in the world and this some will make a hinderance to duty They will tell you that their conditions are necessitous and that they have time little enough to follow their callings and therefore they hope God will dispense with them though they be not so much in duty as other men Such as these were they who were bidden to that great Supper mentioned by Luke Luke 14.18 to 26. who with one consent began to make excuse One had bought a piece of ground and he must needs go and see it another a yoke of Oxen and he must go and prove them and another married a wife and he could not come Such pretences as these are found in corrupt nature to make callings in the world to be a dispensation to duty to God and that I may take off this mistake I shall lay down these three particulars 1. That God never ordained our particular callings as men to justle out our general callings as we are Christians or that civil duties should justle out Divine duties A wise management of and forecast in your worldly affaires would give you time enough to set about divine duties a holy prudence and providence will redeem time for prayer hearing c. 2. Consider that the way for God to blesse you in your outward callings is to be much imployed in religious duties It is the saying of one that had but two acres of ground and a rich Lords land was by his the poor mans was fruitful and the Lords was barren whereupon the Lord came to him and ask't him the reason Oh Sir sayes he I water my little ground with prayers and teares every morning this is the way to be blessed in the world Psal 34.10 Mat. 6.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 give God his due and he will give you yours Seek ye first the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and then all other things shall be given in unto you 3. Thou sayest thou must follow thy calling and so neglectest thy duty to God consider that for this God may be provoked to blast thy outward imployments without Gods blessing it is in vain to rise up early and to sit down late and to eat the bread of sorrowes Psal 127.2 as the Psalmist speaks God doth many times curse thy outward condition because thou deniest him duties of religious worship 4. And lastly God was angry with Moses for neglecting duty and with the Israelites also though they had more urgent affaires to plead then all you have Moses though he were in a journey and one would have thought that might have been a good excuse for him for the not circumcising of his childe and yet the Lord was so displeased at this neglect of his that he met him in his Inne Exod. 4.24 and had like to have killed him God would not dispense with the neglect of his Ordinance though the necessity of a journey might have pleaded an excuse for Moses So the children of Israel whilest they were in the wildernesse God was angry with them because they neglected this Ordinance of circumcision and yet they might have pleaded for themselves that they were moving from place to place pitching their Tents now here now there and though this pretence may seem very fair Josh 5.5,6 yet God was not pleased with them which may teach us that it is not our worldly imployments nor necessary affaires in the world that can give us a dispensation in the performance of our duty to God 3. Another stratagem of corrupt nature in this point is this Semper incipio vivere That a man will purpose and promise to do duties but not till his present estate and condition is changged when a man shall sit down and say If I were in another condition God should have more duty and service from me then now he hath but in this condition that I am now in I have not time nor opportunity This is a most plausible stratagem whereby your corrupt hearts labour to take you off from duty Suppose thou art a young man and a servant thy heart will suggest unto thee thus but if thou wert then a Master Oh how many houres wouldest thou spend in Gods service thou art a poor man and thou sayest Oh if I were a rich man how liberal would I be Thou art a private man but if thou wert a Magistrate what good wouldest thou do this was Absalom's vain conceit But remember this if thy condition should be changed and thy heart remain unchanged thou wouldst still be the same man though thy condition were altered and to you that have been or may be thus deceived by your deceitfull hearts I would lay down these partilars 1. Know that it is a meer deceit of heart to think that if thy condition were changed thou wouldest be a changed man it appeares to be a deceit upon this ground because if thou art not good in thy present condition thou canst not be good in any condition if thy heart be the same and the reason is it is thy naughty heart which makes thee bad in thy present condition Coelum non animum mutat and if that continues with thee thou wilt be bad in another condition if thou art a bad servant thou wilt be a bad Master and if a bad childe thou wilt be a bad father if thou art not good in a single condition thou wilt not be good in a married estate unlesse thy heart be changed if thy heart be not changed thy lifee will not 2. Consider that every other condition which thou dost so admire and desire after it hath peradventure more snares more incumbrances and inconveniences then the present condition thou complainest of thou art now a young man and thou complainest that thou hast not time to pray what wouldest thou do 1 Cor. 7.34 if thou hadst the charge of a house and family a publick condition hath more distractions and encumbrances then any private condition and therefore do not deceive your selves 4. Another stratagem of corrupt nature to keep a man from duty is by putting a foule vizard upon the beautiful face of religious duties Just as the flesh to provoke a man to sin will smear over sin and make it appear like the beautiful face of grace so the heart on the other side to keep a man from duty will smear over the beautiful face of godlinesse with carnal prejudices even as Judas did disparage that most excellent and memorable act of Mary in that honourable liberality she shewed unto Christ in breaking the boxe of ointment as a profuse and riotous waste Matth. 