water out of the wells of salvation Which promise I conceive extends to all duties of Religion and so to this a-among the rest But sure I am that without this a man cannot be well disposed nor well perform any other with comfort the more we make use of this the more joy we have in us and this is to be alwaies performed others cannot be so Psal 4. Commune with your own hearts and in your Chamber be still What comfort and satisfaction doth it yield to the virtuous mind to contrive and meditate how to do well holily and according to vertue the very Idea of the action hath beauty and delight though peradventure we are not able sometimes to do according because of our infirmities and likewise the evil mind delighteth in evil Jer. 11.15 And this delight in good and the impression of the beautifulness and decency of the action excites to the Act. Although evil be present with us when we endeavour our selves to do the thing by reason of our corrupt nature and our Ghostly enemy If this were not a clear truth it might be sufficiently demonstrated by its contrary The contrivance or remembrance of any unseemly or impious action how full of loathing and horror is it or if they be but vain thoughts that lodge in us as they must needs do in those who read ludicrous vain and scurrilous books or spend their time in the Theatre the mind and manners will be formed accordingly unless we disgust them I mean not that the sins of God's people are often premeditated for if they did premeditate them I suppose they would avoid them but yet sometimes they do consider of sin but most commonly break off their consideration and purpose with loathing of it and themselves too for their thoughts and assayes of sinning but those sins which they committed before their conversion they remember after their conversion with the contrivance of them with loathing and the sins which they see others contrive or read or hear of And often the wickedest persons that are when they remember their foulest sins they abhor them and tremble and endeavour to put out of their minds the remembrance of them for the horrible foulness which they then perceive in them and for the offence which they yield them This Duty then being enjoyned us by God as most necessary and powerful for attaining and improving of every grace and for the avoiding of all and every sin and temptation that our nature is inclined to or liable to be drawn to Let these reasons be sufficient to convince us of the necessity and utility of it and the delightfulness of it both to God and our selves and put us upon the practice of it that we may be Royal Priests to God and our bodies may be the Temples of the Holy Ghost and our hearts God's holy Altars upon which the fire shall ever burn and Incense without ceasing Exod. 30. v. 73. The Corrolary Holy Meditation is the thing whereby we edifie our selves and holy life and conversation is that whereby we edifie one another in the most holy Faith Of the Worship of God in general THAT God is and that he is to be worshiped is written in the heart of man with indelible characters for it appears that before any Law was given the Light of Nature did not only instruct men of the Being of God and of the necessity of Divine Worship but also afforded them such plentiful instruction of the manner of the Worship too that he that had an honest sincere heart might and did perform it in an acceptable manner as Abel did without any other Instructer And Cain might also have done the like as is intimated in those words which God spake to him If thou do good shalt not thou be accepted How far did Cornelius the Centurion go by this light and when by this he could do no more God sent his help Rom. 1. v. 20. The invisible things of him that is of God from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God but became vain c. and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of man and beast and birds and creeping things Nature then is a Mistress that teacheth us of God and of his worship else the Gentiles had not been given up for not glorifying him as God Nor would Cain have been reproved for mis-serving him Neither would Cain being a wicked person have done it at all But like as he mis-served God so all doubting and unbelieving sensual and hypocritical and vain persons do only offer that which cost them nothing that which they can best part withal easie service and cheap And this corruption growing more and more upon them and they more and more corrupt themselves till at length they become abominable in their wickedness as it is in Psal 53.2 When they have changed the Truth into a Lye and worship the Creature more than the Creator They are driven to that absurdity of denying the being of God that they may avoid the greater viz. a confessing a Deity and yet to yield him no worship Remarkable it is that there hath never been any people or Nation in the world so barbarous but they have both acknowledged a Deity and had a solemn manner of Divine Worship established by municipal Laws the violation whereof hath been punished capitally And if there be any individual person or persons who do or doth deny God or his Worship the same have nothing of the Image of God left in them nor any thing of the holy Spirit of God in them That wisdom and knowledge which they have in them thus corrupted is the Image of the Devil or the Image of the brute beasts as St. James calls their wisdom carnal sensual and devilish And what they know naturally as brute beasts in those things they corrupt themselves as St. Jude speaks Their