Carieer to their own Destruction And therefore take heed do not indulge them in their foolish Humours but bring them up c. Having thus fixed our Corner-stones now to our Building In the CASE before us I find two Truths supposed and one question in form but really bipartite proposed 1. The two Truths and those sad ones suppos'd 1. That it hath been is and may be the Lot of gracious Parents to have unconverted wicked Children 2. That this wickedness of these unconverted Children hath been and is too too often occasion'd by their gracious Parents sinful 1. Severity 2. Indulgence 2. The Question or case of Conscience to be resolved which is Bipartite What may gracious Parents best do towards the Conversion of those their Children whose wickedness is occasion'd by their sinful 1. Severity 2. Indulgence I. Of the First Truth 1. The first Truth suppos'd viz. That it hath been is and may be the Lot of gracious Parents to have unconverted wicked Children Let me adde of the Best of Parents to be afflicted with very wicked yea the worst of Children Had not Adam an envious murtherous Cain Gen. 4.8.11 The first branch of the Universal Root wholly rotten Noah a cursed †Gen. 9.22 Cham Abraham a mocking persecuting Ishmael Gen. 22.9 Gal. 4.29 Lot a Moab and Ammon the Sons of Incest and the Fathers of an Idolatrous brood that to the death hated Gods chosen Israel Gen. 19.37 38. Isaac a profane Esau Gen. 25.25 Heb. 12.16 Eli two Sons Hophni and Phineas both Sons of Belial prodigies of Lust and Wickedness 1. Sam. 2.12 to 17. ver 22. David an ambitious Adonijah 1 King 1.5 2.13 an incestuous Amnon 2 Sam. 13.14 a murtherous traiterous rebellious Absolom 2 Sam. 13.28 29. 15.10 Jehosaphat a bloody idolatrous Jehoram 2 Chron. 21.4 6 11 13. Josiah a wicked Jehojachin and another as bad if not worse a wretched false perjur'd Covenant-breaking Zedekiah 2 Chron. 36.5 12 13. Ezek. 17.15 18. But enough of this sigh even to the breaking of your hearts when you think of many very many others in former Ages and in our Own dayes and City that might be added to fill up this Black Catalogue 2. This wickedness of these unconverted Children hath been and is too too often occasion'd yea advanced by the Sinful severity or indulgence of their unwary thô gracious Parents This Head divides it self into TWO Branches viz. Parents Sinful severity and indulgence 1. Sinful severity and of this 1. What it is not 2. What it is 1 What it is not 1. A grave wise holy strict demeanour towards our Children such a carriage as whereby we may procure Glory to God Honour to our selves and so to preserve and keep up that Authority which God hath stampt upon us is not sinful Severity To carry it so and so to keep our distance as to give our Children no occasion to undervalue or despise us 1 Tim. 4.12 * Tit. 2.15 So as that they may see and own the Wisdom of God shining in us that our Children may pay us that reverence and respect that God requires of them 1 King 3.28 This is not to be accounted sinful Severity but behaving our selves worthily in Ephratah Ruth 4.11 2. All just anger or the rising up of the Heart in an holy displeasure against Sin in our Children is not sinful severity Parents may be angry and yet not sin Eph. 4.26 Nay Parents would certainly sin if on just occasion given by their Children they should not be angry but with these proviso's 1. That the cause for which they are angry be good and warrantable Such as we can give a good Account of to God An anger like that of our Saviour who looked round about on his malicious observers with anger being griev'd for the bardness of their hearts Mark 3.5 When our anger is accompanied with grief because God is dishonour'd by our Childrens offending against Truth Piety Justice Humanity because we see them neglect their duty hurt their own or others Souls or Bodies 2. That the Object of this anger be right i. e. when that which we are angry at is not so much the persons of our Children that offend as their offence it self their Sin Fault Disobedience Not so much the Patient as the Disease 3. That the End be right viz. that the fault we are offended at may be amended by our Children and that they for the future may be warned not to offend in the like again 4. That a due decorum may be observed both as to the measure and duration of our Anger When it is neither too hot nor too long When it is a Rational Holy Temperate displeasure a moderate anger when right Reason and Scripture fit in the Box and Guide the Chariot saying as the Lord to the Sea Thus much thus long and no more no longer Thus far no sinful severity 2. Grave counselling and admonishing our Children in and to that which is truly good Eph. 6.4 All serious discountenancing of and severe frowning on them when in an evil way nay sharp reproofs and rebukes Tit. 1.13 Yea being so far a terror to them as to let them know we bear not the stamp of Gods