place our duty may not be our present duty Affirmative commands do bind semper but not ad semper as Negatives do Affirmatives bind always i. e. we can never be discharged from that obligation that lies upon us to worship God but we are not bound at all times to the outward acts of worship for then me should do nothing else Neither indeed are we bound at all times to inward acts of worship for in our sleep we do not act our Grace A disposition so to do from an inward habit and principle is all that God requires when we are not in a capacity to act either Grace or Reason Besides positive
comprizes all the rest is to die for the Brethren and this we ought to do when the Honour of God and Welfare of the Church require it Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren If Christians thus loved one another the Church on Earth would be a lively Image of the blessed Society above Thirdly The Love of God and Obedience to his Commands the Product of it are to be considered 1. The Love of God has its Rise from the consideration of his amiable Excellencies that render him infinitely worthy of the highest Affection and from the blessed Benefits of Creation Preservation Redemption and Glorification that we expect from his pure Goodness and Mercy This is the most clear and essential Character of a Child of God and most peculiarly distinguishes him from unrenewed men however accomplished by Civil Virtues Now the internal exercise of Love to God in the valuation of his Favour as that which is better than Life in earnest desires of Communion with him in ravishing Joy in the testimonies and assurance of his Love in mourning for what is displeasing to him is in the secret of the Soul but with this there is inseparably joyn'd a true and visible declaration of our Love in obedienc◠〈◊〉 him 1 Joh. 3.16 This is the Love of God the most real and undeceitful Expression of it that we keep his Commandments The Obedience that springs from Love is 1. Uniform and universal for that two principal and necessary Effects of Love are an ardent desire to please God and an equal care not to displease him in any thing Now the Law of God is the signification of his sovereign and holy will and the doing of it is very pleasing to him both upon the account of the subjection of the Creature to his authority and conformity to his purity he declares that Obedience is better than the most costly Sacrifice There is an absolute peremptory repugnance between love to him and despising his Commands And from thence it follows that Love inclines the Soul to obey all Gods Precepts not only those of easie observation but the most difficult and distastful to the carnal Appetites for the Authority of God runs through all and his Holiness shines in all Servile Fear is a partial Principle and causes an unequal respect to the divine Law it restrains from sins of greater guilt from such disorderly and dissolute actions at which Conscience takes fire but others are indulged it excites to good works of some kind but neglects other that are equally necessary But Love regards the whole Law in all its Injunctions and Prohibitions not meerly to please our selves that we may not feel the stings of an accusing Conscience but to please the Lawgiver 2. The Obedience of Love is accurate and this is a natural Consequence of the former The divine Law is a Rule not only for our outward Conversation but of our Thoughts and Affections of all the interior workings of the Soul that are open before God Thus it requires religious Service not only in the external performance but those reverent holy Affections those pure Aims wherein the Life and Beauty the Spirit and true Value of divine Worship consists Thus it commands the Duties of Equity Charity and Sobriety all Civil and Natural Duties for divine Ends to please and glorifie God Heb. 13.16 It forbids all kinds and degrees of Sin not only gross Acts but the inward Lustings that have a tendency to them Now the Love of God is the Principle of spiritual Perfection 'T is called the fulfilling of the Law 1 Cor. 10.31 not only as it is a comprehensive Grace but in that it draws forth all the active Powers of the Soul to obey it in an exact manner This causes a tender sence of our failings and a severe circumspection over our ways that nothing be allowed that is displeasing to the divine Eyes Since the most excellent Saints are Gods chiefest Favourites Love makes the holy Soul to strive to be like him in all possible degrees of Purity Thus St. Paul in whom the Love of Christ was the imperial commanding Affection declares Phil. 3.10 11. it is zealous endeavour to be conformable to the Death of Christ in dying to Sin as Christ died for sin and that he might attain to the Resurrection of the dead that perfection of Holiness that is in the immortal state 1 John 5.3 3. The Obedience of Love is chosen and pleasant This is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous Those that are strangers to this heavenly Affection imagine that a solicitous diligent respect to all Gods Precepts is a melancholy Task but it is delightful to the Saints for Obedience is the continual exercise of Love to God the Paradise of holy Souls The mortification of the carnal Appetites and the restraint from such Objects as powerfully insinuate and engage carnal Hearts is with a freer complacency to a Saint than a sensual fruition of them The sharpest sufferings for Religion are allayed nay sweetned to a Saint from the Love of God that is then most sincerely strongly and purely acted The Apostle more rejoyced in sharp Tribulations for Christ's sake than in divine Revelations 4. The Love of God produces persevering Obedience Servile Compliance is inconstant A Slave hates the Duties he performs and loves the Sins he dares not commit therefore as soon as he is releas'd from his Chain and his Fear his Obedience ceases but a Son is perfectly pleas'd with his Fathers Will and the Tenor of his Life is correspondent to it He that is press'd by fear to serve in an Army will desert his Colours the first opportunity but a Volunteer that for the love of Valour and of his Country lists himself will continue in the Service The motion that is caused by outward poises will cease when the weights are down but that which proceeds from an inward principle of Life is continual and such is the Love of God planted in the breast of a Christian Fourthly We are to prove that from the Love of God and willing Obedience to his Commands we may convincingly know the sincerity of our Love to his Children There is an inseparable Union between these two Graces and the one arises out of the other Godliness and brotherly kindness are joyned by the Apostle And it will be evident that where this Affection of Love to the Saints is sincere and gracious there will be an entire and joyful respect to the Law of God by considering the Reasons and Motives of it 1. The Divine Command requires this Love These things I command you saith our Saviour that ye love one another This Precept so often repeated and powerfully re-inforc'd by him made so deep an impression on the first Christians that they had one Heart and one Soul and their Estates
as the the troubled Sea Isa 57.20 which cannot rest it will be casting out the mire and dirt which before lay at the bottom Nullum vinditae genus tam in promptu habet quam hoc maledicendi Davenantius Prov. 25.28 The evil of the heart is usually vented first at the mouth but it will soon appear in the other Members When once the mouth is full of cursing and bitterness the feet will be swift to shed blood till destruction and misery be in mens ways Rom 3.14 15 16. He that will not be overcome of evil must take care to rule his own spirit He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like to a city broken down and without walls easily overcome Nothing can conduce more to the calming of our spirits when they begin to rise against such as are offensive to us Psal 103.10 Psal 130.3 2 Sam. 16.6 7 10. than to consider how obnoxious we have been and still are to the great God David's patience towards Shimei was admirable when he cast stones at him and cursed him still as he went No doubt the consideration of the sins whereby he had provoked God made him the more calm toward that vile wretch Use 3. Rest not in this That you are not overcome of evil but endeavour as much as you can to overcome evil with good Do not your Relations perform the duties of their place to you be you the more circumspect and diligent to perform the duty of yours to them Are Neighbours unkind to you let the law of kindness be in your mouth and acts of kindness in your hands to them Vis ut ameris â—na Do any hate you let your love work to overcome that hatred 1. Keep your hearts in a constant awe of God commanding you When they draw back as they will be apt to do think of God standing by you and saying Have not I commanded you If others make no great matter of sinning against God do you say as