15.32 7 Apurchase made 7. The making a purchase of house or land leads us into a discourse of purchasing the field wherein lay hid the treasure and of selling all to buy the pearl of great price Matth. 13.44 45 46. In brief where I have given one instance I might with ease give an hundred the voice of Providence uttering fresh newes every day Providence is the best and truest interpreter of the Decrees of God and what lay in the womb of Decree before time even from eternity that Providence brings forth day by day and so administreth fresh matter continually for Christian Conference to all that delight and take pleasure therein 3 From the word of God 3. If the voice and speech of men one to another and the voice of God in Providence suggest occasion for holy discourse and conference then surely the voice of God in his word read preached or heard doth it much more Christians do you not read and search the Scriptures day by day I take it for granted that you do and take delight in so doing and what understandest thou all thou hearest or readest is there nothing too hard for thee if so then put questions to persons of understanstanding Ministers or people among whom thou comest saying what is the meaning of this or that portion of Scripture And they will be opening and expounding hard places to thee Ministers especially their lips should keep knowledg that 's their duty and for the people to seek the law at their mouths Mat. 27. is their dutie also And studie not out questions tending to strife and vain jangling or abstruse inquiries to puzzle others as some do and go away scoffing and boasting saying I think I have posed one parson to day or gravelled such or such an one non-plust him so that he had nothing to answer but let the questions be such as tend to the edification of your selves and others by inlarging the understanding in a way of knowledge but principally to the warming of your hearts and affections to the purging of your consciences to the regulation and better ordering of your lives and conversations For when you have heard the word preached know it is spiritual seed labour to harrow it into your hearts by holy meditation Mat. 13.3 4. and 18 19. 1 Pe. 2.2 Isa 55.2 and by Christian communication that so it may spring up and grow in heart and life and thou maist have a rich and goodly crop of it in grace and glory It is also our spiritual food and in order to nourishment must have its due digestion Now they tell us of three concoctions as to natural food the first they call Chylification in the Stomack the second Sanguification with the Liver and the last Assimilation in every part the nutriment being conveyed to every part is made like to that part it is conveyed to suitable hereunto the Word in order to our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace must have various digestions First by Meditation and Conference A second in our will and affections being subdued by it to will what God wills to love or hate what God loves or hates and lastly in our lives and practice when we exercise our selves herein to have consciences void of offence toward God and toward men as Paul did Acts 24.16 Yet there is this vast difference in the resemblance for wheras our meats and drinks are assimilated and made like to the parts of man fed by them the word our spiritual food changeth the man into its own likeness makes the inward and outward man spiritual and holy like it self so far as it turns to nourishment And remember this that an errour in the first concoction is seldome mended in the second or third but vitiates the whole and the gross neglect of meditation and conference is one great cause why we are no better in our hearts and in our lives and many too many professors who hear much but thrive little they have or seem to have good appetites but to be sure they have very bad digestions by reason of their failings in holy Meditation and Christian Conference FINIS Books to be Sold by Tho Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside A Commentary on the Hebrews By John Owen D. D. fol. Sermons upon the whole Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians By Mr. John Daille Translated into English by F. S. Tho Taylor 's Works the first Volume fol. 2. An Exposition of Temptation on Matth. 4. verse 1. to the end of the 11th Divine Characters in two parts distinguishing the Hypocrite in his best dress By Samuel Crook B.D. A Learned Commentary or Exposition on the first Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians By Richard Sibbs D.D. fol. A Commentary on the whole Epistle of S. Paul to the Ephesians By Mr. Paul Bain Fol. A practical Exposition on the third Chapter of the first Epistle of S. Paul to the Corinthians with the Godly Mans Choice on Psal 4. ver 6 7 8. By Anthony Burgess fol. The dead Saint speaking to Saints and sinners living in several Treatises The first on 2 Sam. 24.10 The second on Gant 4.9 The third on John 1.50 The fourth on Isa 58.2 The fifth on Exod. 15.11 By Samuel Bolton D.D. folio Christianographia or a Description of the multitude and sundry sorts of Christians in the world not subject to the Pope By Eph. Pagit fol. These seven Treatises next following are written by Mr. George