many mens unsatiableness and ingratitude makes them overlook most of Gods blessings despise what they have and value only what they have not and so murmur and complain when they should give thanks But whoever shall diligently observe all the gracious distributions of that God who always giveth to all men being debtor to none all the supplies and comforts we receive from him will heartily say with the Psalmist O love the Lord all ye his Saints and O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men that they would exalt him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the seat of the elders Psal 31.107 CHAP. IV. What returns we should make for temporal Blessings THose Benefits we have hitherto mentioned we receive as we are men and that from the free goodness of our gracious God we are his people and the sheep of his pasture we are and we have nothing that is good but it comes from him he made us he preserves us and he provides for us therefore O go your way into his gates with thansgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and speak good of his name It was Jacob's vow that if God would keep him and give him food and raiment whilst he sojourned in Haran then the Lord should be his God Now what was his vow should be our resolution and practice God feeds and cloaths and defends us therefore ought he to be our God That is we ought to own him for such by faithful service and hearty obedience Therefore 1. Let us pay our bounteous Benefactor the just and easie tribute of Praise and Thansgiving for our creation preservation and all the blessings of this life 2. Let us set apart daily some of that time which he gives us for acts of Worship and Religion 3. Let us honour the Lord with our substance either in secret charities or publick offerings paying him an acknowledgment that he is our Land-lord and lastly let us apply our selves to observe his Laws to do what pleaseth him because we are not our own we owe our selves to him we are his he gave us our being These are acts of natural Religion and them we owe to God as he is our Creator and Benefactor CHAP. V. Of the mercies of Redemption and first a consideration of the infinite miseries we were redeemed from NOw are to be considered the benefits we receive from God as we are sinners the mercies of our Redemption how God our Creator is become JESUS our Saviour how after having given us many good things he at last gave himself for us And that we may the better understand the greatness of this unspeakable and Divine Mercy let our meditation descend a while into that bottomless gulf of perdition wherein we were plunged by nature in this plain manner Represent to thy self a man in Job's condition having added to his ulcers and poverty all the saddest calamities that ever afflicted any man upon earth especially the remorses and horrors of a guilty and tormented conscience crying out of impatience and despair with Cain my pain is greater than I can bear This unhappy creature having for many years born the uneasie weight of his miseries linger'd out a tedious and disconsolate life is at last struck to the heart with a mortal wound and dies and so passeth from temporal to eternal sorrows he falls into a lake of fire and brimstone a place where there is nothing but woe and darkness weeping and gnashing of teeth where there is no company but of tormented and tormentors nothing to be seen but what is frightful no voices to be heard but curses shrieks and lamentations where there is the absence of all good and the presence of all evil where men desire to die and death flees away from them This is the fulness of his misery that it shall have no end that he must dwell with everlasting burnings their fire is not quenched and their worm dies not If weeping but one tear every day he might expect to be releast after he had wept as much as would make an ocean it would be some comfort but at the end of so many millions of years as would suffice to weep a Sea his torments will be as far from ending as the first day they began and if after this manner in process of time he should shed tears enough to make many more seas yet still it might be truly said this is but the beginning of sorrows still there is an intolerable Eternity to come for after as many thousands of millions of years as tongue can express or heart comprehend Eternity is nothing lessened still it is what it was before an abyss of duration that can have no end this excludes all comfort this fills his soul with a woful despair this is another hell in the midst of hell which inrageth him and perpetually tortures his mind to think that there will be no end of his sufferings that he can conceive no hope of being delivered but that he must bear to all Eternity what every moment is intolerable O dreadful eternity who can seriously think of thee and not tremble Now if thou dost ask for what reason this wretched creature is thus tormented know that it is for sin because his first parents broke the Law of their Creation and he followed their footsteps they involved him first in the guilt of a wicked rebellion against God and afterwards by his own acts he made himself yet more criminal by nature he was a child of wrath and then he became so yet more by his own transgressions he was sold under sin and then he became a willing slave to it his own thoughts words and works being evil and