Love they feed heartily and are merry without any Check in themselves or fear of After-repentance It is so with them that feast in Heaven that are called to the Supper of the Lamb that eat and drink in his Kingdom that partake of that Feast full of fat things a Feast of wine on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wine on the lees well refined Isa 25.6 that partake of the Delicacies of Heaven of the Riches and costly Entertainment there they know they are heartily welcome to Heaven that they are not invited as Esther invited Haman to her Banquet to betray him but that they are in God's Presence out of the purest Love out of the most sincere Motive their Faithfulness to him their Sufferings for him and to the most desirable End the mutual Solace and Content of each in other God hath not any intent to make a farther Triall of them as of Adam in Paradise but to put an end to their Sufferings and hard Service that they may keep an everlasting Sabbath with him in Glory I have shewed you in some Adumbration those things which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of man to conceive even the things God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 Whereby I have given you a little Taste of those Joys the Fulness of which in God's Presence I should now insist on which was my II. PROPOSITION That there is a Fulness in these Joys This might be demonstrated by the Kinds of them they being not onely bodily but Spiritual not mixt but pure not in a less but a most intense degree not for a short time but for ever But this may perhaps be declared more fully in the handling of the III. OBSERVATION That at God's right hand there are Pleasures for evermore III. PROPOSITION That these Joys in God's Presence in their Plenitude or Fulness as they belong to Christ so also to all true Believers This is deducible from our Lord Christ 's words Joh. 16.20 21 22. Verily verily I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament but the World shall rejoyce and ye shall be sorrowfull but your Sorrow shall be turned into Joy A woman when she is in travail hath Sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of the Child she remembreth no more the Anguish for joy that a man is born into the world And ye now therefore have Sorrow but I will see you again and your Heart shall rejoyce and your Joy no man taketh from you Whereupon the Apostle saith 1 Joh. 3.2 Beloved now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is The same condition of Joy and Glory though in an inferiour degree shall be to the adopted Sons of God as is to the onely-begotten Son of God and it is God's righteous Judgment that they which sow in Tears should reap in Joy Psal 126.5 IV. PROPOSITION That the Assurance of these Joys set before Christ was the grand Support and Encouragement of him in his Obedience active and passive and is so still to all the Holy Saints who doe and suffer according to the Will of God As concerning Christ it is expresly delivered Heb. 12.2 that for the Joy set before him he endured the Cross despising the Shame And that it is so to all the Servants of Christ is frequently told us Rom. 5.1 2 3. Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom we have access by Faith into this Grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in the hope of the Glory of God And not onely so but we glory in Tribulation also 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. For which cause we faint not but though our Outward man perish yet the Inward man is renewed day by day For our light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory While we look not at the things that are seen but the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal APPLICATION I do but cursorily pass over these Points that I may make some Application to your use and that shall be 1. To refute the Censures of Carnal men who count the Course of the Righteous to be Madness and his End without Honour and therefore have him in Derision and as a Proverb of Reproach as it was observed long agoe in the Book of Wisedom Chap. 5.3 4. They can discern no Joys in the humble penitent Believers either at present or for the future They are no whit acquainted with the Joy of the Holy Ghost nor the Comforts of Christ nor the Fulness of Joy that is in the Presence of God and for this cause imagine the mortified Christian to be but a melancholick man that foolishly pines away himself not injoying that Mirth and that Benefit of such things as are allowed to the sons of men And therefore if they find a person to be of a wounded Spirit of a troubled Conscience if through Weakness a person of a tender Conscience be pensive afflicted with the sense of Sin and perplexed in Spirit they impute it to Religion to hearing of Sermons and performing other holy Duties while they themselves think there is nothing better then to be merry while they may to eat and drink for to morrow they shall die Come on say they let us enjoy the good things that are present and let us speedily use the Creatures like as in youth Let us fill our selves with costly Wine and Ointments and let no Flower of the Spring pass by us Let us crown our selves with Rose-buds before they be withered Let none of us goe without his part of our Jollity let us leave tokens of our Joyfulness in every place for this is our Portion and our Lot is this Wised 2.6 7 8 9. Come ye say they I will fetch Wine and we will fill our selves with strong Drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant Isa 56.12 But sure sober Infidels have taken such Speeches to be rather the Speeches of Brutes then of Men. Who can conceive that Man that hath an immortal Spirit breathed into him from the Father of Spirits should have no higher Joys then sensual Delights that he should be satisfied with such Contents as are onely from Sublunary things If the Philosophers knew that Vertue of it self could give such Tranquillity of mind such ample Content as that they could discern the Joys of Sensualists to be but the Foolery of besotted men Christians may discern that the Joys of Philosophers in their dim Light of Reason and Morall honesty together with their glorying in their Idols could be but as Moon-light compared to the Sun and their Joys
