their hearts God will rent the caul â—oâ— â—â— 3. of their hearts consume and destroy them Humility is to acknowledg that all the good things which are in us or done by us are not from any worth or excellency in our selves but meekly from the free-grace and goodness of God And so from the acknowledgment of His Divine Majesty and our own frailty and unworthiness to submit our selves wholly to God to give glory of all those good things in us to Him alone and so truely to fear God to acknowledge and deplore all our sins wants and weaknesses not to desire great things or high places but to contain our selves within our own place and callings not resting on our own endowments but wholly on Gods help not to despise others in comparison of our selves nor hindering them in the performance of their duties but to acknowledge that others are and may be as worthy instruments of Gods glory as our selves and so to give them honour and respect accordingly Not to affect excellency above others but to be content with our place and those gifts which God hath given us and to employ all our gifts and studies and parts to Gods glory and the good of our Neighbours not to murmur against God if we are frustrated of our hope if we are contemned and despised of some but in all things to give unto God the praise of His Wisdom and Justice This is the practice of an humble man Job 22 29. When men are cast down then thou shall say there is a lifting up and God will save the humble person He forgetteth Psal 9. 12. not the cry of the humble He will Psal 10. 17. hear the desire of the humble A mans pride shall bring him low but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit It is Prov. 29. 23. Prov. 16. 19. better to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud God said by Moses to Pharaoh How Exod. 10. 3. long wilt thou refuse to humble thy self before Me When he had so many Plagues and Judgments upon him yet he did not humble himself but his heart and the hearts of his servants were not humbled therefore they were utterly destroy'd and consum'd and sunk like a stone in those mighty waters of the Red-Sea So God brought them low Now these things are written for our 1 Cor. 10. 11. 7. 8. admonition that we should not be proud and stubborn haughty and rebellious c. as they were lest God pour down His vengeance and judgments on us likewise The humble shall see and be glad Psal 34. 2. and consider it their heart shall live that seek God O consider this ye that proudly forget God lest He tear you in pieces and Psal 50. 22. there be none to deliver yet there is hope for all this if thou wilt humble thy self and pray and seek the face of God and turn from thy wicked wayes then 2 Chron. 7. 14. Isai 55. 7. will the Lord hear from heaven and will pardon thy sins and will have mercy upon thee For God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble Humility makes men like to the holy Addition Angels but Pride made those become Devils that were Angels Pride was born in Heaven and as if it had forgotten which way it fell there-hence it can never return thither again Pride is the very beginning and end and cause of all Sin it is the root of all evil and Mistress and Queen of all other vices Other vices do only oppose and fight against those virtues which they are contrary unto as Drunkenness warreth against Sobriety Anger against Patience Wantonness and Whoredom against Chastity c. but Pride lifâ—eth up it self against all virtues and like a general and pestiferous Disease corrupts them all One said well there are four things draw the Chariot of Pride 1. Desire of Dominion 2. Love of ones own praise 3. Contempt of others 4. Disobedience And the wheels of this Chariot are boasting and arrogancy multitude of words and levity The Chariot-driver is the spirit of Pride and all they that are lovers of this present world are carried in this Chariot the horses of this Chariot are unbridled the wheels are very slippery the Chariot-driver very perverse and furious and they that are carried therein very infirm and weak persons Therefore this sin of Pride is to be cut down and grubbed up even at the very roots lest hiddenly and secretly it rising up it grow and increase by our allowing and bearing with it and so become stronger by use and custome much care and watchfulness is required against it Pride overthrew the Tower of Babel confounded our Speech prostrated Goliah hanged Haman slew Nicanor killed Antiochus drowned Pharaoh destroyed Sennacherib made Nebuchadnezar like a beast Herod to be eaten up with worms ruined stately Cities and Palaces and God sets Himself against all proud persons The Heathens could say Nosce teipsum è caelo descendit Know thy self is a saying or an Oracle from Heaven They that know themselves cannot be proud persons for they see so much sinfulness weakness ignorance and infirmities in themselves which kills Self-love that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and makes them even out of conceit with themselves seeing they have nothing but sin in and from themselves Every man of himself is a very Devil having nothing but wickedness in him All the imaginations and thoughts of his heart are only evil continually evil and extreamly evil If Gen. 6. 