shew Mercy to all Mankind Pour out thy Spirit upon all Flesh that they may know thee and seek thee and find and praise thee and rejoice in thy abundant Goodness Let thy continual Pity cleanse and defend thy Church Lord look down in mercy upon us and bless us that all the ends of the World may fear thee We pray thee do good to these Nations in which we live according thy infinite Sufficiency and our Necessities Oh let not our Iniquities with-hold good things from us but according to the multitude of thy tender Compassions blot out all our Transgressions Bless our Gracious King and Queen and make the one a Nursing Father and the other a Nursing Mother to that part of thy Church which thou hast planted among us and let their good Influence extend further to the Benefit of it and make Them the Honourable Instruments of Establishing Peace and Truth not only in these but also in the Neighbouring Nations to the Glory of thy great Name Bless all Ranks and Degrees of Men among us and make them to live to thy Glory to be conformable and obedient to our Governours and useful peaceable righteous and charitable one towards another in their several Stations We humbly pray for all Friends Relations Benefactors bless and preserve them from every evil Work and conduct them to thy Heavenly Kingdom Let this Day Oh Lord be happy to us in the fruitful and effectual Influences of thy Ordinances upon our Hearts and Lives Let us not be forgetful Hearers but be Doers of thy Word that we may be blest in our Deed. Grant us to lie down in Peace this Night to rest in Safety And be thou O God our Portion and Refuge in the Land of the Living and hereafter our exceeding great Reward for the sake of Jesus Christ in whose Name and Words we further present our Requests unto thee saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil Amen THE Heavenly Mind DESCRIBED and URGED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Colos 3. 2. Set your Affections on Things above and not on things on the Earth HOW well did the Bounteous Creatour of all things contrive the Nature of Man for the making him exceedingly Happy He put into our Constitution an Immortal Spirit join'd to a Living and Sensible Body And so he made us capable of the Delights of both Worlds the Spiritual and the Material By our Souls we are capable to enjoy and delight in Spiritual Objects and their Properties and Qualities We are capable of a rational spiritual Delight in sensible Objects and we are capable to enjoy and delight in God himself and his Infinite Eternal Perfections And by our Bodies which are allied to this World we are capable of a sensual Delight in the things of it to enjoy and please our selves with the Properties Vertues and Qualities belonging to Material things So bounteous and kind was the Creatour to Man in the Forming of him But alas Man has not been kind to himself He did not remain long in the happy State which he was first set in but by following too much the Pleasures of his Sense he lost all the greatest Pleasures of his Mind By eating the Forbidden Fruit he sinned against God lost his Favour and the Enjoyment of him became alienated from God and his Mind became subject to the shameful Disease of Sensuality A low and sordid Propensity to Earthly things did from henceforth possess him and a wretched Incapacity and Averseness towards Heavenly and Spiritual things We are condemned to enjoy only the lowest and weakest and the least part of our Happiness to gnaw as it were on the Shell of Pleasure and enjoy no more than the Brute Beasts do We following the unhappy Fall of our Nature do amuse and entertain our selves only with the poor Objects of Sense utterly forget and neglect our higher Capacities and our true Happiness It is the whole Business of our Religion in all the parts of it to recover us from this shameful and deadly Fall to draw us off from this our wretched Attachment to this World and turn us from a false Happiness to a true one The scope and aim of all its Doctrins Precepts Promises Threatnings Motives and Assistances is this to make us truly happy And the Sum of all is to bring us to what the Apostle here exhorts to in saying Set your Affections on Things above not on Things on the Earth By Things above he means those very things which were recommended to you by the Discourse immediately foregoing this as the chiefest and the true Objects of our Happiness He means God himself who is our Chief Good and the Expressions and Exercises of his peculiar Favour and Love He meâ—â—â— the Graces which the Holy Spirit works 〈◊〉 the Souls of Men which perfect and adorn and compose the Mind He means the everlasting Blessedness which is to come the Happiness and Joys of Heaven By advising to set our Affections on those things he means they should be much the Objects of our Minds he intends the Application of the whole Soul to them and the employing of all our Powers about them The Original word which we render here set your Affections has this large Import and Signification and might be rendered Mind those things which are above Let your Judgments esteem them your Wills chuse and your Affections follow them And not on Things on the Earth that is rather than the Things of the Earth It is according to the Custom and Phrase of the Hebrew Language to express thus when it only intends to prefer the former things it speaks of before the latter So in Hos 6. 6. The Prophet in the Person of God says I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice that is rather than Sacrifice he intended to express God's preference of Mercy before Sacrifice Here then the Apostle who was an Hebrew of Hebrews speaking after the Phrase and Manner of his own Language must be understood to mean Set your Affections on Things above rather than on Things on the Earth Mind those Things most let them have the preference with you He does not forbid nor does our Religion forbid the moderate seeking and enjoyment of the Good things of this World We are not bound to be unsensible of their Goodness to take no delight in them nor absolutely and wholly to refuse or reject all sensual Pleasures The things of this World are good in their Kind and
that thou hast been pleased to make us capable to know and meditate on thy Self to chuse and love thee to desire and enjoy thee who art an Infinite Eternal Good and in whose presence is fulness of Joy Oh how ready should our Hearts be at all times to say Whom have we in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that we can desire besides thee But alas we are degenerated we are fallen from our Original Excellency we are sunk into Sensuality we need to be put in mind and told wherein our true Happiness lies and to be excited urged and exhorted to pursue it We hover here below and seldom have any thoughts or desires moving upwards the objects of Sense detain us with them and we feed on Husks among Beasts we stay and abide upon the lowest and the smallest part of our Happiness Lord we are miserable we are undone and shall perish for ever if thy pity do not rescue us from the Love of these low Things Oh Pardon our guilty and heal our distempered Souls Discover thy self to us and make us love thee shed abroad thy Love abundantly in our Hearts Make us to rise by the Creature to the Creator Guide us by the streams to thee the Fountain of their Goodness and make us as we ought to love thee above all things Let us be governed by thy Love in the whole course of our lives and readily deny our selves to please thee and keep thy Commandments Let us firmly believe the glorious Things which thou hast prepared for them that love thee and draw our Hearts after them to endeavour that our Treasure may be in Heaven in Immutable things And direct us we pray thee so to pass through things Temporal as that we finally lose not the things Eternal Have mercy O Lord upon all Mankind Let the Earth be filled with Knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the Sea and all Men be directed and led in the way to true Happiness Give to all Nations Unity Peace and Concord Pour down an abundant measure of thy Spirit upon thy Church that the Gospel may run and be glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Let them prosper that love it and let not the Gates of Hell ever prevail against it We pray especially for that part of it which thou hast graciously placed in these Nations and hitherto wonderfully detended Lord make it a very fruitful Vineyard and purge out of it all that is contrary to true Doctrin and Godliness Bless we pray thee our Gracious King and Queen and the Royal Family with all Spiritual and Eternal Blessings and give them long and happy Possession of the Throne of these Kingdoms to thy Glory and our Comfort Bless all in Authority under them help them truly and indifferently to administer Justice to the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the maintainance of thy true Religion and Vertue Give grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrin honour thee and guide thy People committed to them in the way of Blessedness Let all the Subjects of this Realm be subject to thee in Loyalty and Subjection and due Obedience to those that are over them in Church and State and let Piety Love Righteousness and Peace and Truth abound among us We commend to thy Fatherly goodness all that are in any Distress and Affliction all our Friends and Relations we pray for our Enemies do for all beyond what we are able to ask or think We humbly ask a comfortable and safe rest this Night and that it may please thee to make the out-goings of the Morning to rejoice Let thy word which we have heard this Day guide our Conversations and let us bring forth in them the Fruits of the Spirit let not the Cares of this World or the Deceitfulness of Riches choke the Word and render it unfruitful but grant we may live to the Glory of thy Name and to the Peace and Salvation of our own Souls by Jesus Christ in whose most comprehensive words we sum up our Requests saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Necessity of Obedience TO THE COMMANDS of GOD Proved and Stated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Mat. 7. 21. 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 HOW common a thing is it among those that have heard the glad Tidings of the Gospel for Men to take up a presumptuous reliance upon the Merits of Jesus Christ with neglect of Obedience to the Commands of God! Some of the most profligate and careless Sinners will hope to be saved And if one ask them how They will say by the Merits of Jesus Christ Many indulge themselves in their darling Sins and yet hope to be saved by the Merits of Christ And most certain it is that the Doctrins of some Teachers give occasion to this presumption They occasion Men to think there is nothing necessary to their Salvation but strong Believing and so to endeavour nothing but that and to rely upon the Righteousness of Christ so as to neglect all Endeavour after any Righteousness of their own And this Error and Delusion where it obtains does often prove able to harden a Man against the most earnest Exhortations to leave his Sins yea and even against the most plain Rebukes of Providence for them and to frustrate all other Means of Grace and Conversion whatever It is therefore of great Importance to remove it out of the way and this I shall endeavour by discoursing on these words of our Saviour which if they had been well considered together with many other plain Scriptures it had prevented the entertainment of such Imaginations in the Minds of Men. He had been in a long Discourse enforcing many of the Commands of the Moral Law And now towards the close of this Discourse he begins in this Verse to tell them of what importance and necessity it was to them to practise what he had taught He plainly teaches that no belief in him would avail them any thing if they did not together with it keep the Commands of God Not every one says he that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