26.8 So thy corrupt heart will suggest to thee what is zeal for God but rashnesse and indiscretion and what is holinesse but basenesse of minde what is patience not to give injury for injury but a sordid temper and what is walking with God but a Monkish kinde of life what is a consciencious care to sanctify a Sabbath it is
the Ministery of the Word for the good of your souls This is the first use to to those who have found the Ministery of the Word accompanied with the efficacy of the Spirit Vse 2 To those who have the efficacy and operation of the Spirit withheld from the Ministery they attend upon there are seven things I would have such to take notice of 1. That Gods Spirit is a free agent and is not to be tied to an outward Ministery but to be left at liberty to work how when and in what manner he pleases The winde bloweth where it listeth even so is every man which is born of the Spirit John 3.8 By the wind is meant the Spirit There is a Sovereignty and free agency in the Spirit of God to work when he pleases or to withhold working from whom he pleases And therefore the Spirit of God is called a free Spirit Psal 51.12 Vphold me with thy free Spirit and James 1.18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth 2. Consider that God doth not withhold his Spirit from the outward Ministery meerly as an act of his Sovereignty but as an act of his Justice because of your sins whereby you have provoked him You provoke him to withhold the efficacy of his Spirit from his Ordinances by your sins and therefore are you hardened and receive not benefit by them you do some of those injuries to the Spirit as quenching grieving resisting vexing tempting and despising the Spirit which I mentioned before therefore do not think hardly of God but judge your selves Sinne was the cause which made the Lord withdraw his Spirit that it should not strive with the men of the old world it was their disobedience as you finde the Apostle Peter speaking Christ by his Spirit went and preached unto the spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah 1 Pet 3.19.20 their disobedience made God withdraw the efficacy of his Spirit if therefore the Spirit do not work on you think not hardly on God but thank your selves he is provoked unto it Thus God departed from the Israelites because of their sinfull provocations Psalm 81.11,12 But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own wayes The Spirit in Scripture is compared to a Dove now a Dove will alwayes keep in the house where it is bred unlesse the Dove-house be nastily kept The Spirit of God in this may fitly be resembled by a Dove keep your hearts clean and the Spirit will abide with you keep them nasty and the Spirit will soone leave you sin is the cause why the Spirit withdraws it self from the Ordinances and why men are left unto themselves and God doth it as an act of his justice punishing of sin 3. If God do withhold his Spirit from the Ministery of the Word the fault is rather to be imputed to thy self then unto the Word Many like the woman in Seneca complaine the roome is dark when they themselves are blinde and the place wants no light but they want eyes Or to him that preaches the Word usually if men do not profit by the hearing of the word the blame is cast upon the Minister and truly we Ministers have our faults as well as others if we preach not plainly methodically and duly there is a fault in us but yet I say you are rather to blame your selves then either the Word or the Minister thereof If the seed grow not the fault is neither in the hand of the husbandman nor in the influence of the heavens but in the badnesse of the soile That you may know where the fault lies consider 1. If a Minister preaches plainly and impartially and yet thou gettest no good by him the fault is thy own not his It was the Herodians fault not Christs that those persons profited not by Christs preaching for they themselves give this testimony of Christ Matth. 22.16 Master we know that thou art true and teachest the way of God in truth 2. If other men get good by his Ministery and not thou the fault is thine not his If at a feast others are fed thou famisht the fault is in thy stomach not meat 3. In case you have formerly got good by a Minister but now you get none formerly your affections were stirred up your desires were increased your love inflamed but now no such effect the fault is thine own It was the fault of the hearers of John Baptist the fault was not in John's Doctrine that they rejoyced onely for a season this also was the fault of the Galatians that they profited not by Pauls Ministery as before Gal. 4.16 Gal. 4.16 This cometh not from the seed it self but from the badnesse of the ground into which it is cast If thou profitest not by the Word thou hearest thou art to blame thine own naughty heart not the Word or the dispenser thereof 4. Though there is much dignity and excellency to be ascribed to the Word of God nakedly considered yet there is no efficacy in it to convert a soul without the Spirits ' concurrence As it was