chief study care labour and industry all their designs providence and all their wisdom is to satisfie their sensual appetites and to provide for back and belly therefore the Apostle saith of them their God is their belly and they mind earthly things This wisdom doth expel and extinguish the wisdom which is from above So that they become Atheistick The Apostle Pet. 2 ep cap. 3. Hath prophecied that such scoffers shall come in these last daies he saith that they are willingly ignorant Ignorance makes them fearless shamless and hopeless That these Atheistick principles are not from our Nature nor born with us but the contrary are from the light of Nature and by our corrupting of our selves we become Atheists is further proved by this That to us who live under the preaching of the gospel and have liberty to read it our selves the glorious light thereof would shine into our hearts if we
fore-skin of our heart taken away by mortification of all the senses and affections and is in all the parts of the body the eyes the hands the tongue the eares the pallate c. This analogical circumcision remaineth that of Moses law is taken away this is Spiritual and may be with blood too as is said You have not yet resisted unto blood striving against Sin That circumcision signified this mortification but this is the more difficult His reasons of his assertion of this are couched in these characters of Christians viz. Which rejoyce in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh As if he should argue that they that rejoyce in any thing but Christ and his merits and alsufficiency are not the heires of Salvation Nor they who have confidence in any fleshly thing as circumcision and outward performances and priviledges Nor those who put off God with outword bodily worship and do not worship him with their hearts and Spirits Spiritually as it is said they draw nigh with their lips but their heart is far from me these things they may do that are in the flesh but cannot please God because they do not justice and love mercy and walk humbly with God Holiness also of our own framing is not that which God accompts holiness that is to say voluntary Humility worshipping of Angels c. These the Apostle saith Have only a shew of Godliness They that trust in themselves and despise others as the Pharisees did that say they have works of supererogation Nor they that say stand off for I am holier then thou and think well of themselves that they are profitable are not Saints The centurion had a meaner opinion of him self when he said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof So had John the Baptist when he said he was not worthy to loofe the lachet of his Saviours shooe And wise Agar when he said he had not the understanding of a man and was more brutish then any So St. Paul when he said he was the meanest of the Apostles and not worthy to be calld an Apostle And David professeth the same humility Psal 131. saying Lord I am not high minded I have no proud looks c. And Psal He saith Lord I am a worme and no man The very scorne of men and the outcast of the people this comportment is that which becometh holiness and is acepted in the sight of God for he resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble and of Israel he saith when thou wert little in thine owne eyes then thou wert honourable and our blessed Lord and Saviour repressed the contention of the Apostles for the superiority by inculcating this grace But to seek honour from one another and to love the praise of men and salutation in the Market places the uppermost seats in the Synagogues preheminence precedency and be called Rabbi our blessed Lord and Saviour renders these for the charactars of those who would seem to be righteous and are not He plucks of the masks and vizards of these Actors of holiness and instances in their over Actings to prove that they do but personate what they are not they make broad their Phylacteries Tith mint Annis and Comin but neglect the waitysr matters of the law He shews what they are within in their harts and affections they washed but the out side of their cups their inward parts were foul still he compares their holiness to the painted Sepulcres they flourished it with giveing their almes publickly praying publickly fasting and disviguring their faces that they may be seen to fast and thus coming abroad among the people they crave veneration for this maske of holiness and they had their rewards which they sought Our Saviour tells them what course they should take to have a real goodness Math. 12.33 Either make the Tree good and his fruit good or make the Tree corrupt and his sruit corrupt v. 35. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good fruit c. That is a natural production And when the principle or cause is such the effects will be answerable â—o do worthy Acts and not to seek praise and honour for them is true worth for hereby it is manifest that he who doth so doth it for vertues sake for the love of worth and vertue meerly Therefore Bafil's expression seemeth to me to be unsound Fugiamus inanem gloriam duleem Spiritualium operum spoliatricem tincam Virtutum For how can it be called a Spiritutal work when it is done for vain glory and not by the Spirit and for the same reason such a work can not be called virtuous because the glory and not the virtue is counted sweet but nevertheless we may take such admonitious in good part But it appears that these Pharisees principles were not good because they had such base vain and vile ends whereby they neglected