6â— he hath any good at all in him it is from God He cannot think a good thought as of himself much less speak or do that which is good all our sufficiency is 2 Cor. 3. â— of God Man by the fall of Adam was despoyled of all spiritual and supernatural gifts as faith love righteousness c. so also of all natural gifts as understanding judgment will c. which although they are not taken away yet the uprightness soundness and regularity of them is lost The understanding being filled with darkness and blindness the will with crookedness and perverseness c. yea and all things which belong to the blessed life of the soul are extinguished and lost until by grace of regeneration they are recovered Because Christ restoreth all these things to us therefore they are accounted from another and not from nature and therefore were once taken away Reason was not taken away by the fall but it was exceedingly corrupted and depraved that only foul ruines thereof do now appear The light shined in darkness Joh. 1. 5. and the darkness comprehended it not In the perverted and degenerate nature of man there shine yet some sparks which shew him to be a reasonable creature differing from brutes because he is endued with understanding and yet that light is choaked with great and thick mists of ignorance that it cannot effectually get abroad I might farther
I pray thee c. So do thou as Jacob there did wrestle with God in Prayer and give Him not over until He bless thee So David prays to God to have respect Psal 74. 10. to the Covenant Jeremiah likewise prayeth Do not Jer. 14. 21. abhor us for Thy Names sake Oh remember break not Thy Covenant with us So look to the Covenant and the Promises build upon them hold them fast and be assured that in God's good time though perhaps not in thy desired time all shall be fulfilled And God will either give thee the mercy desired or that which is better for thee Now let us consider the misery of all those who are not in Covenant with God They are without God in the world Eph. 2. 12. and have no hope they have no right to one of the promises wicked creatures subject to many wants and need much assistance from God and yet can have no confidence to go unto God Oh that pitiful speech of Saul I am 1 Sam. 28. 1â— sore distressed for the Philistins make war against me and God is departed from me and answereth me no more c. Yea as they have no comfort from God so God is their enemy a devouring fire unto them everlasting burnings quickly and easily consuming them as stubble yea and all the creatures are at enmity with them because they are at enmity with God All Men Beasts and Devils may hurt them there is no prohibition against them for wicked men have no interest in God by Covenant and so are out of His more especial profection God oftentimes le ts loose the creatures against them go and worry them wound them hurt them be an enemy unto them destroy them Afflictions to those that are not in Covenant with God are as a cup of poison and as a sword for their destruction The bread and meat which they eat may choak them Though they have a civil right before men yet they are usurpers before God of all their Lands and Estates and of all the good things of the world which they have and do enjoy On the other side I might largely speak of the comforts blessedness security and happiness of all those who have a Covenant-interest in God and who can truly say to the Lord O Lord thou art my God Read Job 25. 23. to the end As God is faithful in keeping Covenant with us let us be faithful in keeping Covenant with God In Covenants between men there is usually a league offensive and defensive to defend and help each other Let God's enemies be our enemies as David said Do not I hate them O Lord that Psâ—l 139. 21. hate thee and am not I grieved at those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred I account them mine enemies Let no iniquity cleave unto us neither allow we our selves in any one known Sin Grieve when God's Name is dishonoured His Laws broken His Sabbath prophaned c. Let every thing that bears the Stamp or Name of God be precious to us as His Ordinances Sabbaths Servants c. Stand up in Gods Num. 25. 7. cause like Phinehas and shrink not back Side not with any ungodly speeches courses or practises As God is not ashamed Heb. 11. 6. to make us His people and to be called our God so let not us be afraid or ashamed to make it good upon all occasions Else if we be ashamed of Christ and His words here of us will He be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father Mark 8. 38. with His holy Angels Especially let us take heed we be not a shame to Christ and our Christian profession by ungodly or unsuitable lives We have great cause of admiration that the great and glorious and most holy God would enter into Covenant with us such vile miserable and sinful creatures and so to oblige Himself unto us to do us good As God is ours so all that is in God is ours and for our good He provides Isai 54. 13. 48. 17. for us for Soul and Body He doth instruct and teach us we are all taught of God who alone teaches to profit He helps us to grow in Grace and to hold out against all oppositions He comforts us with the consolations of God which are very sweet and precious He 2 Cor. 1. 4. encourages us in His ways preserves us therein against all the temptations and power of Devils or wicked men He is Josh 23. 6. Psa 84. â—1 a sun and shield to us to direct and protect us He gives us grace and glory no good thing will He with-hold from us None shall ever pluck us out of His Joh. 10. 