thy Mercies our Friends Relations and even our Enemies and all that are in Adversity We render thee Thanks O Lord for all the Mercies of this Day in particular but especially for the Liberty of thy House and for the Means of Grace we have there enjoyed Hear O Lord the Prayers we have offered to thee Bless thy Word and Sacraments to us whenever we enjoy them let them be thy power to our Salvation We humbly beg thy Protection for this Night and evermore even unto thy Heavenly Kingdom for the sake of Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory world without End OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Pleasantness of Religion Demonstrated and Improved Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Prov. 3. 17. Her Ways are Ways of Pleasantness THese words are spoken of Wisdom as you may see by Verse 13. of this Chapter where Solomon begins the Commendation of that Saying Happy is the Man that findeth Wisdom and the Man that getteth Vnderstanding The Merchandize of it is better than the Merchandize of Silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Length of Days is in her right Hand and in her left Hand Riches and Honour then he adds Her ways are ways of Pleasantness And by Wisdom of which he says these great things he means Religion or the Wisdom of good and vertuous living to which the Scripture it self does elsewhere plainly give that Name Job 28. 28. The Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Vnderstanding The Ways of Wisdom then means the Practice of Religion and Vertue This he says is very pleasant He has Joy and Pleasure in abundance who steadily lives in a religious and good course of Life This is the import and sense of these Words And if this be true here is a very sensible and important inducement to a good Life contained in them There is nothing usually more powerful and attractive with Mankind than Pleasure nothing which they more earnestly or more universally covet If then it can be made appear that there is a great deal of this even in well-doing this may be a means to allure Men to the trial of it and to divert them from those courses of Wickedness which draw many into Everlasting Perdition by the allurement of Pleasure To make this good and to prove what Solomon here says will be the chief business of this Discourse And I do not doubt but it will be beyond any Man's Power to deny or question this who shall soberly consider the following Particulars 1. The Principle from whence all true and sincere Religion proceeds and springs is Love and that must needs render it highly pleasant in the Practice of it This must be the Principle and Spring of true and sincere Religion All the Duties we perform towards God or Man must proceed from Love to God and Man This must be the Principle of our good Actions and wherever true Love is it will be a Principle of good Actions All the instances of Duty required of us are but such things as Love it self will put us upon such as Love naturally suggests and does incline to He that truly loves God cannot chuse but seek what will please him and endeavour to do all that and he must endeavour to avoid whatever would offend God He must delight to contemplate the Divine Perfections to think upon the Object that he loves to adore and worship God to seek and promote the Love and Honour of him So he that loves his Neighbour sincerely must delight in and desire the Wellfare and Happiness of Men he must endeavour to promote it as much as he can and will be far from wishing or endeavouring any evil to any Man or from delighting in what does happen to any And this now is even a Demonstration of the Pleasantness of a Religious Life that all of it is nothing else but the Exercise of Love He that is driven to do his Duty by Fears and Terrors performs indeed an ungrateful Task and goes on in these ways with Reluctancy and Sorrow But he that is drawn with the Cords of Love follows with Joyfulness He will run and not be weary whom Love inspires He minds not is not discouraged with any Ruggedness of the way but is rather pleased with Difficulties and put on than troubled or retarded because they give him opportunity to express the greater Love This renders the Labours of Religion easy and even Sufferings delightful I take pleasure in Infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christ's sake says a great Lover of Jesus 2 Cor. 12. 10. It was the strength of Love in the Primitive Followers of Jesus which made them very laborious and diligent in Religion and made them suffer much even to the most cruel and tormenting Deaths and do both with unspeakable Joy and Pleasure They prov'd what a great Lover of God said long ago Cant. 8. 6 7. Love is strong as Death Many waters cannot quench Love neither the Floods drown it All the Task of Love is pleasant and nothing is counted hard or uneasy which that enjoins us 2. Another thing that renders the Practice of Piety and Vertue very pleasant and therefore proves it so is the fitness and reasonableness of all that which Religion enjoins us to do It is most highly equitable and just in all the parts of it and is most perfectly what the Apostle calls it Rom. 12. 1. namely Reasonable Service There is nothing required of us within the whole compass of our Duty but what a Man 's own Mind and Reason upon serious consideration must needs be perfectly satisfied in nothing that he can have any reason to be ashamed of or to think below him or unfit for him to do or that he can justly upbraid or condemn himself for doing How reasonable and just are all the Duties of Piety towards God This will appear upon a fair stating and proposal of them Is it not highly so that we reverence and adore an infinitely glorious and excellent Being That we trust the Original Truth That we love the Sovereign and the Fountain Good That we obey the supream Authority of the World in all
Heritage govern them and lift them up for ever And make all that name the Name of Christ duly concern'd to adorn the Doctrin of God our Saviour in all things Let thy gracious Presence dwell in the Land of our Nativity bless us with Peace and Plenty with the Means of Grace and the Efficacy of them to enlighten our Minds to cleanse our Hearts to heal our Divisions to teach us all from the Highest to the Lowest our several Duties towards thee Give Health and Happiness to our King and Queen and teach us and all their Subjects our Duty towards them Bless and direct all inferiour Magistrates make them a Terror to evil Doers and a Praise to them that do well Let those that Minister in Holy things be a good Example to the Flock and make us Followers of them as they are of Christ We Implore thy Mercy upon all that are in Affliction especially upon those who are persecuted for Righteousness Sake give them Patience under their Sufferings and a happy Issue out of all their Afflictions Accept our humble Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving which we have this day offer'd to thee in thy Sons Name And make the Word which we have heard to have such Influence upon our Hearts and to bring forth such Fruit in our Lives as thou dost expect from it Give us a Night of safe and comfortable Rest preserving us from Fear and Danger And when we awake in the Morning let us chearfully return to our Duty in all our ways acknowledge thee and do thou graciously direct our Steps for the Sake of Jesus Christ In whose Words we conclude these our poor imperfect Addresses OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Easiness of Religion EXPLAINED and IMPROVED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Mat. 11. 29 30. Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart And ye shall find rest to your Souls For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light IT is a strange and wonderful Degeneracy that the Humane Nature is fallen under as appears from the wonderful Aversness that is in all Mankind to a religious and a vertuous Life Religion is the greatest Ornament and Glory of the Humane Nature It is the Cure of all our Defects and Disparagements It is our true and compleat Perfection And yet we commonly appear to be most easily withheld from the Practice of it We devise Excuses to neglect it we receive the most false and unreasonable Prejudices against it without any Examination of them We do often obstinately persist in Wickedness against the most weighty Inducements to do well These Words of the Blessed Jesus who came into the World to save Sinners and to that Purpose has taught us as well as died for us do meet with one of the Prejudices against an Holy Life which he knew to be very common in the Hearts of Men And that is the Imagination that Religion is a Task too hard for Humane Nature and utterly impossible to be perform'd Because we must indeed take some Pains to be Religious our lazy and unwilling Souls magnify the little Oppositions into Mountains of Difficulties and make us think we shall never be able to get over them and the way down to the bottomless Pit seems easie and smooth is strow'd with Pleasures Riches and Worldly Honours and these things easily allure and engage us to follow that Against this fatal and discouraging Prejudice our Saviour says in the Words of our Text Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart And ye shall find rest unto your Souls For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light Take my Yoke upon you That is charge your selves with the keeping my Commands submit to my Government For this Meaning the Word Yoke is wont to have in Scripture For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light It shall be possible to you to keep my Commands you shall find I do not require of you that which you cannot perform that the Difficulties you may meet with are not invincible And further to encourage the taking up his Yoke he adds Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart If ye take up this Yoke ye but take up that which I have born my self I am of a meek and submissive mind I do not disdain to be subject to the Laws of Religion I then command you nothing but what I have practised my self and your Obedience to these Laws will be your Imitation of me And he adds further Ye shall find rest to your Souls This shall be Peace and Happiness to you In discoursing upon these Words I think it may be useful for the better promoting the Design of them to insist upon these Three Heads 1. To shew in what Sense it may be said that the Commands of God are easie to be observ'd Which will be both Explication and Proof of our Saviours Words 2. To suggest by what means we may best render this easie to our selves 3. To urge by some proper Motives the Use of those Means In the First place I shall shew you in what Sense we may understand this that 't is easie to keep the Commands of God And this will be sufficiently represented in the Three following Particulars 1. This is easie to a vigorous and earnest Endeavour ' Tit true there will be continual Opposition made against it by that Corruption that has gotten Possession in our Souls and by the frequent Assaults of Temptation from the World and the Devil But yet these are Difficulties that shall be overcome by an earnest and diligent Endeavour Our Saviour says Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13. 24. By the strait Gate he means the way of Religion which the Opposition of our Spiritual Enemies and our own unworthy Averseness do render a strait Gate This we cannot pass without Striving and a good Endeavour but with this he intimates we may do so This will ccomplish what we desire but many seek to enter in and shall not be able To lazy Wishes 't is exceeding difficult indeed invincibly Difficult to be Religious He that cannot persuade himself to strive with Earnestness and Patience shall never become so And this
for such a particular occasion Our Saviour himself in the History of his Family by the Evangelists has left a pattern of this last sort which may justly be regarded as a direction in this case both by Ministers and People His Disciples desired him to teach them to pray he complyed with their Desire and did so by composing a Form for them It is without doubt part of the Duty of his Ministers in the Church after this example of the great Pastour to teach the faithful People to pray and this they may do in the same way as he did and the People shall certainly do well if they use the Prayers which such have composed for them Thus they shall be edified and profited by the Gifts which God has communicated to his Ministers Whatever Gift or Spirit of Prayer can reasonably be pretended to be afforded the Church in these days it may be exercised in the composing and writing down our Prayers before we offer them to God and there is no man but must needs exercise his Gift more suitably to the great God he worships and more to his own or other Peoples edification and to a better degree of performance truly in this way than in depending upon sudden and unpremeditated Thoughts and Expressions So that without doubt both Ministers and People ought to use composed Forms of Prayer ordinarily to perform this duty in the fittest manner I shall only add to this matter thus much that if any Master of a Family uses these Prayers in his Family it is but as if he should desire a Minister to pray with them as People are commonly wont to do when such a Person happens to stay a Night at their House And I have said so much to this matter because I have observed the unjust and erroneous disparaging of Prayer by a Form which has been amongst us has had a great influence towards the too frequent omission of Family Worship Now to conclude this Preface I shall only suggest these advices concerning the use of this Book That it is as I think ordinarily most fitting that this Exercise be performed by the Master of the Family himself But if any Circumstances hinder that it may be done by a Child or Servant but should always be done in his presence if possible that his Authority may give it the more respect with the inferiour parts of the Family When the introductory Prayer is said all should be standing to make themselves sensible of the Presence of God and to dispose them to a reverent and serious frame of Mind and so to make the more solemn and fit enterance upon what they are going about The latter Prayer should be used by all the Company kneeling and joining in it with heart and devout Affection If any young Persons who are devoutly inclined have it their lot to live under such Governours of their Families as are negligent of their duty in this matter I advise them if they may be permitted it to spend an hour in their Chamber alone on the Lord's Day in these Meditations and Prayers This they may very