is the very spring upon which the holy conversation of the whole week is turned and moved And therefore it is observable that the Sabbath stands as it were betwixt the two Tables the last precept of the first Table and the Preface to the Second To shew us that it is the Bond of union between both Tables that without a severe sanctification of the Sabbath the Duties of both Tables will fall to the ground Whence in the Primitive times of Christianity the strict observation of the Sabbath was accounted the principall character of a true Saint And so it is even at this day there are such Christians for exemplary holiness as those which are taken notice of to make most conscience of sanctifying the Sabbath But so much for the second duty I come now to the Third Branch or Duty of Duties wherein sabbath-sanctification consists Sc. Honourable If thou call it or make it or keep it as an Honourable day Heb. Mecubbar which signifieth honourable or glorious The Duty implied is we must keep the Sabbath as the Honourable Glorious Day of Jehovah Truly glorious things are spoken of this Honourable Day The Jews were wont to call it the Queen of Days the week-days they called prophane days but the Sabbath after Gods example here they called Holy My Holy Day saith God it 's Gods peculiar One of ours now translated into his glorious rest honours it thus calling it The Map of heaven the golden spot of the week Vide Mr. Gee Swinnock in his good wish to the Lords day the market-market-day of the soul the day-break of eternal brightness the Queen of days the blessed amongst days the cream of time the Epitome of eternity Heaven in a glass the first-fruits of an everlasting and blessed Harvest and much more to that purpose The week-days are as it were the back-parts of the week made to carry burdens a meer Servant or Slave made to do the drudgery of the humane life The Sabbath is the face the seat of Majesty which God hath made to look upward and to contemplate the glory of the Heavens and of the maker thereof The week-days are like the Terrestrial Globe wherein are painted to us the Earth with the inferiour and more ignoble creatures The Sabbath is the Celestial Globe Heb. 12.22 23 24. wherein we have the prospect of Mount Sion the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and of an innumerable company of Angels of the general assembly and Church of the first-born and of God the Judge of all and of the spirits of just men made perfect and of Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant c. The beholding of these glorious visions truly beatifical are the work of a Sabbath Moreover to discover to you the glory of a Sabbath consider we another excellent passage in our quoted Author ut sup speaking of the Sabbath All the graces triumph in Thee All the Ordinances conspire to enrich Thee The Father ruleth Thee The Son rose upon Thee The Spirit hath overshadowed Thee Thus it is done to the Day which the Lord delighteth to honour on Thee light was created the Holy Ghost descended Life hath been restored Satan subdued the Grave Death and Hell conquered c. Much more might be added but rather The Question Question is When do we make the Sabbath or how may we make it to us an Honourable Glorious day Answer 1 Then we call the Sabbath Honourable when we make Honourable preparation for it To which purpose it is useful to mind seriously that word which stands as a watch-man at the door of the fourth Commandment Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy Remember It is like the Baptist the voice of one crying prepare ye the way of the Lord or that Eccl. 5.1 keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God c. It calls for solemn preparation for a Sabbath and the ordinances of a Sabbath a duty wofully neglected amongst Christians some little preparation people make for a Sacrament and it is to be feared there is more of superstition in it than Evangelical affection to the day consisting rather in a Ceremonial abstinence from meat and drinks than a serious separation of the heart and affections for communion with God But as to the Sabbath there is rarely any thing to separate between the drudgery of the week and the solemnities of the sabbath but a little sleep and that usually less than any other night is allowed people loading the Saturday-night with so many worldly affairs that the Lords-day-morning is too little to satisfie their sluggish indulgences of the flesh and there is not time either for closet or domestick devotion they cannot force themselves out of their bed time enough to join with the Congregation until half the publick worship be finished The Jews shall rise up against this generation and shall condemn them of whom it is reported they were so severe in their parascueves or preparations for the Sabbath which were precisely to begin at three of the clock in the afternoon Buxtorf that if the servants in the Family were cast behind in dispatching the servile labour of the Family the Master of the house though he were a Nobleman would not refuse to set his hand to the lowest drudgery that they might observe the punctual time of preparation this argued an honourable estimation of the Sabbath 2. Then we call it honourable when we give it honourable entertainment When we awaken our selves in such good time yet so as we may not indispose nature for the service of the day as David did Psal 108.2 awake my Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake right early I say to get up early in the morning Maâ—h 28.1 to meet our blessed Lord and Bridegroom coming from his Sepulchre to visit us That which is but fancied of the natural Sun its dancing upon Easter-day in the morning for joy of the Lords Resurrection I have known reallized by some excellent Christians whose hearts have not only leaped in them but themselves have hasted out of their beds and have leaped and skipped up and down in their chamber when the morning light of the Sabbath hath shined on them in remembrance of the Sun of Righteousness arising from the grave with healing under his wings Such extraordinary impulses and ravishments are not every Christians attainment and must not be imitated to the prejudice of the Body the spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak but certainly every Christian that hath the love of Christ shed abroad in his heart will be careful to abate himself somewhat of his wonted indulgences on that morning which was his redeemers Birth-day that he may have time to get on his wedding Garment by meditation Psal 2.7 reading and prayer that he may go forth to meet him whom his soul loveth in the publick solemnities of the Sabbath and bring him home with him into the chamber of her that conceived him
of the Church done they have been to them the very joy and life of their souls Psal 122.1 I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem I never was â—â—re affected with joy and gladness in all my life then when I was wont to hear the people encouraging one another to assemble themselves to the publique worship of God in the house of God on Gods day O it did my heart good to hear with what alacrity and rejoycing they did provoke one another come let us go to the house of the Lord notably prophesied of in words at length Isa 2.2 3. verses many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem In the loss of Ordinances and Sabbaths they have been dead in the nest like Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they were not And in the recovery and enjoyment of them they have rejoyced as men rejoyce that divide the spoil see Psal 3. Psal 42. 43. 84. per totum Christians we must write after this copy and count the Sabbath not our Duty only but our Delight and priviledge 2. Affirmative duty The Holy of the Lord. We must call it i. e. ut sup count it keep it as Lichdosh Jehovah sanctum Domini One of the titles of Jesus Christ The Holy one of God we must observe the Sabbath as Holy time Holy yet not by constitution not essentially holy as Christ is holy nor inherently as the Saints are holy but holy by institution by sanction relatively holy the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it i. e. he set it apart for holy uses Deut. 5.12 keep the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it Nothing but holy things must be done in this holy time praying reading hearing singing of Psalms c. as Psal 92. which is both a precept and plat-form for Sabbath-sanctification meditation rejoycing in God and Thanksgiving as you may read at large Thirdly We must call it i. e. count it honourable or the glorious day of God Glorious upon several accounts 1. For Gods glorious resting upon that day Gods rest that is a glorious rest rest of God As things of God in scripture are great and glorious things 2. Glorious or Honourable by a glorious sanction Coyn with the Kings stamp upon it is counted Royal not for the mettal so much though it be of Silver or Gold but for the Image superscription and impression it beareth Every day in the week is Honourable because it is Gods Creation but the Sabbath is glorious for the inscription Jehovah hath set his Image upon it He did sanctifie it It hath Gods sanction upon it and that is glorious 3. It is Honourable for those glorious ends for which it was set apart and they are three 1. That God might sanctifie his people Ezekiel 20.12 moreover I gave them my Sabbaths for a sign between me and them not a ceremonial sign as some would dwindle it that have no more Religion in them than an old rotten Ceremony cometh to but a moral sign i. e. a Testimony Pledge or Covenant whereby it might appear that they were Gods people sanctified to his service and honour So it follows that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them The Sabbath is Gods Medium to raise up to himself an holy people 2. That Gods people might sanctifie him so ver 41. I will be sanctified in you so Levit. 10.3 I will be sanctified in them that draw nigh me God sanctifieth us when he makes us holy we sanctifie God when we acknowledge him to be holy God sanctifieth us when he makes us what we are not we sanctifie him when we acknowledge him to be what he is These be glorious ends but 3. Another glorious end for which God made the Sabbath was that the Sabbath on Earth might be a type and figure of the Sabbath in Heaven That in this initial and imperfect Sabbath on earth we might see though in a glass darkly what the Saints and Angels are doing in Heaven without ceasing that we might peep into Heaven before we come thither and long and wait for that eternal Sabbath A day wherein God bows the Heaven and comes down and offers himself in ways of sweet and friendly Communion with his people Exod. 20. v. 23. Fourth Duty is As we must call and count it glorious so we must actually honour it or him it may be rendred both and indeed when we honour this day we glorifie God and we glorifie God when we make him our end in honouring his day Without both these we do take Gods Name in vain and do but mock God rather in pretending to keep a Sabbath than glorifie him We must set up God in his own day and in his own Institution And thus I have done with the opening of this blessed Model in the Duties of it I should come now to the Priviledges annexed but sufficient to the day is the travel thereof For the Improvement of this doctrinal Exposition I shall do these two Things 1. I shall endeavour the stating of some Cases of Conscience concerning the Sabbath 2. I shall raise some observations instead of more distinct Uses and application Case 1 If it be inquired what Sabbath it is that is here spoken of we shall not need to stick long upon the solution Some indeed of the Antisabbatical Doctors who love neither the Name nor Thing will needs expound it of the yearly Sabbath the day of the strictest rest among the Jews in their solemn convention for Humiliation and Atonement of which we read Levit. 16.31 and 23.27.31 But surely it is an unreasonable straitning of the text to confine it to this especially since the Prophet had sufficiently insisted upon that subject both by way of reproof and Exhortation in the former part of the chapter Here therefore I conceive we are to understand the Weekly Sabbath not only the seventh day Sabbath which was yet in being but the First day Sabbath also which was to succeed the Prophet being an Evangelical Prophet as one calls him the Evangelist Isaiah speaks of the Evangelical Sabbath which was to continue to the end of the world Rules drawn from the Negative part of this model Rules 1. Note in the first place that from the Creation of the world to this day God never suffer'd his Church to be without a Sabbath As soon as ever there was a Church though it was but in its infancy and confin'd within the narrow limits of a single-family and few souls therein God did immediately institute a Sabbath for it Gen. 2.3 And on the seventh day God ended all his works which
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes There will be no grief where God's presence is in his presence there being fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor â—â—â—ing neither any more pain the full sight of God will cure of all pain and sorrow and fill with delight and joy as Herbert in his Poem called The Glance If thy first glance so powerful be A mirth but opened and seal'd up again What wonders shall we feel when we shall see Thy full eyed love When thou shalt look us out of pain And one aspect of thine spend in delight More than ten thousand Suns disperse in light In Heaven above 3. Pardoned persons shall in Heaven attain a blessed and glorious state a state of peace and tranquillity a state of wealth and plenty a state of honour and dignity a state of holiness and purity a state of perfect happiness and glory in Soul and Body 1. In Heaven pardoned persons shall attain a state of peace of perfect peace and tranquillity they shall have perfect peace without them and they shall have perfect peace within them here they have Wars about them and rumours of Wars and when they don't hear of Wars except it be afar off they have jarrs near at hand and that every day they see Men and Women fighting wounding and murdering one another with the Sword of the Tongue and many are the thrusts vvhich they themselves have received on every side and howsoever desirous they are of peace and follow after it yet they cannot attain it but are forced to complain vvith David Psal 120.6 7. My Soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace I am for peace but when I speak they are for War But in Heaven they shall be hid for ever from the vvounds and scourge of the Tongue Heaven is a Kingdom vvherein dwels righteousness and vvherein dwels peace In Heaven they shall be freed from all strife and contention from all bitterness clamour and evil speaking no unpeaceable Spirit shall be admitted into the new Jerusalem and never shall any the least quarrel arise between the Inhabitants of that place And as they shall have perfect peace without them so they shall have perfect peace within them Here they are often wounding themselves and that more deeply and sorely than any Man can do I mean they too often wound their consciences by their sins and if peace be attained by them through faith in Christ's blood this peace is often interrupted and broken by them through their renewed provocations and at the best their peace it is but imperfect in this life But in Heaven they shall have perfect peace within such a calm and serenity such a quiet and tranquillity of Spirit as shall never have the least disturbance any more In the upper region of the Air there are no storms or tempests all that be are in the middle or lower region and when they are exalted unto the highest Heavens that region which is