the weigher matters of the law and contented themselves with pairing off the external enormities that they might seem fair to men from whom they sought veneration and reverence for their professions sake affecting the honour and reward of virtue more than virtue it self But this evil leaven our saviour warned his Disciples of and in them as I conceive their successors He shews what principles a good man hath and practiseth works by for though none be good but God absolutely yet in some degrees they may be good as Joseph of Arimathea was called a good man And the good ground was he that received the word in an upright heart so that God judgeth of a man according to his state not according to some particular actions which may happen to be evil Such principles and such works makes a good man that these principles do bring forth is proved from the nature of them They are given to that end that they should bring forth for God seeing the heart weak and striving to bring forth such fruit he gives them such graces by the working of his Spirit in their hearts as may enble them Jer. 32.4 I will put my Spirit into their hearts This is active T is called the life the fountain of living waters the spirit of grace and the spirit of a sound mind because these graces are the motions and operations of the Spirit or the Spirit moving And Secondly because of the vigour and strength of these principles called the power of God and godliness 3. From their being The being that Grace hath in the Heart is in its operation so is its well-being therefore they are said to be ready to dye when they do not operate 4. For the Seat of it being possessed of the Heart which is the chief part over all and so gives Life to all 5. The heart is supposed to be the seat of the affections which being made good by such principles they produce fruit answerable The real goodness in the Heart must be exerted in the action and the work that is
inducements for the things we pray for as we use confession as an inducement for pardon and thanksgiving may and ought to be used as an inducement for obtaining further mercies or else we look upon them as distinct duties they are proper enough but not always necessary to be joined with this duty therefore we refer them to their proper places and judg them much more easy as to the verbal expression than fervent Prayer for grace and spiritual enjoyments When God hath filled our heart with food and gladness and hath wrought deliverance for us and so hath given us matter of thanksgiving if the Heart be but enough thankful words of praise and outward actions cannot be wanting but thanksgivings and confessions are peculiar things and for this duty this one motive may be sufficient to enforce it viz. That it pleaseth the Lord better than a Bullock that hath Horns and Hoofs Psal 69.32 These three viz. Grace and the means of Grace and the rewards I conceive they contain all the promises and all that God hath engag'd by the new Covenant to give to his people They contain also all that God hath commanded and enjoyned his people and requireth of them and they contain all that they need or can desire to make them happy here and hereafter And there is no Petition in the Psalms of David or in any prayer in all the Scripture but is contained under one of these heads for all the Prayers of the Saints tends to this end viz. The glory of God and the promotion of his Kingdom and the means thereof Those Prayers which are against the opposites namely against sin and iniquity and the occasions and helps thereof and against every degree of sin and the punishments and curses due to sin and sinners That the rod of the Wicked may not rest upon the lot of the righteous Psal 125. These are of the same nature with the former for the overthrowing plucking down and destroying of sin and Satans Kingdom and the treading him under foot is the preparing the way of the Lord that his Kingdom may come therefore we do in this pray against those and in praying against those we pray for this Hence it is that God hath made promises accordingly of subduing our iniquities and to tread Satan under our feet That no Weapon formed against us shall prosper That sin shall not have dominion over us And we pray for the performance of these promises when we pray the second Petition of the Lord's Prayer Thy Kingdom come for the Kingdoms of the World cannot become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ but by the subsersion of Antichrists Kingdom This notwithstanding it is our duty to pray expresly as we are strengthned and assisted by the holy Spirit as well for these as against those and against those as well as for these although implicitly he that prays for the Kingdom of God prays against sin and Satan See Psal 119. Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity c. Likewise when we pray thus generally in these words of our blessed Saviour we do implicitly pray for the conversion of the Jews Yet ought we notwithstanding expresly to pray for it because we are commanded to give him no rest till he make Jerusalem a praise What persons we are to pray for is also taught by the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.1 I will therefore that Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men but yet we are chiefly to pray for the chosen people of God for thereby we express and declare our fellowship with them and our relation to them as members of the same mystical body in Christ Jesus and thereby endeared to us more than our natural relations Therefore we find the Apostles in their Epistles praying for those they write to and requiring the like of them again Paul to the Ephesians prayeth for them c. 1.17 That God would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him that their understanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand c. and Chap. 3.16 Prayeth that they may be strengthned with might by the Spirit in the inner-man that they may know the love of Christ for the Saints at Philippi he prayeth that their love may abound more and more in knowledg and all judgment that they may approve things that are excellent that they may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God Philip. 