And the suffering of Christ without the Gate was not without some Allusion to the placing of this Altar without the Tabernacle Vide Heb. 13.12 And as the situation of the Altar so the Sacrifice upon this Altar not without a Mystery for besides those many Sacrifices which were diversified according to the several natures of the Occasion here was one Sacrifice appropriate to this Altar the continual Burnt-Offering a Lamb of the first year in the Morning a Lamb of the first year at Even Exod. 29.38 Numb 28.3 And the Spirit of Truth takes up this description of Christ more frequently than any John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world 1 Pet. 1.19 Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish or spot Revel 5.6 The Lamb that was slain c. Revel 13.8 The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world And between this Altar and the Sanctuary stood the Laver of Brass not only typifying the Sacramental Initiation by Baptism but that Purity and Cleansing that is required of all those that partake of this Altar before they enter into the Sanctuary John 3.5 Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God As the Blood of Christ cleanseth from the Guilt of our Sin so it cleanseth us from the Power of our Sin before we are to expect an admission into the Sanctuary It was as well Water to cleanse as Bloud to expiate 6. The typifying of Christ in the Priesthood of Aaron and his Successors High Priests Divers of the Ceremonies especially in the Consecration of them were meerly relative to their natural pollutions and the cleansing of them Heb. 7 27. Offering Sacrifices first for their own Sins such was the Sin-offering Levit. 9.7 Levit. 8. â—4 Others in reference to their service and designation thereunto and exercise thereof as their washing with Water Levit. 8.6 Their anointing with the holy Oyl Ibid. Verse 12. The Ram of Consecration Ibid. Verse 22. Their residence at the door of the Tabernacle seven days Ibid. Verse 33. And some parts of his Garments But there were some things that in a special manner were typical of Christ 1. The Breast-plate of Aaron bearing the Names of the Children of Israel called the Breast-plate of Judgement Exod. 28.29 And Aaron shall bear the Names of the Children of Israel in the Breast-plate of Judgment when he goeth into the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually importing not only the nearness of the Church and redeemed of Christ unto him but also his continual presenting of their Names their Persons in his Righteousness before his Father 2. The Plate of Gold upon the Mitre engraven with Holiness to the Lord Exod. 28.38 And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of their holy things that they may be accepted before the Lord. As our Persons are accepted by God in the Righteousness of Christ presented for them to his Father so our Services are accepted in the strength of the same Mediation Christ presenting our Prayers and Services to his Father discharged of those Sins and Defects with which they are mingled as they come from us 3. His Solemn Atonement when he entred into the Holy of Holies Levit. 16. Wherein we shall observe 1. A most special Reconsecration almost of all the things incident to that Service before it was performed the Priest was to make an Atonement for himself by the Blood of the Bullock Verse 11. and for the Altar Verse 18. which signifie that Purification of the Humane Nature of Christ from all Sin Original and Actual from all Sin even in his Conception that so he might be a fit High Priest Heb. 7.26 For such a high priest became us who is Holy Harmless Vndefiled Separate from Sinners and made higher than the Heavens The difference was this Aaron notwithstanding his first Consecration to his Office needed a new Atonement when he entred into the Holy of Holies and exercised that high Type of Christ's Ascension and Intercession But Christ being once Consecrate needed no new Consecration Heb. 7.28 For the Law maketh men High Priests which have infirmities but the Word of the Oath which was since the Law maketh the Son who is Consecrated for evermore 2. This was to be done but once in the year Some services had frequent iterations but those special Services that were but once in the Year were Types of those things that were to be done but once though remembred yearly such was the killing of the Passover Christ by one Offering hath perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 3. This great Atonement not made but by Blood Heb. 9.7 The high Priest entred not without Blood Livit. 26. And this Atonement was to be made upon the Horns of the Altar Levit. 16.18 viz. The Golden Altar of Incense Exod. 30.10 Hence Christ called the Blood of sprinkling Hebr. 12.24 The Offering that was to be used in this solemn Atonement for so much as concerned the Sins of the People were two Goats which were to be presented before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle Levit. 16.7 And Lots to be cast one for the Lord the other for the Scape-Goat the former was to be the Sin-offering for the People and his Blood to be brought within the Veil Verse 23. And the other was to bear the Iniquity of the Children of Israel but to be sent into the Wilderness Ibid. Vers 21. Although in the Sacrifice of Christ his Body only died and his Soul escaped yet both were but one Sacrifice he did bear our sins in both his Soul was heavy unto death as well as his Body crucified and as God had prepared him a Body in order to this Sacrifice Heb. 10.5 So he made his Soul an Offering for Sin Isa 53.10 4. As after all this the Priest entred into the most Holy and presented this Blood of Reconciliation before the Mercy Seat and no Man was to be in the Tabernacle when he goeth in Levit. 16.17 So Christ having trodden alone the Wine press of his Father's Wrath Isaiah 63.3 Is entred into the Holy Place not made with Hands now to appear in the presence of God for us Hebr. 9.24 And as the People did representatively by their Mediatour Aaron pass into the Holiest so our High Priest hath consecrated for us Access into the Holiest by a new and living way through the Veil of his Flesh Hebr. 10.20 Who as he is our Advocate with the Father John 2.1 To bear our Names before him as the High Priest did the Names of Israel to present his own Blood before the Father of Mercy as the High Priest did the Blood of the Sin-Offering before the Mercy Seat to bear the Iniquity of our holy things as the High Priest did upon his Forehead so likewise to present our Prayers to the Father Ephes 2.18 Through him we have access