Authority in vain Rom. 13.3 4. Nay farther smart chastising of them proportionable to their Age and offence Prov. 29.15 Provided we express fatherly love and tenderness in all out of a true desire of their Repentance and Reformation All this is not to be lookt upon as sinfull Severity but as the faithful discharge of a necessary parental duty which is by so much the more excellent because it is so much neglected and so hard to be performed in a right manner 2. What Sinful Severity is or wherein it discovers it self Sinful Severity betrayes it self in and by the irregular passions austere looks bitter words and rigid Actions of those Parents who abuse their Parental Power 2. That the wickedness of unconverted Children is oftentimes occasion'd by this Sinful severity of their Parents They are provok'd and that to Sin 1. By irregular Passions specially that of an inordinate and immoderate Anger 1. Rash anger when Parents are soon angry with their Children when they will not give leave to their Judgments to consider before they are angry The wise man tells us Jam. 1.19 Multos absolvemus si prius coeperimus judicare quam irasci Sen. de ira the discretion of a man defers his anger and that it is his Glory to pass over a Transgression Prov. 19.11 But brands rash anger with the mark of folly He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly Prov. 14.17 'T was grave advice to one not to be angry at any time till he had first repeated the Greek Alphahet To be angry without any cause or upon every trivial slight occasion for any thing that is not material in it self or in it's consequent for meer involuntary and casual offences and slips in our Children such as without great care could
must be damned or saved for ever might understand in things necessary to Salvation what we mean and aim and drive at it hath made me tremble to hear some soar aloft that knowing men might know their parts while the meaner sort are kept from the knowledge of Christ and put their matter in such a dress of words in such a stile so composed that the most stand looking the Preacher in the face and hear a sound but know not what he saith and while he doth pretend to feed them indeed doth starve them and to teach them keepeth them in ignorance Would a Man of any Bowels of compassion go from a Prince to a condemned man and tell him in such Language that he should not understand the conditions upon which the Prince would pardon him and the poor man lose his Life because the proud and haughty Messenger must shew his knack in delivering his message in fine English which the condemned Man could not understand but this is course dealing with a Man in such circumstances that call for pity and compassion Paul had more Parts and Learning but more self-denyal than any of these when he said 1 Cor. 2.1 And I Brethren when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God 4. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing Words of mans Wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power 2 Cor. 3.12 Seeing then we have such hope we use great plainness of speech 13. and not as Moses which put a vail over his face that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished Some put a vail upon their words that people of mean Education that yet have Souls that must be damned or saved cannot look into those truths that shall never be abolished but what is this but a cursed preferring their own parts and praise before the Salvation of Eternal Souls and the preaching themselves and not Christ which will not be their praise but shame at the Eternal Judgment when some shall plead they stand there condemned because the Learned Preacher would not stoop to speak to them of Eternal matters in Language that they might have understood 4. This Eyeing of Eternity would stir us up to improve our Interest in God and Men for a continual succession of Men in the Ministerial Function In God by Prayer that the Lord of the Harvest would send forth Labourers into his Harvest In men whether such as have Children of pregnant parts studious and bookish serious in Religion and inclined to this Imployment that they would give them to God and give them Education in order to it which would be the Honour of Parents to have such proceed from their loins that shall be Embassadors to call the blind ungodly World to mind Eternity to escape Everlasting Damnation and obtain Eternal Life or whether they be such as have no Children so qualifyed or disposed yet have riches to be helpful to such as have such Children but not an Estate to bring them up for there is a necessity of a standing continued Ministry Men in all Ages are hasting to Eternity those that were our Ancestors in former Ages are already there and have taken up their Lodgings where they must for ever dwell and we are following after them and what a mercy is it that we have the Gospel preached