Vexations from those unruly People which he had led out of Egypt And all this onely because it was thus appointed him by God and having respect unto the Recompence of Reward which he should give him And indeed God would have all his Saints to be thus minded It is that which all the Seed of Abraham by Faith in God must and do expect an uncertain and ambulatory Estate in this World no immutable or fixed Habitation no Paradise upon Earth David saith of himself and his Ancestours Psal 39.12 I am a Stranger with thee and a Sojourner as all my Fathers were And to shew that the matter is not mended in this respect since Christ's Coming in the Flesh As Christ had no place certain not so much as a place whereon to rest his head but went up and down and at last suffered without the Gate of Jerusalem so saith the Apostle Heb. 13.13 14. it is God's determination that we goe forth unto him without the Camp bearing his Reproach for here we have no continuing City but we seek that one to come even the New Jerusalem that cometh down from God out of Heaven Rev. 21.2 10. And indeed there are very urgent Reasons wherefore God so ordereth the Estate of his People that it should be thus changeable and unsettled both in respect of his own Glory and their Good On both which accounts they comply with God in his Design as being regulated in their Resolutions and Motions by Faith in God whom they apprehend as their best Friend and most faithfull Guide 1. For first hereby God refutes that malicious Slander which the Devil suggested to God against Job as if he feared and served God onely because God had made an Hedge about him and about his house and about all that he had on every side had blessed the work of his hands and his Substance was increased in the Land Job 1.10 But God though he permitted Satan to bereave Job of his Goods and Children and Ease yet proved the Devil a Liar and Job true-hearted whom no Sufferings could make to curse God And in the like manner he suffers the Patience and Obedience of his Servants to be tried whom though he keeps low yet they own God stick to him and shew themselves to be sincere-hearted and find him in the conclusion to be a God to be trusted And by this their Adherence to God and Experience of his Fidelity they become Witnesses for the Lord that he is God as it is said Isa 43.12 2. By this way of God's Providence in disposing thus of his People their Spiritual and Eternal Good is greatly promoted for they learn hereby not to love the World and the things that are in the World so as to chuse their Portion in them not to conform themselves to the men of this World As standing Pools gather Mud when running Springs yield clear Waters so it is with men who are at Ease that have no Changes who live at Rest and in Pleasure They surfeit of these earthly Dainties are infected with worldly Thoughts have no taste of the Rivers of God's Pleasures are settled on their Lees as not emptied from Vessell to Vessell their Taste remaineth in them and their Sent is not changed A Dives a man that hath his Goods encreased minds nothing but building his Barns and taking his Ease thinks not on his Death on Judgment to come or being rich towards God But the Lord to prevent this Danger whereas the men of this World become as Beasts fed to the full as kept onely for the day of Slaughter orders his Sheep to be removed from Mountain to Mountain to be in bare Pastures yet to have sufficient and which is the chiefest of all Acquaintance and Communion with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit And indeed the Enjoyment of these Spirituall Blessings doth make abundant Compensation for the Want of that Ease and Pleasure which the Grandees of the Earth have For should God let them enjoy brave Palaces with much Abundance and all those Delights that others are Masters of yet these would be found as Solomon proveth them to be Vanity of Vanities not without their mixture with Cares and Fears concerning the future if not with Vexation of Spirit for the present Diseases and Discontents being incident to such a state of Life And that which would most annoy God's Children in such a Condition is that a full Estate breeds much Sin as Ulcers of Pride and a Spirit of Slumber in forgetting God besides the Evil to which worldly Society exposeth them Abraham lived at more Ease with much more Content and Delight in his Tents on the Hills of Canaan then Lot did in Sodom which he chose to dwell in where he was made a Prisoner first and when rescued by Abraham he vexed his righteous Soul from day to day with the unclean Conversation of the Sodomites in hearing and seeing their unlawfull