in the Pool of Bethesda not the water nor stepping into it healed but the Angels moving therein John 5.4 So also not the Word alone nor hearing of it 2 Cor. 3.6 but the Spirit healeth The letter kills but the Spirit gives life saies the Apostle that is the Word without the Spirit it is only the Spirit which can give life The Spirit without the Word will not ordinarily convert and the Word without the Spirit cannot I create the fruit of the lips peace peace Isa 57.19 by the fruit of the lips the Prophet understands a Gospel-Ministery but sayes God I must not create peace by the fruit of the lips it is the working of the Spirit with the Word which makes the Word to become effectual and therefore the Gospel is called the Ministery of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8,9 5. It is a worse judgement to have the Spirit withheld from the Word then to be without the Word and the reason is this because the Spirit can convert a man without the Word but the Word can never convert a man without the Spirit and therefore it is a worse judgement for thee to hear Sermons every day and to have the Spirits concurrent efficacy withheld from those Sermons then if thou shouldest never learn a Sermon in all thy life-time therefore pray unto God that his own Spirit may accompany his own Word and Ordinances to make them effectuall for the good of thy soul 6. The Spirit of God may be for a time withheld from Gods own people that it shall not attend an outward Ministery and this is a very sad judgement it may be withheld from Gods elect in a converting way As the man lay 38. yeers at
flesh is against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and then I call it an irreconcileable contrariety because though enemies may be reconciled yet contraries never In the handling of which point I shall onely demonstrate the truth of it and then conclude with a practical application Demonst 1 And first this contrariety appears by the contrary names given both to the flesh and Spirit in Scripture as here in the Text corruption it is called flesh and grace is called the Spirit corruption is called darknesse but grace is called light Rom. 13.12 Rom. 13 12. It is called a law of death Rom. 8.2 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Tim. 4.12 but grace is called the law of the Spirit of life Rom. 8.2 Corruption is called filthinesse of the flesh 2 Cor. 7.1 but grace is called purity of spirit 1 Tim. 4.12 So that by the these contrary names given both to the flesh and the Spirit the contrariety of both is set out 2. They are both contrary principled and origined for First corruption it is called the work of the devill and For this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil John 3.8 1 John 3.8 but grace is called the work of God Phil. 1.6 Phil. 1.6 Again corruption it is called the lust of the devil John 8.44 John 8.44 but grace is called the fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 Gal. 5.22 so that these proceed from a contrary original That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit John 3.6 3. They have contrary acts and contrary uses the flesh is said to lust against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh they are contrary in their works and hence in Scripture sin it is called a work contrary to God Levit. 26. sin makes a man walk contrary to God but the Spirit drawes a man to walk in the wayes of God sinne is the Dalilah that will never let a man alone but presse him with importunity to yield to the temptations thereof 4. They are contrary in their ends and issues the end of the flesh is to damne the soul but the Spirit its motions and workings are to save the soule We are commanded to abstain from fleshly lusts which warre against the soule and the Apostle tells us That if we live after the flesh we shall die but if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body we shall live Rom. 8.13 The tendency of sin is unto death but of grace unto eternal life And therefore saith the same Apostle The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 Upon these demonstrations it appears the flesh and the Spirit are contrary the one to the other Vse 1 Of instruction If so be these are contrary the one to the other first let us consider the contrariety of the flesh against the Spirit and thence learn these three inclinations 1. Learn to admire the free grace and mercy of God that notwithstanding this contrariety of the flesh against the Spirit in thee yet that this should not stirre up anger and fury in God but rather pity and mercy herein is Gods great love shewed to his people God doth to us as we would do to a man that hath taken poyson we pity such a man but poison in a tode that we hate when God sees sinne in his people tormenting them as poison in the body though they have such sinful natures and so contrary to grace yet this stirres not up fury but favour and pity in God It is a note worth your observation by comparing two Scriptures together Gen. 6.5,6 Compared with Gen. 8.21 Gen. 6.5,6 with Gen. 8.21 In the sixth of Genesis it is said there that the Lord saw that the imaginations of mans heart were evill and only evill and that continually and therefore saith God I will destroy man from the earth there their corrupt nature and the issues and acts of it provoked God to fury but compare that place with Chapt. 