that continually he forsook God and dishonoured him and profest enmity against him and opposed his depraved will to Gods Holy Will and so became obnoxious to the infinite justice of God which therefore justly inflicts this deserved punishment upon him And now if knowing the reason thou dost inquire after the person who by being so unholy is become so extremely unhappy I could say with the Prophet thou art the man this is thy patrimony as thou art a child of Adam this thou art by nature but the divine mercy hath rescued thee from this misery and therefore I must say thou wert the man this must have been thy case had not the Holy JESUS workt thy Redemption by means as wonderful as was his pity and charity But before I proceed I must also propound one question Two men are equally indebted and equally unable to pay the one is patiently forborn and at last freely acquitted the other is cast into the dungeon and a while after compassionately releast and set at liberty I demand is not he that never entred the prison as much bound to love his generous creditor as he that was delivered out of it yes doubtless or rather
God thine offended Sovereign is become thy near relation is become thy Brother that he may win thine affections and become thy Saviour His life all along was a continuation of his great mercy and humility he went about doing good healing all manner of diseases Corporal and Spiritual giving excellent instructions and great examples of vertue But what we now consider and what should most affect us is that for our sakes he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief all the time of his abode here below At his first entrance into the world he was degraded even below the condition of the meanest infants being born in a Stable and laid in a Manger eight days after he began to be numhred among the transgressors receiving the bloody and painful Sacrament of Circumcision which belonged only to sinners in his youth he lived in poverty and obscurity and was subject to his Parents when he manifested himself to the world then he perpetually endured the contradiction of sinners besides that he lived upon alms becoming poor for us who was Lord of all he wanted even time to eat what the charity of pious persons afforded him and had not so much as a place where he might rest his head He was tempted of Satan that he might succour those that are tempted he often watcht whole nights to Prayer and was often faint with tiresome journeys and hunger and thirst and what is yet worse he was daily persecuted by ingrateful men for whom he endured all this They slandered him with false imputations of being a glutton and a wine-bibber his kind and charitable affability in conversing with noted sinners was made matter of accusation as if he had consented to their evil deeds his Divine Doctrine was derided as if proceeding from madness the miracles which he wrought in their behalf were said to be done by sorcery and packt with Beelzebub and to all these disgraces and contumelies they would often have added violence and stoned him to death had he not escaped out of their hands by a hasty flight Lord thou hadst compassion on the multitudes because they had followed thee three days and had nothing to eat Mat. 15.32 and thou livedst above three and thirty years waiting upon thy base and fugitive servants who were become thine enemies seeking to prevent their ruine by the affiduity of thy care and kindness O sad ingratitude that we should be so soon weary in serving thee when thou wert so patient and indefatigable in acting and suffering for us for our happiness and our salvation CHAP. VII A consideration of the Cross in its four dimensions BUt if we desire to be rooted and grounded in love Eph. 3.17 and to comprehend with all Saints the immense charity of the Son of God which passeth knowledge which infinitely exceedeth all Learning in profitableness and excellency then measure the love of Christ by the dimensions of his Cross the breadth and the length the depth and the height thereof for therein love appears in its full extent so that nothing can be added to it That the eternal Son of God would become our Brother by becoming Man and would live in Poverty and Contempt was very much but that afterwards he would die for us in that manner as he did is the greatest wonder that ever the world saw And indeed there hapned more prodigies when he died than than at all other times of his humiliation the Sun hid himself darkness overspread the whole world the earth shook the stones and rocks were rent the graves were opened and the vail of the Temple was divided in twain Nature seemed to be amazed to see her God suffer and die upon a Cross greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend 't is true man cannot possibly domore I but JESUS did much more he was God then he became man that he might die for his enemies This is it whereof S. Paul speaks when he saith that it was never conceived or seen how great are the things which God hath prepared for them that love him We speak saith he the wisdome of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which none of the Prince of this world knew for had they known it they would never have crucified the Lord of glory but as it is written eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither is it entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him