deeds though at last he were freed out of that cursed Place And therefore every one of us is to conceive God speaketh so to him as he spake Mic. 2.10 Anise and depart for this is not your Rest because it is polluted Nor can we be partakers of the Divine Nature without escaping the Corruption that is in the World through Lust 2 Pet. 1.4 Saul's Court was not so good to David as the Wilderness in which he was hunted as a Partridge on the mountains Then he made the sweetest Psalms and sang them with the most pleasant Melody when forced to leave Saul's Court he fled to God as to his Sanctuary Yea it was better with him when he was in the Field against the Philistines then when being at home at Rest and Ease he walked on the Roof of his house and saw Bathsheba Sure this present Estate with all its Advantages is but a transitory Condition The World passeth away and the Lust thereof and therefore it is not so eligible as the Favour of God here much less as the beholding of his Face in Righteousness hereafter And the worst Condition a Saint can be in who depends on God and follows him as Abraham did is but a Storm Nubecula est citò transibit it will quickly blow over as that Holy man said of the Arian Persecution This light Affliction which is but for a moment will work for us if we walk humbly with our God a far more exceeding and eternall weight of Glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporall but the things which are not seen are Eternall 2 Cor. 4.17 18. APPLICATION And now I beseech you take this matter into your serious Consideration If you be indeed Children of Abraham and expect to be in Abraham's Bosome the Course that God took with Abraham must not be unpleasant to you If you will have your Good things in this Life you must expect to have the Rich
to the living God though they were in jeopardy of being stoned by them This is indeed the constant disposition of all upright-hearted men that they had rather suffer any Indignities Injuries Dammages Calamities themselves then have God's Glory and Honour be eclipsed they are willing that any Crime Shame Falshood should be imputed to them rather then the least Ignominy or Disgrace cast on God that their Names should become odious then God's have the least blemish And the Reasons are 1. Because they esteem themselves as nothing in comparison of God and therefore count it a small matter what Evil befalls them so that God be magnified When Abraham bespeaks God he useth this self-debasing preface Gen. 18.27 Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord who am but dust and ashes And Jacob Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of or as it is in the Hebrew I am less then the least of all the Mercies and of all the Truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant And Job 40.4 Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth Chap. 42.5 6. Now mine eye seeth thee I abhor my self And David 1 Chron. 17.16 Who am I O Lord and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto 1 Chron. 29.14 15. Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort For we are strangers before thee and sojourners as were all our Fathers our days on the earth are as a shadow and there is none abiding On the other side they ascribe all Greatness unto God Moses in his Song Exod. 15.11 Who is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods who is like thee glorious in holiness fearfull in praises doing wonders Deut. 32.3 4. Because I will publish the Name of the Lord ascribe ye Greatness to our God He is the Rock his work is perfect for all his ways are Judgment a God of Truth and without Iniquity Just and Right is He. Psal 145.1 2 3. saith David I will extoll thee my God and my King and I will bless thy Name for ever and ever Every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy Name for ever and ever Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his Greatness is unsearchable The four living Creatures rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come They give glory and honour and thanks to him that sitteth on the Throne who liveth for ever And the four and twenty Elders fall down before him that sate on the Throne who liveth for ever and ever and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4.8 9 10 11. Many more such expressions there are in the Songs of Hannah the blessed Virgin the 14000 Virgins and other Hymns of the Saints in the Old and New Testament which do fully shew that this is the constant disposition of all Holy hearts to nullify all their Excellency when it is compared with God and to extoll the Name of God as infinitely exceeding all created Beings and therefore they conceive it most equall that they should count the Disparagement of God as a more heavy Affliction then their own Sufferings 2. They know that God's Name is most tenderly regarded by him Num. 14.21 the Lord said Truly as I live all the Earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord. Deut. 32.26 27. I said I would scatter them into corners I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men Were it not that I feared the wrath of the Enemy lest their Adversaries should behave themselves strangely and say Our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this Isa 42.8 I am the Lord that is my Name and my Glory will I not give to another neither my Praise to graven Images Isa 48.11 For mine own sake even for mine own sake will I doe it for how should my