profitably do and perhaps their good Example in such a practice may shame the Master of the Family out of his neglect Now I commit this Endeavour to the Providence of God humbly dedicating it to his service And I do most willingly say Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the Glory for thy loving Mercy and thy Truths sake And that it may be accepted with him through the Mediation of Jesus Christ and accompanied with his powerful Blessing so as it may also be well accepted in the Church and succesful to the promoting of true and pure Religion in many Souls to their Comfort and Salvation and his Glory thereby I heartily pray THE EXCELLENCY OF THE SOUL Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Zach. 12. Last Part of the First Verse And formeth the Spirit of Man within him THE Words that I have now read from the Holy Scripture are part of a very Majestick Preface or Introduction to a favourable Prophecy concerning Judah and Jerusalem which is understood to foretell the Times of the Maccabees the distresses of those times and the mighty Deliverances which God would give the Jews by the Conduct and Courage and Resolution of those Men. In so great and lofty Expressions the Prophet was directed to introduce it that he might encourage the Faith and raise the Expectations of that People who were now in a very weak and low Condition For they were but newly returned from their Captivity and were envied and hated and opposed in their present Interests by wicked and powerful Neighbours He reminds them herein of the great Works of that God in whom he would have them now put their trust The whole Verse and Preface contains thus much The Burden of the Word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord Who stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the Foundations of the Earth and formeth the Spirit of Man within him That which we may observe in this Text is That the Prophet places this work of God His forming the Spirit of Man within him together with his stretching out the wide and spacious Heaven and his laying the Foundations of the ponderous Earth and that when he design'd to represent the Greatness of God his ability and fitness to do what he had promised by shewing them the works he had already done This then we may reckon is here intimated to be a workparallel with those that are mentioned with it and fit to be mention'd with them to the same purpose This is a great and mighty Work as well as the other two All God's Works of Creation do declare their Authors Greatness and as the Psalmist speaks Praise him But some do this more than others as they are more excellent and greater than others Elsewhere also the Scripture mentions the making of Man as one of the more excellent and wonderful Works of God and sets it together with his making the Earth and stretching out the Heavens As in Isa 45. 12. where God to magnify himself in the Esteem of that People and to assure them that he could raise up one that should deliver them from Captivity says by his Prophet I have made the Earth and created man upon it I even my Hands have stretched forth the Heavens Now when the making of Man is here spoken of as one of the greatest Works of God this must needs be understood with relation to the Soul of Man For certainly a thing so small and weak so gross and heavy and so dark and so decaying as is the Humane Body cannot justly be reckoned worthy of this great comparison
Were there nothing in the Constitution of Man but that he could not be worthy to be compared with the vast bigness of the Earth and Heavens with the constant Motion the brightness and durableness of the Heavenly Bodies But the Soul of Man is in a Sense vaster and larger than these as it is capable to comprehend them It is of more unwearied motion than they it moves its self it is brighter far and far more durable than any of them It is then upon the account of the Spirit in Man that the making of him is thus set together with those great operations of the Creating Power Upon these grounds we may conclude that the Prophet Zachary does in our Text intimate the great excellency and dignity of the Soul of Man It shall be the business of this Discourse to insist upon some Proof and Application of this Truth And let us now perswade our selves for a little while to turn our Thoughts inward to view and consider our selves to know what a sort of Being God has given us Of all knowledge this may be reckon'd some of the most useful and important Hereby we shall come to understand what it becomes us to do what our true Interest is what great things we are capable of and should therefore pursue them To demonstrate the Excellency of the Soul of Man I shall insist only upon these two Heads of Discourse as containing what is sufficient for the present purpose They are the Nature of the Soul and the Capacities of it which do arise from and are the Consequents of such a Nature In the first place Let us consider the Nature of the Soul of Man And this I shall represent to you briefly under two Particulars 1. It is a Spirit 2. It is Immortal 1. The Soul of Man is a Spirit and therein it is an Excellent Being It is Invisible A thing that cannot be seen by the Eyes of the Body through the Excellency of it It is said of God in Praise of him that he cannot be seen The Apostle Paul calls him by way of Eminency the Invisible God 1 Tim. 1. 17. This then is an Excellency and does greatly recommend the Soul It is too pure and sublime a thing to fall under the gross apprehension of Bodily Senses It is a Pure Uncompounded and Unmix'd thing It is all the same is not made up of worse and better Parts It is in a sort all Light and has no Darkness is a bright celestial Ray sprung from the Great Father of Lights and Spirits Or at least it was very full of light and brightness in its Original State and before it was sullied with sinful Pollution in the Fall of our first Parents It has not diversity of Parts designed for divers Actions so as that what one Part can do another cannot which is the usual disparagement of Bodies But all the Soul can do whatever the Soul can do It can all of it understand and will apprehend or remember it can all chuse or refuse It has not some parts heavy and some active some to move and others to be moved but is all full of Action and is always working and busie It knows no weariness it needs no rest or refreshment It knows its own Actions and chuses what it does and acts freely and from its own Motion These are the Properties and Advantages that belong to it as it is a Spirit That the Soul of Man is a Spirit the Holy Scripture does abundantly declare When a man dies it says of his Body The Dust shall return to the Earth as it was and of his Soul The Spirit shall return to God that gave it Eccles 12. 7. This is a thing distinct from the Body it was not raised from the Dust as that was but came from God immediately nor does it return to the Dust but returns to God at our Death The Apostle says What man knoweth the things of a man that is the purposes wishes designs save the spirit of man which is in him speaking of the Soul of Man 1 Cor. 2. 11. And in the Fifth Chapter of that Epistle at the 5th Verse he directs the Corinthians to excommunicate an Eminent Person among them who had been Incestuous for the destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the Day of the Lord meaning his Soul I shall add no more to this particular but proceed 2. To what was next mentioned as declaring the Excellent Nature of our Souls which was that they are Immortal These Beings have a beginning indeed as every thing else has but One who is the first Cause and Author of all others But the Souls of men shall never come to an End When a man dies there is only a separation made for a while of his Soul from his Body with a dissolution indeed of the Body but the Soul remains the same that it was That lives still though not here and continues to be though it has changed its Habitation Do not imagine said the dying Cyrus to his Children That when I depart from you I shall be no where nor any longer For whilst I was with you ye could not see my Soul only ye knew by the Actions ye observed that it was in my Body Be assured then that it is still the same tho ye do never see it Thus the Learned Heathen could speak of the Soul And it is in the Nature of this to be Immortal as it is a Spirit It has nothing in its self to put an end to its being as it is an uncompounded thing It cannot be destroyed by any thing else but only by God that made it The Soul of man knows no decay it admits of no encrease of its Substance It remains always the same and is herein a Noble Image of the Unchangeable God It shall out-last the strongest works of Humane Art It shall endure longer than the Heavens and the Earth It shall weary time and then run on with Eternity This is a very great and important Excellency of it That it shall never cease to be and certainly if we are in any respect Immortal this deserves our very serious consideration And this also the Holy Scripture that source of all Saving-Knowledge and Wisdom does sufficiently teach us When it speaks of our Being after this Life and even before the Resurrection of our Bodies As when Christ said to the penitent Thief when he was dying This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He was to Be therefore his Soul was not to be dissolved with his Body and he was to be in Paradise in a happy State When the Scripture calls Death a Departure out of this World it seems to intimate this The Apostle Paul who was to leave his Body in this World as all other dying Persons do yet speaks of his Death as a Departure 1 Tim. 1. 6. And in Phil. 1. 23. He speaks of his Death as what he desired in these words I desire to
said on this Subject 1. Let us with great Thankfulness acknowledge to the Creatour what he has made us and praise him for his Bounty towards us Let us consider and own it is God that hath made us and not we our selves It is one part of thankfulness to acknowledge the Benefits we have received Let us own this and endeavour to render to God all that which is due from us for it To shew forth his praise not only with our lips but in our lives by giving up our selves to his service Let each of us heartily say within himself Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits We may hereupon very justly thus expostulate with and admonish our selves Have I a power to think and shall my Thoughts neglect the excellent Being that gave it me Should he be seldom in my Thoughts by whom I constantly think How base and ungrateful a Character of a man is this That God is not in all his thoughts Am I capable of Knowledge and shall it not be my greatest Ambition to know him that made me so to know the most excellent of all Beings that I might thereby be inabled to render him the Homage that belongs to him Have I a Will to chuse good and shall I fix my choice on any thing before him Shall I not cleave to him by it who is the chiefest Good and who gave me this power for that Purpose Should I not always say it to him as the full Sense of my Soul Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I can desire besides thee Shall I not pay him the Homage of my Affections from whom I have them and the reason that I have wherewith to guide them I ought to love him above all things to fear him alone to entettain my Hope with the pleasing expectations of enjoying him I should be angry only with that which provokes his Anger and hate what he hates and forbids Thus ought we to admonish our selves upon this Foundation and to resolve accordingly Thus should we endeavour to honour him who hath crowned us with such Dignity and Honour 2. What has been said concerning the Excellency of our Souls should make all men prefer them before their Bodies and chiefly regard them The Soul of Man is plainly the chief and most important part of him as it is a Spirit and Immortal This ought then to have the chief Dominion in us All the Appetites and Passions of the Inferior Body ought to be subject to the Faculties of the Mind We should not suffer our Senses or the desires of the Flesh to force Objects and Thoughts upon the Mind but make it rather to chuse its own employment upon consideration and advice of our Judgment and Reason How much Folly and Sin would such a Course prevent And it highly becomes and concerns us to give this as absolute a Dominion in us as we can that it may not be clogg'd or biassed by particular Temper or Constitution The Obedience to Temper is a most effectual Hinderance both of Wisdom and Religion No man can govern himself well that does not set his Reason above his Constitution and make his Temper subject to the Rules of that and of Religion I confess that in some cases some severity towards the Body may be necessary to this purpose and a great deal of Self-denial and Mortification may be requisite to the bringing our selves to this But let us observe what our Saviour says to this Case If thy right hand says he offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to be cast into Hell Fire We were better wrong the Flesh if that must be than to endanger the Spirit and a little hurt the Body than damn the Soul To bring our selves to this State of the Bodies absolute and compleat subjection to the Mind is of so great use and advantage as that 't is worth all that