run the way of thy Commandments We commit our selves to thy gracious Protection this Night make we pray thee our Rest comfortable to us by a Sense of thy Favour and Forgiveness Raise us up again the next Morning if it please thee from our Beds those Emblems of the Grave And make us in whatever our Hand finds to do do it with our Might because there is no Work nor Labour nor Wisdom nor Knowledge in the Grave whether we are going We recommend to thy Infinite Mercies O Lord all Estates and Conditions of Men. O God who declarest thy Almighty Power most chiefly in shewing Mercy and Pity Mercifully grant to all Men such a Measure of thy Grace that they running the way of thy Commandments may obtain thy gracious Promises We beseech thee to keep thy Houshold the Church in continual Godliness and that through thy Protection it may be defended from all Adversities and devoutly given to serve thee in all good Works to the Glory of thy great Name We pray thee let thy Favour and Mercy rest upon these Nations wherein we live forgive us Oh Lord our manifold Transgressions give us Peace and establish Truth to continue among us so long as the Sun and Moon shall endure Bless our King and Queen with all the Blessings of this Life and a better Prosper their Government over us to their own Comfort and Happiness and to ours Teach us all who are under them in our several Stations to do our Duties towards thee and them and towards one another to thy Glory and to the common Peace and Welfare Bless all our Friends and Relations comfort all that are Afflicted relieve the Oppressed help them to Right that suffer wrong These things Oh Lord and whatever else for our Ignorance we cannot or for our Unworthiness we dare not ask we humbly beseech thee to grant through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ the Righteous In whose Words we conclude our Prayers saying Our Father c. THE UNPROFITABLENESS OF SIN demonstrated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Prov. 22. 8. He that soweth Iniquity shall reap Vanity THough the Holy Scripture has told us of our Adversary the Devil that he is a Liar from the Beginning and the sad Experience of Mankind has found him so yet has he the Art to impose upon us still and we are so foolish as to credit his Suggestions By the very same Cheat and Delusion with which he drew our first Mother into Sin does he draw and perswade her foolish Posterity also to the Commission of it He made her believe it would be of great Advantage to eat the forbidden Fruit that this would mightily improve their Condition and make them more Excellent and more Happy God doth know said he That in the Day ye eat thereof your Eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil. Thus did the Serpent beguile her She took of the Fruit and did eat and gave it to her Husband and tempted him to eat too But this instead of advancing their Condition sadly impair'd it immediately were these our Parents driven out of Paradise they became subject to Sorrow and Misery and Shame and Death and were despoil'd of their greatest Glory the Image of God in their Souls Thus instead of becoming more excellent and happy they render'd themselves and all their Posterity exceeding miserable and vile But hereby has our Adversary learnt what sort of Suggestion is very apt to prevail with Mankind he has found we are ready to receive and follow that which seems kind to us we love to be flatter'd in our Inclinations and to have those things said to us which may perswade us to allow and gratifie them and we listen to that which promises great Advantages Therefore he tells Men they need not fear to be wicked there is not so much ill in it as some Man out of design would perswade them He tells them it is the only chearfull and pleasant course of life to follow their inclinations that 't is the only profitable and advantageous course and the way to do themselves most good to conform to the common Sins to run with the Multitude to do evil to follow the same ill ways that some are seen to raise their Fortunes by He tells us and we too commonly believe him that in breaking the Commands of God there is great Reward To antidote and fortifie our selves against this delusive Suggestion of the Father of Lies Let us observe what the Spirit of Truth tells us in the Text and fix our Thoughts a-while upon it at present that we may hereafter remember it to our Advantage He says He that soweth Iniquity shall reap Vanity He that soweth Iniquity that is He that lives an ungodly and unrighteous course of Life he that does any thing that is ill He shall reap Vanity that is he shall be wofully disappointed in his expectations of receiving any considerable or real advantage thereby That is said to be vain in Scripture which does not reach the purpose it was intended for which disappoints and frustrates the hopes and expectations that are built upon it So those Oblations are called vain which were not accepted with God And the Idols of the Heathens which bore an appearance of what they were not in Reality and Truth and were not able to help those that trusted in them are for this reason call'd there Vanities This then is the Import and Meaning of these Words spoken by Solomon A course of Wickedness is very false and deceitfull it promises Men much perhaps but performs little and he who expects any real Advantage any true Content and Happiness in such a course shall be miserably disappointed I think it not unnecessary to insist upon the Proof of this Truth for 't is what the World are not easily convinced of Though we may see it verified in the Experiences of other men very often yet we will not impute their ill Successes and Unhappiness to the Deserts and Nature of the Course they chuse but we impute them rather to some Indiscretion and Folly of those men in the Management of themselves which we purpose to avoid and so we hope to reap those advantages from the same course of life which we see others cannot Yea further it is very common that men are not convinced of this Truth though their own Experience might inform them Though they have found an Emptiness and Vanity in a wicked and careless Life so far as they have tried it yet they will be so foolish as to hope still for what they can never obtain they will think there is some Content and Satisfaction beyond them and on they go in this wrong
very Vanity Convince us we pray thee O Lord steadily and effectually of these things let us not sell our Souls for nought let us not spend our Life in the pursuit of shadows and neglect substantial things teach us that he who sows unto the Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption And make us to believe that in keeping thy Commands there is great Reward to believe that thou art and art a Rewarder of those that diligently seek thee that we shall not serve God for nought But if we do by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality we shall obtain eternal Life Let thy bounteous and faithful Promises effectually allure us from the ways of Folly and Perdition O that we were so wise as constantly to take thy Testimonies for our heritage to desireabove all things the Happiness which thou hast prepared for them that love and serve thee O turn thou we humbly pray the Byass and Propensity of our Souls that way Give us not up to the choice and pursuit of this World condemn us not to have all our Portion in this short miserable and transitory Life Strengthen and encrease our Faith of unseen things that it may be in us the Evidence of things not seen and the Substance of things hoped for and let this quicken let this encourage us at all times to our Duty by assuring us that our Labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. By alluring us of everlasting Rest to reward our Labours in well-doing of our having fulness of Joy in thy Presence and Rivers of Pleasures at thy Right hand for evermore Deliver us O Spirit of Truth from all the deceits of the World the Flesh and the Devil lead us into all Truth necessary for us to know in order to Salvation and make us to pursue the things which make for our everlasting Peace Give us we pray thee a Treasure in Heaven through the merits of Jesus Christ In whose Name we humbly make our Prayers and Supplications for all Men Give O Lord to all Nations Unity Peace and Concord and pour out thy Spirit upon all Flesh that they may all know thee from the least to the greatest Bless thy Church and prosper it and make it yet more Holy and more Universal Bring in all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks into the way of thy Truth and into the way of Salvation We pray thee pour down thy abundant Blessings upon these Nations wherein we live deliver us from those that hate us continue to us thy true Religion establisht among us in the Administrations of it and continue us in the due and universal Practice of what it teaches and requires of us Bless we pray thee our King and Queen and Magistrates be thou their Guide and Defence and make them useful Instruments to promote thy Glory amongst us and our Happiness Let us know those that are over us in the Lord and admonish us those who are thy Ministers in Holy things and esteem them very highly in Love for their Works sake and follow their Godly Counsels and good Examples Grant we beseech thee that the means of Grace which we have this Day enjoy'd may be effectual upon us to the Salvation of our Souls Pardon the imperfections of our Services and graciously accept them through the merits of Jesus Christ In whose Name we present and dedicate our selves to thee we recommend our Relations and Friends to thy Mercy and all that are desolate and afflicted and we pray for the pardon and conversion of our Enemies We commit our selves to the Care of thy Providence this Night beseeching thee to keep us in safety while we are not in a Condition to look to our selves And if it shall please thee to add yet more days to our Lives we desire to spend them all in thy excellent Service to which purpose we humbly implore the continual Guidance of thy Spirit to whom with the Father and the Son one Infinite and Eternal God we ascribe all Praise and Glory for ever and ever Our Father c. GOD's Hatred of Sin Demonstrated and Improv'd Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Prov. 15. 9. Former Part. The Way of the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord. IT is in the Heart of most Sinners that God takes little or no notice of what is done by us here below or if he does take notice that 't is without any concern about what we do They do not think those things offend him which they encline to and which are pleasing to themselves nor will believe that he is so displeased as some represent him to be with any of their Actions And from hence it is so small and light a matter with many to do those things which are sinful It is that which many are accustomed and habituated to do and are contented to be so The smallest temptation is able to make a man commit a Sin Yea without any temptation they will readily run into it and instead of avoiding and repelling temptations they industriously seek them and delight to entertain them It is become so common a thing to do wickedly that men have no horrour at any but the very grossest crimes such as would lessen a man's reputation in the World or expose him to Penal Laws and they are but very few But these things come to pass for want of a due consideration of such Truths as that which the Wise-man here delivers in saying The way of the wicked is an Abomination to the Lord. The most Holy and Almighty God takes notice of the Actions of men is acquainted with all our ways and resents with Infinite dislike and hatred whatever we do that is contrary to his most excellent Commands It is not an indifferent thing to him what our Actions are But as he that made us has given us Laws for the direction of our Actions so every transgression of those Laws and Rules which is that which is call'd Wickedness is odious and abominable to him A very terrible Consideration this is to those that have not taken any notice of it before and so have liv'd carelesly but it is therefore necessary to such to reclaim them from these offensive ways And if any man does so well lay it to his heart as to give it power to do so he shall find it as happy and comfortable in the fruits and effects of it To put you in mind of this I shall at present fix my Discourse upon it and to give it the more force I shall insist upon these Heads of Discourse concerning it 1. To confirm and prove what is here said 2. To shew you the Inferences which we may raise from it 3. To make
for such a particular occasion Our Saviour himself in the History of his Family by the Evangelists has left a pattern of this last sort which may justly be regarded as a direction in this case both by Ministers and People His Disciples desired him to teach them to pray he complyed with their Desire and did so by composing a Form for them It is without doubt part of the Duty of his Ministers in the Church after this example of the great Pastour to teach the faithful People to pray and this they may do in the same way as he did and the People shall certainly do well if they use the Prayers which such have composed for them Thus they shall be edified and profited by the Gifts which God has communicated to his Ministers Whatever Gift or Spirit of Prayer can reasonably be pretended to be afforded the Church in these days it may be exercised in the composing and writing down our Prayers before we offer them to God and there is no man but must needs exercise his Gift more suitably to the great God he worships and more to his own or other Peoples edification and to a better degree of performance truly in this way than in depending upon sudden and unpremeditated Thoughts and Expressions So that without doubt both Ministers and People ought to use composed Forms of Prayer ordinarily to perform this duty in the fittest manner I shall only add to this matter thus much that if any Master of a Family uses these Prayers in his Family it is but as if he should desire a Minister to pray with them as People are commonly wont to do when such a Person happens to stay a Night at their House And I have said so much to this matter because I have observed the unjust and erroneous disparaging of Prayer by a Form which has been amongst us has had a great influence towards the too frequent omission of Family Worship Now to conclude this Preface I shall only suggest these advices concerning the use of this Book That it is as I think ordinarily most fitting that this Exercise be performed by the Master of the Family himself But if any Circumstances hinder that it may be done by a Child or Servant but should always be done in his presence if possible that his Authority may give it the more respect with the inferiour parts of the Family When the introductory Prayer is said all should be standing to make themselves sensible of the Presence of God and to dispose them to a reverent and serious frame of Mind and so to make the more solemn and fit enterance upon what they are going about The latter Prayer should be used by all the Company kneeling and joining in it with heart and devout Affection If any young Persons who are devoutly inclined have it their lot to live under such Governours of their Families as are negligent of their duty in this matter I advise them if they may be permitted it to spend an hour in their Chamber alone on the Lord's Day in these Meditations and Prayers This they may very profitably do and perhaps their good Example in such a practice may shame the Master of the Family out of his neglect Now I commit this Endeavour to the Providence of God humbly dedicating it to his service And I do most willingly say Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the Glory for thy loving Mercy and thy Truths sake And that it may be accepted with him through the Mediation of Jesus Christ and accompanied with his powerful Blessing so as it may also be well accepted in the Church and succesful to the promoting of true and pure Religion in many Souls to their Comfort and Salvation and his Glory thereby I heartily pray THE EXCELLENCY OF THE SOUL Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Zach. 12. Last Part of the First Verse And formeth the Spirit of Man within him THE Words that I have now read from the Holy Scripture are part of a very Majestick Preface or Introduction to a favourable Prophecy concerning Judah and Jerusalem which is understood to foretell the Times of the Maccabees the distresses of those times and the mighty Deliverances which God would give the Jews by the Conduct and Courage and Resolution of those Men. In so great and lofty Expressions the Prophet was directed to introduce it that he might encourage the Faith and raise the Expectations of that People who were now in a very weak and low Condition For they were but newly returned from their Captivity and were envied and hated and opposed in their present Interests by wicked and powerful Neighbours He reminds them herein of the great Works of that God in whom he would have them now put their trust The whole Verse and Preface contains thus much The Burden of the Word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord Who stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the Foundations of the Earth and formeth the Spirit of Man within him That which we may observe in this Text is That the Prophet places this work of God His forming the Spirit of Man within him together with his stretching out the wide and spacious Heaven and his laying the Foundations of the ponderous Earth and that when he design'd to represent the Greatness of God his ability and fitness to do what he had promised by shewing them the works he had already done This then we may reckon is here intimated to be a workparallel with those that are mentioned with it and fit to be mention'd with them to the same purpose This is a great and mighty Work as well as the other two All God's Works of Creation do declare their Authors Greatness and as the Psalmist speaks Praise him But some do this more than others as they are more excellent and greater than others Elsewhere also the Scripture mentions the making of Man as one of the more excellent and wonderful Works of God and sets it together with his making the Earth and stretching out the Heavens As in Isa 45. 12. where God to magnify himself in the Esteem of that People and to assure them that he could raise up one that should deliver them from Captivity says by his Prophet I have made the Earth and created man upon it I even my Hands have stretched forth the Heavens Now when the making of Man is here spoken of as one of the greatest Works of God this must needs be understood with relation to the Soul of Man For certainly a thing so small and weak so gross and heavy and so dark and so decaying as is the Humane Body cannot justly be reckoned worthy of this great comparison
