upon the height of his Stature like Saul among the People there is none like him View him in all his excellencies he is white and ruddy the Chiefest among ten thousand fairer than all the Children of Men and your self will be complete in him Know for your encouragement that you shall have the richest Dowry in all the World for all that Christ and Heaven is worth shall be yours the Wife being interested in all her Husbands Goods he will advance you to a Kingdom and Feoffe you in all the riches of it Say then Lord if I had Ten Thousand selves I would give them all up to thee who hast shewed to me such wonderful Love as to offer to give up thy self to me I will take thee with all my heart I give my free and hearty consent let the Match be made and assure your self then that it shall be made up the Spirit of Christ will be assistant to Faith in Tying the Marriage knot CHAP. II. Of Living the Life of Faith 1. LIve the Life of Faith in a continual dependence upon God in Christ for all things necessary especially for the Soul Six hundred and Thirteen precepts have been observed to be in the Law of Moses by some of the Hebrew Doctors who had the leisure to number them and they tell us that they are all wrapt up by the Prophet Habakkuk in that one short sentence The just shall live by Faith Sure it is a very pregnant and comprehensive duty for Faith is an Obediential Affiance and so is a pair of Compasses one foot whereof viz. Affiance being pitch'd upon the Center which is God the other goes round in a perfect Circle of all holy Duties Faith surveys the whole Land of promise searches it out throughly spies out all the rich Treasures that lye in the golden mines of the promises and finds suitable provision in every case both for Soul and for Body which in it can fetch in time of need and so it hath work enough daily for a constant and continued employment because every moment we are under some spiritual want 2. As for temporal good things live by Faith in a holy dependency and indifferency resting contented with the will of God whatsoever it be A believer though the Bill of fare be short lives on the wise powerful and gracious providence of God not doubting but he shall have enough to pay for his passage thorugh the Sea of this World to Heaven How many live on the Trencher of Gods Providence in their maintenance who never live on that providence in a gracious dependance or by actings of Faith in a promise Do not most Persons live wholly by their Friends by their Credit and Interest in the World but where is the Man or Woman that Lives by Faith 3 Fetch in provision for your Soul daily by actings of Faith Let Faith make out to Christ for new supplies of spiritual strength grace and comfort in all your need Faith is our Purveyor till we come to the Mount of God and goes a Catering for us till we come to that Land that flows with Milk and Hony God is a rich Mine of Wisdom and Grace which can never be digged to the bottom and hath inexhaustible Treasures lock'd up in Christ continually lying ready by him only stays for Faith to come and fetch them He is not pleased to give us in a full supply of all at once but crumbles out his mercies and gives his blessings by retail to teach us by Faith to live upon him daily Manna fell every morning God could if he had pleased have given them as much at once as should have served them all the time that they were to be in the Wilderness but he would teach them by his daily gift to depend upon his Providence for it daily Thus God is pleased to deliver out to his dear Children every day a set allowance it may be but a Crum of hidden Manna a tast of his special Love when he could fill an Omer of it if he pleased it may be he reaches forth to a believer only some Grapes of the Heavenly Canaan when he could throw clusters thereof into his Lap. He could have so form'd the new-born Babe in Christ and have cast it into such a Mould in the New-birth as that it should have been perfect in that instant as Adam was in the moment of Creation but he will have this Babe of grace to go by degrees from Faith to Faith from Strength to Strength till it come to full perfection The king appointed a daily Provision of his meat and of the Wine which he drank to certain of the Children of Israel Dan. 1.5 Thus doth the King of Heaven he will not give all grace at once out of his Store-house nor let the Pot of hidden Manna be in our keeping he doth not think fit we should have his Royal Wine of spiritual Joy and Comfort in our own Cellars to go to when we please lest we should drink and forget our selves yea and him too lest it should fume up and make our Heads giddy or our Blood too rank our Spirits too high proud for it is no easie matter to carry the brim-full Cup of Consolation steddily and equally though the Soul have rich joy to day yet it may have none to morrow unless he please to send a draught of this