MATHE ' HALE Miles Capitalis Gustic de Banco Regis Ano 1681 For W. Shrowsbery at the Sign of the Bible In Duck Lane 〈…〉 sculp 〈…〉 A DISCOURSE OF THE Knowledge of God and of our Selves I. By the Light of Nature II. By the Sacred Scriptures WRITTEN BY Sir MATTHEW HALE Knight late Chief Justice of the King's Bench in his younger time for his private Meditation and Exercise To which are added A Brief Abstract of the Christian Religion AND Considerations seasonable at all Times for the Cleansing of the Heart and Life By the same AUTHOR LONDON Printed by B. W. for William Shrowsbery at the Sign of the Bible in Duke-Lane MDCLXXXVIII THE PREFACE IN the Publication of this Book I design for the Reader a double Benefit 1. A useful and profitable Book 2. A clear Prospect into an Exemplary Life of a very eminent and famous Person The Book I may be bold to say is of it self such and yet I have good reason to hope that the great and known Worth of the Author which yet this very Book will further discover and demonstrate and the Esteem the World hath always had of him will make it more such But lest I should prejudice both it and its Author by unseasonably raising the Reader 's expectation I must to do Right and Justice to the Author acquaint the Reader with some particulars fit for his notice and consideration concerning the Author's Intention his manner of Writing it and the Work it self And 1. I may with much Confidence upon what I knew of the Author's mind and design in general in all his Writings of this kind and upon some Observations peculiar to this assure the Reader that it was not written with any Intention or thoughts that ever it should be published He had undoubtedly no other aim or design in it than what I have already mentioned in the Preface to the first Volume of his Contemplations He was a man who had an extraordinary faculty of doing much in a little time And yet did he as highly value and was as great a Husband of his time as any man I have known or read of But of no part of his time was he more frugal than of that which was set apart for Sacred Uses that none of that might be suffered to run waste especially of the Christian Sabbath or Lord's Day he was most religiously observant both in Publick and in Private in his Family and in his Study And his religious Observation thereof did not only procure to himself as he always believed a special Blessing upon his Employment of the rest of his time in his other Studies and Secular business but hath moreover produced which he little expected what may prove of great use and benefit to many others For that part of those dayes which did intervene between Evening Sermon and Supper-time he usually imployed in Pious Meditations and having a very ready hand at writing he usually wrote his thoughts that he might the better hold them intent to what he was about and keep them from wandring This was his first and principal reason for it He had indeed some thoughts of some other Uses that he or his might make thereof as that afterward reviewing what he had written long before he might see what Progress he had made in the mean time and possibly they might be of some use or benefit to some of his Family But what I first mentioned was the first and principal occasion and Motive to it Of the shorter Discourses I found divers of the Originals in the hands of his Children and Servants and a great part of the rest in a very neglected condition till I perswaded and prevailed with him to let them be collected and bound together in Volumes But of these among which this was one I am well satisfied there were none which he intended when he wrote them should ever be Printed though he hath since wrote others which he intended for the Publick But upon this occasion hath he written first and last many pious and useful Discourses which whether intended by him for the Press or not I am of opinion may do much good in the World if they were printed 2. His usual Manner of writing these things was this When he had resolved on the Subject the first thing He usually did was with his pen upon some loose piece of paper and sometimes upon a corner or the margin of the Paper he wrote on to draw a Scheme of his whole Discourse or of so much of it as he designed at that time to consider This done he tap'd his thoughts and let them run as he expressed it to me himself and they usually ran as fast as his hand though a very ready one could trace them insomuch that in that space as he hath told me he often wrote two sheets and at other times between one and two and I have my self known him write according to that proportion when I have been reading in the same room with him for divers hours together So that these writings are plainly a kind of extempore Meditations only they came from a Head and Heart well fraught with a rich Treasure of Humane and Divine Knowledge which the famous Legislator Justinian makes the necessary qualifications of a compleat Lawyer And here it is farther to be observed that all his larger Tracts such as this which could not be finished at one time were written upon great intervals of time and such wherein much business of a quite different Nature had interposed which usually interrupt the thread of a Mans thoughts 3. Concerning the Book it self the Reader may of himself perceive that it was not finished but that he had designed to have continued it farther He hath written a particular Tract Of doing as we would be done to which is the Subject at which this is left off But that as I take it was written long since this and not intended for any Continuation of it but it had been very proper to have been joyned with it had I had any Transcript of it Upon perusal of the Manuscript of his own hand-writing it may be further observed 1. That it was the Original draught and no Transcript for therein as I remember may in some places be seen some of those very Schemes which he first drew when he began to write 2. That he had not so much as revised any part of it it being for the most part as fair and without any Alteration as if it were a Transcript 3. The Original is one continued Discourse without any Distinction of Parts or Chapters or so much as any Title superscribed But I conceive it a very methodical Discourse and such as may very aptly be distinguished into those Parts and Chapters and under those Titles which I have assigned as it now appears in the Print And this is a further evidence that he did not design it for the Press Of the two Parts of it the first is wholly