28. hands He will guide us with His counsel here and at length will bring us safe Psal 73. 24. to His glory That where our blessed Saviour is there we may also be and Joh. 17. 24. that for ever We have also a right to the creatures and to all God's promises and to Heaven God hath confirmed and ratified His Covenant with us 1. By his promise which is a sure word Therefore it is of faith that it might be of Grace to the end the promise Rom. 4. 16. 2 Pet. 1. 19. might be sure c. 2. By His oath God willing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things that is His Word and His Oath in which it was impossible Heb. 6. 17 18. for God to lye we might have strong consolation c. 3. By the death of His Son the blood of Christ For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death Heb. 9. 16. of the Testator By the seals of the Sacraments which is not so much to confirm the promises on God's part but to help our faith to believe them and to rely upon them Q. How may we know if we are in Covenant with God A. 1. By faith Abraham believed God and was reckoned to be in Covenant with God and so he was called Rom. 4. 3. the friend of God But this must be a true lively working faith a faith that shews it self by its good works This Acts 15. 9. faith purifies the heart 2. If we be in Christ and have His Spirit for if any have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. This holy Spirit makes us like unto God and so testifies with our Spirits that we are the Children of God and also that we are partakers of the Covenant After that we believe in Christ we are sealed with Eph. â— 13 14. that holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance c. This is a Divine impression of light and an inexpressible Rev. 2. 17. Joh. 14. 21. assurance that we are the children of God and so in Covenant with Him None knows it but
do Q. But God is said in Scripture frequently for to swear A. God frequently addeth an oath to His promises but seldom to His threatnings which should make us to acknowledge the great good-will of God to men and His bearing with our infirmities He knows our incredulity and aptness to doubt of His promises especially when we are under afflictions and temptations Therefore He vouchsafeth so far to condescend to our infirmities that He joyns the sanctity of an oath to confirm and strengthen us Wherein God Heb. 6. 17 18. willing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things viz. His word and oath in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong consolation c. Q. But sith an oath is an invocation of God by which He is prayed to preâ—erve him that speaks the truth and to punish him that falsifyeth it how can an oath fall on God because there is none that He can wish to be punished by if He deceives A. That desinition of an oath agreeth with the creature and not with the Creator That it may agree with both the Creator and the creature we must define an oath more largely namely an obliging of himself to punishment if wittingly he doth deceive To swear therefore by another is to acknowledge and set him as the knower and revenger of perjury and to oblige himself to bear punishment inflicted by him that is to the loss of soul or body or life or goods or honour if he doth not so intend and mean as he speaks And therefore they that sweat by creatures commit idolatry Men can oblige themselves to bear punishment from men if they keep not their promise but to swear by any except by God cannot be without Idolatry and Sacriledge to the honour of God For they make him by whom they swear the knower of their hearts a witness of their mind and will and a judge and revenger of perjury Therefore it is said Men truly swear â—â—â— 6. by the greater and an oath given for confirmation is to them an end of all strife but when God made promise to Abraham because He could swear by none greater He sware by Himself c. Men have a higher and greater than they who can bring them to punishment whether they will or no however they may deceive men and either by force or fraud escape their judgment Therefore when the truth can be found out no way else then we have recourse to an oath Because men judge by natural consent that he that takes an oath is not so prophane and wicked a wretch of such desperate audaciousness and impudency and so prodigal of his own Salvation that of his own accord he would provoke God to punish and plague him or to think if he lies that he shall escape unpunished But God hath none greater than Himself that is conscious to or a witness 1 Cor. 2. 11. Job 9. 12. of His secret will or able to punish Him if He saith or thinketh otherwise Therefore God swears by Himself that is He obliges Himself and gives Himself this Law that if He deceives and is not found to do that is not seriously to will what He saith He willeth let Him then be accounted and declared by all His creatures to be vain a lier changeable weak or unjust which is not to be God But there is an unutterable zeal in God of His glory for which He created all things Here we may see as the wonderful great and inexpressible compassion of God towards men in respect of our weakness and diffidence to confirm His Divine truth and promises to us by an oath and what a horrid wickedness it is not to believe God when He swears to us For God by His oath layes His glory as it were to pawn unto us obliging Himself voluntarily to suffer the loss of His glory if he doth not perform His promises Therefore in the same sence the Scripture Gen. 22. 