but God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit It appears that he speaks not of the bliss of heaven but of the crucifixion of our Blessed Saviour which to the Jews was a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness and which neither the senses nor the reason of man could ever comprehend but as a hidden mystery was made known to Christians by the revelations of the all-knowing Spirit of God To understand therefore as much as may be this never fully understood and never enough admired love of our Redeemer in dying for us let us in the first place view the Breadth of his Cross that is the variety of the torments he endured for us in the last stage of his uneasie pilgrimage CHAP. VIII The Breadth of the Cross or the manifold Sufferings of Christ for our Redemption WE may begin with the manner of his apprehension he was taken as if he had been a publick enemy to mankind a thief or a murtherer with swords and staves with rudeness and violence he was betrayed by one of his Disciples forsaken by the rest and then bound and dragg'd from place to place by those he had instructed and fed and in whose behalf he had wrought miracles He was called an impious blasphemer and voted guilty of death for confessing a great and necessary truth that he was the only Son of God Afterwards he was exposed a whole night to the indignities and mockeries of his insulting enemies they spet upon his sweet and glorious face they vailed him and smote his head and buffeted him and as if he had been a contemptible ideot to be made sport withal they bad him prophesie ghess who gave him the blows He was accused before the Roman Pretor as being a lewd malefactor a rebellious traitor who subverted the people and forbad to pay tribute to Caesar From thence he was sent to King Herod where he was set at nought and abused by him and his Souldiers and then sent back with scorn and contempt to Pilate Afterwards Barrabbas a seditious murtherer was preferred to him and a loud clamor raised by the people that he might be crucified and put to death Then was he whipt before their eyes tied to a post like a vile slave and exposed to the servile rods whiles they plough'd furrows upon his back as the Prophet spake the Souldiers took him platted a Crown of thorns and prest it on his head till the blood run of all sides of him they beat him with
God shall enable me But first my love is to appear by doing what is commanded This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments saith S John 1 John 5.3 and he that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me saith our Blessed Saviour John 14.21 There can be no love without obedience this is its first and chiefest Tryal if a man love me he will keep my words ver 23. Now then should my beloved Lord ask me as once he did S. Peter N. N. dost thou love me would not my heart answer with his zealous Apostle Yes Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee I would lay-down my life for thee John 21.15 and 13.37 Now to this he replies again if thou lovest me keep my Commandments John 14.15 Every time we tell him Lord I love thee thou knowest that I love thee He doth answer again if thou lovest me keep my Commandments So that without we observe this we can no ways pretend to love him I am therefore to take notice of and to amend sins of omission which too too many among Christians mind little or not at all In the matter of sobriety I am commanded whether I eat or drink to do it as all things else to the glory of God and to be contented whatsoever state I am in for chastity I am commanded to know how to keep my vessel in sanctification and honor for acts of corporal and spiritual mercy I am commanded to be merciful as my heavenly Father is merciful and to forgive injuries as I desire my self to be forgiven for reverence to my betters I am commanded to honour and obey my superiors Ecclesiastical and Civil in what concerns Divine Worship I am bound to read and pray and meditate to instruct my self and family to receive the Blessed Sacrament to have a veneration and respect for all things that belong or relate to God and him to love and fear and trust and adore evermore All these with the particulars included in them and all other duties and the special precepts of the New Testament is the task I chearfully undertake and in the performance whereof I will approve my self a sincere lover of JESUS CHAP. II. How great a happiness in Eternity follows our love and obedience HIS yoke is easie and his burthen light his Commandments are not grievous and yet in keeping of them there is great reward a temporal happiness than which none is greater in this world and an eternal happiness infinitely greater than any this world can afford Do not I see what pains most men are at to get a subsistence for this world how they run and sweat and spend themselves to provide for this perishing life which yet is miserable short and uncertain and shall I not labour for the meat which abideth to eternal life shall I be at no pains to secure that life which hath no end and knows no misery O that I could duly understand the difference betwixt this life and the life to come how would I slight the one and desire the other or rather how chearfully would I imploy this present to obtain that which is to come Is not there servants that work hard day by day a whole year together