of the Law and Gospel Gal. 3.24 Circumcision typical of that of the Heart Rom. 2.29 Their state in Egypt Typical The Passover a most effectual Type of Christ 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ the true Passover and therefore the Sacrifice of Christ and of the Passover went together Matth. 26. Eaten whole Exod. 12. Not a bone of him to be broken eaten with bitter Herbs typifying Repentance the Blood sprinkled secures from the wrath of God with Hyssop a cleansing Herb Psal 51. Purge me with hyssop a Feast as well as a Sacrifice John 6.55 The Manna a Type of Christ who was that Bread of God that came down from Heaven John 6.33 The hidden Manna Revel 2.17 The Cloud and Red Sea a Type of Baptism into Christ 1 Cor. 10.1 The Jews in Egypt like the state of the unconverted World hence the World called Spiritual Egypt In their Passage out they are entertained with a Sacramental Initiation they are militant in the Wilderness of the World triumphant in Canaan the rest the water out of the Rock a Type of Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 That Rock was Christ But principally the Levitical Law was a shadow of the good things to come in Christ Heb. 8.5 Who was the End of the Law. And as the Judicial Law among the Jews did not only contain Precepts in themselves naturally good but also Typical and Sacramental Observations of that inward Sanctification and frame of Mind that God required so the Levitical Law did not only contain Precepts of that internal habitude of Love Fear and Obedience unto God admirably delivered through the whole Book of Deuteronomy but also divers Types and Figures which had a double use 1. Of evidencing the full Obedience to those Positive Commands of God because commanded by him 2. Figures of Christ to come and of that frame and constitution of Men and things in relation to him as we may observe in divers Particulars 1. The Covenant between God and Israel the Stipulation on God's part Exod. 19.5 If ye will obey my voice and keep my Covenant ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people and ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests and an Holy Nation Exod. 34.10 Behold I make a Covenant Before all thy people I will do marvels c. The Stipulation on the Peoples part Exod. 19.8.24.7 All that the Lord hath spoken we will do This is that Covenant which the Lord made with the People in Horeb Deut. 5.2 And the tenor of this Covenant renewed and explained viz. Blessing to Obedience and Curses to Disobedience Deut. 29.10 c. Ye stand this day before the Lord your God that thou shouldest enter into Covenant with â—he Lord thy God and into his oath c. Accordingly in Christ a new Covenant made Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.10 A New Covenant I will put my Laws into their hearts I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People 2. As that Covenant was mutual consisted in somewhat promised by God somewhat undertaken by the People Obedience to the Law that God gave them so the Covenant here is reciprocal In the Gospel of God there is a double Covenant 1. A Covenant between God the Father and God the Son that the Son should take upon him Flesh and satisfie for the sins of the Elect Psal 40.6 Heb. 10.9 A body hast thou prepared me lo I come to do thy will O God on God's part a Covenant that those which should be so redeemed should be given over to Christ and united unto him in the nearest relation that is possible John 17. They whom thou hast given me Verse 21. That they may be one in us But of this more infra 2. A Covenant between God the Father in Christ with Man and this is likewise reciprocal On God's part to give Remission of Sins and Eternal Life in Christ to as many as lay hold of this Covenant John 6.40 This is the will of him that sent me that every one that believeth on me should have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day Ibid. 47. He that believeth on me hath everlasting life John 7.37 John 12.44 John 3.36 Rom. 3.28 Heb. 8.10 And because he must make him a People that may entertain the Covenant before he can have a reciprocal from them God gives a heart to believe to those that are his that so they may enter into Covenant with God John 6.29 This is the work of God that ye believe Verse 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me Verse 65. No man can come unto me except it be given of my Father Ephes 2.8 This is the putting of the Law in their Hearts Heb. 8.10 And this part of God's Covenant is made rather for us than with us even with and in Christ in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 For these Promises are Eternal Promises an Eternal Covenant given to Christ for the Elect even before they had a Being or could possibly receive them On the part of the People of Christ there is likewise a Covenant too he hath given us Commandments of Obedience John 13 1â— Love one to another Ibid. Verse 34. If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14.15.21.23 Love to Christ Perseverance John 15.9 10. Bringing forth Fruit Ibid. 16. Doing Righteousness 1 John 2.29 Purifying our selves 1 John 3.3 7.9.10 Crucifying Affections and Lusts Galat. 5.24 Zealous of Good Works Tit. 2.14.3.18 Thus God out of his free Love appoints us to Eternal Life in Christ freely gives Christ to be the purchace of it freely promiseth Life for us in him through Faith freely gives us Faith to come to him which when it is wrought our Covenant again with God is but to return a fruit of his own Grace True Faith in Christ cannot be without a sense of this Love of God nor that without a return of Love to him again nor that without a Care to walk according to his Will for if ye love me ye will keep my Commandments And yet he is pleased to accept and reward the work of his own free Grace as the return of us poor and weak Men. 3. This Covenant was ordained in the hands of a Mediator Gal. 3.19 Moses alone came near the Lord and told the People all the words of the Lord and the People answered with one Voice All the words which the Lord hath said will we do Exod. 24.3 The Second Covenant ordained likewise in the hands of a Mediator even Christ Heb. 12.24 Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant 4. The first Covenant Sealed with Blood Exod. 24.8 Moses took the blood and sprinkled on the people and said Behold the blood of the Covenant thus likewise Christ sealed the second Covenant with his Blood Heb. 9.14 And therefore called the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10.29 The Blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 And the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet.
