him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 26.18 To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Heb. 8.12 I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Luke 24.47 That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name to all Nations 2. Promises of Salvation from Hell and possession of Heaven John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life v. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned v. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life 1 John 5.11 12. And this is the record that God hath given us eternal life and this is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life Acts 26.18 before cited 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners Heb. 7.25 He is able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him Heb. 5.9 And being made perfect he became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved John 10.9 By me if any man enter in he shall be saved John 10.27 28. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I will give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish Rom. 5.9 10. Being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life See Luke 18 30. John 4.14 6.27 40 47. 12.50 Rom. 6.22 Gal. 6.8 1 Tim. 1.16 3. Promises of Reconciliation Adoption and acceptance with God through Christ 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses to them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now then we are Ambassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Rom. 5.1 2 10. Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son 2 Cor. 6.16 17 18. I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people I will receive you and be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit John 1.12 As many as received him to them give he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flâ—sh nor of the will of man but of God Acts 10.35 In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Ephes 1 6 He hath made us accepted in the Beloved Ephes 2.14 16. Col. 1.20 John 16.27 The Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and believed that I came out from God 4. Promises of renewed Pardon of sins after conversion 1 John 2.12 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world Matth. 6.14 Forgive us our trespasses For if we forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will forgive you James 5.15 If he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him Matth. 12.31 I say unto you All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Spirit Psal 103.3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 5. Promises of the Spirit of Sanctification to Believers and of divine assistances of grace Luke 11.13 How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him John 7.37 38 39. If any man thirst let him come to me and drink He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him shall receive John 4.10 14. If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living waters Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes Ezek. 11.19 And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you Acts 2.38 39 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Gal. 4.6 And because you are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Prov. 1.23 Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intecerssion for us with groanings which cannot be uttered 6. Promises of Gods giving his grace to all that truly desire and seek it Matth. 5 6. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no mony come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without mony and without price Hearken diligently to me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness Encline
it your Faith Repentance Prayer c. in and for its own office and part and do not foolishly blaspheme Christ by ascribing the part and office of your duty unto him and his office under pretence of giving him the honour of them It is Christs office and honour to be a sacrifice for sin and a propitiation for us and a perfect Saviour and Intercessor and to give us the Spirit by which we believe repent pray obey hope love c. But not to be a penitent believing sinner nor to accept of an offered Saviour nor to be a consenting Covenanter with God the Father Son and Holy Spirit nor to be washed from sin in his blood reconciled adopted nor to pray for pardon in the name of another nor to trust upon a Saviour nor to be a Disciple a Subject a Member of a Saviour c. Nor yet that his blood or merits or righteousness should be to you instead of these No these are to be done by you Direct 8. In this case also take heed of those ignorant guides who know not the errours of fancy melancholy or disturbed passions from the proper works of the Spirit of God For they wrong the Spirit when they ascribe mens sinful weaknesses to him And they greatly wrong the troubled sinner many waies 1. They puff up men with conceits that they are under some great and excellent workings of the Spirit when they are the works of Satan and their own infirmity or sin 2. They teach them hereby to magnifie and cherish those distempers and passions and thoughts which they should resist and lament and cast away 3. And they set them in an Enthusiastick or truly Fanatical way of Religion to look for Revelations or live still upon their own