unto us wherein we have directions how to escape Everlasting Torments and obtain Eternal Joyes in the other Eternal World to which we are a going and those that shall live after us when they have been upon the stage of this World awhile shall follow us and our Fathers into Eternity and give place to those that follow after them thus this World doth often change its Inhabitants What is the Life of Man but a coming into time and a going out into Eternity Oh how needful is it then that while they make their short stay on Earth they should have preaching Ministers to warn them of Eternal Misery and teach them the way to Eternal Glory Those that are now engaged in the work will shortly be all silenced by Death and Dust and how desirable is it that your Children and posterity should see and hear others preaching in their room and the Honourableness of the Office might allure young men to encline unto it is it not an Honour to be an Embassador of the great Eternal God to propound Articles of Everlasting peace between him and Everlasting Souls What is buying and selling Temporal Transitory things in comparison of a calling wherein it is mens work and business to save Souls from Eternal Misery and to bring them to the Eternal Enjoyment of the glorious God Thus in some few particulars we have shewed the Influence that the Eyeing of Eternity will have upon us in what we do Do you so Eye Eternity and the rest here for want of room omitted you shall by experience find out which will be better than knowing of them in the notion only because they are told you The Conclusion of this Discourse shall be some particular uses omitting many that it would afford 1. Is there an Eternal State Such unseen Eternal Joyes and Torments Who then can sufficiently lament the blindness madness and folly of this distracted World and the unreasonableness of those that have Rational and Eternal Souls to see them busily imployed in the matters of time which are only for time in present Honours Pleasures and Profits while they do neglect Everlasting things Everlasting Life and Death is before them Everlasting Joy or Torment is hard at hand and yet poor sinners take no care how to avoid the one or obtain the other Is it not matter of lamentation to see so many Thousands bereaved of the sober serious use of their Understandings That while they use their reason to get the Riches of this World they will not act as rational men to get the joyes of Heaven and to avoid Temporal Calamities yet not to escape Eternal misery Or if they be fallen into present Afflictions they contrive how they may get out of them if they be sick reason tells them they must use the means if they would be well if they be in pain Nature puts them on to seek after a Remedy and yet these same Men neglect all duty and cast away all care concerning Everlasting matters they are for seen pleasures and profits which are passing from them in the enjoyment of them but the unseen Eternal Glory in Heaven they pray not for they think not of Are they unjustly charged Let Conscience speak what thoughts they lye down withal upon their pillow if they wake or sleep fly from them in the silent night what a noise doth the cares of the World make in their Souls With what thoughts do they rise in the Morning of God or of the World Of the things of time or of Eternity Their thoughts are
Love 'T is Carnal 2. Love your Children truly tenderly but yet take heed that you do not over-love them But when is that Certainly when you Love them more than you Love God and Christ you over-love them But who does so I shall not charge you but give me leave to ask you a question or two Tell me when your Gods Glory and your Child 's good are neerly concern'd for which doth your zeal most hotly glow Are not your Affections most fiery where they should be most cool and where they should burn there they freeze Doth not your Heart make you believe it Loves God and gives him Pledges of your affection while it secretly doats chiefly on the dandled Child Like some false Strumpet that entertains her Husband with her Eyes and on the mean time treads on the Toe of her Paramour Do you not often think you love God enough and when your Child most yet but enough nay never enough your head heart hand purse mandrakes five messes breasts bowels All but little enough too little for your Child your Idol is it so as to your God So to Love our Child as thereby to lesson our Love to God yea or to equalize it with our Love to God is not only indulgence but idolatry And an Idol of Flesh and Blood is to be abhorr'd as well as that of Wood or Sone Assuredly the best way to quench this exorbitant Love to Children on Earth is to set your Hearts and Affections more on your Father in Heaven on God his Christ Spirit Word wayes rewards Luk. 10.32 Isa 33.6 1 Pet. 1.24 25. Look but directly on that Sun and thine eyes will quickly be