for small wages who are almost perpetually employed about their masters business and yet have sometimes no thanks and often but a sorry reward and am not I one of those labourers whom my Lord hath hired to work in his vineyard Mat. 21. Am not I one of those servants whom he hath intrusted with his goods to whom he hath intrusted talents to improve for him and do not I desire he should tell me one day well done thou good and faithful servant Mat. 21. Is not my salary great greater than any Prince on earth could make it greater than I could wish greater than I can comprehend eternal rest eternal joys eternal happiness eternal glories eternity it self he himself will be my reward Eternity Eternity Eternity Blessed Eternity Eternity never enough to be considered Eternity never enough to be valued shall I obtain thee by what I do here for my Lord shall I obtain thee by that imperfect service I pay to my gracious Master O God who hast prepared for them that love thee Sixth Sund. after Trin. such good things as pass mans understanding pour into our hearts such love towards thee that we loving thee above all things may obtain thy promises which exceed all that we can desire through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Lord I am not worthy to be called thy Son I have often begg'd to be one of thy hired servants the meanest so I love and obey best O let me like thy servant Moses ever have a respect to the recompence of the reward ever consider what I shall get by serving thee that I may be diligent persevering and cheerful in doing my duty O my soul blush to consider how laborious men are for the unsatisfying acquests of this earth how eager thou hast been thy self in pursuing of them how slothful how unactive and heavy thou art in working for eternal rest for the treasures of eternity for the glories of heaven for those Divine Pleasures which are at the right hand of God for evermore Whence comes this unhappy soul is it not from inconsideration because thou dost not lift up thine eyes to see whither the way of love and obedience will bring thee because thou dost not look beyond the world upon things eternal because thou dost not often enough meditate upon heaven and eternity that unvaluable infinite recompence which awaits thee as soon thy work is finished Resolve therefore to amend this and daily once at least to consider what are thy wages what thou shalt get by serving God As the Apostle says of afflictions that they are light and but for a moment whilst we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen the same we may say of the most difficult of Christian duties that they are light and but for a moment that they are easie and soon done that there is no tediousness no hardship in them whilst we look upon things eternal whilst we have a respect unto the recompence of the reward CHAP. III. That to win our hearts and duty God propounds great rewards to us THis consideration doubtless would be powerful and effectual would wake and stir us up and make us active and lively if we had it often in our minds Therefore our Blessed Saviour to incourage his followers and make them diligent in his service doth often give them to understand what by parables and what by plain declarations that they should not serve him for nought and that they should be no losers by him that he would consider them for their time for their expences for their sufferings and for their labours that he would take notice of the least thing they should do for him so that even
affection thou canst daily repeat these few words which have been frequently in the mouth of some devout persons I love thee dear JESUS I love thee dear JESUS thou hast learned that which will teach thee both to live and die well Then thou wilt value nothing not life it self but so far as it is subservient to love and thou shalt be so far from being afraid of death that thou shalt wish with a primitive Saint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God in S. Basil it were in thy power to die many times for JESUS A devout love for him will make thee find that true peace and satisfaction which the world with endless labour vainly seeks in earthly enjoyments It will make thee say but without fear of change or disappointment with the rich man in the Gospel Soul eat and drink be merry take thine ease thou hast much goods laid up for many years Luk. 12. yea for eternity Worldly men as though they had a dropsie the more they drink out of their broken Cisterns the more they thirst the more unsatisfied they remain but they that love and fear God lack nothing they drink living waters out of that fountain which is never drie they have him in their souls with whom true peace and felicity is ever enjoyed O fortunanatissime cui quod amas domi est O happy soul that art possest of that which thou lovest thou hast enough at home to make thee intirely happy without ever seeking abroad O my soul entertain that blessed guest which instead of being chargeable will discharge thee of all thy wants and fears and troublesome burthens Love will strengthen thee against temptations Poterant leges delicta punire cons ientiam munire non poterant Lact. and secure thee from sin It will deliver thee from the terrors and bondage of the Law and bring thee to the rest Brevis differentia inter legem Evangelium timor amor Aug. and freedom of the Gospel-yoke