Cordial Wine from his own Table And why is all this but to teach us to live by Faith and wait continually upon him for new Influences The wise Father keeps the stock in his own hands and gives not all at once to keep his Son in a dependence CHAP. III. Of the Life of Holiness LIve the Life of Holiness This directly follows the Life of Faith for all holiness springs from Faith and the more you live the Life of Faith the more you will live the Life of holiness Now if you would live this Holy Life you must do these five things 1. Get a principle of holiness you cannot live a Life of holiness unless there be first a principle of holiness within Can the Body stir or move without a principle of Life how can there be actual holiness in the Life where there is not first habitual holiness in the Heart 2. Make holiness the very work of your Life or devote your self to the work of holiness he lives a Students life or the life of a Scholar who devotes himself to his Studies You do then live a Holy Life when you make holiness the very business of your Life when the Course and Tenor and main Imployment of your Life is Holiness when you make a Trade of it Do you only perform Holy Duties by fits and starts do you make stops and pauses are you off and on and act holily only occasionally or in some certain good moods or on some Holy days this is not to live a Life of Holiness You must constantly imploy your self therein and follow after it in the
hereafter also CHAP. XVIII How to manage an Afflicted Condition 1. USE your best endeavours to get good by all the Afflictions and Crosses that shall befal you I know indeed it may be with Christians as with Meats some are preserved in Sugar as Cherries and Plums c. others as Beef are preserved in Brine But yet I think you have more reason to fear the sweetness of a prosperous rather than the sharp Brine of an adverse condition Bees are killed with Honey but quickened with Vinegar If you read your Bible through you shall find that few of God's Children have gone through a prosperous condition without being ensnared thereby and rarely find any but have been bettered by adversity In the Summer of prosperity it 's well if you be not Fly-blown In the budding Spring and in the blooming Summer then Pride and Vanity Formality in Religion and Satisfaction in Creature comforts will be apt to sprout forth and taint you but the sharp Winter of Affliction will kill these Vermin Sharp and bitter things are abstersive and cleanse the body from many noxious and phlegmatick humours whereas sweet things much used do stuff up the passages of the body and create many obstructions It 's a high Character that is given of that Noble Person that Mirrour of your Sex the Lady Jane Gray that she so managed an afflicted condition that she made Misery it self seem amiable and the Night-cloths of Adversity did as much become her as her Day-dressing God's Children are his Jewels his rich Plate which being scoured by Afflictions look brighter their Souls are bleacht and whitened in the Waters of Afflictions These are the sharp Lemmon that take off their Mill-dews Christians seldom come to be great Scholars in the School of Christ without the Rod of Afflictions Learn to value Afflictions as you do Physick not according to the tast and rellish but according to the profitable effects that it works That is to be accounted a blessed Feaver that preserves the Soul from everlasting burnings 2. If you be not better'd by God's Rod when he sends it take heed lest he turn not his Rod into a Serpent as Moses Rod was Is it not to be thought a dangerous symptom of God's rejection and that the Physician of our Souls is leaving us when Afflictions which usually are God's Physick to purge out our Disease do cooperate therewith and so encrease it it's then to be feared that we shall hardly recover 3. Improve all Afflictions for your spiritual good by Prayers and actings of Faith in a Promise 1. By Prayer Is any afflicted let him pray Jam. 5.13 Afflictions may be said to be improv'd by Prayer these two ways 1. By making them a motive to put your self on Prayer The Rod then doth the Child good when it brings his stubborn heart to his knees God therefore lays his People on their backs that he may make them to look up to Heaven Every Cross is an unsanctified Cross that is not attended with Prayer 2. By using Prayer as a means to help you against those sins which are apt to accompany an afflicted condition as Impatience Discontent c. and to fetch in those graces which you have most need of therein as Faith Humility Repentance Contentment Joy and Submission to the Will of God Prayer will cause these precious fruits to grow on the Cross and so it will be sanctified to you 2. Improve Afflictions by actings of Faith in the Promises Afflictions are sweetned to Believers they are rolled up in Sugar they are steept in Honey sanctified by the word of the