dazl'd to these glittering glow-worms here below Make that invaluable Pearl but thy Treasure and thou wilt lightly esteem these Bristol-Stones Take but Christ fully and wholly into thy heart and bosom and thou wilt quickly yield thy Child 's proper place is but thy Foot or Knee In a word If God in Christ be thy God indeed thou wilt abhorr the thought and practice of making thy Child his Corrival 3. Love your Children but Love them wisely give e'm your Hearts into their Bosoms but not the reins on their necks When you do so at the same time mount them on your fiercest Beast furnish them with Switch and Spur but without bit or bridle and then do but pause and think soberly of the period of their full carier Love 'em I say but still be careful to maintain that just authority and preeminence that God hath given you over them A Parent that hath lost his Authority is as salt that hath lost its savour Like the Logg sent from Jupiter every frog in the Family apt to leap upon him And remember it fond Parents there is nothing in the world that renders you more vile cheap contemptible in the eyes even of your Children themselves when they begin to put forth the first buds of Reason nothing that layes your authority more in the dust and exposes you to the foot and spurn of your Child than sinful Indulgence A foolish man dispiseth his Mother Prov. 15.20 His Mothers folly made him a Fool of a foolish Child he at length grows up into a man but a foolish man and this foolish man despises his Mother If you are Fathers then take care of your Honour if Mothers be sure to carry it so as to preserve in your Children that awful respect and reverence which they owe you Mal. 1.6 Heb. 12.9 4. Love your Children but love them in God and for God Love his image in them more than your own In a word Let Gods Spirit be the Principle Gods Word the Rule Gods Example the Pattern and his Glory the end of your dearest Love to your dearest Children Love them as God Loves his Children But How 1. God so loves his Childrens persons as that he infinitely hates their sins Nay because he loves their persons for that very reason he hates their sins Bacause I love my Child therefore I hate the Toad that I see crawling on his bosom God doth infinitely love his People and yet in this Life he shews more hatred against the Sins of his own People than he doth against the Sins of any other men in the World 1. Here He afflicts all his own people for sin one way or other Every Mothers Son of them Heb. 12.6 8. Job 10.14 Isa 31.9 48.10 but is patient towards the wicked le ts them run riot without controll Psal 50.21 13.5 2 Pet. 2.9 2. When he intends to bring a general judgment on a Nation he uses to begin with his own people Isa 28.18 1 Pet. 4.17 Jer. 25.17 18. Luk. 21.10 11. 3. When he makes any an Example unto others of his Hatred against sin makes choice of his own people before wicked men Isa 8.18 1 Cor. 4.9 1 King 13.24 33. 4. Judgments more sharp on his own people than others Psal 89.7 Lam. 1.12 Dan. 9.12 2. All this he doth out of the purest eternal and unchangeable Love that he bears his Children God chastens and corrects his Children that he may keep them from sinning as others do and as themselves have done and from perishing for ever in their sins as others shall He meddles not with thorns and briars but prunes his Vines that they may no more yield such sour Grapes He casts his Children as Gold into a Furnace here to refine and purifie them that he may not be forced to cast them as stubble into an Eternal flaming Oven hereafter And this in Love Exo. 4.24 Job 7.17 18 19. Psal 119.71 75. 89.30 to 38. Jer. 59.7 Lam. 3.33 Hos 4.14 Am. 3.2 Heb. 12.6 7. Rev. 3.19 1 Cor. 11.30 32. And now Parents as you have seen your Heavenly Father do do you In his strength follow his Example 1. Love your Childrens persons and because you love them hate their sins The sins of those most whom you Love most You see your God doth so Be not so blinded as that you can see no fault in them nor so madly doting as to delight in their Blemishes to kiss their Plague-sores Nor so Indulgent as to be loth to grieve or displease them when grossely Criminal Especially 2. Let your holy strictness shew it self against those whom you most affect TELL them Child I Love you and therefore I cannot will not behold the least iniquity in you Hab. 1.13 So Christ acted towards his beloved Disciples Mat 15.16 17. 17.17 Tell 'em you cannot will not pardon them Exo. 23.21 Let them know that you can be Angry and if words will not do the Rod shall and that you can make that Rod smart Exo. 4.24 Tell them though they may presume to provoke you to bewail them you will not suffer them to provoke God to Hate them Isa 63.10 Psal 78.58 59. and that you had rather hear them cry and see them bleed yea and dye here than hear them howl and see them burn'd and damn'd hereafter