it can cost us For so we shall become free and easy in all our Actions We shall possess and enjoy our own Souls we shall will to do what we should and shall do it the more readily and do it the better and the more perfectly Thus shall a man have the greatest Comfort in his Actions He shall exercise the brighter vertues and obtain by them the more praise and favour with God and Man Let us prefer our Souls above our Bodies and chiefly mind the Interests of them We should make the Interests of the Body stand by when they come into competition with those of the Soul We should govern our selves in all things as far as this can be done with a chief regard of these It were but just and fitting and due to our selves that we govern our selves so in what we chuse to love or hate in what we pursue or avoid and that it be the grand business of our Lives to promote the advantage of our Immortal Souls 3. Let us be greatly ambitious of those Divine and high Qualifications that we have been made capable to possess since we may be wise and holy just and good faithful and prudent let us earnestly endeavour to be so To be endowed with these Vertues is to put on the greatest excellency and worth The Scripture very justly says The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour These Vertues in truth are the greatest and the most becoming Ornaments These make the brightest and most lasting Beauty such as Angels love and God himself takes delight in These will encrease and not fade or decay with Time and will last to Eternity These are the truest and the most useful Riches they do in a sense deliver the Soul from Hell and entitle it to everlasting Blessedness These are not uncertain Riches but are such a sure and durable Possession as Moth and Rust cannot corrupt nor can Thieves break through to and steal them These in the Exercises of them in good Works do lay up a treasure in Heaven Let it be consider'd that as we are capable of these Vertues we are also capable of being the Subjects of the contrary Vices And that if we are not vertuous and holy we must needs be vicious and impious He that is not just and true in his dealings must be unjust and persidious He that is not merciful and good must be hard-hearted and cruel And as we are acceptable and lovely to God by those Vertues in us so we are odious and detestable with these Vices The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but he loveth him that followeth after Righteousness The pure Angels abhor Sinners and do not care to be near them to see what is so odious and offensive as the sins of men are to them As Holiness and Vertue do exalt and honour and become us so does
the Reason of it in the following words of the Text Thou hast put gladness in my Heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine encreased Which words intimate that he had received more Joy and Gladness from what enjoyment of the light of God's Countenance had been afforded him that any others could ever derive from their Corn and Wine or from the greatest Encrease of them He intimates that God is the true Object of our Happiness that the Favour of God exprest and exercised towards us is a far better Spring and Source of Content and Comfort than the Profits and Pleasures of this World can be We may reckon that this is what we are taught in these words It shall be the Business of the present Discourse chiefly to prove this which is here intimated to us To shew that David was certainly in the right and was well directed when this was his choice and the chief desire of his Soul to enjoy an Interest in the Favour of God The proof of this we shall abundantly derive from these two Heads of Discourse 1. From the Person Loving 2. From the Benefits which his Love in the Exercise of it does bestow First let us consider well the Person Loving and we cannot chuse but conclude That it must be the greatest Happiness imaginable to be the Object of his peculiar Favour He is the Great God the Creator of all Things the Fountain Good the Owner and Lord and the Disposer of all things As he is Owner and Disposer of all things every Creature has such a Portion of Good as he is pleased to allot it and so we depend upon him for to be as happy as this World can make us since 't is he that does unalterably assign to every one of us our measure of this World's Goods But if we have an Interest in his peculiar Favour who is Owner and Lord of Heaven and Earth This includes at least all the Goodness of Heaven and Earth If God be ours as he is if we are his peculiar Favourites then all else is ours too The Apostle speaking to such Persons says Whether the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come All are yours 1 Cor. 3. 22. That is you have such an Interest in them by your Interest in the Favour of God that ye shall not want any of them that is good and convenient for ye In this is the Satisfaction of all our just Desires contained and the Supply of all our Wants This is Rest to the Weary Eyes to the Blind Feet to the Lame Company to the Solitary From him all other Beings derive all their Worth and Goodness He then is the Sufficiency of All and it must be from his Blessing upon them that they have any Goodness and Suitableness or Comfort in them So that if we could have any thing else without his Favour we shall if he pleases have but little help or comfort from it But since all the Creatures and whatever we can enjoy besides him have all their Goodness from him He must have in him more than all and the Enjoyment of him in his Love must needs bemore than any number of them we can get together It is the Love of him who is Infinite in Power who is an unexhaustible Fulness Who after all his Communications to Creatures remains still the same Infinite Source of Good The Love of God then is richer than Ten thousand Worlds If we want any thing else which this World cannot afford towards our Happiness and many such Wants indeed is our wretched Nature subject to He can bestow it We can want no good thing which he cannot give The Love of God can supply the defect and want of any thing else and make us happy without it This is Light without a Sun Strength without Food Health without Physick Altho the Fig-tree shall not Blossom neither shall the Fruit be in the Vine The Labour of the Olive shall fail and the Fields shall yield no meat The Flock shall be cut off from the Fold and there shall be no Herd in the Stall Yet will I rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation said the Prophet in the name of those whom God regards with his peculiar Favour and Love Hab. 3. 17 18. From the Love of God we cannot expect too much This is a Blessing which exceeds and does not fall below our Expectations we may rest in that for we cannot imagine any thing beyond it that we can desire We may find more delight in that than we can conceive it is so full and able to bless that we cannot desire so much as it can afford God is able to do for us exceeding abundantly beyond all that we are able to ask or think What bounds can be set to Infinite Attributes and the Exercise of them so as to say hitherto they can go and no further And what a boundless Pleasure and Content must the Soul take who is a Favourite of such Love As God is Incomprehensible his Love is Incomprehensible and he whom it favours may say I cannot conceive how rich I am in his Love I am not able to conceive all the vast Felicity it contains and gives me an Interest in Further the Love of God is also like himself Eternal This is a most lasting Portion then it is durable Riches As long as God endures who is Everlasting and his Love which is Unchangeable and the Soul of Man which is Immortal so long may we enjoy the Felicity of his Favour and the blissful Exercise of his Love This is not a thing of a frail or fading Nature It is not one of those things which perish in the using which make themselves wings very often and fly away which we cannot certainly enjoy all our Days on Earth or which we must be certainly stript of when we lie down in the Dust This may certainly render us happy all our Days in this Life O satisfy us early with thy Mercy so shall we rejoice and be glad all our Days says the Psalmist Psal 90. Intimating That if they had an assured Interest in the Love of God this would be a certain ground of Satisfaction and Content for all the Days of this their mortal Life This is true and besides when we go away from this World when we must leave for ever all that we enjoy of it This may be our Portion still and can bless us with the Goods of Eternity And what Security and Peace is there in the Thought that this may be an Everlasting Source of Blessings How pure and perfect and high is the delight in this while it is not allayed with the fears or expectations of losing that which makes us so happy Thus we may see that the Person loving does mightily recommend the Love of God and that we may from thence conclude the Happiness of those who are the Objects of it Now let us see
serious enquiring Thought whether they are in Favour with God or not Whether the Almighty be to them a Friend or an Enemy That never did set themselves down seriously to examine into this Matter or that would continue the enquiry till they came to a well-grounded Determination concerning their State And do such indeed desire an Interest in the Love of God Are there not also many that take no care to please God who follow their own Inclinations without any regard to his Will and Laws and so do daily affront and displease him And and are these concern'd for an Interest in his Favour These that live in gainful or pleasant Sins and will not be persuaded to leave them for the Favour of God Or they that live in the habitual constant Practice of the most needless Sins such as Swearing Cursing Backbiting Slandering or in the most mischievous and hurtful Sins such as Intemperance and Prodigality and will not leave them for the Favour of God Are they concern'd for an Interest in that How many besides are there that put off this Concern and Care and bid it stand by till they have accomplisht some other Designs Do they not think that they may accomplish Designs which will be of Advantage to them without the Favour and Blessing of God upon them Do they not think those Designs more necessary and advantagious to them than that And is not this to slight and undervalue that To account it but a needless or an indifferent thing Thus it is but too evident that a great many neglect this Blessedness And by these things we may understand our selves if we will compare them with our own Carriage and may see whether we have been in this Folly or not And indeed it may hereby appear that the best of us may charge our selves with having been too deep in it that we have followed the things which are seen too much and the unseen things too little We have loved and sought the Creature more than the Creator But we must not observe this without making our selves sensible of the Guilt and Folly of it and Resolutions to be careful for the future that we may avoid it Let this then be the Matter of our Shame and Sorrow Let us consider how we must needs have offended God herein That we have been guilty of the Idolatry of the Heart in loving and seeking more the things of this World than the enjoyment of God that we have been herein very ungrateful to his Creating Goodness in despising and neglecting that Happiness which he made us capable to enjoy that we have despised the Blood and Death of the Redeemer whereby an Attonement has been made for our Sins and Salvation purchast for us at a costly Rate even the Salvation which herein we have neglected Let us own then that we have greatly sinned so far as we have been guilty in this Matter and have deserved the most terrible Punishment We have deserved that God should put us off with any thing rather than his Love while we have been seeking any thing more than that We deserve to feel the everlasting Terrors of his Anger if we despise his Love and may reckon it an amazing Instance of his Mercy and Patience that we are yet spared and have time to recollect and amend our selves Let us confess our Sin and resolve to amend it Let us by frequent consideration of the Necessity the Usefulness the Happiness of God's Favour bring our selves to have a mighty esteem and value for it and raise in our selves the most earnest desires and longings after it Let us readily put far away from us all things that will forfeit and lose the Favour of God Let us be diligent and industrious in our Duty in doing the things that will please him And then let us ask for this and we shall receive it Let us seek and we shall find let us knock and this full Treasury of Blessings shall be opened to us THE PRAYER INfinite and Almighty Lord our God Thou art he who hast made the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and all that is in them Thou art the Fountain Good and the sufficiency of every Creature in Heaven and Earth We acknowledge O Lord it is in thee that we live move and have our Being and all our fresh Springs are in thee Thou art an Infinite Good and after all thy Communications to thy Creatures dost remain the same In thee still does all Fulness dwell To thee O Lord do we poor and miserable Creatures make our humble Addresses Thou alone hast the words of Eternal Life Thou only canst make us happy In thy Favour is