Promise that they shall work together for good Rom. 8.28 and yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness Heb. 12.1 The Promise gives them a most delicious rellish to Faith Faith can make a soveraign Oil of these Scorpions to heal the Soul Faith can turn Water into Wine even the bitter Waters of Marah into the Wine of Comfort CHAP. XIX How to manage your Relative Condition 1. BE earnest in Prayer to the God of all Grace to furnish you with suitable Grace for the Relations you stand in Hath God called you to be a Wife pray for the spirit of a Wife There 's no Relation that we enter into but it calls for new duties from us No Relation but hath its peculiar temptations and sins to which it is prone Consider then what are your Relation-temptations and your Relation-sins and what are your Relation-duties and pray for strength against those particular temptations and sins and for those particular duties No duties are more momentous and yet none less observed usually It 's a common fault to neglect our own work and too much to complain of others neglecting theirs and so like Planets we eclipse one another Many Wives are apt to pick quarrels because their Husbands do not their duties when themselves omit their own And so many unnatural Children complain of their Parents for being so when it is next door to an impossibility for a Patent to be unnatural O mind well your Relation defects and be very careful that Religion may form and mould your demeanour towards all your Relations whatsoever This will be your excellency thus will you be like a fixed Star shining in that proper Orb in that very sphere and station where God hath fixt you without eccentrick motions 2. If you would know how the case stands betwixt God and your Soul consider what you are in all your several Relations and how you manage them Judge not your self so much by your praying and hearing and other duties of Religion in your general Calling as a Christian as by the practice of your Religion at home in your Relations Observe specially how your Religion works in your Relative condition and the temptations thereof She is not a good Woman that is not a good Wife or not a good Daughter 3. Live in a free and chearful submission and obedience to your Husband You have this command given in several places of Scripture Wives submit your selves to your own Husbands as unto the Lord Eph. 5.22 Col. 3.18 1 Pet. 3.1 This submission includes both Reverence and Obedience to the Husband and this Obedience must be shewed both to his commands his desires his restraints and his rebukes nay if his rebukes should turn to revilings the Wife may not revile again for that would be to shoot with the Devil in his own Bow but she may sweetly admonish him in things that she certainly knows to be sinful and hurtful Your subjection doth not hinder you from provoking him to love and good works as the Apostle useth the phrase Heb. 10 24. but yet even this provocation must be without passion You may lovingly admonish him thereunto but with a care that in so doing you provoke him not to wrath lest you do like those who take hot water to heat the Stomach and thereby enflame the Liver The Wife in Nathan's Parable is called a Lamb she must be a Lamb for
some circumstances in Worship which they like not 4. When you come home from the Publick be careful to spend your time in Religious Exercises Meditate on what you have heard and having like a diligent Bee gathered abroad in the Publick Assembly the sweet of heavenly Flowers work your Honey-comb within your own Hive Digest well by private Meditation that spiritual meat which was set before you in the Dishes of the Publick Ordinances Meditate also on the Attributes of God the Works of God and especially the Mercies of God that you may be stirred up to holy rejoycings praises and thanksgivings which are the most proper work of the day which is a day of thanksgiving and commemoration of the Mercies of God especially of the Resurrection of Christ and the great work of Redemption 5. Be careful that your Servants do not prophane or mis-spend this day as being tender of their Souls as well as your own Solomon's virtuous Woman gave a portion of holy Instructions as well as of Food to her Servants and Maidens Prov 31.15 26. CHAP. XXIV Of Holy Duties in general 1. BEfore you go to any Duty address your self to Jesus Christ for a supply of grace for the performance thereof If you be to go to a new act of praying or hearing or receiving the Sacraments you must eye Jesus Christ again put forth a new act of Faith towards him and labour for new Influences and a fresh supply of Spirit from him 2. Do not only number your Duties but weigh your Duties how many how many look only how oft they go to Duties but never seriously how or in what manner they perform them and so cheat themselves everlastingly concluding themselves to be in a state of Grace