obedience to God their Governour it would be attributed to their craftiness rather than their goodness 2. Proposition Man being made by God a rational creature it governed in a way suitable to the nature of such a creature that is by a Law and not meerly by Physical motion nor natural necessity or objects proposed to his sense only Lex est ratio summa insita in natura quae jubet ea quae fucienda sunt prohibet contraria seu regula mensura actuum agendorum vel omittendorum seu neque hominum ingeniis excogitata nec sanctum aliquod populorum sed eternum quiddam quod universum mundum regeret imperandi prohibendique sapientia Altenst Lex Theolog. Si natura confirmatum jus non erit virtutes omnes tolluntur neque silum in homines obsequia sed etiam in Deos ceremoniae religionésque tolluntur jus esset latrocinari jus adulterare jus testamenta falsa supponere si haec suffragiis aut scitis multitudinis probarentur quae si tanta est potentia siultorum sententiis atque jussis ut eorum suffâ—agiis rerum natura vertatur cur non sanciunt ut quae mala perniciosáque sunt habeantur pro bonis salutaribus c. Cicero de leg lib. 1. as bruits and inanimate creatures are if we consider the nature of man we shall discern a necessity and an aptitude in him to be governed by a Law a necessity because in his first estate mutable in his fallen estate corrupt an aptitude because he is rational acting for some end to be attained by such means as are conducible to the same and both end and means to be discerned by reason whereas bruits that neither know the end sub ratione finis nor the means sub ratione mediorum are not capable of moral Government But it is suitable to the nature of man being an understanding and voluntary agent to be ruled by a Law constituting his debitum officii praemii poenae duty unto God his reward if he be obedient his punishment if he walk contrary to that Law prescribing his duty to him Such a Law God hath made for the government of men else no man could be guilty of sin because there would be no such thing as sin for where there is no Law there is no transgression else there would be no such thing as virtue and vice and no such difference of men as good and bad else there would be no need of repentance for any man no need of reproofs and exhortations else there would be no rewards and punishments to be short there would be no Religion in the world 3. Proposition Though all men for some time were without the written Law of God Est quaedam non scripta sed nata Lex quam non didicimus accepimus legimus vâ—â—ùm ex natura ipsa art ipuimus hâ—â—simus expressimus ad quam non dâ—cti sed fâ—cti non instituti sed imbuti sumus Cicero Orat pro Milo which is full and sufficient to salvation and many are without it still yet all men have a law written in their hearts shewing them that good is to be embraced and evil to be shunned and is sufficient to leave them without excuse Besides what is said before the Apostle proveth this Rom. 2.14 by a twofold argument or testimony the first external from the lives of many of the more sober Heathen who did many things contained in and commanded by the Law of God for when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves The second is an internal testimony v. 15. which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another The very Heathen have been fill'd with fears of punishment after they have committed sin but what need that unless they knew they had transgressed some Law Quae lex est ipsa ratio imperandi prohibâ—ndi quâ—m qui ignorat is est injustus sive est illa scripta uspiam sive nusquam Cicero de leg lâ—â— Promulgatio Legis naâ—uâ—ae est ex hoc ipso quod Deus eam mentibus hominum inseruit naturaliter cognoscendam Aquin. prim secundae Q. 90. Jus naturale est dictamen rectae rationis indicans actui alicui ex ejus convenientia aut discâ—nvenientia cum ipsa natura rationali inesse moralem tuâ— pitudinem â—ut necessitatem moralem ac consequenter ab auctore na urae Deo talem actum aut vetari aut praecipi Grot. de jur bell p. 3. Lex natu ae est lumen d ctamen rationis divinitus inditum in intellectu hominem communibus notionibus ad justi injusti honesti turpis discretionem informans ut quid faciendum sit vel fugiendum intelligat Croc. Syntag. What Law then Not the written Law of God for that they had not Therefore a Law of Nature being for such evils for which they were not exposed to punishment by the Laws of men It is not essential to this Law that it be either spoken or written but it is sufficient that it be some fit signification of the Will of God to man authoritatively instituting what shall be due to God from man and declaring what benefit and good shall redound to him if he do obey and vvhat evil of punishment shall be inflicted upon him if he doth transgress And yet this Will of God is signified and promulged in that God hath engraven such a Law on all mens hearts and imprinted it in their very natures that doth discover such a deformity in some evils that it is to be abhorred and such a beauty in some good that it dictates it is to be embraced There are certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common notions innate or natural principles known to all men such light and dictates of reason by which when they come to understanding they may see a plain difference betwixt good and evil in some things and conclude that one is commanded by God and the other forbidden and consequently that they are bound to do the one and to avoid the other and withall doth dictate to them that it shall be well with them that imbrace good and punishment shall be inflicted on them that do evil and this signification of the Will of God concerning duty rewards and punishments is the Law of Nature as it is common to all men Lex naturalis est significatio divinae voluntatis quam Deus ipse nostris mentibus inserit Val. Philosop Sacr. 279. though described something otherwise by others 4. Proposition Quae est enim gens aut quod genus hominum quod non habeat sine doctrina anticipationem quandam Decrum cum enim non instituto aliquo aut more aut legâ— sit opiâ—io constituta manâ— atque ad unum omnium firma
the pouring out his blood for you now your magnificent feasts were not so fitted for such a Commemoration for they rather would have tended to have clog'd your spirits made them dull and stupid and far less apt to have contemplated such Divine and Heavenly things as those now named are And therefore that this Supper is so mean as it is it is far better than if it were so great and royal as you conceive There are others are well enough satisfied with the wisdom of their Lord and in the nature of the things appointed for the remembrance of him which yet may be and ought to be inquisitive as to the reason of them Which I shall reduce to these 4 Questions 1. Why did the Lord appoint bread rather than any other kind of food 2. Why must it be broken bread 3. Why must it be taken and eaten 4. Why wine as well as bread and why Wine rather than any other drink 1. To the first I say he appointed bread as most apt to signifie the thing thereby to be presented to our Faith and that is himself as he is bread of life to our Souls for so he calleth himself Joh. 6.33 The bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world And 35. Jesus said I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger This is evident that man's natural life doth not more depend on the vertue of the bread that perisheth than the Soul's life of Grace and Glory depends on that vertue that proceedeth from a suffering Jesus I live saith the Apostle Paul yet not I but Christ liveth in me all that life of Faith all the indwellings of Grace in our hearts comes from and is maintained by the vertues and influences of Jesus Christ this bread of life and so likewise doth our eternal life depend on him as he likewise tells us v. 27. Labour for the meat that endureth to eternal life which the Son of man shall give you this meat is the Lord himself who by his sufferings made our peace and purchased the life of grace and glory for us And indeed no other meat as bread could so aptly set forth this Mystery because no food is so suitable to man's nature none for a constancy so pleasant none so strengthning a man can better subsist with bread without other meats than with any other meats without bread thereby the Mystery of conveighing Soul-lâ—fe to the sinner is excellently set forth for as there is other meat for the body besides bread so there is another way of giving life to the Soul besides that of a Saviour and that is an exact obedience to the Law of God but alas the sinner through the weakness of the flesh can never digest that strong meat and so cannot live by it But for a poor weak infirm sinner to be maintained in a life of grace and acceptance with an offended God in and by a Saviour is a way of living so suitable to a sinner that Men and Angels could never have thought of one so suitable and therefore nothing as bread was so fit to set forth this Mystery 2. But why must it be broken bread Christ himself acquaints us with the mystical reason thereof in the verse of the Text it is to set forth the breaking of the body of Christ by breaking his body must be taken to comprehend all the sufferings of his Humane nature as united with the Divine as all his soul-sufferings of which there are 3 Phrases used by the Evangelists very emphatically as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all signifie those dolors of mind he underwent through the dereliction of God and likewise all other sufferings of his body which are by Isaiah set forth with great variety of Phrase speaking of Christ he saith He was despised and rejected of men Isaiah 53. a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and v. 4. He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows and v. 5. He was wounded for our transgressions the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed and v. 7. he was oppressed and he was afflicted Now all these sufferings were consummated in his Crucifixion 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree These are those sufferings that made that one sacrifice of himself by which he put away sin and hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 9.26 Heb. 10.14 Upon this account it is that the bread of this Supper must be broken before it be taken and eaten the broken bread that is the sign and Christ's sufferings that is the mystery signified by it as I have shewed 3. Why must this broken bread be taken and eaten This is not without its Mystery for thereby is meant that these Breakin gs Bruisings Woundings of Christ's Soul and Body was not for any sin of his own for he was a lamb without spot 1 Pet. 1.19 but it was for our sins and for our benefit Our dear Jesus sows in tears and we reap the harvest of his tears in joy he by the meritorious extraction of his bloody sweat and agony in the Garden by his tremendious dolors of Soul and Body on the Cross prepares a Cordial and perfects it by his death which prepared Cordial we by Faith drink up and from a state of sin and death revive he offered himself as good wheat to be ground by the law and justice of God that thereby he might be made bread of life for us by Faith to feed on that we may live for ever So that Christ's breaking and giving the bread in this Sacrament to his Church doth mystically declare that the sole intentions of all his sufferings was for us and therefore he saith this is the bread that was broken for you and likewise taking and eating it doth further signifie that we do profess to believe in him for life and do rely wholly on him for acceptance with God and for the salvation of our souls 4. But why did he add wine also to this supper and commanded us to drink thereof in remembrance of him I Answer this addition was for a very good reason for thereby a further mystery of our Salvation by his bloody death is explained 1. As first if you consider that man's natural life is not maintained by eating only except he drink also for we may dye as well by thirst as by hunger Christ therefore by giving us his blood to drink which is signified by the Cup as well as his body to eat doth thereby declare that his suffering of Death for us is every way compleat and sufficient for the spiritual and eternal life of our souls So that as he that hath bread and drink wants nothing for the sustaining his natural life so he that hath by Faith an interest in a broken bleeding Christ wants nothing to the upholding the Soul in a state of
thou shouldest not deal by another as thou wouldest not be dealt by thy self The Law then is good and the punishment is as great Thy Soul may go for an ill word consider of it has an evil word sufficient pleasure to compensate for eternal pain Sure it is wisdom to forbear such words if we may pay so dear for them 4. By considering the odiousness of it in others and in them we may see it in its true colours things are too near us to be aright discerned by us when they are observed in our selves A Lyar a False-witness a Back-bitâ—â—r a Tale-bearer how do you like such men Would you have your Child trained up in such things Why then will you allow them in your selves How came they to be more tolerable in you than other men Is it that it is no matter what becomes of you How comes it that you have cast off all care of and love to self that you would have every body better than your self 5. By reflecting upon the reproaches we have had from our own hearts for it and the inconveniencies we have suffered and the dammages others have reaped by it beyond our possible reparation is it not time then to take up 6. By remembring that God observes it and will Judg thee for it A Reverend man would awe thee if there was danger especially of the Pillory and how canst thou cast off the fear of God to talk before him so loosely How wilt thou like to have all thy vain and vile words read and aggravated at the last day It will be one part of that dayes work Jude 15 16. 2. There is matter that it is our Duty to Discourse of the general Nature of which I shall lay before you as 1. Such as though of a common and inferior Nature as referring to things of this Life yet is of consequence to our selves or Neighbours to be debated for the right understanding or better managing of our joynt or several concerns this as tending to Justice Charity Peace or the like by the good use it may be of is Sanctified and becomes our duty and we may not without sin decline it when duly provoked to it for as mean as these matters seem God hath concerned himself to make severe Laws that we worst not one another in them by which we are obliged to improve and imbetter each other as we can and surely most of all when by a word it may be done How does Job's Conscience approve him in his having been a faithful Counsellor Job 19.15 I was eyes to the Blind And what a Character does Christ give to the Peace-makers Mat. 5.9 They shall be called the Children of God And yet further the command to Worldly business six dayes in seven does more than allow Worldly Discourse especially when it hath a moral use So that as it is a vain Superstition of some not to touch these things so is it of others to decline necessary profitable talk of them as if it were a piece of Service to God to be useless unto men while by his providence we are among them Know then where by weakness your Brother needs advice and by a greater stock of wisdom you are able to give it it is his duty in order to the prudent management even of his Worldly affairs to ask it and yours as freely to give it for you therefore have it and cannot otherwise give a good account of it Caution Let me only caution that on this pretence you Lanch not out into Discourse of this Nature Unseasonably as on the Lord's Day unnecessarily for mere talk's sake immoderately to the burying of all other Discourse or hindering more important business of your own or Brother's it would also be carefully avoided that we intrude not our selves as busie-bodies into the Discourse of others matters while we are unconcerned and to Persons unconcerned for which we are like to go unthanked whereby our Brother may be wronged and no body is edified 2. It may be our duty to Discourse of what is done in the World wherein God's Justice Power Wisdom Faithfulness or Goodness is advanced One design of God's marvellous working is to furnish us with fit matter for talking His Signs in Egypt are particularly noted to have had this reference That they might tell in the Ears of their Sons and Sons Sons what things he had wrought in Egypt that they might know that he was the Lord Exod. 10.2 God's works are one of his Books that we should much confer about David pleases himself to see the whole World as set about a round Table conferring their Notes of what they had seen and observed of God in his works from Generation to Generation Psal 145.5 6. I will speak of the glorious Honour of thy Majesty and of thy wondrous works and men shall speak of the might of thy terrible Acts and I will declare thy greatness they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness This seems to be talk for the Generality of men there is something in it peculiarly pleasing to all palats and an Example often affects when a Precept would be over-looked and I am confident if we could prudently Discourse of the works of God we might more advantage the profaner sort of men than by talking to them out of the Word for they are prejudiced against that and shut upon it streight as perceiving whereto that would but they are pleased with story and lye more open to it that there is greater hope e're they be aware of their being caught with it Psal 107.42 That this Discourse may be profitable take the following advice 1. Make wise Observation look with both Eyes on what happens look into it look after God in it and spy what Attribute is eminently glorified by it Psal 107.43 Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. 2. Make faithful representations lye not for God The Romish Legends by their multitude of Fables have greatly minished the veneration of all Miracles One fly spoils a whole pot of Oyntment the same does one lye in a most useful History 3. Make Charitable Interpretations as to persons or parties be not too severe in censuring them that God makes Examples It was the fault and folly of the Jews Christ tells us they were out and we as well as they may be out let us be warned by them Luke 13.1 2 3. 4. And make pious applications and still put in your self as concerned where you note any thing to be learned 1 Cor. 10.5 11. Psal 90.11 12. Many profane the Providences of God by their slight Discourses of them without regard to God or his Glory in them but you on the other hand by observing Rules may hallow his Name and spread his fame 3. It is yet more especially our duty to be Discoursing to one another of what God hath said to the World for our mutual Direction Caution and