16. Isai 45. 23. saith that God sware by Himself By my Self have I sworn saith the Lord c. I have sworn by my Self c. And that God sware by His holiness Psal 89. 39 Once have I sworn by my holiness c. So Hos 4. 2 The Lord hath sworn by his holiness c. And we read also that God sware by his right hand Isai 62. 8. and by the arm of his strength and by Jeâ— 44. 26. his great name And by his soul or his life Isai 49. 18. As I live saith the Lord 22. 24. Ezek. 5. 11. 14. 16 c. His heart is harder than the nether-milstone and a self-condemned person who doth not believe God when He thus swears Hence may we gather how much comfort may accrew to all those pious souls who suffer affliction from their enemies for the testimony of a good Conscience and for bearing witness to the truth If God so solidly and faithfully hath fulfilled whatsoever He spake of His delivering His people from temporal and corporal afflictions how much more from hell and everlasting damnation from which we are redeemed by the blood of His only-begotten Son Now I will only set down what is required in the third Commandment and so close up this discourse though much more might have been written In the third Commandment is required Mat. 6. 9. Psal 111. 9. that we sanctifie God's name as it is holy and reverend and labour by all we can to extol and lift it up that others may be moved by us more to love serve and honour him That we use God's titles and proper names as Jehovah Jesus c. His properties and attributes His works and actions His Word Sacraments Prayer the whole Worship of God with all reverence and circumspection to such uses as they are appointed by God In a word that we have a careful watch to all things that may advance God's glory and use all sincere and diligent behaviour therein And to take heed of swearing falsly superstitiously or prophanely Lest God swear in his wrath that we shall never Heb. 3. 11. enter into his rest Six Corollaries 1. Let us be humbled for all our ungodly and unsavoury words and speeches and for our irreverend use of Gods holy name His attributes word works and of all His holy ordinances that we have not so sanctified Him therein as we ought and as He requires Levit. 10. 3. of us 2. Let us bewail and lament the great dishonour done to God in prophaning of His holy name by the oaths cursings and execrations of others as the Land mourns for them let us mourn also As Lots righteous soul was vexed from day to day as with seeing the wicked deeds of â—â—â— Sodomites so with hearing their 2 Pet. 2. 8. â—ilthy and ungodly speeches Like David also who said my tears have been my meat day and night
by the finger of God whereas Exod. 31. 18. no part of the ceremonial Law was 3. It was written in tables of stone to signifie the perpetuity of it 4. It was before any ceremony of the Law yea before Christ promised for it was instituted in Paradise Gen. 2. 2 3. 5. The ceremonies were as a partition-wall betwixt Jews and Gentiles but God extends this Commandment not only to the Jews but also to strangers Exod. 20. 10. Herein I say the Moral Law which is the ten Commandments is preheminent above the ceremonial or judicial Law 1. Because the Moral Law is a foundation of the other Laws and they are reducible to it 2. The Moral Law was to abide always but not the ceremonial nor judicial 3. This was immediately written by God and commanded to be kept in the Ark which the others were not The ceremonial Law was to continue but until Christ came The judicial Law Gal. 3. 19. was for the Jews political estate for the time being But of the Moral Law it is spoken The Lord came from Sinai with Deut. 33. 2. ten thousand of His Saints from his right hand went a fiery law for them The Service and Ministery of the Angels in promulgating of the Law makes much to the honour of the Law for we never read of a Law enacted by so solemn sacred and august a Senate as the Moral Law was where Jesus Christ accompanied with thousands of Angels was the Speaker and gave these Precepts Acts 7. 53. Heb. 2. 2. Psal 68. 8. By how much the more glory God put upon this Moral perpetual Law the greater is their sin who derogate from it I have read a story of Stesâ—chorus that when in some words he had disparaged Helena's beauty he was stricken with blindness but afterwards when he praised her again he obtained his sight It may be because some men have not set forth the due excellency of this Moral Law God hath taken away their eye-sight not to see the beauty of it but let them begin with holy David to set forth the excellent benefits of it and then they may see the glory perpetuity and morality of it more than ever How careful then should men be that they transgress not this Law which hath so sacred authority It was Christ that appeared to Moses in the bush He is also called the Acts 7. 35. Isai 63. 9. Angel of the Covenant because He made that Covenant of the Law with the people on Mount Sinai And it was no created Angel for thus He beginneth I am Jehovah thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt Well might Paul then speaking of the Moral Law say It is holy just and good Rom. 7. 