Canaanites Chariot-horses Josh 11. 6 9 and David Zobah's 2 Sam. 8. 4 so intreat thy Joshuah thy Jesus the Son of David to hough thy carnal affections that as Phaetons Chariot-horses they set not all on fire then delight in God and thou 'lt need less the delights of the world The third Natural action is feeding your belly 1. The 3d Natural action is feeding your belly which is daily work for our tottering tabernacles of clay stand in need to be supported with the staff of daily bread and therefore is our life call'd the life of our hands Isa 57. 10. As our hands are daily yea hourly administring something either to back or belly to support our life Those common actions of feeding and clothing us are steps in our Christian conversation and therefore ought not to be despised but are rather to be regulated and reformed to their supream scope to wit Gods glory 1 Dir. Hence your first Direction is Be sure you eat and drink with an aim at the glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. You must eat for God and drink for God Quicquid agas propter Deum agas do all in reference to God receive not any of Gods blessings with a carnal frame of heart but look upon all your Temporal mercies set before you on the Table with a spiritual eye and improve them with a spiritual heart Good old Isidore wept at his Table crying out I am ashamed that I should feed on corruptible beasts whereas I was created to be a companion of Angels and to feed upon heavenly food with them A worthy Minister of Scotland was said to eat drink and sleep eternal life for in those earthly and natural actions he still kept an heavenly and spiritual heart The main weight of his Meditations was laid upon God the giver of them and his glory Oh could you but eat to his glory and drink to his glory you would not so easily sin in them 2. Dir. The second Direction Feed your self with a God-blessing heart which is the true spiritual heave-offering Numb 15. 19. When your heart is heaved or lifted up to God and in every thing gives thanks saying Oh what charges do you put God to in consuming his corn and his cattel Hos 2. 8 9. As Jacob calls God the God that fed him all his life long Gen. 48. 15. Yet what an unprofitable servant are you and what an undutiful son even such as God complains of Isa 1. 2 I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me You must admire and adore God that is so good and does so good to you who are so evil and do so evil to him cry I am less than the least of all thy mercies Gen. 32. 10. Have high thoughts of God and low of your self the same Jacob that had pleaded his merit with Laban Gen. 31. from 38 to 41 yet here sets a low rate on himself to God 3 Dir. The third Direction Whatever sweetness you find in any creature you feed upon let it lead you to the spring-head of that sweetness do you say Is there so much savour in those derivative gifts there must needs be much more in the original giver Labour to swim up those streams till you reach the spring crying If mercy be so good Oh what is the God of mercy Oh that I may come at him as well as at his mercies and learn to love God for himself as well as for his benefits delighting your self in Gods goodness as well as in that of the creatures Neh. 9.25 4 Dir. The fourth Direction You may not feed your self without fear as those in Jud. 12 1. But first sanctifie it by prayer 1 Tim. 4. 4 5. Look on that bread which is not got in an honest Vocation and sanctified by an holy Invocation to be no wholsome bread but such as may prove diseases to your body and sin to your soul If wicked men say We will neither eat nor drink till we have killed Paul Act. 23. 12 then godly men must say We will neither eat nor drink till we have call'd on God as 1 Sam. 9. 31. Mark 6.41 Act. 27. 35. That God may command his blessing Deut. 28. 8. upon your Table that you have your mercies not only with his leave but also with his love not only from his hand but also from his heart not only out of the Court of Christs general Providence but also out of the Court of special Favour 2ly Feed soberly sobriety will reclaim you from being either unseasonable in time or unreasonable either in matter or measure either in quantity or quality 1. Not unseasonable as to time Eccles 10. 16 not as luxurious Princes that serve their bellies in the morning that golden hour for prayer before they serve their God nor as those in Amos 6. 4 6 that feasted riotously without laying to heart the afflictions of Joseph while Joseph was in the pit alas his brethren pitied him not Gen. 37. 23. 2ly Neither must it be unreasonable either for matter or measure 1. Not for matter or quality as the rich glutton that fared deliciously every day Luk. 16. 19 as purple and silk was his daily clothing so costly delicacies was his daily food but alas it was all his heaven he had as Abraham told him when he was in Hell You must set a knife to your throat that is to your concupiscible appetite which stands more in need of a bridle than a spur as to those things Prov. 23. 2 3 20 and say with David Let me not eat of their dainties Psal 141. 4. And with Daniel refrain from them for fear of a snare Dan. 1. 8. Nor 2ly must it be unreasonable for measure or quantity fulness of bread was Sodoms sin Ezek. 16. 49 her food was fewel for her lasciviousness you may not make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13. ult then is your fulness an excess when it overcharges you Luk. 21. 34 and disenables you for the duties of either your general or particular calling 3ly When you have eaten and are full then bless the Lord your God Deut. 8. 10 when you are as Napthali satisfied with favour and filled with the blessings of the Lord Deut. 33. 23 then give God solemn thanks for all and be not like prophane Esau that sat down to eat and drink and rose up and went his way never reflecting upon himself nor blessing God for his mercies nor like the hog under the apple-tree that gluts himself with the fruit that falls but never looks up to the tree from whence they fall This is not to eat every morsel as dipt in Christs blood and is strain'd through the Covenant to take off the curse inflicted on all creatures for the first sinner The fourth Natural action is clothing your body The fourth Natural action is clothing your body wherein the pride of your heart may deceive you Obad. 3. Therefore take these Directions 1. The