and Glory that thy Being can return unto him But had he given thee a simple Being thy Debt had not been so great so have the most unaccomplisht Creatures But thy Being was dressed with an Intellectual Nature and that Nature furnished with Fruition of Happiness filling the uttermost extent of its Capacity and that Happiness guarded with such a Law as was suitable to that Nature full of Beauty and Order in the obedience whereof thou didst at once perform thy Duty and improve thy Felicity But thou rejectedst all this and becamest a Rebel to thy God and a ruine to thy self and thou hast improved thy ruine and rebellion by a voluntary rejection of thy Duty and thy Happiness until this hour And what canst thou expect but a just return of an infinite Vengeance from an omnipotent injured Creator for so ungrateful a breach of an infinite Obligation But consider what thy Lord hath done for thee for all this and stay thy self and wonder Thy Lord proclaims Return thou backsliding Soul and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you Jer. 12. Hadst thou offended thine Equal for thy offended Equal to have solicited thy Reconciliation had deserved Acceptation and Love But for the infinite God to whom thou owest an infinite Duty and hast violated it who is able to annihilate thee and can receive no advantage by thy return to solicit it with an offer of a Reprieve nay of a Pardon But here 's not all our Deliverance from the Wrath of God is wonder enough Let me now be as one of my Father's hired Servants No there is more yet 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love he is content to accept of us as Sons But what must the Price be of so great a Change or who shall give it Thy Lord whom thou hast thus injured hath paid the Price of thy Redemption and such a Price as Heaven and Earth may wonder at the mention of it The Son of God lays down his Life for his Rebels Pardon and Assumption into a Partnership with him in his own Kingdom But thou art not for all this at the End of thy Debt this Price is rendred to thee upon easie terms Believe and live and this Life accompanied with infinite Advantages even Communion with this Creator But yet like the murmuring Israelite thou wilt die with the Manna between thy Teeth unless God who hath given thee such a Price of thy Redemption enable thee to receive him He sends his Spirit into thy Heart with Light and Life to strive with thy unbelieving Heart and to subdue it and to cleanse thy filthy and polluted Heart to bring Redemption into thy Heart and to solicite perswade importune thy Heart to receive him for thy own Good. What remains then but that thou shouldest ever admire that Love that hath done all this for thee that thou shouldest in all humility and humble reverence return love to thy Lord and magnifie his condescension that he is pleased to accept the Love of his poor Creature that thou study not to grieve the Spirit of that God that hath taken this pains and care with thee for thy good not to crucifie again that Christ that hath died for thee that thou labour to find out what is the Will of thy Lord and to obey it and to walk in love as Christ also loved us and hath given himself for us Ephes 5.2 Now according to the measure of the true Knowledge of God and of his Love in Christ is the measure of our Love to him and as that Knowledge is the immediate cause of its production so it must of necessity be the measure of its Degree And although both the knowledge of his Absolute Goodness which excites the love of Desire and the knowledge of his Benefactoriness to us which increaseth the love of Gratitude or Benevolence are mingled in every Soul that truly loves God yet according to the different degrees of the discoveries of either to the Soul so are the different manners of their working upon the Soul. The knowledge of the Perfection and Absolute Goodness of God is more suitable to an Angelical Nature and therefore produceth an high Angelical and Intellectual Love for this Love begins with the Judgment But because our Nature as it now stands as it arrives seldom to such a Knowledge so seldom to such a Love and that Love which comes into the Heart meerly upon such Contemplations is weak mingled with Servile Fear unactive because the Knowledge like the Sun in a Cloud shines dim and the Heat proves waterish and weak But the knowledge of the Goodness of God to us as it draws the Goodness of God nearer to us in Sense so it strikes more our Affections which God hath placed in us for this End. And this was the motive of Love and consequently of Obedience both under the Law and under the Gospel though the Expressions of that Love under the Law had more in them of Sense and under the Gospel more of Spirit Deut. 30.20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and obey his voice and cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days c. Luk. 7.47 Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much Christ argues from the measure of her Love to the measure of God's Goodness to her and her Sense of it And here we have the true Principle of all true Obedience to God The bare External act of any thing commanded by God unless it move from a Heart or Principle conformable to the Will of God is no Obedience for all External actions taking them divided from the Will they are all of one kind and nature The very same act proceeding from a Soul differently principled may be an act of Obedience viz. when proceeding from an obedient loving Heart an act of compulsion when proceeding from a bare servile Heart a bruitish act when it proceeds from a Soul not moved with any Consideration and an act of malignity against God when done out of a malicious cunning design Some even preached the Gospel for Envy Phil. 1.16 So then as the Knowledge of the Goodness and Love of God to us is the immediate cause of the return of our Love to God so this love of the Soul unto God is the true and immediate Principle of all true Obedience unto God Now these are the genuine and natural Effects of Love to God 1. It makes a Man to make God and his Honour and Glory the highest and supream End of all his actions And this must needs be so in Reason For as the great End of all the works of God are his own Honour so where there is true Love to God it cannot chuse but make the Soul value that most which God most values As he must needs be convinced in his Judgment that that which God makes his End must needs be the chief End of the Creatures actions so where this Affection is it