1.9 By these and the like Prayers of the holy Apostles we learn what to pray for as well for our selves as others We learn from St. Pauls prayer for the Hebrews c. 13. To pray that God through the blood of the everlasting Covenant would make us perfect in every good work to do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. For it is through Jesus Christ if any thing we do is pleasing to God and it is God himself who works it in us Those that do not pray for the peace of Jerusalem are not Citizens thereof therefore they do not love her But they that do pray for her peace and give God no rest until he make Jerusalem a praise are Citizens of that Jerusalem which is from above which is the mother of us all and they receive comfort from her welfare and are sure that she shall receive a benefit by their Prayers and hope to receive benefit mutually by her Prayers for as the Apostles in their Epistles to the Churches pray for them so they do also desire their prayers I infer that every particular Christian in his Prayers must put in suit the general promises viz. That all her people shall be holy all righteous all be taught of God and holiness to the Lord shall be writ upon the Bells of the Horses They who pray for these Spiritual gifts and graces for themselves and others do pray in the Spirit and seek the Glory of God And by their fervency and zeal and frequent addresses to God for them and for repressing and subduing their opposites viz. The sins which so easily beset them their iniquities and corruptions They shew forth their weariness of them and burthen which loadeth them from which they groan and cry to be eased and deliver'd by God because they are not able by all they can do to be deliver'd by their own industry And because our blessed Saviour hath promised to ease such therefore they may be sure to be heard if they confessing their particular burthen of corruption whether it be pride
shameful flight If thou assist us not in our callings our labouurs are but in vain except the Lord keep the City the Watch-man watcheth in vain In vain we rise early and go late to bed except the Lord give us his blessing Therefore will we seek the Lord and his blessing upon our Labours And though we find no worth in our prayers for which the Lord should hear them or reward them but punish us for them yet nevertheless it is his command that we should offer up our weak services to him and he hath promised to hear us for the things we ask for in his Sons name and in obedience to that command And in the faith we give to his promise we seek to him to assist us and to let his presence go with us For the Lord hath shewed us by frequent experiences That those who have most means do not seldom miss their purpose or if they by Gods blessing do attchieve their purposes yet it is frequently without the use of those means by some accident that it might be seen to be of God and not of man and our unbelief be convinced Praise the Lord O my Soul who hath often brought to pass my desires without any considerable means by me used And all that is within me praise his holy name because he hath accepted my two Mites my worthless Prayers for his mercy endureth for ever Meditation When I am tempted to any sin let me consider how I have loathed my self heretofore when I have been overcome by any lust or sensual pleasure If I have at any time yielded to the pleasures of any of my senses which is all that the world can offer though it hath been but to a very small degree as to drink one glass more than the necessity of nature or a competent refreshing required for though it makes not drunkenness yet it sets the mind too much at liberty from that strictness and watchfulness that mortification and crucifying the flesh and self-denial that the Scripture requires or if I give way to a lustful thought or glance or action whereby my mind is carried to effeminate meditations from the more serious and virtuous considerations which an honest mind should meditate how do I seem sordid to my self and degraded from my pristine excellency And though the person whose beauty excellency and perfections drew me aside thereto be incomparable yet when I consider the baseness of the last acts of lust and fruition to which all this tends and serves how poorly do I think of all those allurements of beauty and parts carriage wit and other excellencies since they are the motives and incentives to concupiscence And I no sooner perceive that I have yeilded too much to any temptation of lust or covetousness or any other whatsoever but I presently perceive that my honour is gone from me or if I know of any other who hath yeilded to any temptation I think the same of them All these arguments and reasons are not sufficient to restrain from relapsing into the very same offences and sensualities for sense with one glance of the eye captivates the affections in a moment whereas reason