first Direction Ponder the Original of your clothing it was not in the state of innocency for then was there neither parching heat nor pinching cold and nakedness was then no shame but a glorious comeliness shame is the daughter of sin which brought in the first clothing as well as distemperature of air in heat and cold the fruits of the fall Remember that nakedness of the soul brought in the first clothing for the body so that 't is but the badg of mans shame and the token of his rebellion against his Maker it carries along with it a secret confession of his own guilt You may not then be proud of your apparel for that is to be proud of your own shame no man is proud of a plaister on his sore for that demonstrates there is a wound no thief is proud of his fetters for they declare he hath offended the law and that heinously neither must you be of your garments which are the cover of your shame and the sign of your sin 2. The second Direction Take notice that all your clothing are but borrowed things how do you borrow the skin hair and wool of bruit beasts to cover your nakedness withal and what are your silks but the spittle and excrements of a poor worm all as it were the very cast-apparel of unreasonable creatures Man lives on borrowing and that from things that are worse than himself in respect of their nature Therefore you may not be proud of these things that you borrow no creature so beggarly so needy as man is in point of clothing for every creature brings its clothing into the world with it but you were born a naked creature and must borrow all to cover you Ezek. 16. 4. 6 and will you be proud as the Crow in the fable of your borrow'd feathers you may well know that your God doth not cover you for any such end 3. The third Direction instead of proud reflections on your self use holy Soliloquies with your self saying 1. I have a naked soul to cover as well as a naked body and therefore must look out for the wedding garment to wit the righteousness of Christ both imparted and imputed I must put on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13. 14 that I may not be found naked Rev. 16. 15 but that I may be comely to God as well as to man 2ly The putting off your clothing at night should mind you of putting off the old man c. Eph. 4. 22 and of putting off your tabernacle of corruption 2 Pet. 1. 14. 2 Cor. 5.2 3 4. and then must you go down to the bed of the grave there to sleep till the morning of the Resurrection 3ly When you put on your clothing again in the morning it should mind you that you must be rais'd out of the bed of the grave and then corruption shall put on incorruption and mortality shall be swallow'd up of life 1 Cor. 15. 53. 2 Cor. 5. 4. If you have put on the new man the image of God in Christ The second sort of Actions are Civil as your Commerce and trading with others The second sort of Actions are Civil as your commerce and trading with others 1. Direction the first That you may be kept from sinning herein get your heart fraught with the fear of God as Joseph Gen. 42. 18 and Neh. 5.9 15 those good men had a curb upon them to restrain them from wronging others and where this curb is not men will not stick at any sin as Gen. 20. 11. 2 Direct Lay your souls under that command of God in the Old Testament Levit. 25. 14 In buying and selling ye shall not oppress one another And under that in the New 1 Thes 4. 6. Defraud not one another and fall down before the authority of those commands as one that must give an account of all 3 Dir. As you are to observe Gods precepts so must you godly presidents especially that of father Abraham Gen. 23. 15 The land is worth 400 shekels if so then Abraham cannot be cozened here is fair dealing from heathens the seller doth not ask too much nor doth the buyer bid too little only one price is pitch'd upon and paid down and all is done for such bargains be made among Christians 4 Direct Put your self in your Chapmans stead and do to him as you would have him do to you in the like case Mat. 7. 12. Job 16.4 the buyer should put himself in the sellers stead and the seller in the buyers 5 Dir. Get your heart weaned from all immoderate love of the world the love of money is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10 hence comes all cozenage supposing that gain is godliness which is no other than a worshipping of Mammon View but in your Contemplations once a day the joys of Heaven and 't will wean you by degrees from those toys of the earth 6 Direct Esteem highly of honesty and holiness in all actions and that far above wealth or honour 't is indeed wages to itself Ps 19. 11 in keeping them there is great reward But you may say of defrauding as Gen. 27. 12 It will bring a curse and not a blessing The third sort of Actions are Religious The third sort of Actions are Religious which are either private or publick the first of which will discover your state best to you for every man is what he is in private and a truly pious soul will be found in Religious actions as well in the shade as in the Sun he will make conscience of duty as well when no body sees him for he knows he 's always under the all-seeing eye as when any or many see him you must go beyond the hypocrite in the practice of secret duty As 1 In hearty bewailings of your own imperfections 2 In hearty bleeding acknowledgments of your unkindnesses to Christ and to his gracious Spirit 3 In pantings and inquietations of foul after Union and Communion with God 4 In hungrings and longings after spiritual refreshment and transforming of soul in every duty The unsound heart is a stranger to those and to secret addresses to God or at most but slight in them if found in that work at all he is careless in self-examination cursory in meditation saint in heart-watchings and feeble in mortification but nothing at all in loving and walking with God and delighting in him Do you more than he in all these and be but a good Christian in private duties and you cannot be a bad one in publick 1. More particularly concerning Religious Actions And 1. Of Meditation that most necessary and much neglected duty this must be 1 your spiritual ladder as Jacob had his whereon you ascend in divine Contemplations of the excellency of your blessed and bleeding Saviour till your heart be ravished therewithal 2. Meditation must be 2 your spiritual limbeck whereby the choicest and noblest spirit may be extracted Oh how this divine limbeck will cause tears to