wickedness and impiety debase and disparage us These latter deform us into the likeness of the Devil and so make us truely more vile than the Beasts that perish So much reason is there that we earnestly endeavour then to adorn our Souls with Piety and Vertue 4. And Lastly The Excellency and Immortality of our Souls should make us greatly concerned to secure and attain for them an Everlasting Happiness Since we are capable of such an one we should not rest till we have some good assurance of it It would become us and it were our Wisdom to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure as the Apostle advises We should work out our salvation with fear and trembling Let every man then take it into his most deliberate Thoughts What shall become of him to all Eternity Let this be a great concern with us all When this frail Tabernacle of my Body shall be taken down in which my Soul now dwells Where then shall my poor banisht Soul abide Where Oh where shall that be then disposed of To what company shall I go for I cannot be happy alone And what good things shall I then enjoy for I have not a self-sufficiency within me I am told and assured of two very different States after this Life the one of perfect Happiness and the other of perfect Misery To which of these two States am I likely to be doom'd since I am immortal and must abide forever in that I am sent to it greatly concerns me to know which of them it shall be The one is designed for good Men and the other for the Bad Which is it then of these two Characters that I bear Since the course of my Life has a certain tendency towards the one or the other of these and I shall fare hereafter according as I have lived here let me consider well what a Course I take Am I sit to dwell in the kind and loving World above if I harbour any Malice or Envy or Hatred in my Heart Am I fit for the pure Mansions of Heaven if I live in sensual and brutish Sins Am I fit to live with those who are all faithful and true with the God of Truth and Righteousness if I am deceitful and unjust and had rather be cunning than sincere Am I fit to be in the presence of God and in the Company of those that Reverence and Adore him if I am habitually Prophane and accustomed to despise all things that are Sacred and to abuse the awful Name of God in vain Oaths and Perjuries Am I sit to leave this World and to be happy out of it if my Heart be so set upon it that I can love I can relish and delight in nothing but what is of this World If this be my Condition and this has been my Course of Life certainly this will not bring me to Heaven If a man finds then that it has been thus with him he should resolve to stop and divert his Course Since without Holiness no man shall see God we must follow after Holiness we must follow after these Divine Qualifications that have been mentioned as things necessary to our everlasting Happiness We must cease to do evil and learn to do well and devote our selves to the Service of God in a course of universal Obedience to his Commands we must repent of our past Sins that they may be blotted out we must purify our selves as God is pure Blessed says our Saviour are the pure in heart for they shall see God We must cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God and present our selves and our repentance and obedience all in the Name of Jesus Christ hoping for acceptance through him and for the favour of God to be bestowed upon us only for his sake Let it be consider'd that we must either dwell with God and his holy Angels in everlasting Joy and Bliss or be doom'd to the Prisons of the Devils and confin'd to dwell with enraged and wicked and spiteful Companions If we must not dwell in the Regions of Light we shall be dismissed to the gloomy Caves of everlasting Darkness If we are not admitted to the Joys and Hymns and Praises of Heaven we shall be condemned to the Howlings and Discords and Torments of Hell and there bear a sad part our selves in those Everlasting Sorrows There is no Middle State but the one or the other of these will be our everlasting and unalterable Portion Life and Death are set before us and we have leave to chuse between them But it is so That if we will not chuse Life we shall not be at Liberty to refuse Death If we do not chuse Life and Happiness and earnestly and steadily engage in the Course that leads to it we must fall into the other destruction and misery will come of themselves How shall we escape says the Apostle If we neglect so great Salvation Let it be consider'd that we must determine our choice between these two things while our present Life lasts not a moment more will be allowed us to do it in and this Life is of uncertain duration and most certainly is hastning away It is best for us therefore to hasten our choice in this Matter and to be very constant and steady in the way to Happiness when we have chosen that THE PRAYER OEternal and Almighty God! Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth or the World even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Thy duration is without beginning or end and thou art the Author and End of all things besides thy self It is thou O Lord that hast made us and not we our selves Thou hast sent us into this world to enjoy it a while to study and see Thee in the things about us to praise Thee for their Excellency and Goodness to love Thee for them and more than them as being the Fountain and Center of all that Goodness which is scattered and dispersed among them And thou hast made us for the high and noble Happiness of enjoying thy self O Lord how great and good things hast thou designed us for and how low and mean things do we consine our selves to We are ashamed to think how seldom we think of thee we use thy Creatures and thy Gifts and forget thy Self we are charmed and detained with that little Goodness that is in them and neglect that infinite Abundance which is in thee we commonly make but a low animal use of the things of this world considering in them only their suitableness to the Appetites and Necessities of our Bodies and valuing and delighting in them only for that and so they do not raise up our minds to thee And thus it comes to pass that we seek none but these things we live as if we were not made capable of better we seek our Happiness where it is not and neglect it where it is
we hew out to our selves broken cisterns that can hold no water and forsake Thee the Fountain of living waters In thee alone is true content and full satisfaction to be found O Lord as sensible of this our very guilty and very dangerous Errour we desire for the future to return unto thee to esteem thee our chiefest Good and to desire thee above all things Our Hearts are now ready to say each of us for our selves Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name We desire O Lord to praise and to honour thee with all the excellent Faculties and Powers that thou hast given us We devote our Reason and Understanding to thee to learn and meditate on thy glorious Excellencies thy wonderful works and the instances of thy obliging Goodness We devote all the power of our Wills to thee to chuse thee to fix upon thee as our chief Good to submit to thy will as the rule and law of ours We devote our Affections to love thee above all things to fear and reverence thee to hope and trust in thee to hate what thou hatest and love what thou dost love We devote all our Members unto thee to be governed by thy wise and righteous Laws We desire O Lord we purpose to love and serve thee the Eternal Infinite and most Bounteous Good with all our Heart and Soul and Strength O Lord strengthen we pray thee and confirm our too feeble and wavering Resolutions Create thou us again in Christ Jesus unto good works Let us not live estranged from thee whom we are made capable to enjoy both here and hereafter Make us in love with Holiness and Vertue as the health and rectitude of our Minds as our brightest and most advantageous Ornaments and the most useful and most durable Riches Renew in us most loving Father thy decayed Image and create us to righteousness and true holiness Learn us to see thy glorious Perfections in the visible things about us to make a religious Use of all that we enjoy in this World in loving thee for what is Good praising thee for what is Excellent in them and giving thee Thanks for whatever we enjoy of them We humbly recommend to thy infinite Mercies all Estates and Conditions of Men O Lord lover of Souls pity those that sit in darkness and bless them with the Knowledge of thee and of thy Christ whom to know is Life everlasting rescue them from their miserable Bondage under the Enemy of Mankind and bring them into the Kingdom of thy Son We pray thee bless and defend the Christian Church let the Gifts and Graces of thy good Spirit be abundantly poured out upon it purge it from all things displeasing to thee and give it peace and great enlargement Be merciful to that Part of it which thou hast planted amongst us in these Nations Water it plenteously with the Dew of thy Heavenly Blessing make it fruitful in all good Works and a Praise in the Earth We pray thee bless our King and Queen and all subordinate Magistrates and those that are the Ministers of thy holy Word and Sacraments make them all in their several Places and Stations useful to the promoting Piety and Vertue amongst us And make all those that are under them peaceable and obedient teachable and submissive to their Laws and godly Counsels Grant that we may all lead peaceable and quiet lives in all Godliness and Honesty Visit and relieve all those that are in any Trouble or Affliction Bless our Relations requite our Friends and Benefactors and forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and turn their Hearts Finally O Father of Mercies we give thee Thanks for all thy Care of our Immortal Souls for all that thou hast done for their Happiness and Well-fare We pray thee bless to our spiritual Advantage those Ordinances of thine which we have this Day been partakers of Give us leave to commit our selves to thy Protection for this Night and reward our trust in thee with safe and comfortable Rest that being well refresh'd we may return the next Morning chearfully to our several Businesses and Duties and do thou accept us in all we pray through Jesus Christ in whose Name we present our selves and all our poor Services unto thee and in whose most comprehensive Words we conclude these our imperfect Prayers saying Our Father c. OF Vain Thoughts OR INCONSIDERATION With the Mischiefs and Remedies Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Psalm 119. 113. I hate Vain Thoughts but thy Law do I love OUR Care and Endeavour to live well must begin within us or it will prove vain and ineffectual We must keep the Heart with all diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life Solomon says Prov. 4. 23. According to which our Saviour teaches us That out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and out of the good or evil treasure there proceed good or evilactions We must then take notice what our Thoughts are if we would have our Life good and not neglect them as Men too commonly do and this is what the Psalmist plainly intimates in these Words I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love I shall not trouble you with long Criticizing upon the words lest I should be guilty my self of what I intend to discourse against It shall suffice to observe for the justifying of our translation that the Original word here translated Thoughts is used with that significancy in other places of Scripture Particularly 1 Kings 18. 21 Where it seems to signify unsetled and irresolute Thoughts such as could not determine them to a fixed and steady Obedience to the Truth and in Job 4. 13. where it signifies such Thoughts as the roving Imaginations of the Night are wont to be employed in In both these places it signifies such as are not well guided nor directed And by reason of this use of the word in those places I doubt not but it is very fitly done that our Translators have added the word Vain in the Text to determine and signify what sort of Thoughts the Psalmist meant by the use of the word here I shall therefore understand this Text according to the import of the word Vain in our Language and shall represent it as signifying thus much I hate all idle roving and useless Thoughts such as are not considerate and designed and directed to some good and worthy purpose all inconsiderate Thinking As there are a great many idle impertinent words spoken among Mankind many very useless and unprofitable conversations and as there are especially in the briskness and activity of Childhood and Youth a great many very idle and trifling actions done by
them Vouchsafe to direct sanctifie and govern both our Hearts and Bodies in the way of thy Law and in the works of thy Commandments Cleanse thou the Thoughts of our Hearts by the Inspiration of thy Holy Spirit that we may sincerely love thee and duly magnify thy Holy Name truly serving thee with Soul and Body which are thine Lord have mercy upon us and write all thy Laws in our Hearts we beseech thee Enlighten our Darkness cure our Ignorance with all necessary Knowledge of thee and of thy Christ Change our Wills and turn the biass of them from this World towards thy Self from empty and vain Goods to full and Substantial ones from the pleasures of Sense to the accomplishments of the Mind Make us more indifferent about our outward Circumstances and more concern'd about the inward State and Disposition of our Souls and to account it our greatest Felicity to do well to please thee and approve our selves unto thee Make our vain and light Minds serious and wise furnish us with the Gifts of thy good Spirit for every good work for thou alone art the Giver of every Good and every perfect Gift it is by thee alone O Lord that we can be inabled to please thee we alas are not able of our selves to think a good Thought Help us to set thee always before us in the frequent Thoughts of thee and an habitual reverence and fear of thee that a sense of thy continual presence and observance may restrain us from all evil and encourage and quicken us to mind and do our Duty We humbly implore thy Mercy upon all Men Convert unto thy Self all Jews Turks and Heathens bring them from their several Ways of Vanity to know and worship thee the only true God by Jesus the true Christ and Mediator Give the Heathen for an Inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for a Possession to thy well-beloved Son Give unto thy Church all that is necessary to it to amend and purge away what is amiss and to supply what is defective in it and to make it fruitful in all good Works and that all who profess and call themselves Christians may have their Conversation such as become the Gospel Bless we pray thee and defend these Nations in which we live Bless us with a continuance of wise and kind and righteous Governours and of loyal peaceable and obedient Subjects Give peace in our Days we humbly beseech thee for there is none we rely upon to fight for us but only thou O God Establish Truth among us for all Generations bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived Remember in Mercy all that are dear and related to us Give them things necessary for Life and Godliness Guide them O Lord by thy Counsel through this world and bring them at last unto thy Glory Sanctify us by thy word which has been this day spoken to us and promote in us thereby all Vertue and Godliness of living Forgive the wandring of our Minds in our attendance upon thee and all other defects in our Duty and comfort us with the light of thy Countenance Be thou our gracious Protector this Night for in thee alone do we put our Trust And if it please thee to allow another Day and yet a longer time on Earth Grant that it may be spent in thy fear and in a diligent and unwearied application to all that which is our Duty This we humbly ask and whatever thou seest to be most expedient for us committing and resigning our selves entirely to thy Conduct and disposal and hoping in thy Mercy through Jesus Christ to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost we desire to ascribe all Praise and Glory and Domihion for ever and ever Our Father c. OF True Happiness Wherein it lies DEMONSTRATED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Psalm 4. 6 7. There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my Heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine encreased IT is the natural and common desire of Mankind to be happy and is the End which they aim at and propose to themselves in their several Pursuits and Endeavours But as the Psalmist speaks here There be many that say who will shew us good The Many the most of men are at a great loss in this Matter and do not know where their true Happiness lies nor in what course or way to attain it Their uncertainty in this Matter is represented by these words of the Psalmist and is too evidently seen in the common Practice of the World The Human Nature is the same in all Mankind we have all of us reasonable immortal Souls we have all the same Capacities And our Happiness rightly and truly considered must be to all the same The same Object must make all men Happy and they must obtain that in the same way But alas how is the World distracted and divided in the pursuit of Happiness Some of them running one way after it and some another and the most of them neglecting and diverting from the true Object With some there is no Felicity like the heaping up of Wealth like the sight of full Bags or great purchases and they delight in nothing so much as in gainful Bargains With others there is nothing so pleasant as to spend and they delight in this as much as the others do in getting The Pleasures of this World are their beloved Felicity to eat and drink and rise up to play With others there is no Heaven like Honour and Command the having Authority and Power among Men the being courted and sought to respected and obeyed With some how great a Felicity is it to be fine and to have all things about them so To have Themselves their Houses their Entertainments and all that belongs to them gaudy and pompous and much adorned Thus are Mankind disperst thus they wander in the pursuit of Happiness And thus the Many are taken up and employed in this great Concern Having exprest the Uncertainty and intimated the wandering of the Generality in this Affair The Psalmist next expresses what he sought as the Object of Happiness in these words Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Which is as much as to say Lord let us have an Interest in thy Favour regard us with kindness and Love let us enjoy the Exercises and Benefits of thy peculiar Favour and Mercy It might be shewn you by the use of this Phrase in other places of Scripture that this is the sense and meaning of it When he had made this Request he adds