Wounds ver 4. And thô this place speak of the Flattery of a strange woman whose flattery in some cases may be more dangerous and deadly yet the Flatteries of others strange Sons is dangerous and destructive also Psal 55.21 The words of such are smoother than Butter Perniciem aliis ac postremò sibi inveniunt Tacit annal l. 1. but war is in their Heart softer than Oyl yet drawn Swords Wherewith others are first slain and which doth first or last enter their own bowels God doth in his own season send forth commission'd Officers to destroy an hypocritical Nation as Isa 10. ver 6. In a word wheresoever you find Flattery predominant and culminating it presages an approaching ruine whether in Kingdoms and States or in Church in Families or particular Persons Flattering and Fawning Counsellors ruine Princes and Principalities Flattering Clergy ruine the Church Flattering Captains their General Lawyers their Clients Physicians their Patients and flattering Companions destroy those that keep them Company For fuller declaration of this Affection to undue praise destroys I will tell what is ruin'd by that flattery which becomes predominant by our love to it under the Notion of Praise and friendship due to our vertues Uncured Love of such praise and smoothing us is pernicious 1. To Good moral Principles and vertuous Habits 1. Vertuous principles implanted by the care and wisdom of such as had the Educating of us so we may observe Men and Women too often degenerate and wear out the Impressions of vertuous Habits and imbibe the quite contrary Vices Of Modest become Impudent of Chaste become Unclean Adulterers and Adulteresses c. How many in our Age have by the help of Flatterers conquer'd their vertuous Education and triumph'd over it in a debauched Bravery which is to glory in their shame 2. To All the remainders of any tolerable innate 2. Natural Inclinations to Good and congenite capacity of receiving Good advice Examples and helps for their recovery The very Stock is corrupted that no Graffe of Vertue can be planted on them They become reprobate to every good work There is in many from the Birth a promising Receptivity we look on them as more susceptible of Vertue than others Now love to vitious Flatterers and hearkening to them very frequently overthrows these very foundations on which we might build that the person remains for ever a Cage of unclean Birds and leaves such hopeless 3. To their Wealth and Estates 3. Estates So many an imprudent and unexperienced Heir is gull'd out of his Estate and Inheritance The Flatterer by his wiles derives the Substance and Labours of the deceas'd Father from the Children to himself and his Solomon notes this Prov. 5.10 as the consequencé of love to be flatter'd Strangers are filled with the wealth of such 4. Reputation 4. To their Honour and Reputation A vitious Seducer hearkned to and his Flatteries yielded to will blast all the Credit of those that are seduced how great soever their Reputation might have been before their turning aside Solomon proposeth this as argument to disswade us from hearkning to Flatteries Prov. 5. vers 9. 5. Safety and Life 5. To the Safety Peace and Life of the imprudent lover of Flattery When nothing else remains nor surviveth the wasting and consumptive mouth of a Flatterer but the disgraced impoverisht and miserable Life of the deceived this is made a prey too and the unthankfull unsatiate and unmerciful Seducer hunts for the precious Life also 6. Soul and its Happiness 6. To the Soul and its happiness The Flatterer is too powerfull and too successeful an Instrument in promoting sin and ruining of Souls he drawes into Sin into remisness and neglect of Good Such seduced ones call evil Good and then do it think great evil little and repent not of it are perswaded their Good is great enough already and are surpriz'd in a sinful and Impenitent state Thus pernicious is Flattery loved A dangerous disease you see yet curable if proper means be apply'd And what those means are which may best effect this Cure 4th General is the last but chiefest of our Enquiry these in the Fourth place we must speak of And here I propose that 1. Ill name of Flattery 1. You would impartially consider the bad name that Flattery hath ever had and still hath and ever will have among all sorts of men How all condemn it as unworthy of the least degree of their love as worthy of their utmost hatred and abhorrence * Mellitum venenum Circes pocula It is sugred Poyson a bewitching Cup the greatest Plague in Societies and the most barbarous Torturers †Nulla in amicitiis pestis est major quam assentatio c. for they pick out the Eyes and flay off the flesh of the Living worse than hungry Crows as Antisthenes observed Like corroding Worms which eat out the substance verdure and life of the root they were bred in That very man who too soon was perverted by Flattery to think himself greater than to be Philip's