lost in those Pursuits that have left no footsteps of Content in my Soulâ— but instead thereof a bruised and wounded Conscience a displeased and an angry God an infinite Happiness offered and sold for a few unprofitable and perished Pleasures and Lusts when I shall find an infinite Guilt contracted a Soul clogged with a custom of sin a Body now ready to drop into dissolution a great work to do to make the Peace of my Soul a God by whose only strength I can do it hiding himself and his influence from me and Death by his hasty and churlish Officers still ready to seize me to carry me off without regard to the importunity and concernment of a little longer time such thoughts as these will work upon a Man to keep a hand over himself over his Flesh over his Lust while it is called to day not to harden the Heart to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure to get Oyl in the Lamp to break off the course of sin to cleanse our hearts to improve this little portion of time to our best advantage for Death will come and after that Judgement Lord so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom CHAP. XVI Meditation of the Vnreasonableness of the Dominion of Lust 6. A SAD and deep Consideration of the Vnreasonableness and Vnbecomingness of the Power and Dominion of any Lust upon a Man. And this though it be a moral Consideration is of good use for the mortifying of our Lusts S. Paul divides our Lusts into the Lusts of the Flesh and the Lusts of the Mind Ephes 2.3 S. John tells us that all that is in the World is the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life 1 John 2.16 Out of both these we may divide the Enemies of our Soul within us into these Divisions 1. Lust which is nothing else but the immoderate and inordinate actings of the Appetite either beyond that measure it ought to be or upon those Objects it ought not to be And this either 1. In the Rational Appetite those are the Lusts of the Mind 2. In the Sensitive Appetite those again 1. In the Lusts of the Flesh 2. The Lust of the Eyes 2. Pride in an overvaluing of our selves in the fruition of those things we have thus pursued Now we shall a little consider how far forth any of these do hold a disproportion even with right Reason 1. The Lusts of the Mind The great Desire of the Mind is that of Knowledge an Appetite that God hath put into the Soul of Man and so a thing beautiful and good But this very Desire of Knowledge becomes a Lust of the Mind when either it is misplaced in respect of his Object thus Adam's desire of Knowledge of Good and Evil became a Lust or when acted beyond its proportion The chiefest Object of our Love ought to be the chiefest object of our Knowledge and consequently of our desire of Knowledge and that is only God and he is to be known and consequently we ought to desire to know him as he hath revealed himself in his Word in his Works and by his Spirit When either therefore we desire to know even in things pertaining to God beyond what we ought to know as the Counsels of his Will looking into the Ark or when we desire to know things of an inferiour nature with an over-intensive desire which is only due to God our want of Sobriety in the former and our want of Moderation in the latter turns our desire of Knowledge into a Lust of the Mind or when acted without his due End Good and the fruition of it is the great and final object of the Soul and as the Acts of the Understanding are preparatory to the Will so Knowledge and the desire of it is or should be preparatory to the fruition of some Good farther and beyond the bare speculative Knowledge of it If it were possible for a Man truly to know God without the Love of him and the sense of his Love to the Soul a desire of such a Knowledge though I dare not term it a Lust of the Mind yet it is such a desire as is not rightly qualified To desire to know a thing fit to be known meerly because I would know it It is but a Lust of the Mind and such a Knowledge as only puffeth up Now any Man may rationally conclude that such desires of the Mind as these are even condemned of Reason it self as irregular and useless It is true that whatsoever is an object of our Knowledge may be an object of our desire of Knowledge if not forbidden by him that gave the Power if acted with Moderation and Sobriety if subordinated to that desire which I have or should have to that great object of my Knowledge But for a Man to spend his choicest hours and thoughts and inquiries upon unnecessary perishing useless objects Reason it self will conclude as the Preacher would have the covetous Man Eccles 4.8 For what do I labour and bereave my soul of good And as thus in the Intellectual Faculty there are Lusts of the Mind so are there in the Rational Appetite the Will and Affections The Passions in the Soul are natural to it and therefore naturally good therefore want of natural Affection is a thing condemned in the old World Rom. 1.31 But when these Affections are acted beyond their natural end and use they become corrupt and putrified and so Lusts of the Mind And this is seen in either Faculty Irascible and Concupiscible and by how much the more spiritual they are by so much the more devilish and hurtful and yet condemned by sound Reason The Passion of Anger was planted in the Mind and is good when acted upon a right object and in a due measure Ephes 4.26 But this Passion being over-acted it becomes putrified and a Lust of the Mind it then turns into Malice to Envy The Spirit that is in us lusteth after Envy Jam. 4.5 into desire of Revenge and thus Lust conceiveth upon this Passion of the Soul and bringeth forth Sin. Now all these are evidently against right Reason Because even sound Reason teacheth us to love all that is good Every Being hath in it self a goodness and doth naturally challenge our Love and therefore to desire the destruction of any Being is against the Law and Rule of Reason or to desire a less or more low degree of Being to it than it hath It is true there may be some irregularity in it which I may and must hate But when my hatred is in the concrete and takes in the Being of any thing which is good as well as that which I conceive an irregularity within the compass of it as is in all Malice and Revenge then is my Passion mis-acted corrupted and proves a lust of the Mind Suppose a Man hath done me an extream injury and intends to continue it right Reason