beyond the Stars they shall be removed beyond all those storms of consciences within and all those tempests of troubles without which are common and ordinary in the lower region of this World there they shall have most sweet rest for their Souls for ever in the bosom of God 2. In Heaven pardoned Persons shall attain a state of wealth and plenty however poor some of them are as to this World's riches yet they shall be Rich yea they are Rich in Faith the Riches which they have in hand or heart rather are great but the Riches which they have in their eye or hope are far greater their Grace is beyond the worldling's Gold their Peace is beyond the worldling's Jewels the priviledges which they are here invested with are far more excellent than the largest earthly Possessions which any worldlings have or hope to have but the Riches which they shall have are far more transcendent here they have only an earnest Penny in Heaven they shall have large sums here they have the first Fruits in Heaven they shall reap the Harvest here they have the Deeds of Conveyance which give them title in Heaven they shall have possession of the uncorrupted and glorious Inheritance 1 Pet. 1.4 They shall have treasures in Heaven which neither Moth nor rust can corrupt nor thieves break through to steal them away Mat. 6.20 In Heaven every want will be supplied every defect removed every desire satisfied in their Father's House there is plenty and bread enough which they shall be enriched and filled with and which they shall live upon to all eternity when Death shall turn others out of their houses rob them of their Estates and bereave them of all that they have in the World Death will befriend them and convey them to the place where their Treasure and Inheritance lyes which they then shall be admitted to the possession of and never be turned out of possession 3. In Heaven pardoned Persons shall attain a state of honour and dignity here some of them yea all of them are slighted and disesteemed vilified and accounted as the filth and offscouring of the World and yet they are really and in God's esteem the most honourable they are the Sons and Daughters of the Lord Almighty as hath been said but they shall be advanced far higher than they are not to a high Seat upon earth but a high Seat above the earth yea above the Stars and visible Heavens they shall sit with Christ on his Throne Rev. 3.21 They shall have a Crown not an Earthly Crown but an Heavenly not a Crown of Gold but a Crown of Glory which fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.4 They shall have a Kingdom in comparison of vvhich all the Kingdoms of the World are not vvorthy to be named it is the Kingdom that is promised to them Mat. 5.3 At the day of Christ's second appearance they shall be honoured vvhen they are sent for by the Angels and caught up in the Clouds to meet their Lord in the Air then he vvill own and Crown them and take them to live and reign vvith them for ever in Heaven 4. In Heaven pardoned Persons shall attain a state of Holiness and purity here they are renewed but in part and their Holiness is imperfect they find corruption remaining and feel it daily vvorking in them vvhich is the greatest grief and trouble to them in the World but in Heaven they shall be made perfect in Holiness they shall have not only perfect Peace but also perfect purity the being of sin shall be removed and all the spots and stains of it shall be vvashed away in Heaven as they shall sigh no more so they shall sin no more as they shall grieve no more so they shall offend no more nothing in Heaven shall offend them and in Heaven they shall no more offend God nothing in Heaven shall break their Peace and they shall no more break God's Laws in Heaven
Your sins are inexcusable your condemnation is unavoidable and your punishment hereafter in Hell will be most dreadful and intolerable Possibly now you are careless and secure sin is sweet and conscience is quiet you are at ease and conscience asleep but will this ease and sleep always continue Is there not a time coming when you shall be awakened If you are not awakened under God's Word may not God awaken you under his Rod If you are not awakened under God's threatnings will you not awake when he cometh to execution If you are secure in the midst of outward peace and prosperity can you be secure in the midst of trouble and adversity Think what you will do when death doth approach Think what a dreadful aspect unpardoned sin will have when you are brought down unto the sides of the pit to the brink and border of eternity and when you are summoned to make your appearance before the highest Majesty O the horrour that then will seize you O the fearfulness that then will surprise you To have the black guilt of drunkenness or swearing of uncleanness or deceiving or any other iniquity to stare you then in the face O how dismal will it be and affrighting And think with what rage and fury your consciences will then reflect upon your fore-past sins especially your neglect of a pardon then unattainable and how tormenting will this be unto you You may then cry out Lord have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us But will God then hear you who have refused to hearken unto him Will Christ regard you who have neglected refused and shut the door of your hearts against him all your days But sinners what will you do at the day of judgment when the Lord Jesus shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance upon you for unpardoned sins That great day will certainly come and it will quickly be here Time runs away swiftly and it will quickly be run out yet a little while and the Angel will lift up his hand and cry with a loud voice and swear by him that liveth for ever and ever that time shall be no longer Rev. 10.5 6. Then the mystery will be finished the prophesie accomplished and the whole frame of this visible world dissolved the Sun then and the Moon will be darkened and the Stars will fall unto the earth as the fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind and the heavens themselves then shall be rolled together as a great scroll and so pass away with a great noise the earth and all the elements shall be on fire and consume away on that day when the Lord Jesus Christ shall appear from Heaven with Millions of mighty Angels in power and brightness of majesty and then you must come out of your graves and will stand trembling before Christ's great Tribunal and none of you will be able to hide your selves under any Rock or Mountain from his angry face Then then you will fully know what a priviledg it is to be pardoned when you see where pardoned persons are placed when you see them gathered to the right hand of the great Judg and there acquitted openly owned graciously and crowned by him with honour and glory and invited by him to take possession of those eternal habitations of rest and joy in his Kingdom prepared for them by his Father But O the tearings of spirit and heart-vexing tormenting grief which you will have that no place is found for you amongst them that through your neglect of pardoning mercy you have forfeited and eternally lost a share in eternal glory and not only so but have by sin also plunged your selves into a bottomless gulf of endless misery Think how dreadful the irreversible sentence of condemnation will be unto you Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Alas Alas sinners what will you do no thought can conceive what your horror will be when you come to reap the bitter fruit of all your unpardoned sins It is the punishment of Hell Sinners which the guilt of sin unremoved doth oblige you to undergo And therefore I am sent this day to forewarn you and in the name of my Master to foretel you that if you do not now sue out for and obtain this forgiveness of sin your sin hereafter will bring eternal ruine and destruction of soul and body in Hell Without a pardon profaneness will be your ruine Some of you it may be can swear and curse and blaspheme the Name of God hereafter God will swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his rest and you shall be banished out of Christ's presence with a curse Depart from me ye cursed c. Those tongues which have been so liberal of oaths and blasphemies must be tormented in flames of fire without one drop of water to cool them Without a pardon drunkenness will be your ruine you that have so often enflamed your selves with wine and strong drink God will enflame you with the wine of his vengeance he will make you to drink the dregs of his wrath which is at the bottom of the cup of his indignation Without a pardon uncleanness will be your ruine your pleasures are empty and of short continuance but your pains will be full hereafter and they will abide for ever Without a pardon unrighteousness will be your ruine your unrighteous gains one day will prove your unspeakable loss and God will be the avenger of all such upon you as have been wronged and defrauded by you Without a pardon your neglect of Christ and Salvation will be your ruine and if you persevere in this neglect it is impossible that you should escape Sinners think seriously and think frequently of your unpardoned iniquities and withal think of the dreadful punishment they will bring upon you think of your eternal damnation unto the most exquisite torments of Hell and then drink on swear on and scoff your fill be unholy and profane unjust and unclean if you think good but know that for all these sins God will bring you to judgment know that these iniquities unpardoned will be your ruine Should I tell you of one that were condemned for some vile fact to be slay'd alive or burnt alive or sawn asunder or dragg'd to pieces with wild horses or starv'd with hunger and cold or any other ways cruelly tortured to death but that he might escape all this misery if he would accept of a pardon ready provided for him and withal leave off such vile facts for the future you would count him worse than mad should he neglect his pardon and expose himself to ruine and misery through his carelesness and obstinacy And yet though you are condemned for sin to far worse torment and misery that which is more dreadful than ten thousand painful deaths and all this mischief and punishment may be avoided and escaped if you will accept of the pardon
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ for we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall we appear in Glory with him Mortifie therefore your earthly Members Fornication Vncleanness inordinate Affections evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry You must not only deny all visible gross ungodliness which even the very Sons of Morality will decline and decay but also all worldly lusts and their secret operations living soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Take heed of slumbring in these secret lusts for ye are children of the light and of the day and therefore take heed that you sleep not as others do but watch and be sober for they that sleep sleep in the night and they that are drunk are drunk in the night but let us who are of the day be sober putting on the Breast plate of Faith and Love and for an Helmet the hope of salvation watching and praying always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape those things which shall befall the foolish Virgins and that ye may stand before the Son of man who is coming with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and therefore be sober and watch unto Prayer seeing the end of all things is at hand and look well to your Lamps which are your Watch-lights that they burn brightly in this World's Midnight and pray particularly for daily supplies of Oil and sincerity in all your Actions and Duties both to God and man never omitting to beg for Death-bed-Grace that so you may live and die to the honour of your Bridegroom And as for this present World use it as if you used it not and have no more to do with it than bare need requireth And set your Hearts and Houses and all your civil secular Affairs in order having your conversations in Heaven whence you look for Christ the Saviour And thus walking with God in the exercise of these gifts of Grace when we come to dye we shall change our places only but not our company And let none of you behold Death at a distance nor have it seldom in your thoughts but daily in your eye that you may not fear it when it cometh A Lion is not terrible to his Keeper that seeth him every day You must frequently converse with God Christ Death and Judgment For when Christ speaketh of his coming to Judgment he so expresseth it as if he were to come in their time to whom he spake it Matth. 24 42. Mark 13.33.35 36 37. Luke 21.34 35 36. And so indeed he did for he comes to every man at the hour of his Dissolution And we are his Agents or Factors in a foreign Land and how soon he may remind us home and call us to an Account we know not Say not therefore My Lord delayeth his coming lest we are thereby rocked into a midnight sleep and scared with a midnight-cry of Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him I shall not detain you much longer You have heard what those Graces are which are chiefly to be exercised in order to an actual preparation for the coming of Christ by Death and Judgment I now commend them to your daily exercise and for your encouragement therein shall leave a few Considerations with you and conclude First That the Door of eternal Rest and Glory shall stand open for you at Christ's coming to you by Death Why 1. Because you are ready and they that are ready go in with the Bridegroom God hath made you meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the Saints in light Col. 1.12 and hath wrought you for the self same thing 2 Cor. 5.5 You are a Vessel of Mercy prepared for Glory Rom. 9.23 2. You admitted Christ into the door of your hearts when there he stood and knocked Rev. 3.20 3. You had your conversation in Heaven whilst you lived here on earth It was your Father's house where you used daily to converse the doors whereof shall open to you at your Death Secondly Consider the place into which you shall be admitted for the wise Virgins shall enter into the King's Palace Psal 45.14 15. into Paradise the third Heavens your Father's House a City that hath foundations whose Builder and Maker is God Heb. 11.10 A magnificent Structure surely that hath such a Builder and Maker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that hath built the City most artificially and curiously and for publick shew as the original words do import Such a City it is yea a Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Mat. 25 34. The first hansel of God's workmanship Gen. 1.1 This is the place whither you shall enter Thirdly You shall enter thither with the Bridegroom even our Lord Jesus Christ and this is heaven enough viz. to be where Christ is Luke 23.42 43. John 14.3 17.24 Phil. 1.23 1 Thess 4.17 Heaven is described by being with Christ And when Christ shall descend from heaven with a shout to judge the world if all the Saints suppose should not descend with him but any of them be left behind what an alteration would they find in heaven whereas all of them going with Christ it is all one as if they were still in heaven with him You know Paul was caught up into the third heavens and yet when he comes to describe heaven and the Saints everlasting happiness there he calls it being for ever with Christ for this is a comprehensive expression How so 1. If the Saints shall be with Christ then shall they be exempt from all troubles and trials these fall off from them like Elijah's Mantle when he went to heaven There is now a glorious door of partition between these and them they are all excluded viz. Sin