As it self grows on towards perfection So will it still increase thy hapiness till its consummation But my Soul suffer not thy love to be fantastick and to spend it self in thoughts and wishes the expressions of love are obedience and submission with a devout life Whoso keepeth his word in him is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him 1 John 2.5 Princes have many flatterers and but a few friends JESUS also hath many pretenders and but a few lovers Multitudes will wait upon him in Mount Gerizim to receive his blessing in Sinai where he gives his Law he hath but a few attendants and fewer yet in Golgotha where he himself suffers and calls us to take up his Cross Therefore my Soul by obedience self-denial and an humble patience justifie the sincerity of thy love and protestations Follow now thy Saviour by love and a sincere imitation and thou shalt certainly come to see his face and to dwell with him in glory for where he is there shall his servant be John 12.26 They that be faithful in love shall abide with him Wisd 3.9 CHAP. IX Christianity absolutely requires our love and strictest obedience THis double duty of dying unto sin and living unto righteousness abstaining from that which is evil and doing that which is good I am obliged to perform by strong and indispensable obligations If I do not I certainly perish When we say in common speaking that we do things out of love we mean that we are free and may chuse whether we do them or no we are not bound to it but here all along where I undertake to discharge the duties of Religion out of love I do not in the least mean so I acknowledge my self under the greatest necessity of discharging my Baptismal Vow of living according to the Gospel Rule otherwise my neglect of 〈◊〉 would be my ruine I should perish in my disobedience Love it self is a duty the first and greatest commandment thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind Mat. 22.37 I recommend love therefore â—s the noblest the most powerful moâ—ive to a religious obedience Meliores quos dirigit amor plures quos corrigit timor Aug. as that which makes our duty easie and pleasant and gives a value to what we do or suffer â—or God I know there is those who teach that by our well doing we must not seek for salvation and that our obedience is not required to our justification but may be a mark or an effect of it faith having done the work before but this groundless and mischievous opinion is contradicted by thousands of plain express Scriptures He that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not is like the man that built his house upon the sand Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my father which is in heaven If thou wilt enter life keep the Commandments and innumerable others with all those that affirm that God shall judge and reward every man according as his works have been No the holy Religion we profess requires a conformity betwixt the Holy JESUS and his followers that by a devout imitation we should copy his example that we should be fruitful in good works and by a sincere and universal obedience serve God all the days of our life For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a full recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation Heb. 2.2 3. by being disobedient to our Lord JESUS who having wrought and revealed it offers it to us on the condition of an affectionate obedience to his Gospel The earth which drinketh the rain that cometh upon it and beareth thorns and briers is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burnt such is their condition who receiving the heavenly dew of Divine Grace in their admission into and profession of Christianity yet still remain barren or bring forth evil fruit But beloved saith the Apostle we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewed towards his name and we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end Heb. 6. 7 c. He says not we desire that you may be confident and perswaded of your salvation but that by love and diligent obedience ye may ascertain your hope make your calling and election sure as S. Peter speaks 1 Pet. 1.10 for indeed God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether We wake or sleep we should live together with him 1 Thes 5.9.10 in holiness of life worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called Ephes 4.1 for we
called the Friend of God and God bare him witness that he indeed feared God when in obedience to the divine commandment he would have sacrificed his beloved Isaak and if we sacrifice our will to God to act in all things according to what he hath revealed to square our actions great or small according to the Rules he hath prescribed to us then God will be certified that we indeed love him our readiness to obey his pleasure will speak the heartiness of our affection We see how readily Courtiers conform themselves to the humour and pleasure of their Prince and shall we think it hard to conform to what God hath required of us our obedience being our greatest profit here and our infinite happiness in the world to come Sure 't is no difficult matter to say with that great lover of JESUS Lord what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9.6 and if love hath disposed us to say it 't will be easie enough to do it afterwards In the second place as we must set our hand to that