How easy and calm a condition may that Man's mind be in at all times who has this assurance Further we must reckon that this consideration exceedingly heightens the sweetness of every good we enjoy To consider this is the Favour of Heaven to me I receive this Enjoyment from the peculiar Love of God to me The enjoyment of that which is the Fruit of a Man 's own Pains and Labour adds much to the Pleasure of the Enjoyment But the Favour of God and his Blessing contributes much more When I can say This that I now have proceeds from that special Favour of Heaven which takes care of me 4. Lastly The peculiar Favour of God gives to those whom he so loves an assured and safe Right and Title to the Everlasting Blessedness which is to come They are the certain Heirs of Heaven The Love of the Father is promised to them that believe in Christ And this Love has promised to give them Eternal Life His Love will never cease blessing them till it has made them perfectly Blessed Till it has cured all their Imperfections has supplied all their Wants has removed from them all Evil and set them safe in perfect Bliss This is the Condition of the Future Blessedness which they are designed for No desirable Thing shall be wanting there neither shall any evil encumber it And this shall be the Rich and Bounteous and Everlasting Portion of those whom God loves They may expect that the good Work of Sanctification which is begun in them shall be perfected unto the Day of Jesus Christ That the Lord Jesus will keep them from every Evil work and preserve them to his Heavenly Kingdom And how comfortably must a Man spend his Days under this joyful Expectation Every thing here may mind him of his Home the happy Canaan above The good things here may tell him of better there and when any of these please he can say How much more pleasant are the things which are there The Griefs on Earth may put him in mind of the Joys of Heaven and when any thing troubles him here he can consider there is no such trouble there The Mutation of Earthly things may call to his Mind the Stability and Durableness of the Heavenly and this may comfort when the other vexes him How pleasantly does he spend his Days that is all his Life long travelling towards Heaven It does not trouble him to perceive his Time waste and spend its self apace His Heart and Affections are removed to Heaven already and he is glad that Time makes haste to remove his Person thither too He is glad to think that it is continually doing so He knows that whenever Time shall commit him to Eternity he shall go from lower degrees of Happiness to higher from that which suffers some Interruptions here at least as to the Sense and Enjoyment of it to that which shall never know any Interruptions The Light of God's Countenance may have some Intervals of Darkness now mingled with it but then it shall shine bright upon him for ever and make a continually happy Day of Glory He goes from a mixed Happiness to a pure and perfect one He does not go naked out of the World but well provided for in another since God will there be his everlasting Portion and exceeding great Reward Now I have done the Proof of this Truth That the Favour of God is the most desirable Good and the enjoyment of that the best Spring and Fountain of our Happiness and Comfort I have dwelt long upon this as I said the Discourse would chiefly be employed in it and may I think be excused for staying long among so many pleasant Thoughts as the Love of God suggests Application I shall say but little now for Application of these things because I intend the following Discourse to be Applicatory of this For the present let us reflect a little upon what has been said And do not these things which have been said of the Love of God naturally lead us to condemn both in our selves or others all the neglect there is among us of so matchless a Benefit Is it not a wonderful thing that Mankind should neglect the Love of God That it should be common and general among Men to have little or no Concern for an Interest in that And yet it is thus with the World The Psalmist here does not say There be many that say Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Alas the Many follow other Goods and neglect this They spend their Labour for that which is not Bread and their Mony for that which will not profit and neglect the true Felicity There is nothing so little minded in the World as the securing an Interest in the Love of God There are many guilty of this that do not observe it in themselves Let us see then who must be charged with this Folly that so we may discover what there is of it in our selves Some look upon the Love of God as a thing that will come of its self without any seeking or endeavours after it and it is a very cheap thing in their Opinion of it They have such an Opinion of the Goodness of God that they think he cannot be affronted or displeased but will love them however they carry themselves towards him They think he will love them tho they do not much care for his Love tho they never seek tho they continually forfeit and despise it They think indeed that he will cast Pearls before Swine Many really do not value the Love of God they do not consider the Necessity and Worth of it They have God himself very little in their Thoughts and so they do not know or they consider not the Importance of an Interest in his Love They do not consider that an Over-ruling Providence mingles its self with all things That they have all they enjoy from him That they must be Beholden to him for an Happy Life on Earth and they banish utterly from their Thoughts all concern and care about the Life to come Is not any thing preferr'd by a great many before this that comes in competition with it Do they not value a little unprofitabl Gain a little foolish Pleasure a little slippery Honour and the most transient Gratisications of their desires of any sort more than the Love of an Infinite Eternal God Do not men commonly expect their Happiness from the things of this World from what they can see or taste or feel Are not sensible things most sensible to the dull and carnal Minds of Men How little Charm or Invitation has this thin invisible Blessing with it to a great many They forget that the things which are not seen are Eternal That Spiritu-things are the greatest and the most considerable Spiritual things are as nothing to them they have not the Senses of their Minds exercised to discern such things And further Are there not many that never had a
shew Mercy to all Mankind Pour out thy Spirit upon all Flesh that they may know thee and seek thee and find and praise thee and rejoice in thy abundant Goodness Let thy continual Pity cleanse and defend thy Church Lord look down in mercy upon us and bless us that all the ends of the World may fear thee We pray thee do good to these Nations in which we live according thy infinite Sufficiency and our Necessities Oh let not our Iniquities with-hold good things from us but according to the multitude of thy tender Compassions blot out all our Transgressions Bless our Gracious King and Queen and make the one a Nursing Father and the other a Nursing Mother to that part of thy Church which thou hast planted among us and let their good Influence extend further to the Benefit of it and make Them the Honourable Instruments of Establishing Peace and Truth not only in these but also in the Neighbouring Nations to the Glory of thy great Name Bless all Ranks and Degrees of Men among us and make them to live to thy Glory to be conformable and obedient to our Governours and useful peaceable righteous and charitable one towards another in their several Stations We humbly pray for all Friends Relations Benefactors bless and preserve them from every evil Work and conduct them to thy Heavenly Kingdom Let this Day Oh Lord be happy to us in the fruitful and effectual Influences of thy Ordinances upon our Hearts and Lives Let us not be forgetful Hearers but be Doers of thy Word that we may be blest in our Deed. Grant us to lie down in Peace this Night to rest in Safety And be thou O God our Portion and Refuge in the Land of the Living and hereafter our exceeding great Reward for the sake of Jesus Christ in whose Name and Words we further present our Requests unto thee saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil Amen THE Heavenly Mind DESCRIBED and URGED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Colos 3. 2. Set your Affections on Things above and not on things on the Earth HOW well did the Bounteous Creatour of all things contrive the Nature of Man for the making him exceedingly Happy He put into our Constitution an Immortal Spirit join'd to a Living and Sensible Body And so he made us capable of the Delights of both Worlds the Spiritual and the Material By our Souls we are capable to enjoy and delight in Spiritual Objects and their Properties and Qualities We are capable of a rational spiritual Delight in sensible Objects and we are capable to enjoy and delight in God himself and his Infinite Eternal Perfections And by our Bodies which are allied to this World we are capable of a sensual Delight in the things of it to enjoy and please our selves with the Properties Vertues and Qualities belonging to Material things So bounteous and kind was the Creatour to Man in the Forming of him But alas Man has not been kind to himself He did not remain long in the happy State which he was first set in but by following too much the Pleasures of his Sense he lost all the greatest Pleasures of his Mind By eating the Forbidden Fruit he sinned against God lost his Favour and the Enjoyment of him became alienated from God and his Mind became subject to the shameful Disease of Sensuality A low and sordid Propensity to Earthly things did from henceforth possess him and a wretched Incapacity and Averseness towards Heavenly and Spiritual things We are condemned to enjoy only the lowest and weakest and the least part of our Happiness to gnaw as it were on the Shell of Pleasure and enjoy no more than the Brute Beasts do We following the unhappy Fall of our Nature do amuse and entertain our selves only with the poor Objects of Sense utterly forget and neglect our higher Capacities and our true Happiness It is the whole Business of our Religion in all the parts of it to recover us from this shameful and deadly Fall to draw us off from this our wretched Attachment to this World and turn us from a false Happiness to a true one The scope and aim of all its Doctrins Precepts Promises Threatnings Motives and Assistances is this to make us truly happy And the Sum of all is to bring us to what the Apostle here exhorts to in saying Set your Affections on Things above not on Things on the Earth By Things above he means those very things which were recommended to you by the Discourse immediately foregoing this as the chiefest and the true Objects of our Happiness He means God himself who is our Chief Good and the Expressions and Exercises of his peculiar Favour and Love He meâ—â—â— the Graces which the Holy Spirit works 〈◊〉 the Souls of Men which perfect and adorn and compose the Mind He means the everlasting Blessedness which is to come the Happiness and Joys of Heaven By advising to set our Affections on those things he means they should be much the Objects of our Minds he intends the Application of the whole Soul to them and the employing of all our Powers about them The Original word which we render here set your Affections has this large Import and Signification and might be rendered Mind those things which are above Let your Judgments esteem them your Wills chuse and your Affections follow them And not on Things on the Earth that is rather than the Things of the Earth It is according to the Custom and Phrase of the Hebrew Language to express thus when it only intends to prefer the former things it speaks of before the latter So in Hos 6. 6. The Prophet in the Person of God says I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice that is rather than Sacrifice he intended to express God's preference of Mercy before Sacrifice Here then the Apostle who was an Hebrew of Hebrews speaking after the Phrase and Manner of his own Language must be understood to mean Set your Affections on Things above rather than on Things on the Earth Mind those Things most let them have the preference with you He does not forbid nor does our Religion forbid the moderate seeking and enjoyment of the Good things of this World We are not bound to be unsensible of their Goodness to take no delight in them nor absolutely and wholly to refuse or reject all sensual Pleasures The things of this World are good in their Kind and
that thou hast been pleased to make us capable to know and meditate on thy Self to chuse and love thee to desire and enjoy thee who art an Infinite Eternal Good and in whose presence is fulness of Joy Oh how ready should our Hearts be at all times to say Whom have we in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that we can desire besides thee But alas we are degenerated we are fallen from our Original Excellency we are sunk into Sensuality we need to be put in mind and told wherein our true Happiness lies and to be excited urged and exhorted to pursue it We hover here below and seldom have any thoughts or desires moving upwards the objects of Sense detain us with them and we feed on Husks among Beasts we stay and abide upon the lowest and the smallest part of our Happiness Lord we are miserable we are undone and shall perish for ever if thy pity do not rescue us from the Love of these low Things Oh Pardon our guilty and heal our distempered Souls Discover thy self to us and make us love thee shed abroad thy Love abundantly in our Hearts Make us to rise by the Creature to the Creator Guide us by the streams to thee the Fountain of their Goodness and make us as we ought to love thee above all things Let us be governed by thy Love in the whole course of our lives and readily deny our selves to please thee and keep thy Commandments Let us firmly believe the glorious Things which thou hast prepared for them that love thee and draw our Hearts after them to endeavour that our Treasure may be in Heaven in Immutable things And direct us we pray thee so to pass through things Temporal as that we finally lose not the things Eternal Have mercy O Lord upon all Mankind Let the Earth be filled with Knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the Sea and all Men be directed and led in the way to true Happiness Give to all Nations Unity Peace and Concord Pour down an abundant measure of thy Spirit upon thy Church that the Gospel may run and be glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Let them prosper that love it and let not the Gates of Hell ever prevail against it We pray especially for that part of it which thou hast graciously placed in these Nations and hitherto wonderfully detended Lord make it a very fruitful Vineyard and purge out of it all that is contrary to true Doctrin and Godliness Bless we pray thee our Gracious King and Queen and the Royal Family with all Spiritual and Eternal Blessings and give them long and happy Possession of the Throne of these Kingdoms to thy Glory and our Comfort Bless all in Authority under them help them truly and indifferently to administer Justice to the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the maintainance of thy true Religion and Vertue Give grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrin honour thee and guide thy People committed to them in the way of Blessedness Let all the Subjects of this Realm be subject to thee in Loyalty and Subjection and due Obedience to those that are over them in Church and State and let Piety Love Righteousness and Peace and Truth abound among us We commend to thy Fatherly goodness all that are in any Distress and Affliction all our Friends and Relations we pray for our Enemies do for all beyond what we are able to ask or think We humbly ask a comfortable and safe rest this Night and that it may please thee to make the out-goings of the Morning to rejoice Let thy word which we have heard this Day guide our Conversations and let us bring forth in them the Fruits of the Spirit let not the Cares of this World or the Deceitfulness of Riches choke the Word and render it unfruitful but grant we may live to the Glory of thy Name and to the Peace and Salvation of our own Souls by Jesus Christ in whose most comprehensive words we sum up our Requests saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Necessity of Obedience TO THE COMMANDS of GOD Proved and Stated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven HOW common a thing is it among those that have heard the glad Tidings of the Gospel for Men to take up a presumptuous reliance upon the Merits of Jesus Christ with neglect of Obedience to the Commands of God! Some of the most profligate and careless Sinners will hope to be saved And if one ask them how They will say by the Merits of Jesus Christ Many indulge themselves in their darling Sins and yet hope to be saved by the Merits of Christ And most certain it is that the Doctrins of some Teachers give occasion to this presumption They occasion Men to think there is nothing necessary to their Salvation but strong Believing and so to endeavour nothing but that and to rely upon the Righteousness of Christ so as to neglect all Endeavour after any Righteousness of their own And this Error and Delusion where it obtains does often prove able to harden a Man against the most earnest Exhortations to leave his Sins yea and even against the most plain Rebukes of Providence for them and to frustrate all other Means of Grace and Conversion whatever It is therefore of great Importance to remove it out of the way and this I shall endeavour by discoursing on these words of our Saviour which if they had been well considered together with many other plain Scriptures it had prevented the entertainment of such Imaginations in the Minds of Men. He had been in a long Discourse enforcing many of the Commands of the Moral Law And now towards the close of this Discourse he begins in this Verse to tell them of what importance and necessity it was to them to practise what he had taught He plainly teaches that no belief in him would avail them any thing if they did not together with it keep the Commands of God Not every one says he that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