Sorrow Afflictions Reproaches Necessities Persecutions Poverty Sickness Pain Death Curse wicked men and Devils you shall never be troubled with these any more 2. If they enter in with Christ they shall enjoy the Father in him John 20.17 and be filled with the Holy Ghost from them both and thereby with unspeakable consolations and the fulness of God and they shall live for ever in the immediate contemplation and vision and fruition of one God in three persons and be replenished to the brim with eternal love from them and to them 3. You shall enjoy the fellowship of an innumerable company of Angels and shall then know who they are and love them entirely and be as intimately beloved of them though now in your present state you cannot bear the presence of one of them 4. You shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and enjoy communion with the Spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 All this followeth from your entrance into Heaven with Christ Fourthly Consider that you shall enter into Heaven with Christ the Bridegroom and therefore to be married to him And hence again it will follow 1. That there will be the nearest relation possible between Christ and you for you shall be one conjugally for ever with him You are one with him mystically and matrimonially who is one with the Father essentially 2. You shall be invested with unutterable Glory seeing it is a Marriage-time wherein the Bridegroom and Bride shall shine in the richest Attire and Embroidery that is in all the Wardrobe of Heaven Christ and the Saints shall wear the very same Glory John 17.22 3. There shall be unconceivable Love Joy Delight and Complacency between the Bridegrom and the Bride and as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall the Lord Jesus rejoyce over his Spouse O there will be a most glorious delightful loving sweet familiarity and conjugal rejoycing between Christ Jesus and the Saints Marriage-joy upon earth is usually great what then will that be in heaven when shall be fulfilled thâ—â— which Christ spake at his last Supper I will not drink of the fruit of the Vine until the day that I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom Mat. 26.29 Where by fruit of the Vine we understand Wine which maketh glad the heart of man Psal 104 15. and causeth it to rejoyce and shadoweth out the Love of Christ and Joys of Heaven to us Cant. 1.2 4. And by New we understand other Mark 16.17 with Acts 2.4 in the Original So that in this Marriage there shall be new i. e. other yea othergess wine viz. Love Joy and Rejoycing than there is in the Lord's Supper For Christ who kept the best wine to the last at the Marriage in Cana in Galilee will surely do so at his own Marriage at the last day 4. This Marriage is not on Earth but in Heaven and therefore it shall never dissolve as Marriages on Earth do but continue unto Eternity O how will the Holy Angels rejoice and sing at this Marriage For they that sang at the Birth of Christ when he lay in the Manger will sing to the purpose at his Marriage when he sitteth upon his Throne in the highest Glory Now the consideration of these things is greatly inducing to be very studious in actual preparations for the coming of Christ Be ye therefore much in the exercise of Faith Hope Love Repentance Goodness Mercy and works of Bounty Diligence and Faithfulness in your Callings Sobriety Watchfulness and Prayer that so at last you may have an entrance ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And now Brethren Abide in him that when he shall appear you may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming but lift up your heads with joy unspeakable and full of Glory Hear wisdom therefore and receive instruction that you may be wise in the latter end And God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ make you to encrease in all these Preparatory Graces to the end that he may establish your hearts unblameable in Holiness before God even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints And now Grace be with all them that love him in sincerity Amen FINIS
before we meddle with it 2. Contempt of the world As love of the world is a great impediment so contempt of the world is a great promoter of our love to God may not our contempt of the world be best express'd by our worldly diffidence we have no confidence in it no expectation of happiness from it I take both the understanding and will to be the seat of Faith now to have both these against the world is to have our understanding satisfied that the world cannot satisfie us to look upon the world as an empty Drum that makes a great noise but hath nothing in it and therefore the will doth not hanker after it hath no kindness for it That person is a good proficient in divine love that can make the world serviceable to devotion by drawing arguments from his worldly condition be it what it will to promote piety e. g. Have I any thing considerable in the world I will manage it as a Steward blessed be God he hath entrusted me with any thing whereby I may shew my love to him in my love to his Have I nothing in the world Blessed be God for my freedom from worldly snares God knows I need food and raiment and I am of Jacob's mind p Gen. 28.20 21. if God will give me no more he shall be my God and I will be content whatever my condition be in the world 't is better than Christ's was and Oh that I could love God as Christ did 3. Observation of God's benefits to us 't is goodness and beneficence that draws out love God is our infinite Benefactor the very brutes love their Benefactors q Isa 1.3 Qui beneficia invenit compedes invenit Sen. The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Master's crib but my people doth not consider Who can reckon up the benefits he receives from God the commonest of our mercy deserves a return of love how much more our Spiritual merces those very mercies that are troublesome to us deserve our love e. g. Trouble for Sin though to a degree of horror hungring after Christ though unto languishing disappointments in the world though without satisfaction any where else lamenting after God though with fear we shall never enjoy him Such like throws of anguish make way for spiritual joy and comfort and the Soul that goes through such exercises grows in love to God every day As for other kinds of Benefits I 'le say but this God doth more for us every hour of our lives than all our dearest Friends or Relations on Earth than all the Saints and Angels in Heaven can do so much as once should they do their utmost and can you do less than love him 4. Watchfulness over our own hearts When we love God we are to remember that we love a jealous God This will restrain the stragling of our affections we should keep as careful a watch over our own hearts as we should over a rich Heiress committed to our Guardianship we reckon she 's undone and we shall never be able to look God or Man in the face if she be unworthily match'd through our default Christians your hearts through the condesension of God and Blood and Spirit of Christ are a match for the King of Glory several inferiour objects not worth the naming are earnest suitors we are undone if any but God have our Supream love if you be not severely watchful this heart of yours will be stoln away be perswaded therefore to examine every thing that you have cause to suspect call your selves often to an account be jealous of your hearts and of every thing whereby you may be endangered 5. Prayer All manner of Prayer is singularly useful to enflame the heart with love to God Those that pray best love God best mistake me not I do not say those that can pray with the most florid expressions or those that can pray with the most general applause but they that most feel every word they speak and every thought they think in Prayer they whose apprehensions of God are most over-whelming whose affections to God are most Spiritually passionate whose Prayers are most wrestling and graciously impudent this is the man that prayes best and loves God best I grant these are the Prayers of a great proficient in the love of God but you may pray for this frame when you cannot pray with it The Soul never falls sick of divine love in Prayer but Christ presently gives it an extraordinary visit (r) Cant. 2.5 6. so soon as ever Christ's Spouse sayes she is sick of love the next words she speaks are that his left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me Compare that with those words (s) Cant. 6 5 Turn away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me Christ speaks as of being overcome and conquer'd Rouze up your selves therefore give your selves unto Prayer Pray for a more Spiritual discovery of Gods amiableness did you know God better you could not but love him more and none can discover God to us as he discovers himself so spiritually so powerfully take no denyal God will never be angry with your being importunate for hearts to love him Bradward de causa dei l. 1. p. 118 119. O my God it is thy self I love above all things 't is for thy self in thee my desires are terminated and therefore what wilt thou give me if thou wilt not give me thy self thou wilt give me nothing If I find thee not I find nothing thou dost not at all reward me but vehemently torment me heretofore when I sought thee finally for thy self I hop'd that I should quickly find thee and keep thee and with this sweet hope I comforted my self in all my labours but now if thou deny me thy self what wilt thou give me shall I be for ever disappointed of so great a hope shall I always languish in my love shall I mourn in my languishment shall I grieve in my mourning shall I weep and wail in my grief shall I alwayes be empty shall I alwayes disconsolately sorrow incessantly complain and be endlesly tormented O my most good most powerful most merciful and most loving God thou dost not use so unfriendly and like an enemy to despise refuse wound and torment those that love thee with all their heart soul and strength that hope for full happiness in thee Thou art the God of truth the beginning and end of those that love thee thou dost at last give thy self to those that love thee to be their perfect and compleat happiness Therefore O my most good God grant that I may in this present life love thee for thy self above all things seek thee in all things and in the life to come find thee and hold thee to eternity 6. Meditation A duty as much talk'd of and as little practis'd as any duty of Christianity Did you but once a day In that time of the day which
out of his free good will to shew himself benevolentem hominibus as Grotius expresseth it gracious and favourable to man in that way of accepting him through Christ 2. The season of Grace is called the day of Salvation further to shew the Sect. 10 advantageousness of this season unto the improvers thereof We must not take Salvation here so largely as for deliverance from any evil or danger or the preservation from any trouble or distress nor must we take Salvation here so strictly and narrowly as to import only eternal Salvation in Heaven as it is taken Rom. 13.11 Now is your Salvation nearer than when you believed and heirs of Salvation Heb. 11.14 Nor must you take it so strictly as to import only the means of Salvation as it doth often in the Scripture Act. 28.28 Salvation is of the Gentiles but Salvation in this place comprehends both that happiness which is perfect and compleat in Heaven and also the entrance into it and the beginning of it in this life fitness for Salvation here and the fulness of Salvation hereafter in which sense the Gospel is called the Gospel of Salvation in Eph. 1.13 and the word of Salvation in Act. 13.29 and the Long-suffering of God is to be accounted Salvation in 2 Pet. by Salvation in these places being meant a fitness for Eternal Salvation by receiving the Gospel and improving the Long-suffering of God and the means of Grace and our being brought to the full Fruition of it in Glory So in this place the day of Salvation is that season wherein God bestows an entrance into Salvation here followed with a full perfection of it hereafter And so I have opened the sense of these two arguments whereby the Apostle urgeth us to the present improvement of the season Grace both as this is a season of fitness for working and so called a Time a Day and as 't is a Season of advantageousness to the worker and so called an accepted time wherein God accepts of sinners to be reconciled to them and a day of Salvation by the improving whereof God will certainly bring his People to the Fruition and the perfect Participation of Life and Salvation in Heaven Now having thus explained and opened the Sense of these two Arguments I shall only in the second place 2. Shew you the force and strength of them both distinctly to engage us to a present improvement of the season of Grace 1. And First I shall shew you the force of the first Argument and that is the fitness of this present season of Grace for our working and employment It is saith the Apostle 1. The Time 2. The Day Sect. 11 1. It is the Time I shewed you in the explaining of the sense of the first Argument the meaning of the word Time I told you it did clearly import tempestivity opportunity the flower the cream the lustre the beauty of time But how doth this consideration that the present Season of Grace is the time of opportunity urge and inforce the duty of a present improving of the season of Grace In answer whereunto I offer these following considerations 1. The First is this The time of opportunity is that which we may easily let slip It is tempus labile a time that may easily slip between our fingers especially in Spiritual concernments It is needful therefore now instantly to lay hold upon it Opportunity is hardly embraced The learned Pharisees could not discern their opportunity by discerning the signs of Christ's coming as you have it in Mat. 16. and the beginning Nor could the Jews know their opportunity it was hidden from their eyes Luk. 19.42 Who is as the wise man saith Solomon in Eccl. 8. that is how rarely is the wise man to be found Where is he to be found But why so The wise man saith he discerneth time and judgment that is he is able to judge when things are to be done and therefore 't is rare to find such a wise man Embracing of opportunity is a wisdom that God alone must teach us by considering the shortness of our time to be so wise as to improve it Psal 90.12 And God concealeth the season the nick the juncture of time wherein he will bestow Grace upon us because he would have us always watchful and dependent upon him humble and serious in regarding every season It is easie to know seasons for civil affairs easy to know the season of a trade to sow to reap to buy to sell But in those affairs that concern our Souls it is hard to find out when they are to he performed Opportunity is so very short and sudden and men are so blinded with avocations pleasures prejudices and vain hopes that sometimes these make the season of regarding their Souls appear too soon sometimes they are so blinded with fear and discouragements by dangers and difficulties and seeming impossibilities that they think it too late So that indeed between sinful hope and fear it is hard to pitch upon the right season and nick of time for the saving of our Souls In every business but especially saving business the most difficult part of the work is the due limiting of it In our voyage to Heaven it is hard to save our tide not one of a thousand but lets it slip 2. Secondly Opportunity must be presently embraced and improved because the improving of it is a man's greatest wisdom They are called wise who so consider their latter end as that they pursue the present season of duty Deut. 32.29 They are the wise that discern time and judgment Eccl. 8.5 that is that discern the opportunity so as to have judgment for the embracing of it Therefore in Eccl. 10.2 The wise man's heart is said to be in his right hand that is the wisdom of his heart teacheth him to dispatch his affairs judiciously and dextrously both for manner and season The want of this wisdom discerning the season maketh a man like unto a beast Psal 49.20 It is worse to be like a beast than to be a beast To be a beast is no sin and comparatively no punishment But to be like a beast is both in a high degree Yea the very brute Creatures they are far wiser than is he that neglects his opportunity of Grace The Stork the Turtle the Crane the Swallow observe their seasons of coming into several Countries Jer. 8.7 8. They know their appointed season but my people know not the judgment of the Lord not discern the course or manner of God's dealings so as to embrace duty and avoid danger It is called a fool's property to want a heart when he hath a price that is an opportunity put into his hand to get wisdom Prov. 17.16 And therefore the 5 Virgins even for this piece of folly are called foolish even to a Proverb because they were not so wise as to know their opportunity And let a man be never so prudent for the world if he knoweth not the