Swinnock 1. The Christian Man's Calling or a Treatise of making Religion ones business in Religious Duties Natural Actions his Particular Vocation his Family Directions and his own Recreation to be read in Families for their Instruction and Edification The first Part. 2. Likewise a second Part wherein Christians are directed to perform their Duties as Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants in the conditions of Prosperity and Adversity 3. The third and last part of the Christian Mans Calling wherein the Christian is directed how to make Religion his business in his dealings with all Men in the choice of his Companions in his carriage in good Company in bad Company in solitariness or when he is alone on a weekday from morning to night in visiting the sick on a Dying bed as also the means how a Christian may do this and some motives to it 4. The Door of Salvation opened by the Key of Regeneration 5. Heaven and Hell Epitomised and the True Christian characterized 6. The fading of the Flesh and the flourishing of Faith Or One cast for Eternity with the only way to throw it well 7. The Incomparableness of God in his Being Attributes Works and Word opened and applyed All these by Geo. Swinnock M.A. An Antidote against Quakerism By Steven Scanderet A learned Commentary on the fourth Chapter of the second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians to which is added First A conference between Christ and Mary Second The Spiritual
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man c. The Psalmist giveth the ungodly man a black brand saying God is not in all his thoughts Ps 10.4 and let it be for an humiliation and lamentation that God is no more in the hearts and Months of the best amongst us Secondly Having laid down a little and but a little of the Tongues Unruliness in reference to God it is sinful silence neither speaking much to Gods nor of God which is its greivous miscarriage by way of omission Let some enquiry be made after the Tongues positive guilt by way of Commission 2. Commission it 's speaking irreverently lightly or prophanely and that in reference to God and so speaking too much of God For instance First 1 Titles abused There is a frequent abuse of the Titles and Attributes of God in our common discourse saying O Lord O God O Christ O Jesu O dear God O sweet Saviour and the like and this upon very trifling occasion as when one meets an acquaintance unexpectedly out flye these words or the like and usher in no more but an how dost thou who thought to see thee here to day or a whence comest thou or whither art thou going Is not this to play with Sacred things and to take the name of the Lord our God in vain A question also may be whether when we hear onesneeze to cry God bless you or Christ help you be a bounden duty which upon this occasion God requires at our hands It s the judgment of a worthy Writer of this Nation who was no dishonour to the Nation that there is more cause with us to pray for a man Coughing than Sneezing for Coughing argueth the Cold taken to be too strong for Nature to eject it but sneezing sheweth Natures strength in mastering the Cold taken and casting of it out When I was young as I remember I read it in the French Academy that Sneezing was a good sign of a bad cause of natures strength though cold were taken Adde also this question Whether to apply the incommunicable Attributes of God as Allmighty Infinite and the like to persons or things here below as to say I love or hate such a person or thing infinitely might not such language well be spared Secondly 2 Scriptures abused The Tongue trips and falls foully when it makes bold with Scriptures using or abusing rather the phrase and language of it in jesting to provoke mirth in Company 1 In jesting or in wresting it to maintain erronious opinions as seducers do I grant that there is a facetiousness a witty cheariness in discourse which being well ordered may not onely be lawful but a duty yet to jest it in the words of Scripture as when asked why did not you come at such a time to such a place as you promised To answer merrily saying I have a Farm c. I pray you have me excused or I have a Wife and could not come and an hundred the like expressions which the Devil and prophane wits of men can forge and fancy surely this way of tossing the word of God to and fro falls within the Compass of that jesting which the Apostle saith Eph. 5.4 is not Convenient The Original word used which the Philosophers ranked among one of their vertues the Holy Apostle puts in the Catalogue of vices as fornication covetousness foolish talking Vers 3. and jesting Talking scurrilously and lasciviously is alwayes bad enough especially when cloathed with Scripture Language that is a breach of many commands together Jesting in Scripture phrases is inbeseeming the gravity and fanctity of Christianity Remember it is ill jesting with edged Tooles such surely is the word of God yea Heb. 4.12 it 's sharper than any two edged sword Againe the holy Word of God is miserably abused and prophaned 2 In wresting the Scripture in the wresting and misapplying it to the countenancing and patronizing of errors and heresies or of vicious words and practices 2 Pet. 3.16 