fancies and passions and distempers and Satans temptations conceiting that they live upon the incomes of God and are actuated in all this by the Holy Ghost And of what mischievous importance and consequence all this is and how much hurt such zealous ignorance doth both in the Teachers and the people the thing it self doth plainly shew and the sad experience of this age doth shew it more plainly in Ranters Quakers and other true Fanaticks and in many women and other weak persons of better principles than theirs And it is an unsafe course which many such weak persons use to think in their troubles that every text of Scripture which cometh into their mind or every conceit of their own is a special suggestion of the Spirit of God You shall ordinarily hear them say Such a text was brought to me or was set upon my heart and such a thing was set upon my mind when two to one it was no otherwise brought unto them nor set upon them than any other ordinary thoughts are and had no special or extraordinary operation of God in it at all Though it is certain that every good thought which cometh into our minds is some effect of the working of Gods Spirit as every good word and every good work is and it is certain that sometimes Gods Spirit doth guide and comfort Christians as a remembrancer by bringing informing and comforting texts and doctrines to their remembrance yet it is a dangerous thing to think that all such suggestions or thoughts are from some special or extraordinary work of the Spirit or that every text that cometh into our minds is brought thither by the Spirit of God at all The reasons are these 1. Satan can bring a text or truth to our remembrance for his own ends as he did to Christ Matth. 4. in his temptations 2. Our own passions or running thoughts may light upon some text or truth accidentally as they do on other things which so come in 3. When the Spirit doth in an ordinary way help us in remembring or meditating on any text or holy doctrine he doth it according to our capacity and disposition and not in the way of infallible inspiration and therefore there is much of our weakness and errour usually mixt with the Spirits help in the product As when you hold the hand of a child in writing you write not so well by his hand as by your own alone but your skill and his weakness and unskilfulness do both appear in the letters which are made so is it in the ordinary assistance of the Spirit in our studies meditations prayers c. otherwise all that we do would be perfect in which we have the Spirits help which Scripture and all Christians experience do contradict 4. And to ascribe that to the Spirit which is not at all his work or that which is partly our own work so far as it is our own and savoureth of our weaknesses and errour is a heinous injury to the Spirit 5. And it tosseth such mistaken Christians up and down in uncertainties while they think all such thoughts are the suggestions of the Spirit they meet with many contrary thoughts and so are carryed like the waves of the Sea sometimes up and sometimes down and they have sometimes a humbling terrible text and the next day perhaps a comforting text cometh into their minds and so are between terrours and comforts distracted by their own fantasies and think it is all done by the Spirit of God 6. And it is a perverse abusing of the holy Scripture to make such remembrances the Rule of your application of it to your selves that text which you remember had the same sense before you remembred it and your spiritual state was the same before If that text agree with your state and either the terrour or the comfort of it belong to you this must be proved by solid reason drawn from the true meaning of the text and the true state of your souls and not supposed meerly because it cometh into your thoughts or because it is set upon your hearts Do you think that your remembring it will prove that it specially belongs to you Do not many comfortable texts come into the minds of Hypocrites who are unfit for comfort And many terrible texts come into the minds of humble souls that have right to comfort and should not be more terrified You may as well think that your money or estate is another mans because he thinketh on it Or that another mans dangers and miseries are yours because you think of them Or that you are either Kings or Lords or beggars or thieves or whatever cometh into your minds Or that another mans Leases or Deeds by which he holdeth his Lands are all yours because they are put into your hands to read 7. And if you go this way to work you are in danger to be carryed into many other errours and sins and think that all is of the Spirit of God because you feel it set upon your hearts And so you will feign the sanctifying Spirit to be the author of sin and the lying Spirit shall be honoured and called by his name Mark well these following texts of Scripture 2 Thes 2.1 2