God's Holy Will and Commandments and to walk in the same all the Days of our Lives And our Church rightly teaches us the necessity of Obedience in order to our being partakers of the Benefits purchased by Christ by putting the solemn Promise and Resolution of it into the Baptismal Covenant But I shall make this evident from the Nature of that Faith which is requir'd and from the Command of Repentance and from some very direct Texts of Scripture 1. This will appear to us if we consider the Nature of that Faith which is required to make us partakers of the Benefits of the new Covenant 'T is said indeed He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting Life But we must let the Scripture tell us what it means by believing in him To believe in Christ is to rely upon him for Salvation but 't is relying upon him upon such Conditions as he appoints and will admit of And that Faith which will give us an Interest in him must purify our Hearts and resign our Wills and make us deny our selves and take up our Cross and follow him which are things that he plainly requires of his Disciples And this Truth was taught in the Jewish Types and Shadows The Altar indeed did sanctify the Gift yet every thing might not be offer'd upon the Altar it was only permitted them to set those things which were clean upon it for an Offering to God This Faith is exprest in Scripture by receiving Jesus Christ And this must needs mean the accepting and closing with him as he is offer'd to us in the Scriptures That we receive him as a King and submit to his Laws as a Teacher and follow his Instructions as well as that we receive him as a Priest and rely upon the Merits of his Sacrifice And even St. Paul himself does not say that any Faith will save a Man but he defines the profitable and saving Faith to be that which works by Love Gal. 5. 6. So that 't is only Faith join'd with Obedience that can help us 2. Again This appears in that Repentance is required as necessary to our partaking in the Merits of Jesus Christ St. Peter says to the Jews who were made sensible of their Sin in Crucifying the Lord of Glory that they must repent and be converted that their Sins might be blotted out Acts 3. 19. And St. John preaches repentance as necessary to an Interest in Christ in 1 Joh. 1. 8 9. where he says If we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us but if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness He makes forgiveness of Sin and the Grace that delivers from the power and pollution of it to depend upon an humble and penitent Confession of Sin Now what is Repentance but a hearty Sorrow for Sin and hatred of it for the Evil that is in it and a resolution and endeavour accordingly to forsake all that is sinful and wicked This then is absolutely required of them that would have the Pardon of their Sins and would find Favour with God through Jesus Christ Thus we see it may be drawn by consequence from some Scriptures that our Obedience to the Commands of God is the necessary Condition of Salvation by Christ 3. In the last place I may make this evident by some direct and plain Texts of Scripture And some of those many that do most plainly and directly say this are these In Heb. 5. 9. we are told Jesus Christ is the Author of Salvation to them that obey him Does not this plainly make the obeying him a necessary Condition of attaining Salvation by him In our Text he expresly says None shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but such as set themselves to do the Will of God And St. Paul himself who is the great Preacher of Justification by Faith says in plain Terms 1 Cor. 7. 19. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping the Commands of God I shall not need to add any more after that plain and full Scripture 1 Pet. 1. 17. If ye call on the Father who without respect to Persons judgeth every man according to his work Pass the time of your sojourning here in Fear He there plainly tells us that our Faith in God which is meant by calling on him will not suffice us alone that without respect of Persons without favouring them upon any other account alone he judges every man according to his work He therefore urges us to pass the time of our sojourning here in Fear that is to take heed to our ways to be careful of the performance of our Duty for this is plainly the necessary condition of finding favour with him if he will judge every man according to his works That Faith in God which produces good works or that Profession of the true Religion which is accompanied with an holy Life is the only Faith that will find Favour with God Thus I have sufficiently spoken to the first Head which was to shew that it is necessary and required even now under the Gospel that we set our selves to obey and keep the Commandments of God I proceed now to speak to the Second which was To shew how far we are bound to this what it is in particular that the Gospel or Law of Grace does require of us in this Matter This I think fit to speak to That I may not discourage any by seeming to impose an impossible Task or trouble the Minds of those that are tender while I am endeavouring to awaken and excite others out of their neglect and presumption It is granted then and must be granted that we cannot in this Life perfectly keep the Commandments of God In many things we offend all says the Apostle Jam. 3. 2. And if we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us as St. John tells us 1 Joh. 1. 8. And our Saviour in that Form of Prayer which he taught his Disciples for their daily Use has put in a Petition for the forgiveness of Sins intimating therein that we are likely to have as daily and constant occasion to beg the remission of our Sins as we shall have to desire our daily Bread we shall want forgiveness through the weakness of Grace as constantly as the weakness of Nature requires the supply of the Food I must tell you then how far we are obliged indispensibly to keep the Commands of God This perfect and compleat Obedience not being possible to us it is perhaps not proper to say that it is indispensibly required of us But these things are required 1. That there be in us a setled Purpose and Resolution to keep the Commands of God as far as we can do this it must be the deliberate and setled Intention of every Soul Like that of David I have sworn and I will
according to his Divinity and whence according to his Humanity what things he suffer'd and why what is the Vertue of his Resurrection what Gifts of the Spirit he promised and gave to the Faithful But it should also be taught what sort of Men the Members must be to whom he may and will be the Head What sort he requires and makes and loves and redeems and brings to everlasting Life When these things are insisted upon says he then Christ is preached Christus Evangelizatur Aug. de Fide Operibus Tom 4. This Preaching then does not take men off from relying upon Christ it does not tend to make them depend upon themselves for Salvation but it shews them in what way they must rely upon Christ for Salvation that they may certainly succeed in the doing it 2. To improve yet a little further what has been said we may thence learn the Vanity and Deceitfulness of their hopes of Salvation who lead wicked and ungodly Lives they that live in their Sins and yet hope to be saved expect to come to Heaven by the way to Hell they depend upon the Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ without taking the only course to have an Interest in them 3. There is not only folly and deceit in these Hopes but also there is great guilt and provocation in them For this is to turn the Grace of God into Wantonness which is that St. Jude Ver. 4. earnestly condemns when we encourage our selves in Sin from the undertaking of the Redeemer What is said of him in the Gospel is an encouragement for Men to forsake their Sins but not to continue in them This is the greatest abuse that can be of redeeming Love it is contrary to the end and design of it The Mediator took the Name Jesus to signify that his purpose is to save his People from their Sins And indeed his design had been a very strange one if he had come to procure a Dispensation for our Love of infinite Goodness for our Reverence of an infinite Majesty and of our Obedience to the Creator of all things if he had come to dispense with the Laws of Equity and Justice of Mercy and Charity of Truth and Faithfulness towards our Neighbour This is a design unworthy of the Holy Jesus this had not been to glorify the Father and how can it be but highly displeasing to impute to him such a Design as this Opinion and Practice must be reckon'd to do And yet further This is contrary to the Obligation of redeeming Love as well as to the Design of it and must needs be upon that account very displeasing It was the greatest Instance of divine Love to give his Only begotten Son to Die for us and then it is the greatest Obligation to the Love of God And is it not a most enormous and unjust requital to make this an encouragement to the living in hatred against him To live in constant rebellion and contempt This must needs give the highest and most guilty Aggravation to the Sins of Men that can be Let us consider then how much we are obliged by the Love of God to love him and that if we love him we must keep his Commandments The PRAYER OH most merciful and gracious God thy mercy is everlasting and thy truth endures from Generation to Generation Thou hast helped us in our low Estate through the greatness of thy Mercy When we had rendred our selves deserving of everlasting Misery and utter Rejection from thy favour and care thou didst then take care for us and laidst help upon One that is mighty and able to save to the uttermost Oh who can conceive or express the Love of God to us in Christ Jesus It passes knowledge We give thee O Lord most humble and hearty Thanks for this thy unspeakable Gift We thank thee for our Saviour's excellent Doctrins and Instructions whereby he shews us the way to happiness for his most holy and good Life whereby he leads us in the way to it and is become an encouraging Pattern and Example of Well-doing We bless thee for his meritorious Death whereby he has made an Attonement for our Sins has purchased for us thy sanctifying Grace and thy infinite eternal Favour Oh what reason have we to say what shall we render unto the Lord for all his Benefits How many ways O Lord hast thou deserved our highest praises our supream Affections and our best Obedience But Oh how unsensible have we ungrateful wretches been of this thy great Mercy How backward and slow to comply with the just and reasonable Terms of Salvation We are loth to part with our Sins even for the Love of Jesus or to wean our Affections from this World for the hopes of Heaven Yea we are apt to fall into the guilty and pernicious folly of turning the Grace of God into wantonness of encouraging our selves to continue in our Sins upon presumption on thy Mercy in Christ Jesus and of expecting Salvation by him while we have neglected the terms and conditions of obtaining it O Lord awaken us at length to a due and wise Care of our own Souls Of thy infinite Mercy pardon our past Neglects and give us for the sake of Jesus Christ what thou requirest that we may be partakers of the great Salvation Give us an unfeigned Repentance for all our past Transgressions stedfast and sincere purposes of new Obedience Give us an humble lively Faith in him such as may engage us to follow him make us love and chuse his Commands ready to deny our selves for his sake and to devote our selves entirely to him to live to him that died for us let it bring forth much fruit in a diligent and industrious Obedience and seek and expect our acceptance and reward only by Vertue of his Merits and spotless Righteousness Let such a Faith we pray thee be formed or promoted in us by the Ordinances we have this day enjoyed Let us lie down in peace with thee this Night and repose our selves under the protection of thy Providence If it please thee that we shall awake again in this World let our Hearts be full of a thankful Sense of thy Mercies and a Concern to shew forth thy Praise in the Course of our Lives We humbly recommend to thy Mercy and Favour all Mankind beseeching thee to enlighten those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of Death to bring into the way of thy Truth all such as have erred and are deceived To replenish thy Church abundantly with the Gifts and Graces of thy good Spirit to comfort and relieve any of thy Servants that are desolate and afflicted to prosper those that seek the Peace of thy Jerusalem We implore thy Mercy upon the Land of our Nativity Lord let Peace and Righteousness Charity and Piety setle and abound among us Rule and guide thou our Rulers in thy Fear Teach our Teachers Bless comfort and encourage thy Ministers both in Church and
State with a Loyal Obedient Peaceable and Loving People Grant that we may all live to thy Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose own words we further say Our Father c. THE GREAT DUTY OF THANKFULNESS Urged and Directed Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 1 Thes 5. 18. In every thing give Thanks THere is an exceeding great evil and disorder which we may too frequently observe in the World and which every Man's reason condemns in others and yet all are apt to be often guilty of it themselves It is that we we do commonly remember long and retain a very deep resentment of an Injury whether it be a real or but an imagined one but we soon forget the Benefits we receive and lose the Impressions of them Thus do Mankind often deal with one another and thus also do they behave themselves towards God Tho he cannot wrong or injure us yet we are apt to think he does so when he does in any thing displease us and we behave our selves towards him as if he did We murmur against him and grow discontented and froward are ready to think 't is in vain to serve him and to throw off our Duty And on the other side we do at the same time forget his Benefits and take no notice of what we have many times through desire of what we want We are very earnest and importunate in our Requests for what we would have and are cold in our Thanksgivings or neglect to be thankful at all when we have obtain'd it The Spirit of God taking notice of this Fault in Mankind repeats his Instructions in Holy Scripture to the contrary He bids us take care to join with all our Prayers Thanksgivings in Phil. 4. 6. he says by the Apostle Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God However desirous ye are however sollicitous to obtain what ye want of God be sure to be thankful for what ye have Again in this Chapter where our present Text is he joins the Command of Thanksgiving with that of Prayer the 17th Ver. bids us Pray without ceasing and this 18th says In every thing give Thanks whatever your condition be recommend it to Almighty God by Prayer and how long soever it pleases God to deny or delay what you desire yet continue to pray And with your Prayers remember also to give Thanks In every thing give Thanks that is in every State and Condition endeavour to retain always a Sense of the Divine Benefits to praise him for what he has done for you and be free from all hard Thoughts of God and undecent Murmurings against him I confess this Command in this place seems to be chiefly directed to those Holy and good Men who are the peculiar Favourites of Heaven by the Interest of Jesus Christ But because this Duty is urged more generally elsewhere and there is no Duty requir'd of such good Men but it is also required of all Men at least by consequence and as all Men are required to be good I shall therefore take the words as exhorting to an universal Duty And I conclude from them that all Men are bound to express a thankful Acknowledgement unto God of the Benefits they receive from him and that in all Estates and Circumstances whatsoever In discoursing upon this Matter I shall endeavour these 2 things 1. To prove that every Man has Reason for great Thankfulness to Almighty God 2. To direct the right Expressions and Declarations of our Thankfulness In the first place I shall endeavour to make it evident That every Man has some reason to be thankful to God some reason to praise and love him and to be patient and contented in every Condition And this I think will evidently appear upon the making good the following Particulars 1. Let us consider That all Men are in some measure Partakers of the Divine Benefits There is not one among the Race of Mankind that can justly reckon himself not at all obliged to God Every man is beholden to God for his Being for the preservation and continuance of his Being so long as he subsists and for some things that comfort him in his Being and without doubt the Death of Christ is in some sense an universal Benefit Every Man is beholden to God for that Being which he has It is God that hath made us and not we our selves And from that sort of Being which God has given us are we engaged to be thankful We were made but little lower than the Angels and crowned with Honour and Dignity as the Psalmist says of all Men Psal 8. The meanest Man is next in Dignity to them in the Order of the Creation It is an exceeding Honour of our Bodies and their greatest Worth and Commendation that they are made fit to serve and entertain so noble a Guest as an immortal Spirit and this Honour the most deformed the weakest and the most crazy Body has belonging to it But our greatest Worth and Dignity lies in the Soul which God has given us There is in every Man an excellent Spirit which is capable of very great things however it is in some Men wretchedly neglected and deprest By this are all Men capable of the sublime Knowledge of the Creatour capable to love and praise and delight themselves in him by such a Being then we are capable of Happiness to a great and excellent Degree and even of the highest kind of Happiness that can be as we can enjoy or delight our selves in him who is the highest Good And our immortal Soul renders us capable of Everlasting Happiness in the Eternal fruition of an Infinite Eternal Good Every Man may reach this Happiness if he will This is that he was made and designed for and no Man shall fall short of it but by his own default Thus our Being then should engage us to be thankful to God that gave it Further 'T is to him we owe the continuance of our Being he supports and maintains us in this Life while it lasts and after it in the other This is a continual Obligation to Thankfulness it is a continual Creation As no Being can make its self so none can preserve or continue its self at all but all things have always a most necessary dependance upon the great Creatour We ought then all of us to acknowledge it is he that holds our Soul in Life And while he continues this Life he obliges us in that we are so long capable in some measure to see and enjoy the pleasant and good things of this World If we have good and vertuous Souls and are free from Envy and