Nehemiah But so will not I because of the fear of God Neh. 5.15 This was it that kept Samuel to the duty of praying for a people that had dealt very unworthily by him As for me says he God forbid that I should sin against the Lord 1 Sam. 12.24 in ceasing to pray for you 2. Have much and often in your eye the great example of all goodness Christ whose name you bear He met with a great deal of evil from an unthankful World yet he went about doing good still Acts 10.38 How kind was he in word and deed to his greatest enemies to the very last When Judas came to betray him the worst word he gave him was Friend Mat. 26.50 Friend wherefore art thou come And when Peter in zeal for his Master's safety had drawn and cut off the ear of one of the Officers that came to take him he touched his ear and healed him Luke 22.51 Consider him therefore who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself Heb. 12.3 lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds If he whom you call Lord and Master did thus should not you do so much rather To further you in this work take these few Considerations 1. By doing thus you will shew your selves to be genuine Christians and truly spiritual Jam. 3.14 15. To render evil for evil is devilish good for good something humane but no more than Publicans used to do but to render good for evil that is Christian What do ye more than others Mat. 5.46 The fruit of the spirit is in all goodness Eph. 5.9 If then there be found in you such fruits of the Spirit as are mentioned Gal. 5.22 Love joy peate long-suffering gentleness goodness c. it will be a token that the good Spirit of Christ is in you 2. It will tend very much to amplifying of the Kingdom of Christ Haec illa virtus est qua primitiva ecclesia excelluit accrevit ferendo non resistendo ad hanc quia redditi sumus inhabiles res Christianismi in deterius ruunt in dies Aretius 2 Cor. 13.11 and the bettering of the World One great reason why Christianity hath made no greater progress in the world in latter times is because Christians have not been so much conversant in this duty as they were in the Primitive times The rendring evil for evil makes the World a doleful place an house a Bedlam for fury and disorder A City a Wilderness for rapine and confusion A Kingdom a Land that eateth up the Inhabitants thereof as was said of that Numb 13.32 But to render good for evil tends to make the World a peaceable habitation where God and Men may delight to dwell If this duty were more practised the Wolf would sooner dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid as is prophesied Isa 11.6 3. It 's a sign that God hath more blessings in store when he hath given a Man a heart to perform this duty His labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Besides the eternal reward in Heaven God doth usually give a temporal reward on earth There is this encouragement given to afford bread to an hungry enemy That God will reward it Prov. 25.21 22. Saul was among the Prophets when he presaged good to David for not suffering him to be hurt when his Spear was taken from him while he lay sleeping 1 Sam. 26.25 Blessed be thou my son David thou shalt both do great things and also shall still prevail It hath been observed That such children as have been without cause discouraged by their parents so as not to have a like share in their favour nor a portion of their substance with the rest and yet have continued every way dutiful to them have been blest by God above the rest And such Servants as have had hard and froward Masters and yet have continued diligent and faithful in their Service have been wonderfully prospered when they have set up for themselves 4. This is the most glorious way of overcoming others It 's God's and Christ's way Hosea 11.4 I drew them with cords of a man with hands of love What glory would it be to a man that it should be said of him as Psal 9.6 Thou hast destroyed cities if he himself be in the mean time destroyed by his own lusts To be slow to anger is better than the mighty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato and he that ruleth his own spirit than he that taketh a city Prov. 16.32 5. Hereby you will keep a sweet serenity in your own spirits There is not only glory and honour but peace to every one that worketh good Rom. 2.11 How was David transported with joy when Abigail had been a means of keeping him from avenging himself with his own hand on Nabal and his house His mouth was full of blessings He blesseth the Lord God of Israel that sent her he blesseth her advice 1 Sam. 25.32 33.
this in our selves and then How we may evidence it in others 1. How may a Believer experience in himself that that Serious Godliness he lives in the Practice of is more than a Fancy 1. See that your Religiousness came into you the right way was wrought in you by the Word of God the power of which ye have found changing your Hearts and reforming your Lives When men leap into Religion they know not how can give no account to themselves of their Conversion or Reformation that the Word which is the Ordinary means God useth in converting Sinners hath had any influence upon them in working such a change it is suspicious that what they take to be Godliness in themselves is not reall that which is unaccountable is most like to be a Fancy True a man may not know the just time when God did work Grace in his heart nor the particular Word which was the Seed of it or which did first draw the heart to a closing with the Promise and subjecting it self to the terms of the Gospel he may not know when the new man was first quickned in him not be able to discern distinctly the first vital motions of Grace in his Soul some may have been wrought on in their Education by which they have been restrained from more gross Sins and influenced to some diligence in Religious duties and in them the passing from one extream to the other from a state of Nature to a state of Grace may not be so remarkable and therefore not so easily discerned However a change they find and that the Word hath wrought it whch they have experienced Effectual in many things it hath been the means at one time or other of enlightning their minds melting their hearts exciting their affections directing their ways and refreshing their Spirits though they cannot say what truth wrought the first degree of Grace yet they can say such and such truths have had an influence upon them and promoted the work whenever it was wrought such a Command quickned them to their Duty another brought them off from some evil way another helped them when they were tempted such a Promise supported them when burdened eased them when troubled or comforted them when cast down and so what good they have done the Word hath put them upon it what evil they have escaped that hath kept them from it what refreshment they have had that hath brought it in They know they are in their journey to Heaven and that they do not Dream that they are so because if they cannot tell which was absolutely the first step they took in the way yet they are sensible of many Stages they have travelled many removes they have made what accidents have befallen them what difficulties they have met with what Guide they had what directions were given them their journeying agrees with the map of their way the Word hath been a light to their Feet and a Lamp to their Paths * Psal 119.105 that hath still gone before them and conducted them in their march and their steps have been ordered according to it †Psa 119.133 they have not taken up a Religion at a days warning not passed from being prophane and worldly to be even superstitiously strict all upon a suddain without being able to give a reason of so great a change Look therefore to the way of Gods working upon you and the means he made use of in it and though you cannot trace the workings of his grace in all the particular steps he hath taken yet ye may conclude it to be his Work and not your own fancy because it was wrought in his way and by his Word which is his usual Instrument in it 2. See to your Faith as to the Foundation of it and the Effects of it that it be rightly grounded and rightly qualified built upon the Word and fruitfull in good works 1. See to the Foundation of it that it be the Word it self and not your own mistakes about it When men misunderstand the Scripture and so believe it they Build on their own Errors not Gods Truth and then what they call Faith is but a Fancy as not being grounded on the Word of God but their own Conceits See therefore that ye rightly understand what ye profess to believe and know the mind of God in the Word and so indeed believe what he speaks not what you imagine See that your Faith respect Commands as well as Promises Duties as well as Priviledges what you are to do as well as what you are to expect God joyns both together and if you seperate them you set up a Conceit of your own instead of his Truth Take heed of believing Promises as