abroad the world And then how the Roman Empire was brought in and subdued to Christ and Crowns and Scepters resigned to him and all this according to his own prediction that when he was lifted up he would draw all men to him and according to the predictions of his Prophets But that which I would especially open is the POWER which is manifested in the work of the Spirit on the souls of men both then and to this day Hitherto what I have mentioned belonging to the Scripture it self it is to be taken as part of our Religion objectively considered But that which followeth is the effect of that even our Religion subjectively considered To observe how God maketh men Believers and by believing sanctifieth their hearts and lives is a great motive to further our own believing Consider the work 1. As it is in it self 2. As it is opposed by all its enemies and you may see that it is the work of God 1. As the Goodness so also the Greatness of it is Gods own Image It is the raising up of our stupid faculties to be lively and active to those holy uses to which they were become as dead by sin To cause in an unlearned person a firmer and more distinct belief of the unseen world than the most learned Philosophers can attain to by all their natural contemplations To bring up a soul to place its happiness on things so high and far from sense To cause him who naturally is imprisoned in selfishness to deny himself and devote himself entirely to God to love him to trust him and to live to him To raise an earthly mind to Heaven that our business and hope may be daily there To overcome our pride and sensuality and bring our senses in subjection unto reason and to keep a holy government in our thoughts and over our passions words and deeds And to live in continual preparation for death as the only time of our true felicity And to suffer any loss or pain for the safe accomplishment of this All this is the work of the POWER of God 2. Which will the more appear when we consider what is done against it within us and without us what privative and positive averseness we have to it till God do send down that Life and Light and Love into our souls which is indeed his Image How violently our fleshly sense and appetite strive against the restraints of God and would hurry us contrary to the motions of grace How importunately Satan joyneth with his suggestions What baits the world doth still set before us to divert us and pervert us And how many instruments of its flattery or its cruelty are still at work to stop us or to turn us back to invite our affections down to Earth and ensnare them to some deluding vainty or to distract us in our heavenly design and to aâ—right or discourage us from the holy way And if we think this an easie work because it is also reasonable do but observe how hardly it goeth on till the POWER of God by grace accomplish it what a deal of pains may the best and wisest Parents take with a graceless child and all in vain what labours the worthiest Ministers lose on graceless people and how blind and dead and senseless a thing the graceless heart is to any thing that is holy even when reason it self cannot gainsay it And God is pleased oft-times to weary out Parents and Masters and Ministers with such unteachable and stony hearts to make them know what naturally they are themselves to bring them to the more lively acknowledgement of the POWER which is necessary to renew and save a soul But having spoken at large of this in the formentioned Treatise I shall take up with these brief intimations 19. And the preservation of that Grace in the soul which is once given us is also an effect of the POWER of God Our strength is in the Lord and in the power of his might Eph. 6.10 It is our Lord himself who is the Lord of life and whose Priesthood was made after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 who giveth us the Spirit of Power and of Love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 or of received wisdom for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sound understanding received by instruction And this text expresseth the three parts of Gods Image in the new Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as Power is given us with Love and Wisdom so Power with Love and Wisdom do give it us and Power also must preserve it 1 Pet. 1.5 We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 2 Tim. 1.8 According to the power of God who hath saved us The Gospel is the Power of God that is the instrument of his Power to our salvation Rom. 1.16 So 1 Cor. 1.18 To us that are saved it is the power of God because Christ whom it revealeth is the power and wisdom of God v. 24. And thus our faith standeth in the power of God 1 Cor. 2.5 2 Cor. 6.7 And the Kingdom of God in us doth consist in power 1 Cor. 4.20 The mind of man is very mutable and he that is possessed once with the desires of things spiritual and eternal would quickly lose those desires and turn to present things again which are still before him while higher things are beyond our sense if the Power and Activity of the divine life did not preserve the spark which is kindled in us Though the doctrine of Perseverance be controverted in the Christian Church yet experience assureth us of that which all parties are agreed in Some hold that all true Christians persevere and some hold that all confirmed Christians persevere that is those who come to a strong degree of grace but those that think otherwise do yet all grant that if any fall away it is comparatively but a very few of those who are sincere When none would persevere if Omnipotency did not preserve them 20. Lastly The POWER of God also doth consequently own the Christian Religion by the Preservation of the Church in this malicious and opposing world