we are capable in Time or unto Eternity was indelibly implanted upon our Natures and indispensably necessary unto that Society among our selves with the great end of our joynt living unto God for which we were made All the mutual evils of mankind whether of Persons or of Nations designed or perpetrated against one another are effects of our fatal Prevarication from the Law of our Creation Hence Cain the first open violent transgressor of the Rules and bounds of Humane Society thought to justifie or excuse himself by a Renunciation of that Principle which God in Nature had made the Foundation of a Political or Sociable life with respect unto Temporal and Eternal ends Am I saith he my Brother's keeper Gen. 4. Yea God had made every man the keeper of his Brother so far as that they should in all things in their opportunities and unto their Power seek their good and Deliverance from Evil. In those things which are good unto us those which are Spiritual and Eternal have the Preeminence These nothing can prejudice but Sin and Mortal evils whose prevention therefore in one another so far as we are able is a Duty of the Law of Nature and the prime effect of that Love which we owe unto the whole Offspring of that one Blood whereof God hath made all Nations And one of the most effectual means for that end are the reproofs whereof we treat And the Obligation is the same on those that give them and those to whom they are given with respect unto their several Interests in this Duty Wherefore to neglect to despise not thankfully to receive such reproofs as are justly and regularly given unto us at any time is to contemn the Law of our Creation and to trample on the prime effect of Fraternal Love Yea to despise Reproofs and to Discountenance the discharge of that Duty is to open a Door unto that mutual hatred and dislike which in the sight of God is Murder See Lev. 19.17 with 1 Joh. 3.15 Let us therefore look to our selves for there is no greater sign of a degeneracy from the Law and all the ends of our Creation than an unwillingness to receive reproofs justly deserved and regularly administred or not to esteem of them as a blessed effect of the Wisdom and goodness of God towards us 2. Whereas the light of Nature is variously obscured and its directive power debilitated in us God hath renewed on us an Obligation unto this Duty by particular Institutions both under the Old Testament and the New The Truth is the efficacy of the Law of Creation as unto Moral Duties being exceedingly impaired by the entrance of sin and the exercise of Original native love towards mankind being impeded and obstructed by that confusion and disorder whereinto the whole state of mankind was cast by sin every one thereby being made the enemy of another as the Apostle declares Tit. 3.3 not being cured by that coalescency into evil Societies which respects only Political and Temporal ends the discharge of this Duty was utterly lost at least beyond that which was merely Parental Wherefore God in the Institution of his Church both under the Old Testament and the New did mould men into such Peculiar Societies and Relations as wherein way might be made meet again for the exercise thereof He hath so disposed of us that every one may know every one whom he is obliged to reprove and every one may know every one whom he is obliged to hear And as he hath hereby cured that confusion we were cast into which was obstructive of the exercise of this Duty so by the Renovation of positive commands attended with Instructions Directions Promises and Threatnings enforcing the giving and receiving of Reproofs with respect unto Moral and Spiritual ends he hath relieved us against that obscurity of Natural light which we before laboured under Should I go to express the Commands Directions Exhortations Promises and Threatnings which are given in the Scripture to this purpose it would be a work as endless as I suppose it needless to all that are conversant in the Holy Writings It may suffice unto our present purpose that there being an express institution of God for the giving and taking of Reproofs and that an effect of infinite Goodness Benignity and Love towards us not thankfully to receive Reproofs when it is our Lot to deserve them and to have them is to despise the Authority of God over us and his gracious Care for us When therefore it befalleth any to be justly and orderly reproved let him call to mind the Authority and love of God therein which will quickly give him that sense of their worth and excellency as will make him thankful for them which is the first step unto their due Improvement 3. A due consideration of the use benefit and advantage of them will give them a ready admission into our minds and affections Who knows how many Souls that are now at rest with God have been prevented by Reproofs as the outward means from going down into the Pit Unto how many have they been an occasion of conversion and sincere turning unto God How many have been recovered by them from a state of backsliding and awakened from a secure sleep in sin How many great and bloody sins hath the perpetration of been obviated by them How many snares of Temptations have they been the means to break and cancel What revivings have they been to grace what disappointments unto the snares of Satan who can declare The Advantage which the Souls of men do or might receive every day by them is more to be valued than all earthly Treasures whatever And shall any of us when it comes to be our concern through a predominancy of Pride passion and prejudice or through cursed Sloth and Security the usual means of the defeatment of these advantages manifest our selves to have no interest in or valuation of these things by an unreadiness or unwillingness to receive Reproofs when tendered unto us in the way and according to the mind of God But now suppose we are willing to receive them it will be enquired in the last place what Considerations may further us in their due Improvement and what Directions may be given thereunto An Answer to this enquiry shall shut up this Discourse And I shall say hereunto 1. If there be not open evidence unto the contrary it is our Duty to judge that every Reproof is given us in a way of Duty This will take off offence with respect unto the Reprover which unjustly taken is an assured entrance into a way of losing all benefit and advantage by the Reproof The reason why any man doth regularly reprove another is because God requireth him so to do and by his command hath made it his Duty towards him that is reproved And do we judge it reasonable that one should neglect their Duty towards God and us and in some degree or other make himself guilty of our
same word Tectum ab irae vel ultionis Dei faâ—te Pol. ex Gei Peccatum comparatur serdibus quae tegi solent ne oculos offendant Piscator Vt operculo illo lex tegehatur per quam cognitio pecâ—ati Sic Christus peccata tegit remittit expiat ne lex ultra accuset condemnet placatum Dei Patris irae per Filium tectum est seu opertum peccatum per Christum scilicet prepitiatorium nostrum Merc. in Pasco which signifieth a covering doth signifie also an expiation and the covering of the Mercy-Seat which here may be alluded unto which was called the Propitiatory comes from the same Root which Propitiatory or Covering did cover the Tables of the Law the Hand-writing against us and this was a Type of Christ our Propitiation who having appeased his Fathers anger doth cover our sins that the Law shall not accuse or condemn us Sin is covered by God when he hides his Face from it Psal 51.9 when he casts it behind his Back Isa 38.17 when he throws it into the depth of the Sea Mic. 7.19 So that this covering of sin is of the same import as the former expression namely the forgiving of it Quest 1. Wherein doth appear Blessedness of forgiveness Quest 2. How forgiveness may be obtained Quest 1. Wherein the Blessedness of forgiveness doth appear To evidence this I shall give the Reasons why such must needs be Blessed whose transgressions are forgiven Reas 1. Such must needs be Blessed whose transgressions are forgiven because God doth pronounce them Blessed as in the Text Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven whose sins are covered David wrote these words not from himself but as he was inspired by the Holy Ghost and if any saying in the whole Book of the Scriptures be the Word of God as all of them are this is his Word and this is his Sentence which is confirmed in the New Testament Rom. 4.7 the Apostle Paul quoting these very vvords to prove the Doctrine of justification by Faith vvithout vvorks God pronounceth such to be Blessed vvhose Iniquities are forgiven and therefore they must needs be Blessed because God speaketh of things as they are never did a lye falshood or mistake proceed out of his Mouth God vvho alone giveth the Blessing pronounceth pardoned Persons Blessed and therefore they are Blessed When Isaac gave his Fatherly Blessing unto Jacob though it vvere upon a mistake he supposing him to have been Esau his first-born Son yet afterward did not he vvould not retract it but telleth Esau vvho too late sought for it Gen. 27.33 I have Blessed him and he shall be Blessed Surely then vvhere God vvho never mistaketh doth pronounce the Blessing upon any he doth not he vvill not retract it but they are Blessed and shall be Blessed Reas 2. Such must needs be Blessed vvhose iniquities are forgiven because they are delivered from the greatest evil and that vvhich doth expose them to the greatest misery and vvhich alone can deprive them of eternal happiness Pardoned persons are delivered from the greatest evil and that is sin vvhich is the greatest evil in it self because most opposite to the chiefest good and forasmuch as it is the cause of all other evils that either do or can befal mankind Besides the miseries of this life it is sin and only sin vvhich exposes unto future miseries and the vengeance of eternal fire in Hell The curse of the Law is for sin vvhereby the Law is broken Gal. 13.10 Cursed if every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them The threatnings of eternal destruction are for sin especially for sins against the Gospel 2 Thess 1.7 8 9. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power Guilt for sin in the Nature of it is Obligatio ad paenam an Obligation to punishment not Temporal only but such as may bear Proportion to the demands of God's infinite justice which therefore must be eternal Such whose iniquities are forgiven are delivered from the guilt of sin they are free from Obligation to punishment and so are no longer exposed thereunto through Christ they have remission being by Faith interested in his merit and satisfaction and God's justice cannot require the satisfaction again of them which he hath already received of Christ and accepted for them Christ is their surety who hath payed their Debts in forgiveness they are discharged and God will not require the Debt any more of them Therefore there is no Condemnation to them Rom. 8.1 Jesus having delivered them from the wrath to come 1 Thess 1.8 It is sin also which can alone deprive any of eternal happiness In the first Covenant God promised life and everlasting felicity upon the condition of perfect obedience it is only disobedience which doth hinder the fulfilling of this promise It was sin which threw man at the first out of Paradise and which still doth keep men out of Heaven nothing doth hinder men's happiness here nothing can deprive them of happiness in the other world but this evil of evils Sin hence then it will undeniably follow that pardoned Persons who are delivered from sin must needs be Blessed there being nothing which can procure their misery or prevent their Blessedness because in the forgiveness of sin their sin is removed with the evil consequences and effects thereof Psal 103.12 As far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our transgressions from us Reas 3. Such men must needs be Blessed whose iniquities are forgiven because they are taken into Covenant with God God is their God and they are his People The promise of the New Covenant I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more is coupled with the other promises I will be their God and they shall be my People Jer. 31.33 34. Where ever God fulfils the one promise he doth fulfil the other too God forgiveth iniquity to none but at the same time he becometh their God and brings them into the Blessed relation of his Covenant-people They are Blessed that have the Lord for their God Psal 144.15 Happy is that People that is in such a case yea happy is that People whâ—se God is the Lord. Psal 33.12 Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord and the People whom he hath chosen for his own Inheritance Such as are taken into Covenant with God are Blessed because 1. They are taken into God's favour 2. They are taken into God's family 3. They are under God's providence 4. They have free access unto God in Prayer 5. They have Communion with God in all his Ordinances and thus it is with all pardoned Persons and therefore they are Blessed
whose person is of infinite dignity that thence may arise an equivalency of merit in his sufferings as may prove satisfactory to God's infinite justice and because no mere man being a finite creature hath this dignity and God cannot suffer because this would argue weakness and infirmity which is infinitely removed from him therefore it is requisite that the person who can satisfie should be God-man that as in one nature he may be capable of suffering so the other nature may put a vertue and efficacy upon it and such a person was Jesus Christ 3. That Jesus Christ hath done that which is sufficient to satisfie God's justice for the sins of men is evident from his Death and other sufferings which we have upon record in the Gospel which sufferings were not for himself he being an innocent person and it would have argued injustice in God had he permitted such sufferings to have been laid on his body especially had he himself inflicted such dreadful inward sufferings on his Soul were it not that he stood in the room of sinners and endured all these sufferings for their sins that he might give satisfaction to his justice hereby 4. That Christ's sufferings have given to God satisfaction and that he hath accepted of this satisfaction in the behalf of sinners is evident from the Compact and Covenant which he made with Christ that if he would offer up this sacrifice of himself he would be well pleased and sinners should hereby be justified from his sending his Son into the world for this very end and anointing him to the office of High-Priest that he might first make satisfaction and then Intercession for the people from his owning him when here raising him when dead receiving him to glory when raised which he would not have done had not he accepted his satisfaction from his Covenant he hath through him made with man and promises therein of remission of sins through his blood which he would never have made had not Christ's death given him satisfaction Moreover all those places of Scripture which speak of Christ's death as a sacrifice as a ransom as a punishment which he endured that sinners might be and whereby believers are actually reconciled unto God do clearly and abundantly prove that Christ hath given satisfaction to God's justice and which God is well pleased withal 5. That all sinners must know and believe this Doctrine of Christ's satisfaction that they may attain remission of sins is evident because God never did never will forgive any sin without respect unto it this way of remission is the chief thing which he hath revealed in the Scriptures In the Old Testament it was shadowed under the sacrifices for sin which were offered in the New Testament it is the end of the Revelation of Christ this being the chief design of his sufferings and death to give satisfaction to God's justice in order to the forgiveness of man's sin And they that are ignorant hereof or do not believe this do not know nor believe in Jesus Christ and him crucified and therefore cannot obtain forgiveness by his death 2. Sinners must know and believe the doctrine of Justification by Christ's Righteousness that they may attain remission of sins 1. They must know the nature of Justification it self that it doth consist in the remission of our sins and the acceptation of our Persons as perfectly Righteous in God's sight they must know that they have no Righteousness of their own to present God withal because guilty of sin and the least guilt is inconsistent with a perfect Righteousness and therefore if they were as some are really Holy yet that they could not be accepted as perfectly Righteous in God's sight upon the account of a perfect Righteousness of their own which none here do attain unto much less when they are naturally void and empty of all good and real Holiness and polluted all over with Sin 3. They must know that the Righteousness of Christ is perfect and was intended for them and held forth to them which they must submit unto and accept of if they would be justified in God's sight 4. That the Righteousness of Christ is made theirs by Faith God imputing it and accounting it unto believers as if it were their own and they had wrought it out in their own persons This way of Justification by Christ all must know and be perswaded of that would obtain Justification which doth include forgiveness of sin 2. Some things must be done and practised by sinners that they may attain this blessedness of forgiveness 1. They must get conviction of sin 2. They must make confession of sin 3. They must by Faith make Application of Jesus Christ 4. They must forsake sin 5. They must make Supplication and earnest Prayer unto God for pardoning Mercy 6. They must forgive others 1. Sinners would you attain the blessedness of forgiveness Labour to get conviction of sin get conviction of your Original sin the guilt of Adam's first sin in which you are involv'd your present emptiness of all Spiritual good and the Universal depravation of all the powers and faculties of your Souls with inherent pollution which renders you opposite unto all real good and naturally prone unto nothing but evil get conviction of your actual sins of all your hainous breaches of God's Law whether the first or second Table of it whether sins against God more immediately his Nature his Worship his Name his Day or against your Neighbour whether relative sins or sins against the life or chastity or estate or good name of any and get conviction that all inordinate motions that have not the consent of the will and much more inordinate affections which are influenced by it are sinful and provoking unto God Get also convictions of your more hainous disobedience to the Gospel what an aggravation it is of all your other sins that you have repented of none when you have so much need and have been so often called hereunto what an affront is it unto God a disparagement unto Christ that you have neglected your Salvation by him and have been guilty of unbelief in not receiving yea refusing Christ so able and willing to save you and when you have had such frequent and earnest as well as gracious and free tenders of him Get conviction of the guilt of your sins and what an Obligation you are under hereby to undergo eternal Destruction in the flames of Hell fire for it and let this awaken you out of your security let the thoughts of this pierce and wound your consciences and make you cry out with those Sinners which were convinced by Peter's Sermon Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we do Get conviction also of the horrid baseness and ungratefulness of sin as it dishonours and displeases that God by whom you were at first created are continually