8.21 and there you read that God will not any more curse the ground for mans sake because the imagination of his heart is evill from his youth this is a strange reason one would think it should be on the contrary but God doth not bring a curse but annexeth a promise as if he should say though I might destroy man as I did in the flood yet I will not do it though the imagination of his heart be evill and that continually no though his heart be so bad this should teach us to admire the grace of God that notwithstanding the contrariety of our natures unto holinesse yet that this should not stirre up fury but rather pity and mercy in God to us 2. Learn to admire the grace and mercy of God that notwithstanding the contrariety that is in our natures against the Spirit that yet there is an irresistiblenesse in the Spirits working converting grace that the Spirit should conquer a man and break down the strong holds of nature 2 Cor. 10.4 that the Spirit of God should out of these contraries bring other contraries for so the Lord doth commanding light to shine out of darknesse Oh admire the omnipotency of Gods grace 2 Cor. 4.6 that notwithstanding the contrariety of thy nature yet it hath not been able to resist converting grace 3. Admire the grace of God that notwithstanding the contrariety of thy nature yet that there should be in the regenerate either activity or perpetuity of grace that thou doest act grace seeing thou hast a principle of sin in thee Gratia in nobis est flamma in extingui bilis in med â—o mari and that thou hast a perpetuity in the state of grace that this contrariety should never be able either totally or finally to conquer grace admire that this spark of fire should not be drowned by this flood of corruption that this contrariety in thy heart against grace should not destroy grace if thou art once in the state of grace thou art ever so and therefore let this heighten your admiration Adam had perfect grace and yet not perpetuity in it but thou hast imperfect grace and yet thou art established therein that thou shalt not fall Vse 2 Of humiliation and indeed these doctrines about corruption of nature they tend chiefly to debase this proud heart of man that is degenerated and fallen from so glorious an estate Be humble oh man though thou hast a principle of grace yet thou hast something in thee that carries a contrariety to grace thou hast a contrary principle to a gracious principle The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other now here I shall speak not onely to unregenerate men but to the regenerate also and there are these seven
fastened in the joints and intrals of the wall that till you pluck down the wall you cannot root up the the Ivy so it is with us till God pull down this wall of your body the root of your sin cannot be plucked up This was typified under the Levitical Law Lev. 14.41,45 in that house which was infected with a fretting Leprosie all their scraping and pouring out of the dust thereof could not make the house clean and therefore God commanded that the house should be pulled down and be removâ—d The corruption of our natures is like this Leprosy which nothing but the pulling down of the wall of the house would remedy so nothing but the death of the body will perfectly destroy the body of death This leprous house is a type of thy defiled body and the scraping thereof an embleme of thy indeavour to sweep thy heart of sin and yet for all this the house could not be cleansed till it was pulled down neither can the house of thy body be wholly purified and sin quite extirpated untill it be plucked down and laid in the dust I remember a learned Authour Luke 23.40 he makes the impenitent thief on the Crosse an embleme of the sin of our natures when he was nailed to the Crosse and as we say bound hand and foot he had onely one member untied and that was his tongue and with that he falls a reviling on Jesus Christ just so sayes this Authour are our natures when a man lies on his death-bed and cannot stirre hand nor foot even then hath he a nature kindled with fire from hell wherewith he sinnes against God Oh let this greatly humble us in the sight of God 5. Consider that this contrariety in thy nature against grace though it be repugnant to grace yet it is suitable to thy nature Corrupt nature will tempt men to those sins which are most suitable to flesh and blood as the devil when he tempted Christ in the wildernesse being an hungry Command sayes he Matth. 4.3 that these stones be made bread this was a very suitable temptation to Christs condition for he had fasted fourty dayes and fourty nights and was hungry the devil did suit him with a temptation and if the devil do suit temptations to our condition our natures will much more because a mans owne heart knowes what is more suitable to his inclination then the devil doth it is true the devil knowes what a mans inclination is by his actions otherwise he cannot know but our natures are so corrupted that they will propose temptations that are most pleasing to flesh and blood and to those sinnes which either by custome or inclination we are most inclined to And this the Apostle James speakes of as I have formerly noted Jam. 