as well as by the preservation of grace in the soul which will be the more apparent if you observe 1. That the number of true Christians is still very small in comparison of the wicked 2. That all wicked men are naturally by the corruption of nature their enemies because the precepts and practice of Christianity are utterly against their carnal minds and interests 3. That the doctrine and practice of Christianity is still galling them and exciting and sublimating this enmity into rage And God doth by persecutions ordinarily tell us to our smart that all this is true 4. That all carnal men are exceeding hardly moved from their own way 5. That the Government of the Earth is commonly in their hand because of their numbers and their wealth For it is commonly the rich that rule and the rich are usually bad
service and business of their lives They will not be Prodigals of that which they may serve God by and they will not be over desirous of that which may be a bait to Pride and a snare to their souls though it gratifie the fleshly fancy They will seek it as if they sought it not and possess it as if they possest it not remembring how vain a thing man is and how little his thoughts or breath can do to make us happy God is so great in a Believers eye and man and worldly vanity is so small that a lowly mind can scarce have room and time to regard the honour which is the proud mans portion because he is taken up with honouring his God and esteeming the honour which consisteth in his approbation Therefore it is tolerable to him to be made of no reputation to be laden with reproaches to be spit upon and buffeted to be made as the scorn and offâ—scouring of the world and to have his name cast out as an evil doer so he be not an evil doer indeed 1 Cor. 4.13 Luke 6.22 Whatever you think of him or whatever you say of him he knoweth that it is little of his concernment your favour is not his felicity nor are you the Judge whose sentence must finally decide his cause He humbleth himself and therefore can endure to be humbled by others He chuseth the lowest place himself and therefore can endure to be low 1 Cor. 4.3 4 5. Luke 14.11 18.14 14.10 3. The high-minded are ashamed to be thought to come of a low descent or that their Parents or Ancestors were poor And if their Ancestors were rich and great that little honour doth help to elevate their minds because they want that personal worth which is honourable indeed they are fain to adorn themselves with these borrowed feathers But the lowly know that if Riches prove such a hinderance of salvation and so few of the rich proportionably are saved as Christ hath told us it can be no great honour to be the off-spring of the rich It is a sad kind of boast to say my Ancestors are liker to be in Hell than yours or if any of them be in Heaven they came thither as a Camel through a needles eye We know we are all of the common earth and there our flesh will all be levelled and our noblest blood will turn to the common putrefaction We are all the seed of sinful Adam our Father was an Amorite and our Mother an Hittite Ezek. 16.3 And good men have used humbly to lament their forefathers pride and wickedness instead of boasting of their worldly wealth as you may read Neh. 9.16 39. Dan. 9. 4. The high-minded are ashamed to be thought poor themselves Because wealth is the Idol which they most honour they think that it will most honour them Because they see that most men admire and honour it in the world therefore they being of the world do judge as the world and confirm themselves to its opinion Even the poor that is proud is ashamed of his poverty and would be fain accounted rich But the lowly are not ashamed to say with Peter Acts 3.6 Silver and gold have I none while they have better riches to rejoyce in They are glad when with Paul they can say We are poor but making many rich 2 Cor. 6.10 They will not deny or cast away any riches which God doth lend them because as his Stewards they must be accountable for them to their Lord. But they take it to be no shame to be liker Christ than Croesus or liker his Apostles than the Prelates and Cardinals of Rome or to be of those poor that are poor in spirit who are rich in faith and heirs of Heaven James 2.5 Matth. 5.3 Nor is it any desirable honour to have our salvation so much hindered and hazarded as the rich have God and Angels and wise men do think never the worse of a good man for being poor 5. The high-minded are therefore usually addicted to some excess in ornaments and apparel because they would be taken to be rich and comely unless when their Pride worketh some other way Yea if they be never so mean and poor they would seem by their clothing to be somewhat richer than they are or would be rich in hypocrisie or outward appearance except it hinder their relief They that wear soft clothing were wont to dwell in the houses of Kings Matth. 