the adjective signifies Esau's insatiable and greedy appetite after Jacob's red potage The like also is implied in his omitting the word potage which notes the hast and greediness of his lust increased by the red colour whence he was called Edom. And what was it that Esau's insatiable lust thus longs for that follows v. 34. potage of Lentiles Which were a kind of pulse much like to Vetches or small Pease very course food such as men in their sorrow and mourning were wont to eat O! what a vile profane wretch was Esau to part with his celestial birth-right and dignity for a mess of such course potage well might Moses conclude thus Esau despised his birth-right An insatiable greedy thirst after any inferior good argues a predominant love to the world 3. Prop. To love the World is to have the heart bound up in and made one with the world All love tends to Union and to have the Heart planted in and incorporated with the World argues a predominant love thereto Thus in our text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 love not the world i. e. Let not your hearts be implanted glued or nailed to the world let not your thoughts and affections run so deep into the world as to become one with it The more any love the world the more their hearts are united to and incorporated with it The Alligation and adherence of the heart to the Creature is the natural effect of predominant love thereto Love to the world is the nail or glue whereby the heart is fastened to it Thus Hos 4.17 Ephraim is joyned to Idols 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is fastened or glued so as to become one therewith Whereby the prophet teacheth us that Israel's heart was bound fast by indissoluble bonds to his Idols so that it could not be plucked thence 4. Prop. To have the heart under the Dominion of the World argues predominant love thereto Such is the nature of Love that it subjects the Lover to the thing beloved specially if it be loved for it self It s true love to God gives us a Dominion over all things beneath us but love to the world brings the heart into subjection to it O! what an imperious tyrannick Soveraignty has the world over those that love it what slaves are worldlings to the world through love to it whatever the heart inordinately cleaves unto it is under the dominion of so Hos 4.11 whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart There is a great emphase in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will take away which notes first a contest or conflict and then the conquest which these sensual objects make over the heart that adheres to them 5. Prop. To spend the best of our time thoughts studies care and endeavours for the procuring or conserving worldly goods denotes predominant love to the world This seems to be the case of some carnal Jews after the return from Babylon Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you O ye to dwell in your sieled houses and this house lye wast In your sieled houses or houses curiously wainscotted and adorned not only for use but luxury and pleasure Whence it is aptly rendred by the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if he had said is this time a time for you O ye sensualists to spend so much time study care cost and other expences in trimming and adorning your stately houses not only for use but delight and luxury whiles the house of the Lord lies wast this piece of Love to the world our Lord cautions professors of these last days against Luke 21.34 And take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to overcharge answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to harden as it appears by the LXX on Exod. 8.15.32 which is also rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 10.1 so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies such an overcharging of the heart with complacential thoughts and amusements about worldly things as takes away all sense of Divine concerns thence it follows with surfeiting and drunkenness These two denote all sensual pleasures Then follows and cares of this life hereby is signified all distracting distrustful anxious cares about provision for this life which are elsewhere stiled the cares of this world as Mat. 13.22 this part of predominant Love to the world is termed Rom. 8.5 minding the things of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mind according to Paul's Phrascologie doth not so much regard the simple act of the mind as the complacential thoughts studious contrivements and sollicitous cares of the heart such as naturally follow a carnal constitution or frame of heart and bespeak the man to be under the Dominion of predominant love to the world For when all a mans thoughts inclinations affections studies and cares pay tribute to the flesh what is he but a slave to the flesh thence it follows ver 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the complacential amusement contrivement study and care of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 6.5 the figment or contrivement of the heart These carnal world-minders are well described by Paul Phil. 3.19 who mind earthly things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. They amuse themselves in the the complacential thoughts and study of terrene things they have no gust savour or relish but of such they are under the serpent's curse to lick the dust 6. Prop. Another branch of predominant love to the world is to make the Creature the object or matter not only of our use but also of our supreme fruition complacence and satisfaction So much is implied in our text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make not the world the object of your entire contentment acquiescence and satiâ—faction draw not your choicest comforts and delights from terrene goods There is some kind of contentment and complacence in worldly goods which may consist with the love of God but when the heart makes any worldly good the entire or main object of its fruition and satisfaction this denotes predominant love to the world For Divine Wisdom hath put this Law or Order into things that all Creatures are to be the object of our Vse but God himself the supreme object of our fruition and satisfaction whence to make any Creature the chief matter of our fruition and satisfaction what is it but to violate and pervert the order of the Creation and set up the Creature in the place of the Creator and doth not this bespeak predominant love to the Creatures This our Lord elegantly describes in that parable of the rich glutton Luke 12.15.19 you have the scope of the parable v. 15. beware of Covetousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here as elsewhere signifies an avaricious greedy humor or desire of having abundance not only for use but to pamper lust The
(k) Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is applied to filthy garments Zach. 3.3 (l) And Joshua was clothed with filthy garments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so it may be taken Jam. 2.2 (m) A poor man in vile rayment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence we learn that sin is a filthy thing sin is called filthiness Prov. 30.12 (n) There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness and therefore when God calls us from sin he bids us wash our selves Isai 1.16 (o) Wash ye make you clean 2 Cor. 7.1 (p) Having therefore these promises dearly beloved Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and we read of this as that they are ashamed of their sins and loath themselves for them and abhor themselves because of sin and cast them away as a polluted and menstruous cloth all these expositions denote the filthiness of sin And superfluity of naughtiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often taken in the Scripture for malice 1 Cor. 5.8 (q) Therefore let us keep the truth not with old leaven not with leaven of malice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because it hath here no article and because it often signifies all manner of sin I 'le give it rope without any limitation The Apostle then by superfluity of naughtiness means the redundancy and overflowing of sin amongst those professors There is a Chaos of sin in all of us but it was very spreading and luxuriant in these professors and no marvel for they loved money which is the root of all evil Laying apart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or laying down Acts 7.58 (r) The witnesses laid down their clothes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies the rejection Casting off or Putting away of sin put ye off all these things saith Paul and again put off the old man and so Peter 1 Pet. 2.1 (s) Wherefore laying aside all malice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Receive with meekness receive that is hear it entertain it give it entrance and admission With meekness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the moderation or rebatement of sinful Anger for then when the Apostle saith Receive the word with meekness his meaning is do not shut out the word by a peevish froward stormy and Angry spirit but take it in with calmness mildness and submission The engrafted word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the word used for engrafting Rom. 11. yet since 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies graftings and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to graft the translation is warrantable but yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may respect the planting or the sowing of the word and may be read the word planted or the word sown that is sown in your hearts by the hand of Christs Ministers see Mark 4.15 (t) But when they have heard Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts Which is able to save your souls that is from hell and damnation there is this power in the word but it is mutuatitious extrinsecal and borrow'd it is the power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 (u) I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation the word of it self saves not but God by the word 1 Cor. 1.21 (x) It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe The words thus open'd the Case I am to speak to is this How we may hear the Word so as to profit by it For the resolution of this question I shall first tell you what we mean by the word Secondly what by profiting And thirdly how we shall profit by the hearing of it 1. By the Word I understand the Word of God which Word of God may be considered either as it is written in the Scripture or as it is preach't that is expounded and applied by the Ministers of Christ The question is concerning the word preach't How we may hear it so as to profit by it Ministers are to preach the word 2 Tim. 4.2 (y) Preach the word preach the word what is that that is open and unfold the Scripture with a suitable application of them to the estate and the condition of the hearers Reprove from them Rebuke from them Exhort from them This was Christs preaching Luk. 4.17 (z) He found the place where it was written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me c. and then be expounds it v. 21. This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears Luk. 24.27 this was Peters Preaching Act. 2.2 (a) And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets be expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself in this Sermon he chiefly insists upon two Scriptures and expounds them both and then applies all to their Consciences v. 36. (b) Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and Christ and this was Pauls Preaching Act. 28.23 (c) There came many to his Lodging to whom be expounded and testified the kingdom of God perswading them concerning Jesus both out of the Law of Moses and the Prophets from morning till evening and for the Levites before Christ who taught the People the good knowledge of the Law they Preacht after this manner Nehem. 8.7 8. (d) So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading and that was the manner in the Synagogues after Christ Act. 13.15 (e) And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them saying ye men and brethren if you have any word of exhortation for the people say on Moses was not only read but preacht Act. 15.21 (f) Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him and Paul prescribes the way of Preaching to Timothy 1 Tim. 4.13 (g) Give attendance to Reading to Exhortation to Doctrine I understand it of publique reading the Scriptures in the Church with the application of them by way of Doctrine and Exhortation well then by the word we understand the word Preacht which is the opening and unfolding the Scriptures by the Ministers of Christ 2. What is meant by profiting or what is it to profit by the word I answer we profit by the word when we get that good and spiritual Advantage from it for which it was appointed and designed by God Now God hath appointed his word I. For Learning and Instruction 1 Cor. 14.31 (h) For you may all Prophesie one by one that all may learn â—nd all may be comforted the Colossians
over them And there are two things specified in order to their King His 1. Election 2. Religion 1. His Election v. 15. Thou shalt in any wise set him over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse Good reason God should have the choice of their King seeing by him Kings reign Prov. 8.15 2. His Religion v. 18. When he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests * Levitici Sacerdotes in atrio templi volumen legis quod erat primariae authoritatis custodiebant P. Fagius Here was a good beginning of a Kings reign the first thing he did after he sate upon the Throne was to Copy out the Word of God in a Book And in the Text It shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the Words of this Law and these Statutes to do them It shall be with him The Book of the Law shall be his Vade mecum or daily Companion Charles the Great used to set his Crown upon the Bible Indeed THE BIBLE is the best Supporter of the Crown And he shall read * Legere debuit sibi privatim in templo ut sciret populus neminem à lege excipi Grotius therein It is not below the Majesty of a Prince to peruse the Oracles of Heaven in them are comprized sacred Apothegms Prov. 8.6 I will speak of excellent things In the Septuagint it is (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grave things in the Hebrew Princely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b things such as are fit for a God to speak and a King to read Nor must the King only read the Book of the Law at his first instalment into his Kingdom but he shall read in it all the days of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life He must not leave off reading till he lest off reigning And the reasons why he must be conversant in the Law of God are in the subsequent words 1. That he may learn to fear the Lord his God Reading of the Word is the best means to usher in the fear of the Lord. 2. That he may keep all the words of this Law to do them 3. That he may prolong his days in his Kingdom I shall now confine my self to these words He shall read in it i. e. the Book of the Law all the days of his life The holy Scripture is as Austin saith a (d) Qu d est sacra Scriptuâ—a nisi quaedâ—m episâ—ola Omni potentis Dei ad creaturam iâ— qua verba Dei sâ—nant cor Dei discitur Aug. in Psal Golden Epistle sent to us from God This is to be read diligently ignorance of Scripture is the mother of errour not devotion Matth. 22.29 ye err not knowing the Scriptures We are commanded to search the Scriptures John 5.39 The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to search as for a Vein of Silver How diligently doth a Child read over his Fathers Will and Testament and a Citizen peruse his Charter with the like (e) Quaerit Scriptura lectâ—rem vigilantem desidiâ—sum resiuit Rivet Isag â—d scriptur c. 13. diligence should we read Gods Word which is our Magna Charta for Heaven 'T is a mercy the Bible is not prohibited Trajan the Emperour forbade the Jews to read in the Book of the Law Let us enquire at this sacred Oracle Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures Acts 18.24 Melancthon (f) Melch. Adam in vita Melancth when he was young suck'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sincere Milk of the Word Alphonsus King of Arragon read over the Bible fourteen times That Roman Lady Cecilia had by much reading of the Word made her Breast Bibliothecam Christi the Library of Christ as (g) Si Alexander Homerum ita amplexus est Scipio Afric Zenophontis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vix è manibus d posuit quid nes in sicro codicâ— agere oportet Quistorp vide Chytraei praelect in Jos Mornaeum Hierom speaks Were the Scriptures only in their Originâ—l Tongue many would plead excuse for not reading but when this sword of the spirit is unsheathed and the Word is made plain to us by being translated what should hinder us from a diligent search into these holy Mysteries Adam was forbid upon pain of death to taste of the Tree of Knowledge Gen. 3.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt sâ—rely dye But there is no danger of touching this Tree of holy Scriptures if we do not eat of this Tree of Knowledge we shall surely dye What will become of them who are strangers to Scripture Hosea 8.12 I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing Many lay aside Scripture as rusty Armor Jer. 8.9 they are better read in Romances than in St. Paul they spend many hours inter pectinem speculum between the Comb and the Glass but their eyes begin to be sore when they look upon a Bible The very Turks will rise up in judgment against these Christians they reverence the Books of Moses and if they find but a leaf wherein any thing of the Pentateuch is written they take it up and kiss it They who slight the Word written slight God himself whose stamp it bears To slight the Kings Edict is an affront offered to the Person of the King Scripture-vilifiers (h) Dei eloquia rejicientes multis se exiâ—ialibus lâ—qu is involvunt Calvin are in a damnable state Prov. 13.13 Whoso despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Nor is it enough to read the Word of God but it should be our care to get some spiritual emolument and profit by it that our Souls may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nourished up in the words of faith 1 Tim. 4.6 Why else was the Scripture written but that it might profit us God did not give us his Word only as a Landskip to look upon but he delivered it to us as a Father delivers a stock of Money to his Son to improve 'T is sad not to profit by the Word Quest to be like a body in an atrophy that doth not thrive Men would be loath to trade and get no profit The grand Question I am to speak to is this How we may read the Scriptures with most spiritual profit Resp 'T is a momentous Question and of daily use R. For the resolution of this Question I shall lay down several Rules or Directions about reading of Scripture 1. If you would profit by reading remove those things which will hinder Direct 1 your profiting That the Body may thrive obstructions must be removed There are three obstructions must be removed if you would profit by Scripture 1. Remove the love of every (i) Plaâ—imi peccata radunt