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he sayes that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed It is a metaphor taken from fisher-men who will suit their bait to the fish which they desire to take and will not alwayes fish with the same bait thus it is here thy corrupt nature doth play the fisherman and layes such a bait which is most suitable to every mans inclination therefore on this consideration be humbled that sin is so suitable to thy corrupt nature 6. Be humbled on this ground that thy corrupt nature will carry thee to commit such sinnes which thou didst believe in thy heart thou shouldst never fall into an eminent example hereof we have in Hazael who when he was told by the Prophet Elisha what evil he should do unto the children of Israel That he should set their strong holds on fire and slay their young men with the sword dash their children against the stones and rip up women with childe Oh sayes he is thy servant a dog that he should do these things 2 Kings 8.12 he could not believe it and yet this he did and worse then there the Prophet had told him Here is cause therefore to be humbled there is that evil seminally in thy nature that will provoke to sinne which thou couldst not imagine to be there why else should Christ admonish his Disciples Luke 21.34 to take heed that their hearts were not overcharged with surfetting and drunkennesse and worldly cares Alasâ— what danger was there for poor Disciples to be overtaken with these sins yet Christ knew that there was cause for them to take heed though they were eminent Apostles of Christ yet they had the seed of those evils in their natures It is an observation of Mr. Capel Capel of temptations that a godly man at one time or other before his death shall be tempted either by the devil or his own heart to break every Commandment of the Law and to doubt of every article in the Creed and therefore do not think thou art so well setled in thy judgement that thou shalt never fall into errour and thou which livest holily be not over-confident nor too secure thinking that thou shalt never fall as such a man fell remember thou hast as bad a heart and if God should suffer the devil thy own corrupt nature and an occasion to concurre together thou wouldest fall into as bad a sinne as ever any in the world fell into there is such a contrariety in thy nature against grace that it would carry thee to the most unnatural and grosse sinnes that are in the world Augustine had a good saying when he saw a man fall into sinne Tu hodie ego cras Thou fallest to day and I to morrow if God help me not 7. Consider that this contrariety in thee it is an universal contrariety if there were a contrariety against some grace and not against all it were somewhat excusable or if there were onely a contrariety in some parts not in all it were somewhat tolerable but when this contrariety is universal in every respect how intolerable is this though thou art a godly man not only the wicked but even thou who art a godly man all thy body and all thy soul is defiled it is true there is grace in every part of thy soul so there is sinne too There is ignorance in thy understanding forgetfulnesse in thy memory stubbornnesse in thy will disorder in thy affections hardnesse in thy heart searednesse in thy conscience now it is true though every faculty be infected yet also is every part regenerated too in those that are godly Corruption it is in the soule as the soul is in the body the whole soul is in the whole body and the whole soul is in every part of the body just so it is with original corruption it is whole in every man and it is whole in every part of a man One hath this note that corrupt nature it is more in the soule then the soule is in the body for though the whole soule be in the whole body and every part of it yet it is not in that
Rachel that when she was a dying the Child being born she called its name Benoni the Son of my sorrow but now mark Jaâ—ob would not let it be called by that name the Mother called it by but he called it Benjamin the Sonne of my right hand And Divines give this Reason of it because if Jacob had suffered the Child to have been called by that name every time he had heard it it would have been a means to recall to mind the losse of his Wife who died while she was in labour with him and so have revived his grief and sorrow for it therefore we should not call to mind our afflictions so as to renew our sorrows 6. If you would keep your sorrows within bounds live much in the meditation and contemplation of divine things The reason why you mourn so much for things below is because you meditate no more on things above were your contemplations raised up to the speculation of divine and spirituall things the joy of these would swallow up your sorrow for the losse of any thing here below Adam in innocency did so converse with God that he did not see his own nakedness I have read of the Eagle that she is of a temper and condition contrary to all other Birds whereas all other Birds that fly when they are hurt or in want will cry and make a noyse as the Crane will chatter the Dove will mouâ—ne the Raven will croake all creatures will make a noyse when they are hart or in want but now the Eagle she will flye aloft towards the Sun and there recreate her selfe with its warme beames Oh now beloved that you would be Eagle like to soare up in your meditations heavenward to raise up your thoughts to spirituall and heavenly things and this would greatly allay your sorrowes for the losse of any outward comfort Rule 7 7. Labour to mourne for sin more and then you will mourne for outward afflictions lesse when once the conscience is touched with a penetentiall sorrow for sin it will then cease sorrowing for the losse of worldly comforts Oh Beloved the letting your sorrowes run out upon sin will divert them from any other object because when once the soul is in a veine of weeping for sin it sees and apprehends sin to be so great an evill that no evill in the world is so much a ground of sorrow as that and therefore if you would weep as if you wept not for outward troubles weep more for sin and the corruptions that are in your own hearts I may say of sorrow as it is said of feare in Esay 8.12,13 sayes the