because of their constancy in Duties but miscarry everlastingly for want of a right manner of performing them as out of a right spring and principle and to a right end and with sincerity and fervency of affection Though the Tree bear many large and fair fruits yet it is not much valued unless they have a good rellish If the fruits that your Soul brings forth have not a good tast through the sincerity and right ends thereof or tast not of the Love of God they will not be acceptable unto God Let all your works be done in Love 1 Cor. 16.14 3. Do not only perform holy duties but love holy duties so they will be more acceptable to the God of Love An ungodly Man or Woman may often go to prayer but they love it not they may hear the Word but they receive not the Truth in the love of it But a good heart loves duties So long as you cannot find any rellish in Ordinances or private Duties but are in an indifferency whether you perform them or no or have your frequent intermissions of these meals so that sometimes you take them and sometimes you let them alone it is a sign you are not sound within or if you do constantly take them if it be without an appetite and perform holy duties only to stop the mouth of Conscience it s an argument your Soul is not in health Till you find sweetness in Ordinances the case is not well with you as it should be the Soul is out of frame If once you love duties they will be a delight and refreshment to you All the ways of Christ are Beds of Spices and Roses and can you walk on such and not be requited for it with sweet and fragrant smells Those that carry bundles of Spices from Arabia have their Spirits refresht with the sweet Odours that breathe from them A good Christian is refresht in duty the Soul can sing at her work Love turns all pains into pleasures Though the Mother take a great deal of pains in tending the Child yet she finds a sweet delight in it because of her love to it A good Christian can say with David O how I love thy Law Psal 119.97 And I delight to do thy Will O my God! Psal 40.8 CHAP. XXV Of Prayer 1. DO not rush on Prayer presently without some serious consideration before Read therefore some portion of Scripture before you pray This will afford you matter of meditation which will furnish you with matter for Prayer for so you may turn what you have read into Prayer A good Heart is by one Duty quickned and prepared for another as the Wild Bores by whetting their Tusks with their other Teeth make them sharp and so every Tooth mutually sets an edge on another If therefore you be to read Pray before by some short Address to God if to Pray read before Yea Pray also before Prayer that God would Assist you in Prayer and deliver you from the Evil Infirmities of your Prayer Holy David Prays for his own Prayers Psal 141.1 2. 2. Look not upon Prayer as a task but as a priviledge O! what a great and glorious priviledge is it that the poorest Saint may with boldness have access to God! Eph. 3.18 Rom. 5.1 2. Is it not a Royal Priviledge to have a Key in our keeping that opens Heaven Gates and lets into the Presence Chamber of the King of Glory To speak with him at any time If you would thus look upon it I should not need to perswade you to go to Prayer constantly Morning and Evening This would be in stead of a hundred Arguments that Prayer is so High and so Royal a Priviledge that you may thereby go boldly to the Throne of Grace draw near to God himself and lay your Petition in his Bosom and plead your Cause before him and fill your Mouth with Arguments and Reason out your great Concernments with him and receive his Answers 3. Pray Earnestly Lazy Devotion and Key-cold Prayers will never prevail You must wrestle with God in Prayer like Holy Jacob that you may prevail In wrestling one single Person strives with another so the Devout Soul with God they go to it singly as it were Hand to Hand and have as it were a single Combat in private The Devout Saint loves to wrestle with God in the Closet when no Body is present the Door being shut he loves not to have Spectators of it he then comes up close to God and gets within him takes hold of his Everlasting Arms. Thus the Woman of Canaan Wrestled with Christ she stands to it though she had many Repulses from him The Soul thus Wrestles with God as a Child with the Father who is much delighted and pleased to let it get the better on him to encourage it and after takes it up from its Knees into his Arms when you go to Prayer you must set all your faculties on work you must open and spread the Sails open and spread forth your Affections as wide as you can that they may gather wind enough to waft you over to the Land of Promise 4. See that your Prayers be followed with Diligent and Serious Endeavours for effecting of that which you have Prayed for