poor prodigal spendeth above his estate Time in the whole compass of it is but short 1 Cor. 7.29 The time of particular persons is shorter and the time of season and present opportunity is the shortest of all Our present season our day it is but like the few sands in the little middle hole of the hour-glass The sand in the upper glass is uncertain whether ever to run one sand more or no that 's the time to come That in the lower glass is as the time spent and past but the few sands in the narrow middle hole are as the present season and only ours Non tam liberale nobis dedit tempus Natura ut aliquid ex eo liceat perdere saith Seneca Nature hath not dealt so liberally with us as that it doth allow us to mispend any of the little time it hath given us We are prodigal of time though covetous of a penny We are more profuse of our time cujus unius honesta est avaritia of which alone there is an honest covetousness You may have many pieces of gold together in your hand but you can have but one day of Grace at once 't is but one day 2. It is a day and therefore that which cannot be recalled when it is spent and done The loss of a day is an irrecoverable loss Who can restore the loss of a day nec cursum supprimit nec revocat tempus Time doth neither suppress it's course nor recall it neither doth it slack it nor revoke it As time stops not so time returns not If thy House be burnt or thy goods stoln or thy Lands forfeited Friends can make a supply of those losses but if all thy Friends nay Creatures in Heaven and in Earth should conspire to make thee happy they cannot with all their combined industry and united forces restore thee to one of those good hours in the day of Grace that thou hast foolishly mispent Esau lost his day and he could not recall it with tears The knocking of the foolish Virgins could not break open the shut door of Heaven When thy sun is set and thy day compleatly ended thy sun will never rise more I have heard of one that wantonly threw a Jewel into the Sea and they say the Jewel was brought to him in the belly of a fish that was served up to his table I know not how true this is but who or what shall ever bring back to thee the Jewel of thy lost day none shall ever bring back this Jewel to thy table if thou wilt throw it away by wantonness and negligence God will not turn thy glass when it is once out What the fall was to Angels that is death to man 3. It is a day and this should put us upon the present improving of it for it is a clear day a lightsome day The sun of Righteousness is risen The day-sping from on high hath visited our Horizon with the light of the Gospel Now a lightsome a sun-shiny day is to be regarded improved for the present 'T is a dark day indeed compared with Heaven but it is light compared with the shadows of Judaism or the fogs of Popery Work work work apace you that have the sun-shine of the Gospel I wish I could not say I see a Cloud far bigger than a man's hand and I hear a noise of much rain Now you have sun-shine cock your Hay shock your Corn a pace wanton not away your Summer least you beg in Winter God by giving of you so fair a day sheweth not that your Sun will alwaies shine but that now thou shouldst work Slumber not away a sun-shiny day in harvest The day and such a day is surely intended for working Man goeth forth to his work till the evening the night is for sleep but the day especially a sun-shiny day a clear day for working 4. It is a day and therefore puts us upon the present improving of it because it is a wasting day a day that passeth and runneth apace We usually say the day is far spent The day goeth whether you sit still or no the sun runs yea like a Gyant like a strong man though thou creepest like a cripple Though the passenger sleeps in the Ship the Ship carrieth him apace towards his Haven thou art idle but time hurrieth thee to the grave Time is winged thy hour-glass needs no jogging there is no stopping the stream of time It was a notable speech of one once to a person that was in a fit of anger Sir saith he Domine sol ad occasum the sun is going down this is my caution to every lazy Christian if the sun must not go down upon your wrath surely it must much less go down upon your loitering If the sun in the Heavens must not go down upon your Wrath the sun of your life should not be suffered to go down upon your Laziness Cum celeritate temporis utendi velocitate certandum est saith Seneca Our swiftness in work must contend with the swiftness of the time in which we work Thou dost not see thy time going but shortly thou wilt see it gone like the insensible moving hand of a dial which though thou dost not see it moving yet thou seest it hath moved 5. It is a day and therefore puts us upon the present improving of it For it is possible yet that in this thy day thy work may be done before sun set if thou beest speedy Despair not for then industry will be frozen The bridge of mercy is not yet drawn there is yet a possibility for thee to get over to a blessed eternity 'T is bad to say It is too soon though most have said so too often but it is worse to say It is too late I confess thy morning was thy golden hour and had been far the fittest for thy employment but the evening time is better than no time I dare not write despair upon any man's forehead If God will help us much work may be done in a little time but yet God must step in with a Miracle almost if thou shouldst run back the mispent age of 40 or 50 years in an hour or two surely you must fly rather than run 6. It is a day and for ought you know It may be your last day and therefore improve that present day You have no assurance of another from the upper glass of the hour-glass thou canst not be assured of one sand more Often say thou therefore to the day wherein thou livest art thou my last or may I look for another Though thou art young it may prove thy last day Death taketh us not by Seniority The new pitcher may be as easily broken as the old And which is a more severe consideration the Spirit of God possibly may never knock at the door of thy heart again never strive in thee never strive with thee Death may knock next and remember he will easily break into thy body though thy
Minister could not get into thy Soul Death never cometh without a warrant yet it often comes without a warning We do not live by patent but we live at pleasure How knowest thou that the candle of the Ministry shall shine one Sabbath longer The message shall alwaies live but the messenger is alwaies dying The clods of the Earth may soon stop that mouth that so frequently and unfruitfully hath given thee the word of life He the light now of his place and of his people may be blown out by violence as well as burnt out by death Thou canst not say but God may soon make that ear of thine deaf that now thou stoppest God may soon blind those eyes which now thou shuttest It is a peradventure whether God will ever give repentance or no. God hath made many promises to repentance but he hath made none of repentance If to day thou saist thou wilt not to morrow thou maist say thou canst not pray It is just with God that he who while he liveth forgets God when he dies should forget himself I have heard of a profane miscreant that being put upon speedy repentance and turning to God scoffingly answered if I do but say three words when I come to dye Miserere mei Domine Lord have mercy upon me I am sure to be happy This miserable wretch shortly after falling from his horse and receiving thereby a deadly wound had indeed time to speak three words as the relation informed me but those three words were these Diabolus capiat omnia Let the Devil take all Thou dost not know what thy last words shall be the very motions of thy tongue and of thy heart are all in the hands of that God whose grace thou hast despised 7. It is a day That requireth present improvement because it is followed with a night a night that is dark as pitch The night cometh wherein no man can work So saith our Lord Joh. 9.4 There is neither work nor invention in the grave In the dark thou mayest see to bewail thy not working in the light but in the dark there is no working Sorrow then will not help thee couldst thou make hell to swim with thy tears Thy tears are only of worth in time Put not off your working till the time wherein you must leave work It is perfect madness not to think of beginning to work till the time of working is at an end Nemo finitis nundinâ—s exercet mercaturam What man after the fair will go then to buy and sell There is no negotiation but in the time of the fair the season of grace The spiritual manna of grace is only to be gathered in the six days of thy life The time after this is a time of rest wherein there is no more work to be done to procure Salvation If this be the day of thy death tomorrow cannot be the day of thy repentance It is miserable to have that to do for lack of time which is to do for loss of time Thus I have shewn you how we are put upon present improving the season of Grace As 't is here termed a day or in respect of the nature of the Season Sect. 13 2. Secondly In regard of the workers in this day we are urged from hence to a present improving of the season of grace 1. How little have we wrought in this day of grace What a pitiful account and yet an account must be given of this Day can we give unto God of thousands of Sabbaths and repetitions of ordinances and opportunities of life that we have enjoyed You have been perhaps long in the world and under the means of grace but can you say you have lived long 'T is one thing for passengers in a ship to be a great while tost in the Sea and another thing for them to sail a great way You have been long in the world tossed up and down with many temptations and impetuous corruptions and violent affections but which of you have sailed much or gone forward in your course to Heaven with any considerable progress Little is to be seen in the copies of your lives besides blots and empty spaces Much paper hath been spent with wide lines Had you not need now towards the end of the side to write the closer to redeem the time as the Apostle expresseth it Eph. 5.16 We should redeem our time out of the hands of those that have taken it captive out of the clutches of those vain employments that have so often taken it captive Now in all redemptions there is the laying down a price for the party that is redeemed But what is that price you are to lay down for your time when it is to be redeemed I will tell you Id quod perdis pretium est saith Augustin That which you lose in your worldly employments in your idle recreations in your vain visits in your exorbitant eatings and drinkings that time that you take from these to give to God and your Souls that is the price that you lay down for the redeeming of seasons for your Souls It is miserable for our work to be undone for want of time when we are dying when it is undone for the loss of time while we are living 2. How great is the wo of those whose Day is done and yet their work is not done but still to do You have seen their end upon Earth but you have not heard their cries and their self-bewailings in hell How many have been cut off before your eyes who ceased to be before they began to live Improve examples lest you become examples Your Schooling is cheap when it is at the cost of another Let the lashes of Divine severity that have fallen upon others quicken thee in thy Spiritual pace and travelling towards Heaven Why should God stay for you rather than for them Thou canst not mispend thy time at so cheap a rate as they did by whom God hath warned thee Hell is not so full of Souls as it is of delayed purposes What would not lost Souls give for a crum of that time of which now in this world they make Orts If the foresight of their tears for neglecting the Day of grace fetched tears from Christ Luk. 19.41.42 How great shall the feeling be of the Eternal effects of their inexcusable folly How Exuberant but unfruitful shall be the flood of their own tears for their former slothfulness never enough to be bewailed because never at all to be repaired Surely a small loss could not draw tears from so great a Person as the Son of God 3. Many by beginning betimes in the morning of their day have done more work than thou a delayer canst now accomplish They should provoke thee to a holy jealousie They setting forth for Heaven in the morning have travelled further in that morning than thou hast done in that long Summer's day wherein thou hast been slothful What a shame is it that some should be