Life even Eternal Life and thy loving kindness extends beyond the bounds of our present mortal Life Oh Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us and bless and be merciful unto us Enlighten our darkness strengthen our weakness sanctisy our unholy and polluted Natures communicate of thy fulness to the supply of all our wants that we may rejoice in thy Goodness and always live to thy Glory Lord we humble and abase our selves before thee for that we have heretofore so little valued thy Favour or concern'd our selves to enjoy it We foolish Creatures have been ready to prefer any thing before it we have valued the gratifying of impertment and unreasonable desires the getting a little worldly Gain the enjoying a little sensual Pleasure above the matchless Blessings of thy Love We have not believed thy Goodness nor been able to trust thy Favour and Love to take care of and provide for us Thus are we exceeding guilty and while we remain thus estranged from thee we can never be happy We beseech thee O Lord deal not with us after our Sins neither reward us according our to our Iniquities When we humbly confess our Sins do thou graciously forgive them and cleanse us from all our unrighteousness Make us for the future to value thy Love above all things and therefore to set our selves with great care to do those things that are well-pleasing in thy sight and to avoid whatever is offensive to the pure Eyes of thy Glory Let us be sensible that it is only the pure in Heart that can see thee and therefore be industrious to cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in thy Fear Lord we give thanks for thy Forbearance and Patience towards us that thou hast not yet cut us off and sent us to Eternal misery that we have yet Means of Grace and Hopes of Glory Let thy Goodness and Forbearance lead us effectually to unfeigned Repentance and end in a full remission of all our Sins Transform us into thy likeness by the renewing of our Minds and let the light of thy Countenance beautify and adorn us Love us into loveliness Oh thou Almighty Love that thou mayest then delight in us and we as we ought may have our chief delight in thee We pray thee
Degree and are useful and necessary to us in our present State and we may enjoy them with delight and give God Thanks for them But still we must prefer the things above to these below Spiritual Things to Material the better and nobler things to those that are worse and of a meaner Nature It shall be the Business of this Discourse by God's Assistance to explain or express to you more largely and particularly the Import and Meaning of the Apostle's exhortation here And then to urge our Obedience to it with a few proper Motives And thus will this Discourse as it was intended be very Applicatory of that which goes before it Explication In the first Place I shall shew you how we ought to mind and apply our selves to the things above With how much Concern and Care we should seek the Favour of God the matchless Blessings of his Love and the enjoyment of him therein This I shall represent to you under these three Heads 1. The Things above must have the Preference of our Judgments We must esteem and value them before all other 2. They must have the Preference of our Wills and Affections We must chuse and love them desire and delight in them more than in any other 3. They must have the Preference of our Actions and Course of Life We should seek and pursue them more than all other things I shall particularly insist and enlarge my Discourse upon each of these severally for the better Illustration of them 1. Those things ought to have the Preference of our Judgments We should esteem and value them as the best things We must account God our Chiefest Good and the enjoyment of him in his Love the highest Felicity This should be the setled and fixed Judgment of our Souls a Conclusion deliberately and firmly made The Apostle who gives this Direction in our present Text expresses thus concerning himself when he says Phil. 3. 8. I count all things but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him that is That I may through him have an Interest in God and in the Blessings of his peculiar Love This has been the constant Practice and State of all good and rectified Souls Thy loving kindness is better than life says David Psal 63. 3. More to be desired are thy Commandments than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than the Hony and the Hony-comb Psal 19. This preference and esteem of things above is several times exprest by Solomon in the words which he puts into the Mouth of a Holy Soul in his Book of Canticles in Chap. 1. Verse 2. She says to Christ Thy Love is better than Wine The expressions and exercises of thy Favour are better far and more chearing and refreshing to the Mind than the richest Wines are to the faint and thirsty Body Again she says Chap. 2. 3. As the Apple Tree among the Trees of the Wood so is my Beloved among the Sons He is to be preferred before all other Yea she says in plain Terms Chap. 5. 10. He is the chiefest among Ten thousand These are all of them the expressions of such Souls as mind the things above rather than those below and prefer Spiritual Objects before Sensual God must have the Ascendant in our Souls He who truly is the Chiefest Good must be accounted so We must believe him the Center and Source of all Goodness the Fountain and Giver of all that which is in the Creatures And that he has not given away from himself what he has communicated to them but is still an inexhaustible Fulness of Good That in him does all desirable Fulness dwell and that he alone is able to afford full Content and Happiness to the Soul of Man We must account it a much happier State to enjoy the things above than the things below Much better to be vertuous and good than rich and great to enjoy the Favour of God than the Esteem of Men. And if we have the greatest value and esteem for the things above we shall value all other things according to the relation which they bear to them Those things which have a subserviency to them and are means of attaining them will be valued next to them and will for their sakes be in great esteem too Such are Prayer Hearing the Word of God Reading and Meditating on it and the Attendance upon Sacraments And again Those things which are contrary and opposite to these which hinder the enjoyment of them will not be lookt upon as Indifferent they will be accounted very evil things and be absolutely rejected from all esteem with us Such are all manner of Sins and Wickednesses Thus must the things above have the Preference of our Judgments 2. They must also have the Preference of our Wills and Affections We must chuse them before all other things love desire and delight most in them When those things are proposed described and offered to us we must not regard them with indifferent and careless Minds Our Souls must be moved towards them in chusing accepting and desiring above all things to be Partakers of them This also has been the Temper of good Souls as the Expressions that have fallen from such do abundantly declare The Holy Author of Psal 73. says to God Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I can desire besides thee The Spouse in the Canticles says Cant. 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the Kisses of his Mouth That which I chiefly desire is to receive the expressions of thy matchless Love And in Verse 4. she says We will be glad and rejoice in thee we will remember thy Love more than Wine If we can enjoy thy Favour Oh Jesus lover of Souls This is that we most value This is all we care for This is that will be most pleasing to us Ardent Desires after God the Psalmist expresses Psal 42. 1 2. As the Hart panteth after the Water Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God! If we are not assured of an Interest in the peculiar Love of God we should most earnestly and incessantly desire this We should make it the chief subject and matter of our Prayers The want of this should not be satisfied and madeup with any thing else Let us never say to our selves upon the mostplentiful Enjoyment of these things as that Man whom our Saviour describes Luke 12. who said Soul take thine ease because thou hast Goods laid up for many years Our Souls must take no Ease nor ever be at Rest till we have Goods laid up for Eternity God must be the only Center of our Hopes and Aims We should love him with a transcendent Love Nothing should grieve or trouble us so much as what does damp our Hopes of Heaven nothing so much transport and please as what does raise and promote and confirm them If we have been
so happy as to gain an Interest in his Favour and to be in some measure Partakers of the Blessings of his Love it will be the Temper of our Minds to delight greatly in the things above highly will the Thoughts of our Happiness please us we shall be able to say of God as David did My Meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad or rejoice in the Lord Psal 104. This will be the chief delight and solace of the Heavenly Soul to think God loves me the most High has a peculiar favour for me This God is my God for ever and ever With highest Pleasure will the Soul say My Beloved is mine and I am his There is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness And if such be the most welcome and pleasant Thoughts it cannot be but they will be very frequent ones Oh how I love thy Law says David It is my Meditation all the Day Psal 119. 97. When we can let many Days pass over our Heads without one serious and sensible Thought of Heavenly things this is a Symptom of an Earthly and Carnal Mind The Heavenly Mind is necessitated and drawn to other Thoughts but it enclines to these And the Sabbaths and publick Worship of God are a great delight to such a Man When he may be separated from the Concerns of the World to contemplate the Riches of God's Love to taste the sweetness of it to consider the Beauty of Holiness and the Joys of Heaven The Sense of his Soul is the same with that which David expresses Psal 84. 10. A Day in thy Courts is better than a Thousand I had rather be a Door-keeper in the House of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness And Solomon puts a mighty value and esteem for the Worship and Sacred Ordinances of God and an excessive delight in them into the Character of a devout Soul which he gives us in his sublime Song Cant. 2. 34. 5. where after he had made her say As the Apple-tree among the Trees of the Wood so is my Beloved among the Sons She carries on the Metaphor and says I sate down under his Shadow with great delight and his Fruit was sweet unto my taste He brought me into the Banquetting-house and his Banner over me was love And being thus entertained with his Love she is transported with delight she is as it were overwhelmed with Joy Stay me with Apples says she Comfort me with Flaggons for I am sick of love Which is as much as to say Thy Love dear Lord is great like thy Self and far greater than my narrow Capacity When I consider when I feel it when I enjoy the exercises of it in Holy Communion with thee I am me thinks my self all Love I am transported in Extasies of Love and the Love I feel in my self and the delight I take in thine are a Pleasure even too great forme without thy assistance to bear it If our Mind and Heart were truly set on things above we should go from Publick Devotion to Private either in our Closets or Families Certainly he that loves those things and wishes to be employed to Eternity about them cannot think One whole Day in Seven too much to be separated entirely from the World for the enjoyment of them And the Heavenly Soul will be often discoursing of Heavenly things It is a Pleasure to speak of that we extreamly love The Holy Soul represented in the Canticles does so often extol her Beloved and so stay and dwell upon the Descriptions Commendations and Discourses concerning Christ as does sufficiently shew He is indeed her Beloved The Society therefore wherein such an one may best discourse of his Heart 's chief Joy will be always most acceptable and desirable to him Those that value highly the same things that we value and love will be most agreeable to us especially in such cases where there can be no rivalling of each other as it is in this Heavenly Souls will be most acceptable to the Heavenly And the Joy and Pleasure which attends the Thoughts and Remembrance of those heavenly Things which they are partly possest and partly in expectation of will be able in a little time at least to overcome every worldly Sorrow Lastly If we value and love Heaven and things above more than things on the Earth we must greatly desire to be in Heaven We must needs desire to be advanced to that State where we shall more perfectly enjoy those things than we can here where we shall be satisfied with the communicated likeness of God in our perfect and compleat Sanctification where we shall enjoy perfect Rest and Blessendness we cannot chuse but desire that State where as we shall have a fuller enjoyment of the things we mostly love so the enjoyment of them shall be more constant and uninterrupted where we shall have the light of God's Countenance always shining bright upon us where no Clouds no Eclipses shall hide or any Night ever take it from us but it shall make a continual joyful and glorious Day The Soul then that does truly relish and delight in these Divine things cannot be satisfied to be here but will with submission to the Will of God long for the time of his removal to that better State He will not think his Life on Earth too short but rather too long and be ready to say When will this my tedious Pilgrimage be over When shall I come and appear before God! He is not only contented but even desirous with St. Paul To depart and to be with Christ He can willingly forsake not only a poor mean and laborious State on Earth but even a rich prosperous and easy one for the better Enjoyments of Heaven For that which he enjoys of Heaven here is that which he chiefly delights in And since the second Coming of Christ is that which brings him his full Redemption and the perfect Fruition of all that he desires he will greatly long for that he will be one of those that love his Appearing He has the Spirit of the Bride in him who says Come Lord Jesus come quickly in Rev. 22. Or as the holy Souls before his first Coming in longing desire after that Cant. 8. 14. He will say for his Second Make haste my Beloved and be thou like a Roe or to a young Hart upon the Mountains of Spices Thus must our Will and Affections prefer the Things above 3. Those things must have also the Preference of our Actions and Course of Life And it is a certain consequent and fruit of the other two Particulars and the best Indication of them in us that we chiefly endeavour after and mostly seek and pursue the Things above It is necessarily included in the minding those Things that we seek them and endeavour to be Partakers of them We must strive to enter in at the strait gate we must give diligence to make our Calling and Election sure we must work out