person or no i. e. whether you be a Real and Serious Christian one that is truly and in good earnest Godly When the King saw one amongst his Guests that had not on a Wedding Garment that was not Vested with the Robes of Christs Righteousness for Justification nor of Inherent Righteousness for Sanctification he commanded to take him and bind him Hand and Foot and to cast him into utter Darkness Math. 22.13 The Wrath of God will be up against such unworthy Guests as the King 's was against Haman at the Banquet of Wine and will give Sentence against them accordingly The Indians when they first came into these Northern Countreys thought Roses had been Fire Surely the Rose of Sharon will be really a Consuming Fire a devouring Flame to unworthy Communicants He that Eats and Drinks unworthily Eats and Drinks his own Damnation 1 Cor. 11.29 it 's as if the Apostle should say he swallows Damnation and this is more thâ—n to swallow down Flames here in the World It would be well for such if this Sacrament proved only an empty Feast to them but it proves mortal Poyson and like Poyson taken in Wine works with the fiercest Violence If you be an unworthy Guest at the Lords Table you will be guilty of the Body and blood of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.27 your Soul will be diepred in Blood I mention not this to dishearten you from going to that Blessed Feast for you ought to go but to persuade you to go as a worthy Guest that your going may be for your Everlasting Comfort and not for your Confusion CHAP. XXXIII Of Actual Qualifications MAke your self actually ready to come to this great Solemnity this Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper It 's not enough that you be habitually unlese you be actually prepared If you were invited to a Feast by some great Person you would not satisfie your self to go in your ordinary Dress though it were neat and handsom but you would put your self to some more than ordinary pains to spruce and trim up your self so as not to have a Hair amiss And ought you not to be more careful to Beautifie Deck and Trim up your Soul afresh by Special and more than Ordinary Devotions and Actions of Piety before you come to this High and Majestick Solemnity this Tremendous Mystery as Chrysostom calls it Before Meat it 's good to use some Exercise as Physicians say to stir up the Natural Heat for to promote Digestion And so before this Spiritual Feast it 's good to Exercise our Souls for the stirring up our Spiritual Appetite thereunto for the warming heating and quickning of all those Graces and Affections that are necessary for a worthy Communicant which are Faith Repentance Hungring Desires Love to God and our Neighbour Joy Thankfulness and Resolutions of New Obedience You must not only have the habit of these Graces but they must be made ready new scoured and prepared so as they may work more kindly at the Sacrament there must be a tuning of the Viol and a winding up of the Strings the several Faculties of the Soul Now you must rally up all your Affections all the Forces of your Soul and get them all in a ready Frame and due Posture for exercising themselves at this Sacred Solemnity You must premeditate before you go of all the work that you are to do at the Sacrament and so thereby fit your self for the better doing of it when you come there CHAP. XXXIV Of Suitable Behaviour at the Table of the Lord. BE careful so to behave your self at this Divine Feast as becomes one of the Lords Guests It 's not sufficient to get your Heart into a Devout Frame before you Approach to this Table of the Lord but it is requisite also that it be kept up in a Holy Tune in a right Disposition and suitable Deportment during the whole Solemnity It 's not enough to Trim up ones self to go to the Table of some Noble Person but there must be also a becoming Behaviour there lest Offence be given by any undecencies And therefore that your Demeanour here may be proper and becoming I shall instruct you how and in what particular Seasons or Passages of the Administration your Sacramental Graces respectively are to be exercised I hinted to you in the former Chapter which are those Graces that are most proper to be exercised at the Sacrament and shall now shew you in what Order and Method and in what season they are aptly and pertinently to be acted there When you are called up by the Minister to draw near to the Table of Blessing think you hear Christ himself by his Minister calling you up and bidding you welcom And then Exercise Humble Thankfulness and Joy together with hungring desires and let your Heart say Lord what am I that thou shouldst so far condescend as to invite me a poor Worm thy worthless Hand-maid to thy Royal Table And to admit such a wretched Creature to the Banquet of Spiced Wine who have deserved nothing but Gall and Vinegar to Drink My Soul therefore doth Magnifie the Lord and my Spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the Lowliness of his Hand-Maid from henceforth all