12. Away then with those prophane opinions and licentious Doctrines of some against the Sabbath-day which is a taking away of one of the Commandments The Sabbath hath its morality and perpetuity from the meer positive Commandment of God Pardon this digression and come we to a more practical discourse The Sanctification of the Sabbath is Description whereby we rest from labours and outward work that man together with his family and beasts may be refreshed that the whole day may be spent in the Worship and Service of God So there are two parts of this 1. Rest from labour Parts of it 2. Sanctification of this Rest To sanctifie the Sabbath is not to make it holy so it is already by God's institution but to separate it from prophane uses and to devote it to the Worship of God We must omit upon this day the works of our outward temporal Vocation which must be done in the six dayes of the week But the proper works of the Sabbath are these three 1. Works of Necessity which are allowed for our bodily sustentation 2. Works of Charity both to man and beasts which can no ways be deferred to another day So our Saviour which of you having an Oxe or an Ass Luk. 14. 5. fall into a pit will not help him out on the Sabbath day 3. But especially of works Piety which are the proper works of the Sabbath as to frequent the publick Assembly to read and hear to meditate and speak of the Word of God sing Psalms receive the Sacrament to exhort and encourage each other to Piety to build up Jude â—0 each other in our most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost c. And to refrain all those things which may hinder divert or distract the mind from the Service of God and everlasting benefit of our Souls such as vain thoughts idle worldly and unsavoury speeches which no ways tend to edification pastimes recreations and such-like which are Isai 58. 13 14. expresly forbidden in the Prophet Isaiah as some well observe which may be explained thus Turn thy foot from the Sabbath that is from spurning at it and this is Paraphrased by not doing our own ways nor finding our own pleasure nor speaking our own words Herein is the negative Sanctification of the Sabbath Affirmatively it consists as the same Prophet farther goes on 1. In calling the Sabbath our delight that is in a real account of it to be such and using it as such both in desiring it before it comes and rejoycing in it when it is come as a good and joyful day 2. In calling it the holy of the Lord that is by faith to apprehend it to be of His holy institution and so set it apart from all other worldly time to sanctifie it 3. In calling it honourable or a glorious day a portion of time honoured with the name of God stamped upon it as the day of days and so accounting and using of it 4. In honouring Jehovah herein by declaring His holiness and goodness in His Sabbath setting forth His praise from morning to night The due sanctifying of the Sabbath is hedged about with many great and precious promises both of the upper and nether springs Judg. 1. 15. heavenly and earthly blessings to keep men close to their obedience why should not these cords of love bind and engage men They who abhor Sabbath-performing in duty drive the Lord from promise-performing in mercy bitterness will be to them in the latter end I have observed that a serious strict and conscientious observation of the Sabbath is the outward greatest character of an upright and gracious person The 92 Psalm entituled a Psalm for the Sabbath-day declareth that it is a good thing to begin the day with Praises to God early in the morning and continue the same until it be night Q. Some will say this strict observation of the Sabbath belonged only to the Jews A. Nay but as the most Reverend Arch Bishop Vsher and others very well say we are bound more strictly to observe these Sabbath-duties than they were and that because of the greater measures of Gods Graces upon us than ever were given unto them Q. But the
expatiate on this but it is not to our present purpose All this is to shew that man hath no cause to be proud If we have any spiritual gifts or graces in us it is wholly from God If thou hast received them why boastest thou as if thou hadst not received them Therefore Humility is a precious vertue and an excellent grace because in acknowledging of mans vileness Gods Highness is exalted We can never be righteous till we be humble nor humble so long as we build on our own righteousness There is no way open for us to Salvation before we have laid away our pride for God will bring down high looks but He will Psal 19. 28. 25. 9. Isa 57. 15. save the humble God will instruct and teach them manifest Himself to them and dwell with them Christ thought it not sufficient to teach humility in words but sets it out in a Parable as in a painted table the image and portraicture of true humility when He brings in the Publican standing afar off not daring to Luke 18. 3. lift up his eyes to heaven but smiting on his breast and praying on this wise God be merciful to me a sinner We may not think these were tokens of feigned modesty that he dared not look up to heaven or come nearer that with smiting his breast he confesseth himself a sinner but they be testimonies of true humility and inward affection Christ was also sent into the world with this commission Isa 61. 