Son Dignior eras qui eodem pracipitareris yet in soberer temper judged a Flatterer worthy to be thrown into that River in which his flattering History was cast and drowned Thô Aeneas Sylvius de dict Sigism as Sigismund the Emperour observed we affect pleasant flattering Companions yet he professed he hated them like as he hated the Plague Would you look on the Flatterer as Condemned and most worthy to be cut off from humane Society you would neither over-love him or his Flatteries It is but rarely that a foolish Virgin falls in Love begs the Life and chooseth the most intimate converse of a Condemned Felon Let us look on this condemned Vice as most do on the handsomest condemned Felon and Murtherer A fair and goodly outside but not worthy to live 2. Look how ill an uncured love of Praise becomes another 2. Ill becomes other men see how great a blemish and stain it is to them how it lessens all other commendable Qualities It is to dote on our own Shadow and perish in the Love of it as the Mythologists report of Narcissus Such one is the most unfit of all men for humane Society whether in a Converse of Friendship Service or Command A most untractable and useless piece not fit to rule others who wants a Prudence to rule himself nor fit to receive Commands while he admires himself and dotes on his own contrivance not fit to be a Friend since all his Love runs waste on himself The Emblem of such Persons is ingeniously drawn from the Ape the ugliest as the Lord Bacon observes of Creatures the most mischievous in his Pranks useless and saucy And are such worthy to be loved How comely a sight do you think an ill shap't Ape grinning on his own Features in a flattering Glass would be Such is the man that loves to see himself
is this Quest How may our belief of Gods Governing the world support us in all worldly distractions The Text which I have now read is the precious and sure foundation on which I am to build in that we find these things observable 1. A comfortable assertion the Lord reigneth i. e. Jehovah God or if you please our Lord Jesus Christ unto whom all power is given both in Heaven and in Earth For that he is particularly intended in this Psalm may be gathered from vers 7. Confounded be all they that serve graven Images and boast themselves of their Idols worship him all ye Gods which last words relate to Christ as the Apostle Paul assures us Heb. 1 6. When he bringeth in the first begotten into the World he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him 2. Here is an Exhortation to joy and gladness upon account of the Lords reigning Let the Earth rejoyce and let the multitude of Isles be glad thereof i. e. Let all the world rejoyce at least all those that are the subjects of this mighty Lord who have bowed to his Scepter and submitted themselves to his Government as a willing people in the day of his power Christ was the desire of all Nations and there is reason why he and his Government should be the delight and satisfaction of all Nations Both those in the Earth by which some understand the Continent and those in the Isles England Scotland and Ireland among the rest or if you please you may understand the Gentiles because that passage of the Prophet Isa 42 4. The Isles shall waite for his Law is by the Evangelist rendered thus Mat. 12 21. In his name shall the Gentiles trust 3. We have here the manner how the Lord administers his Kingdoms and mannageth his Government and that is laid down in two things 1. First with terrible majesty and mysteriousness this you have in the former part of the second Verse Clouds and darkness are round about him Which words do intimate to us the tremendous majesty of the Lord which may well strike an awe upon his Subjects and friends and much more fill his enemies with dread and horrour He was terrible at his giving forth the fiery Law upon Mount Sinai As we read Deut. 11 4. The Mountain burnt with fire unto the midst of Heaven with darkness Clouds and thick darkness So he is and will be still in his present and future appearances and dispensations Mala. 3 2. Who shall abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth well may that question be propounded for Mat. 12 3. His Fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his Floor and gather his wheat into the garner but burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire And as these Clouds and darkness do signifie the terrible Majesty so the mysteriousness of his proceedings He often goeth so much out of our sight that we are unable to give an account of what he doth or what he is about to do Frequently the Pillar of divine Providence is dark throughout to Israelites as well as Egyptians so that his own People understand not the Riddles till he is pleased to be his own Interpreter and so lead them into his Secrets Psalm 77 19. His way is in the Sea and his path in the great Waters