Text Feare not their feare neither be afraid but sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himselfe and let him be your feare and let him be your dread They that feare the Lord will not feare men they that have a religious feare will not have a worldly feare so if you have a godly sorrow for sin it will keep you from any immoderate worldly sorrow and therefore I could wish when you finde your sorrowes breaking out for the losse of worldly comforts and things goe crossse with you here below that you would consider that you have greater evils to mourne for and a great deale more cause to let your sorrowes run in sins Channell then for any outward crosse or affliction 8. If you would allay excesse in wordly sorrow ballance your outward wants with your inward and spirituall injoyments and your outward crosses with your inward comforts and see whether the scale of your spirituall comforts doth not exceedingly weigh downe the other and if God make your spirituall mercies to outvy your outward afflictions you have more cause to rejoyce then to mourne This course David tooke in 2 Sam. 25.5 sayes he Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow as if he should have said although I have not an affluence and confluence of all worldly happinesse yet I care not seeing God hath made with mean everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure though things goe amisse without yet all is well within God hath made with me a covenant and that is all my desire and all my salvation so that now if you would with David ballance your outward crosses with your inward comforts Pro. 14.14 you would there see more cause of joy then outwardly of sorrow A good man saith Solomon shall be satisfied from himselfe he hath that within him which will afford him comfort whatsoever his outward condition be You that are dejected with worldly sorrow reason thus with your selves what though my condition be said and I want necessaries for this life and have not a house to put my head in or if I have it is but a poore smoky Cottage yet why should I be troubled seeing I have a house not made with hands eternall in the heavens though I have no habitation here 2 Cor. 5.1 yet Christ is gone before me into heaven to prepare a place for me there What though I am a man of a meane estate and can scarce with all my labour and paines bring the yeare about Joh. 14.2 yet God is my portion and I have an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ what though I am in debt and in continuall danger when I goe abroad to be arrested and imprisoned yet my great debt is paid Christ hath satisfied divine justifice for me and I shall never goe to the Prison of hell to all eternity what though I have no money in my purse to buy bread yet I have a treasure in heaven that shall never be exhausted what though I have scarce cloaths to cover my nakednesse yet I have the long Robe of Christs righteousnesse to cover my sinfull nakednesse and though I have scarce meat and drinke to put in my belly yet I doe feed upon the bread of life the Lord Jesus Christ what though I am reproached and scandalized and defamed in my good name yet my name is written in the booke of life and though I have never a foot of Land here to enjoy yet I am an heire to a Kingdom A Prince in disguize in a forraign Country meets with ill usage but it troubles him not much why because he is heire to a Crowne and knows that when he is in his owne Kingdome he shall have respect enough Beloved let these inward and spirituall enjoyments allay all worldly sorrow considering that if thou doest ballance thy spirituall enjoyments with thy outward wants and thy inward comforts with thy outward losses the former will infinitely preponderate and outweigh the latter 9. Would you keep your sorrowes within bounds then make the most of the mercies you receive and the least of the afflictions you endure it is the property of a sorrowfull spirit to make the
condition then I did continually remember to pray in my Family to read and hear the word of God and frequent the Ordinances of God but now I am grown rich my Family goes without prayer and my worldly occasions interrupts and takes me off from the worship and service of God from reading hearing and praying both in publick and privately in my Family I am now a great deal worse then when I was poor and I have evilly requited the Lord for all his mercies Mens honours change their manners whiles they increase in wealth they decrease in grace The people of God are usually better in a state of affliction then prosperity And thus you shall find that David was a great deal better when he was hunted by Saul like a Patridge upon the Mountains then when he sate upon the Throne Therefore 't is said 2 Chron. 17.3 that Jehosaphat walked in the first wayes of David his Father it seems his last wayes were not so good many men in their last dayes when they come to be aged and wealthy they are then even possessed with their riches and they are in their hearts it may be when they are not in their hands and therefore consider seriously with your selves whether your first dayes in the world were not your best dayes and now your last and richest dayes your worst dayes It is observed of the Children of Israel that they were better under bondage in Egypt then they were in the Land of Canaan where they had all things needfull for then they waxed proud and forgot the Lord therefore Moses gives them such a caution Deut. 8. from verse 7. to 15. 