calls you 2. Of Conscience what satisfaction you find there both concerning the lawfulness and the expediency of the action 3. Of the word which ought to warrant all our actions as it is the rule of all Righteousness and 4ly of the Spirit which gives its testimony to all the aforesaid the fruits of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth Eph. 5. 9. and witnesses with our spirits that we are in Gods way and in our own duty The voice of Providence alone may deceive you as it might have done David had Abishai's apprehensions prevailed with him as 1 Sam. 26. 8. God hath delivered thine enemy Saul into thine hand this day he would not have David to tempt God any longer by letting slip this so fair an opportunity but holy David had the three other voices to hearken unto as well as that voice of Providence ver 9 10 11 neither the Word would warrant him nor his own spirit nor the spirit of God which last hinder'd Paul and Silas from going into Asia and Bithynia Act. 16. 6 7. 14. In things wherein self may sway it is safest for you to be passive in such cases you will be strongly tempted both by a subtil devil and by a deceitful heart to out-run God both in his Promises and in his Providences as Israel in Numb 14.40 We will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised they must needs go up that very morning for self swayed their hearts that way though the pillar of Providence which was their guide by night and by day did not go before them and though they plead Gods promise yet they did not consider Gods promises are fealed but they are not dated You must wait therefore in such cases of self Gods time your time will be always ready when Gods time is not yet Joh. 7. 6. You would have your water of affliction turned into the wine of consolation at your time but Christ saith to you as he said to his Mother What have I to do with thee woman mine hour is not yet come Joh. 2.4 the day you set down in your Kalendar is not the same that God sets down in his we are all exceeding prone to post-date the divine threatnings and to antidate the divine promises we all put the evil day far from us Amos 6. 3. Ezek. 12. 27. When God comes in his threatnings we think he hath leaden feet and is slow in pace 2 Pet. 3.4 9 but when we expect him to come in his promises then we look upon him as a Roe and as a young hind in the mountains of Bether 5ly Of watching your heart in natural civil and religious actions First in General 1. Concerning your Natural Actions as labouring resting feeding and clothing c. you had need keep your heart with all diligence in respect of these Prov. 4. 23 lest you sin in them for the adversary hath some advantages over gracious spirits in them all as first that being satisfied about the lawfulness of these actions Satan will make you overlook the expediency of them 2ly He may at some time or other cheat you with divine permission for divine approbation And 3ly he may likewise deceive you in putting no just difference 'twixt the use and abuse of your Christian liberty 2. Touching the first of these let Satan tempt you to any gross sin your heart will rise with indignation against such a foul temptation and 't will be a torment to you to be tempted to it yea as much torment to your soul as sawing asunder and being slain with the sword is torment to the body Hebr. 11. 37 to be tempted is there placed betwixt those two kinds of death as if it were equally dolorous with either or both of them so that foul sins do not so much endanger your soul as it is in those lawful actions wherein Satan may more slily and insensibly beguile you out of a lawfulness into an inexpediency 3. Touching the second of them you must learn this distinction from Gods Word that though God permitted polygamy and divorces under the Jewish Poedagogy yet it was only for the hardness of their hearts Mat. 19. 8 But it was not so from the beginning saith Christ that divine dispensation for better an inconvenience than a mischief makes but little for the lawfulness of it neither can it amount to a divine approbation 4. Touching the third of them those actions that be of themselves and in their own nature lawful yet through your corruption they are capable of excess and inordinateness the sly and subtil insinuations of Satan under a pretence of your own Christian liberty in going as far as you may will carry you sometimes a little further than you should Excessive immoderate and inordinate delight is sinful although it be in objects that are not sinful in themselves This in the general concerning all those actions 2ly In particular 1. Of Labour 1. Touching Natural Actions in particular as first of labour whether it be done in the sweat of the brow or of the brain indeed a Ministers labour consists of both you must at least own one of those God made the Leviathan to sport in the Sea but nevery any man to sport on the earth every man must go forth to some work or other till the evening Psal 104. 23 26 there must be either manual or mental labour 2. Take those few directions to manage your heart in your honest employment and labour Direct 1. First beg of God for ability of body in your labour 't was part of the Serpents curse Gen. 3. 14 Vpon thy belly shalt thou go some think that God cut him shorter by the feet because he is ranked among the beasts of the field v. 1 and not among creeping things Have you the use of your limbs for your labour Oh bless God for it especially if you be strong to labour if it be a priviledg in oxen Psal 144. 24 much more in men Dir. 2. Pray that your mind may be suitable to your labour as well as your body when there is unsuitableness 'twixt the mind of man and his employment then the work never comes kindly off nor goes it comfortably end-ways either your chariot-wheels are taken off then you drive heavily or they want Unction and then they make a creaking repining noise much unlike the Chariots of Aminadab or of a willing people as the word signifies 'T is the Lord that qualified Bezaleel that was but a poor Brick-maker in Egypt for working all curious work Exod. 31. 3. And the Husband-mans God doth teach him and instruct him in all his points of Husbandry Isa 28. 26. Direct 3. See that you pursue your worldly employment with an heavenly frame of heart setting God always before you Psal 16. 8 and being in the fear of God all the day long Prov. 23. 17 evermore sending forth spiritual Ejaculations as Nehemiah and David did this is to pray always Eph. 6. 18