in looking after riches and honour and the vanities of the World Oh! but now now now pursue Salvation It is a must-be and if the present time be gone you may be undone for ever 2. Salvation is that which imports rest and satisfaction Salvation it is the Soul's quietation and ease Heaven is that center of the Soul you are never at rest till you come there Now the object of rest is speedily to be pursued How doth every thing hasten to its rest its center how doth the stone with eagerness hasten to the Earth when thrown from the top of an high steeple how swiftly doth the fire fly upwards to its rest to its center with what a rapid motion with what a fierce career do the Rivers run into the Sea they are going to their place the place of waters Is Heaven thy rest is Heaven thy center why is thy tendency to it so sluggish You owe unto life Eternal all those propensions and all those inclinations wherewith all the things of the World are carried to the centers The speed that the wicked make in getting to Hell proclaims that Hell is their proper place and center though not for rest but restlessness Shall every thing hasten to rest but thy Soul it was the speech of Naomi to her Daughter my Daughter shall I not seek rest for thee Oh that every one would say unto his Soul my Soul shall I not look after rest for thee in the bosom of God and the eternal fruition of himself the little Infant that cryes for sleep will rise up in judgment against a sinner that doth not look after the rest of his Soul That little Infant that cryes for sleep out-goeth thee in wisdom 3. It is a day of Salvation and the pursuing of Salvation is Opus grande a great work a vast employment many things are required to accomplish it many lusts to be subdued many duties to be discharged many temptations to be resisted many relations to be filled Now a great work must be begun betimes If you had but a little to do in the day you might lie in bed a great while in the morning but you have a vast work to do and therefore get up early Some poor Creatures will rise up early to washing a pitiful work to the cleansing of thy Soul a far greater work surely than to wash clothes If you had a thousand Souls they might all be employed for the obtaining of Salvation If every singer were a hand they might all be employed in getting of Salvation He that hath many Children to look after and a small Estate many to feed and cloath he saith I must rise early and sit up late None have so much business as a Christian The work of Christianity is never at an end The art of Religion is never learned There is still an c. still something remaining to be done Blessed Paul thought himself far from perfection I do not look upon my self as having attained the best have much more to be done than they have already done I have read of a famous Limner who when he had wrought his picture in the best and most curious manner would never write at the bottom feci but faciebam I did it not I have done it because he judged he had never wrought any picture so well but he might work it better and add something more of art to it A Christian's art is never complete while he liveth in this world nor ever did a Saint think himself a complete Artist How exceeding large are the commands of God! how little is our most and how bad is our best compared with the rule 4. This delaying in the pursuit of Salvation is a delaying to be freed from the greatest evil What is that the wrath of God guilt damnation hell Delaying to be freed from extreme miseries is confuted by constant experience what condemned Malefactor will delay to get free from his chains from his dungeon from the sentence of death what tormented person upon the rack will say I must consider before I accept of ease and when ease and riddance from the rack are offered if instantly he will accept thereof will say I will consider of it I will give answer of it hereafter if a dust fly into the eye thou hastest to get it out and wilt thou not hast to ease thy soul who ever deliberated whether he would come out of the fire or no 't is more mad to deliberate whether thou wilt be saved or no and get out of the state of damnation Here is no place for deliberation 't is no measuring cast 5. Salvation it is our Own concern it is Opus proprium our own business it is not another's It may be a slothful apprentice will be backward to rise in the morning when he is to do his Master's business but when he sets up for himself and is to gather an Estate for himself he will go about his business speedily Salvation is a work for your selves the gain thereof is your own gain Whatever you get here goes into your own purse Here if you are wise you are wise for your selves Prov. 9.12 Oh that we had more true self-love the common self-love in the world is imployed about our bodily self the shell the sheath of the true self which is the body Few men truly love their true self 't is a common proverb interest will not lye yet the Soul that delays Salvation his interest lyes He walks contrary to it and neglects that wherein all his blessedness doth consist make sorts of his own Salvation 6. It is a day of Salvation and Salvation recompences for all earliness and earnestness Salvation maketh amends for all the sufferings and services of time How poor how short and slight is our work compared with our wages If there could be any trouble in Heaven it would be this that we have laboured for it no more and no sooner upon Earth Thou hast no more to live on to Eternity than what thou layest up here As our obedience is small compared with our rule prescribed so it is very small compared with our recompence promised Though nothing can recompence for the neglect of Salvation yet Salvation can recompence for the neglecting of all other things Nor only doth it recompence for our neglecting of all things but for our being neglected of all persons and for all our reproaches for our early pursuing it all which will easily be confuted with this answer 't is better to be reproached and derided for being too speedy than damned for being too slow in entring into Heaven's way 't is more easy to bear the scorns of the World than the scourges of Conscience I conclude We can never regard Salvation too soon for we can never either injoy it or think we can enjoy it too long What Spiritual knowledge they ought to seek for that desire to be saved and by what means they may attain it Serm. V. Isaiah 27.11
such as the Authority Perfection c. of the Scripture and the Sufficiency of Christ's satisfaction and intercession And to come nearer to our selves one great truth which hath been more clearly known and published in our age is the Doctrine of Chist's Kingly office and legislative power in relation to his Church in opposition to the usurpations and impositions of Men. Now then we say that Men are called at such times especially to study such truths because God doth then give them the best means and advantages for the knowing of them or they may then do him best service in maintaining them and bearing testimony to them vvhen the Devil and his instruments do most oppose them It is a shame for Professors not to see when the World is so full of light not to have the knowledge of those truths in the minds the talk of which is in every Man's mouth Prop. 5. Men should labour for such knowledge as may defend them from the errors of the times and places in which they live This I add to second the former Proposition from whence it follows Thus Paul labours to establish the Saints to whom he writes chiefly the Churches before mentioned against the then prevailing errors of those whether Jews or false Brethren among themselves vvho endeavoured to bring in the Ceremonial Law upon the Professors of the Gospel and therefore bids the Galatians ch 5.1 stand fast in their liberty c. Doctrinal error tends to the corruption of worship And the Apostle John in his Epistles gives caution against those seducing Spirits and Antichrists that vvere even then among the Churches 1 John 4. beginning We find by experience that as there be some Doctrines more especially known and published in their respective times and ages so likewise several ages and many times places have their peculiar errors either new ones first forged or old ones new burnished The Devil makes it his business and even sets his wits upon the tenters to furnish the World with variety of lies suitable to the various humours and Interests of Men and when one error is detected begins to smell rank and go out of date through the power and prevalency of the truth he carefully provides another to succeed it and if a new one be not at hand as if his invention failed him he many times conjures up some old dead one and makes it vvalk about in a new dress and pass for some new or newly revived truth vvhen indeed it is but the Apparition of a long since buried error As Merchants are vvont to observe what commodities please most in such and such places and at such and such times and accordingly take care to supply the markets So the Devil looks what wares vvill vend best in such a Country at such a season vvhat vvill be most grateful to the lusts and interests of Men and then will be sure to supply them with those most which he sees take most Diseases have their times and seasons and are then most dangerous vvhen they prevail most and spread farthest Errors have their times and seasons too Rev. 3.10 there is an hour of these as well as other temptations when they are most infectious and dangerous and therefore as vvhen diseases are epedemical every one almost will be taking Antidotes So vvhen Errors are Epidemical it is the vvisdom of every Christian to fence himself against them And though vve do not say that every private Believer is bound to be a School-divine to be exact in all the niceties and Controversies which may arise about matters of Religion a Man may be saved that never read Aquinas nor Scotus yet sure every one that is capable of it should labour so to understand the Doctrine of Religion as to be able to know what is Truth and what is Error and to be so established in the belief of the truth as that though he cannot answer all the Quirks and Captions of a wrangling Sophister yet he may see a reason as before for vvhat he believes and for his firmly adhering to it As if a subtle disputer should bring an Argument to prove that the Sun is not up at noon day though a Man were not able presently to discover the fallacy yet he would not lightly believe a thing so contrary to his very sense It is good I am sure for Christians to be so established against reigning errors as that though an Angel from Heaven should labour to propagate them yet to be pertinacious and graciously obstinate in rejecting them Prop. 6. Men should seek especially for such knowledge and study such truths as have the greatest influence upon practice and so may make them most useful in their places and may further them most in the universal exercise of powerful Godliness Indeed the whole Doctrine of the Gospel is called the truth which is according to Godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 There is no one truth revealed by God to us but may have it's use in our conversations and influence on our practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thâ—â—d But yet some truths more directly and immediately than others and such as those we should especially study We should labour to know not only what we must believe but what we must do not only what thoughts we are to have of God but what affections towards him that so not only our minds may be established but our conversations rightly ordered We must not rest in the bare knowledge even of the greatest truths nor labour to know merely that we may know or that we may talk but that we may act suitably to our knowledge Discamus non opinioni sed vitae We should learn not merely that we may be able to maintain an Opinion but that we may know how to guide our Lives and Govern our Actions The knowledge of the most excellent Truths may be unprofitable to us if we know not our duty too It is best for us to know those things which may make us best Such as may further our Graces rather than heighten our Reputation make us rather useful than Famous and serviceable to God rather than admired by Men. It is a vain thing to know what to hold and not know what to do to understand Controversie and be Ignorant of Duties Ne quaere saith one in scientiâ oblectamentum animae sed remedium We should not Labour to know these things merely which may delight our Minds but such as may heal our Souls to know our distemper and our Medicines our Wandrings and our Way our Defects and our Duties And not only those things neither which concern us as Christians in the General but in such Ranks Orders and Relations as God hath set us in and so that which is every Man 's special duty should be every Man 's special study As Ministers should know how to behave themselves in the House of God 1 Tim. 3.15 So should Magistrates how they are to behave themselves in the Commonwealth Masters in their
holy of the Lord twice in this 13. verse and this not in reference only to the seventh day but in reference to the first day of the week which this Evangelical Prophet had then by divine revelation in his eye How much more doth it concern us who are reserved to this glorious Administration under the Gospel to own the Divine right of the Evangelical Sabbath Surely it is the voice of the glorious Trinity that calls it my holy day God the Father by Creation God the Son by Redemption and God the Holy Ghost by Sanctification sending down a rich and plentiful effusion of Gifts and Graces upon the Apostles for the enabling them to go forth and convert the Gentiles by the preaching of the Gospel To deny God his own right is Sacriledge and Atheism We learn from hence that we must give God the whole Entire day my day saith God a few hours or the forenoon vvill not serve Gods turn but he challengeth the whole time as his own peculiar There is a great dispute amongst Divines when the Sabbath begins and when it ends the text determineth the controversie saith God all is mine The vvhole 24 hours is Sabbath look how many hours vve reckon to our days so many hours vve must reckon to Gods days also if vve vvill be ingenuous Obj. But vvho is able to spend the vvhole 24 hours in religious duties without any intermission Answ None neither is it required for neither do we our selves on our days spend the whole 24 hours in the imployments of our particular places and callings but vve allow our selves a sleeping time and a time for preparing our food and a time for eating and drinking and other refreshments of nature both for our selves and our relations and so doth God also provided always 1. That vve be not overlavish and prodigal in our indulgences to the flesh and the concernments of the outward man that vve exceed not our limits of Christian sobriety and moderation 2. Provided that we do not those things with common spirits we must eat and drink and sleep as part of the Sabbath-work with heavenly minds and Sabbath affections The occasional Sabbaths amongst the Jews gave them a greater latitude no more time of those days being counted holy than was spent in the publique service of the day which continued but from nine of the clock in the morning when the morning sacrifice was to be offered and ended at three of the clock in the afternoon at evening sacrifice But the weekly Sabbath was holy in the whole extent of it not indeed by constitution but by institution and consecration God blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it i. e. set it apart for divine and holy uses of which more infra In our sanctifying of the Sabbath Rule or Note we must have an equal respect to the negative prohibition as to the affirmative injunction i. e. to what is forbidden as well as what is commanded è contra And this is a rule which holds in the exposition of all the Commandments of the Law and of the Gospel Cease to do evil and learn to do good The negative and affirmative precept have such a mutual relation one to another that one doth infer the other and take away one and you destroy the other It is impossible to do what is commanded without due care of avoiding what is prohibited neither can that man rationally pretend to keep the Sabbath that lieth a bed all day because he doth not work not he that followeth his servile labour because possibly he may perform some religious duties What God hath joined together let no man put asunder Carnal sports and pleasures are as great a profanation of the Sabbath as the most servile labour and drudgery in the world Dicing and carding do as much violate the Law of the Sabbath as digging and carting playing as much as ploughing dancing and morrice-games as much as working in the smiths-forge Bowling and shooting as well as hewing of wood and drawing of water The reasons are clear for 1. Sports and pleasures are as expresly forbidden as bodily labour in our ordinary vocation for he that said thou shalt do no manner of work said also thou shalt not find thine own pleasures c. 2. Sports and pleasures are as inconsistent with a Sabbath frame of spirit as the grossest labour in our calling yea I 'le undertake that a man in his particular calling may more easily get good thoughts of God and of eternal life c. than a person that is drench't and immers't in vain delights and sports In such cases men are usually so intent upon their sports and pastimes that it is not easie to edge in a good serious thought in the midst of sensual delights Tota in toto tota in quâliâ—et parte A man in his carnal pleasures is like the soul in the body All in all and all in every part of their pleasing vanities pleasures do fox and intoxicate the brain when as labour is apt to make them serious and considerate 3. Reason Pleasures are as great diversions from the duty of a Sabbath as labours It is conceived Adam should have had a Sabbath in Paradise had he persisted in innocence why not because his dressing of the garden would have wearied him for weariness is the fruit of sin but his dressing of the garden would have been a diversion from attending his Creator in the Ordinances of a Sabbath 4. Carnal pleasures leave a defilement on the spirits and so do totally unfit the soul for communion with God That Character lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God how fully doth it agree to such kind of profaners of the Sabbath Pleasures draw off the mind from God and justly cause God to withdraw from the soul how totally doth this indispose to Sabbath work In heaven they cease not day and night saying holy holy holy c. Oh Christians never think of reconciling carnal pleasure and Communion with God together it is impossible 7th Obs Not speaking thine own words The Sabbath is polluted by words as well as by works Christ will judge men in the great day for their words and by them will he either justifie thee for sanctifying the Sabbath or condemn thee for profaning of it I am afraid it is the great controversie God hath with this nation not only profane but even professors are all guilty of not sanctifying the name and Day of God in their talk and discourses upon the Sabbath Day If Jesus Christ should join himself to our Tables Luke 24.15 16 17. or lesser companies as he did with the two Disciples going to Emaus and ask us what manner of communications are these which ye have one with another how might the question fill our faces with paleness and strike us speechless Alass who can tell what day it is by mens discourses and conferences one with another how vain foolish unprofitable and unsavory is most