thy Mercies our Friends Relations and even our Enemies and all that are in Adversity We render thee Thanks O Lord for all the Mercies of this Day in particular but especially for the Liberty of thy House and for the Means of Grace we have there enjoyed Hear O Lord the Prayers we have offered to thee Bless thy Word and Sacraments to us whenever we enjoy them let them be thy power to our Salvation We humbly beg thy Protection for this Night and evermore even unto thy Heavenly Kingdom for the sake of Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory world without End OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Pleasantness of Religion Demonstrated and Improved Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Prov. 3. 17. Her Ways are Ways of Pleasantness THese words are spoken of Wisdom as you may see by Verse 13. of this Chapter where Solomon begins the Commendation of that Saying Happy is the Man that findeth Wisdom and the Man that getteth Vnderstanding The Merchandize of it is better than the Merchandize of Silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Length of Days is in her right Hand and in her left Hand Riches and Honour then he adds Her ways are ways of Pleasantness And by Wisdom of which he says these great things he means Religion or the Wisdom of good and vertuous living to which the Scripture it self does elsewhere plainly give that Name Job 28. 28. The Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Vnderstanding The Ways of Wisdom then means the Practice of Religion and Vertue This he says is very pleasant He has Joy and Pleasure in abundance who steadily lives in a religious and good course of Life This is the import and sense of these Words And if this be true here is a very sensible and important inducement to a good Life contained in them There is nothing usually more powerful and attractive with Mankind than Pleasure nothing which they more earnestly or more universally covet If then it can be made appear that there is a great deal of this even in well-doing this may be a means to allure Men to the trial of it and to divert them from those courses of Wickedness which draw many into Everlasting Perdition by the allurement of Pleasure To make this good and to prove what Solomon here says will be the chief business of this Discourse And I do not doubt but it will be beyond any Man's Power to deny or question this who shall soberly consider the following Particulars 1. The Principle from whence all true and sincere Religion proceeds and springs is Love and that must needs render it highly pleasant in the Practice of it This must be the Principle and Spring of true and sincere Religion All the Duties we perform towards God or Man must proceed from Love to God and Man This must be the Principle of our good Actions and wherever true Love is it will be a Principle of good Actions All the instances of Duty required of us are but such things as Love it self will put us upon such as Love naturally suggests and does incline to He that truly loves God cannot chuse but seek what will please him and endeavour to do all that and he must endeavour to avoid whatever would offend God He must delight to contemplate the Divine Perfections to think upon the Object that he loves to adore and worship God to seek and promote the Love and Honour of him So he that loves his Neighbour sincerely must delight in and desire the Wellfare and Happiness of Men he must endeavour to promote it as much as he can and will be far from wishing or endeavouring any evil to any Man or from delighting in what does happen to any And this now is even a Demonstration of the Pleasantness of a Religious Life that all of it is nothing else but the Exercise of Love He that is driven to do his Duty by Fears and Terrors performs indeed an ungrateful Task and goes on in these ways with Reluctancy and Sorrow But he that is drawn with the Cords of Love follows with Joyfulness He will run and not be weary whom Love inspires He minds not is not discouraged with any Ruggedness of the way but is rather pleased with Difficulties and put on than troubled or retarded because they give him opportunity to express the greater Love This renders the Labours of Religion easy and even Sufferings delightful I take pleasure in Infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christ's sake says a great Lover of Jesus 2 Cor. 12. 10. It was the strength of Love in the Primitive Followers of Jesus which made them very laborious and diligent in Religion and made them suffer much even to the most cruel and tormenting Deaths and do both with unspeakable Joy and Pleasure They prov'd what a great Lover of God said long ago Cant. 8. 6 7. Love is strong as Death Many waters cannot quench Love neither the Floods drown it All the Task of Love is pleasant and nothing is counted hard or uneasy which that enjoins us 2. Another thing that renders the Practice of Piety and Vertue very pleasant and therefore proves it so is the fitness and reasonableness of all that which Religion enjoins us to do It is most highly equitable and just in all the parts of it and is most perfectly what the Apostle calls it Rom. 12. 1. namely Reasonable Service There is nothing required of us within the whole compass of our Duty but what a Man 's own Mind and Reason upon serious consideration must needs be perfectly satisfied in nothing that he can have any reason to be ashamed of or to think below him or unfit for him to do or that he can justly upbraid or condemn himself for doing How reasonable and just are all the Duties of Piety towards God This will appear upon a fair stating and proposal of them Is it not highly so that we reverence and adore an infinitely glorious and excellent Being That we trust the Original Truth That we love the Sovereign and the Fountain Good That we obey the supream Authority of the World in all
All of us indeed fell in our first Parents from that Honourable State and our Nature being defil'd with Sin we became more vile than the Beasts that perish But I Thanks be to Divine Grace have recovered that State again in some measure I am rising towards the Perfection of that Dignity and Honour as I encrease in Vertue and Piety I am now one of the Houshold of God one of the honour'd Train and Followers of the glorified Jesus I am reckon'd a Member of that bright and happy Society above by God and them 4. Another thing that renders good Actions and a religious Life very pleasant is the Thought of having pleas'd God therein It is a very grateful and comfortable thing to have pleas'd and satisfied our selves in doing well to have dignified and exalted our selves But this is still an additional Pleasure to have pleased God too When a Man can think in this course which I hold whoever is displeased with me I please God I please him whom I have most reason to please and whom it will be my greatest Advantage to please I approve my self to the wisest Being I approve my self to God the Judge of all And who is he that can condemn whom God justifies It is a small thing to me to be judg'd of Mens Judgment He takes Delight in me and is well pleased with my Actions who can do whatsoever he will who can make me as happy as I can desire to be I am through Jesus Christ accepted with the most Holy God And it must be an unspeakable Pleasure to a good Man to think while I am doing well God beholds me I am never out of his Eye he beholds me with Delight and Complacence he has always a particular and special regard to me In whatever obscure Corner of the World and in how mean a Station soever I am doing well and keeping the Commands of my God I am for this in great Esteem in that upper and glorious World And I shall not serve God for nought I cannot please him but it will redound to my great Advantage He will reward my Performance of my Duty my Payment even of what I owe him So bounteous and so good a Master do I serve And this will lead a Mans Thoughts to the next Particular to be mention'd which is the last 5. That which cannot chuse but render a Religious Life very pleasant and therefore prove it to be so is That it raises and maintains in a good Man such glorious and joylul Expectations as do and may accompany it How much Good how much Blessedness may be expected from an Infinite Goodness and Love upon the Assurance of having pleased God and of finding Favour with him And then if we consider the vast Bounty of his Promises to them that obey him how much he has most willingly and freely engag'd himself to do for them and how faithful and true he is in the Performance of what he promises These things will allow a good Man to entertain very great and very pleasing Expectations I dare appeal to any Man whether it would not highly please and satisfy him to think and be assur'd that God peculiarly loves him that he is a Favourite of Heaven of an Almighty most wise and unchangeable Friend of him who is able to make those he loves eternally happy Must it not please a Man to think I shall be sure to want no good thing I shall never be overcome or undone by any Evil for the Lord is my Refuge and Portion in the Land of the Living as the Psalmist speaks of himself Psal 142. 5. What good Man can read and apply that to himself which is said for such in Psal 91. 11. without a great deal of Pleasure He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways To think holy and kind Angels are continually about me while I give them no Offence by any Sin or Impurity They attend me in my Business they watch me when I Sleep they are willing to be about me to do all manner of good Offices To keep off Evil Spirits and deliver from the Harms they spread in my way They are Witnesses of my good Actions and shall bear a kind and honourable Testimony for me at the great day of Judgment They see in secret and shall applaud me openly These are some of the comfortable Expectations that attend a Religious Life And yet further If a Man considers what great and glorious things are laid up or reserv'd for those that love God and keep his Commands What the Honours the Felicities and the Pleasures of the next Life will be to such and does expect to be a partaker of these as a good Man may do he will in some measure foretaste the future Bliss The hopes of Heaven are Anticipations they are Beams and Dawnings of the Joy and Glory there The good Man then cannot chuse but rejoyce in Hope when he thinks I shall e're long be remov'd from this wicked and miserable World to that where only Holiness and Goodness and Happiness dwell I shall go from Envy and Malice from Reproach and Contempt to joyful Congratulations and Love to Applauses and Commendations I go no faster to the Grave than I go towards Rest I shall labour then but for a few Moments longer and shall rest for ever As I spend this Life I earn a better the sooner this ends the sooner that will begin While I deny my own Inclinations now and serve and please God while I despise the Pleasures of Sense and absolutely refuse those of Sin all which are but for a short Season I am procuring to my self everlasting Satisfactions and Pleasures These are Expectations that may attend a good Life and in doing so doubtless they will render it extreamly pleasant Thus I have sufficiently prov'd what the Wise Man here says The ways of Wisdom or Religion are ways of Pleasantness It remains now that something be said briefly to promote that Use of this Truth which Men ought to make of it 1. And in the First place it should serve to take Men off in some measure from the Pleasures of Sense I mean those who are too much addicted to them It is not the Design of Religion to make us refuse and abstain from all the pleasing things of this World We are allow'd to take and use soberly and thankfully whatsoever God shall give us and we can lawfully obtain of them But since there is so much Pleasure in doing well this may reasonably suggest to us these Two things 1. That we should not suffer our selves to be wholly taken up with worldly and sensual Pleasure We should not yield our selves entirely to the Pursuit and Enjoyment of that and let these Pleasures stand by neglected He that governs himself most wisely in this matter and has the most pleasant Life of all other is he that takes care to enjoy both sorts as far as he may And to enforce
Heritage govern them and lift them up for ever And make all that name the Name of Christ duly concern'd to adorn the Doctrin of God our Saviour in all things Let thy gracious Presence dwell in the Land of our Nativity bless us with Peace and Plenty with the Means of Grace and the Efficacy of them to enlighten our Minds to cleanse our Hearts to heal our Divisions to teach us all from the Highest to the Lowest our several Duties towards thee Give Health and Happiness to our King and Queen and teach us and all their Subjects our Duty towards them Bless and direct all inferiour Magistrates make them a Terror to evil Doers and a Praise to them that do well Let those that Minister in Holy things be a good Example to the Flock and make us Followers of them as they are of Christ We Implore thy Mercy upon all that are in Affliction especially upon those who are persecuted for Righteousness Sake give them Patience under their Sufferings and a happy Issue out of all their Afflictions Accept our humble Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving which we have this day offer'd to thee in thy Sons Name And make the Word which we have heard to have such Influence upon our Hearts and to bring forth such Fruit in our Lives as thou dost expect from it Give us a Night of safe and comfortable Rest preserving us from Fear and Danger And when we awake in the Morning let us chearfully return to our Duty in all our ways acknowledge thee and do thou graciously direct our Steps for the Sake of Jesus Christ In whose Words we conclude these our poor imperfect Addresses OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Easiness of Religion EXPLAINED and IMPROVED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Mat. 11. 29 30. Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart And ye shall find rest to your Souls For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light IT is a strange and wonderful Degeneracy that the Humane Nature is fallen under as appears from the wonderful Aversness that is in all Mankind to a religious and a vertuous Life Religion is the greatest Ornament and Glory of the Humane Nature It is the Cure of all our Defects and Disparagements It is our true and compleat Perfection And yet we commonly appear to be most easily withheld from the Practice of it We devise Excuses to neglect it we receive the most false and unreasonable Prejudices against it without any Examination of them We do often obstinately persist in Wickedness against the most weighty Inducements to do well These Words of the Blessed Jesus who came into the World to save Sinners and to that Purpose has taught us as well as died for us do meet with one of the Prejudices against an Holy Life which he knew to be very common in the Hearts of Men And that is the Imagination that Religion is a Task too hard for Humane Nature and utterly impossible to be perform'd Because we must indeed take some Pains to be Religious our lazy and unwilling Souls magnify the little Oppositions into Mountains of Difficulties and make us think we shall never be able to get over them and the way down to the bottomless Pit seems easie and smooth is strow'd with Pleasures Riches and Worldly Honours and these things easily allure and engage us to follow that Against this fatal and discouraging Prejudice our Saviour says in the Words of our Text Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart And ye shall find rest unto your Souls For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light Take my Yoke upon you That is charge your selves with the keeping my Commands submit to my Government For this Meaning the Word Yoke is wont to have in Scripture For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light It shall be possible to you to keep my Commands you shall find I do not require of you that which you cannot perform that the Difficulties you may meet with are not invincible And further to encourage the taking up his Yoke he adds Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart If ye take up this Yoke ye but take up that which I have born my self I am of a meek and submissive mind I do not disdain to be subject to the Laws of Religion I then command you nothing but what I have practised my self and your Obedience to these Laws will be your Imitation of me And he adds further Ye shall find rest to your Souls This shall be Peace and Happiness to you In discoursing upon these Words I think it may be useful for the better promoting the Design of them to insist upon these Three Heads 1. To shew in what Sense it may be said that the Commands of God are easie to be observ'd Which will be both Explication and Proof of our Saviours Words 2. To suggest by what means we may best render this easie to our selves 3. To urge by some proper Motives the Use of those Means In the First place I shall shew you in what Sense we may understand this that 't is easie to keep the Commands of God And this will be sufficiently represented in the Three following Particulars 1. This is easie to a vigorous and earnest Endeavour ' Tit true there will be continual Opposition made against it by that Corruption that has gotten Possession in our Souls and by the frequent Assaults of Temptation from the World and the Devil But yet these are Difficulties that shall be overcome by an earnest and diligent Endeavour Our Saviour says Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13. 24. By the strait Gate he means the way of Religion which the Opposition of our Spiritual Enemies and our own unworthy Averseness do render a strait Gate This we cannot pass without Striving and a good Endeavour but with this he intimates we may do so This will ccomplish what we desire but many seek to enter in and shall not be able To lazy Wishes 't is exceeding difficult indeed invincibly Difficult to be Religious He that cannot persuade himself to strive with Earnestness and Patience shall never become so And this