1. to bring glad tidings to the poor to heal the broken-hearted to preach liberty to the captives and deliverance to them that are shut up in prison and to comfort them that mourn to give them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness Now all proud persons are diametrically contrary to all these Epithetes or expressions God will never teach them or manifest Himself to them dwell with them or save them They are far from the disposition of Mat. 11. 28. the Publican Christ never came into the world for them He had no commission 9. 12 13. from His Father on their behalf According to His commission He calleth none but them that are weary and heavy-laden with the weight and burden of their sins to be partakers of His bounty and liberality He came not to call the righteous those that are puffed up highly conceited and proud of themselves and their own righteousness but sinners to repentance that is those that see their sins bewail them and are humbled under them labouring under the weight of them and seeing their own inability and insufficiency in the business of Salvation bring their poor sin-sick souls to Christ the great and good Physician to cure them for the whole have no need of a Physician but they that are sick Some few Aphorismes about Humility 1. Nothing makes us more acceptable to God and men than lowliness and humility 2. We are most precious in Gods account when we are most low and vile in our own eyes 3. He that willingly doth not walk humbly here shall never be exalted to glory in heaven 4. This excellent grace of humility makes the mind free from pinching cares here and secure from threatned punishments hereafter 5. Humiliation or humbling is the way to humility even as patience is the way to peace and much reading is the way to knowledge 6. If thou therefore desirest this vertue of humility do not shun or flee from the way of humiliation 7. He that is truly humble lest others should think of him more or better than he is will be seemingly ignorant of that which is in himself 8. When thou seest and findest thy self truly humbled thou hast a sure sign and good argument of grace approaching for God will give grace to the humble 9. Lay the foundation of humility low here which is the way to the height of glory hereafter Job 22. 19. 10. Will thou attain the height and excellency of the highest heavens learn of thy Saviour who was meek and lowly in heart and follow His humility 11. Here behold the honey of humility with the sweetness of meekness for even as honey well agrees with Physical confections for all diversities of Species so all sorts of ventues are seasoned with the sweetness of humility 12. The highest humility is seen in this when in all things we willingly subject and submit our wills to Gods will 13. By humility the members of Christ know how to overcome the pride of the Devil 14. Thou canst never be a good Schollar or prosicient in the School of Christ without humility I conclude all with the word of our Saviour Every one that exaâ—â—th himself Luk. 18. 14. shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted Be cloathed with humility 1 Pet. 5. 5. EXERCITATION THE THIRTEENTH 1 Peter 5. 10. Casting all your care upon God for He careth for you THE Holy Apostle would have us to strive to free our selves from all anxious and thoughtful and distrustful cares of this life So the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à dividendâ distrahendâ mente from dividing and distracting the mind This our Blessed Saviour Mat. â— 25. to the â—nâ— adviseth us against When Christ in the 24th ver said that we cannot serve two masters God and Mammon for this care divideth the heart between God and Mammon Therefore observe the Inference take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on c. The word rendered here Thought is the same in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which else-where is rendered care To note out unto us that Christ would not have us to use any thoughtful distracting or heart-dividing cares about the things of this life And many Arguments and Motives our Saviour useth to disswade us from it As 1. From the fowls of the air which sow not nor reap nor gather into barnes and yet our heavenly Father feedeth them and are not we much better than they 2. Which of us by taking such thought or care can add one cubit to his stature So it is very bootless and unprofitable 3. Consider the Lillies of the field they toil not neither do they spin and yet Solomon in all his glory was not array'd like one of these An argument from the lesser to the greater If God so cloath the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the â—ire shall He not much more cloath us There also our Saviour taxâ—th us that we are of so little faith 4. From the Heathen and Gentiles which have no knowledge of the true God no interest in His promise this is enough for them sollicitously to seek after these things 5. Our heavenly Father knows that we have need of these things and so shall have