as he did to Jacob Gen. 32. 26 c. David literal saith to his Son that invited him to his house Why should we be chargeable to thee my Son 2 Sam. 13.25 But this David-spiritual will not be chargeable wheresoever he comes where he comes to sup with any soul he brings his supper with him Revel 3. 20 and eats but of his own honey-comb and of his own honey Cant. 5. 1. This blessed Guest brings his blessing with him as the Ark did to the house of Obed-Edom 3. When Christ is come into your house to dwell in your heart by faith Ephes 3. 17 be careful to keep his habitation quiet and comfortable to this end you must adjure your corruptions by the roes and by the hinds of the field that they stir not up nor awake your beloved until he please Cant. 2. 7. 'T is pity such a blessed Guest should meet with any disturbance lay Gods charge upon your lusts saying to them as Lot did to the Sodomites Gen. 19. 8 Only unto this Angel of the Lord and this Lord of Angels do nothing of disturbance for therefore came he under the shadow of my roof and as the good old man to the men of Gibeah Judg. 19. 23 Nay I pray you do not so wickedly seeing this man Christ Jesus is come into my house do not this folly to disturb him 4. Be oft admiring that blessed state of Grace which God hath brought you into out of the cursed state of sin and say with Peter at Christs Transfiguration Master 't is good being here let us build tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias not one for himself for he was so pleased with his present condition that he could be content to lye out of doors so he might enjoy the vision of his Masters glory Mat. 17.5 c. Say you with the Hebr. servant I love my Master he shall bore me through the ear and I will stay with him for ever Deut. 15. 16 17. And with David you must resolve to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Psal 23. 6. The purpose of your heart must be to cleave unto the Lord Act. 11. 23. 5. Be oft searching your heart in the sense 1. of the state of sin out of which as Israel out of the house of bondage and out of the Iron furnace Deut. 4. 20. your God your near kinsman the Lord Jesus hath deliver'd you 2. Of the remainders of sin from which you are not cleansed to this day you cannot chide it out of doors as Sarah did Hagar you cannot shake it from off your heart as Paul did the Viper from off his hand 't is as Daniels Beasts whose dominion was taken away but their lives were prolong'd for a time and a season Dan. 7. 12. This will ballast your new-found joy 6. Let your own self-righteousness stink and be abhorred by you when the Righteousness of Christ is brought to clothe you The father brings forth the best Robe for his ragged prodigal Luk. 15. 22. When the first Adam had made himself naked by his sin he sewed fig-leaves together and made himself an apron this was both too thin and too scant a covering but the Lord made a coat of skins of the Sacrifices and clothed them Gen. 3.7 21. alas your own righteousness is but a fig-leaf covering but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no better than dogs-meat or dung in Pauls eye Phil. 3. 8 in comparison of that coat made of the skin of the Lamb of God which is call'd the Righteousness of God and therefore a better righteousness than that which Adam had or that which Angels have a garment or robe that covers the whole sinner from the angry eyes of offended Justice 7. Hunger after a tast and touch of Christ in the purest powerfullest way of revealing himself to you in his Ordinances set your self under no means of Grace without begging of God to speak to your heart with a strong hand as he did to the Prophet Isaiah Isa 8. 11. think it not enough that the Ministry you sit under is a lovely song to you as Ezek. 33. 32. but it must be a lively song also that you may say with David Gods word hath quickened me Psal 119. 50. A divine touch in Gods Ordinances doth quicken us in Gods way Psal 119. 37. You must know that Christ hath many followers and but few touchers when the multitude throng'd him he had yet but one that touch'd him so as to receive healing vertue from him Mat. 9. 20. Luk. 8. 43 44 45 46. 8. Get solid proof of your interest in Christ build not upon sandy foundations such as 1. on general mercy as if he that made you will undoubtedly save you If so then Devils would be saved as well as men for God made both and both are his creatures 2. Nor on good meanings if those would save you then the word of God and the blood of Christ are two superfluous things Nor 3. on an external profession for the house of the foolish builder was for ought we know to the contrary as fair a fabrick to look upon in externals as that of the wise and the main difference lay in the differing foundation Mat. 7. 24 26. The Rock of ages the Lord Jesus was not the foundation of both but loose earth loose notions and principles such as those before mentioned 9. Be not poring and puzling too long about laying your foundation but having once laid Christ alone your foundation go then on to build upon it strato superstruitur God saith to the Children of Israel they must go forward Exod. 14. 15. you must neither stand still nor step backward Non progredi est regredi not to go on is to go back 'T is undoubtedly one of the wiles of Satan and his devices which we are not to be ignorant of to gravel gracious spirits about that foundation-truth of their Election to keep them from making passage and progress in ways of Christianity our Lord himself was thus buffeted in Satans saying to him once and again If thou be the Son of God If this were done to that green tree what can the dry expect Whereas if you can make your calling sure in the witnessings of the Holy Ghost you must take your Election for granted seeing that Election-love is the cause and Vocation-love the effect now the effect is the manifestation of the cause do but make your calling sure and therein you make your Election sure also 2 Pet. 1. 10. 10. Take heed you blot nor blurr not your Evidences for Heaven by any loose and extravagant Actions for suppose you cannot if you be a true Christian lose your Salvation yet may you lose the joy of your Salvation as David did Psal 51. 12. This indeed is the blessing of the Covenant of Grace that though it doth permit a fall yet it always ensures Repentance after the fall notwithstanding you may get such falls as