This the Apostle Complains of saying That in Pauls Epistles are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction Unlearned and unstable Ignorance is the Root of instability Againe ignorance and instability are the Mother and Nurse of most or all the corrupt opinions and wayes which are taken up and walked in by the mistaken children of men and one great Engine which Satan useth in his seductions is the wresting misconstruing and the misapplying the Holy Scriptures making men believe that the Spirit of God speaketh that in the word which indeed never was at all the meaning of the Holy Ghost The word in the Original significantly points at this alluding to tormentors who lay men on the Rack and make them to speak that which they never meant or thought so that this wresting is to torment and rack the Scriptures and which is dreadfull to think all this is to their own destruction As if a man sadly distempered walking in a pleasant Spring or Grove should cut up a young Twig and be twisting and twining of it till he had made a with of it and then go and hang himself therein Thus the Sabbath breakâ—… who profane the day by idleness The Sabbath breaker 〈◊〉 speaking their own words by finding their own pleasure upon Gods holy day if rebuked will plead saying Mar. 2.27 The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath Thus the greedy worldlings The worldling Amos. 2 7. Hab. 2.6 who pant after the dust of the Earth and all the day long are lading themselves with thick Clay mind nothing but Earth Earth Earth if questioned why do ye thus why spend ye your strength for that which is not Bread and labour for that which will not satisfie they have a ready answer 1 Tim. 5.8 If any provide not for his own and specially for those of his own house he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel The Glutton Phil. 3.19 Luk. 16.19 Thus the gluttons and voluptuous Epicures of our Age who make their bellies their gods faring deliciously every day who care for nothing but to eat the fat and drink the sweet if a reason of this their brutish sensuality be demanded They 'l presently tell you Eccl. 2.24 There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soulenjoy goâ—… his labour The worst of sinners Yea the worst of sinners 〈◊〉 on swearers drunkards adulterers lyers cheaters and such like will wrest and pervert Scriptures to their own delusion obduration and destruction 3 By swearing 3. The Tongues of men grow black and bloody with Oathes of several sorts and sizes 1. Blasphemous Oathes by the parts and
not exclusive of mirth natural and civil for there was feasting The Jewes had joy Est 8.17 Neh. 8.10 and gladness a feast and a good day and in their feasts did eat the fat and drink the sweet And let me adde this that even civil mirth well ordered and regulated is a good natural preparative for rejoycing in a more sublime and holy manner And the reason is because of the Spirits which are in men natural animal and vital spirits ingendred in the Livers heads and hearts of men which being kept up lively and agil by civil mirth are as wings to the Souls even of Saints in their sublimer higher and nobler operations And herein I may appeal to the experience of the choicest servants of God who find when their spirits are down and low an indisposition in them thereby for holy duties The disciples themselves when they should have been watching and praying Jesus Christ found them sleeping for sorrow But when our Spirits are up lively Luk. 22.45 and cheary they dispose for duty and our heads and hearts as wheels oyled move more nimbly 2. As for the usefulness and expediency of mirth and lightsomness I say not levity of spirit 2 Vseful 1. Preservation of the bodies health It 's not only serviceable to the soul in its gracious actings and operations as I said before but to the body also for the preservation of health and strength vigor and activity by the multiplying and refining of spirits in us A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance It doth good indeed to the whole body Prov. 15.13 but the good it doth appears and shewes it self especially in the Countenance as being made thereby more amiable and lovely the eye more lively and sharp-slighted the Cheeks more ruddy the bloud more pure and sparkling Though the countenance onely is mentioned yet the whole body is to be understood as receiving good by the hearts cheeriness for though the soul and body differ in substance as spirit and flesh yet God having joyn'd them together in so close a union as to the making up of one person they mutually sympathize each with other a sickly body makes a sad heart and a wounded spirit makes a crasie bodie and I think the body is less able to bear the souls burdens then the soul is the bodys To return to what is in hand that a merry heart countenance appears by the example of Esau none of the best whose heart being gladded by the present sent by Jacob when they met his countenance was so cheerful that Jacob said Gen. 33.10 I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God And by Daniel and his associates none of the worst who though they did eat pulse onely and had nothing but water to drink yet their countenances were fair and fat Deut. 