11.8 but now they dwell in the houses of most Citizens Tradesmen Husbandmen yea of Ministers themselves wives children and servants are commonly sick at once of this disease And though it be one of the lowest and foolishest games which Pride hath to play yet women and children and light-headed youths do make up the greater number for this vanity while the pride of the graver wiser sort doth turn it self to greater things But the lowly who are not ashamed to be poor are not ashamed of poor apparel Though they are not for uncleanliness nor for an affected singularity for ostentation of humility yet they had rather go below their rank than above it as taking Pride to be a greater shame and hurt than poverty If their clothing be convenient to their health and use and not offensive to others it sufficeth them and a patch or a rent or a garment that is old will not make them blush they have learnt 1 Pet. 3.3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward of plating the hair or of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel but the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price 6. The high-minded have high thoughts of worldly pomp and wealth and greatness and think of such as excel in these with great esteem and reverence They bow to the man that hath the gold Ring and the gay apparel while they slight the bâ—st and wisest that are poor They bless the Covetous whom the Lord abhorreth Psal 10.3 And they think if they be poor and low themselves how brave a thing is it to be high and rich And had far rather be rich than gracious and be higher in the world than to have a lowly mind But the humble have learnt of Christ to be meek and lowly Matth. 11.29 and are still learning it of him more and more They had rather have Pauls heart that counted all things as loss and dung for Christ and learned to abound and to suffer want and in every state to be content than to be lifted up with worldly vanity They know that it is better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoils with the proud Prov. 16.19 And as the brother of low degree being sanctified Believer that can use all for God must rejoyce when he is exalted so must the brother of high degree when he is made low Jam. 1.9 10. They pitty a
are guilty of more disorders tautologies unmeet expressions and manifold defects than any that I ever yet heard from those Ministers that pray either by habit or book Direct 9. Take heed both of carelesness and curiosity in the worshipping of God Avoid carelesness because it is prophaneness and contempt Therefore watch against idleness of mind and wandering thoughts and remember how great a work it is to speak to God or to hear from him about your everlasting state And yet curiosity is a heinous sin When men are so nice that unless there be quaint phrases and fine cadencies and jingles or at least a very laudable style they nauseate all and are weary of hearing a homely style or common things when every unmeet expression or tautology of the speaker doth turn their stomachs against the wholesomest food This curiosity cometh from a weak and an unhealthful state of soul Direct 10. Lastly Let your eye of Faith be all the while upon the heavenly Host or Church triumphant I remember how they worship God with what wisdom and purity and fervour of Love and sacred pleasure and with what unity and peace and concord And let your Worship be as much composed to the imitation of them as is agreeable to the likeness of our condition unto theirs There is no hypocrisie dulness darkness errours self-conceitedness pride division section or uncharitable contention Oh how they burn in Love to God and how sweet that Love is to themselves and how those souls work up in heavenly Joyes to the face of God in all his praises Labour as it were to joyn your selves by faith with them and as far as standeth with your different case to imitate them They are more imitable and amiable than the purest Churches upon earth Their love and blessed concord is more lovely than our uncharitable animosities and odious factions and divisions are And remember also the time when you must meet all those upright souls in Heaven whose manner of Worship you vilified and spake reproachfully of on earth and from whose communion you turned away And only consider how far they should be disowned who must be dear to Christ and you for ever The open disowning and avoiding the ungodly and scandalous is a great duty in due season when it is regularly done and is necessary to cast shame on sin and sinners and to vindicate the honour of Christianity before the world But otherwise it is but made an instrument of pernicious pride and of divisions in the Church and of hindering the successes of the Gospel of Christ CHAP. XXII How to pray in Faith PAssing by all the other particular parts of Worship as handled elsewhere in my Christian Directory I shall only briefly touch the duty of prayer especially as in private Direct 1. Let your heart lead your tongue and be the fountain of your words and suffer not your tongues in a customary volubility to over-run your hearts Desire first and pray next and remember that desire is the soul of prayer and that the heart-searching God doth hate hypocrisie and will not be mocked Matth. 6.1 3 4. Direct 2. Yet do not forbear prayer because your desires are not so earnest as you would have them For 1. Even good desires are to be begged of God 2. And such desires as you have towards God must be exercised and expressed 3. And this is the way of their usual increase 4. And a prophane turning away from God will kill those weak desires which you have when drawing near him in prayer may revive and cherish them Direct 3. Remember still that you pray to a heavenly Father who is readier to give than you are to receive or ask If you knew his Fulness and Goodness how joyfully would you run to him and cry Abba Father John 20.17 Luke 12.30 32. Mark 11.25 Matth. 