4. Consider this beloved that your wealth and possessions in the world though they may be lawfull and honestly gotten yet they lay you under a greater difficulty of coming to Heaven then other men in Mat. 19.23.24 when Christ told the young man that if he would be perfect he must go sell all that he had and give to the poor he went away sorrowfull for he had great possessions Then said Jesus to his disciples how hardly shall a rich man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And again I say unto you it is easier for a Cammel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God Upon how hard tearms can a rich man hope to go to Heaven some are of opinion that the word here translated Camel properly signifies a Cable Rope and Mr. Perkins is of that judgement too and saies he though a Cable Rope cannot go through a needles eye as it is yet if you untwist it there is a possibility of getting it through So if men do untwist themselves from the world and live with weaned affections from their wealth and possessions this is the way for them to come to heaven Heaven is compared to a stately palace with a narrow Gate the expression shews a great deal of difficulty for rich men to go to Heaven Mark and Luke set it forth with a patheticall emphasis oh how hard c. but saies Christ That which is impossible with man is possible with God The riches of the world are perplexing and alluring vanities and laies you under the greater difficulty of coming to Heaven and it is a hundred to one but they do ensnare and entangle you 5. Consider that you to whom God hath given great possessions in the world are exposed to more distracting and distorting and disquietting cares then poor men are for they have no cause to complain of their poverty if they have but food and rayment because they are free from those cares and troubles that are incident to rich men who would desire silken Stockins if he must have gouty Leggs under them and indeed the Gout is a disease that ordinarily follows rich men or desire a Sattin Doublet or a purple Robe to have a leprous and infirm body under them so it is better for you to be poor as you are then to have riches and so many troubles and crosses and afflictions with them In 1 Tim. 6.9,10 saies the Apostle there they that will be rich fall into temptations and a snare and into many foolish and hurtfull lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction for the love of money is the root of all evill which while some have coveted after they have pierced themselves through with many sorrows Eccles 5.12 The rest of a labouring man is sweet but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep So in Eccles 2.26 God giveth to the sinner travell both in gathering and heaping up of riches he meets with a great deal of sorrow and trouble which a poor man is without therefore riches are compared to thorns you can hardly graspe them with your hand but they will pierce wound you A rich man hath three vultures continually feeding on his heart great care in getting fear in keeping grief in parting and this hinders his quiet It is observable that the same word in the Hebrew that signifies Merchandize signifies trouble to note unto us that those that do entangle themselves in the affairs of the world will meet with a great deal of trouble and anguish and vexation with it 6. Consider that many times your wealth and riches doth stifle and interrupt the success and power and benefit of the word of God upon your souls In Mat. 13.22 it is spoken of the thorny ground that the deceitfulness of riches choaked the word and made it altogether unfruitfull Can a crop of Corn grow in a hedge of thorns no more can the word thrive in a heart filled with worldly cares Beloved it may be these awakening considerations that I have laid before you concerning riches may make some of you go home with a resolution never to be rich or endeavour after a great Estate in the world but do not mistake me and conclude from hence that it is a sin to be rich it is a danger to be rich but not a sin it is a snare and temptation and therefore you should take care both how you get and how you use and imploy your riches 2. Because there is a danger in wealth do not therefore cast away your wealth and spend it idly and wastfully and throw away the blessings of God from you As 't is reported of Crates the Thebane Directions how to procure Gods blessing upon our Estate thereby to preserve and increase them who said of his wealth Ego perdam te ne tu perdas me I le destroy thee least thou shouldst destroy me And this brings me to the 3d particular I promised to handle namely to give you some usefull directions and admonitions how you may do to have Gods blessing upon your Estates and thereby have them both preserved and increased And 1. Season thy possessions with grace get grace to be mingled with thy goods and get the true riches to be mingled with thy worldly wealth and this