12.15 Why they had merry hearts quiet consciences in their breasts and bosomes arising from their reconciliation and peace with God It 's not choice meats and drinks much less painting or dawbing with vermilions but a good conscience that makes a merry heart and so a cheerful countenance To the same purpose vers 15. He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast By a merry heart he means not carnal mirth and jollity in eating drinking singing musick dancing this he elsewhere calls madness but the merry heart he commendeth is a good conscience sprinkled with the bloud of Christ his righteousness being imputed to us for our justification and so having peace with God Ecc. 2.2 and peace of Conscience which the Apostle expresseth by a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfained 1 Tim. 1.5 Once agâ—â—â—e the wise King tells us That a merry 〈◊〉 doth good like a medicine Prov. 17.22 and that because cheaâ—ness of spirit helps Nature's operations with its food and Physick whereas sadness and heaviness of heart hinders both I 'le close up this with a true story I was once in company at dinner where kindred and friends were met and among the rest one a learned and godly man was very merry in telling Tales breaking jests harmless and inoffensive Yet I was somewhat troubled to see and hear it and in some heat break out and asked him saying Sir I pray what is the meaning of those words of the Apostle Let your communication be that which is good to the use of edifying Eph. 4.29 to which he answered me to this purpose we have bodies to edifie as well as soules and harmless mirth doth good to both and so it doth if it be well and wisely ordered 2 Honour to Religion 2. This cheariness of spirit in Company hath its usefulness in reference to others even those without who are strangers to the work of grace and wâ—â—es of Christianity and are apt to 〈◊〉 up prejudices against the people of God as a morose and sour people and that the life they lead is but an uncomfortable life full of melancholy and they verily think that when any set their faces this way Zion-ward that they never have a merry day after but live mopishly and disconsolately all their dayes Now the harmless mirth and merriment in the communications and conversations of Christians is a practicall and reall confutation of this mistake and so is a removing of that stumbling block in their way and withall a fair invitation and allurement of them to come in and to ingage in a stricter and higher profession of Saintship when they are eye and eare-witnesses of its consistency with all possible civil mirth and merriment which is lawfull and commendable Instance Let me back this from my own experience I knew a Lawyer of good parts and practice who being naturally of a lepid and chearful spirit and possest with hard thoughts touching Religion in the strictness of it and exactness therein as necessitating the professors thereof to lay quite aside that kind of mirth which he was addicted to was thereby kept off from ingaging himself in any forwardness in Christianity but afterwards observing the carriage of some Ministers of note and eminency for piety and Ministerial abilities how pleasant they were how facetious in their discourse yet still keeping within the bounds which God in his Word had set them he changed his opinion embraced the Societie of the Saints walked with them in the wayes of God and died I believe a true servant of God and of his Christ our Jesus and that he is now in glory To strengthen this argument The mirth of a Christian life by Zac. Bogan printed at Oxford 1653. I 'le commend to the reading a little Treatise made by a learned holy man whom I knew both in his life and death 3. This cheariness of spirit hath this commendable vertue in it that it puts a shine and lustre upon duties and offered of love performed to men 3 Alustre upon duties and that in the eyes both of God and man God loveth a
cheerful giver 2 Cor. 9.7 and man also and a cheerful lender to cheerfulness in a child or servants obedience O how lovely is it It s so also between husbands and wives those offices of love they discharge each to other with readiness and chearfulness what a beauty doth it add thereunto But on the contrary when these or the like services are performed but unwillingly and by constraint with a sad look and a lowring countenance they are render'd ingrateful and unacceptable What 's a feast if no mirth there good looks and language are one of the best dishes at the Table Having spoken concerning the lawfulness and usefulness of civil mirth I proceed to lay down some cautions 3 Cautions to prevent disorders and irregularities therein 1 Vnseasonable 1. As to the timing of mirth it must be seasonable when Zion weeps and bleeds for the sons and daughters of Zion to be upon a merry pin I speak of common civil mirth especially if with constancy and some heights therein is â—s unseasonable as snow in harvest an high and heinous provocation When â—he Lord calls to weeping and mourning and if in that day behold joy and gladness and eating flesh and drinking wine and surely saith the Lord of hosts this iniâ—uitie shall not be purged from you till â—ou dye Is 22.12.13 14. True When