may break your bones and it may cost you both much pain and much pains before the Lord make you to hear of joy and gladness that the bones which are broken by your fall may rejoice Psal 51. 8. 3. Of the Exercise of Spiritual life 1. Walk close with God in your general and particular calling and be careful that the one do not justle out the other as there is a time for all things so there is a time for both those your general calling must not thrust out your particular that is but a temptation and not a duty neither must your particular calling thrust out your general for that is to love the world more than God and to serve your self altogether and not the Lord Christ at all It was the sin of Cain that he did not divide aright for God the duties of your general calling faithfully performed must sanctifie all the duties of your particular calling 2. Be oft at home communing with your own heart Psal 4. 4. and propounding questions to it such as these 1. Whose am I am I one that belongs to God or do I belong to Satan 2. Whom serve I do I serve Christ or do I serve Sin The blessed Apostle could answer both those questions Act. 27. 23. There stood by me this night the Angel of God whose I am and whom I serve And 3. What am I am I a vessel of wrath or am I a vessel of mercy am I a child of God or am I a child of the devil 4. Where am I Adam where art thou as God said so to Adam so you must say so to your own soul Where art thou soul art thou in the broad way that leads to death and damnation or art thou in the narrow way that leads to life and salvation and if at any time you find your spirit loose and extravagant in broad ways of the world then cry to your self as God to Elijah What dost thou here Elijah 1 King 19. 13. so gird up the loyns of your mind again Luk. 12. 35. 3. Know that your heart will be backward to this communing work Fugitivi sumus acordibus nostris saith Augustine we flee from our own hearts and our own hearts flee as fast and as far from us 'T is pity we should carry hearts about with us in our bosoms for twenty thirty forty or fifty years some more if some less and yet be such strangers to them and they to us account it therefore your great loss that you know your own heart no better that you commune with it no oftner alas we know not our own hearts Am I a dog saith Hazael that I should do so and so 2 King 8. 13. Yet such a dog was he in wickedness when he came to his opportunity you must tremble to be left in the hands of your own counsel as Hezekiah was left to himself to try him not the strength of his grace as Abraham was Gen. 22. 1 but his frailty and proneness to sin and to let him know all that was in his heart 2 Chron. 32. 31. When Satans Temptation hath an opportunity to draw out your corruption then and there is your most eminent danger 4. Seeing your heart will not stand to parley do you bind it to good behaviour and lay Gods charge upon it that it stir not in this parleying work till you have made some work of your work and brought it to some blessed issue know that never did the Sacrifice under the Law stand more in need of binding with cords to the horns of the Altar Psal 118.27 than your loose slippery heart doth with all obligations and all little enough unto holy duties hence is it that self-examination is so hard a duty no sooner are we in it but ere ever we be aware we are out of it again 5. When ye have through grace fixed your heart and are able to say with David My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed Psal 57. 7 which undoubtedly is as hard to fix to good as quick-silver is that hath a principle of motion in it but not of rest then fall upon Consideration-work which is the excellency of a man above the beast then consider and better consider the four questions aforesaid and the tendency of all your ways Ponder the path of thy feet Prov. 4.26 to wit by the weights of the Word of God do you oft poize them Consideration is the stay of our thoughts which are as swift as any ship Consideration is as an Anchor to them God bids his people Consider their ways twice over Hag. 1. 5 7 do it once and again 6. You may know where you are if you seriously and throughly consider the frame of your own spirit the way to hell is a broad way and he that is all for elbow-room and for a wide way to be extravagant in and likes not the strict way of Religion which is so called from its strict binding up our hearts from loosness a religando is a broad way man that says with Jeroboam 't is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem 1 King 12. 28 't is too much for you to be so precise and so strait-laced Let us break those bands asunder and cast away those cords from us Psal 2. 3. Medice vivere est misere vivere to live strictly by a Rule is to live miserably both for soul and body Spiritus Religiosus est spiritus melancholicus Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die Isa 22. 12 14. 1 Cor. 15. 32. 7. You have this exemplified in Noah's Raven and Dove Gen. 8.7 9 11. you may not be as the Raven that was accustom'd to live at large becomes weary of being caged up in the Ark and likes not such strait limits any longer therefore she flutters about the Ark but went not in as not willing to be confined to the ark either for diet or lodging any more but chuses rather to fly abroad and to feed upon the carcases of the drowned 8. You must be like the Dove which did not dislike her consinement nor the diet and lodging of the ark and therefore returns to it as the place of her rest and best repose not finding better repast any where else Thus those are unclean Ravens that are all for fleshly liberty and licentiousness and can feed upon stinking carrion of wickedness but you must be Christs Dove Cant. 2. 14 that can find no rest for the soles of your feet but in him you must with others flock to the windows of the Temple Isa 60. 8. Christ your Noah your Comforter will put forth his hand to take you in and there think his service your wages as well as your work and not your weariness 9. Thus must you be serious in inquiring of your self whose you are and whom you serve yea and what you are as well as where whether in the broad or narrow way If consideration be needful in all our undertakings how