and his footsteps are not known c. The Lord mannageth his Kingdom and Government with perfect equity and unspotted Justice Righteousness and Judgment are the habitation of his Throne Righteousness whereby he preserves saves and rewards the good Judgment whereby he punishes confounds and destroyes the wicked These are the habitation of his Throne his Tribunal his Seat of Judicature These are the Basis or foundation which give unto his Throne is recritudinem stabilitatem rectitude and establishment His Throne is established in righteousness and the Scepter of his Kingdom is a right Scepter Though there be Clouds yet no blemishes though darkness yet no deformities Psalm 92 15. The Lord is upright he is our Rock there is no unrighteousness in him The Doctrine I shall speak to is this In the midst of all outward distractions and confusions Doct. Gods Governing the world may and should be the support and joy of his Saints In the handling thereof I shall observe this method 1. Enquire what Government is 2. Prove that God doth Govern the World 3. Shew why this should support and comfort his People 4. Improve the whole in a way of use I begin with the first of these Quest What is Government Answer I answer Government is the exerting or putting forth of that Power which any one is justly cloathed with for the ordering and directing of Persons and things to their right and proper ends In this description of Government are three things to be considered and spoken to In all Government there is an end fixed and aimed at Thus it is in Domestick or Family Government which Parents have over their Children by nature and Masters over their Servants by vertue of Contract The end of that Government is the good of the Family and every one that is a member thereof The Parent or Master ought not to be wholly addicted to himself nor to aime solely at his own honour pleasure and advantage but to desire study and by all lawful means to promote the good and welfare of the whole And just so it is with Political Government both in Cities and Provinces and Kingdoms or Empires When People did at first excogitate and constitute such or such a form of Government and place one or more at the Helm and submitted themselves to him or them no rational man can doubt but it was for some wise end Government and Governours are not set up for nothing but for an end which end is either supreme and ultimate or inferiour and subordinate The supreme and ultimate end is and ought and deserves to be the glory of God the exalting of his Name the preserving securing and inlarging of his interest the maintaining and promoting of Religion and Godliness None can shoot at a fairer mark nor drive a nobler design this is worthy of men of the best and greatest men It is the great end which God himself aimes at in all the works of his Hands He both made all things for himself and for himself likewise he doth uphold and order them And unto this end all Magistrates are in duty bound to have an eye and direct their rule and all their actions This is the great work of their place the main and principal business of their Office The good Lord give them all an heart to consider it and to act accordingly As they rule by God so they are obliged to rule for him they ought not so much to design the lifting up of themselves as the lifting up the Name of God and Christ in the world especially in their own Dominions That Magistrate who doth not make the glory of God
bodily Eyes yet you do with an Eye of Faith and Love and therefore may rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 When you look up unto the Heavens and see and say yonder is the place of my Everlasting abode there I must dwell with God there I must be with Christ and joyfully joyn with Angels and Saints in praising of my Lord and Saviour the foresight of this will make you joyful for the present and pleasant in your looking at it 10. Look fiducially at unseen Eternal things with an Holy Humble Confidence by Jesus Christ upon the performance of the conditions of the Gospel they shall be all your own that by turning from all your Sin by Repentance and Faith in Christ you trust you shall be possessed of them that when you see there are Mansions now unseen there are Eternal Joyes an Immoveable Kingdom an Incorruptible Crown the Eternal God to be enjoyed and for all this you have a promise and you know this promise is made to you by the performance of the Conditions annexed to the promise you trust in time to come unto it or rather when you go out of time into Eternity you shall be blessed in the Immediate Full Eternal Enjoyment of all the Happiness that God hath prepared in Heaven to give you wellcome joyful entertainment in that unseen Eternal World that you so eye that World while you live in this that when by Death you are going out of this World into that you might have this well-grounded