absolute when they are conditional or when made with some limitations or restrictions or when they suppose the use of some means prescribed by the Command in such cases men may think they believe when they do not there being no right Object for their Faith they believe what God never spoke This fallacy appears when men apply Promises to themselves but overlook the Condition or the Command annexed as suppose believe they shall be Pardoned though they never desire to be purged shall find mercy though they do not forsake Sin contrary to the tenour of the Word Prov. 28.14 or that they shall see God though they do not follow after holiness contrary to Heb. 12.14 And so when they believe one promise and not another the Promise of Justification but not of Sanctification when yet there is a connexion between them and to whom one belongs the other belongs too In a word let your Faith take in its Object in the whole Latitude there being the same reason Gods Authority for your believing one truth as well as another 2. See to the Effects and Fruits of it the reality of it must be proved by the fruits of it a Barren Faith is a dead Faith and indeed if any Faith be a Fancy it is the Faith of those that live destitute of Holiness and under the Dominion of Sin and yet expect Eternal Salvation bring forth no Fruit to Holiness and yet hope the End will be Everlasting life Faith will work as long as it lives and where there is no Fruit you may be sure there is no Root if it Act not it lives not 3. Therefore look to your Obedience too not only that it be as in the former but that it be Right and such as it should be that is Regular Vniversal Spiritual for otherwise it is not reasonable 1. Regular such as the Word of God calls for and hath its warrant from thence whatsoever we do in the things of God and what we would have look'd on as Acts of Obedience should be done with a respect to Gods Commands and not of our own heads Obedience it is not if it be not Commanded Men may do many seemingly good things and place Religion in them and think they please God by
them which yet may be no true Acts of Obedience to him because not according to his Word They do but obtrude a Worship upon God and Fancy it will please him because it pleaseth them Whereas indeed nothing is acceptable to him but what is enjoyned by him Nothing is Duty but that which hath a Warrant from God for the Performance of it Men may abound in Will-worship and come short in Obedience they may do more than is enjoyned them and yet less too much which will never be reckoned to them as it was never required of them You must judge of your selves not meerly by what you do but by the ground you have for the doing of it when Gods Will is the Reason of it and not the Precepts of men nor your own Fancies so much and no more you do for God as you do in Obedience to his Command 2. Vniversal both as to the extensiveness and continuance of it 1. As to its Extensiveness See that you be not Partial in the Law a Mal. 2.9 that you walk with God in all his Ordinances Luke 1.6 have respect to all his Commandements Psal 119.6 There is the same reason for Obedience to one Command as well as another b Gods Authority who is the Law-giver and therefore when men chuse one Duty and overlook others they do not so much obey the will of God as gratifie their omn Humours and Fancies pleasing him only so far as they can please themselves too and this is not reasonable we never yield him a reasonable Service but when it is universal 2. As to its Continuance and duration If Gods Command be still the same and the Obligation of it it is but reasonable that our Obedience likewise should be still the same Constancy and Perseverance in serious Godliness will greatly confirm and Evidence the reasonableness of our Practice and reality of our Principles Fancies are usually transient and variable and so are their Effects in mens actions few Live by Fancy all their dayes but one time or other they find their Error When a Christians carriage is uniform in the course of his Life and still continues the same in a congruity and suitableness to his Principles it can hardly be imagined that it should be the effect of meer Fancy but must proceed from something in him more fixed and settled 3. Spiritual If the Obedience we yield to God be conformable to his Nature who is a Spirit so far it is reasonable and that is such as Christ requires and this the reason he gives for it John 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth See therefore that the Service you do him be not meerly external and carnal but inward and Spiritual 1. Spiritual in its Principle The goodness of your outward actions proceeds especially from within and you cannot judge rightly of them but by the Principles from which they proceed those Principles are Faith and Love Your work must be the work of Faith d 1 Thess 1.3 Rom. 1.5 your Obedience the Obedience of Faith Faith both in the Command and Promise must put you upon it and if your believing both makes you Act conformably to them the Faith of the Command presseth you to Obedience and the Faith of the Promise encourages you in it you therefore Serve the Lord because you believe him and trust in him that Service cannot be unreasonable And so likewise for Love Love to God must set you at work for God Exod. 20.6 those that love me and keep my Commandments If love within Command all without if that make you Labour in his Service fear to offend him strive to please him if you can not only see your own Obedience but feel your Love to God working your hearts to it you may be sure that Obdience is reasonable because its Principle is so reall Love felt in your Hearts and breaking out in your Lives cannot be a Fancy and what more Reasonable than for him that loves God to do all he can for God 2. Spiritual in the End for which ye Act. 1. Cor. 10.31 See that whatever you do you do it for the Glory of God as the Supreme End It is most Reasonable that as you do all from God so you should do all for him that he who is the first Cause of all you have should be the ultimate End of all you do and if you can be content to be abased that God may be Exalted to deny your selves as to your Credit and Interest and all Worldly concernments purely that God may be Honoured it is your desire that in all things Christ Jesus may be magnified in you whether by Life or by Death e Philip. 1.20 and so in doing or suffering that Obedience which is not only qualified as before mentioned but is directed to such an End is not Folly nor the effetct of Fancy 3. Spiritual in the Acts of it not that all Gospel Obedience or Worship consists only in the internal Acts and workings of the Mind for external Worship it self may be spiritual Worship and so it is when rightly performed that is when it is accompanied with and proceeds from internal but by Spiritual in its Acts I mean that which principally consists in the inward Acts of Faith and Love and Fear c. which is a Serving God in our Spirits f Rom. 1.9 yet withall is productive of and manifests it self in an outward behaviour correspondent to those internal workings See therefore that your Religion do not consist meerly in Externals that you make as much Conscience of inward and Heart-worship as outward and Bodily of the Actings of Faith and Love as of Praying and Hearing look as much at least to what is within as to what comes out Do not rest in the outside of Duty nor satisfie your selves with what you do when yet it is without life and warmth have as much regard to the Manner of Performing as to Performance it self to the motions of your Hearts as to the Labour of your Lips or postures of your Bodies To conclude this direction let your work in the whole of your conversation be as much about your Hearts g Prov. 4.23 as your Lives be the same in secret that you are in publick the same when under Gods Eye only that you are in the Face of the World This I am sure cannot be said to be foolish and unreasonable when it is grounded on the greatest reason God sees in secret h Math. 6.6 looks to the heart 1 Sam. 16.17 and calls for the heart i Prov. 23.26 and therefore it is but reason we should look to them too It is the seat of Sin the Fountain whence it springs and therefore must be look't too that we may prevent the working of it and mortifie the root of it and it is the seat of Grace there is no more good in any man than what is in his