but the whole made up of these parts And the whole must needs be such as the parts are of which it consists Families are but like the Book in loose sheets and Kingdoms like the Book bound up The one but like letters that are single and apart the other like letters joined together Now if the sheets be not good or the letters not good the book or writing cannot possibly be good Give us the best Magistrates let them Enact the best Laws and back them with the strictest Exccution yet Societies will be naught whilest Governours of Families neglect their duty in Religious Education 3. With what a Cloud of Witnesses do the Holy Scriptures present us of Governours of Families that have been greatly conscientious in their faithful discharge of this duty Josh 24.15 We told you before of Abraham's Trained Instructed Catechized servants Gen. 18.19 After him Joshua who resolves that whatever others might do he and his houshold would serve the Lord though others should forsake the Lord yet he like Noah and Lot just in his Generation Joshua doth not only chuse to be saved by Jehovah but to serve Jehovah But more especially observe the latitude and circumference of his choice I and my House Not himself without his Family much less his Family without himself but himself and his Family and first himself and then his Family We vvill serve the Lord. Lo here the firmness and stability of Joshua's choice We will serve the Lord not only we desire to do it but we are fully resolv'd to do it Hear what David promises and pre-ingages when ever he came to sway the Royal Scepter viz. to be a singular example both as a Prince and as a Master of a Family Psal 101. In which respect this Psalm should be often read and ruminated on by such that their Houses may be as the House of David Zech. 12.8 And as Melancthon attests concerning the Palace of George Prince of Anhalt that it was at once Ecclesiastica Academica Curia a Royal Court a Learned Academy and an Holy Church Act and Mor. 1559. fol. Mr. Fox reports that Bishop Ridley often read and expounded this Psalm to his houshold hiring them with money to get it by heart Well what says David here v. 2. I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way I will begâ—n the intended Reformation at my self and then set things to rights in my Family I will walk within my house with a perfect heart and then see what work he makes how conscientiously he demeans himself towards those under his Family-charge from v. 3. to 8. Good Governours of Families are like that Noble-man who had for his impress two bundles of Millet bound together with this Motto Servare servari meum est for the Nature of Millet is to guard it self from all corruption and all those things that lye near it 'T is a rare Elogy that is given the late Reverend and Religious Dr. Chatterton that he was an House-keeper 53 years yet in all that time never kept any of his Servants from Church to dress his Meat saying Clark's lives that he desired as much to have his Servants know God as himself In short observe the strain and current of the whole Scriptures Dr. Jacom â— Dom. Deo Jun. â—07 and you shall find very few or none of those Family-Governours that were really converted themselves but they gave this excellent testimony of the Truth and soundness of the Grace of God in them viz. in being careful and sollicitous to beget and breed it in the hearts of those that were under their roof and charge If Esther fasts so shall her Maids too Esth 4.16 And in the New Testament we find the Masters interest and duty taken to be so great for the Conversion of the rest that as he was not to content himself with his own Conversion but to labour presently that his houshold should join with him that so the whole Family at once might be devoted to God So God did bless his own Order and Ordinance to that end And where he imposed duty on Masters he usually gave such success that commonly the whole Family was converted and baptized with the Ruler of the Family So we read Act. 10.2 Cornelius a Centurion a godly Captain a devout man and one that feared God with all his house to whom the Angel promised that Peter should tell him words whereby he and all his houshold should be saved Acts 11.14 Doth the Lord open Lydia's heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul It follows instantly she was baptized and her houshold Doth the Gaoler believe on the Lord Jesus Paul assuxes him that he shall be saved and his house and so it was for he and all his were baptized streightway for he believed in God with all his house Acts 16.32 33 34. Christ no sooner comes to Zacheus his Soul but Salvation comes to Zacheus house Luke 19.9 Crispus believes on the Lord with all his house Acts 18.8 The Noble man himself believed and his whole house John 4.53 These Family-Governours it seems took special care of the welfare of their Servants Souls did not act like Turks who mind nothing about their Slaves but their doing their own work These judg'd that if it were cruelty not to allow their servants bodily food much more savage and bloody to starve their Souls And therefore it might well be said of those happy Servants whom Providence fixt under their Conduct as the Queen of Sheba of Solomon's Servants 1 Kings 10.8 Happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom Obj. But there are some Masters whose weakness and delusion I cannot but pity that are apt to object thus True 't is good to teach our ignorant Servants but we must question yea in our Consciences doubt whether we may require and command them to learn Will not this incroach on the Liberty of their Consciences which ought to be left free Sol. 1. I cannot but wonder at this depth of Satan who so strangely inveigles men to tolerate all things by meer scrupling of them and to let the Reins loose purely out of strictness To think it a sin in themselves to press a duty on others and no less than a breach of God's Holy Laws to injoin the keeping of them 2. Tell me how comes it to pass that Masters who can allow themselves to be severe enough to their Servants for loytering in their Shops cannot find in their hearts to rebuke them for neglect of their Souls that they who hold themselves bound in Conscience to inform their Servants in all the secrets of their Trade should think themselves as much tied up from pressing them to learn the Mysteries of Religion 3. There is but too much cause of fear lest they who use not all the means they can to bring their own Servants to the Faith be themselves brought at last to an unprofitable Repentance
laetissimum affectum O securissimum amorem Dei quem Zelus non excruciat quem rivalis delectat sine absynthio sine aloe sine felle totus dulcis consentaneus cordi Nieremb de art vol. p. 336 337. Dost thou not pray alone without God without meeting with God Hadst thou there had thy heart enflamed with the love of God and tasted of the sweetness in communion with God would not this have filled thy heart with love to God and Souls in thy house and burning zeal that they might be partakers of the same Divine refreshments could'st thou hold thy peace after such discoveries while thy poor Family are without or would'st thou no time call them together that they also might experience the same delights that thou hast found As the woman of Samaria call'd her Neighbours Joh. 4.28 29. If thou hadst got some earthly Jewel thou might'st be loth that others should share with thee in the value of it because in earthly things participation causeth a diminution if a sum of money be divided amongst many the more one hath the less will fall to the others share Art thou indeed afraid of this Fear it not There is enough in God for thee and thine too Communication in spirituals causeth multiplication even in him that doth communicate to others If thou bee'st an Instrument to draw thine to the Love of God and to joy and delight in him this would fill thee with the greater joy Methinks then when thou hast been alone and God hath graciously been with thee thou shouldest go down into thy Family with burning love to God and them and say Come my Wife Children Servants leave your work and business for a while There is much sweetness in communion with God There is indeed delight which comes into the Soul by holy fervent Prayer I would not have you feed on husks while there is not only bread but dainties too in seeking God I do not love to see you always mudling in the world and be strangers unto God Come then come away for my Soul doth long that you should tast what I have found Thus thou wouldest think surely with thy self if thou speakest not out to them if thou didst meet with God in secret When it is not so with thee but thou can'st constantly neglect Prayer in thy Family reflect upon thy self whether in this sense thou didst not pray alone that thou didst not find God with thee warming of thy heart Tell me could'st thou be content to eat thy food constantly alone without thy Wife and Children and can'st thou be content to pray alone only As you eat together so pray together also Obj. 3. But I am ashamed to pray with others and that hinders me Answ 1. Ashamed to pray ashamed to do thy duty The more shame for thee Be ashamed to sin and of this shame for it is sinful and is to be lamented and prayed against and striven against and overcome Wilt thou tell God at the Day of Judgment that thou wast ashamed to pray in thy House and Family 2. But why ashamed when you are only with your own Family and those you daily converse withal and are head and chief and governer of 3. It is for want of use set upon the work and you will quickly overcome this Obj. 4. But I am not ashamed of the duty but of my own weakness I have not gifts and parts to manage this duty If I were gifted as other men be I would perform it as other men do Answ 1. Where do you live in London What! an old housekeeper in London or where there hath been much means of Grace and are you so ignorant that you are not qualified to pray in your Family This is your sin and will one sin be pleadable to excuse you from another One of the Ancients of the Parish and plead ignorance are you not asham'd 2. It is not parts and gifts and florid expressions that God looks at but an humble penitent broken and believing heart Have you not this neither If you have not get it quickly or you must to Hell If you have God will accept of such a Sacrifice bring it then 3. Study your sins and wants and mercies and get a sense of all these upon your heart and you will be able to express them in your Family in such a manner as may be more for their profit than the constant omission can be If a man feel himself sick or hungry do you think he could not find words to make his complaint and ask for help Study the Scripture and your own hearts and these will be good prayer-Books to furnish you for the duty Besides by praying you shall learn to pray 4. Do not deceive your self and say it is for want of gifts when it is more for want of a heart and love to the duty To discover this Suppose a Law were made by our Governours that every Master of a Family that doth not pray in his house with his Family shall be cast into the Lions Den What would you do then Would you rather venture your life and be torn in pieces by Lions than set upon this duty with that Knowledg and those Gifts that now you have Would you not find something to say to save your Lives And is not the Law of God as binding as the Laws of men and the Dungeon of Hell as dreadful as the Lions Den Go then set upon your duty Obj. 5. But there are some graceless and wicked persons in my Family that I cannot say we desire this or that spiritual blessing grace Christ c. for I see no ground to judge they desire any such thing Answ 1. Have they no grace and must they not pray that they may have some O cruelty Is he exempted from duty because he is not good or wilt thou say that such must only pray alone and be excluded while such from conjunct prayers Whither will this carry you Even to the shutting of all graceless or at least visibly wicked persons from all prayers in publick Congregations as well as from Family duty But this is so gross that I suppose you will not own it You have no reason then for the other 2. How do you know when you are confessing sin and acknowledging the evil of it but God might affect and break their hearts and they be changed on their knees and so be saved from damnation and will you deny them that means that God may bless for their conversion 3. Do you indeed use all other means to your utmost power to have them better Do you reprove them and shew them the danger they are in and perswade them to turn from sin to God and this with constancy and compassion to their Souls Or do you scruple this too Wilt thou neither pray with them nor speak to them when thou oughtest to do both I doubt it is thy sloth that hinders thee or the wickedness of thy heart and that thou pleadest
his wife the wife that truly fears God dares not be cross with her husband A Bible plac'd between you will take up many a difference comfort you under many a cross and pang guide you in many a strait wherein flesh and blood will be confounded and at a loss And then in those critical cases wherein Duty and Passion strive for mastery resolve with your selves that it is much better for either of you to obey God's will than to have your own That as there is the highest Reason in his Commands so there is the greatest Sweetness in obeying them Set oft before you that golden Rule Matth. 7.12 and calmly consider whether you behave your self to your yoke-fellow as you your self would be dealt with if you were in their condition And though you be never so just and good other wayes yet believe that Jam. 2.10 he or she that keeps the whole law and yet offends knowingly and commonly in one point is guilty of all Your Righteousness abroad will not excuse your crossness at home nor her zeal in prayer make any amends for her heat in passion But when you are both resolved to study your own duties and sincerely to do them how hard soever you will live together as heirs of the grace of life and as heirs of the life of glory 5. Settle your affections well at the beginning It was a wise and true Observation (q) Plutacch praeâ— conjug that vessels which are compacted of divers parts or glued together of divers pieces at first will easily with every bruise or fall be broke in pieces but when they are strengthened by tract of time it will be very hard yea scarce possible to separate them So it is in marriage at first the union is raw and green an unkindness then a cross word or look will quickly alienate but when time and experience have consolidated this new sprung affection then it will be much harder to dissolve it And being once assured of a conjugal love in each other give no way to cursed Jealousie which very often hath no other ground than the Weakness or Wickedness of them that are sick of it and to be sure when once it is admitted all the joy and comfort of this life is gone it is a bitter-sweet Poyson and miserable are they that either give or take occasion for it Stop your ears therefore and knit your brow upon tale-bearers and whisperers that under pretence of great love and secrecy tell you just Nothing and remember that Love thinketh no evil but puts the best interpretation possible upon the doubful words looks and carriage of a stranger much more of so near a (r) Liberiores sunt viri quam foeminae vitae totius rationis Viris curanda esse mutla foeminis solam pudicitiam Claudendae aures iis qui sinistrum quid de marito volunt deferre Lu. Vives de Chr. foem p. 720. Relation And this I mention here because most commonly Jealousie takes place there where true Affection was never fixed and rooted in the beginning 6. Lastly to speak all in one Pray for Wisdom Humility and Vprightness 1. Wisdom for vve owe many of our Domestick distempers to our weakness and indiscretion not wisely preventing or removing things that cause offence How easily would a wise man avoid distasting words or looks or actions How easily might he keep his Authority and never forfeit it and she submit and never dispute it wisdom would pick and chuse the fittest opportunities to instruct advise reprove and comfort and vvould direct to the best manner and method vvherein to do it Wisdom vvill consider that either party might have found the same or greater crosses in another condition as in this or in another person as in this and therefore things are vvell in that they are not worse and however that marriage which is God's Ordinance must not be charged with their disquiets but themselves And 2. Humility that is a singular help for them both in the discharging of their Duties This will keep the Husband from the intemperate use of his power and the vvife in a ready subjection to her Husband For only by pride cometh contention but with the well-advised is wisdom Prov. 13.10 A proud Spirit could not agree vvith an Angel but the humble will agree with any body This also will greatly help them to contentment in their Condition For says Humility my Husband my Wife is a great deal too good for such a sinful creature as I am my condition is too good for me these straits and troubles are great but I deserve greater this was a sharp reproof but alas I deserve hell and what 's a harsh word to hell That man or woman vvill sit down quietly with great tryals that know they are not worthy the least of mercies And besides Humility will suggest such a carriage and behaviour in word and deed as will infallibly oblige each other and force respect from them And lastly Vprightness is necessary to the doing of these Duties well For there is written a conclusive law in an upright heart to do the whole will of God whether it appear to be with them or against them it will teach them rather to obey than to dispute and in obedience to do each more than their part rather than less In doubtful cases the upright heart will choose the safest course though it prove the hardest and resolves to suffer the greatest injury rather than offer the least An upright heart watches against sinful self which is the great root of injuries and mischiefs in every relation and prompts us to keep on in the way of our duty notwithstanding all discouragments In a word the upright Husband and Wife do chiefly study each their (s) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in Col. Hom. 10. own Duty in their Relations and are most severe against their own particular failings What are the Duties of Parents and Children and how are they to be managed according to Scripture Serm. XVII Colos III. 20 21. Children obey your Parents in all things for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers provoke not your Children to anger lest they be discouraged MY business is not to discuss the Entity of Relations in their foundation and terms which the Philosopher is conversant about but to discourse the Efficacy of the chiefest in Christian practice Relationes etsi minimae eâ—titatis sunt maximae efficaciae i. e. to enquire into the nature and management of those reciprocal offices betwixt Parents and Children which if well discharg'd according to the sense of the Divine Oracles do contribute most to the happiness of humane Society and give reputation to the Communion of Saints The Subject I know is common and the Scriptures copious upon it which some who it may be are not the most accurate in their own relative station think a very easie task to treat on but to do it distinctly and fully within the time allotted to
years are apt many times to despise them as more subject to infirmities and as looking for less of respect from their hands So that really to give them honour is a fuller evidence of cordial performance The Lord is pleas'd to begin there where the duty is most tried Reverence thy Mother and thy Father de leg l. 4. Ethic. l. 9. l. 2. Spizel de re literar Sineas p. 243. Both are to be had in a just veneration Plato and Aristotle could by Nature's light teach thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This as the prime law of Nature the Spartans and generally all Nations of old did and Chinoises at this day do maintain with admirable care Now doing reverence to the Fathers of our flesh (h) Heb. 9.12 in Scripture may comprehend what Children owe to their Parents both with reference to their speech and behaviour 1 With respect to their speech that it be seasonable and agreeable to the relation grac'd with humility (i) 1 Pet. 5.5 and modesty in all converse with them in presence and discourse of them in absence They should give them honourable titles as that of Father and Mother do connote dignity (k) Jer. 31.9 Gal. 4.6 and so Sir or Lord (l) Mat. 21.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus we have good Children in the Book of God saluting their Parents as Isaac his Father Abraham (m) Gen. 22.11 Jacob Isaac (n) 17.18 David Saul his Father in law (o) 1 Sam. 24.28 Solomon Bathsheba my Mother (p) 1 King 2.20 21. Rachel Laban making her Apology My Lord (q) Gen. 31.35 David again Saul (r) 1 Sam. 26.18 and that with all meekness at a sit season in a few words with freedom and readiness (s) Gen. 22 7. 27.12 giving pleasing answers when spoken to in a becoming civility (t) 1 Sam. 12.4 6.18 waiting with contentment to hear them speak first (u) Prov 4.1 laying their hands on their mouths and refraining to talk in their presence without just occasion (w) Job 29.9 10 21. 32.5 6. And in their absence by speaking so of them amongst those they do converse that by the commendable reports they make of them or prudent apologies for them it may be understood what venerable respects they have for their Parents Thus 't is said of the Children of the prudent Mother they rise up as those who speak pathetically and call her blessed (x) Prov. 31.28 in that laudable discourse they have of her Hereby Children will prove themselves to be of a vertuous temper and not like that elder brother of the penitent Prodigal who spake undecently in a surly manner to his Father (y) Luk. 15 29 30. and sometime some of Jacob's sons to theirs (z) Gen. 34.31 and such like who by their rude and malapert prating disparage and aggrieve their parents (a) 26.35 27.46 Yet of a more untoward generation are they whom the Wiseman took notice of that curse their Father and do not bless their Mother but saith he their lamp shall go out in obscurity (b) Prov. 20.20 Neither can there be a better end of those who are under the Almighty's curse devoted to death (c) Lev. 20.9 Exod. 21.17 neither can they who do any way set light by their Father or Mother avoid a much easier censure (d) Deut. 27 16 Lib. 44. de Rep. sith by interpretation it is a dishonour to God himself Plato in his Commonwealth orders that Children should in their words through their whole life revere their Parents there being a great punishment imminent for light and idle discourse Further 2 The hehaviour and carriage of Children should ever be significative and expressive of reverence to their Parents in all their addresses the countenance so composed in their presence as may argue awfulness and respect the deportment lowly rising up before those they honour for relation as well as those venerable for age (e) Lev. 19.32 and at meeting thus Solomon though a King did to his Mother Bathsheba (f) 1 Kings 2.19 hasting to attend them in a lowly posture thus Joseph who liv'd as a Prince made ready to meet and presented himself to his Father whom he had maintained (g) Gen. 46.29 so Achsah Caleb's daughter who was married to her Cousin German when she addressed her self to her Father she alighted from her beast before she spoke to him (h) Judg. 1 14.5◠and again Joseph thought it no disparagement to prostrate himself to his aged father Jacob whose eyes were then dim that he could not see his behaviour when he also gave his own Children an example in praying for his Father's blessing (i) Gen. 43.12 which Esau though he came tardè did passionately beg for (k) 27.19 34. And though Parents now have not a Prophetick spirit as the Patriarch's had yet it seems still very equitable that Christian Children considering their Parents Superiority in the Lord should frequently upon occasion in an (l) Heb. 7 7. Mar. 10.17 humble manner crave their Parents prayers for God's blessing The rude and haughty looks which are in many Children before their Parents cannot comport with this duty which discards a dogged and supercilious countenance that betokens scorn and derision opposite to this filial reverence The Wise man makes a smart remark upon such odious insolent behaviour which might deter any of understanding from it when he saith (m) Prov. 30.17 The eye that mocketh his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it Here is a signal retaliation to those who in speech or behaviour deride the persons or despise the counsels of their Parents whether yet alive or deceased 'T were to be wish'd it had been better studied by some Children in this Generation I mean some late and present Preachers of our Age who do not parentare manibus but indeed upbraid the Ghosts of their reverend and pious Parents who warmly argued the necessity of regeneration either by reckoning them amongst the herd of Divines or with an harangue of lame sequels perch up to vent their callow notions and bespatter their own nest in complacence with the lax humour of the times when many for the bags cry Hail Master but betray the Son of Man with a kiss (n) Mat. 26.49 wic Luk. 22.48 yet I would hope there are but a few of this feather I proceed to mind Children of another duty and that is 2. Observance whereby their Parents pleasure with fit subjection is perform'd out of a real desire to promote their honour vvhich is more than in countenance and ceremonies to express obedience (o) Mat. 21.30 It is very requisite Christian Children should with an heedful circumspection observe the holy and wise prescripts and practices of their Parents by acknowledging subjection to their government Our blessed Lord himself set a