the powers of my Soul shall call thee Blessed Lord hast thou now called me into thy Banquetting-House I do promise here that while the King sitteth at the Table and I there with him my Spicknard shall send forth the smell thereof My Faith Desires Love and Thankfulness Yea all my Graces shall send forth a sweet and holy Perfure to please him O that the same Love that hath prepared a Table for me and now called me to it would prepare me for it and refresh my Soul with Love and Sweetness there At the Ministers reciting the words of Institution Separating and Blessing of the Bread and Wine whereby they are Consecrated Exercise Faith and Thankfulness and fervent Desires to God the Father and say Lord out of thine infinite Love thou didst separate and set apart the Lord Jesus from all Eternity and appointed him for our Redeemer and didst bless him with the Spirit above measure making him the rich Treasury and common Stock of Grace a Fountain over-flowing to the supply of all Believers Let him not be to me a lockt Treasure or a Fountain Sealed up but Bless and Sanctifie these Creatures of Bread and Wine to me that they may be the Body and Blood of Christ in effect to me for my Attonement Peace and Propitiation and pardon of all my Sins and convey Spiritual Life Nourishment and Comfort to me abundantly O let my Soul be steept in sweetness and let the Rock pour out Oyl into me even the Oyl of Grace and of Joy and Gladness also When you look upon the Bread and Wine after Consecration Exercise Faith to discern the Lords Body and look now upon them not as common Bread and Wine but as Sacramental Representations Spiritually Exhibiting the Body and Blood
is it not pitty such ingenious youths should be lost for want of Instruction and Correction Let Parents and Governours Tremble lest the Blood of Relations Souls should lye at their Door and both be Tormented for wilful neglects Even Heathens had great care of Childrens Education it was actionable in the Law-Courts among the Romans to neglect this yea if the Son was Debauched the Father was sued since it was supposed the Sons Miscarriage was through the Fathers Default But that might be a mistake Yet God that sees all things and whose Judgment is always according to truth will Commence a Suit against and Condemn the careless Parent Lord when will Parents have as much care of their Childrens Souls as Bodies Yea express as much tenderness to a Child as to a Beast You labour hard to provide for them Food and Rayment to put them into callings that they may live like Men in the World and are their Souls of no Worth Is there not another World worth thinking of looking after Have you not many helps the Bible Catechismes good Books Ministers to Move Admonish and instruct you in training up your Children Do you not promise to do this for them at their Baptism Could you be content to see a Mastiff Dog drag away your Child pull out his Entrals feed upon him and not stir a foot speak a word to rescue him O miserable parents O Cruel Tygers Worse than Sea monsters Lam. 4â— that draw out the Breasts they give suck to their young ones and have not you a word to speak not a breath to breathe in Prayer not a Hand to reach out to them to pluck them from this Gerberus this Dog of Hell Oh where 's Grace yea where is Nature The Lord pitty these merciless Parents For shame learn your Duty and do it and take this Book for an help And you that are Children if Parents neglected their Duty do not you neglect God and your Souls They lookt no further than your Preferment in the World but do you look after an Everlasting Happiness in the other World Some commended Patricius Augustines Father for Educating his Son a Scholar who became so Famous a Father in the Church Alas said he my Father sought only to make me a Rhetorician not a Christian for he was an Heathen But whatever your Parents Trained you up for Law or Physick or a Trade Study Christianity If thy Parents were Carnal Lament it Act Faith in Christ to get Guilt taken off thy Fathers House and double thy Diligence for thy own Soul and for thy Seed If thy Parents were godly devoted thee to God set thee a good Example instructed prayed for thee O make much of the Covenant of Parents plead it embrace it and see thy Heart and Life be Squared by it Else thy Priviledges will be a Testimony against thee another Day 〈…〉 â—â—shop of Millain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in the primitive 〈…〉 or white Garâ—â—â— was put upon the party Baptized and the Minister 〈◊〉 take this white and immaculate Vestment and see thou king it forth without Spot at the Judgment Seat of Christ Withal he tells of one Elpidophorus being Baptized afterwards proving a prophane Wretch the Minister produced this Garment saying This Linnen shall 〈◊〉 thee at Christs coming which is witness of thy â—…tacy You young people make a great account that you were made Christians