17 18. May we therefore say that by reason of their Ignorance they took that Name of God his Word in vain No this was not a vain business for in this way they understood the words of Christ at last the meaning whereof they knew not at first 3. Catechizing may be considered under a double notion 1. In regard of the present Action 2. As it is an Introduction and preparation to the future and further knowledg of God Now though little ones do not at first so understand as to use with due reverence the Name and things of God yet it follows not that they take God's Name in vain because they repeat good things in order to and for the gaining of such a knowledg of God and of those Holy things as whereby they afterwards come to use them more reverently And therein the first use of them though not so reverent hath a part as being preparatory to it and having an influence into it and working as a good means for the begetting of it Do not we teach little Ones their Letters by signs and certain petty devised sayings and resemblances which put them in mind of their Letters And this is not a vanity but a way suited to their narrow capacities to make them learn them the sooner So in this and the like cases the first Rudiments are still to be taken and judged of not in a way of disjunction from what follows after but as a preparation to it and being so taken they are not vain but material things because they serve to very considerable ends It is neither vanity nor Hypocrisie saith a reverend Author to help Children first to understand words and signs Baxter's Christian Directory p. 582. in order to their early understanding of the matter and signification Otherwise no Man may teach them any Language or to read any words that be good because they must first understand the words before the meaning If a Child learn to read in a Bible it is not taking God's Name or Word in vain though he understand it not for it is in order to his learning to understand it And it is not vain which is to so good a use Thus for Parents 2. Nor are Christian Ministers and Governors of Families together with School-Instructors and Tutors less obliged to take care of the Religious Instruction and Education of their respective Servants and Pupils which clearly appears from hence 1. The Lord commands it and expects it at the hands of Masters When others intrust Masters with the bodies of Servants God intrusts them with their Souls commands them to take care of them as for which they must and shall give a strict account Lo here saith God is a poor mean Servant but he hath a precious and an immortal Soul A Soul purchased with the same Blood of God-Man that his Master 's was and himself though never so vile in the eye of sense Col. 3.11 yet capable of being made a Co-heir with Christ in Heaven Take this Man and take care of him as thou wilt answer it at the great Day If this Soul perish through thy default thy Life shall go for his Look to it therefore Masters give to your Servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven Do not use them as Slaves as Beasts but rather as Fellow-servants of the same Lord Col. 4.1 In this Text we may observe a Divine Precept and a perswasive Argument to back that Precept 1. The Precept Ye Masters give unto your Servants 1. That which is just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecon. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatever is due to them by any positive contract legality or obligation Aristotle names three things as due to Servants Work Food Correction To which since our Servants are usually such as are not so by conquest but by compact we may add a fourth viz. Wages Moderate Work convenient Food due Correction proportionable Wages 2. Not only that which is just but that which is equal too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dav. in Col. 4.1 And this refers not to the works themselves of Servants and Masters but to the mind and manner of doing which ought to bear a due proportion in both v. gr Col. 3.22 Servants are commanded to obey their Masters in all things not with eye-service but in singleness of heart fearing God and as serving the Lord Christ And Masters are required to return them that which is equal when they rule them piously and religiously That is just which the Law of Nature or Nations requires that is equal which true Christian Charity and meekness requires and which is due to servants by a moral obligation 2. The Argument Knowing i. e. holding this for an undoubted principle believing it and constantly remembring that Masters on Earth have a Superiour Master in Heaven As Servants if gracious are Gods Sons and thereby may be comforted so Masters are God's Servants and thereby may be caution'd Are Masters eyes on their servants to see whether they do their duties faithfully so God's eye watcheth them much more to observe whether they carry themselves in their Relation conscientiously Holy Job Job 31 13◠stood in aw of this great Master and acted accordingly Eph. 6.5 to 8. Servants must be obedient unto their Masters as unto Christ as serving the Lord Christ and the Masters must instruct and command in Christ Mr. Dod that great Servant of our Lord Jesus Christ from Exod. 20.10 gravely observes from those words Thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter nor thy Man-servant nor thy Maid-servant c. That it belongs to all Family-Governours to see that their servants and all inferiours under their charge holily observe and keep the Lord's Day 2. I argue from those many and great benefits which accrue from the holy instruction of Servants and other Family inferiours 1. The Church is in an immediate capacity to receive benefit by it If Mistresses of Families did their parts and sent such polished materials to the Churches as they ought to do the work and life of the Pastors of the Church would unspeakably be more easie and delightful What a reviving of heart would it be to us to Preach to such an Auditory to Catechize instruct examine and watch over them who are so prepared by a wise and holy education and understand and love the Doctrine which they hear How teachable and tractable will such be How successfully the labours of their Pastors laid out upon them How comely and beautiful the Churches be which are composed of such persons and how pure and comfortable will their Communion be The Orchard is according to what the Nursery is So Churches are according to what Families are Good Families make good Churches and good Education makes good Families 2. Not only the Church but State would receive much good by this Towns Cities Counties Kingdoms would gain by it and it must needs be so for what are they
acceptance with God or in a condition of spiritual life that is the forerunner and earnest of a life of glory 2. But again if you consider the nature of the drink which he hath appointed it is wine and not water By it may be signified thus much that as there is no sort of drink so grateful to the palate so reviving and strengthning to the spirits so that spiritual life that the Soul is raised to by the Death of Christ is a life of the greatest pleasure and joy that is conceivable for as no liquor like Wine doth chear a sad drooping spirit so nothing doth so glad and chear the Soul as Faith in a Crucified Christ according to that of the Apostle Peter in whom though we have not seen 1 Pet. 1.8 yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory Thus much for the Duty this do 2. The end of the Duty and that is in remembrance of me Here are two things to be inquired into I. What reason was there for the instituting an Ordinance for his remembrance II. Why of all the acts and expressions of his love to sinners above all he would be remembred in his sufferings for us which is the special signification of this Supper 1 To the first I say you must call to mind that the time of instituting this supper was the night before that day he died Now the consequent of his Death was to be this that he should be taken from Earth to Heaven there to be personally present till the day of judgment Now that his Church on Earth might not forget him in this long absence he therefore appointed this supper for a frequent quickning them to the remembrance of him till he came again 2 To the other Question I Answer That the reasons why Jesus would have this act of his love to be especially remembred above all other may be these 1. Because his dying for his Church was the greatest act of love he ever shewed his Church Greater love saith Christ hath no man than this John 15.13 1 John 3.16 that a man lay down his life for his friends Again saith the Apostle Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us If a man should part with his liberty and suffer bonds or lay down his estate and become poor or leave his Country and become an exile for his friend these were all expressions of great love but none of them are comparable to laying down life and shedding ones blood for a friend This last is that wherein Christ hath eminently demonstrated his love to his Church this he glorieth in and this is that which he would never have his Church forget but frequently remember in this supper 2. Because that though he gave and still doth give very great testimonies of his love to us as in his Resurrection Ascension Intercession preparing Glory and lastly in his coming again to raise us justifie us and to take us to himself to behold and enjoy that Glory that he had with the Father before the World was yet this Ordinance is rather for the remembrance of his bloody Death for us than for the remembrance of any of the other blessings and why Because that all these other depend on this Christ could never have risen to our justification had he not died for the satisfaction of the Law and his Fathers Justice Nor would he have been admitted as an Intercessor nor have been allowed one mansion in Glory for any of us nor would his Father have suffered him to have returned again to take any one of us to himself if he had not by his death made our peace opened the new way into the Holy of Holies and purchased a glorious Resurrection and an Ascension to the Heavenly and eternal glory for us So that since all his other acts of love to his Church depend on this of his dying no wonder if he appointed this Supper for the remembrance of his death rather than any thing else he either did or promised to do for us The Conclusion is that since that the end of this Ordinance is so glorious and that is the remembrance of the greatest love that ever God the Father or Son shewed to us it cannot but cast a Lustre and Glory upon the duty of coming to this Supper and engage us to a chearful participation thereof 3. The Obligation to this duty and that is Christ's Command this is implied in the Text but exprest in the foregoing verse what saith the Apostle Paul I have received of the Lord that which also I declare unto you The Apostle doth but declare the Command is Christ's he is the Author of it It is Christ not Paul that said This do in remembrance of me Christ's Commands are the bonds by which we are tied up to Obedience if we break his bonds we are transgressors Remember who they were that conspired together saying Let us break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from us they were such that the Lord hath in derision to whom he will one day speak in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure The commands of superiors set out all duty to inferiors and punish for neglect and the higher or greater the superior is the more authority hath the command and the greater punishment will be inflicted on the disobedient If disobedience to the word spoken by Angels received a just recompence of reward of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy that disobey the command of Jesus Christ If a Child's disobedience deserves the rod or a Servants the cudgel or a Subjects the axe or halter what doth disobedience to the Lord Jesus deserve that is greater than Father or Master or any earthly Soveraign whatever Take heed then my brethren of being found guilty of neglect of this duty that is bound upon you by the command of so great an authority as this of the Lord Jesus that hath said This do in remembrance of me 4. In the next place is to be considered the persons obliged and those are the Church of Christ so far as by Scriptural Qualifications they are capacitated to a participation thereof who are 1. Those that can discern the Lord's body in this supper the want of this the Apostle gives as the reason of unworthy receiving it 1 Cor. 10.29 and tells us they eat damnation to themselves Now there are two ways wherein the Lord's body may be said to be discerned in this supper 1. When the Understanding is spiritually enlightned to perceive the true nature and ends of this supper and thereby is enabled to see a greater difference between this and our ordinary meals for he that shall for want of knowledg therein come to this Table with no better preparations or to no other intents than when he goes to his own Table he doth certainly pervert the ends of the institution and prophanes the Ordinance and therefore cannot chuse