unprofitableness in the faculty It is so kept under and out of employment that it forgets her business when it is laid aside and seldom consulted with it grows unexpert and unable to give an Answer when it may be we desire it The direction of Conscience where it is well used is seldom without the immediate direction of the very Spirit of God and when the Guidance of that Spirit is neglected it will not return to thy assistance when thou pleasest 2. It turns that which would be thy Counsellor into thy Accuser and Tormentor thou refusest to give her time to do her Office before thy Action and therefore it will be bold to take time to do her Office after She cannot be admitted to advise thee but she will take Liberty to accuse and sting thee 3. Endeavour still to keep thy Conscience tender and sensible Rather desire to be troubled with a seemingly peevish Conscience that will check almost at any thing than to be at quiet with a dull and stupid Conscience that will down with any thing It may be it will be somewhat troublesome but it is safe and thou shalt find Comfort in forbearing of that which thy tender Conscience wisht thee to foregoe and be able abundantly to satisfie that trouble which thou art put to by thy forbearance The Conscience of thine Integrity will be more satisfactory to thee than the curiosity of thy Conscience will be troublesome And be very prudent and curious in thy Disputations with thy Conscience thou mayst before thou art aware dispute thy Conscience into Stupidity or thy self into perplexity 4. Observe exactly the Language of thy Conscience to thy Soul for most commonly the Conscience takes part with her Maker if she perswade be doing if she dissuade forbear He that in the Fear of God listens to the Voice of his Conscience in a thing of it self indifferent yet over ballanced from its indifferency by the Dictate of his Conscience performs a work of Obedience to God well near as acceptable as he that doth a work of its own Nature good for as much as the Life and Formality of any good work consists not so much in the Nature of the thing that is done as in the reason or ground of the doing it viz. the Love of God And that man that having endeavoured to Principle his Conscience aright with the Word of truth doth honestly and sincerely follow the directions of it shall be sure not to erre long or dangerously God having placed the Conscience in our Breast as his own Vicegerent looks upon such a subjection to the Conscience as an Obedience to himself and his own Authority and will in due time by his own Power and Spirit inlighten and guide such a Conscience to perform his Office regularly and effectually 5. As a consequence of the former when a question ariseth in thy Conscience whether such a thing may be safely omitted which thou art sure may be safely done or whether such a thing may be safely done which thou art sure may be safely forborn put not thy self nor thy Conscience upon a Dispute where thou needest not but be content rather to abridge thy self from a Liberty that may be probably lawful than to put thy self upon an Action or Omission that may at least be disputably sinful and so much the rather because thy Heart is deceitful and as it loves Liberty so it finds out Sophistry enough to corrupt thy Judgment and thy Conscience if thou give way unto it there is scarce the grossest sin that ever any Man committed but his Heart found out some Reasons to bribe or quiet his Conscience in the Commission of it Rather submit to the still Voice of thy Conscience in the restraint even of thy lawful Liberty though it give thee not a Reason for it than listen to the reasonings of thy Heart for the allowance of it Suspect her for she speaks in her own cause and is partial and deceitful This on the one hand may be a safe Rule for us touching Stage-Plays long Hair Gaming Usury c. on the other touching the strict Observation of the Lord's Day set times of Prayer c. 6. As an incident likewise to the former when a question comes in thy Conscience touching a thing whether to be done or not and that upon the scrutiny of thy Conscience it seems to be equally ballanced no Rule to guide thee no Circumstance that thrown into the Scale can take away the indifferency of either side it is a safe Rule though not always necessary to forsake that which the inclination of thy own natural Appetite most prompts thee to The Reason is that which is before mentioned the Heart is apt to magnifie those Arguments that conduce to the execution of that which suits with thy sinful Appetite and to lessen and slight those that make against it So that in a Decision of indifferency in such a competition a Man may in a more impartial Judgment conclude the thing to be therefore not indifferent but sinful because thy sinful Heart can but bring up what she loves but to an equal Ballance thou must therefore in such a Case never hold that Gold passable which doth not turn the Scale 7. As thus in the Directing Operation of thy Conscience in things to be done or not to be done so in the motion of thy Conscience after the things done or omitted Sometimes the Conscience is silent before the Action yet she speaks after and according to that Language of thy Conscience so let the affection of thy Soul be If it approve and justifie the thing done bless thy Creator for the Action and bless thy Creator for thy Conscience that he is pleased to give thee a reward within thy self of thy Integrity If thy Conscience blame thee though never so little despise not nor neglect this secret Check it is a Message from Heaven that summons thee to these Duties 1. To Thankfulness to God that is pleased not to give thee over to incurable Guilt of hardness of Heart that though thou hast rejected the Admonition of thy Lord sent by thy Conscience before thou offendest yet he doth not give thee over but follows thee with the rebuke of thy Conscience that though the former did not divert thee the latter may reclaim thee As long as thou hast a Conscience that can check thee God hath not given over his Care of thee for it is the Voice of God by thy Conscience 2. To Humiliation and sorrow of Heart This as it is the natural and genuine effect of a Guilt discovered unless the Heart be given over to a reprobate Sense so it is a most useful effect because it makes the Heart soft and fit to receive those impositions which will ensue upon such a Sorrow fit to receive Instruction a proud Heart will not bend nor yield fit to take up Resolutions of amendment the present Sense of Guilt shews sin to the Soul in its own true Dress it