Name be polluted and I will not give my Glory to another Ezek. 20.9 But I wrought for my Name 's sake that it should not be polluted before the Heathen among whom they were in whose sight I made my self known unto them In the Third Commandment Exod. 20.7 God chargeth Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain And therefore the Godly are sensible of his Glory above their own Peace and more affected with any dirt cast on God's face then any wound given to their own persons 3. They know it is the Duty of all created Beings to prefer their Maker their Father their King and Lord before themselves They know they are engaged to fear this glorious and fearfull Name The Lord their God Deut. 28.58 as the Father that begat them the Rock that formed them Deut. 32.6 15 18. When S. John would have worshipped the Angel he forbade him See thou doe it not for I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren the Prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this Book worship God Rev. 22.9 As David's people counted their King as all good Subjects do worth ten thousand of themselves 2 Sam. 18.3 and all honest Servants count their Master's Wel-fare and Credit far before their own yea his Life before their own so do all Holy persons God's Glory as being their Master their Father their King Croesus his Son that never spake before opened then his mouth and said Kill not King Croesus when a Souldier was about to slay him So will every Child of God be moved when his heavenly Father is blasphemed and his Name stricken through though he be silent when himself is abused Christ bids us pray Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name before he directs us to pray Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our debts The Relation of Creatures Children Subjects and Servants to God oblige every Holy person to mind and seek the sanctifying of God's Name though it be with never so great diminution and detriment to himself 4. And lastly They know that thus doing they shall best provide for themselves When David was little in his own eyes God chose him to be head of his people Israel He knew it to be true which God said to Eli 1 Sam. 2.30 Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed As all Princes of worth will reward their loyal Subjects all good Parents their dutifull Children all wise Masters their obedient Servants so God will doe to all his true-hearted Subjects Children and Servants And this makes them regardless of themselves in comparison of God as knowing that they best provide for themselves when they are careless of their own
by reason of his Sin then his Sufferings that his Groaning and Tears are from the sense of his own Displeasing God more then from the sense of the Pain which God inflicts on him is apparent from the Instances we have of such Penitent persons In David's penitential Complaints it is his Sin that he still complains of Psal 31.10 My life is spent with grief and my years with sighing my strength faileth because of mine Iniquity and my bones are consumed Psal 38.3 4. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my Sins For mine Iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me He saith not his Pain was too heavy a Burthen for him but his Iniquity which is indeed so heavy a Burthen that the Shoulders of Christ himself the Lord of Glory were so pressed with it as to make him cry out My Soul is heavy unto the death and My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Again Psal 40.12 he bemoans his case that innumerable Evils had compassed him about his Iniquities had taken hold upon him so that he was not able to look up they were more then the hairs of his head therefore his heart failed him It was not by reason of the multitude of his Evils but the multitude of his Iniquities that his heart failed him Outward Evils reach but the outward man Sins remembred lie heavy on the Conscience Now as Solomon saith Prov. 18.14 The spirit of a man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Those Philosophers that could endure the greatest Tortures of body inflicted by cruel Tyrants while they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tranquillity of mind within yet could not bear the least Pain when the Conscience of some foul Evil haunted them A great Burthen will be born by a whole Shoulder but the least Burthen pains intolerably when the Bone is broken or it lies on a Sore place A broken spirit drieth up the bones Prov. 17.22 My Sin saith David is ever before me and that brake his Bones Where Sin as it is said of Antipheron Oretanus that his Shadow was always before him is still before a man it haunteth and vexeth him as a Hornet or as the Poets feign of the Furies which the Oratour interprets of a guilty Conscience it still affrights him Lament 1.14 The yoke of my Transgressions is bound by his hand The yoke they felt they term the yoke of their Transgressions intimating that by reason of their Transgressions their Afflictions were as a yoke bound by God's hand and wreathed and came upon their neck And in like manner Isa 64.5 6 7. the afflicted Penitents pour out their Souls before God thus Behold thou art wroth for we have sinned We all do fade as a leaf and our Iniquities as the wind have taken us away Thou hast hid thy face from us and consumed us because of our Iniquities Herein there lies a great difference between the Sufferings of a meer Natural man and one Renewed or