6.8 32. Direct 4. Go boldly to him in the Name of Christ alone Remember that he is the only Way and Mediatour When guilt and conscience would drive you back believe the sufficiency of his sacrifice and attonement When your weakness and unworthiness would discourage you remember that no one is so worthy as to be accepted by God on any other terms than Christs Mediation Come boldly then to the Throne of Grace by the new and living way and put your prayers into his hand and remember that he still liveth to make intercession for you and that he appeareth before God in the highest in your cause Heb. 10.19 Ephes 3.12 Rom. 5.2 Heb. 9.24 7.25 26. Direct 5. Desire nothing in your hearts which you dare not pray for or which is unmeet for prayer Let the Rule of Prayer be the Rule of your Desires And undertake no business in the world which you may not lawfully pray for a blessing on Direct 6. Desire and pray to God first for God himself and nothing lower and next for all those spiritual blessings in Christ which may fit you for communion with him And lastly for corporal mercies as the means to these Matth. 6.33 Psal 42.1 2 3 c. Psal 73.25 26. Direct 7. Pray only for what is promised you or you are commanded to pray for And make not promises to your selves and then look that God should fulfil them because you confidently believe that he will do it and do not so reproach God as to call such self-conceits and expectations by the name of a particular Faith For where there is no word there is no faith Direct 8. What God hath promised confidently expect though you feel no answer at the present For most of our prayers are to be granted or the things desired to be given at the harvest time when we shall have all at once Whether you find your selves the better at present for prayer or not believe that a word is not in vain but you shall reap the fruit of all in season Luke 18.1 7 8. James 5.7 8. Direct 9. Let the Lords Prayer be the Rule for the matter and method of your desires and prayers But with this difference It must alwaies be the Rule which your desires must be formed to both in matter and method You must alwaies first and most desire the hallowing of Gods Name the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his will on Earth as it is in Heaven before your own being or well-being But this is only a Rule for your General Prayers which take in all the parts For when you either intend to pray only or chiefly for some one particular thing you may begin with that or be most upon it Therefore all Christians should specially labour to understand the true sense and method of the Lords Prayer which God willing I hope elsewhere to open Direct 10. Be more careful in secret of your affections than of the order of your words yet chusing such as are aptest to the matter and fittest to excite your hearts But in your families or with others be very careful to speak to God in
a word or two or none at all in the daily prayers of most Professors And it is rare to hear any to pray with any importunity for their conversion Is this mens love to mankind Is this their love to the Kingdom of Christ or to God and Godliness Is God of as narrow a mind as you Are you and your party all the world or all the Church or all that is to be regarded and prayed for Direct 2. Do not only pray for them but study what is within the reach of your power to do for their conversion For though private men can do little in comparison of what Christian Princes might do who must not be told their duty by such as I. Yet somewhat might be done by Merchants and their Chaplains if skill and zeal were well united and somewhat might be done by writing and translating such books as are fittest for this use And greater matters might be done by training up some Scholars in the Persian Indostan Tartarian and such other languages who are for mind and body fitted for that work and willing with due encouragement to give up themselves thereto Were such a Colledge erected natives might be got to teach the languages and no doubt but God would put into the hearts of many young men to devote themselves to so excellent a service and of many rich men to settle Lands sufficient to maintain them and many Merchants would help them in their expedition But whether those that God will so much honour be yet born I know not Direct 3. Pray and labour for the Reformation and Concord of all the Christian Churches as the most probable means to win to Christ the world of Heathens and Vnbelievers If the Protestant Churches were more pure and peaceable more holy and more unanimous and charitable to each other it would do much to win the Papists that are near them And if the Papists and Greeks and Armenians and Abassines were more reformed wise and holy it would do much to win the Heathens and Mahometanes round about them They would be the salt of the earth and the lights of the world and the leaven which must leaven the whole lump The neighbouring Mahometanes and Heathens would see their good works and glorifie God Matth. 