would perswade you to submissive patience Especially make conscience of a setled discontent of mind have you not yet much better than you deserve And do you forget how many years you have enjoyed undeserved mercy Discontent is a continued resistance of Gods disposing will that I say not some rebellion against it Your own wills rise up against the will of God It is Atheistical to think that your sufferings are not by his providence and dare you repine against God and continue in such repining to whom else doth it belong to dispose of you and all the world And when you feel distracting cares for your deliverances remember that this is not trusting God Care for your own duty and obey his command but leave it to him what you shall have tormenting care do but add to your afflictions It is a great mercy of God that he forbiddeth you these cares and promiseth to care for you Your Saviour himself hath largely though gently reprehended them Math. 6. and told you how sinful and unprofitable they are and that your father knoweth what you need and if he deny it you it is for just cause and if it be to correct you it is yet to profit you and if you submit to him and accept his guift he will give you much better than he taketh from you even Christ and everlasting life III. Set your selves more diligently than ever to overcome the inordinate love of the world It will be a happy use of all your troubles if you can follow them up to the Fountain and find out what it is that you cannot bear the want or loss of and consequently what it is that you overlove God is very jealous even when he loveth against every Idol that is loved too much and with any of that love which is due to him and if he take them all away and tear them out of our hands and hearts it is merciful as well as just I speak not this to those that are troubled only for want of more faith and holiness and communion with God and assurance of Salvation These troubles might give them much comfort if they understood aright from whence they come and what they signifie For as impatient trouble under worldly crosses doth prove that a man loveth the world too much so impatient trouble for want of more holiness and Communion with God doth shew that such are lovers of Holiness and of God Love goeth before desire and grief That which men love they delight in if they have it and mourn for want of it and desire to obtain it The will is the love and no man is troubled for want of that which he would not have But the commonest cause of passionate melancholly is at first some worldly discontent and care either wants or crosses or the fear of suffering or the unsuitableness and provocation of some related to them or disgrace or contempt do cast them into passionate discontent and selfwill cannot bear the denial of something which they would have and then when the discontent hath muddied and diseased a mans mind temptations about his soul do come in afterwards and that which begun only with worldly crosses doth after seem to be all about Religion Conscience or meerly for sin or want of Grace Why could you not patiently bear the words the wrongs the losses the crosses that did befal you Why made you so great a matter of these bodily transitory things Is it not because you overlove them were you not in good earnest when you called them vanity and covenanted to leave them to the will of God would you have God let you alone in so great a sin as the love of the world or giving any of his due to creatures If God should not teach you what to love and what to set light by and cure you of so dangerous a disease as a fleshly earthly mind he should not sanctifie you and fit you for heaven souls go not to Heaven as an arrow is shot upward against their inclination but as fire naturally tendeth upward and earth downward to their like so when holy men are dead their souls have a natural inclination upward and it is their love that is their inclination they love God and Heaven and Holy company and their old godly friends and holy works even mutual love and the joyful praises of Jehovah And this Spirit and Love is as a fiery nature which carrieth them heavenward and Angels convey them not thither by force but conduct them as a Bride to her marriage who is carryed all the way by love And on the other side the souls of wicked men are of a fleshly worldly inclination and love not heavenly works and company and have nothing in them to carry them to God but they love worldly trash and sensual beastial delights though they cannot enjoy them as poor men love riches and are vexed for want of what they love and therefore it is no wonder if wicked souls do dwell with Devils in the lower regions and that they make Apparitions here when God permits them and if holy souls be liable to no such descent Love is the Souls poise and spring and carrieth souls downward or upward accordingly Away then with the earthly fleshly Love How long will you stay here And what will Earth and Flesh do for you So far as it may be helpful to Holiness and Heaven God will not deny it to submissive Children but to overlove is to turn from God and is the dangerous Malady of Souls and the poise that sinks them down from Heaven Had you learnt better to forsake all for Christ and to account all but as Loss and Dung as Paul did Phil. 3.8 you could more easily bear the want of it When did you see any live in discontent and distracted with Melancholy Grief and Cares for want of Dung or of a Bubble a Shadow or a merry Dream If you will not otherwise know the world God will otherwise make you know it to your Sorrow IV. If you are not satisfyed that God alone Christ alone Heaven alone is enough for you as matter of felicity and full content go study the Case better and you may be convinced Go learn better your Catechism and the Principles of Religion and then you will learn to lay up a Treasure in heaven and not on Earth and to know that its best to be with Christ and that death which blasteth all the glory of the world and equalleth the rich and the poor is the common Door to Heaven or Hell And then Conscience will not ask you whether you have lived in pleasure or in pain in riches or in want but whether you have lived to God or to the Flesh for Heaven or for Earth and what hath had the preheminence in your hearts and Lives If there be shame in Heaven you will be ashamed when you are there that you whined and murmured for want of any thing that the flesh desired upon
can no otherwise command and turn away your thoughts rise up and go into some company or to some employment which will divert you and take them up Tell me what you would do if you heard a scold in the street reviling you or heard an Atheist there talk against God would you stand still to hear them or would you talk it out again with them or rather go from them and disdain to hear them or debate the case with such as they Do you in your case when Satan casts in ugly or despairing or murmuring thoughts go away from them to some other thoughts or business If you cannot do this of your self tell your friend when the temptation cometh and it is his duty who hath the care of you to divert you with some other talk or works or force you into diverting Company Yet be not too much troubled at the temptation for trouble of mind doth keep the evil matter in your memory and so increase it as pain of a sore draws the blood and spirits to the place And this is the design of Satan to give you troubling thoughts and then to cause more by being troubled at those and so for one thought and trouble to cause another and that another and so on as waves in the Sea do follow each other to be tempted is common to the best I told you to what Idolatry Christ was tempted When you feel such thoughts thank God that Satan cannot force you to love them or consent 9. Again still remember what a comfortable Evidence you carry about with you that your sin is not damning while you feel that you love it not but hate it and are weary of it Scarce any sort of sinners have so little pleasure in their sin as the melancholly nor so little desire to keep them and only beloved sins undo men Be sure that you live not idly but in some constant business of a lawful calling so far as you have bodily strength Idleness is a constant sin and labour is a duty Idleness is but the Devils home for temptation and for unprofitable distracting musings Labour profiteth others and our selves both souls and body need it Six days must you labour and must not eat the bread of idleness Prov. 31. God hath made it our duty and will bless us in his appointed way I have known grievous dispairing melancholly cured and turned into a life of Godly cheerfulness principally by setting upon constancy and diligence in the business of families and callings It turns the thoughts from temptation and leaveth the Devil no opportunity it pleaseth God if done in obedience and it purifieth the distempered blood Though thousands of poor people that live in want and have Wivâ—s and Children that must also feel it one would think should be distracted with griefs and cares yet few of them fall into the disease of melancholly because labour keepeth the body sound and leaveth them no leisure for melancholly musings whereas in London and great Towns abundance of Women that never sweat with bodily work but live in idleness especially when from fulness they fall into want are miserable objects continually vexed and near distraction with discontent and a restless mind If you will not be perswaded to business your friends