pattern herein for he went down with his Mother and her Husband and came to Nazareth and was subject to them (p) Luk. 2.51 Mar 6.3 Mat 13.55 Joâ— 6.42 Quis quibus Deus hominibus c. saith Bernard * Homil 1. Super missus est He to whom Angels are subject whom Principalities and Powers do obey was observant of his Mother Mary and her espoused Husband Joseph yea most likely in the business of Joseph's calling More particularly this filial observance shews it self in 1. Attending to their instructions 2. Executing their commands 3. Depending on their counsels And 4. Following their examples 1. We ought to attend seriously to our Parents instructions and learn what they teach us for good receiving their djctates with humility and laying them up in our hearts those especially of spiritual advantage out of a love to wisdom and our Parents joys (q) Prov. 29.3 〈◊〉 Solomon bids from his own experience My Son hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother (r) 1.10 Again Hearken unto thy father which begat thee and despise not thy mother when she is old And then that Daughters might not think themselves exempted Hearken ye Children to the instruction of a father and attend to know understanding and good doctrine (Å¿) 4.1 2 3. which if heedfully observ'd makes a wise child when the contrary bewrays folly (t) 13.1 which is a grief and discouragement to the father as was that of Eli's Sons (u) 1 Sam. 2-25 and Lot's Sons in law (w) Gen. 19.14 who sleighted their fathers documents as the Prodigal also did his before he felt the smart of it and came to his wits again (x) Luk. 15.2.13 17. Yet this is dissonant to the voice of Nature which hath taught the very Chickens to hearken unto the clocking of the Hen hath been ever distastful to the wiser Heathens and would bring a disparagement upon the Christian institution So that Christian Children should be very heedful of their Parents teachings especially in the concerns of their souls Hence 2. Children should execute their Parents commands and dispatch readily what they order them to do without whartling disputes this is the most special duty required in my Text the extent of it will come under consideration anon They should be as those under the Centurions authority go and come and do at his command (y) Mat. 8 9. Samuel came at the supposed call of his pro-Parent once and again (z) 1 Sam. 3.5 c. David when his Father Jesse had sent for him out of the field e're he knew what it was for (a) 16.12 and so went as he commanded him (b) 17.17 20. So Jacob when Isaac sent him (c) Gen. 28.5 and Joseph when Jacob sent him (d) 37.14 yea the other ten Sons also upon their Fathers order (e) 42.2 3. Isaac attended in carrying the wood when the servants were free from the burden at his Father's pleasure (f) 22 6. Joseph and the Rechabites are famous instances of observing faithfully the charge of their Parents even when they were dead and gone (g) 50.20 Jer â—5 8 c. out of conscience in a respectful manner with reference to the divine authority Abraham's Children walked in the way of the Lord as their Father commanded them (h) Gen. 8.9 Solomon did not only command his own Son (i) Prov. 6 1â— though he prov'd disobedient but he observ'd his Father David's charge to walk in the Lord's statutes (k) 1 King 2.3 and â— 3. though drawn aside after with temptations and to build the Temple (l) 1 Câ—ro 2â— 11 2 Chron 5 and 6. God takes it for granted a good Child will serve his Father (m) Mal. 3 17. yea and when put to pain in things not only necessary but of no reputation supposing in things purely indifferent both in their nature and use their Parents to be more judicious to determine what is expedient and decent yet not without the use of their own discerning faculty nor without any examination in a blind irrational obsequâ—ousness (n) Prâ—v 14.15 Ne pâ—câ—uâ— ritis sâ—quâ—mur amecedentiam grâ—â—em pâ—â—â—nâ—â—s nonqua 〈◊〉 eâ—â— seâ— qua â—â—r Senec. like the brutish obedience of the Jesuits Novicâ—s For though I should grant that Parents have in some sort a power over the consciences of their Children whiles they are as in God's stead (o) 1 Sam 2.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swaying their apprehentions in their tenderest years before they come to the use of their ripened reason yet when there is a judgment of discerning betwixt good and evil their obedience ought to be reas â—â—blâ— such as God requires to his own service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as is according to his Word not merely childish though the obedience of Children but acceptable * Rom. 12.1 and well-pleasing unto him as in my Text and in the fear of God vers 22. Again 3. Children ought to depend upon their Parents counsels and take their good and wholsom advice giving them the honour of being in an ordinary course more prudent and sagacious than themselves as having greater experience ability and a call to govern in affairs of importance For to disregard them herein were to slight the paternal authority which God would have kept in reputation He was a Prodigal who would not be advised till he was bitten with the ill effect of that extravagant course which grieved his Father (p) Luk. 15.12 13. but the docible Child who is righteous and wise rejoyceth the heart of both his Parents (q) Pro 23.22 24. 15.20 Here I might enter on particulars to shew that Children have no power being under government to dispose of their Parents goods without their advice or allowance (r) Gal. 4.1 2. with Gen. 31.36 37 with 19. 32.10 Prov 28.24 19 26. for faultiness here is aggravated by the relation nor to choose their company disagreeable to their Parents minds (s) 1.10 15. 1 Cor 5.9 but to take their advice and be content with that sutable dress their Parents do order them to appear in (t) Gen. 27.15 37.3 2 Sam. 13 8. and not in strange apparel * Zeph 1.8 But I shall only suggest two more eminent instances wherein Children are more especially to consult their Parents and observe their advice viz. as to a particular Calling and Marriage 1 'T is fit to he advised by Parents in the choice of a Calling or lasting course of life Jacob and David mov'd and liv'd according to their Parents disposal (†) Gen. 28.2 1 Sam. 16.11 19. 17.17 as was hinted before and so did Jonadab's Children (‖) Jer. 35.6 7. It being unfit they should carve for themselves without leave but follow the parental conduct unless that leads them into an unlawful Calling The pretension of Religion in a Monastick life which the Papists urge
can be urg'd to the performance of all generous actions viz. because it is well-pleasing to the Lord. So 't is express God himself in Covenant is taken with it with this Chain on a Child's neck as I may allude to that of Christ to his Spouse (e) Cant. 4.9 because it sets forth the beauty and loveliness of a Child as a Child The Lord hath given it in charge to all Christian Children here in my Text and elsewhere (f) Eph. 6.1 as a vigorous enforcement of the fifth Commandment The supreme authority of our Heavenly Father who hath an uncontrollable dominion over us makes any duties which he requires highly reasonable But he who is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him (g) Heb. 11.6 assures the dutiful he takes much pleasure in these Relative duties that they are not only pleasing but well-pleasing to him Certainly it should hugely raise the spirits of all ingenuous Children to be most solicitous in filling up their Relation Dear Children I am hemm'd in as it were by what I am yet to say for Parents duties that I cannot here dilate my self by descending into particulars to perswade the embracing of an exhortation to these duties But if you be Christians indeed who understand your interest I can give you the quintessence of all Motives within the bounds of my Text. Consider it well I beseech you 't is this By your accurateness in these duties you do that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well-pleasing to the Lord to your and my Lord and Master Do this please the Lord and you do all this is right (h) Eph. 6.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether present or absent that you may be accepted of him (i) 2 Cor. 5 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wellpleasing to him is the highest you can attain to What can I What need I say more I could tell you in pleasing of God you do that which doth or should please your Parents and will be most pleasant to your selves and then you must needs be happy when God and you are pleas'd As in the keeping all God's Commandments there is an exceeding great reward (k) Psal 19.11 Gen. 15.1 so this hath a Primacy in the Promise (l) Eph. 6.1 Prov. 4.10 22. Upon that account it is profitable and beneficial yea it is honest and honourable before God (m) 1 Tim. 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way right agreeable to God's positive Law the Law of Nature and the Law of Nations It is the Parents due as in the place of God they bear his Image in their Parental authority and relation (n) Mal 1.6 with 1 Sam. 2.30 they deserve it we owe it to them as a debt So that disobedience to Parents is against Scripture the light of Nature the common equity of all Nations and renders such persons unworthy the Christian Name and worse than Infidels and Brutes Such were Hophni and Phineas (o) 1 Sam. 2.25.34 Absolom (p) 2 Sam. 18.9 and Adonijah (q) 1 Kings 2.25 Have you then my beloved Children any respect to God his good pleasure or displeasure to your Parents their right or wrong their blessing or cursing to your selves looking for recompence or fearing vengeance Consider then I pray you what you have to do 'T is no arbitrary thing I am perswading to but that which is required by an eternal indispensable Law fortified with the most signal rewards and punishments yea even in this state as you may find in the Annals of most Dominions Yet further you Christian Children are now took into a Covenant-Relation with God as the Jewish Children were under that Paedagogy (r) Rom. 9.4 compar'd with Deut 4.2 Eph 6 1 2. Mic. 7.20 Deut. 32.13 14. 2 Chro. 1.9 10 11. Psal 86.6 Consider I beseech you how much you are indebted to your Parents for pleading the Covenant and Promises on your behalf (ſ) Psal 112.1 2. Prov 20.7 Gen. 49.26 Psal 115.13 14. This obedience to Parents is commended in Scripture you 'l get a lasting reputation by it (t) Ruth 4.15 16. God and men honour the obedient grac'd with this ornament (u) 1 Sam. 2.30 Prov. 1.9 13.18 Jer. 35.18 19. The examples of Sem and Japhet Isaac Jacob Joseph c. are in Scripture recorded to their perpetual honour In Heathen Story the Piety of Aenaeas to his aged Father and the obedience of others is celebrated This is the way to have the good things of this and a better life entail'd upon posterity (w) Gen. 9.23 26 27. 'T is equity you should do as you would have them to do to you in the like circumstances The Philosopher †Arist Ethic. l. 8. c. 16.14 thought none could ever give Parents honour answerable to their merit that there is no equalizing their descending growing love they were the instruments of Childrens having affections because of their being They may then claim your best affections and actions Upon which account it is that want of natural affection as it is the most monstrous so it is the most dreadfully punish'd by God (x) 1 Sam. 4.11 Deut. 21.20 21. Senec. l. 5. contra 4. in fine Instit 6 de pub judicio Yea and for Parricides the old Romans had a strange and unusual punishment in culeum dejicere to put them alive into a great leather Sack made of an Ox-Hide with a live Dog a Cock a Viper and an Ape at first it was with Serpents after the murtherers of Parents had been made bloody with scourging then sewed up close and cast into Tiber or the next River that whiles alive they might begin to want the use of all the Elements not having the benefit of the Heavens while they liv'd nor the burial of the Earth when dead This shews how odious this crime was in the height of it to mere Heathen men also Be sure the beginning of it in the want of natural affection is very displeasing to God (y) Gen. 6.3 with Judg. 14 3. but the obedience I have been describing is very amiable to his eye It keeps from evil and disposeth to reverence God himself (z) Lev. 19.4 with 2 3. It helps to be good Subjects and conduceth to the vvelfare of our Countrey God makes choice discoveries of himself to obedient ones in filial duties as he did eminently to Jacob (a) Gen. 28.7 10.11 being peculiarly present vvith them vvho do choose the things that please him and lay hold of his Covenant (b) Isa 56.4 as those Children do who obey their Parents in all things in the Lord. All encouragement lyes in this obedience is well-pleasing to the Lord. But it is more than time now I have put Children upon their duties following the Apostle that I come to II. My next General propos'd which is the office of Parents enforc'd from the special consideration of that the Apostle suggests to move to it I
monuments (u) Jos 4.6 7 21. whereby Children might take occasion to ask the meaning of them and so Parents might acquaint them with the Ordinances of God (w) Deut. 6.20 21. No doubt but religious Parents have been careful to observe this for the transmitting of pure Religion Adam had taught his Sons to sacrifice as well as train'd them up to business though one of them did not worship God in an acceptable manner (x) Gen. 4.3 4.5 26. Heb. 11.4 He had acquainted them it seems with the fundamental promise concerning remission of sin which the Apostle saith could not be without shedding of blood (y) Heb. 9.22 represented in the instituted Sacrifice which Cain wanted faith to offer acceptably as Abel did giving credit to the divine institution and behaving himself sincerely in this solemn worship as he was instructed Noah also taught his Children though one of them did not observe the instructions (z) Gen. 9 8 22. But we have Abraham the Father of the faithful expresly commended with a special approbation of God for effectually instructing i. e. training or catechizing his children and servants after his example to keep the way of the Lord (a) 18.19 with 14.14 And therefore they are called his initiated ones or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom the Rabbins say †Alting Hist Acad Hebâ— p. 18 19. he did no less instruct in the divine precepts and their observation than train up to war Other memorable instances we have of David (b) Prov. 4 3 4. with Psal 7â— Titl who seems kindly to call Children apart to teach them the fear of the Lord (c) 34.11 which Obadiah learn'd from his youth (d) 1 Kings 18.12 So of his Wife Bathsheba (e) Prov. 31.1 2 c. and those good Women in the New Testament Lois and Eunice (f) 2 Tim. 1 5. And other persons there were who did catechize in all good things (g) Gal 6 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the rudiments of the Gospel wherein the most excellent Theophilus was catechized or instructed (h) Luke 1.4 as the Jewish children had been catechized in the Law (i) Rom. 2.18 But this part of Education viz. Catechziing being handled at this Exercise in another distinct Query by one well vers'd in the practick part of this necessary Duty may fairly give me who have so much on mine hands a Supersedeas from enlarging now upon it Only let it be remembred that sith Man is born like a wild Asse's colt (k) Job 11 12. and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (l) Prov 1.7 with Psal 111.10 Parents are concern'd to be industrious and not be discourag'd from teaching their offspring the words and terms of goodness in confidence they will afterwards comprehend the sense and practically hold fast the form of sound words (m) 2 Tim. 1.13 the little Bibles as Luther us'd to call orthodox Catechisms gather'd up from the holy Scripture which it seems Timothy had known from a child (n) 3. â—5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little one indeed yea and we have some late considerable examples of such little ones * Token and little Book for Chiâ—dren And therefore Parents themselves according to their different calls and abilities taking in convenient help and all to forward the Pastor's work should not through humour indisposition laziness or an over-eager minding of worldly business neglect this affair of so great importance to the welfare of their Children but be solicitous to get the seeds sown in their tender hearts before the weeds of the world grow up therein and canker the soyl Even according to Natures dictates Diotima timely instill'd such notions of prudence into Socrates which rendred him famous And Cato though he kept a Tutor for his Son yet was frequent himself in teaching and examining of him in learning and natural Religion Much more should Christians as Theodosius the Great who was diligent in catechizing his Sons Arcadius and Honorius with the assistance of Arsenius A notable means was Catechizing to propagate the Reformed Religion notwithstanding the contagion of Popery as Sir Edwyn Sandys well observ'd †Survey of Religion in Europe 1593. pag. 113. mihi and it will be so to preserve it Especially if Instruction be follow'd with a 2. particular in Education and that is Watchfulness or Inspection which is a dayly putting children on exercise to practise the things wherein they have been instructed by a prudent oversight of their behaviour This domestick Episcopacy or Family discipline is of singular use for the edification of children Governors especially should watch unto al things (o) 2 Tim. 4.5 This is the most proper means to preserve the good seed which is sown from being stoln away and to guard it lest the enemy come slily and sowe tares amongst the wheat which he lays wait to do if he can take Parents asleep or inobservant (p) Mat. 13.25 when they should be awake in this good government (q) 1 Tim. 3.4 and intent upon it in their houshold (r) Pâ—al 101.6 7. taking special care that in practice their children be found faithful and not chargeable with riot and unruliness (s) Tit. 1.6 It is not enough to teach children the rudiments of faith worship and obedience but to bring them where the Ark is to the acts of solemn worship both in the Family and Congregation Our Saviour's Parents brought him (t) Luke 2.41 42 48 49. though he was born without sin and had not need upon that account as others have much more should others who now are not required to go so far bring theirs to worship God according to his appointment see to their reverend deportment there examine them afterward and observe their proficiency carry a jealous eye and hand over them as Job did over his (u) Job 1.5 and take care there be no connivance at palpable faults but a seasonable discountenancing of every sin in the dearest of them (w) Gen 49.6 no allowance of any practice dissonant to that which is right (x) Deut. 33.9 with 13.6 and Exod. 32.28 Zach. 13 6. but a solicitous care that they do not decline and apostatize or be not seduced from the pure worship of the holy God and the good ways they have acquainted them with (y) Jos 22.27 c. Gen. 24.6 7. 18.19 We know Abraham that Father of blessed memory commanded his children as was noted before and there was a positive Law after to command children upon their lives to observe and do what God enjoyned (z) Deut. 32.46 47. This belongs to the training up of youth to a good habit which will not easily be removed (a) Prov. 22.6 They that handle this matter wisely will find good (b) 16.20 in their children and to do it so as to avoid undue lenity and severity is great prudence For it requires