5.16 A holy harmless loving conversation is a Sermon which men of all languages can understand Thus as Apostles we might preach to men of several tongues though we have but one O that the sanctifying Spirit would teach Christians this art and reform and unite the Churches of Christ that they might be no longer a scandal to hinder the saving of the world about them It is the sense of Christs prayer before his death John 17.21 22 23 25. that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that the world may believe that thou hast sent me I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in One and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Direct 4. Be sure at least that your holy loving and blameless loves be an example to these that are about you If you cannot convert Kingdoms nor get other men to do their duty towards it be sure that you do your part within your reach And believe that your lives must be the best part of your labours and that good works and love and good example must be the first part of your doctrine Direct 5. When you see that the world lyeth still in wickedness and there seemeth to be no possibility of a cure yet search the Scripture and so far as you can find any Prophecy or Promise of their conversion believe that God in his time will make it good Direct 6. But take heed that on this pretence you plunge not your selves into any inordinate studies or conceited expositions of the Revelations and other Scripture Prophecies as many have done to the great wrong of themselves and the Church of God By inordinate studies I mean 1. When you begin there where you should end and before you have digested the necessary greater truths in Theology you go to those that should come after them 2. When an undue proportion of your zeal and time and study and talk is bestowed upon these Prophecies in comparison of other things 3. When you are proudly and causlesly conceited of your singular expositions That when of ten of the learnedest and hardest studied Expositors of the Revelation perhaps in many things scarce two are of a mind yet when you differ from them all or all save one you can be as peremptory and confident in your opinion as if you were far wiser or more infallible than they 4. When you place a greater necessity in it than there is as if salvation or Church-communion lay upon your conceits Whereas God hath made the points that are of necessity to salvation to be few and plain Direct 7. When you look on the sin and misery of the world and see small hope of its recovery look up by Faith to that better world where all is Light and Love and Peace And pray for that coming of Christ when all this sin shall be brought to Judgment and wisdom and godliness be fully justified before all the world Let the badness of this world drive up your hearts to that above where all is better than you can wish Direct 8. When you are ready to stumble at the consideration of Gods desertion of so great a part of the world quiet your minds in the implicite submission to his infinite wisdom and goodness Dare you think that you are more gracious and merciful than God Or that it is meet you should know all the secrets of his providence who must not know the mysteries oâ— Government in the State or Kingdom where you live He that cannot rest in the wisdom will and mercies of infinite Goodness it self but must have all his own expectations satisfied shall have no rest And think withall how little a spot of Gods Creation this earthly world is and how incomprehensibly vast the superiour Regions are in comparison of it And if all the upper parts of the world be possessed with none but holy Spirits and even this lower earth have also many millions of Saints prepared here for the things above we have no more reason to judge God to be unmerciful because this lower world is so bad than we have to judge the King unmerciful when we look into the common Jayle nor to judge of his government by the Rogues in a Jayle but by his Court and all the subjects of his Kingdom If God should forsake no place but Hell of all his Creation you could not grudge at him as unmerciful And it is a very hard question whether this earth and the air about it be not the place of Hell when you consider that the Devils are cast down from Heaven and yet that they dwell and rule in
fully shew so also shall the Saints And it is not likely that this is wholly deferred till the resurrection but as they have a Glory before that with Christ and his Angels so they have now their part in this Superintendency before though both will be greater at the Resurrection If any say what use will there be of our superiority after the world is destroyed I answer 1. The Apostle Peter plainly telleth us though some would force his words into the dark that we according to his promise expect a new Heaven and a new Earth in which dwelleth righteousness And the Creation groaneth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 And the Heavens must contain Christ till the times of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began Acts 3.21 2. And he that said the Saints shall judge the Angels seemeth so intimate that the Devils with the wicked will be in a state of subjection or servitude to them hereafter Certain it is that Michael and his Angels shall be the conquerours of the Dragon and his Angels Rev. 12.7 9. And that the Serpents head shall be bruised by all the womans seed though chiefly by the Captain of our salvation But this