guilty Conscience which are far worse things than any outward Afflictions and certainly much more intolerable than all the Labours or Self-denials of Religion Guilt when a Man is sensible of it is a very heavy and uneasy Burden Solomon very justly says A wounded Spirit who can bear When a Man's Conscience tells him he has plaid the Fool he has deserved the Hatred of God and the Contempt of Man he has needlesly and madly hurt his own Body impair'd his Estate and blasted his Reputation he has made the Almighty God and the Supream Disposer his just Enemy that he has forfeited his Life and all that he enjoys and delights in to Divine Justice that Vengeance hovers continually over his Head that he may justly fear every Black Cloud to be charged with it that evil haunts and pursues him every where that he is always as it were on the brink of the Bottomless Pit that he hangs over the Everlasting Flames but by the slender and weak Thread of this mortal Life These Thoughts will imbitter his strongest Pleasures and spoil the Comfort and Joy of the greatest Prosperity And these Terrors he is exposed to continually who will not live well We must often feel these or take pains to be Religious It costs the foolish Sinner a great deal of Labour and Endeavour to divert these Thoughts when with less labour he might prevent the Sins that occasion them and notwithstanding all his Endeavour they will have their times to invade and afflict him 3. Without taking Pains to be Religious the Sinner must endure the everlasting Torments of Hell Is it not then apparently wiser to bear the taking Pains to be Religious than to bear those Torments The Difficulty of Religion will abate and grow less but those Torments will never abate He that thinks the Rules of Religion such an ungrateful Confinement will certainly account that Eternal Prison a worse if ever he comes there He that will not deny himself at all now for the conveniency of Serving God and for the doing of his Duty shall be denied all Comfort and Satisfaction there for ever He that will not mortify his Sins must die himself for them a miserable and eternal Death And must needs bring himself at last to that for there is no Middle Way between the Broad and the Narrow One nor a Middle State at the End between Happiness and Misery And is it not easie now to determine between these Two things where to fix our Choice Whether we will endure the short Labours of Religion or be condemned to dwell with everlasting Burnings This is a Third Argument 4. Lastly Our Saviour in the Text affords us another with which I shall conclude and that is We shall find Rest to our Souls This shall be the blissful Reward of our taking up the Yoke of Christ This Labour in Religion brings to Rest when that in Sin brings to Torment and Trouble The First and present Fruit and Reward of it is Rest and Peace within a happy Freedom from tormenting Passions from craving and unruly Lusts and unquiet Appetites Freedom from the Fears of Death and Damnation And then Religion has the Hopes of Rest to come for there remains a Rest for the People of God A Rest even from the present Labours of Religion We shall have an Eternal Rest for a few Moments Labour and Striving He that endures to the end of a short Life the same shall be saved To him that overcomes says our Saviour will I give to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am sate down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3. 21. Here is a Promise of Safety Honour and Rest for ever of a glorious honourable and happy Rest Thus if we will but be so wise as to endeavour the avoiding everlasting Misery we shall be rewarded with everlasting Happiness The PRAYER MOst Great and most glorious God excellent in thy Nature and wonderful in thy Works in Wisdom hast thou made them all Every Creature was perfect in its kind and fit for all the Uses and Operations that would become it and that thou didst intend it for And thou O Lord madest Man a rational Creature with an immortal Spirit in him as he was therein fitted for great and noble Actions so thou didst intend him for Actions suitable to the Dignity of such a Nature thou didst intend him to know and adore thee to love and praise thee to do good to practice Justice to exercise faithfulness and truth to make a spiritual and religious use of the Things of this World and to do thy Will on Earth as the blessed Angels do it in Heaven Oh Lord with what great grief and shame do we look back upon our Original excellency when alas we have wretchedly lost it and from being made by thee but little lower than the Angels we have made our selves more vile than the Beasts that perish instead of living like Angels we are become earthly sensual and devilish Oh how unfit are we now how unable to do any thing that is good We cannot so much as think a good Thought or speak a good Word or perform a good Action We cannot do what we were made for We cannot answer our honourable End but do degrade and debase our selves by living far below it And that is become now difficult to us and unpleasant which before was easy and pleasant It was originally natural to us to be vertuous and Pious it was as Meat and Drink to be doing our Fathers Will but now our disorder'd Faculties naturally do ill We must endeavour to do Good and cannot without thy Grace attain to it This Grace therefore O Lord we humbly seek we earnestly implore in the Name of Jesus Christ And we thank thee for the leave we have to seek for the hopes to attain it As a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth those that seek him And if earthly Parents know how to give good Gifts to their Children much rather do we believe that thou our heavenly Father wilt give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Oh grant us the constant influence and assistance of thy good Spirit Let us never yield to any Difficulty of performing our Duty but earnestly strive to enter in at the strait Gate Quicken our Endeavours with the hopes of Assistance Strengthen them with the expectation of a glorious Reward and continue them to persevere to the end by the Assurance that we shall hereafter be Partakers of everlasting Rest Let us never be a weary of well-doing but stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the Work of the Lord as knowing that our Labour shall not be in vain in the Lord We humbly thank thee O Lord for the Liberty of approaching thy Sanctuary and of using thy Ordinances do thou we pray thee give them a mighty Efficacy and Power upon us While we thus wait on the Lord let us renew our Strength and with fresh Vigour
everlasting Punishment to the Sins of Men. In Dan. 12. 2. The Angel tells that Prophet that some should rise again from the Dead to Everlasting Life and some to Shame and Everlasting Contempt Our Saviour tells us that the Sentence upon wicked Men in the day of Judgment shall be depart from me ye cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25. 41. And in the last verse of the Chapter he says of them These shall goe away into Everlasting Punishment the Apostle in 2 Thess 1. â— calls the punishment intended for such Everlasting destruction And since in these and the like Scriptures where the Fates of Good and Bad men are spoken of the same phrase and expression is made use of concerning the duration both of the one and the other we have as much reason to fear that the one will be Eternal as to hope that the other will be so Since the just and immutable God appears plainly to have declar'd that he will thus punish the Sins of Men it is the greatest and most foolish presumption to expect the contrary Especially if we consider too that which has been set before us concerning the Evil and Provocation of Sin That 't is the affront of an infinite Majesty contempt of our Maker Rebellion against our Sovereign and Ingratitude to a Friend that it has nothing upon it of any impression of any Attribute of God but is the most unlike the most contrary thing to him in the World Upon these accounts sure we might easily believe that he has an infinite Hatred and Displeasure against it and that since that displeasure cannot be infinitely exercised upon a finite Being in the intenseness of his Sufferings it is but just in God to resolve that they shall be Eternally continued And though all Sins are not equal that yet the punishment of all shall be of the same duration because the wise Justice of God can make a difference between several Sinners in the different degree and intenseness of their Sufferings Besides though the Act of a Sin be short and of but a moments duration yet the guilt of it is a remaining and abiding thing When once a sinful Act is committed it remains done and cannot be recall'd and the Sinner remains guilty for ever unless he obtains his pardon by timely repentance And if repentance and the benefit of it be allow'd in Hell that State could not be called Death and Destruction as the Scripture usually names it But to conclude this particular let us consider that God's having threatned everlasting Punishment in vain is a great provocation to him to inflict it upon those that will not fear and avoid it The threatning is a fair warning to Mankind and a means fit and proper to make them avoid the Evil. The righteous God does not betray men into misery he has told them the worst that shall be the consequent of their Sins And shall he after all think this Punishment too great to be inflicted when men do not think it great enough to be feared Men chuse the vain Pleasures of Sin which are but for a Season with the Eternal torments that follow rather than a Life of Holiness and everlasting Happiness And shall they not have then their own choise Is there any wrong done them or have they hard measure when they were not at all imposed upon by God and have but what they close Application It is time now that I suggest what use we should make of these things which I shall do briefly and conclude 1. Let us take heed to our ways and be very watchful over our selves that we may avoid all that is sinful It is fit to be our greatest concern and care that which shall mingle it self with every other concern and our constant endeavour that we cease from evil and do good It is certainly true what Solomon says Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth always It is a very wise and happy thing to be always possest with a prudent care not to offend God Who has all our Interests both in this World and the next at his disposal whose displeasure can make us miserable for ever and in whose favour is life everlasting 'T is our wisdom and happiness to take care that we may avoid so vile and so ill a thing as Sin that which will so debase and pollute and disparage us To avoid that which our own Consciences must often upbraid us for what we must hereafter call our selves fools for and will make us vile in our own Eyes when ever we come to understand and consider it 2. What evil we have been guilty of for want of this care Let us as it were undoe it again by a hearty Repentance Shall we not mourn for so vile a thing as Sin for having contracted the greatest and most shameful disparagement for our having forfeited the everlasting favour of God and for having undone our selves And may we not justly hate that which has so much ill and mischief in it as this May we not justly hate what God abhors Should we not shew our love to him by hating what is so offensive and displeasing to him And then if we do sincerely abhor the Ills we have done we must forsake them for the future A man can never contentedly go on in the course that he himself does abhor And let us consider to perswade our selves to this Repentance the encouragement that God has kindly given us to practice it He has given us a promise of pardon if we will repent Though our Sins are so highly displeasing to him though he so justly hates them yet his infinite Mercy will forgive even the greatest and the greatest number of them upon our unfeigned Repentance Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa 55. 7. 3. Lastly since we fly from so great and mischievous an Evil as Sin is and betake our selves to so much good and happiness as infinite mercy bestows when we repent and return to our duty we should as much as can be hasten our Repentance we ought in reason to admit of no delay in such a matter If this has been at all delay'd by any it is too much Why should any man resolve that he will be vile and base that he will be odious to God and obnoxious to his wrath but a little longer This is a State not to be endured at all Who can tell how long the divine Vengeance will delay Who can assure himself that God will bear with him to the end of his delays Can we too soon be safe too soon be in favour with the Almighty Can we too soon cease to gather sorrows to heap up wrath to provide wo and misery for our selves Or can we too soon live as best becomes us as our reason and our everlasting
Interest require and begin to treasure up joys to lay up rewards and happiness for our selves These are things surely that cannot be done too soon If there be good reason to forsake a wicked Life at all 't is unreasonable in the least to delay the doing so When we come to condemn our selves in earnest for our Sins we shall condemn our selves too for continuing so long in them Let us all then be able to say with David at least from this time I made hast and delayed not O Lord to keep thy Commandments THE PRAYER O Lord the eternal God Creator and Owner and Sovereign Lord of all things By thee the Heavens were framed and all the Host of them by the breath of thy Mouth Thou hast made the Earth and the Sea and all that is in them and all that thou hast made is thine the World is thine and the fulness thereof all is of thee and through and to thee We who are now before thee here are a small handful of Creatures whom thou hast brought into Being from the Ground thou raisest our living Bodies and by thy mighty Power hast formed the Spirit within us And we Lord are thine thy Right and Property we are in nothing our own our Tongues are not our own our Thoughts are not our own the Members of our Bodies the Faculties of our Minds are not our own but thou art Lord over us We owe thee the entire Homage of our Souls and Bodies which are thine for we are thy People O Lord and the Sheep of thy Pasture We are those whom thou hast oblig'd to Love and Honour thee by innumerable benefits Thou hast fed and clothed and nourisht and protected us thou hast given us all our Enjoyments and thou holdest our Soul in Life We humbly acknowledge O Lord thy Right in us and we now own the Obligations thou hast laid upon us And we here present to thee our Bodies to be a Holy and living Sacrifice which is our just and most reasonable Service O Lord let us be accepted with thee through Jesus Christ We Confess that we have deserved thou shouldest reject and abhor us who have been hitherto so little concern'd to please thee who have so often and so exceedingly polluted our selves with that which is most odious and offensive to thee We are exceeding guilty and obnoxious to thy wrath and vengeance in that we have been Rebels against thy Sovereignty over us We have been unjust to thy Propriety in us we have been ungrateful to thy Goodness towards us We judge we condemn we abhor our selves for these things O do not thou enter into Judgment with us for in thy sight shall no Man living be justifyed We are heartily sorry for all our mis-doings the remembrance of them is grievous to us the burden of them is intollerable but thou O Lord whose Property is always to have mercy who hast promised Forgiveness to all that with a penitent Heart and true Faith in the Blood of Christ turn unto thee have mercy upon us Deal not with us after our Sins neither reward us according to our Iniquities Have mercy upon us O Lord according to the multitude of thy tender Compassions and blot out all our Transgressions We fly from thy Justice to the Footstool of thy mercy and there prostrate our selves in the Name of Jesus Christ O Lord for his Sake forgive us all that is past and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in Newness and Holiness of Life to thy Honour and Glory Do thou make us sincere in the Dedication of our selves again unto thee in this renewal of our Resolutions to serve thee Create in us O Lord a clean Heart and renew in us a right Spirit Do thou make us to love thy Law and to hate every false Way Cause us without delay to turn our Feet unto thy Testimonies and make us to delight in the way of thy Testimonies more than in all Riches O Lord rescue us we pray thee from the Bonds of our Beloved or habitual Sins save and deliver us from the Pollutions of a wicked World let us be blameless and harmless the Children of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation Deliver us from all the Craft and Subtilty and from all the fiery Darts of the wicked One And let us never be hardened by the deceitfulness of any Sin We pray also O Lord for the Conversion of others as well as of our selves O Let thy Gospel run and be Glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same and let many be turned from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan unto God That the Dominion of the Enemy may be diminisht and the happy Kingdom of thy dear Son may be enlarged We especially pray for the good Estate of thy Catholick Church that thou wouldest purge out of it all that does offend thee and Grant that all who profess and call themselves Christians may hold the Faith in Unity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace and in Righteousness of Life Look in Mercy upon these Nations to which we belong forgive our crying Sins and turn us from every evil way Bless us with the continuance of pure Ordinances and with a mighty Efficacy and Effect of them for the promoting of Piety Righteousness Charity and Sobriety amonst us Bless we pray thee our most Gracious King and Queen our Subordinate Magistrates those that Minister to thee in Holy things amongst us and all Ranks and Degrees of Men besides make us to fear thee to depart from all Iniquity to serve to thy Glory and to the Happiness and Welfare of each other and defend us all from all foreign or domestick Enemies of our Peace We commend also to thy infinite Mercies all our Friends Relations or Enemies those that have done us kindness we pray thee O Lord abundantly to requite them and those that have done us any Injury Father forgive them Let thy Word which we have this day heard have power to sanctifie and cleanse us from all unrighteousness We humbly hope for the mercy we have sought of thee this Day and desire we may commit our selves to thy careful and gracious Providence this Night and for evermore Lord bless and keep us lift up the Light of thy Countenance and guide us by thy Counsel till thou hast brought us to thy Glory All we humbly ask upon the Merits of Jesus Christ beseeching thee to hear us for his Sake and further in his own Words saying Our Father c. The MEANNESS of THIS PRESENT LIFE Prov'd and Apply'd Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Job 14. 2. He cometh forth like