that he commands That we resign and submit our selves entirely to his disposing Providence who is rightful Owner and just Disposer of all things That we praise and acknowledge those glorious Perfections which are daily exercised to our Comfort and Advantage and give him Thanks for all the good things that we enjoy since it is he that freely bestows them What can be more equitable and more agreeing to right reason than these things Again That the things which are made to be our Duty in our carriage towards Men are all highly reasonable and just does sufficiently appear in that these two are the Fundamental Rules of that Duty Namely That we do to others as we would they should do unto us and that we love our Neighbour as our selves What can be more agreeing to reason and more satisfactory to a Man 's own Mind than to give my Neighbour what in his Circumstances I my self might desire or than to love him as my self who is my Fellow-Creature and in all Points like my self How reasonable is it for me to shew mercy who need mercy For me to be ready to do good and perform all manner of kind Offices to my Neighbour when I must needs desire that others should be so disposed towards me How ready should I be to forgive who must often need forgiveness How reasonable is it that I should be honest and faithful to others when I desire them to be so towards me A little sober Consideration would make it evidently appear concerning every instance of Duty towards our Neighbour that it is most highly reasonable and just And when a Man apprehends and considers this thing he will perform his Duty with an entire satisfaction And it must please him to think that in what he has done he has paid a just Debt to Almighty God he has render'd what was due to him to think he has acted as becomes his Reason and so as he must needs be justified by the Wisdom and Consciences of his Neighbours in his carriage towards them He finds in himself what David said Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commands he sees he has no reason to be ashamed of his Actions but they are such as he can justify and applaud himself for and certainly there can be nothing more pleasant to a Man than the just applauses of himself 3. The Dignity and Nobleness of good Actions does render it very pleasant to do well and therefore also proves that it is so He that lives well lives up to the highest and most noble capacities of his Nature In pious and vertuous Actions alone do we greatly excel the Beasts that perish not in any sensual Pleasures or Enjoyments They have Senses as well as we and as many and can delight in the Objects of them and have perhaps as many delights of that kind as we But they cannot be pious or wise they cannot be vertuous or good because they do not know or chuse their own Actions In these things the religious Man excels them and advances himself truly above them and he only among Men does in any considerable measure excel them Further so far as we become Religious we are already here on Earth become like the Angels which are in Heaven He that lives religiously is employed as they are and conforms himself to them as our Saviour does plainly intimate when he bids us pray that the Will of God may be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven The Psalmist says of the Angels They perform the Commandments of God they hearken to the voice of his word Psal 103. 20. The pious Man then that carefully performs his Duty towards God joins himself to that noble Company he is a Fellow-Citizen of the Saints or holy Ones which may mean the Angels And of the Houshold of God as the Apostle speaks Eph. 2. 19. I am thy Fellow-Servant said an Angel to St. John And Fellow-Servant of the Prophets and of them which keep the Sayings of this Book Rev. 22. 9. When we worship and praise God we join with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven When we pay him a profound Reverence and come before him with a godly Fear we do as they who are represented as covering their Faces in their solemn Addresses to him When we are concern'd and endeavouring to promote his Glory in the World this is what they constantly endeavour When we combat the Temptations that assault our selves and set our selves against the works of the Devil in others we are on the same side with Michael and his Angels are join'd and taking part with those bright Hosts against the Devil and his Angels And this surely is greatly to our Honour And there is a further Dignity and Excellence in a good and vertuous Life and that is it is conformity to the Ever-blessed God himself And therefore when any are made righteous and holy they are said to be renewed after his Image and Likeness Eph. 4. 24. When we best perform our Duties to Men then we do best imitate and most resemble the most excellent and perfect Being When we are merciful 't is as our Father in Heaven is merciful When we return good for evil 't is to do like him who is good to the Unthankful and the Evil. When we are sincere and true just and righteous in all our behaviour this is to resemble him who is a God of Truth and without Iniquity When we patiently bear with the Infirmities of others this is a noble imitation of his long-sufferings with us all When we forgive those that injure us this is as he does who is a God forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin When we set our selves to do all the Offices of kindness that we can to be beneficial to Mankind in our several Stations this is a very Honourable Imitation of his abundant Goodness Upon these accounts a good and vertuous Life is truly great and honourable and noble This puts upon a Man the greatest worth and value that he can attain to this is his best accomplishment and as it raises him in the esteem of God so it renders him truly deserving the respect and esteem of Men and is that which does best deserve it Hence it is said The Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour Prov. 12. 26. Now though it were very unreasonable that the Sense of this should make any Man Proud and Disdainful of his Neighbour whom he thinks not to be so good as himself when in all this he has nothing but what he receiv'd and it was the free Grace of God that made him to differ and in becoming Proud he ceases to be the good Man Yet a thankful humble Sense of this a Man may have and the Thoughts of it may afford him a great deal of Delight and Pleasure To think the Creatour made the Humane Nature at first but little lower than the Angels and Crown'd it with Honour and Dignity
comes to nothing of what we expected from it 3. The Sins of Men contradict all the Rights of the Great Creator and therefore must needs be detestible to him This necessarily follows from the former He that makes any thing may design it for what end he pleases and then he has right to expect it should serve that end which it was made for Since God raised up the Bodies of our first Parents from the Dust and breathed into them the breath of Life and he by a divine and secret operation fashions each of us in the womb and still formeth the Spirit of man within him he is then the Authour of all our Faculties and Powers both of Soul and Body And then he has right to design the end and purpose for which we shall serve And he directs us to that end by the Rule of his most excellent Laws when we observe them we answer our end when we break those Laws we do contradict it and therein we rob him of his due and deny him his right and we may be sure he is concern'd to have what is due to him from his Creatures He is sensible and provok't when we deny him his right This is a monstrous Affront and most unworthy behaviour towards him There arises from this foundation a Threefold right which God has to our Obedience all which is contradicted by the Sins of men and every particular makes some addition to the Evil and Vileness of Sin 1. All our Sins are against the right of a Sovereign Lord such an one has the great God over all his Creatures He is God over all as the Apostle speaks and the Prophet says Thou even thou art Lord alone Neh. 9. 6. He is our Sovereign Lord and in exercise of his Sovereignty has laid his Laws upon us and in submission to them we ought to acknowledge it Mankind are not left at liberty to act as they will and to own no Superiors we are all under a Law and that is the Law of him who is the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God 1 Tim. 1. 17. All our Sins then are contrary to an unquestionable right of Sovereignty over us The Sinner despises the Empire of the great Lord of the World he does as far as he can depose him from his Throne tramples upon his Laws and slights his Authority It is the implicite language at least of all Wickedness who is Lord over us who shall controul us we will not have the Lord to rule over us The Sinner makes himself his God and sets up his own Will and Inclinations for a Law to him What is said of the sensual and voluptuous Sinner that he makes his Belly his God may be applied to all other sorts He that is Covetous or Ambitious makes himself his God he makes it his End to gratifie his own desires in other kinds for this reason is Covetousness in particular call'd Idolatry Thus there is Rebellion and Idolatry in all Sin and the greatest Arrogance and Pride while the poor depending Creature will not own his dependance but will live to himself alone as if he were sufficient to himself and while we do not suffer him to dispose of and govern us who alone is Lord over us And can we think that the Jealous God will not highly resent what comes under these black characters 2. God has a right to our Obedience as he is Owner and Proprietor of us all He is our owner we are his Property God says of all things that he has made the world is mine and the fulness thereof Psal 50. 12. and Psal 100. 3. 't is said we are his people and the sheep of his pasture The Psalmist had acknowledged just before that it was he that made us and not we our selves To which this is added as what does truly follow from thence This then does give him an unquestionable right to dispose of Mankind as well as of the rest of his Creatures The Apostle makes use of this Argument and says Glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are Gods 1 Cor. 6. 20. Should not God have Liberty to do what he will with his own to order and appoint the actions and use of it as pleases himself But the Sinners say in all the Transgressions of their Words our Tongues are our own and the same they pretend to concerning all their faculties and powers in all other their Sins These deny the universal Proprietor that right of governing and disposing as he pleases what is his But how would it enrage poor contemptible man to be denied this Liberty And if we think it reasonable and just for us to be angry in such a case how can we imagine but God must be highly displeased 3. God has the right of a Great and Bountifull Benefactor to the Obedience of Mankind He it is that has given us our selves and all that we have He freely made us He made us to enjoy large exercises and expressions of his Bounty He furnisht the world which we so much delight in with all the good things it contains and gives to every man the portion which he delights and comforts himself with We have nothing but what we receiv'd from Him He daily loads us with his benefits And when he has done so much for us without any obligation laid upon him by us to the doing of it does not this lay a great obligation upon us to study what will please him and to do his Will Ought we not to be very thankfull to him who has greatly favoured us to please him who so often pleases us to honour him who has crowned us with Honour and Dignity in making us little lower than the Angels and giving us dominion over the things about us In our Sins then there is the basest Ingratitude as well as Injustice and Arrogance and Pride We affront and Injure a Friend He gives to us in many things what he does not owe and demands of us nothing but what is his due He cannot be beholden to us we cannot oblige him This enhances the rate and value of his Benefits and by consequence the Obligation of them too and that as much heightens the Evil and Ingratitude of our Sins God expects a thankfull Obedience in return for the benefits he bestows This is the meaning of that Preface to the Ten Commandments I am the the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage And he is very highly and justly offended if his Obligations do not meet with such a return It was said with a very angry resentment of the Nation of Jews I have nourisht and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Isa 1. 2. Therefore the Heavens and the Earth are called to bear witness to or to admire so enormous a thing As if the Sun should be asham'd that he had shined upon such Creatures and the Earth that it had