such a prayer as this O that the Lord would lengthen this triumphant day and the (c) Jos 10.12 Lord heard his voice The tribes beyond Jordan in a (d) 2 Chr. 5 23. battel with the Hagarites Jehoshaphat in a sore strait (e) 18.31 at Ramoth Gilead Sampson ready to perish at Lehi (f) Judg. 15.18 16 28. with thirst and when blind exposed to contempt in the Temple of Dagon David near (g) 1 Sam. 30.6 stoning at Ziglag and when flying from Absalom in the ascent of (h) 2 Sam. 15.31 Mount Olivet Elisha at Dothan compast with a Syrian host (i) 2 King 6.17 Lord open the young man's eyes In the midst of lawful and laborious callings Boaz to the reapers (k) Ruth 2.4 the Lord be with you we may pray that our Oxen (l) Psal 129.8 may be strong to labour no breaking in or going out nor no complaining in our streets It sanctifies the plow as Jerom said of the fields of Bethlehem quocunque te verteris Psal 144.14 ad Marcellum p. 129 T. 1. arator stivam teneus Alleluja decantat c. The tillers of the field and the dressers of vineyards sang David's psalms it keeps the shop and inclines the hearts of customers it bars the doors it quenches fire it blesseth thy children (m) Psal 147.13 within thee it preserves thy going out and coming in (n) 128.1 Jacob found it to rest upon his children going a journey (a) Gen. 43.14 to Egypt it closes the eyes with (b) Psal 3.5.4 8. sweet sleep it (c) Job 3â— 10 Psal 139.18 given Songs in the night and wakens the soul in the arms of mercy It sits at the helm when a (d) Psal 107.28 Jon. 1.6 storm rises at sea it gives strength to Anchors in roads and prosperous gales to the venturous Merchant When in the palace at dinner Nehemiah presents the cup to his prince he presents also a Michtam a golden (e) Neh 3.4 2 Chro. 34 27 Luke 17.5 Gen. 49.18 2 Chron. 2 4. Act. 7 60. prayer to the King of Heaven at the reading of the law Josiah was heard as to some secret cries to Heaven At a holy conference in a journey the Disciples occasionally pray Lord increase our faith Jacob on his dying pillow predicting future events to his children falls into a holy rapture I have wait ed for thy salvation O Lord. At sacred death in martyrdom Zechariah cries out the Lord look upon it and require it and Stephen under a showr of stones melts in prayers for the stony hearts that slung them Lord lay not this sin unto their chage and our blessed Saviour in his greatest agonies makes a tender hearted prayer Father forgive them they know not what they do Luke 23 34. 1 Sam. 1.17 and lastly in the distresses of others Eli puts a sudden petition for Hannah the God of Israel grant thee thy petition In these and many like cases the holy word stores us with patterns for ejaculation in all extremities which I cannot now digest and improve only in a few words lets take a view of the usefulness of such a sudden flight of the soul to Heaven 1. It helps us to a speedy preparative for all duties Lam. 3 4â— with such an ejaculation le ts lift our hearts with our hands to God in the Heavens 2. It is a guard against secret sins in the first risings and the first assaults of temptation 3. It suffers not divine mercies to slip by unobserved in a wakeful Christian and proves a fruitful mother of gratitude and praise 4. It sanctifies all our worldly imployments 1 Tim 4. â— 5. it fastens the stakes in the hedge of divine protection and turns every thing to a blessing 5. It s a Saints buckler against sudden accidents a present antidote against frights and evil tidings It s good at all occasions and consecrates to us not only our meals but every gasp of air c. 6. It s a sweet companion that the severest enemies can't abridge us of Outward ordinances and closet duties they may cut off the little (a) Ezr. 9 8. nail in the holy place they may pluck out But no labyrinth no prison not the worst of company can hinder this coelo restat iter in the very face of adversaries we may lift our souls to God No more of this le ts briefly conclude with some uses Vse Vse Cant. 4 12. To convince such of their dangerous state that neglect sacred duties that have no heart-communion that draw no water out of this sealed fountain But all they do is in publick only it 's a suspicious token of hypocrisie since the kernel and soul of religion lies so much in the heart and closet mark the phrase in the text how it varies thy Father that is in secret be sees in secret God's eye is open upon thee in the closet and if thy eye be open upon his thou mayst see a glorious beauty The excellency of grace lies in making conscience of secret sins and secret duties 2. To examine such as perform secret duty but not from a sincere principle like Amaziah 2 Chron. 25.2 that prays but not with a perfect heart like Ahab they mourn but with Crocodile tears such as do it only because they find precept or example for it and therefore to quiet conscience will into secret but converse only in the shell and trunk of a duty that rest in the naked performance but matter not whether they tast of the sweet streams that flow in from heaven in the golden pipe of an ordinance what account can such render that go into their closets but like Domitian to catch flies only Sueton. in Domit. c. 3. and when the doors are shut to the world their hearts are shut to heaven and communion with God He that sees in secret beholds the evil frame of such a heart and will one day openly punish it 3. To excite and awaken all to this excellent duty and to manage it in an excellent manner Would ye live delightfully would ye translate heaven to earth then keep up communion in secret prayer to know him to discern his face to behold the lustre of his eye that shines in secret Remember the glorious person that meets in your closets all the world yields not such a glittering beauty as a gracious person sees when he is in a happy frame at secret prayer Shut your eyes when ye come out for all other objects are but vile and fordid and not worth the glances of a noble soul O the sweetness the hidden manna that the soul tasts when in lively communion with God! Psal 31.19 Part of that which is laid up for Saints in glory let us a little relish our spirits with it 1. Consider what amorous agonies the soul delights to conflict with in serret fears that raise confidence humility that exalts tremblings that embolden bright clouds
entertainment to such loose companions as evil thoughts are Well then if we had this heavenly affection strong in us it would not suffer unwholesom weeds to grow up so near it either our Love would consume those weeds or those weeds will choak our Love 5. Exercise faith As the habit of faith is attended with habitual sanctification so the acts of faith are accompanied with a progress in the degrees of it That faith which brings Christ to dwell in our souls will make us often think of our inmate Faith doth realize divine things and make absent objects as present and so furnisheth fancy with richer streams to bath it self in than any other principle in the world As there is a necessity of the use of fancy while the soul is linked to the body so there is also a necessity of a corrective for it Reason doth in part regulate it but 't is too weak to do it perfectly because fancy in most men is stronger than reason Mirand de Imaginat cap. 11 12. man being the highest of imaginative beings and the lowest of intelligent fancy is in its exaltation more than in creatures beneath him and reason in its detriment more than in creatures above him and therefore the imagination needs a more skilful guide than reason Fancy is like fire a good Servant but a bad Master if it march under the conduct of faith it may be highly serviceable and by putting lively colours upon divine truth may steal away our affections to it Faith is the evidence of things not seen viz. not by a corporeal but intellectual eye and so it will supply the office of sense 'T is the substance of things hoped for and if hope be an attendant on faith Psal 42.5 Why art thou cast down Oh my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God our thoughts will surely follow our expectations The remedy David used when he was almost stifled with disquieting thoughts was to excite his soul to a hope and confidence in God Psal 42.5 and when they return'd upon him he useth the same diversion v. 11. The peace of God i. e. the reconciliation made by a Mediator between God and us believingly apprehended will keep or garrison our hearts and minds or thoughts against all anxious assaults both from within and without †Phil 4.6 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When any vain conceit creeps up in you act faith on the intercession of Christ and consider Is Christ thinking of me now in Heaven and pleading for me and shall I squander away my thoughts on trifles which will cost me both tears and blushes Believingly meditate on the promises they are a means to cleanse us from the filthiness of the spirit as well as that of the flesh * 2 Cor 7.1 Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves c. If the having them be a motive the using them will be a means to attain this end Looking at the things that are not seen preserves us from fainting and renews the inward man day by day †2 Cor. 4.16 18. These invisible things could not well keep our hearts from fainting if faith did not first keep the thoughts from wandring from them 6. Accustom your self to a serious meditation every morning Fresh airing our souls in Heaven will engender in us purer spirits and nobler thoughts A morning seasoning would secure us for all the day Intus existens prohibet alienum Though other necessary thoughts about our callings will and must come in yet when we have dispatch'd them let us attend our morning Theme as our chief companion As a man that is going with another about some considerable business suppose to Westminster though he meets with several friends in the way and salutes some and others with whom he hath some affairs he spends a little time yet he quickly returns to his companion and both together go their intended stage Do thus in the present case Our minds are active and will be doing something though to little purpose and if they be not fixed upon some noble object they will like mad men and fools be mightily pleased in playing with straws The thoughts of God were the first Visiters David had in the morning Psal 139 17 18 God and his heart met together as soon as he was awake and kept company all the day after In this meditation look both to the matter and manner 1. Look to the matter of your meditation Let it be some truth which will assist you in reviving some languishing grace or fortifie you against some triumphing corruption for 't is our darling sin which doth most envenom our thoughts †Prov. 23.7 As a man thinks in his heart so is he As if you have a thirst for honour let your fancy represent the honour of being a child of God and heir of Heaven If you are inclined to covetousness think of the riches stored up in a Saviour and dispensed by him If to voluptuousness fancy the pleasures in the ways of wisdom here and at God's right hand hereafter This is to deal with our hearts as Paul with his hearers to catch them with guile Stake your soul down to some serious and profitable mystery of Religion as the Majesty of God some particular Attribute The heads of the Catechism might be taken in order which would both encrease and actuate our knowledg Psal 40.5 his condescension in Christ the love of our Redeemer the value of his sufferings the vertue of his bloud the end of his ascension the work of the Spirit the excellency of the soul beauty of holiness certainty of death terror of judgment torments of Hell and joys of Heaven Why may not that which was the subject of God's innumerable thoughts be the subject of ours God's thoughts and counsels were concerning Christ the end of his coming his death his precepts of holiness and promises of life and that not only speculatively but with an infinite pleasure in his own glory and the creatures good to be accomplished by him Would it not be work enough for our thoughts all the day to travel over the length breadth heighth and depth of the love of Christ Would the greatness of the journey give us leisure to make any starts out of the way Having settled the Theme for all the day we shall find occasional assistances even from worldly businesses as Scholars who have some Exercise to make find helps in their own course of reading though the Book hath no design'd respect to their proper Theme Thus by imploying our minds about one thing chiefly we shall not only hinder them from vain excursions but make even common objects to be oyl to our good thoughts which otherwise would have been fuel for our bad Such generous liquor would scent our minds and conversations all the day that whatsoever motion came into our hearts would be tinctured with this spirit and savour of our morning
but it prepares us for and in a sense enters us into the Work of the other World for that I conceive lyes much in the holy use of the Tongue we hear of no other imployment of the Saints in glory but that they night and day are praising God he is always in their eyes he is ever in their mouth The work of Heaven will not be uncouth to them that have been much Exercised in holy Heavenly Discourse on Earth but for others that can scarce frame their mouths to a good word on Earth for my part I know not what they will do in Heaven though I think there is no great danger of their coming thither 3. No Discourse is so pleasant next to the Songs of Angels the pious conference of holy men is the sweetest melody our ears can be entertained with other things comparatively found harsh to the things of God neither at the instant affect the Ear with that pleasure nor afterwards leave it in that composure To reflect a little by way of comparison And first let us listen a little to what the World says a buzze there is in both ears but what do we hear Such a man hath play'd the Knave and such a man hath play'd the Fool such a Family is at great Discord or in great distress such a Nation is involved in War or such a Person hath shed the blood of War in Peace for ordinary we hear nothing but what it is a vexation to hear nothing but what may make our Ears to tingle or if ought seems at present to tickle them as profane Jests and idle stories may for a while do this tickling ends in torment the Ear is put out of Order and the Heart as being defiled is not a little discomposed He could see so little pleasure in the Speeches that he abhorred the Songs of Sinners as having no harmony in them their Mirth was rather his Sorrow Eccl. 7.5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the Wise than for a man to hear the Song of Fools But 2. In listning to holy Discourse we hear of the Love of God the glory of Heaven the Graces that do shine in some the Duties that are performed by others we hear of an end that shall be put to all earthly troubles whereby the sharpest sufferings are allayed and by what we may hear further death it self comes to be despised Are the stories we hear on one Ear and the other to be compared we may hearken long enough e're the Ear will be satisfied with hearing except we chance to hear something from Heaven all the good News is in the Word of God and to be heard from good men that bring us stories there-from 4. By neglecting holy Discourse you may lose opportunities of good both to your selves and others that you will wish you had taken 1. It may be as to your selves you were in Company with Persons eminent for grace and knowledg here was an opportunity of doing your own Soul good but by the stream of your impertinent tattle all savoury Discourse was diverted that Season was neglected afterwards you see your lack of knowledg the Instrument is removed Ah Fools do we not then cry out of our selves the opportunity is gone and we are undone How must it gall an awakned Jew to think what Discourse he had with Jesus Christ Is it lawful to give Tribute to Caesar Here is a Woman caught in Adultery Why do not thy Disciples Fast c. Ah! had I nothing else to enquire of my Saviour Would it not have been more pertinent to have asked what I shall do to be saved But he is gone and I must die in my sins How many Persons have we sent away that have had a word of wisdom in their hearts having learnt only what a Clock it was what weather what News