much more in that for Eternity oh be not sleight herein but dwell with your thoughts upon it You know he that rides post through a Country can never draw a distinct Map of that Countrey which requires many pauses for viewing every particular boundary c. So if you ride post with your swift thoughts in your circuit thorough the Isle of Man you cannot take a distinct account of your self in order to those four grand Questions You must walk round about your self and go round that little world as they did about Sion Ps 48. 12 13 that they might tell the towers thereof and mark well her bulwarks yea and consider her palaces c. 10. Then hath your Spiritual consideration a blessed issue when you dwell upon it with your fixed thoughts until Christ appear your chiefest good and sin your chiefest evil David did turn his ways upside down as the Hebrew word chishabli deraki signifies Psal 119. 59. in his own secret thoughts and consideration The Noun of which Verb to wit chesheb signifies opus phrygionicum an embroider'd garment which is the same on both sides they that work them must often turn them first on one side and then on the other Thus David would turn his way every way and must have them both sides alike both that side towards God and that side towards man for the ways of many men have a shining outside towards man and yet their inside is rugged uneven and uncomely towards God Sordet in conspectu judicis quod fulget in conspectu operantis saith the Father but Christ saith better That which is highly esteemed amongst men is an abomination in the sight of God Luk. 16. 15. 11. As you must turn your ways every way and upside down according to the Hebrew reading of that Psal 119. 59. So must you make a Dialogue with your self according to the Greek reading The Septuagint reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I made a dialogue with my self about my own ways I argued this point to an issue whether the ways of God or the ways of sin were better and when I understood that the paths of sin go down to death I turned my feet from the ways of sin to the ways of God Thus must you upon sound consideration and deliberation find out sin to be the way to Gods curse but Christ the way to Gods blessing He is the way Joh. 14. 6. Walk in him Col. 2. 6. 12. When sin appears to you the greatest evil as Christ the greatest good then you cannot let any sin live peaceably in you no nor come peaceably to you be it little or great you must have tenderness of spirit Josiah had a tender heart 2 King 22. 19. 2 Chron. 34. 27. Such as are of tender Constitutions cannot endure the least cold wind to blow upon them therefore they cry shut the casement and bolt the door I shall catch cold thus to a tender heart the least cold air of sin is irksome the door of your heart must be shut against sin the greatest evil yet open for Christ the chiefest good Ezek. 44. 2 3 That door is for the Prince the Prince of life no other guest must enter in 4ly Of your Conversation respecting both others and your self 1. In respect of others both those without and within 1. To those without 1. You must walk wisely to them and honestly with them Col. 4. 5. Neither giving offence carelesly nor taking offence causelesly 1 Cor. 10. 32 Giving no offence to any either Greek or Jew but walking handsomely as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies 1 Thes 4. 12. That by your well-doing you may not only put to silence the ignorance of foolish men stopping their mouths from speaking evil of you 1 Pet. 2. 15. But also by your convincing-life cause them to open their mouths in commending you that all which see you may acknowledg you that you are a seed which the Lord hath blessed Isa 61. 9. 2. You may not be conformed to the corrupt customs and courses of this present evil world Rom. 12. 2 especially those that are set down Rom. 13. 13. Eph. 4. 18 19 20. 1 Pet. 4 3. Plain Jacob can never be comely in the rough garments of prophane Esau but you must be transformed or metamorphos'd as the word signifies by the renewing of your heart and life the old frame must be dissolved and a new one acquired that you may prove by your practice what is good that perfect and acceptable will of God and shew to all men that Ego non sum Ego I am not the same man I was as the Convert did to the Harlot solliciting him again to leudness that all may behold an heart-changing and a life-changing work wrought effectually in you 3. Be careful that the world outstrip you not in any moral action you may not do less than others when your Lord commands you to do more than others Mat. 5 47 as Christ hath done singular things for you in shewing you singular grace and mercy so he both expects and requires singular things from you you must be eminent in good works Tit. 2. 14. and get above others having your feet where other mens heads are The way of the righteous is above to the wise Prov. 15. 24. He goes an higher way to work than the ordinary frame of the world he knows that more than the common stint is required of him he must do that which the world will never do and that is he must walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accurately endeavouring to get up to the very top of godliness as the word in the original signifies Eph. 5. 15. 4. Let your righteousness and innocency be as a breast-plate and brazenwall to you against all reproaches knowing assuredly that there will be a Resurrection of Names as well as of bodies at the last Psal 37. 6 God will bring forth your righteousness as the morning-light though the earth be covered with darkness while night lasts yet the morning drives it away while your life gives your reproaches the lye God will clear up your wronged innocency dirt may stick upon a mud-wall but it will not do so upon Marble 5. Evermore account it better for you to suffer an hundred injuries rather than to offer one the latter will bring guilt on you but the former comfort Had David shed the blood of Nabal c. from which he was prevented by Abigals prudence it would undoubtedly have been greater grief and offence of heart to him as she told him 1 Sam. 25. 31. than all his sorrows and sufferings from bloody Saul Abigail argued thus with him As thou never took revenge heretofore so thou may not now and David blesses God for preventing him v. 32. 6. Beware the society of such persons from which you cannot come off without either guilt or grief and amongst whom you must either countenance sin or contract sin While Peter was warming his hands amongst the enemies