Interest require and begin to treasure up joys to lay up rewards and happiness for our selves These are things surely that cannot be done too soon If there be good reason to forsake a wicked Life at all 't is unreasonable in the least to delay the doing so When we come to condemn our selves in earnest for our Sins we shall condemn our selves too for continuing so long in them Let us all then be able to say with David at least from this time I made hast and delayed not O Lord to keep thy Commandments THE PRAYER O Lord the eternal God Creator and Owner and Sovereign Lord of all things By thee the Heavens were framed and all the Host of them by the breath of thy Mouth Thou hast made the Earth and the Sea and all that is in them and all that thou hast made is thine the World is thine and the fulness thereof all is of thee and through and to thee We who are now before thee here are a small handful of Creatures whom thou hast brought into Being from the Ground thou raisest our living Bodies and by thy mighty Power hast formed the Spirit within us And we Lord are thine thy Right and Property we are in nothing our own our Tongues are not our own our Thoughts are not our own the Members of our Bodies the Faculties of our Minds are not our own but thou art Lord over us We owe thee the entire Homage of our Souls and Bodies which are thine for we are thy People O Lord and the Sheep of thy Pasture We are those whom thou hast oblig'd to Love and Honour thee by innumerable benefits Thou hast fed and clothed and nourisht and protected us thou hast given us all our Enjoyments and thou holdest our Soul in Life We humbly acknowledge O Lord thy Right in us and we now own the Obligations thou hast laid upon us And we here present to thee our Bodies to be a Holy and living Sacrifice which is our just and most reasonable Service O Lord let us be accepted with thee through Jesus Christ We Confess that we have deserved thou shouldest reject and abhor us who have been hitherto so little concern'd to please thee who have so often and so exceedingly polluted our selves with that which is most odious and offensive to thee We are exceeding guilty and obnoxious to thy wrath and vengeance in that we have been Rebels against thy Sovereignty over us We have been unjust to thy Propriety in us we have been ungrateful to thy Goodness towards us We judge we condemn we abhor our selves for these things O do not thou enter into Judgment with us for in thy sight shall no Man living be justifyed We are heartily sorry for all our mis-doings the remembrance of them is grievous to us the burden of them is intollerable but thou O Lord whose Property is always to have mercy who hast promised Forgiveness to all that with a penitent Heart and true Faith in the Blood of Christ turn unto thee have mercy upon us Deal not with us after our Sins neither reward us according to our Iniquities Have mercy upon us O Lord according to the multitude of thy tender Compassions and blot out all our Transgressions We fly from thy Justice to the Footstool of thy mercy and there prostrate our selves in the Name of Jesus Christ O Lord for his Sake forgive us all that is past and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in Newness and Holiness of Life to thy Honour and Glory Do thou make us sincere in the Dedication of our selves again unto thee in this renewal of our Resolutions to serve thee Create in us O Lord a clean Heart and renew in us a right Spirit Do thou make us to love thy Law and to hate every false Way Cause us without delay to turn our Feet unto thy Testimonies and make us to delight in the way of thy Testimonies more than in all Riches O Lord rescue us we pray thee from the Bonds of our Beloved or habitual Sins save and deliver us from the Pollutions of a wicked World let us be blameless and harmless the Children of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation Deliver us from all the Craft and Subtilty and from all the fiery Darts of the wicked One And let us never be hardened by the deceitfulness of any Sin We pray also O Lord for the Conversion of others as well as of our selves O Let thy Gospel run and be Glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same and let many be turned from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan unto God That the Dominion of the Enemy may be diminisht and the happy Kingdom of thy dear Son may be enlarged We especially pray for the good Estate of thy Catholick Church that thou wouldest purge out of it all that does offend thee and Grant that all who profess and call themselves Christians may hold the Faith in Unity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace and in Righteousness of Life Look in Mercy upon these Nations to which we belong forgive our crying Sins and turn us from every evil way Bless us with the continuance of pure Ordinances and with a mighty Efficacy and Effect of them for the promoting of Piety Righteousness Charity and Sobriety amonst us Bless we pray thee our most Gracious King and Queen our Subordinate Magistrates those that Minister to thee in Holy things amongst us and all Ranks and Degrees of Men besides make us to fear thee to depart from all Iniquity to serve to thy Glory and to the Happiness and Welfare of each other and defend us all from all foreign or domestick Enemies of our Peace We commend also to thy infinite Mercies all our Friends Relations or Enemies those that have done us kindness we pray thee O Lord abundantly to requite them and those that have done us any Injury Father forgive them Let thy Word which we have this day heard have power to sanctifie and cleanse us from all unrighteousness We humbly hope for the mercy we have sought of thee this Day and desire we may commit our selves to thy careful and gracious Providence this Night and for evermore Lord bless and keep us lift up the Light of thy Countenance and guide us by thy Counsel till thou hast brought us to thy Glory All we humbly ask upon the Merits of Jesus Christ beseeching thee to hear us for his Sake and further in his own Words saying Our Father c. The MEANNESS of THIS PRESENT LIFE Prov'd and Apply'd Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Job 14. 2. He cometh forth like
a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not TO know who it is that these words of Job do describe in so mean and disparaging a Character we need but look back to the first verse of this Chapter where we shall find he is speaking of Man It is man that Cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down He fleeth as a shadow and continueth not It was his design to represent by this Expression the contemptible and wretched Condition of our present Life which we very foolishly and unreasonably dote upon and admire This Life on Earth was never intended to be our happiest State and by reason of the Sin of Mankind it is fallen much below that degree of Happiness which the Creatour had intended it should enjoy Yet this pitiful State is that the wretched Sons of Men are most extreamly fond of Here they would always be this takes up all their Thoughts and Care They know or at least mind no Heaven but Earth and think to heap up felicity as they gather worldly Enjoyments We study how to live happily till we die and dote upon fading Pleasures as if we were always to enjoy them We commonly live here as if after this Life we were to be no longer and there were no better things attainable than what this Life possesses And while we mind this World we neglect the other we do not seek the better Happiness of that and lose it for want of seeking it Yea we forfeit that Happiness which is to come and deserve and incur everlasting Misery by what our too great love of this Life and its Enjoyments does engage us in Very much of the wickedness of this World and the misery of the next is due to this unhappy Cause To render a temporal Life happy as we suppose we spoil an Eternal one or incur an Eternal Death we serve our Bodies to the Destruction of our Souls The great Folly of which our Saviour suggests by that Question Mark 8. 36. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his Soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul To meet with this unhappy and dangerous Errour as much as this Text without straining it will allow I shall employ the following Discourse about three things 1. I shall enquire and make it appear from other Scriptures what intimations concerning our present Life this Text affords us 2. I shall insist a little upon the Illustration of those Intimations 3. I shall add the due Improvement and Application of them In the first place let us compare this Text of Scripture with others that we may derive from it the more certainly and evidently the Instructions it contains In 1 Pet. 1. 24. 't is said All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass The grass withereth and the flower falleth away And in the next verse he adds But the word of the Lord endureth for ever By this opposition of the Word that endureth to the Grass and the Flower of it which falleth away we may understand that by the Comparison of a Flower the Holy Spirit would teach us this Life is not of long continuance The Flower is the shortest liv'd part even of those Plants that have the shortest duration and is upon that account fit to mind us of the short continuance of this present Life Further in Ps 103. v. 15 16. we are told As for man his days are as grass as a Flower of the Field so he flourisheth For the wind passeth over it and it is gone This short liv'd Flower is exposed as the Flower of the Field 't is liable to many destructive and mortal Accidents yea if but the Wind passes over it it is gone 't is most easily destroyed 't is a thing may look fair and beautiful but has very little strength Thus it is with Man is the Psalmists meaning here He is as feeble as the Flower of the Field a small mischief may snatch him away in his prime Thus the Scripture teaches by this comparison the frailty and weakness as well as the shortness of human Life Again in Psal 102. v. 11. the Psalmist speaking of himself says My days are like a shadow that declineth which is as if he had said while my afflictions last and I hope for better days my Life declines apace it wasts continually away In Psal 144. v. 4. 't is said Man is like to Vanity his days are as a shadow that passeth away From these Scriptures we may learn that by the Comparison of a Shadow is taught us how transitory our present Life is It is continually passing away and spending it self And the rather may we be allow'd to conclude this from our present Text because 't is said of Man He fleeth as a shadow and then 't is added too He continueth not From this Text then it appears we may learn these three serious Intimations 1. The present Life of mortal Man is very short as is the continuance of a Flower 2. It is very feeble and frail is most easily cut off and destroyed and yet is exposed too as the Flower of the Field 3. This our present Life in this World is altogether transitory it is continually passing away As a shadow always moves and passes on till it is lost in the Nights Universal Darkness These are very obvious Truths and such as every Man's thoughts may easily suggest to him And they are very important and worth our considering and would be to those that would well consider them the Springs of much Peace and Wisedom But as obvious and useful as they are it appears they are much neglected and men commonly live as if they knew not these things At least 't is certain they seldom or never consider them Let us then not be unwilling to fix our minds upon them for a little while at present and let none fear any harm will follow if thereby they should make impression upon his mind and for the future so stay there as never to be forgotten again The next thing then that I proposed to do is to illustrate these particulars to express and speak of them in a few more words on purpose that our Thoughts may be detained a while upon them and that we may give them some advantage to make a due Impression 1. Let us consider that the present Life of mortal Man is very short They that live the greatest Number of Years have but a short Life on Earth A little time passes over the Innocence and Ease of our Infancy and Childhood A little more withers the flourishing Beauty and Gayety of Youth A little more weakens the Strength and spends the Usefulness of riper Manhood And if beyond this we live a little time more buries the decays and infirmities of Old-age The longest distance from the Cradle to the Grave is but a short one And the Wisedom of God would have