the â—ord turnes againe the Captivity of Zion â—hen let our mouthes be fill'd with laughâ—er and our tongues with singing Psal 26.1 2. But when the Jewes are in Captivity then by the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof Psal 137 1 2. And yet by the way let me insert this that spiritual mirth and rejoycing in the Lord is alwayes a dutie and in the worst of times to be performed by the generation of believers Phil. 4.4 Hab. 3.17 18. Eccl. 10.19 A feast is made for laughter saith the Preacher but at a funeral sighing and mourning is more seasonable especially on a day set apart professedly for solemn humiliation even civil mirth seems abominably unseasonable Let me add also on the Lords day the Christian Sabbath our common civil mirth may well be spared the doing our own wayes the finding our own pleasures the speaking our own words Isa 58.13 Being under a special inhibition whereby the word own we understand not wayes pleasures or words in themselves sinful for such are unlawful at all times but such as are lawful on other dayes but on the Lords day unlawfull as concerning worldly imployments and recreations It s true it is a duty to call the Sabbath a delight but the more spirituâ—â— and heavenly our joy and rejoyâ—ings are the more in the Lord the â—ore agreeable with the day of the â—ord to the advancing of which holy â—irth there is by divine appointment 〈◊〉 Psalme for the Sabbath day Ps 92. 2 Immeasurable Voluptato commendat rarior usus 2. Civil mirth must not be immeasurable excessive and without measure The commendation of all our Civil â—leasures are the sparing use of them To be alwayes in a merry vain jesting and laughing is a swerving from the gravity and sanctity of Christianity â—leasantness of speech should not be â—sed as meat to feed the company with â—ests frollick frothy jokes are but windy not overwholsome they may be indeed as sauce to meat to quicken â—ppetites unto more solid and wholsome discourse or to fit our spirits for higher duties facetious speech is to a sober mind as whetting a sithe is to mowing too much whetting turns the edg of the Sithe and unfits it for service he who is alwayes whetting is an idle mower or rather mowes not at all and he that is alwayes jesting may go for a vain person or a vile one rather 1 Not with the sins of others 1. Not sporting our selves making our selves or others merry with our own sins or the sins of others such a man is one of Solomons fools It is sport to a fool to do mischief Prov. 10.23 And again Fools make a mock at siâ— Prov. 14.9 That is obdurate and hardened sinners having their Conscience seared and being past all sense of goodness take a kind of complacency and delight as in the acts of sinning so in their talking of it and making themselves and others merrie with it afterward Then to set men or Children oâ— fighting and to rejoyce in seeing them beat and hurt each other then witâ— many youngsters never so merry a feasâ— as where there is stoln venison rabbet hens or other provision To whom stolâ— waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant Prov. 9.17 as some quorish and therein theevish servantâ— though they have good food alloweâ— them and enough of it yet get somâ— dainties in a corner how pleasantly 〈◊〉 they go down or as adulterers anâ— adulteresses their secret uncleannesses are the stollen waters and bread in secret which the Spirit chiefly aimeth at as the Context sheweth It s sad to hear how some men will in a jocular way boast how many women and maidens they have defiled and how often So that woful generation of men who are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink Isa 5.27 How they 'l merrily among their pot companions vaunt and brag it that so many quarts they took off at a sitting laid such a man asleep drunk another dead down laid him under the Table and glory in their shame So the Gamesters the Jewel of their mirth is many a time their cheating such and such an one who played with them how they fetched him over for so many pounds it may be hundreds so the malicious persons of a vindictive spirit how is it mirth and musick to them to boast how they have made even with such or such an one and hope they have given him his own and shall not die in his debt I might inlarge in this too copious a subject but in brief all this kind of mirth is madness and indeed monstrous for men to rejoyce in that for which they ought to mourn to laugh at that till their sides ake and their eyes water for which they should rather grieve till their hearts ake and rivers of Tears flow from their eyes as did Davids and Jeremiahs Those choice servants of the most high God Psal 119.136 Jer. 9.1 2 3. 4. 4 Not Scripture or matters of Religion Not the Scriptures or matters of Religion Jesting in Scripture phrases and the language of the Holy Ghost as Politian the Heathen and Julian the Apostate it 's a Character of profaness in any and in such as profess Christianity of profaneness with an accent of high aggravation and carrieth also much of danger with it if it be ill jesting with edged tools then surely with the Word of God which is the sword of the Spirit and sharper than any two edged sword Eph. 6.17 Heb. 4.12 Kings and Princes do not