of Christ in the Hall Luk. 22. 55 56 c. alas his heart froze into a stupefaction which melted not till a look of love from the Sun of Righteousness kindly thawed it again v. 61. as the Sun of the Firmament doth when it looks upon a bank of snow Evil company is contagious and sin is more catching than the plague Peter out of curiosity to see the issue of Christs Captivity sat with the servants of Christ-murderers and so tempts Satan to tempt him no doubt but the damosel was set on by the devil to occasion Peters denying Christ 7. Be not too talkative amongst those where providence casts you Consider God hath given you two ears and but one tongue yea and that shut up with a double door the one of flesh and the other of bone to wit your lips and your teeth this should teach you to speak sparingly and to hear twice as much as you speak and when you speak let your speech be favory seasoned with salt of a gracious spirit Col. 4. 6 the salt of grace must preserve your common communication from putrefaction and rottenness leave you the favour of Grace in all companies where you come 2dly Your Conversation to those that are within 1. As you may not be blind in charity so neither must you be rash in censure 't is better to be over credulous than over suspicious and over censorious God puts a charitable construction upon the case of the betrothed Damosel Deut. 22.27 as there was none to save her so there was none to hear her yet 't is taken for granted there that in such a case she cried out therefore she shall not die this shews us that always in doubtful cases we should put on the best construction 2. Be sure you see grace where sin is as well as sin where grace is Keep warm your love to those that truly fear God because of those graces that shine forth in them and take heed of lessening your love to them because of those Infirmities that do attend them 't is pity the worst part should be seen and the best part either not seen or at least not acknowledged the Lord himself would not see iniquity in Jacob nor sorcery in Israel Numb 23. 21. When there was non peccatum flammans no flaming sin at that time among them in his eye and therefore Balaam counselled their enemies to entice them to fornication which would be a flaming God-provoking sin enormities indeed cannot but infirmities may and ought to be covered with a mantle of love God is a good copy to write after 3. Take heed of imitating the greatest favourite heaven in any of his failings you are indeed compassed about with a great cloud of Witnesses in the sacred Scriptures Heb. 12.1 yet know that this cloud like that cloud in the Wilderness hath a black side as well as a bright to wit their infirmities are recorded as well as their graces you may not imitate Joseph in his swearing but you must in his chastity you may not follow Job in his passion and impatiency but you must in his patience and piety and so of the rest The frailties of those eminent Saints are registred in holy writ just as dangerous Rocks are marked out at Sea not to run upon them but to shun them they are penned down as examples of caution but not of imitation You must know that they which follow'd the dark side of the cloud in the Red-sea were Egyptians and were drowned but they that follow'd the bright side of it were Israelites and passed safe not only over the Red-sea but into Canaan 4. Have not the faith of Christ with respect of persons but be careful to love grace in rags as well as in robes Grace may indeed commend Gold but Gold can never commend Grace the lesser must be blest of the greater 't is true that Gold may beautifie the Temple but 't is still the Temple that sanctifies the Gold Persons though never so rich or never so richly arrayed are at the best but silken dust and they may be no better than golden damnation The second part of your Conversation is that which respects your self c. 1. Be not quick-sighted abroad and blind at home this is to be a Benzoma as the Hebrews phrase it to be extravagant or seldom at home as the Harlot Prov. 7. 11. seldom communing with your own heart you must hate sin in others but especially in your self know that your heart is full of Harlotry and if you seek your self too much abroad you will at last find your self but lost at home but if you be much at home as indeed the greatest part of the work of a Christian lies within doors then sin will not dare to haunt your house or heart or however neither sins little or great can then live peaceably within you 2. Be sure you give not place to little sins for they will wear away the tenderness of your Conscience and like little thieves creeping in at the windows they will open the door for great ones little wedges do make way for the greater and so your soul may be cloven asunder thereby every sin be it small or great should be a stranger to you and not an home-dweller in you Thus Davids sin was but a traveller that came only to visit him but not to take up any continuing lodgings with him Thus 't is said in Nathans Parable there came a traveller unto the rich man 2 Sam. 12. 4. It is Christ and not sin that must lye all night between the Spouses breasts Cant. 1. 13 she will have no home-dweller but Christ 3. Live not at random but square your life by the rule of Righteousness to wit the word of God in thought word and deed and account every transgression of that rule to be your sin at night call your faithless heart to a faithful account how oft and how much you have come short of that rule the day past a sensible frame of spirit will easily find out that Gods Commandments are exceeding broad Psal 119. 96 but your obedience is exceeding narrow and that your sins are more in number than the hairs upon your head Psal 40. 12 so innumerable that you cannot reckon them who can tell the errors of his life Psal 19. 12 and if you cannot reckon them sure I am you can never be able to reckon for them that must be the work of your blessed Surety our dear Lord Jesus 4. Let not any one transgression of that divine rule live peaceably in you not so much as a vain thought must take up lodgings in your heart Jer. 4. 14 as water that is sprung into a ship is presently pumpt out again in leaky Vessels for fear of sinking So when any soul-sinking sin springs in upon you which certainly will come faster in than water into a Vessel at Sea then be sure you ply the pump of Prayer and Repentance and never give over pumping