if they can should force you to it And if the Devil turn Religious as an Angel of light and tell you that this is but turning away your thoughts from God and that worldly thoughts and business are unholy and fit for worldly men tell him that Adam was in innocency to dress and keep his Garden and Noah that had all the world was to be Husbandman and Abraham Isaac and Jacob kept Sheep and Cattle and Paul was a Tent maker and Christ himself is justly supposed to have worked at his supposed Fathers Trade as he went on fishing with his Disciples And Paul saith idleness is disorderly walking and be that will not work let him not eat God made souls and body and hath commanded work to both And if Satan would drive you unseasonably upon longer secret prayer then you can bear remember that even sickness will excuse the sick from that sort of duty which they are unable for and so will your disease And the unutterable groans of the spirit are accepted If you have privacy out of hearing I would give you this advice that instead of long meditation or long secret Prayer you will sing a Psalm of praise to God such as the 23 or the 133 c. This will excite your Spirit to that sort of holy affection which is much more acceptable to God and suitable to the hopes of a believer than your repining troubles are IV. But yet I have not done with the duty of those that take care of distressed melancholly persons especially Husbands to their Wives for it is much more frequently the disease of Women than of men when the disease disableth them to help themselves the most of their helps under God must be from others And this is of two Sorts 1. In prudent carriage to them 2. In Medicine and Diet A little of both 1. A great part of their cure lyeth in pleasing them and avoiding all displeasing things as far as lawfully can be done Displeasedness is much of the Disease and a Husband that hath such a Wife is obliged to do his best to cure her both in Charity and by his relative Bond and for his own peace It is a great weakness in some men that if they have Wives who by natural passionate weakness or by melancholly or crazedness is wilful and will not yield to reason they shew their anger at them to their further provocation You took her in marriage for better and for worse for sickness and health If you have chosen one that as a Child must have every thing that she cryeth for and must be spoken fair and as it was rockt in the Cradle or else it will be worse you must condescend to do it and so bear the burden which you have chosen as may not make it heavier to you Your passion and sourness towards a person that cannot cure her own unpleasing carriage is a more unexcusable fault and folly than hers who hath not the power of reason as you have If you know any lawful thing that will please them in speech in company in apparel in rooms in attendance give it them If you know at what they are displeased remove it I speak not of the Distracted that must be mastered by forces but of the sad and melancholly could you devise how to put them in a pleased condition you might cure them 2. As much as you can divert them from the thoughts which are their trouble keep them on some other talkes and business break in upon them and interrupt their musings rouse them out of it but with loving importunity suffer them not to be long alone get fit company to them or them to it especially suffer them not to be
is to be humbled at Gods threatnings and comforted at his Promises for great griefs and Joys leave great Impressions on us And therefore apprehend spiritual things to be very excellent and also receive the Truth in the love of it and you will remember it better but when we have a mean and low opinion of heavenly Truths or only a common kindness for them they are then easily forgotten Ps 119.16 I will delight my self in thy Statutes and what then why I will never forget thy word 5. Serious Meditation is the last help I shall mention When people read or hear and presently plung themselves in forreign business then generally all is lost Jam. 1.24 25. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightly forgets what manner of man he was But who so looketh the word signifies to penetrate into a thing with his Eye and continueth therein that is so considering he being not a forgetful hearer but a door of the VVork this man shall be blessed in his deed By which is not meant a speculative and fruitless meditation but that which is practical that is which digests the things we read or hear for use and practise Psal 119.11 Thy word have I hiâ—â—â— my heart that I might not sin against thee Here 's a truth or a duty or promise for such a time or case Such rolling good things in our thoughts doth habituate and familiarize them to the Soul and they abide the longer This is clear in other Cases for if one hath received an injurious or unkind word if it go out at one Ear as it came in at the other it leavs no great impression but if you set your self to ruminate upon it and to aggravate it then it s a long time ere you forget it And so in some measure it would be in good things give them a little heart-room bestow some second thoughts upon them shut the Book when you have read a little and think of it and it will abide it is the soaking rain that enters deepest into the Earth when a sudden showr slides away Hence what one Evangelist Mat. 26.75 calls remembring the word of Jesus that is spoken of Peter the other calls it thinking when he thought thereon he wept But herein our ordinary Hearers are strangely negligent they read they hear they forget for they never think nor meditate of it They turn down Leaves in their Bibles in the Congregation but they seldom turn them up again in reflecting upon what they heard and so their labour is lost and ours also And so much for the Helps to a better Memory which is the sixth point VII I come in the next place to answer some Cavils of the wilful and also some Doubts of the weak The former use to Object and say Obj. 1. Why The Scripture tells us that to fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole Duty of man what need then is there of such Remembring Answ Why this which you mention doth plainly require Remembring Must he not remember the Commandments that will keep them and not the meer words only but the true extent of them or else how can he possibly keep them There are Ten Commandments but there are ten hundred Duties commanded and Sins forbidden and how shall those be performed and these avoided unless we remember them And is there nothing but Commandments to be remembred Are not the Promises of the Covenant Are not the Doctrines of Life and Salvation to be remembred also Surely this Apostle was of this mind when he tells in the Text that if the Corinthians kept not in memory what was preached unto them concerning that only Doctrine of the Resurrection from the dead they would believe in vain and their Salvation was in danger Obj. 2. I but it is impossible to remember so many Scriptures so many Doctrines so many Vses as we have heard what man in the world can do it Answ It is true that Perfection in this Faculty is not attainable in this Life but it is is as true that every Christian ought to endeavour to reach as far as he can We cannot keep all the Commandments perfectly in this Life yet we should strive to do what we can and then our heavenly Father will accept and assist us But it is plain sloth to be urging impossibilities in opposition to Duty I say carnality and sloth for these same men can readily remember a thousand vain Matters and there is no difficulty in it But ye were best to beware of that Curse Mal. 1.13 Cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a Male and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing If you have a Masculine strong Memory for other things and only a corrupt crackt Memory for God and Godliness ye are near to Cursing Obj. 3. O but we have as good Hearts as the best though we have not such strong Memories and an honest Heart 's worth all Answ 1. This is a proud boasting for no humble modest man will thus vaunt himself 2. This is meer shuffling for when you are reproved for the defectiveness of your Faculties or the immoralities of your Lives then you plead the honesty and goodness of your Hearts and when you are convinced and urged concerning the newness and holiness of your hearts then you boast of the innocence and orderliness of your lives but you cannot mock God thus he beholds the unregeneracy of your hearts and is witness to all the evil of your lives but if you have as good hearts how is it that you have not as good Memories for the honest heart is good all over and though ye cannot remember as much yet ye will remember as well as they Do not deceive your selves do not imagine that ye are spiritually rich when ye are poor and miserable and blind and naked If many of your Memories were dissected I am afraid they would be found to be stuffed like that Roman Legates Sumpter that was gorgeous enough without but being broken up by a fall in the street was filled with nothing but Boots and Shoos and such like worthless trash but I must turn now to the other Branch of this Point which is to answer the doubts of the weak Christian in this case about the memory Doubt 1. If no Faith nor Salvation without remembring Spiritual things then crys the poor soul to be sure I have no Grace for I can remember little or nothing I hear and love to hear and so I read but nothing abides with me I shall believe in vain Ans There is an Historical memory and there is a Practical memory The former is either a great natural faculty or a particular gift Now though this be a great help to Grace yet it is not absolutely necessary What advantage is it to a mans Salvation if he could do as it is reported of Cyrus and of Scipio Cael. Rhodig Ant. q. p. 525. that they could repeat two thousand Names in order or