a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not TO know who it is that these words of Job do describe in so mean and disparaging a Character we need but look back to the first verse of this Chapter where we shall find he is speaking of Man It is man that Cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down He fleeth as a shadow and continueth not It was his design to represent by this Expression the contemptible and wretched Condition of our present Life which we very foolishly and unreasonably dote upon and admire This Life on Earth was never intended to be our happiest State and by reason of the Sin of Mankind it is fallen much below that degree of Happiness which the Creatour had intended it should enjoy Yet this pitiful State is that the wretched Sons of Men are most extreamly fond of Here they would always be this takes up all their Thoughts and Care They know or at least mind no Heaven but Earth and think to heap up felicity as they gather worldly Enjoyments We study how to live happily till we die and dote upon fading Pleasures as if we were always to enjoy them We commonly live here as if after this Life we were to be no longer and there were no better things attainable than what this Life possesses And while we mind this World we neglect the other we do not seek the better Happiness of that and lose it for want of seeking it Yea we forfeit that Happiness which is to come and deserve and incur everlasting Misery by what our too great love of this Life and its Enjoyments does engage us in Very much of the wickedness of this World and the misery of the next is due to this unhappy Cause To render a temporal Life happy as we suppose we spoil an Eternal one or incur an Eternal Death we serve our Bodies to the Destruction of our Souls The great Folly of which our Saviour suggests by that Question Mark 8. 36. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his Soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul To meet with this unhappy and dangerous Errour as much as this Text without straining it will allow I shall employ the following Discourse about three things 1. I shall enquire and make it appear from other Scriptures what intimations concerning our present Life this Text affords us 2. I shall insist a little upon the Illustration of those Intimations 3. I shall add the due Improvement and Application of them In the first place let us compare this Text of Scripture with others that we may derive from it the more certainly and evidently the Instructions it contains In 1 Pet. 1. 24. 't is said All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass The grass withereth and the flower falleth away And in the next verse he adds But the word of the Lord endureth for ever By this opposition of the Word that endureth to the Grass and the Flower of it which falleth away we may understand that by the Comparison of a Flower the Holy Spirit would teach us this Life is not of long continuance The Flower is the shortest liv'd part even of those Plants that have the shortest duration and is upon that account fit to mind us of the short continuance of this present Life Further in Ps 103. v. 15 16. we are told As for man his days are as grass as a Flower of the Field so he flourisheth For the wind passeth over it and it is gone This short liv'd Flower is exposed as the Flower of the Field 't is liable to many destructive and mortal Accidents yea if but the Wind passes over it it is gone 't is most easily destroyed 't is a thing may look fair and beautiful but has very little strength Thus it is with Man is the Psalmists meaning here He is as feeble as the Flower of the Field a small mischief may snatch him away in his prime Thus the Scripture teaches by this comparison the frailty and weakness as well as the shortness of human Life Again in Psal 102. v. 11. the Psalmist speaking of himself says My days are like a shadow that declineth which is as if he had said while my afflictions last and I hope for better days my Life declines apace it wasts continually away In Psal 144. v. 4. 't is said Man is like to Vanity his days are as a shadow that passeth away From these Scriptures we may learn that by the Comparison of a Shadow is taught us how transitory our present Life is It is continually passing away and spending it self And the rather may we be allow'd to conclude this from our present Text because 't is said of Man He fleeth as a shadow and then 't is added too He continueth not From this Text then it appears we may learn these three serious Intimations 1. The present Life of mortal Man is very short as is the continuance of a Flower 2. It is very feeble and frail is most easily cut off and destroyed and yet is exposed too as the Flower of the Field 3. This our present Life in this World is altogether transitory it is continually passing away As a shadow always moves and passes on till it is lost in the Nights Universal Darkness These are very obvious Truths and such as every Man's thoughts may easily suggest to him And they are very important and worth our considering and would be to those that would well consider them the Springs of much Peace and Wisedom But as obvious and useful as they are it appears they are much neglected and men commonly live as if they knew not these things At least 't is certain they seldom or never consider them Let us then not be unwilling to fix our minds upon them for a little while at present and let none fear any harm will follow if thereby they should make impression upon his mind and for the future so stay there as never to be forgotten again The next thing then that I proposed to do is to illustrate these particulars to express and speak of them in a few more words on purpose that our Thoughts may be detained a while upon them and that we may give them some advantage to make a due Impression 1. Let us consider that the present Life of mortal Man is very short They that live the greatest Number of Years have but a short Life on Earth A little time passes over the Innocence and Ease of our Infancy and Childhood A little more withers the flourishing Beauty and Gayety of Youth A little more weakens the Strength and spends the Usefulness of riper Manhood And if beyond this we live a little time more buries the decays and infirmities of Old-age The longest distance from the Cradle to the Grave is but a short one And the Wisedom of God would have
Mankind sensible of this therefore it is often suggested to us in Scripture This Chapter vers 1. says Man that is born of a Woman is of few days Few and evil says Jacob have the days of the years of my Life been after he had lived an hundred and thirty Years Gen. 47. 9. Well then might the Psalmist say If our strength lasts to fourscore years yet it is soon cut off as Psal 90. 10. But we shall have the best and most lively apprehension of the contemptible shortness of human Life if we compare the continuance of that with the duration of some other things There are many of the Creatures made inferiour to us that yet now commonly live much longer than we Naturalists tell us that some forts of Birds commonly live an hundred years when alas not one in many hundreds of us can reach to near that Age. Of some Trees it is said they will live Eight hundred years Many of our own Works abide and continue much longer than we We contrive them for our own advantage and comfort and in a little time leave them we know not to whom We live in Houses we meet in Churches that were built by we know not who we read Books written by men that have been dead perhaps many hundred years ago If we consider the more abiding parts of the Creation how much longer do they last than we whom they were made to serve One generation goes and another comes says the Preacher but the Earth abides for ever The expression does not mean that this Earth shall never be dissolv'd and there are other Scriptures which intimate that it shall but it teaches us that while the Earth abides and has done so for several thousands of years a great many generations of men have successively been upon it For a while it has fed and then devoured them A while they have had a portion here and then resigned it to others and they after a little while have resigned it again to others no man can carry any of these things away with him How many lives has the Course of this one Sun measured and yet the Sun continues to run his Race Above five Thousand years has that bright Creature been a burning and shining Light when alas we are but as of yesterday as Job speaks Job 8. 9. And how much longer after us the Earth and the Sun and the Heavens may last we know not But if they should last much longer as we have reason to think they will not last always there are yet another sort of Beings of a longer duration The Angels which were made above five Thousand years ago shall continue for ever they shall know no end of duration nor alteration of their blest and happy condition Their duration is not transitory their condition is not frail and feeble But in the last place let us consider the infinite and everlasting Duration of the Ever-blessed God He is from everlasting to everlasting as is said Psal 90. 2. He always was and never had beginning always is and shall be and never shall be at an end Oh how justly may we despise considering these things the contemptible shortness of our present Life The Psalmist says to God A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past Which is as if he should say If we wretched mortals should be continued in this world for a longer time than any of the first men liv'd who liv'd some of them near a thousand years yet this were very little to thy unmeasurable duration The longest Life of man is as inconsiderable to thee as one past day is to us Yea it is as little as a watch in the night he adds as three or four hours spent in sleep And very fitly is this matter exprest yet further to make us duely sensible of it Psal 39. 5. Behold my days are as an hand-breadth The four short Stages of mans life are but each of them as it were the breadth of a finger in their length and yet further Mine age is as nothing before thee The greatest number of our years is so small it is as nothing when compar'd with thy eternal duration Thus we may help our selves duely to apprehend the shortness of our present life 2. Let us consider that this our present Life is very frail and feeble As the Flower is the shortest liv'd part of a plant so 't is usually the weakest the most easily withered and destroyed A cold wind pinches and blasts it a high one tears it in pieces a hot Sun shrivels and withers it a little fly or worm can easily destroy a thing of so delicate and tender a constitution And so frail as this is the life of man There is not the weakest Flower more weak than he the strongest man may be kill'd by a fly or an hair a crum of bread a blast of ill air or a few drops of drink Even the weakest and most contemptible Creature that is can put an end to his days when 't is commissioned by the Providence of God to do so And we are liable to a great many mortal accidents any of which can cut us off in the prime of our years when we are proud of youth and strength As Job says some die in their full strength when their breasts are full of milk and their bones are moistned with morrow Job 21. 23 24. Our greatest strength is but weakness How often has the Sun risen upon a man alive and well and promising himself many days and before his setting has seen him a dead carkass Again We may apprehend the frailty of our present life from hence we all breed in our selves the Causes of death A great many distempers are our mortal bodies liable to and we carry the seeds of them in our selves And we may say there are some diseases which the excess of health and vigour dispose men to some that kill only the young or strong as a consumption or a feaver But that constitution must needs be acknowledged frail which breeds its own destruction and this is the common case of mankind in our present state And yet further will the frailty of this life be presented to us if we consider the unavoidable decays of old age If without accidents and in spite of distempers we pass through childhood and youth and manhood yet in old age nature decaies of its self If nothing else destroy us we shall like the weak flower fade and fall alone The crazy building may be propt a while but it will tumble at last let what will de done to support it And this ought sure to be reckon'd a very frail thing which will fall of it self and perish if it be let alone And much rather yet should we account it so if it will fail and perish notwithstanding the greatest care and the best means that can be used to preserve it And this is the miserable condition of our present life 3.
my behaviour here this short Life has an influence upon the Eternal one If I have lived well and well used the Talents I was entrusted with here I shall enjoy better and more lasting good things there I may justly content my self to be denyed any of these things below if the wise disposer sees fit to do so since better things to full satisfaction are reserved for me But if I live wickedly I must expect that alittle time will put an end for ever to all my present ease and prosperity I must part with all my lov'd Enjoyments and bid a farewell to all mirth and pleasure All my portion of good is in this World and I can enjoy it no longer than while this short and transitory Life lasts It is but a small portion of good then that falls to my share if this be all I must have And it was not worth the being born to be exposed to so many evils to bear so many afflictions to feel the wrackings of so many violent passions as this mortal Life and vale of Tears are acquainted with for the sake of enjoying so little good so short and small a felicity And besides my pleasant Circumstances here will quickly end in Torments and Miseries that will continue for ever Let us I say think much of that other World and divert our thoughts from this That so our affections may be disengaged and we may not be entangled with the Charms and Allurements of this World to our everlasting perdition And having got our selves at liberty from those fatal snares and fetters let us earnestly apply our selves to prepare for and secure a happy State in the Life to come This ought to be our greatest care in this World and employ the most of our endeavours In every other care and endeavour this should be minded and should direct them We should so pursue this World as at the same time to pursue a better and so enjoy this World as that we at the same time may hope for a better Ought we not to be most concerned that we may be happy there where we must be longest Let us behave our selves always in this World as going out of this and going into another where we shall abide and stay Shall we be carefull about a few days to come of this Life and not much rather be solicitous what shall become of us to all Eternity Now to secure our happiness hereafter we must endeavour to make our peace with God to regain his favour by repenting truly of our former Sins by stedfastly purposing to lead a new Life by devoting our selves to Jesus Christ to be followers of him with whom the Father was well-pleased We must then deny all angodliness and worldly Lusts and live soberly righteously and godly in this present World We must cease to do evil and learn to do well and follow after holiness without which no man can see God no man can be admitted into that presence of God which makes Heaven Let us endeavour to grow reconciled to a very serious and religious Life to become acquainted with and to relish the joys and pleasures of devotion and communion with God To delight in him in meditating on his Nature and Works in praising adoring and worshipping of him Which things will be the great entertainment and happiness of Heaven and therefore till we are suited to such things till we can find the highest pleasure in them and in all acts of Vertue till we can satisfie our selves in such things even with the want of many worldly Enjoyments we are not fit for Heaven nor can be happy in another World But thus to prepare our selves for and secure a happy State hereafter is the best use we can possibly put this our mean Life to And though this Life be so short and transitory we shall have time enough for the securing a better if we do not cheat our selves of it by unnecessary delays and if we apply our selves diligently to this matter And how great an Improvement of our present Life is this How great a gain How much to advantage To employ this Life for the gaining a happy one hereafter is as if a man should lay out Pebbles for Pearls should exchange Dirt for Gold and short liv'd Sparkles for lasting and glorious Stars 'T is to lay out Earth for Heaven to spend time for the purchase of Eternity to use the Creatures so as to make them bring us to God to labour for a very few days that we may enjoy an Eternal rest to deny our selves in a few things and for a little while that we may ere long enjoy full satisfactions everlasting pleasures This is truly and greatly to redeem our time This if we do we shall not regret that our time on Earth was so short and transitory THE PRAYER O Eternal and Almighty God thou art always the same and thy years do not fail thou art the same yesterday and to day and for ever without Variableness or shadow of Change It is upon thee O Lord and thy unchangeable Power that all things else do depend in their Beings and in all their Operations thou fillest Heaven and Earth and thou workest all in all All thy Works praise thee O God and thy Saints bless thee The invisible Things of thee are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even thy Eternal power and Godhead And we O Lord are amongst the number of those whom thou hast Created and dost preserve thou in thy due time didst bring us into Being at our Birth and by thee we are hitherto sustained It is thou that supportest our frail Natures that they fall not into the Dust by thy careful Providence over us we have escaped many Dangers we have got through the weakness of Infancy and the Heedlesness of Childhood by thy Blessing has our Food nourisht and our Cloaths warmed us for we live not by these things alone but by the Word which proceeds out of the mouth of God We are in thy Hands then O thou the Sovereign Arbiter of Life and Death when ever thou pleasest we return to the Dust from whence we were Created We acknowledge it is of thy Mercy that we are not consumed and because thy Compassions fail not And we are afraid when we think how easily thou canst crush and destroy us how frail our Life is and how short and Transitory how little a distance we are from Eternity and how exposed our Lives are how many Evils and Dangers compass us about and how small a Matter is able to put an end to our Days These things when we consider them make us look upon our selves as always just at the brink of the Grave and Eternity And while we have liv'd careless of our Duty to thee while we have liv'd in Rebellion against thee we have been upon the brink of Hell and in continual Danger of falling into it Had thy wrath been kindled against us but for a