in Baptism and indeed it stands in good stead in your Infant-State by vertue of your Parents Covenant but being grown up you stand upon your own Legs and must personally renew your Baptismal Covenant or expect no benefit by it Baptism will not save you without the Answer of a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 Tit. 3. â— The lover of Regeneration will not avail to Adult Persons without the renewing of the Holy Ghost You must be born again of water and of the Spirit or you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 To which Austin Subscribes saying Nihil profuit Simoni Mago visibilis Baptismus cui Sanctificatio invisibilis desit you know Simon Magus was in the Gall of Bitterness and Bond of Iniquity Act. 8.13.22 though he was Baptized You are to thank God for External Priviledges and Religious Education they are Signal Mercies not common to all Bucholzer thankt God that he was Bred up under Melancthon Mr. Whately under Mr. Dod yea a Plato that he was Pupil to Socrates But rest not here be not satisfied except the unfeigned faith dwell in thee 2 Tim 1.5 also that was in thy pious Auncestors Mind their Godly Examples and do not contradict them A King of Poland was wont to carry the Picture of his Renowned Father in a â—â—ate of God about his Neck when he went about any notable Exploit kissing it he said God grant I may 〈◊〉 nothing Remissely 〈…〉 of so 〈…〉 you 〈…〉 Heb. 6.12 who through Faith and patience do now inherit the promises 〈…〉 to be â—pish imitators of their outward Acts but see you have the same Spirit of Faith Love fear of God Repentance and nâ—w Obedience Think you hear your Dying Parents charging you as Mr. Bolâ—â—â—â— did his Children that 〈◊〉 of you dare to meet them at the great Day without a Wedding Garment To this 〈◊〉 attend daily at a 〈◊〉 Ministry examine your Consciences by the Word of God pray much in Secret be Humble and Dâ—cible Disdain not to learn Catechisms watch against Occasions of Sin got into and improve Christian Society keep Conscience void of Offence towards God and Man Read Meditate on labour to and stand and practice Scripture Truths and Rules Study to do all the good you can and be useful in your Generation But I shall detain you no longre in the Porch I humbly desire you to Read and Study this ensuing Treatise which though short is yet Pithy Accurate and Sententious and will like a Clew lead thee through the Labyrinths and Meanders of the World Omit the reading of it and thou are a loser read it slightly and thou gainest no good contradict it at thy peril these Sheets will rise up in Judgment against thee another Day My earnest Prayer shall follow this and other Soul-helps that the God of all Grace would stamp his own Blessed Image on the Souls of the Rising Generation awake their Consciences inlighten their Minds renew their Natures subdue their Wills raise their Affections to Heavenly Objects that they may fill up our vacancies when our Heads are laid in the Silent Dust and may see better Ways and have better Heads to improve all Occurrences to better purpose than we that are now going off the Stage And thus good Reader I take leave wishing thee much content and Advantage in perusing this sweet Posy of Spiritual Flowers gathered out of the Scripture Garden As That Soul-Friend and Servant in Christ O. H. A PARENTS ADVICE to his CHILD How to Live well The Introduction Daughter MY hearts desire and prayer to
delight in God Musick upon the Water sounds louder and is much sweeter than upon the Land Joy upon the Waters of Godly Sorrow is most sweet and pleasant Chrysostom calls sorrow for sin the Mother of Joy I assure you God never commanded sorrow for sin barely for it self but only in order unto joy 2. God would not have any of his People lead sad drooping and melancholy Lives for thereby they would dishonour their heavenly Father and disparage his House keeping as if there were not Bread enough in their Fathers house but rather a want of Necessaries there Yea it would make the World ready to think that he were a hard Master toward them and Jesus Christ an unkind Husband If a Wife be always sad and sit puling and whining will not every one be ready to say that she hath a bad Husband This Sackcloth doth not become the Court of the King of Saints nor beseem those that live within it Spiritual Chearfulnese is that which becomes Religion sets a gloss thereon and makes it shine gloriously and look most amiably in the Eyes of the World and may cause them to fall to love with it 3. But whatsoever the Wor think of Religion it is not of a melancholy temper but of a sanguine complexion It may well say to them Call me no more Marah i. e. Bitterness but call me Naomi which signifies Pleasantness for it is of all others the most pleasant and delightsom Life i. e. in respect of inward complacency and gladness though not in respect of passionate joy or mirth All her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3.17 Thus the way of Religion is strawed with Roses with inward peace and tranquillity Walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost are claspt and laid together Acts 9.31 Christians have meat to eat that the World knows not of What means this Musick said the Elder Brother of the returning Prodigal There 's the White-Stone and the New Name that none know but they that have it Rev. 2.17 There 's hidden Mannah for their Souls to feast upon 4. And indeed how can a believing Soul that walks closely with God chuse but rejoyce when it is always in the presence of God and Christ Can the Children of the Bride-chamber mourn while the Bridegroom is with them Matth. 