forgetting to ask our own hearts what all this was to us and enquire of them things worthy of their wisdom and our learning Secondly as to others you may rue the opportunities you have lost here lay a poor wretch with one foot in Hell would he not have started back if he had had light to Discover his Danger Well you are together something you must say the same breath would serve for a compassionate admonition as a complacent impertinency which will redound to neither of your advantages you part the man dies in his sins and in the midst of Hell cryes out against you one word of yours might have saved me you had me you might have told me of my danger you forbore I hardned the Lord reward your negligence Oh give not poor Souls occasion to rail at you in Hell for your sinful silence or impertinent converse with them here on Earth You will pretend it may be want of matter in excuse for your forbearing holy Discourse Object No Friend it was want of mind Answ thou art not straitned in thy Subject but in thy self Religious matter has no End Eternity is not sufficient for it but thou art resolved also it shall have no beginning Well you know your duty and do as likes you 3. In order to the right management of our Tongue especial regard must be had to its scope what is aimed at in every motion of it either immediately or ultimately for without some scope it is vain talk and according to the goodness or badness of our scope it is ordinarily good or bad talk I say ordinarily for some talk is so bad that it is scarce capable of a good scope much less of being made good by it yet less evil it does become to instance in blasphemy and lying great moral evils both in their own Nature and no design can destroy the Nature of them in that the Word of God allows not but forbids the doing of evil that good may come of it yet speeches materially so have been passed over the evil as of simplicity pardoned and the good aimed at in them as of sincerity rather rewarded As Paul Rahab and the Egyptian Midwives might be instances but let us take heed of making them Examples But ordinarily as I said before the Scope does much unto the Specification of the Speech so much 1. That fair Speeches become foul if dirty designs be couched under them or carried on by them he cryes out therefore for help against the Flatterer as if he was a Murtherer Psal 12.1 2 3. Help Lord for the faithful fail they speak vanity every one with his Neighbour with flattering lips c. the Lord shall cut off all flattering lips Psal 55.21 His words are softer than Oyl yet are they drawn Swords The like may be said of the fawning Woman that entices to vice Prov. 5.3 4. The Lips of a strange Woman drop as an Honey-comb but her end is bitter as Wormwood sharp as a two-edged Sword 2. Good Speeches become evil to the users of them if evil be meant by them as if we couch under them to cover sinful purposes
larger opening of the Methods of Grace than we can now have leasure for and therefore must be don◠its proper season Those that honour God he will honour and therefore let us also give Vse 7 them that honour which is their due The barren Professors who honour themselves by over-valuing their poor knowledge gifts and grace and affecting too great a distance from their Brethren and censuring others as unworthy of their Communion without proof are not the men that honour God and can lay claim to no great honour from men But God hath among us a prudent holy humble laborious patient Ministry that glorifie him by their works and patience and he hath among us a meek and humble a blameless and a loving and fruitful sort of Christians who imitate the Purity Charity and Simplicity yea and Concord of the Primitive Church These tell the World to their sight and experience that Religion is better than Ignorance and Carnality These tell the World that Christ and his Holy Word are true while he doth that in renewing and sanctifying Souls which none else in the World can do These shew the World that Faith and Holiness and Self-denial and the hopes of Immortality are no deceits These glorifie God and are the great Benefactors of the World I must solemnly profess that did I not know such a people in the world who notwithstanding their infirmities do manifest a holy and heavenly disposition in their lives I should want my self so great a help to my Faith in Christ and the promise of Life Eternal that I fear without it my Faith would fail And had I never known a holier Ministry and People than those that live but a common life and excel Heathens in nothing but their Belief or Opinions and Church orders and Formalities I should find my Faith assaulted with so great temptations as I doubt I should not well withstand No talk will perswade men that he is the best Physitian that healeth no more nor worse diseases than others do Nor would Christ be taken for the Saviour of the World if he did not save men And he saveth them not if he make them not holier and better than other men O then how much do we owe to Christ for sending his Spirit into his Saints and for exemplifying his holy Word on holy Souls and for giving us as many visible proofs of his Holiness Power and Truth as there are Holy Christians in the world we must not flatter them nor excuse their faults nor puff them up But because the Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour we must accordingly love and honour them and Christ in them For Christ telleth us that he is glorified in them here Joh. 17.10 And that what is done to them his Brethren even the least is taken as done to him Mat. 25. And he will be glorified and admired in them when he cometh in his Glory at the last 2 Thes 1.8 9 10. And he will glorifie their very works before all the world with a Well done good and faithful Servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. What is it to do all we do in the Name of Christ and how may we do so Serm. XXIII Colos 3.17 And whatsoever ye do in word and deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him THERE have been and still are many great and famous Names in the World into which men have been Baptized according to which they have been call'd and also walked in the world Rev. 11.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men of great Name or men of Renown Gen. 6.4 What a Renowned Name had the Beast in the Earth Rev. 13.3 4. that the world wondered after the Beast and worshipped the Dragon that gave power to the Beast and they worshipped the Beast saying Who is like to the Beast Pharaoh was a great Name amongst the Kings of Egypt which were so call'd from their famous Predecessors So the Kings of the Amalakites were called Agag and of Tyre Hyram and of Lycia Antiochus of Pontus Mithridates of the Emperours of Rome Caesars and in the Church Professors have affected to be call'd by the Name of some Eminent persons 1 Cor. 3.4 5. Some cryed up Paul others Peter and this was a growing evil in the Church 1 Cor. 1.12 13 14. They ambitiously affected to be denominated from some Eminent Persons among them As the Lutherans and Calvinists and many others at this day have been call'd and denominated from some great persons that have been famous in their Generation But here is a Name in my Text is above all Names in Heaven and Earth and all Christians are call'd by this Name and call on this Name Jer. 14.9 Amos 9.12 This Name you must trust in and boast in beyond and above all Names whatsoever Isa 45.24 25. Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength and in the Lord shall all the Seed of Israel be justified and shall glory See what a Name is given to Christ Isa 6.7 And bow to it his Name shall be call'd Wonderful Councellour and consider every Letter of his Name and adore it The Apostle according to his usual manner in this Epistle having spoken of the Doctrine of the Gospel and how they received it and the influence it had on them v. 12 13. And concerning Christ in whom they had Redemption v. 14 15 16 17 18 19. And of the Excellency of his Person and of the riches of the glory of his Grace revealed in it v. 27. Then Chap. 2. he stirs them up to live such lives as becometh the Gospel and to beware of Seducers v. 16. to the end Then Chap. 3. he puts them in mind of several duties throughout the Chap. He lays down some general Exhortations with reference to the Gospel and their living suitably to it from v. 1. to 17. Then he proceeds to particular duties in our place and Relations and in this v. 17. having laid down something he gathers up all into one sum how to carry themselves in the whole course of their lives in their thoughts words and works We may observe from the general Scope Doct. That the Doctrine of the Gospel carrieth the highest and strictest obligations upon all such to whom it reveal'd to duty and service in their places and relations to God and Man In the words we have 1. A Rule laid down 2. The things that are under the Rule words works and thoughts and secret motions of the heart which works also are well known to God and so they come under Rule 3. Here is the Universality of the Rule in its extent and full compass it fetcheth in all words and works without exception and all persons for this You takes in all persons of what rank or degree soever 4. Here is the manner how they must be done so as to answer the Mind of God in the Name of Christ 5. Here is a further
heart Psal 4.5 Out of these premisses we conclude that Christianity is a glorious thing which is the second particular 2. Particular or vindication which I call a Vindication of the Truth Religion is not a little formality in duties joyned with some morality in life but it consists in the new creature or Faith working by love Gal. 5.6 6.16 It consists in the exercise of Repentance self-loathing hatred of Sin as such for these are necessarily implied Faith actual in Jesus love to him obedience before him communion with God by him peace and comfort from him and well grounded hope of eternal life through him the smell of his garments Psal 45.8 the savour of his oyntment Cant. 1.3 the taste of his preciousness makes a Believer think he can never do enough for Jesus If his Holiness were as an Angel and his days as the days of Heaven yet all were too short too little for such a Saviour the love of Christ constrains him He is a debtor to the Spirit to live after the Spirit and what ever is not this in truth there is a difference in degrees is as you heard before but nature raised and varnished and modified with distinctions still it is but nature Wash and dress a Swine as you please 't is a Swine still The Fathers when the breaking out of Pelagianism made them more studious in the point of grace and more wary in their expressions have left us their judgment in this case you bring in a kind of doctrine saith Austin to the Pelagians that men do righteousness and please God without Faith in Christ by the Law of nature this is that for which the Church doth most of all detest you Hoc est undè vos maximè Christiana detestatur Ecclesia Lib. 4. Cap. 3. contr Again saith he far be it from us to think that true vertue should be in any man unless he were righteous and far be it from us to think that any man should be truly righteous unless he did live by Faith for the just shall live by Faith absit autem sit justus vere nisi vivat ex fide and again who would say that a man Diabolo mancipatus a slave to the Devil were a righteous man though he were Fabricius or Scipio To cloath the naked saith he is not sin as the fact is considered in it self but of such a work to glory and not in the Lord none but a wicked man but will grant this to be sin thus far Austin with more to the same purpose in the same place and upon this account he did correct some expressions Lib. 1. Cap. 3. Retract The whole Chapter is seasonable the sum this Austin had called the Muses Goddesses had highly advanced the liberal sciences now corrects it upon this reason viz. that many Godly men knew them not and many that did know them were ungodly the same he doth about Pythagoras his books in which saith he are Plures many errors iidemque capitales Especially this he recants that he formerly said the Philosophers who were not pious were yet shining in vertue no Faith in Christ no vertue 't is spectrum 't is but simulacrum but imago virtutis it is not vertue painted fire is not fire Hierom to the same purpose in Cap. 3. Galat. Paul saith he blameless did not live he was dead while blameless Paul the Christian was indeed alive Men speak of temperance and justice without Faith that cannot be none live without Christ sine quo omnis virtus est in vitio without Christ all vertue is accounted vice thus he 'T is most evident there dwelleth no vertue in the minds of ungodly men their wisdom is not heavenly but earthly not from the Father of lights but from the prince of darkness ac sic vitium quod putatur virtus and so that is a vice which is accounted vertue Non Deo serviunt sed diabolo they serve the devil not God Prosp Con. Coll. Cap. 28. tota vita infidelium est peccatum the whole life of unbelievers is sin idem sent 106. to the same purpose saith Fulgentius with others The Scripture is full and clear an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit The carnal mind cannot please God Rom. 8.7 1 Cor. 1.2.3 the Apostle doth raise his discourse to the highest strain Though I speak with the tongue of Angels which no man doth if I had all knowledge which no man hath if I could move mountains which no man can if I give all my goods to feed the poor the highest beneficence and my body to be burnt the greatest suffering yet if I have not love I am nothing he doth not say these things are nothing he doth not say knowledge is nothing or giving to the poor is nothing but I am nothing I have no profit I am a hollow tub an empty vessel I make a noise amongst men while I live and go to hell when I die And according to Scripture and Fathers the doctrine of our Church hath determinated in her thirteenth Article thus Works done before the grace of Christ and the Inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasing to God forasmuch as they spring not from Faith in Jesus Christ yea rather for that they are not done as God hath commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of sin and this is the judgment of the reformed Churches also Sirs be sure you get and exercise this Faith unfeigned in Jesus Christ and love sincere to him A fair deportment with great gifts and splendid performances without Christ is but a more gentile way to perdition everlasting 3. Resolution of the case I come now to the resolution of the practical case How a Christian may get that Faith by which he may live comfortably as well as die safely Where this I think fit to premise first he must not only get such a Faith but he must keep it in exercise for without this there is no living comfortably then this also I premise that to get and keep comfort or that a Christian may have comfort two things are necessary viz. proportion and propriety ex parte objecti it must be a good proportionable and then ex parte subjecti it must be mine it must be commensurate and adaequate to the soul and it must be the souls own tolle meum and tolle gaudium The comfort and sweetness of the Gospel lyes in pronouns as the common saying is as for instance suppose the conquests of Alexander and triumphs of Pompey nay all the world were thine there is propriety 't is thine but herein would be no comfort at all to thee because here is no proportion no sutableness to an immaterial vast and immortal soul on the other side Christ is proposed to thee and in him there is proportion for in him dwelleth all fulness he is an infinite spiritual and eternal good but what comfort is this without propriety unless he be thine