Gods and if you use any of them to excess or drunkenness you abuse that which is none of yours this is the first reason drawn from Scripture 2. There are two reasons found in Scripture why you should not abuse the comforts you injoy the one before my Text and the other after it That before my Text is this but this I say Brethren saies the Apostle the time is short it remaineth therefore that whatsoever you use in the world seeing you cannot use them long you should use them well our time is short and therefore do not abuse the comforts you injoy The reason after my Text is because all our comforts are fleeting and fading and running away from us therefore use the world as not abusing of it for the fashion of this world passeth away they pass away with Eagles wings but they come to you with the wings of a Sparrow your comforts do vanish away like smoak Sic transit gloria mundi and therefore it was a custom in Rome when the Pope went by there was an Officer appointed to burn flax before him which put him in mind that all his honour and riches should soon vanish and passe away like the smoak And it was a good meditation that one had standing by a River side saies he the water which I see now runs away and I see it no more so the comforts of this world are like the running River that are still gliding and running away from us seeing therefore we cannot enjoy these comforts long let us use them well without abusing of them Reason 4 4. Another reason why we should not abuse the comforts of thâ—s world is because that men are naturally more apt and bold and venturous to lanch forth into the abuse of lawfull things then in the committing of those things that are unlawfull There are more die by meat then by poyson It was the judgement of a learned man that he thought there were more went to Hell by doing of lawfull things unlawfully then by doing those things that in themselves are meerly sinfull and unlawfull palpable and grosse wickedness is easily checkt and withstood but who suspects lawfull things When a man is eating or drinking who suspects that his Table should be made a snare to him and he that marries a wife little dreams that she should unsofder this conjunction with Jesus Christ and he that buyes and sells and trades in the world little suspects that he is then selling away his soul therefore take heed that you do not abuse lawfull things because men are naturally more apt and prone to abuse lawfull things then to do those things which the very doing of them is sinfull and unlawfull you may lose your selves in saving your comforts licitis perimus omnes Surfet with junkets and sweet meats hath destroyed more then eating what is bitter of taste It is very observable that in Luke 14.18 there were three sorts of people that made their apology why they would not come to the Supper of the great King and none of them did plead any thing that was sinfull as an excuse of their absence but saies one I have bought a piece of ground and I must needs go and see it I pray thee have me excued and another said I have bought five Yoak of Oxen and I â—o to prove them and another said I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come Neither of them did plead a sin for their excuse as that they had cheated their Neighbour of his Land as Ahab did Naboth of his Vineyard or stollen Oxen or used wanton dalliance with Whores and Harlots c. but those things they pleaded as a ground of excuse were in themselves lawfull which doth clearly demonstrate to us that the using of lawfull things abusively is a great sin and therefore it requires our care and circumspection that we do not offend in this particular And thus I have done with the first question why we must not abuse the lawfull comforts of this life Quest 2 When a man may be said to abuse the lawfull comforts of this life We come now to the second and that is to shew you when a man may be said in the use of lawfull comforts to abuse them Answ I shall give it you in these four or five particulars 1. A man may be said to abuse the lawfull comforts of this life when they do use them too affectionately Many men do hug their comforts so close in their Arms that they spoil them as the Ape kills her young by hugging them too hard Beloved did you but gently and moderately use the things of the world the luster and beauty and comforts of them would remain longer with you but by crushing of them and loving them too much you spoil them If riches increase set not your hearts upon them it is a good observation that one hath upon that place Job 38.22 where God challengeth Job saies he hast thou entred into the treasures of Snow or hast thou seen the treasures of the Hail Saies he all the comforts of this world are but like treasures of Snow If you take a handfull of Snow and crush it in your hand it will melt away presently but if you let it lie upon the ground it will continue a pretty while and so it is with the things of this world if you take the comforts of this life in your hands and lay them too near your hearts in affection and love to them they will quickly melt and vanish away from you But if you leave them in their proper place and do not set an inordinate affection upon them they will continue the longer with you If you line a Garment with linnen it doth well but if you line it with pitch or glew that it sticks to the body you spoil both the Garment and the man that wears it so when the world is glewed to your hearts it spoils the comforts of the mercies you enjoy so that this is the first thing wherein a man may be said to use the lawfull comforts of this life abufively when he useth them too affectionately for whatsoever a man loves excessively he makes a God of it the covetous man makes a God of his Gold the ambitious man of his honour c. and this is a great abuse of the Creature to make Gods of them 2. Men abuse lawfull things in their use when they go about the things of the world which in themselves are lawfull too eagerly when men do rise early and go to bed late and eat the bread of carefulness and lie down in sorrow being intent on nothing but the world as those James 4.13 when a man does thus he abuseth the world in the using of it Obj. Obj. But when may a man be said too eagerly to use the things of this world Answ I answer 1. When thy worldly imployments interrupt thee in holy performances then you are too eager in the pursuit of worldly