Business of thy Soul or if thou hast who can tell whether that deceitful World which hath robbed thee of that time which was due to anothers Business may not with much more ease harden thy Heart and take up the whole time of thy Life though thou shouldest live many ages But if thou devote the first and choicest of thy endeavours to thy great Concernment grant that the residue of thy Life be not sufficient for thy Provisions for thy self or thy Posterity in this World thy exchange is happy thou hast secured an everlasting weight of Glory a Kingdom immortal and undefiled that fadeth not away in that time wherein perhaps thou mightest or it may be thou mightest not have gotten some small temporal Provision which by this time thou art ready to leave and thy immortal Soul left in an anxious unsatisfied unsafe Condition But this is not all though the gain of Eternity would infinitely over-weigh the loss of those Temporals which it may be in this time thou mightest have gotten yet thou must know thou servest such a Master that whilst thou obeyest him in seeking thy chiefest good in the chiefest place will not only give thee that Eternity which thou thus seekest but will add unto thee the things of this Life which yet thou neglectest And whiles he gives thee that great and everlasting Treasure which he commands thee to seek will not deprive thee of the Conveniences of this World though thou seekest them not All these things shall be added unto you And here learn a compendious and safe way of getting the external Conveniences of the World if thou labour first to be rich thou mayest lose thy labour and miss of being what thou labourest to be but thou art sure or at least likely to miss of being happy but if thou first endeavour after Peace with God in Christ thou art sure to attain Blessedness hereafter and shalt not want a convenient Competency here 2. As in the Order so in the Seasons or Times of seeking after Wealth when a Man shall encroach upon those times which either by the Command or Dispensation of God or thy own voluntary Consecrations are dedicated to the service of God or of his Neighbour It were but equal if he that is the Lord of our Times and of our Lives should require all our Time in his own immediate Service but when he allows us unto our own occasions the greatest part of our time wherein we may do all that we have to do and requires a small portion of our time for his immediate service and that also for our own everlasting advantage it is the highest sacriledge to God and injury to our selves to steal that from him which while we do it we rob our selves I thank God I ever found that in the strictest observation of the times of his Worship I ever met with the best Advantage to my worldly Occasions and that when ever my worldly Occasions incroached upon those times I ever met with disappointment though in things of the most hopeful and probable success And ever let it be so with me It hath been and ever shall be to me a Conviction beyond all Argument and Demonstration whatsoever That God expects the observation of his Times and that whilst I find my self thus dealt with God hath not given over his care of me It would be a sad presage unto me of the severe anger of my Maker if my inadvertence should cast me upon a temporal Undertaking upon his Day and that it should prosper The End of Wealth is to supply the Exigence of our Nature in Food and Raiment and when God did in an extraordinary way supply the latter without the assistance of the former to the Israelites by Manna the seventh Day was without Manna and the sixth Day supplied that defect with a double proportion Exod. 16.29 And I shall never doubt but the same Providence will in the six days of the Week improve my Endeavours one in seven though I rest upon a seventh day from my own Occasions for The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and it is he that gives power to get Wealth Isa 58.13 If thou turn thy foot from the sabbatb from doing thy pleasure upon my holy day and call the sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Blessed Lord that requires but a portion of our time and that also for our own advantage and whilst thou thereby dost improve our everlasting Blessedness thou dost not deny our temporal Benefit but dost make even that portion of time that we spend in thy service an improvement of the rest of our time for our temporal Advantage And what we say concerning that portion of our time which we sequester to God from our outward Occasions the same we may say concerning that portion of our Wealth or Estate which we give either to his service or by his command When thou denyest either thou mayest look for much and it may come to little when thou bringest it home he will blow upon it Haggai 1.9 That which is detained from works of Piety or Charity will eat holes in thy Bag and let out it self and the rest which had it been daily bestowed it would have preserved the rest and returned with increase Malachi 3.10 Bring all the tithes into the store-house that there may be meat in my house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts if I will not open unto you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it Prov. 28.27 He that giveth to the poor shall not lack Prov. 19.17 He that hath pitâ— on the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again Thou owest all thou hast to thy Maker and if thou shouldest give him all thou hast thou givest him but his own 1 Chron. 29.14 He calls to thee but for a part of what he hath lent thee and yet he is pleased so far to accept thy chearful obedience herein that he is pleased to become thy debtor even for that which thou owest him This is thy honour and this will be thy profit thou shalt receive thy Loan with advantage I can safely and without vanity say I have hitherto found this Truth exactly fulfilled In those Weeks and Years wherein I have thus sowed sparingly I have even in Temporals reaped sparingly and I ever found when my hand was most liberal I never lost by it but found a return an hundred fold more than my expence And the Bread that I have thus cast upon the Waters I found it within a