and strength of Argument prevails only upon deliberation so that I cannot expect to stand by my own strength unless thou Lord holdest me up I shall fall one day by these my spiritual enemies And it is by thy power only that we are kept from the evil of the World Therefore as the eyes of a Servant are to the hands of his Master so shall my eyes be to thee And I will continually pray unto thee for supportation and strength since thy strength is perfected in our weakness why then should my weakness discourage me and for grace and faith in thy promises since grace alone is sufficient for us and faith alone is the victory whereby we may overcome the World that by faith I may look upon the infinite joyes of Heaven and contemn the vain and base joyes of this life or else be terrified with the horrid torments thou hast threatned to the disobedient and fear to do evil LET me think it greater pleasure to resist lust or any sensuality than to yield to it for if I resist I satisfy and delight my reason which delights in manly noble resolute actions and in eschewing the contrary viz. Effeminate sensual pleasures which the mind doth oppose and disdain as brutish and below it for how is it possible that the mind should be satisfied contented or delighted with the objects and delights of the senses any more then the senses can enjoy or take delight in the objects of the mind or intellect since the senses are of the Brutish nature of the meanest creature and the mind and understanding is of the divine nature of the Creator and since the Saints are said to be made partakers of the Divine nature let us endeavour to partake of the Divine nature by holiness of life And if we have received Christ in his teaching and in his Sacrament of his supper to walk in him that our life may grow out of the death of Christ Not to be unprofitable Servants as Israel was said to be an empty vine but let us be ever sowing the fruits of righteousness that we may reap accordingly and be studious to know the things which belong to our peace before they be hid from our eys and to do them too lest thou remove our light from us remembring that if we be like the dry and unprofitable chaff we shall be burned with unquenchable fire But the Gospel bringeth forth fruit in all the World Colos 6.1 LORD if thou dost but seem to have forsaken me so that when I think of thee I dont perceive comfort but fear though I have all the outward comforts and all the pleasures which the World can afford I am in horror in the midst of my pleasures I will therefore walk in the waies of righteousness for her waies are waies of peace and all her pathes pleasantness and this will bring a man peace at the last Blessed are they that do righteousness alwaies they walk with thee and have sweet communion with thee and thou wilt come in and sup with them and abide with them then hath their soul fulness of joy but I fear I grieve thy holy Spirit continually in this that I am carnal and do not live by faith above the World Lord that I could live as those whose conversation is in Heaven whose treasure is there and they are always adding to this treasure who are spiritually wise whose hearts are fixed upon thee and go not astray as the Israelites did in the wilderness forgetting God their Saviour who had done wonders for them but they thought not of his hand nor remembered what wonders he had wrought for them but lust came upon them in the desert wherefore the Lord thought to have destroyed them had not Moses stood in the gap to turn away his wrath If we in
renewing some holy duties which have been omitted or else by some judgment befallen to others we are warned and stirred up to do our first workes and to quicken the holy graces which are dying as by the return of the Sun in the spring-time the several Plants of the earth seem to revive and send forth their leaves and fruits again The causes of this deadness of faith holiness charity hope and other graces are various but may be found out and in some persons a wilful sin committed and unrepented of is the cause in some sloth in holy duties in others worldlyness in others pride some too much relying upon their own strength and opinion of the grace they have gotten already not endeavouring after a fuller measure every true Christian feels in himself some times these swoonings away of his graces and diligently endeavours to get more quickning by prayer to God for it and the use of Gods word and ordinances reflecting upon the first motives that excited and allured him to the pursuit of those dying graces and all such other motives as have since confirmed him in the liking of them and the rewards that he hath obtained from God for the service he hath done him and the hope of the eternal recompences The absolute necessity of it enforceth his awakned affections reflecting upon those texts which so absolutely press the necessity of it as Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh ye shall live And v. 29. Whom he did foreknow them he also did predestinate to be comfortable to the image of his Son and in the Canticles ch The Spouse is said to be all fair That holiness is attainable is proved First because it is the main end of Christs passion and he cannot be frustrate of his ends Luke 1.74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives 2d Because he hath redeemed us unto himself that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works That we should no more serve sin nor live the remainder of our days after the flesh But that we should be conformed to the