man shall set upon thee to hurt thee It is endless to quote all the texts in the Old and New Testament to this purpose I will only add a few Corollaries 1. God will have glory attributed Corollarâ—â—â— to Him not only as He is the Creator and Upholder of Heaven and Earth but also the most High Wise Just and Great Governor and Directer of all things This is against the Figments of the Bpicureans and Pelagians 2. This Doctrine of Providence may confirm and strengthen our hearts against the Blasphemies of the Manichees and Libertines who say that God willeth sin as it is sin Whereas He willeth the act but not the evil of the act c. 3. Against the Opinion of the Stoicks for all things are govern'd by Gods most free and unchangable Decree 4. Therefore He will be acknowledged and praised by us as the Author Fountain and Worker of all good things for nothing in any creature is or can be of good unto us but by Gods Will affectually working in it and by it 5. Seeing all good things are from God Let us not sacrifice to our own â—â—â— 1. 16. nets or burn incense to our own drag that is not resting in creatures or second causes by which we may be benefited but giving all glory and praise to God to acknowledg the creatures are but instruments and ministers in His hand and by His ordering to do good unto us 6. Sith nothing rashly or casually happeneth to us but all things betide us by Gods most Blessed Just and profitable Decree and Good-will towards us Let us effectually be stirred up by knowing and acknowledging hereof to exercise patience in all our adversities As Psal 39. 9. David said I was dumb and opened not my mouth because Thou hast done it Job 1. 21. And Job the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. 7. Let our confidence and comfort be sound firm and established in the Lord who will defend and preserve us in the midst of all enemies and dangers moderating and ordering all evils so that they tend to our good and salvation For we know that all things work Rom. 8. 28. together for good to them that love God 8. By all our past and present afflictions let us be bettered and amended Sith not by chance but by God they are inflicted upon us that we may say Psal 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted c. 9. For future crosses and afflictions seeing they are signs and tokens of Gods anger against sin Let us fear them and strive to avoid them by fleeing and abstaining from sin the cause of them 10. Let us not faint much less despair when we are in dangers troubles or adversities when the outward means of our deliverance fail and the creatures seem to be against us because God is not ty'd to help by them For man lives not by bread alone c. The Mat. 4. 4. 16. 18. gates of Hell shall not prevail c. There 1 Sam. 14. 6. is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few He can deliver either by means or without means or against means 11. Seeing all events are ordered by God and no wholsome counsels can be undertaken without Him neither doth any thing please Him but what we undertake according to His Word Let us not be lifted up in confidence of our own wisdom and power c. but demeaning our selves in the fear of God let us pray that all our actions may be directed by Him and so blessed unto us and that we may never depart from His Will revealed unto us And then confidently wait on Him for sâ—ccess 12. Sith we know as before we said God hath a care of all things especially of mankind and most principally of His own Children whom He peculiarly loveth and careth for so as Christ said the hairs of our head Mat. 10. 31. are all number'd and we are of more value than many Sparrows Let us in doing our duty faithfully in our places rest confidently on the Providence of God Casting all our care on Him for He careth for us EXERCITATION THE FOURTEENTH Rev. 20. 12 15 Verses And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire EXpect not a Logical Analysis of the words and a procedure thereon accordingly that I leave to Divines in their Sermons But according to my use in my former Exercitations to chuse out some heads out of the words read and so meditate and dilate upon them And here we may consider these four heads 1 Death 2 Judgment 3 Hell 4 Heaven Accordingly we shall frame our ensuing discourse 1. Death out of these words And I 1 Death saw the dead c. First there must be death before they could be dead 2. Judgment out of these words 2 Judgment Stand before God c. and they were judged c. 3. This Judgment shall be according to their works They that have done good shall go into life everlasting and 3 Heaven they that have done evil into everlasting 4 Hell fire So it is in the Creed of Holy Athanasius And so also in the Apostles Creed I believe that Christ shall come to judg both the quick and dead I believe the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting So also in the Nicene Creed That is everlasting life for the good in heaven and everlasting life for the wicked in hell in those never Mark 9. 44. dying flames where the worm dyeth not and the fire never goeth out First to speak of Death Death is the 1 Death fruit of Sin Sin brings shame misery and death 1. Sin brings shame for before the fall our first Parents were both naked Gen. 2. 25. and were not ashamed But since the fall sin causeth shame in all men and women except those who are come to that height of impudence that they are past shame of whom the Prophet speaks Were they ashamed when they had Jer. 6. 15. committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush Therefore said the Apostle What Rom. 6. 21. fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed c 2. Sin brings all sorts of miseries calamities losses c. I have wounded them Jer. 30. 14 15. with the wounds of an enemy with the chastisement of a cruel one for the multitude of thine iniquities because thy sins were increased I have done these things unto thee 3. Sin brings death the end of these Rom. 6. 21. things is death So we see that sin guiltiness and