Rule whereby God justifies the equality of his ways Ezek. 18.25 Is not my way equal are not your ways unequal When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and dyeth in them for his iniquity that he hath done he shall dye Again When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness c. he shall save his Soul alive which is but the same under the Gospel Rom. 2.6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds Though the great God be absolute Lord of his Creatures to do with them what he pleaseth yet the various conditions of his Creatures in the course of Judgments and Mercies are not from any change in God but in us it is the same Holiness and Purity of God that is uniform and constant to it self that works these different effects upon the Creature as the same uniform heat of the Sun works seeming contrary effects according to the diversity of the subject so that his ways are still equal streight and righteous And this consideration as it may strengthen our hearts in the Promises of God so it will make the Histories of the Book of God of singular use to us upon all occasions when we shall with David Psal 77.10 I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High I will remember the works of the Lord I will remember thy wonders of old and together with it consider that the same Lord that did thus or thus in former times is the same God yesterday to day and for ever And by this consideration every History in the Book of God is as a measure for all the present or future concernments of my self and others and will teach me how to behave my self in the like occasions and to judge even of future Events In the passages of Nature we see a wonderful order and constancy for the most part for all things conform themselves to those Rules which God hath put into them and that is the best and highest resolution we can give for them for when we come to make a particular inquiry into the particular causes of those things there is not the easiest part of his Work and that which long and constant continuance hath made obvious to all men but the wisest of men notwithstanding all these advantages are puzled and confounded in because the God of Nature hath not revealed it to men Psal 77.19 His way is in the Sea and his path in the great waters and his footsteps are not known There we see a certainty but we cannot find the immediate Instrument or Cause of it But in the passages of Mankind we are to seek for any certainty at all or the Causes of that uncertainty whch made the Wise man conclude that God had set the one against the other that men should find nothing after him Eccles 7.14 which is most certainly true as to a bare natural or rational observation Yet even these Works of God are sought out of all them that have pleasure in them Psal 111.2 and though his Judgments are a great deep Psal 36.6 unsearchable and past finding out Rom. 11.33 till he is pleased to discover them yet he is still Unchangeable and the same yesterday and to day and for ever So much even of those secret ways towards men as is expedient for our knowledge and use he hath discovered in his Book to those that will diligently observe it Thus the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psal 25.14 The most of the varieties that happen to the Children of men do arise from the Immutability of God in his Purity and in his Justice If a streight Line be drawn parallel to another though they be infinitely extended they will keep the same distance one from another but if the Line be crooked it will be in some places nearer some places farther off and it may be will cross the streight Line God hath given to man a Liberty of his Will and so long as his Will and the Actions of his Will ran parallel in a streight Line to the Will of God there was still a communication of Good from God to his Creature But when man chose crooked ways he is drawn thereby sometimes away from God and so is removed from his Blessings and Communion sometimes it crosseth and thwarts him and then it meets with his Wrath and Vengeance And this must needs be so unless we should with the presumptuous Fool in the Psalmist Psal 50.21 think that God is such a one as our selves and his Will as crooked as ours If a bare reasonable man had looked upon the state of the Jews from the time of their going out of Egypt until their final Captivity he would easily see as much variety as in any state of men and perhaps see as little cause for it But yet that very changeableness of their condition doth most admirably set forth the Immutability of God and instruct us how to judge of things and men They were a People in Covenant with him and he was pleased to enter into Covenant with them and so long as they kept to their undertaking not one tittle of all his Promise failed them But when they once forsook him he warns and if they repent not he forsakes them if they walk contrary to him he walks contrary to them and if after all this they return and repent he returns to them see Psal 106 107. the abbreviation of their Vicissitudes And when at last they were wholly corrupted then the wrath of God arose and there was no remedy All these varieties justifie the Equality and Evenness of the ways of God and manifest the crookedness and inequality of the ways of Men. And is God the same now that he was then his ways then are the same now that they were then Art thou one that hast entred into Covenant with God beware thou keep to it and walk humbly with thy God if not be sure thou shalt meet with the like measure as his People of old did his Justice is the same still he will scourge thee with the rod of men though if thou hast a heart to return he will not utterly take his loving-kindness from thee And hast thou met with the fruit of this sin in a temporal punishment consider it is an evil thing and a bitter to depart from the Living God. What madest thou wander from thy strength and thy safety as well as thy Covenant and thy Duty What couldest thou expect to find when thou straglest from him but that some evil should overtake thee Get home again as fast as thou canst and as thou hast found that he is the same God of Justice that ever he was so thou shalt find that he is the same God of Mercy and Tenderness upon returning that ever he was Psal 106.45 And he remembred for them his Covenant and repented according to the multitude of his Mercies It is true the same thing may befal