prayer we ought to say daily Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven so must we also submit our necks to it I mean that in compliance to the will of God we must give up our selves as well to patient sufferance as to cheerful obedience One of the great advantages the Coenobites had in their communities was the casting out those two words which are the seeds of contention and the disturbers of the world mine and thine and if we resign all to God who is indeed the true proprietor we shall bear the loss of any thing without repining against him we shall never differ with him about that which is not our own we shall have peace with him whatever we suffer God is the judge he setteth up one and bringeth down another All things that happen are ordered by his infinite power and wisdom therefore in all let us rejoice in his Government and with a cheerful submission humbly bow and worship and say with his Saints Allelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him Rev. 19.6 If we truly love God we shall as willingly suffer any thing from him as we would for him perswaded that it is for our good we shall not only remain satisfied but thankful also I am sure 't is much more reasonable we should follow Gods will Aequius est ut nos ejus quam ut ille nostram sequatur voluntatem Aug. than he ours And some have said that it is better and more acceptable to God Perfectius est adversa tolerare patienter quam bonis operibus insudare to suffer afflictions patiently than in prosperity to do the best of things Let us therefore in all our sorrows humble our selves and look up to heaven and say Calicem quem dedit Pater The Cup that my heavenly Father giveth me shall I not drink it we shall always prosper and have all things at wish and command all events as one did the winds and weather In vit Patr. if we by love adhere to God and make his will our own He that hath and seeth all things in one may always remain satisfied and have true peace in God Magna res est amor magnum omnino bonum quod solum leve facit omne onerosum sert aequaliter omne inaequale nam onus sine onere portat omne amarum dalce ac sapidum efficit Thom. de Kemp. The guilty prisoner dreads every noise and trembles when the door opens for fear of his deserved doom when on the same accounts the innocent is both calm and joyful expecting to be delivered Now guilt and the highest treason before God is to love any thing better than him and to oppose our will to his he that doth so may well be dismaid and troubled and full of sad apprehensions and he that sincerely loves God and chuseth his will in all things is safe and undaunted always pleased and happy CHAP. XVII The two former Rules explained and enlarged ACTS beget and perfect habits and thus to make our actions and passions so many acts and demonstrations of our love to God will speedily encrease that love and soon bring us to perfect peace and happiness But commonly it is thought that to make it appear that we love God we must do great and extraordinary things fly up above other mens pitch and always be as it were gazing and sighing heaven-ward This hath frighted many from a religious life from devoting themselves to the love of JESUS But the truth is that love is best exprest by doing well our ordinary actions that which is our proper duty and employment Our greatest perfection here is contained in these two 1. To do what God requires of us and 2. to do it well The first is to discharge the duties of that station wherein God hath placed us That every man wherein he is called therein he should abide with God and do his own business This is our task as we are men and as we are Christians Not to do things wonderful and inimitable but faithfully to discharge what our place requires from us to pay to all that love and obedience which nature and Religion appoint to follow our work whatever it be even the most servile labours as to the Lord and not to men knowing that whatever good thing any man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free Some enter a dark cell Graeci studia transmarina sect untur sed regnum Dei intra vos est S. Athan. and some go long pilgrimages but wherever providence had placed them there they might best have wrought their Salvation To do what we should do in a mean place Nemo fugit adversarium de loco ad locum sed de vitio ad virtutem Faust Serm. is much better than to undertake greater things which we were not obliged to The first frees us from and the other doth ingage us into temptation The commandment I giâ—e thee this day is not hidden from thee neither is it far off it is not in in heaven neither is it beyond the sea but the word is very nigh thee in thy month and in thy heart that thou maist do it Deut. 30.11 It maketh some Quakers some fantastical and some mad the seeking to profess and to do strange things things out of the road And even in the best of all religious institutes there is nothing good except it be this that they are particular applications of the general Gospel-Rules which particular applications to times persons and places are best made by the designation of divine providence which to every man appoints that sphere wherein he is bound to move regularly Let us therefore humbly acquiesce to Gods wise disposal making that to be our study and work which our state and condition doth require from us and let our next care