image of him that made us For whom he foreknew he did predestinate that they should be conformed to the image of his Son Therefore our old man is dead and we are borne again of water and the Spirit whoso hath the hope of Heaven purifieth himself as God is pure the man after Gods own heart testifieth that he had an eye to all Gods commandments and Zachary and Elizabeth walked unblamably And that this is the end of our blessed Saviour in our redemption is made out by that which was the Type of the Isralites deliverance out of the Egyptian bondage Psal 105.42 And he brought forth his people with joy and his chosen with gladness and gave them the lands of the heathen and they took the labours of the people in possession 44. That they might keep his statutes and observe his laws But expresly Luke 17.1 That we might serve him without fear in holiness c. The whole design and scope of all the Scripture is our holiness and the restoring the image of God in us all the precepts command this and the promises encourage and invite us to this and the promises of grace are for making us thus the threats and cursings drive us to it the rewards and punishments tend only to shew us that God will be sanctified in us and that every transgression shall receive a due recompence of reward all the history of the Scripture proves it by examples of Gods wrath and vengeance upon the wicked and deliverances wrought wonderfully for them that feared and sought God with an upright hart Under one of these heads might be quoted every text in the Scripture The History of the Creation of the World which sheweth forth Gods infinite power and goodness working so great benefits for the use of mankind sheweth us our dependance on him and the duty we owe to him for our being and well being The fall of men and Angels shews our frailty without Gods supportation and the miserable condition that attends sin Gods dealings with the two Sons of Adam one he accepted for his sincerity in his worship the other he rejected because his heart was not upright the deluge that swept away all save only Noah the Preacher of righteonsness the rest that were ungodly were drowned the reason alledged because they had corrupted their waies And Noah only God had espied upright wherefore was Sodom and Gomorra destroied and Lot saved wherefore did God bless Abraham and all the nations of the earth in him wherefore was profane Esau deprived of the blessing and Jacob preferred before him what caused Sampson to lose his eyes wherefore were the murmuring Israeltes destroied in the Wilderness for what cause did the Philistians hold them in bondage why was the Kingdom taken from Saul and given to his neighbour that was more rightious than he how did God deal by him when he had sinned in the matter of Vriah and for numbring the people his successors that were good Kings how were they blessed the bad how did God deal with them in judgment when Israel sinned their enimies oppressed them when they returned and sought the Lord he saved them and delivered them when the sins of the Amalakites were grown to the hight he destroyed them and planted the Israelites in their Country and when the measure of their sins were full he distroyed them and brought upon them all the curses threatned against sinners All the Prophets were sent of no other errand but to press them to forsake sin and turn unto God all the evil they foretold was conditionally unless they would repent and forsake their sin The promise of the Messiah was to bring salvation unto his people he was to deliver them from all their iniquities to purify to himself a peculiar people that might offer a pure offering to bring into the right way such as went astray to bring the disobedient to the wisdom of the just his preching proveth the truth of these prophesies for Matth. 4.17 Jesus began to preach and say Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand And Matth. 5. The promises of giving the Holy Spirit to them that ask it And of writing his lawes in their inward parts of making them a willing people that all shall know God c. What other end have they but to make us holy John the Baptist the fore-runner of Christ taught repentance and good works he practised the same in abstinence humility and piety Our Blessed Lord and Saviours Doctrine was the perfection of holiness teaching charity to our enemies to sell all to buy this Pearl of exceeding value and in Matth. 5.22 Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in
with Anger Also examine thine own reason whether it be not more honourable and more satisfying to thee to shew meekness goodness of Nature ingenious Education Courtesie Generosity Love and Pity in forgiving affronts and provocations than to shew thy Pride Malice Boldness Undaunted Spirit and Courage in revenging them besides the timerity of hazarding thine own Life and Immortal Soul Then examine thy self also in all other actions of Holiness and Unholiness viz. If thou hast led thy Life in Temperance Sobriety and Frugality whether hast thou not found the benefit of it throughout thy Life in thy Mind Body and Estate But if thou hast otherwise lead thy Life thy Health is impaired thy Estate wasted thy Soul polluted and the faculties of thy mind dulled and crased The like examination thou mayest make if thou hast kept thy Body in Chastity whether thou hast not found this to be the best means to preserve thy Life Health and Estate and to propagate the same benefits to thy Issue besides many other blessings which this and every other Grace hath entailed