whose faith and patience whose holiness and heavenly mindedness is so little as thine is Should that man admit of a proud thought whose Grace and Holiness is so small that he is uncertain whether he hath any at all in sincerity Surely the weakness and imperfection of your Graces should prevent the Prid and haughtiness of your hearts 2. Consider the imperfections of your Duties If you did all that was commanded you were but unprofitable Servants what are you then when you fall so short of your duty you neither do what God commands you nor as he commands it to be done How often are Duties neglected and how often are they negligently performed how listless are you to them how lifeless in them how quickly weary of them Can they be proud who consider how coldly they pray how carelesly they hear how distractedly they meditate how grudgingly they give Alms and the like Leave Pride to the Papists who vainly think their works are works of supererrogation let us be humble who know that our works are works of subtererrogation God may say of the best of us as he doth of the Angel of the Church of Sardis Rev. 3.2 that our works are not perfect or full before him oh no! the Lord knows they are full of gaps and imperfections 5. Reflect seriously upon the sinfulness of your hearts and lives Our Direct 5 defects in Grace and Duty may keep us low but our abounding in Sin and wickedness may keep us much lower Can that heart be proud and lifted up that considers the desperate wickedness and deceitfulness that dwells in it and proceeds out of it those Thefts Adulteries Murders Blasphemies and such like that appear abroad in the lives of others they lie lurking at home in your hearts How would it humble and shame you if others should know the one half nay the hundredth part of that sin and wickedness by you that you know by your selves In order therefore to the Cure of spiritual Pride be you much in self-reflection be not strangers to your selves and to the sinfulness of your own Hearts and Lives Should that man be proud that hath sinn'd as thou hast sinn'd and liv'd as thou hast liv'd and wasted so much time abus'd so much Mercy omitted so many Duties neglected so great Means that hath so grieved the Spirit of God so violated the Laws of God so dishonoured the Name of God Should that man be proud who hath such a heart as thou hast so full of Atheism Unbelief Ignorance Impenitency Hypocrisie Envy Malice Discontent Worldliness Selfishness c. Nay should not thy very Pride it self be a matter of great Humiliation to thee Surely it should greatly humble thee to think that a sin so odious in it self so mischievous in its effects should be still so predominant in thy Soul 'T is possible that a Christian may turn his Pride against its self and his very reflecting upon it may be a means of the subduing of it Direct 6 6. Labour after a more distinct knowledge of God and of his Excellencies 'T is helpful to cure Pride for a man to know himself his own nothingness and vileness but 't is a greater help to know God his Holiness and Greatness c. The Apostle Paul saith that some knowledge puffs men up but this pulls them down 'T is true by all our searching we cannot find out God unto perfection we can never come to a full understanding of all his Excellencies but so much may be known of God as may make us to admire him and to abhor our selves What is man the best of men in comparison of him Job sometimes thought and spake overvaluingly of himself but when once he came to compare himself with God to set God before him then he is presently in the dust yea he abhors himself in dust and ashes Job 42.6 We never have such low thoughts of our selves as when we have the clearest discoveries of God When the Prophet Isaiah had a glimpse of the Glory and Holiness of God he presently cries out Isa 6.5 Wo is me for I am undone I am a man of unclean lips He had a deep sence upon him of his own vileness and wretchedness The true reason why mens hearts are so lofty and lifted up within them is because they have not right Notions and Apprehensions of God and do not consider that infinite distance that is betwixt him and them It might serve a little for the Cure of spiritual Pride to compare our selves with such men as are above us as it is a good means to keep down discontent to consider that many others are below us so 't is a good means to keep down pride to consider that many others are above us Our Knowledge is but Ignorance our Faith but Unbelief our Fruitfulness but Barrenness if compared with theirs But this will more subdue our Pride if we compare our selves with God and consider how infinitely he is above us We are no more to him than a drop to the Ocean than the small dust of the Balance to the whole Body of the earth our Wisdom is Foolishness to God our Strength is Weakness and our Holiness is Wickedness unto him Direct 7 7. Be well instructed in this that Humility and Lowliness of Mind is the great Qualification and Duty of all Christ's true Disciples and Followers They must be converted and become as little Children in two things especially they must be as such in Malice and in Humility instead of contending to be greater than others they must be servants of all Mat. 20.27 Rom. 12.10 John 13.14 Mat. 11.29 Col. 3.12 Eph. 4.1 2. Phil. 2.3 in honour preferring one another They must follow their Lords Example in stooping to wash one anothers feet and must learn of him to be meek and lowly in heart As the Elect of God they must put on bowels of Mercy and humbleness of mind They must walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith they are called with all lowliness and long suffering In lowliness of mind they must esteem others better than themselves These are all Scripture-Injunctions and they plainly shew how all Christians ought to be qualified Let me add that excellent Passage 1 Pet. 5.5 Be all of you subject one to another and be ye cloathed with humility The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to tie or fasten together Humility is the Ribond or string which ties together the Graces and Fruits of the Spirit if that fails they are all scattered and weakned Humility as well as Charity is the Bond of Perfectness The Noun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence the Verb is derived doth signifie a Knot 'T was the Usage of old and so 't is still for persons to adorn their Heads and other Parts with Knots The Apostle exhorts Christians to adorn themselves rather with Humility that is the great Ornament of a Christian therewith all Christ's Disciples must be cloath'd and adorn'd This
Resist him and he flies from you give back never so little and he 'l come upon you with double force Till we are thus sincerely fixed upon our duty standing perfect and compleat in all the will of God Col. 4.12 resolving to do our duty wherever it lies Till then we shall be partial Judges of our duty very apt to single out the easiest and shortest duties stepping over all the rest we shall seek rather to please our selves than God in the duty we perform and leaning to a carnal judgment do what seems right in our own eyes and then to be sure we are wrong Object Tho by these directions given I may discern duty from downright sin yet I am at a loss how to distinguish between duty and duty between duty in season and duty out of season When two duties come together and present themselves at once to my Conscience I cannot deny but they are both duties but which to do first I know not Ans If this be the doubt consider whether the Scripture hath not decided it in some cases it hath and upon such grounds as may help us in other cases to know our present duty as Mat. 5.24 First be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift So Mat. 7.5 First cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly c. When the duty postponed by you does hinder the right performance of that other duty which thou art going about and render it unacceptable to God then the second duty as you have ranked them must take place of the