prayer as they have often used yet their hearts are roving all the time about other things God requires the strength of your affections in his service every offering must be made by fire if of a sweet favour to the Lord Levit. 1.9 13 17. yea your self as well as your sacrifice must be salted with fire Mark 6.49 David prayed and cryed with his whole heart Psal 119. 58 145. Sampson bows himself with all his might at the pillars of Dagons Temple Judg. 16. 30. and have not you the strong-holds of sin in you to be pull'd down by prayer You must go to prayer as the Sun in its strength Judg. 5.31 and come to God as a Prince Job 31. 37. the Sun in his might doth disperse clouds that would darken it and a princely spirit to wrestle with God as Jacob hath power with God and prevaileth for the blessing to put off God with cold formal devotion is the epidemical disease of all Christendom 5. Be not regardless about the returns of your prayers nor careless of the event and issue of them be not like those Archers that shoot not at a mark but at rovers at random never observing where their arrows fall Spiritual prayers are the arrows of Gods deliverance 2 King 13. 16 17. Prayer is like the bow of Ionathan 2 Sam. 1.22 it never returns empty If you dare be careless in asking how can you wonder that God is careless in answering 6. Be clothed with Humility while you are in prayer to God he that resists the proud gives grace to the humble In order hereto get the majesty of the great God with whom you have to do therein wrought kindly upon your heart till you know aright your distance not only your natural distance 'twixt God and you as you are a creature but especially your moral distance 'twixt God and you as you are a sinner In the third place I shall add but one Religious Action more to wit 1. the Observation of the Sabbath which yet is instar omnium wherein all religious actions be summarily comprehended You must look upon the Sabbath as the Epitome and Compendium of all Religion having all the priviledges that commend the most substantial precepts in Scripture to us as 1. its frequent mentioning almost in every book of the Bible 2. Gods interest after a special manner in it 't is frequently call'd His Sabbath And 3ly 't is called a special gift and favour of God to his people Exod. 16. 29. Ezek. 20. 12. Neh. 9. 14. 'T is a great favour of God that it is given to you 2. Therefore you must remember to keep it holy Exod. 20. 8. it may be read thus Remember to keep holy a day of rest unto me six days shalt thou labour but a seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God The very Preface Remember which none of the other Commands have instructs you how weighty and necessary this duty is which you are prone to forget 3. That you may keep it holy you must in the first place have an high and holy estimation of it the phrase is He that esteemeth a day and he that regardeth a day Rom. 14. 5 6. You must have an high regard for it and esteem it honourable Isa 58. 13. as the day which the Lord hath made Psal 118. 12. this Christ applys to the day of his Resurrection Mat. 21. 24. How can it but be an honourable day to you which the Lord your God hath sanctified for you 2ly As you must have an holy estimation of it so you must make an holy preparation for it you must prepare to meet your God Amos 4. 12 as the Bride prepares her self to meet her bride-groom how did Ruth wash her self and anoint her and put on her best raiment that she might become amiable and acceptable to Boaz Ruth 3. 3. how much more should you be purified for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords The Jews had a preparation for the Passeover Joh. 19.42 you must make preparation for the Sabbath the want of which may hinder your souls of a Sabbath-blessing as no doubt it has done 3ly You must keep it holy by an holy observation of it in using all holy means and doing all holy duties both private and publick all the whole day 4. Be sure it be a desirable day to you as well as holy and honourable it should be the desire of days You should cry with that good man to it in the morning of the Sabbath Come my bride of days thou art welcome and with David say Oh when shall I come and appear before my God Psal 42.2 where are your pantings and palpitations of heart after an enjoyment of Gods Sabbath You have six days to provide for the worser part and but one for the better how careful are you all the six days for the beast in you Oh be not careless upon that one day for the Angel in you 5. Let not your hold go of any one precious Sabbath without some sweet refreshment to your soul as well as rest to your body 't is said Exod. 31. 17. the Lord rested and was refreshed is it so with you do you find any rest for your wandring thoughts and any refreshing for your feeble spirit account it a very great loss to lose one Sabbath-day without some advantage and growth Oh what a God-blessing heart should you have that God should give you such a day and call upon you also and that often to observe that day and that not for any advantage to himself for your goodness extends not to God Psal 16. 3. though his doth to you but all for your own good This obliges you to be careful and conscientious in the improvement of the day and honouring the Son with his day under the Gospel as they honor'd the Father with