upon it But if thou hast on the contrary been addicted to thy lusts thou wilt feel the pains of it in thy bones when age groweth upon thee and if thou hast not quite wasted thy Estate yet either thou hast no lawful Issue to inherit it or if any yet they are unsound or such as thou hast no comfort of for such persons who are thus addicted are generally thus punished with one of these punishments as we read of Solomon and have seen in our own times Hast thou fed the hungry and cloathed the naked with thy fleece thou knowest that thou hast treasure in Heaven if not thy riches will make themselves wings But alas if thou couldst attain all secular ends and interests Salva Conscientia what are they to him that carrieth on the design of an eternal Interest viz. For eternal happiness how inconsiderable how impertinent how vile But since holiness is the only meanes of attaining happiness and lusts and unholiness are the obstacles and impediments that hinder us and deprive us of it then be constant in the way of holiness and take this for thy design and main business according to that which the Poet Horrace directeth thee by the light of Nature Lib. Epistolar Primo Ep. 6. Si virtus hoc sola potest dare fortis Omissis Hoc age deliciis And Hoc primus repetes opus hoc postremus omittas And make no Omisions of duty for that puts thee back T were endless labor and needless to cite all authorities Civil Moral and Divine that might be brought to prove holiness to be the way and meanes of obtaining happiness for it is so inseparably joyned to happiness that it can hardly be distinguished from eternal happiness which I conceive is begun in this life in holiness I will only mention the Authority of the greatest of the Sons of men John the Baptist who makes repentance and workes meet for repentance to be the way to bring us to Christ who is the way the truth and the life eternal In whom we have eternal life and happiness And I conceive all men will confess the same though in workes they deny it All the precepts which our blessed Saviour taught he propounded as the means to attain happiness And the doers of them he pronounceth happy actually in the present tense likewise all the Commandments which God enjoyned the Israelites were therefore given them to make them happy and when they kept them they did make them happy as they made them holy Whither tend all Divine and Moral precepts and Philosophical improvements of the light of nature but to repress mortiify the inordinate passion and preturbations of the mind and the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life that by this means we might enjoy a sweet and happy life in all ease rest and peace joy quietness holiness and happiness But imagining that the sensual persons of this age will still oppose and say that happiness is mans interest but the holiness of man is Gods design and interest I answer first What profit shall the Lord have if thou do good 2. Admitting it were Gods Interest it follows if he be greater than thou and thou canst not attain thy end without him then thou must of necessity promote his design and do nothing to cross it Holiness Described 3. Meditation Though it be too great a task for me to undertake nay for any creature for he hath found folly in the Angels and the Heavens are not clean in his sight therefore God himself teacheth us by his word and Spirit And from that word of truth these few collections are drawn for my own help in this grace The Negative part that sheweth what is not true holiness though by some it is supposed to be holiness is the first to be considered Our Saviour describes the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and then tells his Disciples that Except their Righteousness exceeds theirs they shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Their Righteousness is condemned as insufficient for they justified themselves and condemned others and did their works of Piety and Charity to be seen of men and were Hypocrites Therefore Jesus Christ pronounces several woes against them Again our Saviour reproves the Jews ingeneral for relying upon the outward priviledges without the inward Qualifications saying unto them Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham for our Father This priviledg without the life of Holiness is like a dead body without a soul which the Prophet Jeremiah reproves thus Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these Jeremiah 7.4 They did frequent the Temple with their Sacrifices but the Prophet saith you trust in lying words Do you think to lye steal and come into my house Matth. 7.22 Christ shews how that many will come at the day of Judgment with great confidence saying we have prophesied in thy name cast out Devils and done many wonders But he will disown them how little then will it avail the Papists to call themselves the Church and their Pope Peters Successour Our Saviour Christ doth divide professors into 2 sorts Mathew 25. Under the terme of wise and foolish Virgins some had Oyl in their Lamps and some none all had Lamps The causes why men rest in the forme of Godliness without the power are first because they see a necessity that their actions must be changed but do not see a necessity that their hearts must be changed The Apostle Paul in the 3d. of the Philip. Refutes the Righteousness which the Jews imputed to their circumcision and outward priviledges and calls them the concision and vers the 3d. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh This is the reall circumcision whereby we have the