shall now suffice concerning their employment 3. Behold also by Faith what the departed Saints are now enjoying And what is said of their place and work will tell you that They enjoy the fight of their glorified Head Joh. 17.24 They are with him in Paradise and therefore also enjoy the sight of the Glory of God Being absent from the body they are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 They see not as in a glass as here they did but with open face They enjoy the pleasures of a more perfect knowledge of God and all his wondrous works than this world affords They are happy in their works in the perfect Love and Praises of God and they are filled with the pleasures of his Love to them This is their fruition 4. Let Faith also behold what evils they are delivered from 1. From a heavy drossy body which since the fall hath been an enemy a prison and fetters to the soul and therefore they here groaned to be better cloathed 2 Cor. 5.4 5. Rom. 8.21 2. From the worlds temptations 3. From wicked mens malice and persecutions 4. From sickness pain necessities labours weariness and all the troublesome effects of sin 5. From all troublesome passions desires anger discontent disappointments griefs and cares and fears of evil 6. Specially from the fears of Hell and the doubts of their own sincerity and salvation and from the desertions of God and the terrible sense of his displeasure 7. From the troubles and errours of ignorance and all our natural imperfection 8. From the fears of death which now is more painful than death it self 9. From the suggestions of Satan and his malicious vexing disquieting temptations and from his flattering allurements which are much worse 10. From the company and the tempting or grieving examples of ungodly men 11. From all sin it self and all our moral imperfections and defects 12. And finally from all danger and fear of ever losing the felicity they possess These are the immunities of the blessed 2. When Faith hath seen the Saints in Glory look back and think next what they were lately here on earth that it may help you to compare your state and theirs And here you will see 1. That they were lately in flesh as we now are They had bodies as drossie as vile as frail as burdensome as ours are It cost them as dear not as it doth the sensual but as it doth the temperate person now to keep them up a while for the service to which they were appointed 2. They had pains and sicknesses as we have The souls in Heaven have escaped thither from bodies which have lain as long tormented with the Stone with Stranguries Collicks Gripes Convulsions Consumptions Feavers and other the most tedious painful and lothsome diseases as sober men on earth now feel 3. Satan was as malicious to them as he is to us and to many of them as troublesome he haunted them with as ugly temptations to the greatest sins to unbelief and pride and despair and self-murder and horrid blasphemy as he doth any of us Yea he did so by Christ himself Matth. 4. 4. They met with as many allurements to worldliness sensuality pride and lust in the worlds deceiving baits and flatteries as now we do and were fain to proceed every step towards Heaven by conflict and conquest as we must do 5. They were in as many wants and straits in as poor and low and despised a state as we are now They were tempted to cares and murmurings and discontents through their wants and crosses as well as we 6. They have been in dangers and in fears and many a time at the brink of death before it came and put to cry to God for deliverance in the terrours and anguish of their hearts Their flesh and heart and friends have failed them and all the creatures cast them off 7. They have gone through far greater persecutions for the sake of Christ and righteousness than ever we did So persecuted they the Prophets before you Mat. 5.11 12. Which of the Prophets did not your Fathers kill and persecute even of them for whom their posterity erected Monuments Matth. 23.36 37 38. We have not resisted unto blood as many of them did Heb. 11. The same and greater afflictions which we have undergone were accomplished on our brethren in this world 1 Pet. 5.9 We go through the same conflict as they did Phil. 1.30 We are no more falsly nor odiously slandered in any of our sufferings than they were Mat. 5.11 12. 8. They were men of like passions as we are for so James saith even of Elias that was carryed to Heaven without our kind of death They had their ignorances uncertainties doubts mistakes their dark thoughts of God and that world where they now are Many of them knew as little of it till they saw it as we do now Many a fearful trembling hour many a thought that God had forsaken them and that the day of grace was past have many of them had as well as we 9. Yea they were imperfect in all their graces they had an imperfect faith an imperfect hope an imperfect Love to God and man and many an hour in such groans as ours now are O when shall we be saved from our darkness and unbelief when shall we better love the Lord 10. They had their actual sins also Though none that were regnant after conversion their obedience was imperfect as ours now is Many of their faults and falls are left on record for our warning There is not one humane soul in Heaven besides our Saviours that was not once a sinner They all came thither