duty and not to despise the cause of his hand-maid What then said he should I do when God shall rise up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him Let death when he comes find you doing the best work Ar. Epict. l. 3. c. 15. Antoninus l. 2. n. 2. and faithful in your place I shall conclude this with the advice of that gallant Emperour Let it be thy earnest care constantly to perform every thing thou art about with justice to every one which you may well do if you go about every act as your last I am now come to the last thing which I promised to do and that is to shew What is the Duty of Servants and that I shall perform in the same method as I did before 1. By giving them some cautionary Directions 2. Some positive Directions and pressing these with some Motives and give them some Helps for the better performance of their Duty 1. I shall give Servants some cautionary Directions First Let Servants take heed of pride This was the sin of the Angels this made them Devils this was the sin of our first Parents 1 Tim. 3.6 this made them rebellious to God A humble heart is ready for any work or state that God in his providence calls him to any thing but sin will down with a humble man Remember pride unfits for the service of God and man makes one think himself fitter to command than to be commanded that makes one go on heavily with their work impatient of reproof ready to answer again malepert saucy ready to commit other sins to gratifie their pride A proud Servant will scorn to be catechized called to an account or be kept under those bounds that reason and Religion set Humility doth no body any harm brings no dishonour or inconveniency but is as good a security to reputation comfort and profit as any thing I know Secondly Take heed of disobedience to the lawful commands of your Master Think not that your arrogance bigness and parentage will bear you out It may be you think scorn that your Master should correct you and you say in your mind that you will give him as good as he brings know this that if you have a Master that may be low-spirited weak or poor and it may be such a one that is loth to deal with you as Law and Religion gives him leave yet are you too strong for God Is he afraid of your swelling and big looks Will he count you innocent Is not your rebellion and disobedience to your Master disobedience and rebellion against God And can his purity suffer long or his justice bear such impâ—â—â—â—y always without some signification of his displeasure Must the great ones of the world that break his Laws feel his power and shall such a despicable wretch as thou go unpunished Remember what is said of disobedience to the lawful commands of Magistrates holds here Whosoever resisteth shall receive to himself damnation Rom 13.2 Thirdly Take heed of negligence idleness carelesness By this you rob your Master of what in honesty you should and might have got for him by this you secretly waste your Master and answer not that trust that is put in you and is justly expected from you by this you give just occasion of displeasure to your Master by this you break your promise made to your Master and provoke God highly Mat. 5 26. Remember what a sentence the wicked slothful Servant must shortly hear Fourthly Take heed of mere eye-service Is the eye of God nothing to you and his warnings insignificant Col. 3.12 Doth not he in plain words forbid this O how many such Servants be there that when their Master is by are very diligent but when his back is turned then how lazy how wanton how careless Would you be served thus your selves if you were Masters Doth God take no notice at all and if he do how do you think he liketh such doings Is it a small matter to make light of his presence and if it be so you shall shortly find to your cost that his eye was more than your Master 's upon you and if you will not believe his knowledg observation and eye his hand shall shortly give you such a demonstration of both as you shall not be able to slight Fifthly Take heed of Lying By a lye you deny God's knowledg you make one fault two you make your self an enemy to humane society that is a sin which is hateful to every honest man and abominable to the Lord the lyar shall be shut out of Heaven Prov. 6.17 Rev. 21.8 and have his portion in that Lake that burns for ever I spare to speak how it spoils a man's credit and feeds jealousies in a Master and maketh him scarce believe you when you speak truth O! little do Servants think what folly they are guilty of by covering their faults with a lye Little do they think how dear that sin must cost them either here by deep repentance or hereafter by intolerable torments Sixthly Take heed of purloining or imbezeling any part of your Master's goods for your own use Tit. 2.10 Luke 16.6 Meddle with nothing but what is your own and is allowed you you would be loth any one should call you a Thief I pray then take care of that which will make you deserve such a name do not consent to any that are in the least guilty in that kind be not partners with a Thief and make not your self an accessory to another's wickedness by concealing any unfaithfulness of that nature in your fellow-servants after you have roundly warned them your self eat not of the junkets that sensuality wantonness and theft hath provided If you would know what such doings tend to in a word I may tell you they pamper lust many times end in uncleanness murder a prison a halter and if that were all it were not so bad in comparison by this you wrong God and man fear your conscience and make way for a world of other sins and bring speedy and sure damnation except a thorow repentance prevent it Seventhly Take heed of bad companions have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them O how many hopeful youths are blasted by wicked company I am not ignorant of the high pretences of love that such may have and what excuses they may palliate their wickedness with but please none to displease God never count him your friend nor one that will do you a kindness that would lead you to sin the devil damnation Eighthly Take heed of disclosing your Master's secrets do not speak any thing that may wound his reputation make no mention of his faults without you are called to it lawfully and then not without deep regret and trouble upon the account of God's honour and his soul Some Servants make nothing of prating against their Masters and Mistresses behind their backs little considering that this is a sin
rational to sleeting and giddy fancies No it binds the soul as the principal agent the body only as the instrument For if it were given only for the sensitive part without any respect to the rational it would concern brutes as well as men which are as capable of a rational command and a voluntary obedience as man without the conduct of a rational soul It exacts a conformity of the whole man to God and prohibits a difformity and therefore engageth chiefly the inward part which is most the man It must then extend to all the acts of the man consequently to his thoughts they being more the acts of the man than the motions of the body Holiness is the prime excellency of the Law a title ascribed to it twice in one Verse Rom. 7.12 Wherefore the Law is holy and the Commandment holy just and good Could it be holy if it indulged loosness in the more noble part of the creature Could it be just if it favoured inward unrighteousness Could it be good and useful to man which did not enjoyn a suitable conformity to God wherein the creatures excellency lies Can that deserve the title of a spiritual Law that should only regulate the brutish part and leave the spiritual to an unbounded licentiousness Can perfection be ascribed to that Law which doth countenance the unsavoury breathings of the Spirit and lay no stricter an obligation upon us than the Laws of men Mat. 5 28. Must not God's Laws be as suitable to his soveraignty as mens Laws are to theirs Must they not then be as extensive as God's Dominion and reach even to the privatest closets of the heart 'T is not for the honour of God's holiness righteousness goodness to let the Spirit which bears more flourishing characters of his Image than the body range wildly about without a legal curb 2. They are contrary to the order of nature and the design of our Creation Whatsoever is a swerving from our primitive nature is sin or at least a consequent of it Eccles 7.29 God made man perfect but they have sâ—ught out many inventions But all inclinations to sin are contrary to that righteousness wherewith man was first endued Man was created both with a disposition and ability for holy contemplations of God the first glances of his soul were pure he came every way compleat out of the mint of his infinitely wise and good Creator and when God pronounced all his Creatures good he pronounced man very good amongst the rest But man is not now as God created him he is off from his end his understanding is filled with lightness and vanity This disorder never proceeded from the God of order infinite goodnesâ— could never produce such an evil frame none of these loose inventions were of God's planting but of man's seeking No God never created the intellective no nor the sensitive part to play Domitian's game and sport it self in the catching of Flies Psal 49.20 Man that is in honour and understands not that which he ought to understand and thinks not that which he ought to think is like the Beasts that perish Gen. 3.6 he plays the beast because he acts contrary to the nature of a rational and immortal soul And such brutes we all naturally are since the first woman believed her sense her phancy her affection in their directions for the attainment of wisdom without consulting God's Law or her own reason The phancy was bound by the right of nature to serve the understanding 'T is then a slighting God's wisdom to invert this order in making that our Governour which he made our Subject 'T is injustice to the dignity of our own souls to degrade the nobler part to a sordid slavery in making the brute have dominion over the man as if the Horse were fittest to govern the Rider 'T is a falseness to God and a breach of trust to let our minds be imposed upon by our phancy in giving it only feathers to dandle and chaff to feed on instead of those braver objects it was made to converse withal 3. We are accountable to God and punishable for thoughts Nothing is the meritorious cause of God's wrath but sin The Text tells us that they were once the keys which opened the floud-gates of divine vengeance and broach'd both the upper and neather Cisterns * Acts 8.22 If perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee Prov. 12.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man of thoughts i. e. evil thoughts the word being usually taken in an ill sense to overflow the world If they need a pardon as certainly they do then if mercy doth not pardon them justice will condemn them And 't is absolutely said that a man of wicked devices or thoughts God will condemn 'T is God's prerogative often mentioned in Scripture to search the heart To what purpose if the acts of it did not fall under His censure as well as His cognizance He weighs the Spirits Prov. 16.2 in the ballance of His Sanctuary and by the weights of His Law to sentence them if they be found too light The word doth discover and judge them †Heb. 4.12 13. It divides asunder the soul and spirit the sensitive part the affections and the rational the understanding and will both which it doth dissect and open and judge the acts of them even the thoughts and intents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever is within the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whatsoever is within the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one referring to the Soul the other to the Spirit These it passeth a Judgment upon as a Critick censures the Errata's even to syllables 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Letters in an old Manuscript These we are to render an account of as the Syriack renders those words v. 13. with whom we have to do Of what Of the first bubblings of the heart the notions and intents of it The least Speck and Atome of dust in every chink of this little world is known and censured by God If our thoughts be not judged God would not be a righteous judge He would not judge according to the merit of the cause if outward actions were only scann'd without regarding the intents wherein the principle and end of every action lies which either swell or diminish the malignity of it Actions in kind the same may have different circumstances in the thoughts to heighten the one above the other and if they were only judged the most painted hypocrite might commence a blessed spirit at last as well as the exactest Saint 1 Cor. 4 5. 'T is necessary also for the Glory of God's omniscience 'T is hereby chiefly that the extensiveness of God's knowledg is discovered and that in order to the praise or dispraise of men viz. To their Justification or condemnation Those very thoughts will accuse thee before God's Tribunal which accuse thee here before conscience His Deputy Rom. 2.15 16. Their thoughts the
mean while i. e. in this life while conscience bears witness accusing or excusing one another in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men i. e. and also at the day of judgment when conscience shall give in it's final Testimony upon God's examination of the secret counsels This place is properly meant of those reasonings concerning good and evil in men's Consciences agreeable to the Law of nature imprinted on them which shall excuse them if they practice accordingly or accuse them if they behave themselves contrary thereunto But it will hold in this Case for if those inward approbations of the the notions of good and evil will accuse us for our contrary practices they will also accuse us for our contrary thoughts Non solum opus sed mali operis cogitatio paenas luet Hieron in 1 Hos 7. Acts 8.22 Our good thoughts will be our accusers for not observing them and our bad thoughts will be indictments against us for complying with them 'T is probable the Soul may be bound over to answer chiefly for these at the last day for the Apostle chargeth Simon 's guilt upon his thought not his word and tells him pardon must be principally granted for that The tongue was only an Instrument to express what his heart did think and would have been wholly innocent had not his thoughts been first criminal What therefore is the principal subject of pardon would be so of punishment as the first incendiaries in a rebellion are most severely dealt with And if as some think the fallen Angels were stript of their primitive Glory only for a conceiv'd thought how heinous must that be which hath inrolled them in a remediless misery Having proved that there is a sinfulness in our thoughts let us now see what provocation there is in them Which in some respects is greater than that of our actions But we must take actions here in sensu diviso as distinguished from the inward preparations to them In the one there is more of scandal in the other more of odiousness to God God indeed doth not punish thoughts so visibly because as He is Governour of the world His Judgments are shot against those sins that disturb humane society but He hath secret and spiritual Judgments for these suitable to the nature of the sins Now thoughts are greater in respect 1. Of fruitfulness The wickedness that God saw great in the earth was the fruit of imaginations They are the immediate causes of all sin No Cockatrice but was first an egg It was a thought to be as God * Gen. 3.5 2 Cor. 11.3 that was the first breeder of all that sin under which the world groans at this day For Eve's mind was first beguiled in the alteration of her thought Since that the lake of inward malignity acts all it's evil by these smoaking steams Evil thoughts lead the van in our Saviour's Catalogue Matth. 15.19 as that which spirits all the black regiment which march behind As good motions cherish'd will spring up in good actions so loose thoughts favoured will break out in visible plague-sores and put fire unto all that wickedness which lyes habitually in the heart 2 Tim. 2.16 as a spark may to a whole stock of Gun-powder The vain babblings of the soul as well as those of the Tongue will encrease to more ungodliness Being thus the cause they include virtually in them all that is in the effect as a seed contains in its little body the leaves fruit colour scent which afterward appear in the plant The seed includes all but the colour doth not virtually include the scent or the scent the colour or the leaves the fruit So 't is here One act doth not include the formal obliquity of another but the thought which caused it doth seminally include both the formal and final obliquity of every action both that which is in the nature of it and in the end to which it tends As when a Trades-man cherisheth immoderate thoughts of gain and in the attaining it runs into many foolish and hurtful Lusts 1 Tim. 6 9. there is cheating lying swearing to put off the commodity all these several acts have a particular sinfulness in the nature of the acts themselves besides the tendency they have to the satisfying an inordinate affection all which are the spawn of those first immoderate thoughts stirring up greedy desires 2. In respect of Quantity Imaginations are said to be continually evil There is an infinite variety of conceptions as the Psalmist speaks of the Sea wherein are all things creeping innumerable both small and great and a constant generation of whole shoals of them that you may as well number the Fish in the Sea or the Atomes in the Sun-beams as recount them There is a greater number in regard of the acts and in regard of the objects 1. In regard of the acts of the mind 1. Antecedent acts How many preparatory motions of the mind are there to one wicked external act Yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Plutarch Moral p. mihi 500. how many sinful thoughts are twisted together to produce one deliberate sinful word All which have a distinct guilt and if weigh'd together would outweigh the guilt of the action abstractedly considered How many repeated complacencies in the first motion degrees of consent resolved broodings secret plottings proposals of various methods smothering contrary checks vehement longings delightful hopes and forestalled pleasures in the design All which are but thoughts assenting or dissenting in order to the act intended Upon a dissection of all these secret motions by the critical power of the word we should find a more monstrous guilt than would be apparent in the single action for whose sake all these spirits were raised There may be no sin in a material act considered in it self when there is a provoking guilt in the mental motion A hypocrite's religious services are materially good but poysoned by the Imagination skulking in the heart that gave birth unto them Prov. 21.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a wicked thought Ezek. 23.3.19 Yet she multiplied he◠whoredoms in calling to remembrance the days of her youth c. v. 21. the lewdness of her youth 'T is the wicked mind or thought makes the sacrifice a commanded duty much more an abomination to the Lord. 2. Consequent acts When a man's phancy is pregnant with the delightful remembrance of the sin that is past he draws down a fresh guilt upon himself as they did in the Prophet in reviving the concurrence of the will to the act committed making the sensual pleasure to commence spiritual and if ever there were an aking heart for it revoking his former grief by a renewed approbation of his darling lust Thus the sin of thoughts is greater in regard of duration A man hath neither strength nor opportunity always to act but he may always think and imagination can supply the place of action Or if the