9.15 It is reported that our Saviour when he was on the Earth had such a chearful Countenance that the Jews that lived in his days when they found themselves sad and melancholy would say to one another Come let us go and look upon Mary 's Son that we may be chearful How true that is I know not but this I am sure that looking upon Jesus Christ by an Eye of Faith will make a Soul rejoyce abundantly Tho' now you see him not yet believing you rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 Joy comes in by believing Actings of Faith will cause Jesus Christ to set abroach this Royal Wine of Joy for you which will never be a-tilt but alway run fresh while you act Faith to draw A believing Soul hath a Bird in its own bosom that makes most sweet and pleasant Melody Faith spies out God's Love in all things sees all providential Dispensations come from God as a Token of Love and so rejoyceth in all When a Wife receiveth but a small thing from her Husband abroad as a Token of Love she rejoyceth more in it than in forty times more which she had at home before But most of all Faith sees Love of God shine forth in the Gifts of Grace and Priviledges of Heaven Hath God given you the rich Jewel of Grace a Patent for Heaven a Grant of the Priviledges of his Court the Right of Adoption to the being a Daughter of God You have abundant cause to rejoyce and triumph in him and to glory in the God of your Salvation 5. You see what kind of joy and delight it is that I have here commended to you It is not an Enthusiastick joy or delight through irrational raptures which reason can give no account of but it 's a rational solid complacency of the Soul in God nor is it a meer sensual joy It 's not the joy of those merry ones of the Age that spend their Life in vain and sinful pleasures whose mirth is madness as the Wise man calls it Eccles 2.2 Mad men will laugh and hoop and hollow as if they were full of joy but who knows not that their condition is very sad In the midst of laughter the heart is sad and the end of that mirth is heaviness Prov. 14.13 Do not the jolliest sinners find a damp after all their mirth and alas their mirth will last but a while their feast will be soon over the cloth will be shortly drawn the musick shall cease to play at their doors and then nothing shall be heard but lamentable out-cries bitter wailing and gnashing of the Teeth for ever I have been the longer on this that I might keep you from that prejudice against Religion which is in the hearts of most as if it were a sad and a melancholy life as if the bitter herb of Grace would poison the flower of all their Mirth And for the same reason I shall add another Advice a-kin to this CHAP. XI Of Praise and Thankfulness to God 1. LIve a Life of Praise and Thankfulness to God This inclines the Soul to a holy rejoycing in God Let him have your admiring Praises continually O steep your thoughts in the Love and Mercies of God! Say often with your self O what hath God done for me what great Mercies hath he offered and tendred to my Soul what a mercy is it that I am alive that he hath bore with me thus long and waited for my Repentance what astonishing riches of Love and Free Grace is it that I am on this side Hell and that there is an Alsufficient Saviour provided for me I 'll therefore live to the praise of his Glory and bear witness to his transcendent Excellency 2. Give God both tongue and heart to praise him Anatomists observe that the tongue of man is tyed to the heart by a double string May not this intimate that God would have the tongue as well as the heart a stringed Instrument of his Praise But yet he regards not the Praises of the tongue at all if you do not make melody in your heart unto him What doth God require of you for all his mercies and loving-kindnesses but only praise Some hold their Lands by paying the Rent of a Pepper-corn or the like We hold all that we have from God who requires only that we should pay this poor Quiâ— rent a Pepper-corn of Thankfulness which if we pay daily to him he will give in more mercies Trumpeters delight to sound where they may have an Eccho and God to give where he may have an Eccho of Prase God is