my behaviour here this short Life has an influence upon the Eternal one If I have lived well and well used the Talents I was entrusted with here I shall enjoy better and more lasting good things there I may justly content my self to be denyed any of these things below if the wise disposer sees fit to do so since better things to full satisfaction are reserved for me But if I live wickedly I must expect that alittle time will put an end for ever to all my present ease and prosperity I must part with all my lov'd Enjoyments and bid a farewell to all mirth and pleasure All my portion of good is in this World and I can enjoy it no longer than while this short and transitory Life lasts It is but a small portion of good then that falls to my share if this be all I must have And it was not worth the being born to be exposed to so many evils to bear so many afflictions to feel the wrackings of so many violent passions as this mortal Life and vale of Tears are acquainted with for the sake of enjoying so little good so short and small a felicity And besides my pleasant Circumstances here will quickly end in Torments and Miseries that will continue for ever Let us I say think much of that other World and divert our thoughts from this That so our affections may be disengaged and we may not be entangled with the Charms and Allurements of this World to our everlasting perdition And having got our selves at liberty from those fatal snares and fetters let us earnestly apply our selves to prepare for and secure a happy State in the Life to come This ought to be our greatest care in this World and employ the most of our endeavours In every other care and endeavour this should be minded and should direct them We should so pursue this World as at the same time to pursue a better and so enjoy this World as that we at the same time may hope for a better Ought we not to be most concerned that we may be happy there where we must be longest Let us behave our selves always in this World as going out of this and going into another where we shall abide and stay Shall we be carefull about a few days to come of this Life and not much rather be solicitous what shall become of us to all Eternity Now to secure our happiness hereafter we must endeavour to make our peace with God to regain his favour by repenting truly of our former Sins by stedfastly purposing to lead a new Life by devoting our selves to Jesus Christ to be followers of him with whom the Father was well-pleased We must then deny all angodliness and worldly Lusts and live soberly righteously and godly in this present World We must cease to do evil and learn to do well and follow after holiness without which no man can see God no man can be admitted into that presence of God which makes Heaven Let us endeavour to grow reconciled to a very serious and religious Life to become acquainted with and to relish the joys and pleasures of devotion and communion with God To delight in him in meditating on his Nature and Works in praising adoring and worshipping of him Which things will be the great entertainment and happiness of Heaven and therefore till we are suited to such things till we can find the highest pleasure in them and in all acts of Vertue till we can satisfie our selves in such things even with the want of many worldly Enjoyments we are not fit for Heaven nor can be happy in another World But thus to prepare our selves for and secure a happy State hereafter is the best use we can possibly put this our mean Life to And though this Life be so short and transitory we shall have time enough for the securing a better if we do not cheat our selves of it by unnecessary delays and if we apply our selves diligently to this matter And how great an Improvement of our present Life is this How great a gain How much to advantage To employ this Life for the gaining a happy one hereafter is as if a man should lay out Pebbles for Pearls should exchange Dirt for Gold and short liv'd Sparkles for lasting and glorious Stars 'T is to lay out Earth for Heaven to spend time for the purchase of Eternity to use the Creatures so as to make them bring us to God to labour for a very few days that we may enjoy an Eternal rest to deny our selves in a few things and for a little while that we may ere long enjoy full satisfactions everlasting pleasures This is truly and greatly to redeem our time This if we do we shall not regret that our time on Earth was so short and transitory THE PRAYER O Eternal and Almighty God thou art always the same and thy years do not fail thou art the same yesterday and to day and for ever without Variableness or shadow of Change It is upon thee O Lord and thy unchangeable Power that all things else do depend in their Beings and in all their Operations thou fillest Heaven and Earth and thou workest all in all All thy Works praise thee O God and thy Saints bless thee The invisible Things of thee are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even thy Eternal power and Godhead And we O Lord are amongst the number of those whom thou hast Created and dost preserve thou in thy due time didst bring us into Being at our Birth and by thee we are hitherto sustained It is thou that supportest our frail Natures that they fall not into the Dust by thy careful Providence over us we have escaped many Dangers we have got through the weakness of Infancy and the Heedlesness of Childhood by thy Blessing has our Food nourisht and our Cloaths warmed us for we live not by these things alone but by the Word which proceeds out of the mouth of God We are in thy Hands then O thou the Sovereign Arbiter of Life and Death when ever thou pleasest we return to the Dust from whence we were Created We acknowledge it is of thy Mercy that we are not consumed and because thy Compassions fail not And we are afraid when we think how easily thou canst crush and destroy us how frail our Life is and how short and Transitory how little a distance we are from Eternity and how exposed our Lives are how many Evils and Dangers compass us about and how small a Matter is able to put an end to our Days These things when we consider them make us look upon our selves as always just at the brink of the Grave and Eternity And while we have liv'd careless of our Duty to thee while we have liv'd in Rebellion against thee we have been upon the brink of Hell and in continual Danger of falling into it Had thy wrath been kindled against us but for a
entertaining Covetousness instead of Prodigality spiritual Pride instead of carnal Security Envy Malice Sedition Faction in commutation for Lust or Drunkenness and Swearing And it deserves to be considered whether it be not most likely that the delaying Sinners repentance on a sick Bed will be false and dissembled When he has all his Life-time proposed to himself not to repent but when Death summons him into another World is it not very likely that he now keeps to that which has been his setled Resolution and that his Repentance has no other Principle now than his Apprehensions of the nearness of Death and Judgment Is it not very likely that he who would never fear punishment till he came to think it near does now fear it only because he thinks it near and that all the Principle of his Repentance is the fear of approaching Punishment This then is all the Repentance that such an one is likely to practice at such a time and such as this will never be accepted with God nor bring a man to Heaven with only such as this he may perish everlastingly How foolish and extravagant is it then for a man to put off his Repentance through all that time when it is most likely to be true and wherein he may have the proof of its truth in fruits meet for Repentance And that he should put it off to that time wherein it is most likely to be false and cannot be proved true by answerable Fruits 5. From what has been said last I may frame another Argument against our relying upon a Death-Bed Repentance and that is It is at the best but uncertain and uncomfortable The change of mind which God requires must proceed from a deep sence of the vileness of Sin in it self of that ingratitude injustice and rebellion which is in it towards the great God There must be a hatred of it upon these accounts and earnest resolutions to forsake all Sin for the future And this change must proceed to the loving of God more than this World to the chusing and preferring Heaven before Earth and the pleasures of Religion more than those of Sence and Sin And if the Principle of our Sorrows and Vows were such a change of mind as this they would then continue if life were continued and would be put in practice in the Course of a godly righteous and sober Conversation even when the danger and fright were over And in that case God will accept the will for the Deed if it be a firm and rectified Will Ham. Ib. though the man does not live to put his resolutions in practice when it is his misfortune not his fault that he does not live a good Life after it because he has no more time granted him to live not because he would not live well But now whether the dying Sinners repentance be such as this or not no man can tell This late repentance may prove sincere and sufficient to find favour with God who searches the Heart and tries the Reigns but it is very unlikely to be such as the former Argument has demonstrated and it very seldom does prove such and no man that dies in it can possibly assure himself or be assured by any one else that his Repentance is sincere and acceptable with God and therefore at the best it is uncertain and uncomfortable No man can tell the Truth of his Repentance till it is put to a Trial till it meets with Temptations and conquers them and brings forth the Fruits of Vertue and Holiness And since without Holiness no man can see God but the Holiness of the Heart must be demonstrated by the Life and Conversation as our Saviour says a Tree is known by its Fruitt it cannot then be certainly pronounced concerning any man what shall become of him who has lived a vitious and ungodly Life all his days and only comes to some Sorrows and good Protestations and Vows on his Death-Bed We may hope well in Charity but cannot determine And though we cannot positively say there is no hope in such a case yet we must say there is very small hope And this is according to the Sense of the Ancients in this matter whose opinions to confirm what has been said I shall produce Augustin lib. 50. Hom. H. 41. speaks thus He who in his last extremity of Sickness seems to repent and departs this Life I confess to you I do not deny him what he asks by which he means Absolution or the blessed Sacrament that is I treat him as a true penitent because he may be so for ought I know but I cannot presume to say positively that he has made a good departure A good man living well says he goes out of this World secure And he who practices repentance in his Health and afterwards lives well he may be secure but he that repents only at last at the point of Death whether he be secure or not I am not secure Again he says to this Case Wouldst thou be free from doubt would you avoid uncertainty in a matter of such importance then practice Repentance while thou art in health for if thou dost so thou art secure when thy last day comes upon thee If you ask why I say because thou hast then practised thy Repentance while it was yet in thy power to have sinned longer But if thou then do this when thou canst sin no more thy Sins have forsaken thee rather than thou them And he adds I therefore grant thee repentance because I know not what may be the will of God concerning thee If I certainly knew it would not profit thee I would not grant it If I certainly knew it would profit I would not thus admonish I would not terrifie thee Chuse then says he that which is certain and do not rely upon that which is uncertain Thus speaks he Another Isidorus de sum bono says thus if any man repents while he could go on in Sin and while he yet lives cleanses himself from all Iniquity there is no doubt but when he dies he shall be translated to Eternal Rest But if a man spends his whole Life in Wickedness and then comes to repent at the point of Death as his Damnation is uncertain so his Pardon is doubtful I shall only mention one more and that is Salvian de Avariâ— l. 1. cap 5. What to say in this case I know not says he what I may permit I am utterly ignorant To discourage and with hold a man from seeking and using this last Remedy were hard and impious but to promise and assure him any thing in so late a Repentance were also rash It is his best course in this condition to leave nothing untried rather than to do nothing towards helping himself especially because though I know not whether this may help at last yet we may be certain that to attempt nothing is pernicious Thus much they have said and thus much at least must be said to