Regenerated by the Spirit of God The one complains of his Pain of his hard Fortune his ill Luck he frets and vexeth at his Disappointment his Sighs and Groans are that he is crost and cannot have his will he imputes his Misery to Chance Stars and the like If he weep as Esau it is not for his Profaneness but for his missing the Blessing Heb. 12.16 17. His Crying and Bitterness of spirit is not to God but Isaac Gen. 27.34 with a murtherous mind towards Jacob vers 42. Cain tells God Gen. 4.13 14. My Punishment is greater then I can bear Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid and I shall be a Fugitive and a Vagabond in the earth and it shall come to pass that every one that sindeth me shall flay me Not a word that shewed his Repentance for his devillish act in murthering his Brother It is otherwise with the Penitent S. Peter goes out and weeps bitterly not for his Danger but for his Sin The Regenerate bemoan their sinfull Corruptions not their Sufferings S. Paul that could take pleasure in Afflictions and Reproaches yet groans in his earthly Tabernacle by reason of the Sin that dwelled in him This indeed is the nature of true Repentance it begetteth a Sorrow after God such as produceth Carefulness Self-clearing Indignation Fear vehement Desire Zeal Revenge as they are said to be in the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.11 When they remember their ways and their doings wherein they have been defiled true Repenting persons will not inveigh against others cry out of their Destiny nor censure others or impute their Evils to forrein Causes but take shame to themselves and loath themselves in their own sight for all their Evils that they have committed Ezek. 20.43 And the reason hereof is because it is their Sin which is indeed their Evil. It is that which is simply Evil their Affliction is but Malum secundùm quid Evil in some respect Evil that hath something of Good in it and which tends to some Good not onely to God's Glory and other Warning but also to his own good who is afflicted by humbling and bettering him that is truly Penitent It is good for me that I have been afflicted saith David that I might learn thy Statutes It is Sin that is the cause of all the Misery he feels and therefore that must be more evil then his Misery If a Potion be bitter by reason of Gall and Wormwood the Gall and Wormwood that makes it so must be more bitter Thine own Wickedness shall correct thee and thy Backsliding shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord God of hoasts to the Jews Jerem. 2.19 And indeed this is the onely way for remedy of Afflictions to be sensible of the Sin more then the Sufferings to groan and shed Tears because we have offended God not onely because we have brought Trouble on our selves It is the way to take away the Cause of the Evil and so the Bitterness of the Affliction Death it self were it not for the Sting of Sin could not harm us take away the Conscience of Sin and the weight of our Sufferings will be removed If Sin be forgiven if the Conscience be purged from dead works either God will take away the Rod or the Smart of it Now the onely way to effect that is to be affected with the Sin and to loath it to be weary of it more then the pressure of the Cross If we take any other course though we houl on our Beds though we should be weary with Groaning every night and all the night make our Bed swim and water our Couch with Tears though we should wear Sackcloath cast
Ashes on our heads creep to a Cross whip our selves naked go on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem to weep at Christ's Sepulchre this would make but a palliated Cure our Wound would not be healed at the bottom but it would fester and break out again and gangrene and become mortall And therefore VI. PROPOSITION The Penitent pious person in the sense of his Sin and Misery bemoaneth himself to God confesseth and bewaileth his Sin humbleth himself before him deprecateth his Wrath and earnestly seeketh by Prayer and Supplication for Forgiveness of Sin Healing and Peace from God which is the last Conclusion deduced from the Vocality of David's Weeping vers 8. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping There was a Prayer in David's Tears and that God heard And we may see how effectual this course is by the example of Manasseh King of Judah who did evil in the sight of the Lord like unto the Abominations of the Heathen whom the Lord cast out before the Children of Israel yea he made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to erre and to doe worse then the Heathen And the Lord spake unto Manasseh and to his people but they would not hearken And the Lord brought upon them the Captains of the hoast of the King of Assyria which took Manasseh amongst the thorns and bound him with fetters and carried him to Babylon And when he was in Affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and he was intreated of him and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God 2 Chron. 33.2 9 10 11 12 13. By which Instance we may perceive what is the right course to be taken by any one whom God afflicts for Sin he is to seek the Lord to humble himself greatly and to make his Supplication also how efficacious a way this is to remove the greatest Evils from the greatest Transgressours Nor is this Case of Manasseh a singular Case but such as other passages of Holy Scripture warrant us to make a common Rule of both for Duty and for Success For Duty thus saith Jeremiah Lament 3.39 40 41 42. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again unto the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the Heavens We have transgressed and rebelled and thou hast not pardoned For Success thus speaks Elihu Job 33.27 28. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not He will deliver his Soul from going into the Pit and his life shall see the light For both the Prophet Joel speaks thus 2.12 13. Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn you even unto me with all your heart and with fasting and weeping and with mourning And rend your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. Whence may be gathered 1. That Complaints of our Punishments without Complaint of our Sins are vain and fruitless It was to no purpose for living men to complain of the Evils they felt while they were insensible of the Evils they did for in so doing they justified not God in his Judgments on them nor shewed any hatred of their own evil ways but either were insensible of their Afflictions as from God's hand and so gave him not the Glory of his Avenging act or being sensible hated God as an Enemy dealing unrighteously with them as not deserving it and fretting against the Lord in heart or blaspheming his Name because of their Plagues as those mentioned Revel 16.11 2. That the wisest and most successfull course that any can take in the time of God's Scourge upon them is to search and try their ways that is to find out their Sins which till they be discovered will be like Achan's Theft which caused Israel to fall before the Canaanites For if God set our Sins before him and we do not set them before our selves his Anger will burn us like fire and we know not where to cast water to quench it I confess there are some Errours that we cannot find out Psal 19.12 Who can understand his Errours And for those though we understand them not we may escape Vengeance if we know them in general are sensible that we have a vicious or imperfect Nature ignorant and heedless of what we should know and doe Yet those we should not be ignorant of nor slight them as Peccadillo's Venial sins in their own nature S. Paul doubtless cried out of these even the first motions of Concupiscence without Consent his very Lustings which he hated The Evil he would not doe that he did the Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind as a body of Death which made him wretched and of which he enquires Who shall deliver me from it When David speaks of his Sins as exceeding the hairs of his head doubtless he comprehends his Omissions his imperfect Performances of Duties Praying with distraction Praising God with coldness Hearing without attention of mind giving Alms with self-respect the Mixtures of Evil with what was Good his Vanity of thoughts his Ignorance Incogitancy Excess in words Jests Merriments and thousands of such Failings which though each of them be little yet the Multitude of them made them too heavy a Burthen for him Though Sand be but a small thing yet Heaps of it may sink a Ship So though Sins of Errour be but small yet being many they are to be known at least in the general though we be ignorant of each particular And accordingly David when he had said Who can understand his Errours adds Cleanse thou me from secret Faults These the Penitent must crave Pardon for and therefore take notice that he is guilty of them though he cannot make a particular Confession of them S. Austin often urgeth against the Pelagians that no man in this life is perfect without Sin because Christ teacheth us to pray as for our daily Bread each day so for Forgiveness of Sins each day thereby intimating that in the best who call God Father there are Peccata quotidianae incursationis Sins of daily incursion as Tertullian called them which have need of Pardon and that this must be begg'd of God Pelagian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sinlesness Popish Merit and keeping of the Law Monkish works of Supererogation Quakers imagined Perfection are all proud and arrogant Dotages contrary to Christ and his Gospel We are to charge our selves with Sin in our daily Actions yea to count all our Righteousness as an Unclean thing yet that which we should especially consider should be our open and scandalous Sins as bringing most Dishonour to God and being most pernicious
man's Portion in the next You that give your minds to rise at Court or to be Rich in the City to build fair Houses to fill them with costly Furniture to store them with the most dainty Provision to goe in the bravest Attire and to mind your Ease and Delight bethink your selves how sutable this is with the Divine Contrivance and the Affections of Saints I deny not but an Abraham may be rich and yet blessed a David may be great and yet happy God may and I doubt not doth chuse some though not many Rich and Great in this world to be Heirs of the Kingdom which he hath prepared for them that love him But then it must be so that they love not their Riches nor their Greatness but God that they be as Abraham was ready to leave all for God to obey God in the harshest Commands to wait upon God with Patience for his Help They must have as Moses had a Will resolved to suffer Affliction with God's People rather then to injoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season to esteem the Reproach of Christ greater Riches then the Treasures of Egypt