all his â—houghts How little is God in any of our thoughts according to His excellency No our shops our rents our backs and bellies usurp God's room If any thoughts of God do start up in us how many covetous ambitious wanton revengeful thoughts are jumbled together with them Is it not a monstrous absurdity to place our friend with a crue of vipers to lodge a King in a sty and entertain him with the fumes of a jakes and dunghil A wicked man's heart is little worth Prov. 10.20 The tongue of the just is as choice silver c. Apud nos cogitare peccare est Minucius Foelix all the pedling wares and works in his inward shop are not valuable with one silver drop from a gracious man's lips It was an invincible argument of the primitive Christians for the purity of the Christian Religion above all others in the world that it did prohibit evil thoughts And is it not as unanswerable an argument that we are no Christians if we give liberty to them What is our moral conversation outwardly but only a bare abstinence from sin not a disaffection Were we really and altogether Christians would not that which is the chiefest purity of Christianity be our pleasure And would we any more wrong God in our secret hearts than in the open streets Is not thought a beam of the mind and shall it be enamour'd only on a dunghil Is not the understanding the eye of the soul and shall it behold only guilded nothings 'T is the flower of the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Shall we let every Caterpillar suck it 'T is the Queen in us Shall every ruffian deflore it 'T is as the Sun in our heaven and shall we besmear it with misty phancies It vvas created surely for better purposes Lampridius than to catch a thousand weight of spiders as Heliogabalus employ'd his Servants It was not intended to be made the common fewer of filthiness or ranked among those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Histor animal lib. 8. which eat not only fruit and flesh but flies worms dung and all sorts of lothsome materials Let not therefore our minds wallow in a sink of phantastical follies whereby to rob God of his due and our souls of their happiness 2. Exhortation We must take care for the suppression of them All vice doth arise from imagination Upon what stock doth ambition and revenge grow Mirandul de Imaginat c 7. Isay 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way the unrighteous man his thoughts c. but upon a false conceit of the nature of honour What engenders covetousness but a mistaken fancy of the excellency of wealth Thoughts must be forsaken as well as our way we cannot else have an evidence of a true conversion and if we do not discard them we are not like to have an abundant pardon and what will the issue of that be but an abundant punishment Mortification must extend to these Affections must be crucified Gal. 5.24 and all the little brats of thoughts which beget them or are begotten by them Shall we nourish that which brought down the wrath of God upon the old world as though there had not been already sufficient experiments of the mischief they have done Is it not our highest excellency to be conform'd to God in holiness in as full a measure as our finite natures are capable And is not God holy in his counsels and inward operations as well as in his works Hath God any thoughts but what are righteous and just Therefore the more foolish and vain our imaginations are Eph. 4 17 18. the more are we alienated from the life of God The Gentiles were so because they walked in the vanity of their mind and we shall be so if vanity walk and dwell in ours As the tenth Commandment forbids all unlawful thoughts and desires so it obligeth us to all thoughts and desires that may make us agreeable to the divine Will and like to God himself We shall find great advantage by suppressing them We can more easily resist temptations without if we conquer motions within Thoughts are the mutineers in the soul which set open the gates for Satan He hath held a secret intelligence with them so far as he knows them ever since the fall and they are his spies to assist him in the execution of his devices They prepare the tinder and the next fiery dart sets all on a flame Can we cherish these if we consider that Christ dyed for them He shed his blood for that which put the world out of order which was accomplished by the sinful imagination of the first man and continued by those imaginations mention'd in the Text. He dyed to restore God to his right and man to his happiness neither of which can be perfectly attained till those be thrown out of the possession of the heart That we may do this Let us consider these following directions which may be branched into these heads 1. For the raising good thoughts 2. Preventing bad 3. Ordering bad when they do intrude 4. Ordering good when they appear in us 1. For raising good thoughts 1. Get renewed hearts The fountain must be cleansed which breeds the vermine 2 Cor. 5 17. Jer. 4.14 Wash thy heart from wickedness c. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Pure vapors can never ascend from a filthy quagmire What issue can there be of a vain heart but vain imaginations Thoughts will not become new till a man is in Christ We must be holy before we can think holily Sanctification is necessary for the dislodging of vain thoughts and the introducing of good A sanctified reason would both discover and shame our natural follies As all animal operations so all the spiritual motions of our heads depend upon the life of our hearts * Prov. 4.23 as the principium originis As there is a law in our members to bring us into Captivity to the law of sin Rom. 7.23 so there must be a law in our minds to bring our thoughts to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 We must be renewed in the spirit of our minds Ephes 4.23 in our reasonings and thoughts which are the spirits whereby the understanding acts as the animal spirits are the instruments of corporeal motion Till the understanding be born of the spirit †John 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit it will delight in and think of nothing but things suitable to its fleshly original but when 't is spiritual it receives new impressions new reasonings and motions suitable to the Holy Ghost of whom it is born A stone if thrown upwards a thousand times will fall backward because 't is a forced motion but if the nature of this stone were changed into that of fire it would mount as naturally upward as before it sunk downward You
their good Works 3. Their Light and good works are their own though by the grace of Christ And it is no injury to Christ or his Righteousness or Grace to say that they are their own 4. The splendour of Christians in their good Works must be such as may be seen of Men. 5. The Glorifying of God must be the end of our Good Works and of their appearance unto men 6. As bad as corrupted Nature is there is yet something in mankind which tendeth to the approving of the good works of Christians and to their glorifying God thereupon 7. God is glorified even by common men when they approve of the Glory of Holiness in Believers It is not only by Saints that God is glorified 8. As contrary as Holiness is to corrupted Nature there is such resplendent goodness in true Christians works which common men may glorifie God for And so somewhat in them and in Christianity which hath such agreeableness as may tend to further good 9. The Excellency and Splendour of the good works of Christians especially Teachers is a grand means ordained by God himself for the Conviction of the World and the glorifying of God But the resolving the Question What the splendour of these works must be is my present undertaken task God is not glorified by our adding to him but by our receiving from him not by our making him greater or better or happier than he is but by owning him loving him and declaring him as he is that we and others may thereby be wise and good and happy He is his own glory and ours And by his own light only we must know both him and all things We are not called to bring our Candle to shew the World that there is a Sun but to perswade them into its light to open the Windows and Curtains to disperse the Clouds and to open the eyes of blinded sinners I. The way of doing this and glorifying God is in the order following 1. The first thing that our works must shew is their own goodness They can never prove the Cause good till it is clear that they are good themselves Therefore doubtless Christ here intendeth that we must abound especially in those good works which the world is capable of knowing to be good and not only in those which none but Christians themselves approve If believers and unbelievers agreed in no common principles we were not capable of preaching to unbelievers nor convincing them nor of conversing with them There are many excellent things which Nature doth approve and which both parties are agreed to be good By the advantage of these as granted principles we must convince them of the conclusions which they yet deny and not as the scandalous Christian so absurdly affect singularity as to make light of all good which is taken for good by unbelievers and to seek for eminency in nothing but what the World thinks evil There is a glory in some good works which all do honour and which manifesteth it self 2. And then the goodness of the work doth manifest the goodness of the doer Every man's work is so far his own that he is related to it and by it either as laudable or as culpable as it is Gal. 6.4 5. Let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another for every man shall bear his own burthen God himself will judge men according to their works and so will men and so must we much do by our selves for it is the rightest judging which is likest God's This subordinate honour God grants to his servants If their works were not an honour to them as the next Agents they could be none to him in their Morality as man's acts though they might as acts in general ordered to good by his own goodness If God's Natural Works of Creation Sun and Moon and Earth c. were not praise-worthy in themselves God would not be praised for them as their Maker There are works that God is said to be dishonoured by Rom. 2.23 24. And what are they but such as are really bad and a dishonour to the Authors It is so far from being true that no praise or honour or comfort from good works is to be given to man that God himself is not like else to be honoured by them as morall good if the Actors be not honoured by them The World must first be convinced that Christians are far better than other men and the righteous more excellent than his Neighbour before they will glorifie God as the Author of their goodness In God's own Judgment Well done is the first word and Good and Faithful Servant is the second and Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord is the third Two sorts of Scandalous persons rob God of his honour in his Saints 1. Those that professing Christianity live wickedly or at least no better than other men whose lives tell the World that Christians are but such as they 2. Those that slander and belye true Believers and would hide their goodness and make them odious to the World As for them that say only that we have no righteousness in our selvet by which we can be justified I shall not differ with them if they do but grant that all shall be judged according to their works and that he that is accused as an Infidel Impenitent an Hypocrite or an Unregenerate Ungodly Person must against that accusation be justified by his own Faith Repentance Sincerity and Holiness or be unjustified for ever 3. The next thing to the Work and the Person that is hereby honoured is the Christian Religion it self with the Spirit 's operations on the Souls of Christians The outward Doctrine and Example Of Christ who teacheth his Servants to be better than the World and the inward Sanctification of the Spirit which maketh them better The Air and Food are commended which make men healthy and the Medicines are praised which cure the disease That is accounted good as a means and cause which doth good and which maketh men good If Christians were more commonly and notoriously much better than all other men the World would believe that the Gospel and the Christian Religion were the best But when scandalous Christians appear as bad or worse than Infidels the World thinks that their Religion is as bad or worse than theirs 4. The next ascent of Honour is to the Maker or Author of our Religion the World will see that he is good that maketh so good a Law and Gospel and that maketh all his true Disciples so much to excel all other men And here the first honour will be to the Holy Spirit which reneweth Souls and maketh them holy And the next will be to the Son our Saviour who giveth us both the Word and Spirit And the highest or ultimate Glory will be to God the Father who giveth us both his Son and his Spirit And thus Honour ascendeth to the Highest by these
2. Temptations also have their season and must just then be resisted lest many a year repair not an hours loss And they are very many And narrow-sighted careless persons who avoid two and fall into the third or avoid nineteen and are conquered by the twentieth are always scandalous 3. And rash adventures on any Opinions or actions but especially of publick consequence are usually most scandalous and pernicious to the Church As in Military Affairs and in Physick ubi non licet bis errare mens lives must pay for our temerity and errour and all the World cannot remedy the effects of one mistake So in matters of Religion if we mistake by our rash conceitedness and take not time for necessary tryal and proceed not as a man on the Ice or among Quick-sands with great care and deliberation the shaking of Kingdoms the ruine of Churches the silencing of Ministers the corruption of Doctrine Worship and Discipline and the sin and damnation of many Souls may be the effect of our proud presumption and temerity But the humble self-suspecting man that suspendeth his judgment and practice till he hath throughly proved all doth preserve the honour of Religion and avoid such late and dear repentance XVIII The man whose works shall glorifie God must be devoted to the Vnity and Concord of Believers and be greatly averse to dividing and love-killing Opinions words and practices and as much as in him lies he must live peaceably with all men 1 Cor. 1.10 Phil. 2.1 2 3. Eph. 4.3 4 14 15 16. Rom. 16.17 and 12.18 1 Thes 5.17 Joh. 17.24 When Paul saith that Dividers serve not the Lord Jesus but their own bellies he intimateth to us that though Truth and Purity be in their mouths and really intended by them as they take it yet there is usually a secret self-interest that is carried on that byasseth the judgment And when he telleth them Act. 20.30 that of their own selves should men arise speaking perverse things which they called and it 's like believed to be the Truth yet self-interest lay at the bottom to be some-body in drawing Disciples after them For it is so notorious a truth that Unity and Concord are indispensably necessary to the Church as it is to our Body to Families to Kingdoms that men could not do so destructive a thing as dividing is if some sin had not first caused the errour of their minds It greatly honoureth Christ and Religion in the world when Believers live in love and unity And their discords and divisions have in all Ages been the scandal of the World and the great reproach and dishonour of the Church When Christ's Disciples are one in him it is the way to the Infidel-world's Conversion that they may believe that the Father sent him Joh. 17.24 And here the Devil hath two sorts of servants 1. The true Schismatick or Heretick who fearlesly and blindly divideth the Churches 2. The over-doing Papist and Church-Tyrant who will have a greater unity than Christ will here give us that so we may have none And when Christ prays that we may be one in him the Pope saith that we shall also be one in him or we shall be accounted Schismaticks and destroyed as such And when the Ancient Church according to Christ's Institution united all in the Baptismal Covenant explained in the Creed and Paul numbreth the necessary terms of unity Eph. 4.4 5 6. 1. One Body or Church of Christ into which we are baptized 2. One Spirit of Holiness in all 3. One Hope of the Glorious Reward 4. One Lord by whom we do attain it 5. One Faith even the Christian Verity 6. One Baptism or Covenant of Christianity 7. And One God and Father of all and in these God would have all his Servants to be One then come in these Over-doers and they must have us to be all One in all their Papal policy and all the Decrees of their Popes and Councels de Fide and in their multitude of corruptions and ceremonious impositions which is as much as to say You shall have no Vnity For he that saith to all the City or Kingdom You shall be destroyed for discord or reproached as dividers if you are not all of one Complexion or have not all the same Appetite Age or Bodily Stature doth pronounce reproach or destruction on them absolutely So is it with all others that put their self-devised terms on their Brethren as necessary to Unity and Peace on how pious or fair pretences soever Impossible conditions make the thing impossible These are the Church-tearing scandals These are the snares by which Satan hath made the Church a scorn and our Religion a Stumbling block to Turks and Heathens But had the Peace-makers been heard who learned of the Holy Ghost Act. 15. to impose nothing on the Brethren but necessary things and who have laboured to revive love and shame emulations and divisions God had been more glorified by men and the reproach of the Churches and solemn Assemblies taken away When all Sects and Parties have busled and raised a dust in the World to foul the Church and blind each other if ever the Churche's Glory be restored and our shame taken away it will be by men of Love and Peace by healing uniting reconciling principles and means XIX He that will glorifie God must live in and to the Will of God and seek to reduce his own will wholly into God's and to destroy in himself all will that striveth against God's Will 1. The disposing Will of God our Owner must be absolutely submitted to and the bounteous Will of God our Benefactor thankfully and joyfully acknowledged 2. The ruling Will of God our Law-giver must be with daily study and care obeyed and his punishing and rewarding Justice glorified 3. The final felicitating Will and Love of God our ultimate end and object that we may please him and be everlastingly pleased in him love him and be loved by him must be totally desired and sought as the only and perfect Rest of Souls O! that is the holy the joyful the honourable Christian who daily laboureth and in some good measure doth prevail to have no Will but the Will of God and that which wholly is resolved into it who looketh no further to know what he should do but to know by his Word what is the Law or Will of God who believeth that all that God willeth is good and had rather have his life and health and wealth and friends at God's will and disposal than his own who knoweth that God's Will is love it self and that to please him is the End of all the World and the only felicity of men and Angels and resteth wholly in the pleasing of that will What can be more wise and just than to have the same will objectively with him who is infinitely wise and just What can be more honourable than to have the same Will as God himself and so far as his Children to be like