first and be first done Acts of worship cannot be done in Faith towards God where Charity towards our Neighbour is wanting He doth not believe in God who loves not his brother 1 John 3.10 23. And so in the other case mentioned 't is gross hypocrisie to reprove another when thou thy self art guilty in the same or a higher kind Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam c. Besides he cannot understand how to reprove another who doth not first reform himself the casting out our own sins gives us light how to deal with others then shalt thou see clearly c. Object But what if after all this it should so fall out that two duties should press upon my conscience for present performance and I cannot either by Reason or Scripture determine which to do first but do hang in suspence am in a strait between two Ans This is hardly to be supposed but admit it to be thy case according to thy present judgment Then 1. Sit down once more and consider weigh them both well and hold the ballance with a steddy hand I am perswaded you may perceive some preponderancy on one side that may direct you what to do from some over-bearing circumstances that turn the scales God is the God of Order and not of Confusion He does never command two inconsistent duties at the same time The Covenant is ordered in all things and so must our Conversations be too else we walk disorderly Therefore consider well what pleases God most and for once leave out the relation to the present time which thou art so much puzled about and consider the nature of the duties themselves which of them is most spiritual which of them the Scripture lays most weight upon for there is a difference between duty and duty all are not alike as Psal 51.16 17. a broken and a contrite heart is beyond all other Sacrifices God did require them too but not without this both together do best but of the two he had rather have this alone than the other alone without this Outward Offerings are never pleasing to God when the heart goes not along with them Be sure to mind that most which God is most pleased with 2. If of two duties you cannot resolve which is most your duty at present then resolve upon both and begin where you will God will not be extreme in that case do one and leave not the other undone but be sure to find time for that also When one duty doth quite take us off from the performance of another necessary duty that stood in competition with it 't is greatly to be suspected that there is a temptation then but if you do both one after another you can err only in point of time and order and God will over-look that in a sincere Christian who acts according to his present light and would do that which God likes best if he could understand his mind but being not able to judg of that he resolves upon both successively 3. Beg of God to resolve thee O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes Psal 119.5 Shall I go up to Hebron or shall I not 2 Sam. 2.1 God will teach thee what to do Psal 25.12 He shall direct thy paths Prov. 3.5 6. APPLICATION In some moving Considerations to quicken you to your present duty 1. All the sins of your lives break in upon you through the omission of your present duty Do but stop that gap and keep it stopt and then there will be no room for sin I speak not of those unavoidable infirmities that cleave to the Saints under their most conscionable walking with God but of wilful neglects that lie heavy upon the conscience when God awakens it 2. Whatever you do in the room of a present duty is not acceptable to God Not acceptable did I say that is too soft a word 't is an offence to him 't is disobedience and rebellion tho it be a duty yet because it is not that duty that God now requires you sin in doing it Not that I would have Christians live always distracting in fear lest what they do should not be their present duty My meaning is when we neglect a known duty which we are convinced of but if we use means to know our duty and do act according to our present light in what we do we may have peace and hope for acceptance 3. If you don 't now perform your present duty you can never perform it unless you could recall time and make that present again which is past Time passes away and represents a Man to God as he was at that instant what he is the next is another thing but that hour that day week or year which thou hast spent in the neglect of thy duty stands upon record against thee is irrecoverable you must account for that and without a pardon you cannot escape the judgment of God Mis-spent time is the treasury of Gods wrath and what a fiery day of wrath will that make at last when God shall put all together and sum up the sins of every day of thy life and reckon with thee for all at once in the great day of his wrath so much for such an idle hour and so much for such an idle hour so much for such and such a day spent in an Ale-house Tavern or Brothel-house so much for
such a year and such a year it may be for many years spent in open profaness and all manner of debauchery As you fill up your time with sin God fills it up with secret wrath which will be revealed one day Time carries along with it all the things good or evil that are done in that time the neglect of a present duty Leave that time void of the duty that belongs to it and there is no going back to fill it up As for instance If your Present duty be Prayer if you don't pray now you can never pray now You may pray afterwards but that does not answer to the present now You may do the same duty for substance at another time but it does not bear the same date That hour in which thou dost omit any duty proper to it will witness against thee when that part of thy life comes under examination have a care that time does not carry an evil report of you to God There is a voice in time Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledg Psal 19.2 Time past is present with God he sees how it slips thorow thy fingers how it is stained by thy sins Time is ill bestowed upon thee it may provoke God to shorten thy days and to cut thee off in the midst of thy years Psal 55.23 4. You can have no tryal of your spirit nor of the truth of your state 'T is impossible you should ever prove your sincerity but by a conscientious discharge of your present duty The power of godliness lies much in this in having a respect to God in all our common actions There can be no Religion without this and in this there is peace true hearts ease Psal 119.45 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ipsâ latitudine When a man so walks that his conscience meets with nothing that offends it that strikes against it the way is broad enough a plain path of duty which is very satisfactory to conscience But when the business is dark and doubtful looks as much like sin as duty a man cannot be at ease in this case the way is very narrow there is a grating upon the conscience and after all the tricks salves and distinctions that may be used to justifie what we do we cannot have inward peace whilst something always rubs against the conscience as we go 5. You cannot walk evenly with God if you do not your present duty One would wonder to see what broken forms of godliness some men rest in They pick and chuse here a duty and there another this they will do and this they will not do Their Religion is but a voluntary Religion what they please pure will-worship Col. 2.23 They will stint themselves and stint God so much he shall have and no more They draw up to themselves a scheme of Religion such as they think will serve the turn and on they go in this round of duties Here they are now and here you shall find them Seven years hence I am not against a method of Practical godliness provided it be comprehensive enough but 't is very dangerous tying up our selves to these narrow set forms of practical holiness which some men place all their Religion in a step farther they will not go Alas the Providence of God may lead you to such duties which you thought not of in doing or suffering for him John 21.18 Therefore you should be in a readiness to comply with every call of God standing compleat in his whole will Present obedience gives understanding for the future A good understanding have all they that do his commandments Psal 111.10 Let it be the purpose of your heart to walk before God unto all well-pleasing Col. 1.10 and then your hearts will not reproach you while you live Job 27.6 Some men walk very unevenly there are so many gaps in their obedience they move from duty to duty per saltum quite leaping over some and lightly touching upon others as if they had no great mind to any They act Grace so abruptly that it gives no continued sense we know not where to find them There are so many vacant spaces so many blanks of omission so many blots and blurs of commission they drop a duty here and another half a Mile off that you cannot say A man of God went this way This is not even walking their way is crooked in and out