They must be as Christ was not of the World though in the World not from beneath but from above having God's Glory in their Eye Christ's Example as their Loadstone seeking the things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and directing all their Motions and Affections towards Heaven and Heavenly things I press you not to sell all that you have and give to the Poor as Christ did the young man whom he loved nor to sell your Lands as the Primitive Christians did and lay them down at the Apostles feet Yet I must tell you that if you will follow Christ you must in praeparatione Animi in the purpose of your Heart doe these things and more too even hate your own Lives if the Command of God the Glory of God the Kingdom of Christ the Good of God's Church shall require it or stand in competition therewith I do account of the Friers Vows of voluntary Poverty perpetuall Continency and regular Obedience so far from true Sanctity that they are rather mere Snares and like those Services of which God said by the Prophet Quis quaesivit haec de manibus vestris Who hath required these things at your hands they being neither undertaken by God's Command nor having any Promise of his Blessing or Acceptance Those Princes therefore that have laid down their Scepters and thrust themselves into Cloisters have been befooled by superstitious Priests and have found cause of Repentance for that their ill-grounded Devotion But yet this you must doe if you will love God you must not love the World nor the things thereof you must devote all to God relinquish all at his Appointment you must use the World as not abusing it knowing that the Fashion of this World passeth away You must be as Pilgrims on Earth lay up your Treasures in Heaven and have your Heart there seek your Rest with God in Christ and in the mean time walk with God use all for him and be content to be at his Disposing in Life and Death as Abraham was and then you shall sit down with Abraham in the Kingdom of Heaven Which the Lord grant c. Amen LAVS DEO IN AETERNVM THE END A MEDITATION on GOD'S MERCY being the Subject of most of the SERMONS herein contained WHEN we seek after God we consult with his Works but when we study to know what he is we have recourse unto those Notions which are above his Works The Creature helps us to find him out but his Power Infinity and Mercy instruct us to understand him Neither do these Attributes equally acquaint us with him His Power informs us that he is God but his Mercy much more For by his Power he onely conquered that Difficulty which Nature presented him with in her first Principle Nothing but by his Mercy he overcomes Himself It sometimes reverseth the Sentence past against a Nation and so it makes him incurre the imputation of Mutability Sometimes it pulls back the stretched-out Arm and like the Angel that laid hold on Abraham violently detains the execution of his Fury and so it upbraideth him with Impotency It is not then enough to say that it exceeds all his Works unless we adde it is that also whereby he is subdued unto Himself As God who is our utmost Aim having placed himself at the Journey 's end is All Mercy so are the Ways that lead unto him His Ways are Mercy and Truth And as he is onely found by those that seek him so is he onely sought for truly by those that travell in this Way The Mercifull and they onely shall find Mercy The Light communicates its Glory unto that Eye alone which hath a native Light and Splendour to entertain it even so doth God reach out his Mercy unto that Soul which is before made capable by an innate Tenderness and Compassion To forgive and to have Compassion are the peculiar Affects of Mercy If I forgive mine Enemy I have Mercy on my self for to him that forgiveth much also shall be forgiven But if I have Compassion on the Distressed I have pity on my Saviour for 't is him I feed I cloath in the persons of the Hungry and of the Naked God hath given unto men a Nature which inclineth them unto Pity and therefore Cruelty is a Vice of the Will 's begetting Since then Nature hath no Inclination bad enough out of which it may spawn so vile a Brood I will not be at so much pains as to force the Soil that a Weed may grow nor love that Sin which will not be entertained unless I disclaim my Nature God once commanded Sacrifices that he might have Mercy upon Men and yet he was willing to have spared them that if they would have spared one another I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice was his demand of old but now much more for since he hath taken away the Law of Sacrifices it remains that we imploy all our Obedience in the observance of that Law which is left behind which is the Law of Charity God hath abated something of his own Worship that we might have more leisure to perform those Duties which respect one another If we would have God commune with us as once he did with the Jews from his Mercy-seat it will be first required of us that like the Cherubins there placed we carry our Faces one towards another not turning aside from the Distressed nor obliquely glancing upon any as averse from Peace God seems to instruct us by that Fabrick in the Ark that he then makes his Approach to us from his Mercy-seat when we turn face to face that is when we are alike minded one towards another God that he might reconcile his Justice to his Mercy and so save the delinquent Creature became severe to himself so much he loved us that he seemed to