moment which we have continually provoked we had perisht irrecoverably Oh how great and wonderful is thy Patience and Goodness in continuing and supporting and watching over such provoking Sinners We admire we praise thee for thy Long-suffering towards us and since thou hast given space to do it we repent of all our past Sins we purpose and desire to lead a new and good Life and we humbly sue for thy pardoning Mercy When we with Sorrow and Shame confess our Sins do thou we pray thee forgive our Sins and cleanse us from all Unrighteousness Give us a true and unfeigned Repentance and the Grace to amend our Lives according to thy Holy word Teach us that denying all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts we may live soberly righteously and godly in this present World spending the rest of our Days to thy Honour and Glory In this way make us to seek an Inheritance in the World to come that since we have here no long abode no certain Duration no abiding State we may have a Treasure in Heaven an Inheritance in the next World that fadeth not away Make us so sensible of the short and uncertain condition of this our present Life that our Affections may be wean'd from this World and set upon the things to come teach and inable us so to pass through things Temporal that we finally lose not the things that are Eternal We pray thee let not this day be utterly lost to us but give us Comfort and good Fruit of our Attendances upon thee O Let thy Ordinances be to us the means of a Glorious and Eternal Life Grant us to lie down this Night in Peace while thou makest us to dwell safely Let our waking Thoughts in the Night-season instruct us Give us cause in the Morning to rejoyce in thy Goodness and Lord Comfort this our wretched mortal Life with thy Blessings let us see thy Goodness in the Land of the Living We beseech thee to have mercy upon all Men Grant them to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent to their eternal Salvation Save thy People O Lord and bless thine heritage govern and lift them up for ever We pray thee Bless these Nations wherein we live be thou as a Wall of Fire round about us and our defence against all thine Enemies and ours O purge and cleanse us from our Sins that we may be meet for the Favours of thy Providence Grant our King and Queen a long and happy Reign over us give them great Prosperity and Peace Direct all our Magistrates so to govern themselves in their several places as may be to thy Glory the good of thy Church among us and to the Safety Honour and Welfare of their Majesties and their Kingdoms Teach all our People duely to fear thee to be subject and obedient to those that are over them in Church or State and to live in brotherly Love and Unity one among another We humbly recommend to thy Goodness O Father of Mercies all that are in any Trouble or Affliction give them Patience and Submission to thee and in due time deliver them We pray thee bless all our Friends and Relations do good to our Enemies and make them to be at Peace with us All this we humbly ask in the Name of Jesus Christ and further whatever he himself hath taught us to pray saying Our Father c. The USEFULNESS of EARLY RELIGION TO Old-Age demonstrated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ECCLES 12. 1. Remember now thy Creatour in the days of thy Youth while the Evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them NOtwithstanding the great uncertainty of humane Life and though none of us can tell how short his appointed time may be Though we see persons of every Age descend into the Grave some in their early Infancy and some in Youth in their full strength as well as some in an old Age Yea which is very strange though we see that a great many more die young than there are that live to any great Age yet do Mankind commonly promise themselves a long Life on Earth All expect this almost though but few attain it We believe that we may live as long as the oldest Persons that we see or know And this vain Imagination proves a fatal and mischievous snare to a great many For because they may live long as they think they will not trouble themselves betimes to prepare to die though it is as true that they may not live long They set the practice of Religion and the concern of their Souls aside for the present because they shall have as they suppose time enough to mind them hereafter They apply themselves wholly now to the Business and Pleasures of this Life and refer their Reformation and Religion to old Age. And thus while they think they have much time to spend they squander away and lose much from their main concern and with their time they lose Eternity and their Souls too Their time is spent and their Day of Salvation is over before they have secured and wrought out their Salvation And Death snatches many of them away in the midst of their worldly Cares and Pleasures and so they are undone for ever To meet with and cure if it may be this Errour I shall insist a little upon these words of Solomon Wherein he intimates the Unreasonableness and Folly of delaying to repent and be religious till old Age though it be supposed that we may or though it could be certain that we shall live to old Age. We may reckon that the latter part of this verse is a reason and argument to enforce his advice in the former part of it and that his meaning is this Remember now thy Creatour in the days of thy Youth because the latter end of a long Life will be Evil days and such as you shall say I have no pleasure in them To be religious in youth will be the best preparation against the evil days to come and in those days you will need those consolations and advantages which a religious and vertuous Course that has been before them will then afford Many other arguments are commonly insisted upon by those that handle this Text to persuade young Persons to mind Religion and Vertue but I shall set them all aside and insist upon this alone which seems chiefly if not only intended in the Text. To do this with the better success if it may please God I shall divide the following Discourse into three parts 1. To shew what is meant by Remembring our Creatour in the days of our Youth Because 't is usually thought that Youth may
Further The very thought and assurance of the approach and nearness of Death may be a comfort to a good man against many of the Inconveniences of old Age. Death it self will not be very terrible to him whom a good Life has made ready for it who knows his Sins pardoned and his good Deeds accepted through the Mediatour who can say I have fought a good fight I have finisht my course I have kept the Faith and henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness It is pleasant instead of being terrible to a good man when he can say My work is almost done and I am now expecting my Reward My warfare is well nigh accomplished and the next thing that is to come is my Crown I am indeed near the time of parting with this World but I shall exchange it for a better I shall go to never fading pleasures to durable riches to unspeakable joy and felicity Can a man be troubled with the nearness and approach of his Death when he knows it will be a change that will be much to his advantage And he that knows this will be comforted most effectually under the Evils of his present condition When he can think if nothing else can cure them Death will and that very shortly it cannot be long ere I shall be free from them all Ere long my pains shall be at an end and I shall be at ease I shall be removed from among those that are wickedly a weary of me and willing to part with me to live with them that will be as willing to receive me And if his posterity are such as can deserve the Blessing of his Prayers he can comfortably commit them to the Providence of God and think that by his good and righteous and holy Life he has entailed a Blessing upon them which is a far better portion with a small provision than the greatest abundance of ill gotten goods And thus much I think may suffice to demonstrate that a good and vertuous Life makes the best preparation that can be against the Evils and Inconveniences of old Age. And this is certainly a very good Argument for our minding Religion in our Youth If we do so we are fit to die if it should not be our lot to live to old Age and as such a course is most likely to lengthen our lives so far so it will prevent or alleviate the Evils that commonly attend that time if we do live to it For a Conclusion of this Discourse and to strengthen the Argument I shall briefly compare this with the other ways of living that many betake themselves to When we are entering upon the World the most of us do dispose of our selves in one or other of these two ways Either we greedily follow the pleasures of the World and give our selves up to the pursuit and enjoyment of them Or we betake our selves to the eager pursuit of wealth or honours and to raise a fortune as we call it But alas neither of these two ways of living will be able to afford men that true comfort and satisfaction in their latter end which may be derived from Vertue and Religion these will rather end in Vexation and Trouble They that give themselves up to Pleasures treasure nothing but sorrow and shame for after-days What profit is there in these when they are gone what fruit do they leave behind them and how much pain and sorrow do they leave when they leave an impair'd Estate a sick distemper'd Body and a guilty Conscience And for a man to think I have amused and entertained my self with Vanities and for them have neglected and forsaken the most solid and durable Goods I have received all my good things here Alas how thin how empty a portion is it Yet this is all this is all I was born to enjoy These guilty pleasures cannot entitle me to better things therefore they are not earnests of such I have then received and spent all my portion of good and happiness These are very sad and grievous thoughts and such as these must the Sinners guilty frolicks end in Accordingly we may observe that none are so morose and melancholy and discontented in old Age as they who have licentiously followed their pleasure in the former part of their Life who are smarting now for their foolish frolicks and have the burden of their present Evils much the greater and the heavier for them Again let us consider those who have spent all their Life in heaping up of Wealth These do seem indeed to be somewhat the wiser persons of the two but there is not much difference between them He that most pursues Riches does not certainly gain them and while he is still drawn after them with hopes they perhaps like his shadow fly from him still and so he loses his labour and his life too He that gets Riches cannot be sure to keep them all his days or that he shall comfort his old Age with them And when that comes with the Evils and Pains and Distempers which all the wealth he has gotten cannot remove when it cannot reprieve him from the Grave nor set his Death a moment further from him when it will leave him at his going out of this World to all the Miseries of the next and this cannot purchase his peace with God nor redeem his Soul from Hell nor gain him admittance into the Courts of Heaven Then how does he disdain all his labour how is his sick mind fretted to think how he has lost his time how little comfort does all his labour in this kind afford him when the fruits of it are so useless to him Thus we see the ends of worldly men of those who minded nothing all their days but the pleasures and wealth of this World Their end is sad and gloomy their sweets turn bitter their abundance ends in poverty and wretched Nakedness their Mirth in sorrow and their short lived Pleasures in everlasting Pain and Torment But the good and vertuous Man closes up a troublesome Life with joy and gladness his Labours end in rest and his Pains in ease and felicity If he be encombred with any outward Evils his comfort is he is going away from them all If he has received any good things here he knows also that far better things are reserved for him in the World to come THE PRAYER ALmighty and most Wise and most gracious God Thou art Glorious in Holiness fearful in thy Praises doing Wonders all thy Works O Lord are done in Judgment thou art Righteous in all thy Ways and Holy in all thy Works We admire thee we praise we bless thee for thy worderful Works of Creation and for thy wonderful Works of Providence O Lord there is none to whom we may compare or liken thee there is no God besides thee And in particular we desire at this time to Praise thee for the Wisdom and Goodness thou hast shown in thy most excellent Law in
that it is kindly and exactly suited to our Natures and so is altogether fit to promote all our true Interests and our Happiness To comply with this is our Wisdom and Honour it is Health to the Navel and Marrow to the Bones it has length of days and good repute and Wealth and Peace to reward us with In keeping thy Commands there is great reward Blessed then are the undefiled in the Way who walk in the Law of the Lord. It is good for us to keep thy Precepts they are sweeter than Honey and the Honey Comb and more to be desired then Gold yea then much fine Gold they best adorn and accomplish us they are the Happiness of our Souls as well as of our Bodies they rectifie and compose the Mind they give us Peace and Strength within great Peace they have which Love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Then shall we never have occasion to be ashamed when we have respect unto all thy Commandments Thou art good O Lord and dost good O do thou teach us thy Statutes O that our Ways were directed to observe them Lord make us as early as we can to remember thee our Creator to remember and turn unto thee to consider and know and do the Duties which we owe to thee as such We have gone astray like lost Sheep Oh seek thou thy Servants and save us that we do not forget thy Commandments That we may never forget them or thee we pray thee to write thy Law in our Hearts and to put thy fear in our inward Parts for thy fear is a good Principle of this Wisdom of good and vertuous Living Make us to reverence thy Greatness and Glory which is so bright in all thy Works and so wonderful in the Creation of our selves for we Lord are fearfully and wonderfully made Make us sensible of thy continual Presence with us that thou dost thereby continue our Beings and observe our Actions we depend upon thee while we provoke thee we are in thy hand at all times to do with us whatsoever thou pleasest thou who art our Creator art the Supream and invincible Disposer of us O let us stand in awe that we may not sin against thee Make us concern'd to please thee who art the Fountain of our Beings and the bestower of all our Good that thou mayst delight in us to do us good and that we may according to thy Design in making us be happy O Lord forgive us we pray thee all our past wandrings from thee forgive us all our sins of negligence and ignorance and endue us we beseech thee with the Grace of thy Holy Spirit to amend our Lives according to thy Holy word Be reconciled to us by the Blood of thy Son Jesus through Faith in which we humbly seek thy Favour We pray thee turn from us all those Evils that we most righteously have deserved in time past and grant us hereafter to serve and please thee in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of our Life Lord let us be planted in thy House and abide in the Communion of thy Church and there flourish like the Palm Tree and if we live to old Age let us be even then fruitful in good Works to thy Praise and Glory We make our humble Supplications to thee O Lord for all Men. Let the Earth be filled with Knowledge of the Lord as Waters cover the Sea Prosper thy Church and give it great encrease of all Grace and give it in thy due time Tranquillity and Peace deliver it from intestine Disturbance and outward Enemies We humbly implore thy mercy upon these Kingdoms in General Lord grant that all things well-pleasing to thee may flourish and abound among us and do thou by thy Almighty Providence watch over us and direct our publick Affairs for our good Particularly we pray for our most Gracious King and Queen Grant them in Health and Wealth long to live strengthen them to vanquish and overcome all their Enemies Teach us and all their Subjects duely to consider whose Authority they have and so to serve honour and humbly obey them in thee and for thee according to thy most Blessed word and Ordinance that so they may be the Ministers of God to us for good Do good to all amongst us beyond what we can ask or think Let thy Blessing upon the words which we have this Day heard make it to dwell and take root in us and bring forth Fruit even to an hundred fold And let the same Gracious mercy which has blest us this Day with things necessary for Life and Godliness watch over us this Night and give us safe and comfortable Rest and if it shall please thee to add still to our Lives make us steady and persevering in well-doing to the end of our Days all which we humbly crave in the Name of Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Our Father c. OF A Death-Bed Repentance SHEWING How unreasonable it is for any Man to rely upon it Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Numb 23. vers 10. Latter Part. Let me die the Death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his BAlaam a famous Sorcerer and Fortune-teller among the Midianites was sent for by Balak King of Moab to curse Israel when they were upon his Borders The Messengers came to him with this Complement from the King For I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed and he whom thou cursest is cursed Chap. 22. vers 6. Such an esteem had he raised of himself among the ignorant Heathens And very fain would the wicked wretch have done that which Balak desired for the sake of the wages of Iniquity which he loved This appears by his seeking of enchantments against Israel as he several times did as the 1st verse of the 24th Chapter intimates but it pleased God constantly to over-rule and hinder him And when he sought to utter his direful and mischievous Charms which before perhaps could blast the Fruits of the Earth and cause Thunder and Lightning and raise an Hurricane and throw down Buildings He can now do nothing of all this but the Spirit of God constrains him to utter only things honourable and favourable of Israel In a deep sence which this possest him with of the favour of God to that People and being so far enlightned for the present though against his Will as to understand that they should be happy not only in this Life but also in that to come if they would keep the Commandments of their God he therefore concludes his first Parable or sententious and prophetick Speech concerning them in the words of our Text Let