confidence to say I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day 2 Tim. 4.7 8. If you get such a sight as this as now hath been set forth before you upon such Eternal Objects as before were propounded to you you will be able from your own experience to answer the third question contained in the general case but yet I will proceed unto that branch Q. 3. What influence will such an Eying of Eternity have upon us in all we do In all we do Will its Influence be so Universal Will the efficacy of such a sight be so extensive to reach forth its virtue in all we do yes in all we do Whether we Eat or Drink or go to Sleep whether we Trade or Work or Buy or Sell. Whether we Pray or Hear or search our Hearts or Meditate or Receive or Study or Preach or Sin or Suffer or Dy it will have a mighty influence upon us in any thing wherein we are active or passive culpable or praise-worthy in any condition be it Poverty or Riches Health or Sickness in any Relation be it of Husband and Wife of Parents and Children of Masters and Servants In any Office and Imployment Sacred or Civil out of such an heap because I am limited I will take an handful and because I have not room to speak of all I will not cast them into method according to their nature connexion and dependance one upon another but take them as they come in some few particulars only 1. Such an Eyeing of Eternity in all we do would make us careful to avoid Sin in any thing we do or however we might fail in all we do yet that we suffer it not to Reign or have Dominion over us Look at Eternity with a believing Eye and you will look at sin with an angry Eye you will cast a deadly look at Sin when you have a lively look at Eternity of Joy or Misery 1. Sin would deprive me of Eternal Life therefore I will be its Death it would keep me from Eternal Rest therefore I will never rest till I have conquered and subdued it nothing in the World would bring upon my Eternal Soul the Eternal loss of the Eternal God his Glorious Son and Holy Spirit of the Company of his Holy Angels and Saints of Eternal Treasures of a Blessed Kingdom and Incorruptible Crownâ— but cursed Sin Poverty Sickness Men Death Devils cannot nothing but Sin therefore I will be its bane that shall not Reign in me that would not suffer me to live in Everlasting Happiness 2. Sin would plunge me into unseen Eternal Torments into Endless Flames and Everlasting Burnings If you could speak with a Soul departed but a Moneth ago and ask him what do you now think of the delights of Sin of sporting on the Sabbath day of your pleasant Cups and Delightful Games of pleasing of the Flesh and gratifying of its Lusts What a sad reply would he return and what a doleful answer would he make you Sin Oh that was it that was my ruine that was it which hath brought me miserable wretch to Everlasting Torment that was it which shut me out of Heaven that sunk me down to Hell O ye foolish Sons of Men that are yet in time be not mad as I was mad and do not do as I did let not the seen pleasures and profits of the World which I have found were but for a time deceive you and bewitch you the Devil shewed me the seen delights of Sin but concealed from me the Extremity and Eternity of the pain that it hath brought me to the pleasure is past and the pain continues and I am lost for ever and all this Sin hath brought me to Let your eyeing of Eternity whilst you are standing in time be instead of ones speaking to you in time that hath been in Eternity for the Eternal God doth tell you as much as any Damned Soul can tell you and would you believe one from Hell and not the Son of God that came from Heaven Oh look and view Eternity in the Glass of the Scripture and firmly believe it and it will make slaughtering work amongst your Sins and destroy that which would damn you 2. Such Eyeing of Eternity would be a mighty help to quiet your hearts under the dispensations of Providence here to Men on Earth When you look at the seen Afflictions Distresses Disgraces Stripes Imprisonments Persecutions and Poverty of the People and Children of God and the Riches Ease Honours Pleasures and the seen flourishing prosperity of the worst of Men that by the Swearing Drinking Whoring hating of Godliness being patterns of wickedness proclaim themselves the Children of the Devil and you are offended and your Mind disquieted except in this you have a better heart than Job cap. 21.6 to 16. or David a Man after Gods own heart Psal 73.2 to 16. or Jeremiah cap. 12.1 2. or Habakkuk cap. 1.13 14. Now amongst the many helps to allay this Temptation the eyeing of the last yea Everlasting things is not the least Look upon these two sorts of Men which comprehend all in the World as going to Eternity and lodged there and then you will rather pity them because of their future Misery then envy them for their present Prosperity What if they have their Hearts desire for a