sometimes they wander on the right hand and sometimes on the left they never touch upon the right path unless it be in crossing the way from one sin to another which is rather to break thorow a duty than to perform it Here is no beaten path of holiness no continued tract of godliness They don't always exercise themselves to keep a good conscience They who are not frequent in duty are never exact in duty their hearts cool so much between duty and duty that there is no servour of spirit left they are key-cold now and then they take up a Bible read a little dipping at a venture but are no way concern'd in what they read they heed it not now and then they hear a Sermon now and then pray but without any life and spirit They who pray but seldom never pray well Actus perficit habitum Frequent acts beget a habit and frequent acts maintain it We can never perfect holiness but by a constaut tenor in holiness going on from day to day in the practise of it Some trees tho they bring not forth much fruit yet that as is is the bigger and fairer but 't is not so in a Christian The less you are in duty the more lank and lean are your duties As all Graces grow up together in the heart in an apt disposition to actual exercise when occasion is given to draw them forth And as no grace in the heart grows up alone so no duty thrives in the life alone one duty borrows strength from another is bounded within another as stones in a wall do bare up one another so a Christian is built up of many living stones many graces many duties There is the same reason to do thy duty in one thing as in another the same authority commands both Unless you have respect unto all the Commandments you truly respect none 6. You must begin somewhere at some present duty Why not at this It will be as difficult nay more difficult to come to Christ to morrow than 't is to day Therefore to day hearken to his voice and harden not your heart Break the Ice now and by Faith venture upon thy present duty wherever it lies Do what you are now called to You 'l never know how easie the Yoke of Christ is till 't is bound about your necks nor how light his Burthen is till you have taken it up While you judg of holiness at a distance as a thing without you and contrary to you you 'l never like it Come a little nearer to it do but take it
follows in the Text doth not seem to be a condition of freedom from the sharp and hazardous pain of Child-birth wherein the visible accidents are common to believing and Pagan women and because since God's sentence of the womans bringing forth in sorrow * Gen. 3.16 there hath been no promise upon any condition that the pain should be abated But experience hath taught us That choice holy women who have been the Lords most dear Servants have tasted of the denounced sorrow as deep as any others and some of them as Rachel and Phineas his Wife expired with their pangs Another Learned Critick mighty in the Scriptures ‖ Gataker Cinnus c. 15. p. 330. thinks that to say The woman shall be sav'd altho she be compell'd to bring forth and bring up children with sorrow which thing seems to be an argument of the divine wrath is an unusual construction and more forc'd Resolution But if by being saved from or out of that hazardous condition of child-bearing tho it otherwise carry the signatures of Gods displeasure upon it import only that it shall be no impediment to pious womens either temporal or eternal salvation however difficult that office of breeding and bearing may seem to be as the faithful Ministers not stop'd in their hard Province by honour or dishonour t 2 Cor. 6.8 but she shall be delivered with Gods favour for the best Then it agrees upon the matter with 4. Our translating of it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consonant to the most Orthodox Expositors as not signifying the cause or means here but only the bare order or way to the end or wherein the issue is attainable So it is frequently used in the New Testament as of going in that way u Mat. 2.12 and 7.13 Believers continuing faithful in many afflictions antecedent to their entring into the Kingdom of God w Acts 14.22 in the letter and circumcision and in uncircumcision x Rom. 2.27 29. and 4.11 in the body of Christ y and 7.4 in a Parable z Luke 8.4 building the Temple in Three days a Mat. 26.61 Rom. 14.14 c. c. I might also produce many Testimonies from Ethnic Authors to the frequent use of this Particle in them as well as Scripture to signifie in * Plat. in Caes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xenoph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 'T is plain here in my Text the Apostle doth not discourse of the cause of womans salvation but suggests that bearing and taking the word more largely b 1 Tim. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bringing up of children is the ordinary way wherein pious Wives apt to be suspicions and fearful should meet with saving-help from God who would lead them on therein to salvatian which of his Free Grace through Christ he had designed them to and prepared for them who sensible of the signal Marks of the Divine sentence in their child-bed sorrows are appall'd under the dreadful apprehensions of the first womans guilt and the sad consequent thereof to all of the same Sex ready to swound away in despair For as Abraham was of Gods good pleasure father of the faithful in uncircumcision c Rom. 4.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which could be no cause of begetting faith or any obstruction to justification So any yea every godly Wife whatever tho not permitted to teach in the Church as a little before my Text d 1 Tim. 1.12 yet in her honest Function Employmet and good work of child-bearing travail allotted to her by the righteous Governor of the World e Mar. 13.34 should in due circumstances be either temporally sav'd i. e. comfortably delivered from those pains so that she should no more remember the anguish for joy that a man or one of Mankind was born into the world f John 16.21 if God in his all-wise disposal of persons and things sees this to be best for her or else eternally sav'd by God in Christ who commandeth light to shine out of darkness g 2 Cor. 4 6. Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being found in her Journey Heaven-ward wherein she goes on with submission to Gods disposal in her proper Vocation Office and Duty for the propagation of Mankind It 's strange then that any should take this causally as if here the Apostle were opening the cause by which women shou'd be saved when rather the cause should have been explain'd why he chiefly mentioned this condition or state * Beza not by which but in which the woman might be saved For he had touch'd on the special punishment wherein the Woman was amercd for deceiving the Man and now he would subjoyn a Cordial to the imposed penalty or give support under it lest tremulous Wives should faint in their child-bearing pangs which however they might have the signature of Divine wrath upon them did not exclude them from happiness but as other Christians in a way of Tryal do pass into glory so religious Wives should not fall from the hope of salvation because through Christ in their Feminine state and Function of child-bearing tho they be not free from all spot of sin they have a blessed Cordial in their sanctified sufferings and shall by a comfortable separation of Mother and Babe be safely delivered of their burden in their appointed time if that be best for them and at the end of their peregrination in this life shall be eternally sav'd supposing they have sustained those troubles in Faith Charity Holiness and Modesty Having thus as well as I could making my passage clear through some difficulties weighed the import of the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these Four Respects 't will be convenient to say a little for the explaining of the compound word it relates to viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Child-bearing or bringing forth Children as expressing the most proper act of a good womans parturition rather than the child brought forth Yet some do not only take it more strictly as noting the very act of a womans being in Labour or Travail wherein are sharp throws and pains antecedent concomitant and subsequent but also more largely from the Apostles use of the word afterward in this Epistle as hath been hinted h Danaeus in loc 1 Tim. 5.14 as comprehending also the nursing and educating of Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord i Eph. 6.4 which is also very painful as Augustin's Mother Monica experienc'd when solicitous for his conversion till Christ was formed in him These burdens will then be born in a Christian acceptable manner if the woman be out of the rich grace and bountiful gift of God so qualified that she is endow'd with saving grace which is 2. The support and strength express'd as the way and means by keeping her Ornament to evidence her Title