the one and the other might see the right way of Salvation by Jesus Christ for though the Light of Nature by which we are convinc'd of the equity and righteousness of the Moral Law do bind us to Repentance when we act against it yet it cannot promise that we shall get any thing by our Repentance being altogether ignorant of the Mystery of the Gospel Thus we see the Mountains must be brought low and the Valleys filled up and both reduc'd to such an exact level evenness and plainness that Christ may sit close upon the soul without the least interposition of any thing between him and us or the least remaining vacuity or emptiness in our selves into which his Fulness doth not descend making up whatsoever is wanting in us and when it is so there is a through perfect closure with Christ in the greatest nearness in the strictest and most intimate union that can be But you will say How shall we come to this How shall we walk thus between the Mountain and the Valley in a streight direct line of Faith and Hope to Jesus Christ which brings me to the Case or Question now to be spoken to from the Text which is this viz. How may we steer an even course between Presumption and Despair The true state of this Question depends upon a clear discovery of the real difference that is between the Grace of Hope and both these extreams Presumption and Despair therefore 1. I shall distinguish between Presumption and Hope The difference between Hope and Despair is more apparent but we are too too apt to confound Presumption and Hope there being a greater Affinity between these than the other as in Morality some vertue come nearer to one extreme than to the other So here there is something of the general nature of Hope in Presumption Presumptio non excludit spem sed rectitudâ—nem spei Zanch. Therefore we must be the more acurate and strict in distinguishing between the Grace of Hope and the Sin of Presumprion which fallente quâdam Specie Aquinas resembles the grace of Hope and those who are guilty of this Sin do alwayes put the specious name of Hope upon it they are not sensible of any Presumption as others are of Despair and therefore their case is more dangerous Eo magis desperati quo minus desperantes Ames de Consc And where one despairs thousands do presume Before I come to particulars I must distinguish of a double Presumption 1. Of our Selves and our own merits 2. Of God and his mercy Both stand in a direct opposition to the true Grace of Hope and I shall shew you where the difference lies I begin with 1. The First sort of Presumption which is of our selves This is a proud arrogant presumption arising from a vain conceit of our own supposed worth and righteousness we think to stand upon our own legs insisting not upon what Christ is to us or hath done for us but upon what we are in and to our selves and have done for Christ We have Prophecied in thy Name c. Mat. 7.22 We are not as this Publican we have done thus and thus and ought to be considered for our good works and we doubt not but we shall 't is not the Promises of Free-grace but the Law and their strict observance of that which these men ground their hope upon But the true Grace of Hope is alwayes grounded upon Faith in the Promises and is all along fed nourish'd maintain'd and strengthened by those believing perswasions that it hath of the truth of those Promises which at first produced and begat this hope in the Soul and in the continual exercise of this Grace in its daily actings it eyes the Promises hath daily recourse to them for its further confirmation 't is bottomed upon them takes its rise from thence and bears up the Soul upon the credit of them Rom. 15.4 Psal 119.74 this is the hope of the Gospel Col. 1.23 that carries us out of our selves A Christian's Hope is hope in another and not in himself The right notion of Hope as it is an Evangelical Grace implies our sole dependance upon God as the only Author and Fountain of all that good which we desire and look for which doth sufficiently difference it from that false hope or self-presumption that I have been speaking of and which was principally aimed at by John in the Text being a Presumption more peculiar to those times and persons here spoken of who lived under the Law and were much in doing but understood not the End of their Moral or Ceremonial Works but trusted in them and made Saviours of them and at the first entrance of the Gospel they opposed the Doctrine of Free-grace would hear neither John nor Christ himself but rejected the Counsel of God against themselves Luke 7.30 33 34. See what a Character Paul gives of them and of all others throughout the world who should entertain the least thought of Salvation out of Christ Rom. 3.16 17. Destruction and misery are in their wayes and the way of peace have they not known This one Scripture if well weighed is enough to shake the confidence of the most Presumptuous Self-justitiary that is and to convince him and all the world of their need of Christ In Psal 14. which Paul quotes in this Chapter God is brought in taking a strict Survey of Mankind before he sent his Son into the World to see if there were any that stood in no need of him q. d. If there be any such let him come forth and shew himself David answers for himself ver 7. Not I Lord not I Lord I wait for Christ I long for Christ O that the Salvation of Israel were come out of Zion O that Christ were come that the Free grace and mercy of God were more clearly revealed then Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad this will be good news indeed So Jer. 17.5 6 7. The result of all is this true Hope eyes God in Christ and argues from him this Presumption now spoken of eyes self and argues from thence in all its actings 2. The second sort of Presumption to be distinguish'd from Hope is that by which we presume upon God and his mercy This is grown up since the preaching of the Gospel there is indeed too great a spice of the former Presumption among Professors and as that vvears off this succeeds nay they unhappily mingle together If Legal Presumption cannot altogether shut out conviction yet it minces the matter 't is a little one and my Soul shall live and so makes vvay for this credulous presumption that brings in a Salvo for all presently God is gracious mercy is promised Christ has died for Sinners and all vvill be vvell vve shall go to Heaven of course vvithout any more ado and so they sit down in security all their dayes till they are surprized vvith their everlasting doom unawares This is Infidelis fiducia Bern. a
fed with these comforts have no losses or crosses in the world we are apt to grow proud secure wanton to forget God to cast off Duty to dream of an earthly paradise to say it's good being here to neglect spiritual and divine things 't is high time therefore for God by these waies to cut us short thereby to reduce us to a little better temper of soul If the sap run out too much into the branches there 's no way to preserve the root but by the cutting off the luxuriant branches God will have a thousand Estates to be lost rather than that one soul should be lost the burning of Cities is nothing if that be necessary to the saving of souls 4. Suppose all be lost in that All we lost but little for the All of this world is but one remove from a mere Nothing Perdidit infoelix totum nil is applicable to the losses of the rich as well as of the poor Is there any thing in this but what might be expected from the nature of the thing therefore there should be no disturbance about it Who will be concern'd at the melting of snow what wise man will be moved for the breaking of a glass 'T is strange that a Jonah should be in such a pet for the withering of a gourd Prov. 27.24 Riches are not for ever and doth the Crown endure to every generation 1 Cor. 7.31 The fashion of this world passeth away All the estate here is made up of Moveables that usual distinction which is good in Law is not so in Divinity 5. Again thou sayest all is lost perdiderat omnia quae dederat Deus sed hahuit ipsem qui omnia dederat Deum August but if thou beest a child of God the best is yet secure God and Christ and Grace and Heaven are yet thine and no loss is very considerable so long as these are safe O believer in all thy losses be quiet and chearful God who is thy portion is the same for ever Job lost all he had from God but God himself he did not lose and in him he had all that he had lost Never complain till God be lost Fas tibi non est de fortunâ conqueri salvo Caesare said Seneca to Polybius Let the stars disappear if we may have the Sun who will be troubled let earthly things vanish so long as God abides 't is enough Had we the whole world to lose one God would abundantly recompense the loss of all of it Many are inward gainers by their outward losses by having the less of the Creature they have the more of God O happy exchange the worse their condition is without the better it is within in respect of grace and comfort 6. 'T is an excellent frame of spirit under losses to be patient and contented All the possessions of Job when he was in the height of them did not reflect so much glory upon him as his blessed submission when he was deprived of them then God blessed him now in another sense he blessed God All are convinced they should do this when God gives but 't is very rare for any to do it when God takes away Micah's mother had some shekels of silver taken from her and she falls a cursing Judg. 17.2 this precious Saint had all taken from him yet no cursing as Satan had belied him no nothing but blessing God 'T is an excellent temper comfortably to enjoy outward blessings whilst God shall continue them contentedly to part with them when God shall remove them Suave est si quid dás parvus dolor hoc ubi tollis When I see any carrying it thus I conclude that earthly things are not too fast rivetted in their hearts as 't is a sign the tooth is loose which is drawn out without much pain and that they are duly affected towards God heaven and heavenly things These are some of the things the due consideration whereof would much help on Contentment under Losses And so much for the using of this Means towards the furtherance of tranquillity of mind with respect to what may disturb it in and about the Estate How Consideration ought to be acted in order to Contentment under cr ssâ—s in Relations 2. Secondly I 'le instance in Relations In and about whom there is as much of mercy or affliction of comfort or discomfort and consequently of content or discontent as in any one thing whatsoever The Discontent usually is occasioned and vented in these three Cases The want of Relations much desired The death of Relations much beloved The uncomfortableness of Relations who are spared Now Consideration wisely and faithfully managed would be of great use to allay all storms and to keep the heart even and calm in all these Cases and therefore my next work is to shew what we are under each of them to consider in order to the promoting of this frame But I must of necessity be briefer under this Head than I was under the former that I may not draw out this Discourse to too great a length Wherefore I will but shortly set the Particulars before you that you are to consider of and leave the enlargement of them to your selves in your consideration 1. When Relations are much desired but denied and withheld there is too often discontent How as to the want of Relations desired As to instance only in Children what daily inquietudes of spirit are there in some because of the want of these they have many other Comforts but the not having of this imbitters all Abraham himself was much troubled about it Gen. 15.2 3. Lord God what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless Behold to me thou hast given no seed and lo one born in my house is mine heir But Rachel's passion rose very high Give me Children saith she to her husband or else I die Gen. 30.2 Children are very great blessings they are promised as such Psal 128.3 4. and in other places and indeed they are one of the sweetest flowers that grow in the garden of earthly comforts hence 't is hard for persons contentedly to bear the want of them But whoever you are upon whom this affliction lies pray labour after a contented mind under it and in order thereunto Consider 1. It is the Lord who withholds this mercy for he gives it or withholds it as seems good to him Providence is not more seen in any of the affairs and Concerns of men than in this of Children that there shall be many or few some or none Gen. 32. all falls under the good pleasure and dispose of God When Rachel was so passionate under the want of these Jacob rebuked her sharply am I in God's stead who hath withheld from thee the fruit of thy womb Psal 127.9 Lo children are an inheritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward Psal 113.9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful Mother of
Saints but 't is by the permission of the universal Soveraign who hath the hearts of all in his hands and suffers their rage for holy ends The enemy designes against their Faith but God's aim is to make them change their lives Now if either through strong fears or the stinging sense of troubles upon the account of Religion our Courage fails we are presently in danger of falling away and denying our Master The faint-hearted person is usually false-hearted and for want of resolution being frighted out of his Conscience and duty chooses sin rather than suffering and thereby justly deprives himself of the Crown of life that is promised only to those who are Faithful unto the death Besides not only the loss of heaven but the torments of hell are threaten'd against those who withdraw from the service of God to avoid temporal evils Rev. 21.8 The fearful and unbelieving are in the front of those that shall have part in the lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death Now what folly is it when two evils are propounded to choose the greatest that is eternal death rather than temporal and of two goods to prefer the less a short life with its Conveniencies on earth before that which is eternally glorious in heaven By which it appears how much it concerns us to fortifie and fix our minds by a stedfast belief of God's supporting presence with us in all troubles and of his gracious promise that in due time we shall reap if we faint not in well-doing 2. They are incapable of the Comforts proper to an afflicted state Those arise from the apprehension that God loves whom he chastens Rev. 3. for the least sin is a greater evil than the greatest trouble and his design is to take that away and from the expectation of a happy issue Hope is the anchor within the vail that in the midst of storms and the roughest seas preserves from shipwrack The character of Christians is Rom. 12.12 that they are rejoycing in hope But when the afflicted are under fearful impressions that God is an irreconcileable enemy and sadly conclude their miseries are past redress those divine Comforts that are able to sweeten the most bitter sufferings to believers are of no efficacy their deep sorrows are not like the pains of a travelling woman that end in a joyful birth but the killing tortures of the stone that are fruitless to the patient An obstinate grief and rejecting the Consolations of God is the beginning of sorrows the first payment of that sad arrear of mourning that shall be exacted in another world The Use shall be to excite us to those duties that are directly contrary to the extremes forbidden viz. to demean our selves under the chastenings of the Lord with a deep reverence and humble fear of his displeasure and with a firm hope and dependance upon him for a blessed issue upon our complying with his holy Will 1. With a humble reverence of his hand This temper is absolutely necessary and most congruous with respect to God upon the account of his Soveraignty Justice and Goodness declar'd in his chastenings and with respect to our frailty our dependance upon him our obnoxiousness to his Law and our obligations to him that he will please to afflict us for our good This is the reason of that expostulation Will the Lion roar in the forrest when he hath no prey Shall God's threatenings and judgments have no effect Who ever hardened himself against him and prospered Amos 3.4 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie the most sensible and severe attribute when it is incens'd Are we stronger than he Can we encounter offended Omnipotency Can we with an army of lusts oppose myriads of mighty Angels 'T is not courage but such a prodigious degree of folly and fury that one would think 't were impossible a reasonable creature were capable of it Yet every sinner unreformed by afflictions is thus desperate Job 15.25 26 He stretches out his hand against God and strengthens himself against the Almighty he runneth upon him even on his neck upon the thick bosses of his bucklers Such a furious rebel was Ahaz who in the time of his distress did trespass more against the Lord This is that King Ahaz But God hath most solemnly declared that he will be victorious at last over the most fierce obdurate enemies 2 Chron. 28. As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me His power is infinite and anger puts an edge upon his power and makes it more terrible If our subjection be not voluntary it must be violent 'T is our wisdom to prevent acts of vengeance by humble submissions The duty of the afflicted is excellently exprest by Elihu Job 34.31 32 Surely it is meet to be said to God I have born chastisements I will not offend any more that I know not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do so no more Add further upon another account reverence is due to God's chastenings for when love is the motive that incites one to give us counsel though it be mixt with reproofs and his prudence is not great yet a respect is due to the affection Now God who is only wise chastises men from a desire to make them better and happy he intends primarily to refine not to consume them by afflictions so that a serious regard to his hand is the most just and necessary duty of the creature Briefly every chastisement should leave deep and permanent impressions upon us the sense of God's displeasure should make our hearts mournful and mollified broken and contrite that his will may be done by us on earth as 't is in heaven 2. Let us alway preserve an humble dependance and firm hope on God for a blessed issue out of all our troubles The support and tranquillity of the soul ariseth from hence Christian patience suffers all things as well as charity being encouraged by a continual expectation of good from him Patience confirms all other graces and is to the whole armour of God what the temper is to material weapons that keeps them from breaking in the combat Now to maintain a constant hope in affliction 't is necessary to consider the reason of the Exhortation as 't is admirably amplified by the Apostle 1. The relation God sustains when he afflicts believers He is a Judge invested with the quality of a Father The Covenant of grace between God and Jesus Christ our true David contains this observable cause If thy children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments if they break my statutes Psal 89.30 31 32. and keep not my commandements then will I visit their transgressions with a rod and their iniquity with stripes The love that ariseth from this relation though it cannot hate yet it may be displeased and chastise them for their follies Moses tells the Israelites Thou shalt consider in thy heart Deut. 8.5 that as